Water Magician

Chapter 1: Slow Life

Part 1, Volume 1, Slow Life

“The first ceiling.”

The first words in a reincarnation … it was close to a staple … although it was a little different.

But staples are important.

A bed with a luxurious canopy … there was nothing like that.

If there was a canopy, he wouldn’t be able to see the ceiling.

By modern Japanese standards, it was a shabby bed.

Straw was laid on a board and a piece of cloth was laid on it.

That said, considering it was a European pre-renaissance cultural level, the bed was relatively good.

It said something about his class too. As he was not in an aristocratic mansion.

He was wearing the same outfit he wore when he died on Earth. The same shoes. He didn’t bring anything else.

Ryo got out of bed and first took a walk around the house.

Bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom.

“A bath!?”

He never heard of a bath appearing in Europe before the Renaissance.

“Well, there were large baths during the Roman period so it can’t be said that there has been none. As a Japanese, I am immensely thankful … Ah, I wonder if Michael (pseudonym) made it for me because I am Japanese. Michael (pseudonym) … is a great man!”

Although it was still unknown if Michael (pseudonym) was even male.

That said, Ryo’s knowledge was very mistaken and there were public baths in medieval Europe too.

However, the general public’s knowledge of hygiene was poor so ironically those public baths were a hotbed for infectious diseases.

There were two books and a knife on the desk in the living room. Beside them was a piece of paper.

『The food can be found in the storage outside. It has been made into a freezer room so the food can be preserved. By Michael (pseudonym)』

“I knew he could read my thoughts …”

He didn’t want to make a capable man an enemy.

The books were not those heavy volumes stored in the valuable archives in university libraries … but ordinary books … right, books that can be said to have been made on Earth after the development of letterpress printing.

“Books? Not parchment but paper? Is this a world with paper?”

『Monster Encyclopedia: Beginner’s Edition』

『Plant Encyclopedia: Beginner’s Edition』

“This is …”

In other words, there was no such thing as the classic 『Appraisal』 skill commonly found in reincarnation stories.

“He did mention that there was no level or skill system …”

Both books were quite easy to read with illustrations.

He was very thankful for that.

The knife was about 20cm in blade length and it seemed to be quite well made.

What would you bring along if you are alone on an uninhabited island?

The staple answer will be a knife.

“Staple is royal road! Staple is supreme!”

Ryo slotted the knife on his belt for now.

Looking around, there was nothing else that stood out.

Then, he opened the door to the outside.

The image of a brilliant sun came into his eyes.

A carpet of grass surrounded the house.

And a forest directly ahead.

It fit the term dense perfectly. A forest which depths can’t be seen at all.

The same forest was in the opposite direction.

However, further beyond … perhaps it was quite a distance away but there were mountains that reached the heavens.

This transferred location seemed to have a warm climate but it was snowing near the top of the mountain.

“It looks like a place where dragons might appear … yeah, I’ll not approach that.”

Ryo pledged to himself out loud.

He was not yet hungry.

In that case, there was something he must do.

Or rather, it was something he definitely wanted to try after coming to this world of sword and magic.

Yup, to actually try to use magic.

“I can only use water attribute. And the image is important for magic.”

He somewhat put his right arm forward.

He imagined shooting water from his right hand and called out.

“<Come out water>!”

Splash.

A clump of water about the amount of a full glass came out from his right hand and fell to the ground.

It was his first experience of magic!

From an objective point of view, it was an extremely shabby display, but that was that.

Succeeding in his first magic, Ryo was struck with emotion.

“Magic truly exists in this world …”

Ryo continued to cast due to his excitement.

“<Come out water>”

“<Come out water>”

“<Come out water>”

…..

“Michael (pseudonym) said that the image was important. Maybe …”

The image of water coming out of his right hand was the same.

“<Water>”

In the same way, a clump of water appeared from his right hand and fell to the ground.

“<Water>” (T/N: He said it in English)

Even then, the same clump of water appeared from his right hand and fell to the ground.

Next, without saying a word, he chanted in his head.

(<Water>)

Upon doing so, the same clump of water appeared from his right hand and fell to the ground.

“So there is no need to say it out loud. I yearned to chant some cool lines though …”

Men will always have some aspect of chuunibyou.

“Ah, I should have stored this in the bathtub. That was a waste of water.”

After that, he quickly moved to the bath.

Then, he continued his water magic training.

“Water could only make a full cup amount of water appear. I want to have something that allows water to continuously come out. About enough to fill the bathtub.”

The bathtub was made of stone and was quite well made.

The closest image would probably be those open-air baths in luxury hot spring inns.

Just relying on <Water> would certainly be a hassle.

“Thinking of continuous water flow, the first to come to mind will be a tap. No, wait, this is a bath. For a bath, it should be hot water. Right, I’ll try to release hot water.”

He made an image of hot water in his head.

He chanted out loud to solidify the image he had.

“<Hot water>”

When he did that, a clump of water appeared from his right hand and fell into the bathtub.

That’s right, not hot water but water.

“Eh? Maybe I have to imagine it better.”

He chanted with the image of the hot water in a bath.

“<Hot water>”

And then, a clump of water appeared from his right hand and fell into the bathtub.

That’s right, it was not hot water after all but just regular water.

“ … Yeah, let’s give up on hot water for today. This Rondo Forest is quite warm so a water bath is good too.”

Ryo didn’t hate hard work.

But he was a man that knew the usefulness of giving up.

Yup, not everything will work well from the beginning.

“<Water supply>”

Shaping his right hand like a faucet, a continuous stream of water appeared from his hand.

“All right, that looks good.”

It was true that his procurement of hot water failed but continuously releasing water from the first day should be in the category of considerable success.

At the very least, his drinking water and water bath were secured.

Of the problems faced in daily life, the remaining major one was …

“Fire huh …”

Right, from cooking to keeping warm or to rank up his water bath to a hot bath, a fire was needed.

It would be great if he could use fire attribute magic … but he could not hope for what was impossible in this world.

Ryo would have to live with water attribute magic for his entire life.

“How can I get my hands on fire …”

Was mankind’s first fire due to a tree burned by a lightning strike … or bestowed by Prometheus … either one was not plausible at the moment.

“It would have been easy if I had a flint.”

A quick glance told him that there was no flint in the house.

Striking the flint with the metal part of the knife would have generated spark.

Eventually he would have to find it from a nearby cliff or riverside … but that would have to be after he got used to life to some extent.

The fact that monsters don’t come within a radius of a 100 meters meant that there were monsters outside.

He felt that he should make some preparations before leaving the barrier (pseudonym).

Only after he gets better with water magic and find a way to make offensive water magic…

At any rate, for now he would have to find another method to obtain fire.

Without a flint, the other method would have to be rubbing a hard stick against a soft stick to generate fire from the friction.

“Although I totally cannot imagine myself succeeding…”

After finally generating enough water to store in the bathtub, Ryo went out.

He collected firewood while making sure to not leave the barrier.

Along the way, he picked up tinder as well.

The tinder would refer to materials that can catch fire easily to start the fire. Withered grass.

If he crushed them, he could use them without issue … probably.

Among the pile, he seemed to have been lucky to acquire some black palm bark that came from palm-type trees similar but slightly different from the palms trees he recalled.

“Yeap, I recall seeing it in a video.”

Ryo’s survival knowledge was to that extent.

In the house Michael prepared, there was a sickle.

Even after taking into consideration the amount of firewood to use there, he was able to obtain a reasonable amount of firewood.

The wood he would use to cause frictional heat were the pine-like tree branches and the oak-like tree branches.

“Now!”

It didn’t even smoke.

Ryo worked harder.

An hour passed … two hours passed … and then he gave up.

“Let’s check the food inventory for the time being.”

It may be necessary to ration.

Ryo, who gave up on making a fire, headed to the storage outside the house.

The storage seemed like an ordinary small hut.

Upon opening the door, he noticed that the interior was cooling.

“Is this water attribute magic? Walls made of ice? This is just like what they call a cold room.”

Michael probably prepared it for him. In the future, Ryo may be able to use this kind of magic … maybe.

The second day after coming to 『Phi』, Ryo woke up with the rising sun.

The idea to get a fire going was already in his mind.

However, to realize it, he would have to get even better in water attribute magic.

Michael (pseudonym) mentioned that the laws of physics and molecular composition of Earth and 『Phi』was fundamentally the same.

Of course, 『Phi』had magic while Earth didn’t have magic. But apparently there was magic on Earth too in the past.

The molecular composition of water was H2O. That was probably the same in 『Phi』.

He brought out a pail from the bathroom.

“<Water supply>”

He collected about 10cm deep worth of water in the pail.

After that, he would have to solidify the water and make ice.

The mental image he had was to tightly squeeze and shrink the water.

“Freeze!”

But, it didn’t go well.

“Yeah, it’s difficult. But I have to be able to make ice … this will likely be my weapon. I want to try making a spell like ice spears.”

Perhaps it was not enough to just squeeze the water. Maybe he needed to imagine taking heat away at the same time.

Thoughts such as those ran through his mind as he repeated trial and error.

After challenging countless times, a thin film of ice finally appeared on the water surface.

But he couldn’t make it completely solidify.

This time, he imagined the H2O molecules within the water in more detail.

There are two mechanisms by which ice stores thermal energy.

One is by molecular vibration.

The other is by changing the strength of the bonds between water molecules. In other words, enthalpy.

He bonded the H2O molecules together.

He connected the oxygen atom O of this H2O molecule with the hydrogen atom H of the adjacent H2O molecule.

A phenomenon called hydrogen bond was formed in his image.

At the same time, the molecular vibration stopped.

In the first place, the temperature of a substance is proportional to the magnitude of the amplitude of the vibration of the molecules that make up the substance.

Or rather, ‘temperature’ can be said to be an indicator of the intensity of vibration of a molecule.

The stronger the vibration, the higher the temperature of the substance and vice versa.

The state where the vibration of all atoms and molecules is almost zero is called absolute zero, -273.15 degrees Celcius.

That is why, theoretically, there is no temperature below absolute zero.

In his mental image, he made the vibrations of the H2O molecules zero.

At that instant, the water in the pail completely turned into ice.

“Alright, success! … Although I succeeded, I can’t get the ice out of the pail.”

He had to change the shape of the ice slightly.

While holding both hands over the ice, he imagined in his head. The ice was gradually scraped off around the edge.

Then, he took it out of the pail and held it in his hand.

A lump of ice with a diameter of 25cm and a thickness of about 10cm.

He held it in both hands and imagined deforming it in his head. He thickened the central part and thinned the periphery, making a convex lens.

After about 30 minutes, it finally reached a shape he was satisfied with.

“Fufufu, I won. The reason for victory was hydrogen bond!”

Who exactly was Ryo fighting against … no one knew.

Hydrogen bond forms the bond between water molecules but for example, a double helix DNA, is also connected by hydrogen bonds.

From science class, we learned that A-adenine and T-thymine, and G-guanine and C-cytosine are linked by hydrogen bonds to form the double-strand.

Hydrogen bond is amazing!

Now then, it was time to gather the sunlight with the created ice lens and burn the black palm bark.

Using ice to create fire. It felt a little immoral.

He was worried that the ice would melt but it didn’t seem to melt if he continuously pour magical power into it.

That aspect may be the difference between natural ice and ice created by magic.

The brilliantly shining sun. And the fairly large ice lens.

Using those, the palm bark was ignited in less than two minutes.

Ryo finally acquired a way to set fire.

“Magic sure is convenient.”

He could use magic to obtain the three elements of survival, fire, water, and food. Well, he did use quite a primitive method to create fire using magic …

“I wonder where does this water come from? I guess it comes from the moisture in the air … maybe?”

The Rondo Forest had a warm climate, or rather, the temperature was so high that it seemed like a subtropical climate. And there was high humidity.

That naturally meant that there was a large amount of water contained in the air.

Because of that, a beginner in water attribute magic like Ryo could quickly find the knack to release water.

Ryo thought so.

On Earth, even deserts have a few percent of humidity.

In other words, even the dry air of a desert contains moisture.

If he could extract that … magic is definitely convenient.

However … if that was not the case?

If he was not extracting water from the air but creating it from nothing?

Of course, it can’t come from nothing.

To be exact, when he mentioned nothing, it only meant there was no substance, but there was energy.

Michael (pseudonym) mentioned that the laws of physics were fundamentally the same on Earth and on 『Phi』.

In that case, Ryo thought that the physics formula effective on Earth would be effective on 『Phi』as well.

The famous Einstein formula that even ordinary people on Earth know.

E=mc²

E: Energy; m: mass, c: speed of light.

“Energy is equal to the product of the mass and speed of light squared.”

To put it simply, it is possible to generate energy from matter.

A prime example would be nuclear power and the atomic bomb.

However, the focus here was the equals sign.

As learned in junior high school mathematics, the right and left connected by an equal sign are equal. They are equivalent.

In other words, if energy can be extracted from matter, matter can also be generated from energy.

Of course, even on Earth entering the 21^st century, material production from energy has not been established as a technology.

At best, pair production has produced electrons and the like.

In the first place, a huge amount of energy is generated from even one gram of matter.

In other words, even if you could control an enormous amount of energy, you will only succeed in generating one gram worth of matter.

How enormous?

The atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima actually only weighed about 0.7 grams in terms of energy.

In other words, even if all that energy could be converted to mass … only 0.7 grams of matter would be produced.

However, there was this convenient thing called magic on 『Phi』.

Perhaps in the depths of magic there is also a technique to create matter from energy.

Not only ‘creating something from nothing’, that would lead to the establishment of creating matter from energy and even the mystery of the creation of the universe.

His dreams were expanding!