Chapter 66: Work by the Riverside

Though backlit, he immediately recognized the small figure.

“Yona…”

The one sprinkling water over the grass with her hand was his younger sister, Yona.

When Ren called out to her, she slowly turned around. The water flowing from her hand stopped.

Seeing the droplets on the grass sparkling in the evening sun, Ren smiled at her.

“So you can already use water magic.”

It hadn’t been long since the day of the “Blessing Ceremony,” when she was granted the “Water Magic” skill. Up until then, she had only trained in swordsmanship and hadn’t practiced magic at all, yet she was already able to use it—Ren found that impressive.

But Yona twisted her small mouth slightly and shook her head vigorously.

“I can only make water come out. That’s all.”

“Huh? What’s wrong with that? Making water is what water magic does, right?”

Ren tilted his head, confused. Yona shook her head again, even harder, her soft hair swaying wildly.

“That’s all it does!”

With her face scrunched up, she cried out and ran back into the house.

Watching her retreating figure, Ren’s brows lowered in concern.

“I think Water Magic is a perfectly good skill…”

It felt like Yona was troubled about her skill, but Ren didn’t know what to say to her.

The next morning, Ren visited the riverside.

He built a small fire with stones at a spot not too close to the water. Compared to last time, he managed to start the fire more quickly, though it still took some effort. He found himself hoping that using char cloth would make it easier.

He took out a small lidded pot meant for insect-repellent incense from his “small box” and stuffed it with pieces of cut hemp cloth.

“I wonder how much I should put in…”

The book hadn’t specified, so Ren kept pushing more cloth into the pot, wanting to make as much as possible in one go since he only had one container.

He gently placed the pot beside the burning branches and quickly pulled his hand back. As he added thin sticks, the fire gradually grew stronger.

After a while, thin white smoke began rising from a small gap in the chipped lid. It had a slightly sour smell.

“Is it working…?”

He leaned in to look, but the heat made him pull back immediately. As he continued watching, a burnt smell began to drift out. Eventually, the smoke stopped.

When he tried to take the pot off the fire, he suddenly realized—

“Huh? How am I supposed to take this out?”

He cautiously reached toward it, but of course, it was still too hot.

He picked up a longer stick and slid it between the fire and the pot, carefully pushing the pot away from the flames.

“…It says to ‘let it cool without exposing it to air,’ but… how do I do that? Is this okay?”

Looking at the notes he had copied from the book, he tilted his head. For now, he placed the pot inside his “small box,” imagining removing the air from inside.

Curious about whether the contents had properly turned into char cloth, he kept watching for a while. When he touched the outside of the box, it felt warm—probably still too hot to handle.

Giving up for the moment, Ren sat down a short distance away, staring at the pot and the crackling fire nearby.

The sand around the fire looked hot too.

Before taking them to the Adventurers’ Guild, he had kept some feathers aside, and now he took one out.

“…If the fire’s still burning, the feather might burn up…”

The book had mentioned “after the campfire,” so maybe he needed to extinguish it. But pouring water on it might cool the sand too much.

Gripping the stick he had used earlier, Ren slowly pushed one of the burning branches.

Crackle

Sparks flew, making him flinch and pull back. Still, he tried again, nudging the burning branch until it rolled slightly.

“Ah—maybe I can use the ‘small box’?”

It occurred to him that he might be able to move the fire itself using the box.

He quickly took out a larger “small box” wide enough to cover it.

Whoosh

“Whoa!”

When he placed the box over the fire, it shrank rapidly, causing him to hurriedly move it aside and drop a burning branch a short distance away.

Sizzle

The sand there must have been damp, and he worried the fire might go out completely. But when he gently placed some loosened hemp fibers onto the burning part of the branch, the flame caught again, producing smoke.

“Ah… that scared me…”

Relieved, he managed to restore the fire.

The sand where the original fire had been seemed to retain a reddish heat. He poked at it lightly with the stick and held his hand near it.

“I wonder how hot it needs to be…”

He picked up a blue feather from a Swiftwind bird, then reconsidered and switched to a feather from the three-eyed eagle instead.

“Alright, I’ll test it with this first.”

He stuck several three-eyed eagle feathers into the sand—some in shallow spots, some deeper, and some in untouched areas.

After admiring the row of feathers sticking out of the sand, he turned his attention back to the lidded pot making the char cloth. When he brought his hand close, it still felt hot.

“Looks like it’ll take a while…”

Muttering that, he stood up and turned toward the river.