Now that my weapon was done and I had a clearer picture on how nature magic worked, I decided to use it again to make myself a nice settlement.
The day was coming to an end, so I didn't really have time to build a shack or anything like it. I didn't even know if the nights in this forest were cold or not, but I wasn't going to stay out in the open and find out.
I decided to use nature magic to carve a small opening for me at the bottom of the great redwood tree. I managed to move some of the giant roots away, then made a pocket cave right at the base of the trunk.
After that, I gathered some sticks and rocks, placed them in a circle close to the entrance of my pocket cave, and then lit them up with fire magic.
"This is actually quite nice…" I muttered as I enjoyed the peace of the forest at night and slowly fell asleep while watching the fire crackling.
The next day, I ended up carving even more space inside my tree cave. Not only that, but I had managed to use earth and nature magic to create a chair and a small table.
What started as a small pocket cave inside a tree was now a small room inside a tree. So, that was an upgrade.
Now, it was time to search for something to eat. With all my excitement on my first day, I had completely forgotten to look for anything that was edible.
I took "Phelena's Tutorial" with me and found a spell called "Search." It seemed to be a pretty high-level spell, saying it required the caster to have at least 5000 MP to be able to cast.
The explanation was strange, but it told me to focus my magical energy on all of my senses and then transmit the information to my brain.
Honestly, if I hadn't felt the magical power coursing through my body before, this would have all sounded crazy to me. But I still did as the book said.
"Search," I said to myself as I focused as hard as I could. After a few seconds, I could feel and see all of my surroundings, hundreds of meters away from me.
'Hmmm, I'm looking for something edible… Come on… Trees and more trees…' I thought as I looked around with the spell.
It actually took me a few minutes to locate something with the spell, but I managed to find two different kinds of berries and two different fruit trees.
I used my "Inspect" spell on the berries first. The first ones were called "Redberries", which as the name implied, were red, round, sweet, and sour. They tasted kind of like cherries but with a much smaller seed in the center.
The second berry was called "Greenberry," which looked exactly like redberries except they were green. At first, I thought they were just redberries that weren't ripe enough or something, but they turned out to be a completely different kind.
They were sweet but had a pretty strong bitter taste to them at the end. However, from what I could tell from the "Inspect" spell, greenberries were used mostly for medicinal potions since they had lots of healthy properties.
From the fruit trees, I also gathered two different kinds. The first one was a citrus fruit called "Lemen" that looked exactly like a lime. It was green on the outside, but when I peeled it, I noticed the inside looked orange. It tasted almost exactly like a lime, so it was pretty sour.
The second one looked exactly like an apple, tasted just like an apple… In fact, I'm pretty sure they were just apples. They were really good, sure, but still…
My "Inspect" spell said they were called "Monzos," but I couldn't bring myself to call them that.
For the time being, I was eating apples to satiate my hunger. Berries and fruits were good, but I needed something more sustainable.
However, even if I went hunting, I had no tools to either butcher or cook an animal. That's when I went back into the book to see if I could think of an alternative.
A few hours of reading later, I found an interesting chapter in the "Earth Magic" section. Earth magic didn't just control the earth in general. It could control all of the different elements in it as long as the caster was experienced enough.
With that, the lightbulb on top of my head lit up with an idea. If I could use magic to divide the iron in the soil and the rocks around me, I could probably model it into something.
I placed my hands on the ground and focused some magical power into it. For my first attempt, I wanted to make a bar of iron, not too big but not too small either. That way, I could see how much iron I could actually gather with my spell.
After a few seconds, I had gathered quite a little mountain of dust under my hands, so I inspected it.
<Iron Dust
Iron separated from the soil, can be used for smithing.>
"Alright… it's not an iron bar, but I think I know what I did wrong." It was the temperature. Of course, the iron wouldn't just turn itself into an iron bar if I was just using earth magic.
I placed my hands on the ground again and made the soil absorb the iron dust back.
This time, I applied fire magic at the same time I gathered the iron under the soil with my earth magic. I left a little hole open for the steam to escape, and then I used water magic to cool it down.
"It actually worked…" I said as I looked at the perfectly shiny and uniform iron bar in my hands.
The bar was about the size of my forearm, which wasn't exactly huge. I mean, I was 12, but it was still enough iron for me to make the tools I needed.
Now that I was able to make stuff made of iron, I made myself a hunting knife, a cooking pan, a cooking pot, and a grill.
I explored the forest again and used my "Search" spell to look for animals that I could hunt. Again, it took me a few minutes, but I was able to find a pretty big boar not too far from me.
After catching up to it, I jumped on top of a tree and used "Inspect" on the boar.
<Redback Boar
Rank D
Violent and destructive species, said to have lean and tasty meat.>
'There it is… I don't know what 'Rank D' means, but it says lean and tasty meat…' I thought.
I jumped down from the tree right as the boar was passing under me and gave it a whack in the head using my "bo" with all my strength, crushing his skull.
The boar seemed to die instantly, so I dragged it back to my little camp under the giant tree.
I was actually strong enough to carry it, but it was a problem since it was way bigger than me, so dragging it was the best option.
That night, I made my first official meal. After spending the rest of the day butchering the boar, I got to cook my own version of pork chops with redberry sauce.