Chapter 4 – Felling Trees and Getting Lots of Water + Salt

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It looks like Chiyu has some questions about the description and categorization of items. It’s possible to create 『Salt』 and 『Drinking Water』 from ocean water, but there’s no trace of what’s commonly called bittern.

“Does it depend on the user’s knowledge? Or are there other elements at play here? …Like it being simplified as it’s done in games, for example.”

“Who knows?”

If we’re talking about games, a weapon purchased at a weapon store usually keeps its original performance indefinitely. But, in reality, a weapon will wear down and become damaged. You would constantly need money to repair it, and even that has its limits, so it’s being excluded from games.

Even so, you won’t find any players who would get mad about the lack of such a small detail. That’s because a game being oddly realistic might lead to a decrease in the immersion level for players.

On the other hand, adding features like blade degradation can become a fun component as well, but the players must accept it in order for such a component to add to the game’s enjoyment.

That doesn’t mean realism itself is being regarded as important, though. Even my crafting ability would become completely useless if all the items were to be displayed as chemical formulas.

In other words, I think it’s correct to call it a 『Crafting ability based on the premise that it’ll be used by Kuno Sousuke』. For better or worse, it’s an ability that has been tailored to suit me.

The same seems to apply to Chiyu’s 『Healing Magic』, and I think it’ll be just like that for the other abilities of our classmates, too.

“Well, wouldn’t it be fine to consider it after it becomes necessary?”

“That makes sense,” Chiyu said while doing a double peace sign with her face as expressionless as ever.

It’s very likely her idea of a word pun. ¹

If a guy had done the same, it’d be a total downer, but if it’s done by my cute childhood friend, it soothes my mind. Cuteness is always justice.

“I can create water, but it requires a container, as we’ve seen with the shell.”

“For starters, I’d like you to tell me what you can make.”

“Right.”

Chiyu and I shared information about each other’s abilities. I’d have been careful to not reveal too much if this were someone else, but since there was no way that Chiyu would betray or trick me, I trusted her unconditionally.

Chiyu can currently use two spells: Heal and Purify.

The former is a healing spell that only works on small injuries and light illnesses. It can cure gashes, bumps, scratches, and so on, but it won’t reconnect a lost arm. It can also lower a light fever, but it’ll struggle with a high fever. But this will apparently change, depending on Chiyu’s experience with the spell. Or, in short, you can raise its level.

The latter is a disinfection spell that cleans affected parts from bacteria and such within a fixed range. It’s unclear whether this spell is upward compatible.

Both are the classic standard spells of any healer, but they’re super handy to have.

You can, of course, ask whether Purify registers as healing magic, but very likely this is also based on the idea of 『Healing magic based on the premise that it’ll be used by Iyama Chiyu』. Given that Chiyu had used a White Mage as an image here, it might have played into it as well.

At present, she apparently can’t tell whether there are any limits on the number of uses or the total number of uses it could be.

“My goal for the near future is to reach a point where I can instantly heal a bone fracture,” declared Chiyu.

It sounds like she’s going to become a reliable healer.

“The things I seem to be able to build are stuff like this, I guess.”

I used a twig I picked up to write a list of the items I can create in the sand.

“As far as I can tell from this, it appears like your recipes will increase the more you explore, Sou-kun.”

“Oh, Chiyu, you think so too?”

“Yep. You can deduce that from the information at hand. And even if the recipes don’t increase in number while you’re actually exploring, it won’t pose much of a problem either.”

“Figures. In such a case, it’ll simply mean that we were mistaken in our conclusion. But that won’t invalidate the exploration itself.”

“What we currently need are 『Water』, 『Shelter』, and 『Food』, right?”

“I suppose that’s also the order of priority right there. I’d like to know the objective of the mysterious blackboard and a method to go back to Japan, but first we have to survive, then we can care about this.”

Humans cannot survive without water. I’m not sure about shelter and food, but if it suddenly rains or the night gets cold, I’d like to have a place where we can take shelter. Even if you say that we still have 『Healing Magic』 at our disposal, it’s better to not be too conceited.

“Yep. Nothing will change, even if we stand here and brood over things forever.”

For now, we have collected stones, tree branches, and driftwood. I used those to create 『Stone Ax』, 『Stone Knife』, and 『Wooden Spear』. Moreover, after considering Chiyu’s suggestion for a portable basket, I added 『Wooden Basket』 as a recipe.

It looks like my awareness of things also influences the acquisition of recipes. As soon as I used 『Creation』 on my new recipe, a basket, which seemed to have been knitted out of thinly planed wood in a lattice design, was completed.

“Ooohhh, wow…ah.”

“What’s wrong, Chiyu?”

Chiyu looked up to me with an expressionless face and yet seemed as if she had somehow lost something, and said, “『That’s Sou-kun for you』.” ²

“Please stop treating me like some standard main character as they appear in RPGs or isekai works. I’m no such protagonist.”

“But, you did look a tiny bit happy there, Sou-kun.”

W-Well, I was actually happy, so yeah…

“The next time I get healed by you, I’ll tell you the same from my side.”

I’m sure she’ll understand my feelings on this if she gets the same treatment.

“Looking forward to it.”

With those words, Chiyu shouldered the basket and started to walk along the beach, picking up items. Meanwhile, I tried to fell a tree near the beach with the stone ax.

After deciding the direction for the tree to fall, I hit diagonally, horizontally, diagonally, horizontally with the ax. After the cut had penetrated halfway through the trunk, I went around to the other side and repeated the earlier diagonally-horizontally hitting, just at a higher place than before.

Before long, the tree began to creak and then collapsed in the direction I had initially decided. Its roots were pulled up drastically, leaves fluttered in the air, and branches got smashed and were whirled through the air. The tree itself caused a cloud of dust and sand to shoot up as it bounced.

Panting hard, I commented, “……T-This ain’t nothing an amateur should attempt all of a sudden.”

Even while I swung my ax, it was dangerous because wood splinters got scattered all over. The ax itself broke several times as well, and the skin on my hands got peeled off. The level of exhaustion I suffered from this was anything but normal.

I wanted a large amount of 『Wood』, but it might have been better to get it through tree branches and driftwood. No, it’s too late now that it’s over, so whatever.

In the end, I succeeded in obtaining 『Ordinary Wood x 53』.

I did it…!

Besides, knowing that I can itemize a whole tree is a good piece of information. The capacity of my inventory seemed quite spacious too, so I don’t need to worry about that either.

Leaving that aside, if you ask why we’d need this much wood…

“Sou-kun, good job. You looked awesome there.”

“Oh? Really?”

“Yeah. At first, you didn’t use your waist, but it felt like you gradually got the hang of it. Kind of like how a gamer does his trial and error. It was incredibly fun to watch.”

“I-I see.”

Apparently she watched me quite a bit. Chiyu had also gathered plenty of shells in her basket. That will be a big help.

“Casting magic on you.”

“Oohh~, thanks! Rather, I became a bit too reckless because I knew I could rely on your healing magic anyway.”

“Hehehe, it’s totally alright for you to become so dependent on me that you cannot live without me.”

“Would that be the right way to use it?”

Anyway, it’s a basic heal. It’s apparently able to alleviate the soreness and exhaustion of my whole body, on top of healing the injuries on my hands.

“『That’s Chiyu-sama for you』.”

“I don’t mind waving the healing costs for you.”

“You have my eternal gratitude for that,” I put my hands together in reverence while laughing.

Afterwards, we faced the ocean once more.

“Creating a huge amount of 『Wooden Barrel』 and――――manifesting them in the sea…!”

The barrels, which I deployed in the sea, were quickly flooded with water. Once they became full, I would store them in my inventory.

With this, I secured a large amount of 『Ocean Water』. In other words, I obtained a large amount of 『Drinking Water』 and 『Salt』. It’d allow us to move away from the ocean for a while.

I created 『Wooden Flasks』 and manifested them into our hands. I manifested water inside the flasks and took a sip.

“Mmh, great. Cold water sure penetrates your body well after working out…”

By the way, I used a tubular shape for the flasks. It was the sort where you’d close the lid by sliding it into the tracks added to the flask’s body. It was a big help that my Crafting Ability handled all the finer work.

“… Many of our classmates might be struggling.”

“…Well, yeah.”

I tried not to think about it too much, but I wonder whether those guys, who wished for a 『Smartphone』 or 『Potato Chips』 would be okay. It’d still be okay if the mysterious blackboard would kindly change it to something like a 『Smartphone connected to the Internet』 or 『Potato Chips (one-year stock)』, but as long as they didn’t wish for it explicitly, it might be better to not count on that.

In that sense, Kanna Shoko, the gal who pushed the conversation about abilities in her conversation with me, might have become the savior of a few people. Thanks to her, many students came up with their own skills.

――Well, depending on the developments from now on, some of them might use their skills in a questionable way, though.

Conflict between the stranded humans is a standard in survival stories like this. I can only pray that our experience on the island will stray from that standard development.

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Translation Notes:

1. The “That makes sense” is written as たしカニ (tashikani). The カニ (kani) part can also be read as 蟹 (kani), which means crab (the author was kind enough to use katakana for the kani here to make the pun even more obvious). A crab has two claws that are often imitated by people using a peace-sign-like gesture (forming a V with your fingers).
2. This will become a recurring theme, and it’s basically a jab at typical isekai stories where the MC can do everything, causing everyone around the MC to say, “Nothing less of MC-kun”, “You’re awesome, MC-kun”, “Just as expected of you, MC-kun.” Well, this story might make fun of such template isekai stuff, but it’s no better than those stories in that regard. :p