Water Magician

Chapter 14: I’m craving River Fish

“I feel like eating fish once in a while.”

Ryo muttered to himself one day after finishing his morning practice.

“Grilled fish would be nice. I’d love to have it grilled with salt. To be honest, I want to drizzle some soy sauce … but that is just wishful thinking since I don’t have soy sauce so I’ll compromise on that. All right, let’s have salt-grilled fish tonight for dinner!”

Now that he had decided on it, he should take action immediately.

There was no sea here but river fish should suffice.

That was because the images that came to mind when Ryo imagined salt-grilled fishes were grilled sweetfish and rainbow trout.

His choice for the tool to catch fish was his usual knife-tipped bamboo spear.

“I actually wanted to have a barbed tip that curved back at the end like a harpoon but … I’ll have to give up on that.”

Fishing was previously something that Ryo would never opt for.

“This time I won’t need the hemp bag.”

With the knife-tipped bamboo spear in his hand, Ryo headed toward the river located to the south of his home.

This was absolutely not because he wanted to have fun.

Right, definitely not.

Probably … not.

At that time, it so happened that there was a crocodile at the river bank.

It was not listed in the 『Monster Encyclopedia: Beginner Edition』.

Therefore it was probably an 『animal』 rather than a 『monster』.

Naturally, on 『Phi』, there were millions of types of existences that were not monsters, or in other words, ordinary animals.

The difference between monsters and animals would be the small stone called a 『Magic Stone』 located near the heart of monsters.

In addition, depending on the species, some monsters were capable of using 『Magic』.

And most of the time, monsters were more violent and stronger than ordinary animals.

For that reason, in Rondo Forest where strong monsters roam, most ordinary animal types had been exterminated.

That was the reason why Ryo had not seen any animals in Rondo Forest until now.

However, now, there was an animal in front of his eyes.

Even though it was a huge crocodile-type animal over 5 meters in length, it was still an animal …

According to a famous Japanese book on Earth … 『How to hold a crocodile』, the way to go was to approach it from behind.

It was a book a friend showed Ryo when he was a primary school student.

“That probably won’t come useful” … Ryo thought to himself so he didn’t read it properly.

Now he regretted it.

There really was no telling what would be useful where!

“Well, I don’t necessarily have to catch it.”

Right, it wasn’t as though the crocodile was coming toward him.

It had not noticed him yet so he just had to secretly move upstream such that it doesn’t notice him.

“Jiiiiiaaaaa”

“Guomooon”

After moving about 50 meters from the crocodile, Ryo heard the cries of beasts.

It seemed that the crocodile he saw just now was fighting something.

Despite going through the trouble of gaining a distance from it, now he was curious as to what the crocodile was fighting.

He tried to secretly catch a glimpse.

After creeping closer to look, Ryo saw a bull charge at the crocodile and pierce it with its horns, raising it above its head.

The crocodile seemed to have breathed its last breath.

“Horn Bison … as the name implies, I have to watch out for its horns. They often appear around rivers and swamps. I have to be aware of its charge using Wind Attribute Magic to wrap around its body. Oh. Right, let’s try my new technique.”

Ryo raised his left hand above his head and chanted.

“<Guillotine>”

An Icicle Lance with a guillotine-shaped tip flew into the sky from his left hand and gained sufficient acceleration before dropping onto the Horn Bison’s neck from directly above.

“All right, success.”

Ryo grinned.

The Horn Bison’s head was decapitated with a single strike and fell into the water as blood spurted out from its neck.

“Maybe I can use it to practice tanning cowhide.”

Ryo slowly approached the corpses of the Horn Bison and crocodile as he muttered that.

However, Ryo then saw a scene …

Basha basha basha.

The Horn Bison head and crocodile body that fell into the water seemed to become smaller and smaller.

“Hn? Hmm? What’s happening …”

He quickly gripped the Horn Bison’s torso and tossed it onto land.

Even then, there already were several fishes biting it.

“These seem like piranhas … they aren’t listed in the Monster Encyclopedia but … carnivores … they are probably related to piranhas.”

The piranha-like fishes had a body length over 40cm and possessed violent-looking teeth.

For the time being, he stabbed at the ones biting to the Horn Bison with his knife-tipped bamboo spear.

Then, he froze the entire Horn Bison torso.

During that time, he caught glimpses of the Horn Bison head and crocodile body in the water become smaller …. before disappearing.

The piranhas, which seemed to have been attracted by blood, disappeared and the river returned to its previous tranquility.

“I definitely can’t play in the water here.”

Ryo swore firmly in his heart.

The hunt ended in less than an hour but the sight of the piranhas was quite shocking. After all, the smell of blood attracted all kinds of monsters.

He had to keep that in mind.

He took the Horn Bison and piranhas and stored them in the storage in their frozen state.

Now then, he managed to acquire 『Fish』 in this round’s hunt.

It was different from the 『Sweetfish』 and 『Rainbow Trout』 that he imagined but it was still river fish.

For dinner, he would salt-grill the piranha and one great possibility was born.

He had fish.

He had salt too.

And he didn’t have soybean.

Yes, that black liquid that can be said to be the heart of Japanese … 『Soy sauce』. The possibility to acquire that was born.

But he did not have soybeans.

Originally soy sauce was born from 『miso』 which is fundamentally made with soybean.

Yes, he didn’t have soybeans.

Although he didn’t have soybeans, there was a method on Earth to acquire 『soy sauce』 without soybeans.

That was 『fish sauce』.

As the word reads, it is a 『soy sauce』 made fundamentally with 『fish』.

Compared to the soy sauce Japanese people are familiar with, it has a stronger aroma and often has a stronger taste.

But it was used for local cuisine all over Japan.

In other words, it was compatible with Japanese food!

It might not make it for tonight’s piranha salt-grill but someday, he could look forward to drizzling some soy sauce.

“Yup, I have to do this!”

The method to make the fish sauce was extremely simple.

Pickle the fish with salt.

That’s all.

All he has to do was wait a few months for it to ferment naturally.

“The question would be what barrel to ferment them in.”

Barrels made with Water Attribute Magic could be created in an instant. The shape and size were up to him too.

But it would be an ice barrel so it would be cold …

For most storage, that coldness was not an issue, in fact, it was a huge merit.

But fish sauce required 『fermentation』.

A certain temperature was needed to allow the fermentation to occur to give rise to fish sauce.

If the ice container was too cold, fermentation would not occur … at the very least it had to be above room temperature.

Because of that, the first step was to create a wooden barrel.

Naturally, Ryo had never created anything like that in his life.

Even if he tried his best, the bottom might come off or the contents might leak out.

For the time being, it would be great if there was a barrel-like tree somewhere.

“I see the candidates!”

Yes, this was Rondo Forest.

Some of the trees had grown to be unimaginably thick as compared to those on Earth.

And they were right next to the home barrier.

The diameter of the trunk was approximately 2 meters. 10 meters in height. It was a coniferous tree like cedar and cypress.

With heavy machinery like those on Earth … no, it might be quite troublesome to cut down a tree of that size even with heavy machinery.

Furthermore, Ryo did not have any heavy machinery on hand.

But, in exchange for heavy machinery, he had 『Magic』.

Yes, he could use Water Jet to cut through … but that was still impossible.

Although he had been practicing Water Jet ever since he came to 『Phi』, it still did not possess the strength to cut down trees.

However, Ryo had other means.

Yes, the 『Guillotine』 that beheaded the Horn Bison in one hit.

“『Guillotine』”

Zashun

The guillotine dug roughly a meter into the trunk before stopping.

“We-well, I didn’t expect to cut it down in a single hit!”

He didn’t sound very convincing but he continued to chant.

“『Guillotine』”

He fired off consecutive shots of the guillotine.

Finally, he managed to slice through and the conifer fell along with a resounding boom.

There was quite a lot of deforestation around the area affected but Ryo didn’t mind it.

From the fallen coniferous tree, he chose a one-meter-long section that would become the barrel and started cutting.

“『Guillotine』”

“『Guillotine』”

Here, he used the same consecutive shots of the guillotine.

With a diameter of 2 meters and height of 1 meter, visually it looked like a splendid but slightly large table was carved out.

Next would be to carve out the interior to shape the barrel.

The tool of choice was the <Water Saw>.

The <Water Saw> that he once failed to shoot out as an offensive spell.

He probably could use it as a ranged offensive spell now similar to the Icicle Lance but now he didn’t require that effect.

“<Water Saw>”

On his right palm, a rotating saw made of water was generated.

And he proceeded to carve the cut-out section of the coniferous tree.

It cut at a speed comparable to the chainsaws on Earth.

There was almost no resistance and no material stress either.

It took about an hour before he finally managed to carve out a satisfactory shape.

Visually it looked like a private open-air bath made of cypress wood in luxury hot spring inns.

He moved it home by creating Ice Bahn underneath the fermentation barrel. It was truly a convenient spell.

Even though the content has been hollowed out, due to the large size … it should weigh considerably heavy.

And then, Ryo noticed when he brought it home.

“This barrel … where should I put it?”

Yes, it was too big to fit through the door.