Water Magician

Chapter 15: Fish Sauce and Presence

For the time being, he placed the fish sauce barrel underneath a large tree.

“On Earth, it is common to line up jars for fermentation outdoors … yup, I’m sure it will be fine.”

Ryo forcibly convinced himself.

First, he spread plenty of salt at the bottom of the barrel.

And then above that, he spread the minced up meat from four thawed piranhas.

Then, he added more salt to cover all the piranhas.

Above that, he arranged wide leaves similar to banana leaves to prevent them from dying out.

And then, for a lid, he covered the barrel with wood from the same tree used to make the barrel.

That was the end.

He completed his fish sauce barrel.

If it goes well, he would be able to collect fish sauce in a few months … probably.

Finally, he would be able to eat salt-grilled fish and white rice.

At first, he expected sweetfish or rainbow trout but due to various circumstances, it had now become grilled piranhas.

Nevertheless, it was shockingly delicious.

Although Ryo generally loves meat, he occasionally wants to eat fish.

He decided that he would go to the south river if he ever wanted to eat again.

After all, he knew that if he threw an animal in, the piranhas would gather.

It was a laid-back life with a satisfying dinner, a leisurely dip in the bathtub, and finally some magic practice.

Generally, he would focus on creating ice until he fell asleep.

By creating ice, even if he suddenly fell asleep, the ice would not melt and soak the surrounding items.

Ryo believed that the magical power lines were still connected even while he was asleep.

If it was water …

“Eh? Would water actually soak into the other items? I somewhat had that image so I didn’t try it.”

For example, when he created Water Ball and fell asleep while moving left and right in the room … the water ball would fall to the floor and drench the floor in the shape of the Water Ball.

He had that image in his head but … there was an instance when he created Icicle Lance and practiced moving it in his room but he fell asleep.

The next day morning, when he woke up, the Icicle Lance was still floating in mid-air.

In that case, it meant that the Water Ball could maintain the state of floating in mid-air too?

“That said, there are a lot of ‘what ifs’ so I’m afraid of trying.”

He still didn’t understand many aspects of Water Attribute Magic.

“Tomorrow, I’ll carve out plenty of boxes from the tree I cut down today.”

He had made iceboxes using Water Attribute Magic and placed all kinds of things in them but if some kind of trouble occurred and he wakes up with complete magical power depletion … all the ice boxes would melt.

If the magical power line was cut or there was a disruption in the supply of magical power, they would turn into regular ice.

Although they would not immediately turn into water, he would prefer if they did not melt.

Yes, he already experienced it once.

His rescue of the blue pepper fruits that were flooded …Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m nov𝒆lb(i)n.c(o)m

There was still some time so he realized that he could start carving some now but,

“The forest at night is still scary after all.”

That’s right, regardless of what era or which world, the forest at night was not a world for humans to live in.

That probably would not change on Earth or on 『Phi』.

Fundamentally, people rely on 『Visual Information』 and 『Auditory Information』 to understand their surroundings.

The darkness of the night robs people of their visual information.

Understanding the situation based on only auditory information was not possible for ordinary people.

Many living organisms, monsters and animals included, have better hearing than humans.

Furthermore, there are living organisms such as snakes and bats and the likes that can obtain information using organs that humans do not possess.

In the darkness of the night with such organisms present … Ryo felt that it was not a place for humans to enter.

At least for now.

“Now that I think about it, there are people who can perceive 『Presence』 … but what exactly is it?”

He could somewhat understand the concept of a sixth sense.

A subconscious decision based on past experiences and memorized information which is then processed by the brain.

Ryo had that understanding.

Intuition, or some kind of discomfort.

However, presence … sensing the gaze from something you can’t see … he couldn’t understand that.

“If I could use Wind Attribute Magic, I might be able to create a spell to sense presence or hidden enemies.”

The principle of passive sonar.

Unlike 『Active Sonar』 that fires a pinger from yourself and searches for the position and surrounding situation from the information that is reflected, 『Passive Sonar』 acquires information from the changes in the surrounding born from the movements of the opponent without actively releasing anything.

Because nothing is fired off, the opponent can’t detect your presence.

That mentioned above is used by submarines underwater but it may be possible to know the opponent’s information by using airflow in place of seawater.

It felt possible with Wind Attribute Magic!

Of course, Ryou was a Water Attribute Mage!

“Like performing a breakdown rush, I’m a little envious of Wind Attribute Mages.”

Breakdown rush … something like 『Releasing sonic blades from three body clones and assault techniques that can pursue the foe』 …

Of course, ordinarily, Wind Attribute Mages are incapable of performing such feats.