Published: July 4, 2025
The fish sauce barrel was set up under a large tree for now.
"If it were on Earth, it's common to line up jars outdoors and ferment them inside... Yeah, it should be fine."
Ryo forced himself to be convinced.
First, he laid a generous amount of salt on the bottom of the barrel.
On top of that, he placed four thawed piranhas that he had chopped up randomly.
He covered the piranhas with more salt.
Then, to prevent drying, he laid out wide leaves resembling banana leaves on top of the salt.
Finally, he used the leftover wood from the barrel as a lid.
And that was it.
The fish sauce barrel was complete.
If all goes well, fish sauce should accumulate in a few months… hopefully.
After a long time, he enjoyed grilled fish and white rice for dinner.
Initially, he had planned to use sweetfish and rainbow trout, but due to various circumstances, it was grilled piranha.
However, surprisingly, it tasted incredibly good.
Ryo, who usually loved meat, found himself craving fish every now and then.
At such times, he decided he would go to the southern river to catch more when he felt like it.
He had figured out that if he threw in some animals, the piranhas would gather.
It was a satisfying dinner, and after taking a slow bath, he relaxed while practicing magic.
Until drowsiness overtook him, he primarily focused on generating ice.
When it comes to ice generation, even if he suddenly fell asleep, it wouldn’t turn into a puddle of water.
He believed that even while asleep, the magical power line remained connected.
If it were water…
"Huh? Would it really turn into a puddle if it were water? I had that kind of image in my head, which is why I haven't tried it."
For instance, if he generated a water ball and fell asleep while moving it around the room… it would drop to the floor, its shape would collapse, and he’d be soaked.
That was the image he had… but what if he generated an icicle lance and fell asleep while moving it around the room?
The next morning when he woke up, the icicle lance would still be floating in the air.
Does that mean the water ball would also be floating in the air, maintaining its shape?
"Still, I won't test it because it could be scary if something went wrong."
There were still many things Ryo didn't understand about water attribute magic.
"Tomorrow, I’ll carve out lots of boxes from the wood I cut today."
He was using water attribute magic to create ice boxes and filling them with various items, but if any trouble arose and he completely depleted his magical power… all the ice boxes would start melting.
When the magical power line is severed and the supply of magical power stops, they turn back into regular ice.
It won’t immediately turn into water and make a mess, but he wanted to avoid it melting.
Yes, he had experienced it once.
Rescuing the soaked blue pepper fruits…
Since he still had some time, he thought he could chop some wood now, but
"Night forests are still scary."
Indeed, in any era or world, the night forest is not a place for humans to live.
This holds true for both Earth and Fai.
Basically, humans understand their surroundings through "visual information" and "auditory information."
The darkness of night robs people of visual information.
Understanding a situation with only auditory information is impossible for an ordinary human.
Many creatures, whether monsters or animals, have better hearing than humans.
Moreover, some creatures possess organs that humans do not have, allowing them to gather information, like snakes or bats.
The night filled with such beings is… not a place for humans to venture into, Ryo thought.
At least not for now.
"By the way, I heard there are people who can sense 'presence'... what is that about?"
He could understand the sixth sense.
It must be the experiences he had accumulated, the information stored in his memory, which his brain unconsciously judged.
Ryo recognized it as such.
It was probably something akin to intuition or a sense of unease.
However, 'presence'… feeling a gaze that shouldn't be visible… was still something he didn't quite understand.