Chapter 324

After spending the entire night in a cramped tree, pressed up against Ethan, we finally got up the next morning, moving slowly like zombies who had just risen from their graves.

As you might expect, neither Ethan nor I had slept a wink during the night, and now, as we stretched and stood, every part of our bodies ached.

“Ugh, my whole body is stiff…”

“Yeah, mine too… I didn’t think it would rain all night…” seaʀᴄh thё novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Even though it was morning, the chilly air crept under our skin, as if trying to pierce through us. It was no surprise that the temperature had dropped, given how it had rained throughout the night.

At least the rain had stopped now, so we needed to adapt quickly and start working on our shelter. While it was unlikely that another downpour event would occur right away, having proper shelter was still essential for survival.

Thankfully, since there were two of us, we had managed to retain some body heat by staying close to each other in that tight space. Otherwise, we might have been in more trouble.

“…”

“…”

Of course, there had been some moments of accidental, inappropriate contact during the night, which made things a bit awkward between us.

But even though things could have escalated between Ethan and me, we didn’t cross the line. After all, we were still in the middle of a class, and doing something like that would’ve been highly inappropriate.

There may not have been direct supervision, but we were still participating in the ‘Natural Studies Exploration’ course. Giving in to our desires would’ve led to accumulated fatigue, hypothermia, and muscle pain—an unnecessary trio of debuffs.

There were many tasks to complete for survival, so I suppressed any awkward feelings and called Ethan’s attention to the work we had to do today.

“Now that it’s morning, we have a lot to do, Ethan. We have a water source, but we need to gather food to last us the next few days, and first, we need to start another fire to keep warm. However, all the wood around us is probably wet from the rain, so finding dry firewood won’t be easy.”

“…It’s only the second morning, right?”

“If we look around rocks and under trees, we might be able to find some materials that didn’t get wet. Or we could strip bark from the trees and leave it to dry in the sunlight. The area near the river should be a good place to dry things since the sun reaches there and the ground doesn’t get as wet.”

“…You’re so reliable, Lilith. You sure you haven’t taken this course in secret before?”

“There’s no way that could be the case.”

After playing through this game 25 times, I’d naturally learned survival skills to endure even the worst-case scenarios.

The ‘Natural Studies Exploration’ course was one of those events where even a single wrong decision could dramatically drop your completion rate. But the experience reward was attractive enough that I couldn’t easily give up on it after one attempt.

“Let’s move quickly, Ethan. Once we gather dry firewood, Sally can help us start the fire. I suggest we focus on building a shelter today instead of spending time elsewhere.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll follow your lead for this course, so just tell me what to do.”

“Yes, leave it to me.”

His words of trust, saying he would rely on me, gave me an unexpected burst of happiness.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

It had been about a full day since Ethan and I entered the Hobgoblin Forest.

We were now resting in the temporary shelter we had managed to build, trying to make up for the sleep we didn’t get the previous night.

“This is the first time I’ve been in a house like this. When you said you were going to build a house out of wood, I thought you meant a log cabin or something.”

“I apologize. I’m not very skilled in construction, so I didn’t plan that far ahead.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I was just surprised to see that you’re capable of something like this.”

Ethan shared his thoughts as he looked at the small shelter we had spent half a day building.

Honestly, it wasn’t much of a house. It was barely the size of one square meter. I had set up wooden supports in the shape of a fence, then woven soft branches between them to form walls.

The roof was made by layering large leaves from the bottom up so the rain would flow off, much like the wild survival videos I used to watch on YouTube in my previous life.

The shelter was crude, allowing the wind to pass through, with gaps big enough to see outside. It was hardly more than a roof to protect us. If we had more time, I could’ve reinforced the walls by smearing them with mud, but the ‘Natural Studies Exploration’ course lasted only five days, so there was no point.

If I had tried to build something more elaborate, the course would’ve ended by the time I finished. It wasn’t like Ethan and I were planning to live in this forest forever.

“Please be careful when managing the fire inside the shelter, Ethan. There’s enough ventilation since the wind can pass through the gaps in the walls, but if the fire gets too strong, the whole shelter could go up in flames.”

“…I’ll definitely be careful.”

Anyway, with that, we had secured a temporary shelter for the remaining 100 hours or so.

For lunch, we had supplemented our meal with tree nuts that we gathered while collecting firewood and materials for building. But for more efficient protein intake, we would need to gather food through ‘hunting.’

The problem was that we couldn’t afford to spend too much time on food gathering, as we still had other tasks related to the course to complete during the five-day period.

‘…I really don’t want to resort to this, but it seems like I don’t have much choice.’

If I wanted to secure enough food in one go, there was only one method that would work.

I had already made enough wooden skewers for grilling fish, so I called over Ethan, who was taking a short break after finishing the work.

“Ethan, we’ll be gathering food ingredients now. Please follow me.”

“Oh, okay. We’re supposed to leave the green berries and only pick the red ones, right?”

“No, today we’re not going into the forest. We’ll be gathering food for dinner by fishing.”

“…Fishing?”

“Yes, fishing.”

“Do we have a fishing rod or a net? You’re not planning to catch them barehanded, are you?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll use the most effective method to catch everything, so all you need to do is gather the fish I pull out.”

“…”

Ethan followed me to the riverbank with a puzzled expression.

After ensuring that he was standing a safe distance away, I raised my arms and formed a massive sphere of magic above my head.

…It had been a long time since I’d felt this cold, heavy sensation.

“L-Lilith? Don’t tell me that’s…”

“Let the source of all mana whirl in a storm! Mana Blast!!!”

BOOOM!!!

A gigantic shockwave of magic echoed through the forest.

The enormous sphere of magic above my head slammed into the upper part of the river, creating a massive whirlpool, and the water from the western river was lifted up from the riverbed.

Plop, plop, plop!

The river water rained down from the sky, along with fish and freshwater shrimp.

With just one blast of magic, I had harvested an entire load of food without any physical labor. I quickly gave orders to Ethan, who was standing there staring at me in disbelief.

“Please skewer all the fish and place them next to the campfire, and put the freshwater shrimp in the water bucket for storage, Ethan.”

“…This isn’t fishing, Lilith.”

“Any complaints should be directed to the fish. Besides, this is the most efficient way to gather ingredients.”

“I mean, looking at the situation, I can’t really argue with that…”

Still a bit shocked by the sight of fish falling from the sky, Ethan let out a small sigh and began skewering the fish one by one.

I, too, hurried to skewer the fish and set them by the campfire, creating something like a smoked dish.

“With this, we should have enough protein for the next five days, Ethan.”

“…Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

While he seemed a little surprised by my unorthodox fishing method, Ethan eventually acknowledged its efficiency and nodded.

Honestly, this method was far more effective than spending an entire day setting traps and then getting up early every morning to check them.

Since the campfire was already burning, I didn’t need to use any more magic today. As long as we had enough food and a place to sleep, everything would recover on its own. I wasn’t too worried.

And even if a dangerous monster showed up that required me to use magic, I had Ethan, a Sword Expert, by my side.

However, there was one downside to using this method of fishing—something I hadn’t considered until it was too late. With a sigh, I quietly began taking off my soaked clothes.

Slip.

“Lilith?”

“Yes, Ethan.”

“…What are you doing right now?”

“I’m taking off my clothes, Ethan.”

“Wait, why are you…? Oh, did they get wet from earlier?”

“Yes. Since I used magic to lift the river water, a strong spray of water splashed around the mana sphere, and I ended up getting soaked.”

“But that wasn’t fishing…”

I ignored Ethan’s pointless grumbling and continued undressing. There was no way I could keep wearing these wet clothes, especially in the wild where preserving body heat was essential.