chapter 61

Hmmー, I didn’t think that the pirates would be able to acc.u.mulate this much wealth.

This is ten times what I earned when I went to the front lines…… Shall I ask them for an explanation for this?

「Captainー! Come here of a bit」

When I called him, he immediately stopped what he was doing and came over to me.

「Yes? What is it?」

「I have something to ask you…… How exactly did you obtain all of this money? You can tell me honestly since I’m just curious」

「Yes, one of those boxes are what we took from other pirates. The rest are from raiding merchant ships」

「Did you kill anybody?」

「Only when the hired mercenaries were resisting or if they don’t settle down even after giving them a warning」

「Hmmー nine with dark origins and one in a gray area huh…… I wonder what is the proper thing to do in these situations. Well, I guess I’ll just put it away for now. Thank you for your time. Please go back to your work」

「Yes」

Should I give them back to the next merchant ship that comes here or should I hand it over to the garrison of the nearest town?

Hmm, the former would probably be better I guess.

If we do the latter, some devout human may report my existence to the church which would cause a hero to be sent my way.

I’m sure they’ll eventually find out about me but I’d like to be spared from them coming for me this soon. Un…… Let’s just put that on hold. I’ll just pile those up in the temporary house I’m living in right now and just let Palma-san and Fleur-san guard it.

Keep it for myself you say? Well, I’ll admit that I’m kinda tempted but conscience is holding me back you see? Should I teleport in front of the gate of Cravatte’s mansion to ask him then? I can still vividly remember that gate after all.

~The next day~

「Hey, cat old man」

「What’s up」

「Can I explore the island for a bit?」

「Haa?」

「I mean, I won’t take that long. Don’t you want to find out what’s out there? It takes five days to go around the entire island if you just walk along the beach so it’s pretty big, isn’t it? However, what’s intriguing me is that mountain on the center of the island that you can see from here since we still haven’t confirmed what’s around that area yet. To be frank, I just want to look for materials from deeper inland that we can use for trading. Can I leave you in charge here while I’m away?」

「……it’s fine if you just make sure you don’t die I guess」

「Alright, I’m off! I’ll let you hold the fort while I’m away! I’ll get to take a breakーーー! Yahoo!1」

「He’s just doing whatever he wants, isn’t he……?」

I just left the old man there astounded before he eventually returned to his work.

As for me, I went back to my temporary housing to prepare my luggage. I crammed some wheat flour and dried meat as well as some sugar and salt into my rucksack then started gathering my equipment. After leaving the task of telling everyone about my trip to the others during lunch, I started my journey.

I’m abandoning my duties you say? No, that’s not true. Investigating the unexplored parts of this undeveloped island is work after all. Un, let’s just say I’m doing that.

As for the pirates, I’ll leave their management to their vice-captain. Who is that you say? He was the guy who hit the captain. He seems like a straight-laced person after all.

Fleur-san will be informing me if anything happens anyway so we’ll manage somehow.

「What’s up Wulf? Do you want to come along as well?」

「Waon!」

「I see. If it gets too tough for you, you can just go back here anytime okay?」

「Waon!」

After replying to me with a bark, he immediately began marking the place. Well, I guess this is just a regular walk on the island for a wolf.

Hmmー, I wonder if you’ll be able to see around the island from the former Demon Lord’s castle ruins.

Since we can see the sun rising from the bay, the direction it’s facing is probably east…… So that means that the direction beyond the castle ruins should be west.

I’m going west and I’ll bring some parchment with me to draw a simple map starting from the castle ruins.

Let’s see. If we’re in this position where we’re facing west, the quarry should be on the south side and the renovated swamp is north. Can I reach the center of the island by following the stream that’s flowing from there I wonder?

I walked five meters away from the naturally formed stream in this area in order to make sure not to disturb it while I was looking at various things. Now that I’m here, the forest’s quite thick, isn’t it? We should come back here and manage it later. I should also learn how to fish since I wouldn’t want to get scolded by the sahagin and mermaids. I’d get mentally scarred if I get scolded by that fish head type after all.

Based on the calculations I made before, it should be 45km to the center of the island and I would get there in about 15 hours if I walk an average of 3km per hour. I can’t walk that much you know? I decided to take 10-minute breaks for every hour traveled then continued walking while being cautious of leeches.

After four hours of walking, I discovered something that seemed to be a human skeleton. I don’t know what the exact cause of death was, but a leg bone and a couple of ribs were missing so I think they might have been attacked by a wild animal or monster. I tried looking for personal articles they might have dropped but I can only find a chain collar next to their skull which already fell to the ground.

Judging by how rusty this chain is, they probably ran away from the previous Demon Lord. It’s not crumbling yet after all. Well, for now, I decided to put my hands together and pray for this fallen human.

「Oh my, so it seems even Caam prays for the dead」

「Whoa! Oh, it’s you Fleur-san. Well, they had a tough time trying to run away only to fall here after all. There was no salvation for this guy even if he ran away. Let’s just say that I prayed just because I felt like it」

「Hmmー」

「Anyways, you really can appear from anywhere, huh?」

「Well yeah. Anyway, could you be a dear and give this child some water?」

While saying that in an alluring voice, she wrapped her upper body around me to try and coax me to do that. Her real body’s definitely big so I wonder if I’ll get preyed on. Well, I guess I can just burn her if she attacks me.

While I was thinking that, I dropped a 【Waterball】 on her roots which caused her to start panting and twisting about. For some reason, her actions remind me of those dancing flowers.2

I continued walking for a while but didn’t find anything particularly interesting. Since the sun was about to set soon, I started making a simple tent made from dry wood. After making sure that it won’t collapse once I get inside, I went around the vicinity searching for things that I can harvest to eat. To be specific, I was looking for fruits.

Since it’s almost time anyway, I guess I should have an early dinner. Eh? You’re asking why I’m not going back? There’s nothing I can use as a landmark around the corpse that’s now a skeleton so how am I going to get back here? I can go home but I won’t be able to get back here so I don’t think I can return yet. It would be tougher the further I go without being able to find a place with a prominent landmark, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, I should get back to what I was doing…… I kneaded a flour and water mixture with some dried meat shavings then cooked it in a frying pan as is.

「This would have been perfect if only I had milk……」

After saying that to myself, I quickly finished eating my meal. While I was busy finishing up packing the dry wood that I’m going to use to feed the fire, I started thinking of ways to kill time before going to sleep.

「I guess I can just practice my magic.」

Hot water by itself is already powerful enough but I want to be a bit greedy and try something even better.

I already have an image formed in my mind of what it would be but I’m not sure if it would work.

『Image: Heat up a purified waterball under high pressure, forcibly contain the water vapor under high pressure then heat it up even more, execute』

After forming the image, a floating black waterball appeared which was considerably hotter than just the regular hot waterball. If I had to guess, it’s temperature might already be at the boiling point of oil. It would have been fine to just burn someone if they got dashed by this all over their body but there’s a high chance that they would just die because of shock. Well, since it’s black, the temperature may still rise but I wonder if this really is alright? If I remember correctly, a supercritical fluid should be transparent.

Huh? How many times can I use this you ask? Well, the one made with my magic should go up to 300 degrees Celsius I guess. I feel like it would be quicker if I used fire instead but I’m afraid to use it since it might spread to unintended places. Well, it’s fine if your goal is to burn somebody but the body armor they are wearing would immediately become useless so this magic I created would be better for that.

Well, hot water would have been more than enough though.

【Skill: Attack Attribute: Fire: 3】3 acquired

『Skill: Attack Attribute: Wind: 4』 acquired.

Two at once huh? It’s been a while since it did that. How many years has it been since those last went up? Well, whatever, now I know that pressure here is under the wind attack attribute. Should I try tampering with the atmospheric pressure next time? It would be difficult to adjust it though.

I could try to change the alt.i.tude of an area into the death zone which is at 8,000 meters where people would experience an acute case of alt.i.tude sickness. That will indiscriminately kill everyone in the area though so I’ll just stop.

At 4000 meters, people would start experiencing headaches, nausea, and drowsiness. Just lowering the oxygen levels would be more than enough since it would restrict someone’s ability to do things, right? It’s kinda scary if you think about the after-effects though.

Should I do the opposite and raise the atmospheric pressure instead to collapse their lungs? No no no, it’s already terrifying just thinking about it.

Well, I guess I should just put that idea on the back of my head for now.

I just want one more thing though. My firepower is already at the level of a tank’s sh.e.l.ling since I was able to penetrate the pirate ship’s mast but there’s still something else that can penetrate harder things. Once you shoot it, it disperses the air and the really hard lead gets shot out. Uhー I can’t remember his name at all. AP…… what was it again? I think it has four more letters after that. It’s not just armor piercing. You wrap it in something thin before shooting it and once it stabilizes in the air, the thing surrounding it tears off if I remember correctly. I also feel like it had some kind of fins attached to it in order to stabilize its flight.4

Uh, what else. A long, elongated trapezium-shaped thing is inserted into the warhead and splits off into four pieces once in the air then the sharp portion in the center continues to fly off.

Depleted uranium? Don’t know about that. I can’t even begin to imagine it. And even if I can, I don’t want to make something dangerous like that!

Should I go with hard ores for that then? If we’re talking about hardness, it should be diamonds, right? However, things like that AP thing also require some ma.s.s to them right……? Well, I’ll just compensate for that using hardness and speed I guess. Anyway, let’s just focus on making the core and shooting it and forget about the other troublesome things.5

First thing should be the image. Would a toothpick that weighs 1 kg with fins attached to if for stabilization be good? I don’t really need one that’s good for tanks after all. Let’s not go overboard with that.

『Image: a pointed-tipped cylindrical object with tail fins attached to it in a 30-degree angle, 4 cm in diameter, 50 cm length, made out of emerald, formed on the ground 1 meter ahead, execute』

After forming the image, the emerald sticks started appearing one after the other. I can say that it has been a success for now. I tried measuring the length using my thumb and pinky finger so I think it’s roughly the same as my designated size. As for the weight…… I wonder how much it actually is? Well, I guess it’s fine. I’ll just go with that.

I guess the only thing that’s left is to try to shoot it. I wonder if I can find a good rock to use this on~. I roamed around the area while thinking about that. I found a large stone at an area that’s about 50 meters away from where I set camp so I used that as a target.

The speed? What was the initial velocity of a tank’s main armament again? I don’t have any knowledge about this aside from what I got from games after all…… I wonder if twice the speed of my stone bullet magic would be fine. As for the rotation, the tail fins are slanted so it will probably be fine if I don’t add any since I think it’ll rotate on its own.

『Image: shoot this out at twice the speed of 【Stone Bullet】 towards where I’m looking, execute』

Firing it didn’t use gunpowder as usual so it was really quiet when the magic activated but the projectile broke through the sound barrier which caused a loud explosion. Because of that, Wulf who was sleeping nearby suddenly jumped up and ran towards me frightened.

「Sorry, sorry. I forgot about the other things I had to prepare for before testing it」

After comforting Wulf, I went to the rock to inspect the damage and saw that the emeralds cleanly penetrated it.

Un, I should be fine if a harder enemy comes with this. I’m not sure if they exist but can use this against golems, maybe.

「Ah, c.r.a.p! I forgot to limit how far it can travel! 」

As I remembered that, I went to check the damage and found two trees that now have brand new holes in them. I’m not even sure where exactly the projectile went.

Well, I can only pray that there’s n.o.body in that direction. If I had to guess, it probably continued on for about 3 kilometers. That the range of the tanks though. 6

「……I’m feeling sluggish. I should probably sleep」

It would be pretty bad if I made a mistake while using that magic, wouldn’t it? Is hot water the easiest magic to use that I have? That emerald core magic is limited in various ways when it comes to its uses after all. Well, whatever I guess.

While I was thinking about that,

「Good night」

I heard somebody say that. After looking around, I saw Fleur-san who has taken the form of a flower nearby.

Geez! You guys really can observe pretty much the entire island, can’t you!?

「Hey wait, don’t go to sleep yet! Was that magic earlier the one you used to snap off the pillars of that pirate ship?」

Don’t try to start a conversation when I’m already trying to sleep over here.

「No, that was something different. That one just now was for when I encounter something even harder. As for the pillars, I just used a stone that was launched using magic to break them. Let me demonstrate」

While I was lying down, I looked towards the stone I used for target practice earlier and shout out a 【Stone bullet】 at it which caused both the stones to be crushed. That caused Wulf to get startled once again but he went back to sleep after I stroked his head and back.

「You see, I’m prioritizing magic that pierces through targets rather than just something that hits the target directly. This and the one I used earlier have completely different uses you know? With this new magic of mine, I’ll even be able to penetrate an iron wall that’s behind that rock」

「Hmmー, what about that black water earlier?」

「When water is heated, it gradually decreases since it turns into steam. However, if that steam isn’t able to escape into the air and continue to warm it up, it will go back to being water but it’ll be as hot as boiling oil」

「What are you going to use it for?」

「I can use it to boil meat, fish, potatoes, and if I splash any organic life with it, they will pretty much die in an instant. I can also make cup noodles in just a minute」7

「Hmmー, I see. Wait, what is this cap nuudels you speak of?」

「Ah, don’t worry about that」

「Eh? Ah, okay」

「Good night」

「Yeah, night~」

After saying that, I immediately collapsed and went to sleep.

◇

「Ahh~. It’s been a while since I slept in a place without a proper roof. Last time was in the horse stables together with the old men when I went to the frontlines…… It seems like I almost used up my mana yesterday. I’m feeling pretty sluggish after all~」

「Morning~」

「Ah, morning」

I was greeted by Palma-san as I was still groggily standing up so I greeted her as well. After that, I noticed Wulf came back with his muzzle all b.l.o.o.d.y.

「Oh, did you get yourself something to eat?」

When I addressed him, he started licking my face. There was also some leftover blood on his tongue which made my face a mess so I stopped him for a moment and washed off our faces with a 【Waterball】. This guy sure is cute.

I can’t make anything else out of wheat and dried meat, can I? I should have prepared the flour last night so that it could naturally ferment while I was still asleep.8

Well, I’ll just do that next time I guess. Anyway, I should start moving again soon. I might find some fruits along the way after all.

After walking for a while, I managed to find a pine-like tree so without hesitation, I immediately took some fresh leaves and tasted it.

The gra.s.sy scent and sour taste spread in my mouth.

「Hmm, I don’t think it’s that different to the pine needles in my previous life」

Because of that, I took my cup and put the rest of the plucked pine needles in it. Then, I added some hot water and crushed the leaves inside the cup using a spoon.

I’ve been fooled. It just ended up being a sour and gra.s.sy-smelling herb tea. Well, there was a certain hermit from a certain large country that said that pine needles are rich in vitamins and nutrients, and they hold water as well so consuming those would help a lot in situations where you don’t have water nearby.

Bear-san said something like that as well. 910

Anyway, I should start preparing for lunch. It’ll just be dried meat though. It would also be a good idea to also add some salt and sugar to the pine needle tea I just made to avoid dehydration. This would have been great if I managed to find some fruits. I just need to find some motivation to continue this tiring journey next. The mountain’s starting to look a bit bigger so it won’t be long till I reach the base I guess…….

I sure wish I had that sauce you add to flour for grilling. If I had that, I would be able to make okonomiyaki you know……?11

After continuing to travel for a while, I noticed that the trees were gradually decreasing in number then eventually, a large lake came to view. Once I reached the lake, the mountain was already in view. After making my way through this lake, I’ll be at the base of the mountain.

Is this lake natural or man-made? I haven’t seen any fish coming from the stream that’s flowing to here after all. Don’t tell me this is just water from the swamp that just didn’t flow towards the sea……

Hmmー, should I start releasing the freshwater fish after I’m done with this? I wonder how they would fare? Are there uniquely evolved fish around here? This is a volcano island, right? If this a volcanic lake, there might be some fish in there. I’ll try to dive for a bit I guess.

I took off my clothes and got in the water to look for fish. The water was not salty like I expected. It’s certain now that this lake was formed naturally from the rainwater that was collected.

I wonder if we could use this lake for something. Freshwater sh.e.l.lfish? For breeding fish? Residential area for aquatic demonkin? Wait, how exactly do they sleep if they live underwater? Well, I’ll just think about that when that happens.

I reached the other side of the lake while I was thinking about that so I started looking for where it connects to the stream but I didn’t find it.

Since there was no point in searching for something that’s not there, I decided to just go to the mountain.

There were a lot of spiky rocks there and only a couple of bushes were growing on the soil. I don’t know whether it’s a soil problem or the geothermal energy damaging the roots but I can somewhat tell that it’s well-drained soil.

After that, I started ascending the mountain.

「I’m probably already halfway there」

As I continued to walk, I heard a fearful cry coming from Wulf who was following behind so I tried to ask him what was wrong, but he just ran away. I didn’t know what the cause was but just as I was thinking that something was wrong, I was able to smell the scent of rotten eggs that got carried by the wind.

「Sulfur?」

While muttering that, I ran towards the direction where the wind was coming from.

It didn’t take that long for me to see steaming hot water gushing up and immediately trickling back down into the earth.

「This is a hot spring right? It is a hot spring, right!? It is, isn’t it!? 」

I started spouting nonsensical things like a certain general as I put my finger on the hot water. It’s pretty hot isn’t it……? 12

I wondered how deep does this soil was and how the bedrock looked so I decided to dig out the dirt using magic.

After digging 30 centimeters deep, hot water started gushing out.

Because of that, I immediately took action. From the source, I started making a waterway that would serve to cool the water down along the way. Once the water reaches a moderate temperature which I determined by touching it, I dug out a wide area with step increments, one where the water reaches waist height, one up to chest height, and one where the water reaches my shoulders. I should also decide where to put the drainage. Getting carried away, I cleared out the soil and flatten the bedrock with magic and started making the foundations of the area where the future dressing room will be.

That’s how a former j.a.panese person should be right!?

What about the drainage you say? Let’s just deal with that later! Now that the hot water has filled up, I’ll be taking first dibs!

I once again took off my clothes and entered the bath without even washing my body.

「Uhyo~」

I made a weird noise in my excitement.

「Uhaaa~」

After I thoroughly basked in my high spirits, I leaned against the bedrock with a towel resting on top of my head and slovenly relaxed with my mouth half-opened.

「Ah ah ahh~~~」

Those incomprehensible words were the sound of my soul getting healed.

For the time being, I should say “that” or this experience won’t be complete!

「Ah~, this is absolute heaven……」 13

As a former j.a.panese who just focuses on trivial details, I just have to say that this feels great!

I can no longer see the beach as you would expect since I’m already 40 kilometers inland but there’s a lake in the vicinity and I’m surrounded by the vast forest.

I don’t have the view of Mt. Fuji though!

I feel like this thing is quite luxurious but is that just because I was j.a.panese?

I can’t bring my wives and children to the island just yet considering our current circ.u.mstances but I wonder if it would be alright to bring them hereー?

For the time being, I tried to not think about what’s going to happen from now on and just enjoyed the hot water in this spring.

「Ah, I should try boiling an egg in that hot water next time.」

~Idle Talk~

The humans and an explosion at night.

『*Kaboom!!*』

That sound reverberated across the island in the middle of the night.

「What was that!? Did the mountain erupt!?」

「The mountain’s alright you know!?」

「Then what was that!?」

「How would I know!?」

「Isn’t it just Maou-sama doing something weird again? That demonkin does incomprehensible things from time to time after all」14

「「「Ahー」」」

「Alright everyone, let’s go back to sleepー」15

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