245 Make the most of the system, please! part Ryu took the chance to clean himself with the fresh water he was now able to conjure. He noticed that whenever he let out mana, he was able to change its properties into any of the elements he was able to control. But, while fire and water would appear out of thin air, he was only able to mold the stone, not to create it.
Now Ryu was clean and refreshed, but his problems were far from over. He was still hungry and didn’t have a shelter of any sorts. That’s why he turned to the system again.
>Quest: dig a hole (pending)
And so, with nothing left to do Ryu started to dig with his newly crafted shovel. Although it could be considered a bit too short, it was sturdy enough and got the job done. The only thing that kept bothering Ryu was one of the materials he used to craft it, his own urine.
‘Now I’m forced to use this pee shovel, I just hope the reward is worth the humiliation’ He thought inwardly as he kept digging mindlessly. It was a difficult labor and not knowing the reason why he was digging didn’t help his morale at all, but at least he was able to keep himself busy and the promise of a reward had him excited.
>Quest: dig a hole (completed)
>Rewards: water attribute +1
>Quest: Fill the hole with water (pending)
“What the f... Useless quest, why would I fill a hole with water!? do I even need that much water!?” Ryu shouted, losing his last trace of hope.
.....
He cuddled up inside the hole, it wasn’t so deep and only half of his body fitted inside, but he somehow felt a bit safer inside.
The howling wind of the wasteland wasn’t nearly as friendly as the one on his forest. The dry weather and barren land made him miss his first cabin, making it seem like a small piece of heaven in his mid.
He felt alone, helpless and abandoned. Not only by his friends, even his pets had forgotten about him. Just when he was about to fall into self pity, he remembered how helpless the summoned heroes were when he found him.
They too were tired, hungry and they had nothing but a few tents. Everything they crafted was shabby and, although he woke up alone in the same forest his living conditions were a lot better.
What would his friends think of him if they saw him now? What if they were actually looking for him but they were taking his time, or maybe they were too far away.
He knew for sure that at least the amarok would be able to find him, but his new pet, the fairy, should too. Famine relied on his mana sense to find mana signatures that were familiar to him, while the fairy was somehow able to locate her partner no matter the distance.
Ryu shook his head to clear his mind, then he came to the realization that the beastkin queen had said that she was going to tell Bardun he had woken up. It was only a matter of time that they found him.
Ryu now had two choices, he could try to walk towards the first human settlement he could find, risking to get enslaved for being too poor or even killed for the fun of it, maybe he could even run into one of his declared enemies from the sacred empire. Or he could stay in this place and survive for as long as he could, maybe even become stronger, until someone came to find him.
There was one problem, though, even if he wanted to go to the nearest human city, he had no clue on where to go. It was the first time, ever since he woke up without memory in the middle of the southern forest, that he wasn’t able to see the obelisk in the distance. That could only mean that he was too far away.
It wasn’t difficult for him to figure out that he was in the far east, because everyone knew the west forest extended for as far as it had been explored. No one knew where or if it ended at some point. Ironwoods was to the south, and the climate was too cold in there, even in summer. To the north there was the sacred empire and the beastkin were supposed to live in the east.
If he was to walk to the west, he would eventually find humans, but will they be friendly? He couldn’t answer that question. If he was to stay, instead, as long as he was able to secure a steady source of food he would be set.
He was now able to conjure water spending a minimum amount of mana, he had a shovel that could help him to create an underground shelter and, as long as he was able to find any animals, he would be able to craft weapons and even armor.
He stood up and wiped his teary eyes, resolved to leave his own weakness in the past and truly become one with nature.
The young adventurer placed his hands in front of him and conjured water inside the hole he had previously dug. It absorbed so quickly it was just like pouring water into sand. No matter how much water he conjured, the whole wouldn’t fill.
Obfuscated, but not ready to surrender yet, Ryu thought in different ways to fill the hole. He knew his mana was limited and he was unsure about how much water he would need to fill the whole with water. It could be as little as just a few more minutes or it could be an impossible task.
Since his remaining mana was not only his only means of lighting a fire, but also of defending from enemies, he decided to find a different approach.
He gathered as many rocks and stones as he was able to, making sure to mark the ways. using his shovel, he drew a perimeter around his settlement marking the cardinal directions. If someone was able to look at it from above, it would look like a compass or a clock.
One by one, he took pebbles and rocks and made a pile. He then placed his hands on top of them, feeling the flow of mana inside of them and turning them to dust. He then mixed it with conjured water and the wasteland soil to make the same paste as before, only its color was of a clear gray, it looked almost like the same building material he saw in the beastkin settlement.
After covering the inside of the whole with the improvised concrete he proceeded to fill it with water. Once it was filled to the brim, he checked on his quest log.
>Quest: fill the whole with water (failed)
“SHIT! SHITTY SHIT!” His scream faded in the nothingness of the barren lands as the last rays of sunlight were starting to disappear. ‘Not everything is lost’ he then thought with a grin in his face.
Maybe what I did is considered cheating and I need to follow the instructions precisely, but I can take my creation out and use it as a cooking pot.
Although his new idea raised his morale to the heavens, lifting it from the ground proved to be an impossible feat. When he noticed that he would end up hurting himself before managing to lift the entire thing filled with water, he gave up and threw himself to the ground only to fall asleep a few minutes later.
Next day he woke up at noon, shivering in cold and covered in sweat, it uncomfortable but bearable. First thing he did was checking up his quest log, only to find a new quest.
>Quest: hunt a magical beast (pending)
He had water and a cooking pot, he was more inclined to seek for a regular animal rather than a magical beast that would most likely be inedible, but he learned his lesson the day before and set out to look for something, anything.
He spent a couple hours walking around, but he found no traces or foot tracks of any sort. It wasn’t a completely wasted trip, since he did find a bunch of red herbs with mild medicinal properties. He wasn’t hurt, but having some spare medicine gave him a much needed sense of security.
As he came close to his settlement, he noticed the presence of three different creatures, smaller than Mochi, that scattered as soon as he came into view distance. Because of that he was unable to identify them, but when he inspected the water he finally understood the reason why the quest asked him to fill a hole with water, instead of covering it with cement and then fill it.
He wasn’t building a water deposit, but a trap.
Small animals would fall inside the hole trying to get some water to drink, but would be unable to climb out if the wall was muddy. By using cement, he not only prevented water from being absorbed, but he was also giving them means to climb out of it.
With this in mind, he used his hands to take out as much water as he could from his new ‘cooking pot’ and proceeded to unearth it as soon as it was light enough. Ryu’s next step was spending all his mana in filling the hole with water, it was difficult, but not impossible and as soon as he finished he left the place to give the creatures enough time to fall into the watery pit.
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om