Water Magician

Chapter 12: Plow…?

Ryo somehow managed to reach home.

He froze the Kite Snake corpse and kept it in the storage.

He didn’t think of eating the snake.

Even when his university friend from Southeast Asia told him ‘It looks pale but it is quite delicious~’, he didn’t feel like eating it.

But there was a possibility that he could use it as some kind of material … like those snakeskin wallets or bags on Earth …

“A bag huh … well, there’s no issue with the hemp bag … and more importantly, I don’t have thread or string. I could use ivy as a replacement for string but I would need it for clothes as well.”

Regarding ‘Clothes’, it was still extremely difficult to achieve this in his slow life in Rondo Forest.

As for ‘Food’, apart from the Ichizuku, he also obtained the ‘Rindo’ that is similar to apples during this excursion.

It was a long sought-after new fruit.

Enriching his food choices was important in achieving his slow life!

“That said, my encounter with the Kite Snake … was a close shave.”

That was the first time Ryo encountered a monster that used poison.

Although it was described in the ‘Monster Encyclopedia – Beginner Edition’ to ‘Spit poison’, the area of the poison, so large that it could be called a poison mist, was completely outside his expectations.

“The ‘Squall’ that I made for watering ended up playing an important role in the fight … I seriously don’t know what would end up being useful in which situation.”

The Water Attribute Magic ‘Squall’ that brought down the Kite Snake poison spread across the air and washed it away was originally imagined as water coming out of a watering can.

Well, the water pressure was a little stronger, the volume was greater, and the area was wider.

That Squall was meant for the Ichizuku from his previous harvest that he transplanted.

Although he could find it if he entered the forest, it would be nice if he could pluck them from his garden when he has cravings for it at night … he planted them for such simplistic reasoning.

Of course, it was natural cultivation without any pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or organic fertilizers!

Since it was tastier that way.

It definitely was not because he didn’t have any of that! Definitely not!

If he was pursuing mass production then a large amount of fertilizer might be a better method.

But for a slow life … that was not necessary.

However, there was a field of ‘Food’ that was not progressing well even if he took it slowly.

It was his field.

He had stored a fairly large amount of ‘paddy’ rice that was for planting or eating.

They were all obtained from the wetlands in the Northern forest.

However, what Ryo wanted was to improve it with a field.

And for that, he needed to make a paddy field.

He needed it but … if he could use Earth Attribute Magic, he might have a spell like ‘Plow’.

Even without that, he could make a hoe and plow manually.

But Ryo only had Water attribute Magic.

“Land reclamation without Earth Attribute Magic, without farming tools like a hoe or plowing horses …”

He could not imagine himself succeeding with those restrictions.

For the time being, he tried launching Icicle Lances at the planned paddy field site.

“<Icicle Lance 2>”

It was barely noticeable.

“Let’s drop it from the sky. <Icicle Lance 128>”

128 Icicle Lances formed in the sky 20 meters up and freefell to the planned paddy field site.

Zusa zusa zusa

They pierced the ground.

“Yeah … pierce … that’s all. I wonder if there is a way to make them rupture after piercing…”

He was about to imagine one of the lances exploding …

“Before that, I should set up a shield.”

He was standing in his garden within the barrier so he didn’t even have his Ice Armor on.

“<Ice Wall 5 layers>”

It was the sturdiest shield he had and he separated himself from the (planned) explosive.

The Ice Wall was originally transparent as well so it didn’t impede his work.

Once again … he made a mental image of one of the Icicle Lances exploding.

Bakin.

Exploded … or rather, the ice shattered and scattered around.

“That wouldn’t help with the plowing …”

He targeted two Icicle Lances and imagined them exploding into even finer ice crystals.

Toshin.

The ice shattered and scattered around once again but … compared to before, the scattered ice was smaller.

“I knew it wouldn’t help with plowing …”

He guessed that having the ice shatter was insufficient.

Instead of shattering, he wanted them to ‘explode’.

“If it is an explosion with water, I recall the experiments that caused water to explode by adding sodium metal. But that was not realistic here. In that case, steam explosion …?”

A steam explosion was a phenomenon that happens when a high-temperature substance such as magma comes into contact with a low-temperature substance such as groundwater, causing the water to instantaneously become water vapor and explode.

The ‘explosion’ phenomenon occurs because when water turns into water vapor, its volume expands by 1700 times.

“But I don’t have any high-temperature substances. No, if I instantaneously convert the Icicle Lance into water vapor, it should cause the same phenomenon as a steam explosion.”

It could be done with the same image of increasing the vibrations of the water molecules as when he first made boiling water.

Increasing the vibrations would cause the temperature of the substance to increase.

Once it goes beyond 100 degrees, it would turn into steam …

If more heat was added to the steam, steam that goes beyond 100 degrees would reach a state called superheated steam.

On Earth, there were microwave ovens on sale that function using superheated steam.

In that sense, it was a very common phenomenon.

He tried it with all the remaining 126 Icicle Lances but he couldn’t make them explode.

At a glance, it felt like he could easily cause a steam explosion but unfortunately, his fundamental knowledge was flawed so a steam explosion would never occur.

Ryo’s chemical knowledge was insufficient.

In the first place, an ‘explosion’ was a phenomenon that occurs as a result of a sudden generation or release of pressure.

If it’s ice … yeah.