After my confrontation with the wolves and almost losing my life, my mind was flooded with thoughts, and I wasn't in the mood for hunting. Since I had worked too hard in the last few days, I decided it would be good to take a day off to rest.
Even if I say rest, it was not as if I intended to spend the day lying around doing nothing. I intended to use this opportunity to make soap.
While soap would not be a difficult product to make, there is an essential ingredient to its making, caustic soda. For obvious reasons, there is no way I could go to a store and just buy it here. Of course, if there were a store around here, I could simply buy the soap already made.
Luckily, due to me spending a lot of time with my grandparents, I learned many things and making soap using ashes was one of them.
I had helped my grandmother a few times, but since it had been a long time, I don't remember the measurements clearly. Fortunately, since the ingredients are easy to get, I can go wrong a few times.
The ingredients are simple things like water, ashes, and oil. Although I don't have oil, I can replace it with boar lard.
Since I had this in mind for quite some time, I had been gathering the ashes of the fires I made in my inventory.
With everything prepared, the process was simple, I just needed to prepare a giant coffee strainer.
Cutting three wooden stakes about my height, I tied the ends of them together to form a tripod. Then I took one of the large clay pots I had made and positioned the pot at the bottom, between the three legs of the tripod. Using one of my shirts from the sets I received from Shadow-san, I knotted the sleeves and the collar and attached it to the top of the tripod.
With the strainer prepared, I put a bunch of ash in it, then added water and all that was left was to wait for it to slowly drain into the pot.
Since the process of draining the water would take some time, I went to skinning the animals stored in my inventory. More specifically, the rabbits that I kept.
"Looking at it now, it's a considerable amount..."
I muttered as my mind wandered to the contents of the inventory.
Although I felt lazy just looking at the quantity, this was something I had to do sooner or later. Without further ado, I got my hands dirty.
Since I didn't want to attract unwanted animal attention, I had moved away from the cave. Like the meat, I was also keeping the innards in inventory. Later, I intended to look for a way to get rid of the waste.
While skinning, I would pause from time to time to change the ash and put more water in to let it drain.
Well, the way I was straining it was different from the way Grandma did it, but I believe the end result will be the same.
The rabbits were not the only ones that needed my attention, I also took the time to search the heads of the goblins for magic stones.
***
Although it took all morning, I managed to gather about 5 liters of water of ash.
Right after preparing our lunch, I put the pot on the fire and let it boil.
My intention was to reduce the amount to about one fifth of what it was now. The purpose of this is to make the most important component for making soap more concentrated.
Well, actually, I don't really remember about the chemical reaction that takes place, but it's how my grandma always did it, so it must be a necessary step.
One point I would like to make is that although the color of the ash water resembled coffee that I like so much, unfortunately, the smell and taste was purely of wet ash. That was a curiosity of mine that I satiated as a child.
As I periodically stocked the fire with wood, it took about two hours to reduce to the point I wanted.
In that time I was not idle, I took the opportunity to prepare long wooden molds to put the soap in when it was ready. With the help of my sword, it was a fairly simple process.
Since the concentrated ash water needed to be at room temperature, I let it cool down and went back to skinning the animals in my inventory.
As I did that, my knowledge of goblins grew more and more. In Rin's case, although I had been continuously feeding her meat since this morning and her belly was about to explode, she always had room for more.
***
After the ash water had cooled down, it was time to enter the final steps.
I took about three liters of melted boar lard, added it to the pot, and started mixing it all together with a wooden spoon.
Being completely honest, although I'm saying the measurements, it's all by eye, since I have no way of getting the exact measurements.
As an instant reaction, the almost reddish-black color changed to a gray-like-brown color.
To add a special touch to the mixture, I added some chopped leaves that rabbits like to eat. Although it was not as fragrant as mint, it still exuded a pleasant aroma.
The hard part started now, the liquid had to be mixed continuously for about forty minutes. Unfortunately, since I didn't have a mixer or a large blender, it had to be done by hand.
I don't know exactly how long it took, but when it reached the necessary consistency, it wasn't long before the sun went down.
In a hurry to eat dinner, I poured all the viscous, dense liquid into the two long molds I had prepared.
***
The next morning, the first thing I did was to look at the soap, but it still had a pasty consistency. Although it hadn't hardened yet, I already considered it a success.
Given my realization and the fact that I wasn't really up for hunting again today, I decided to take another day off. Obviously, it would not be without doing anything, I intended to make more clay pots to suit my needs and skin more animals that were in my inventory.
In this way, I spent the whole day doing manual work. Although I was slow at first, after I got into the habit, my work speed increased considerably.
Later in the afternoon, when I went to look at the soap, although it wasn't stiff, it was already manageable. So I unmolded it and cut it into small cubes, which would help it dry faster.
Even though it was my intention to make a lot of soap, the end result was more than I expected. It's probably about four or five kilos.
Due to my anxiety, I didn't want to wait until the soap was completely dry before testing it. With a small grayish-brown cube in hand, I dragged Rin against her will to the river and gave her a good bath.
If I may say so, I am proud of myself.
The soap was a complete success, besides the abundant lather, it was able to clean well. Of course, considering that due to the dirt embedded in Rin's skin, it took four baths in a row.
But what I consider the biggest achievement was the fact that the pleasant smell of the chopped leaves was incorporated into the soap.
After Rin's bath, I took mine and although I wanted to give Kurama a bath as well, he didn't seem to need it.
***
The next day, after giving Rin a morning bath, since I wasn't in the mood to hunt again, I took another day off from hunting. Making good use of my time, I tried to make some utensils out of wood, things like ladles, spatulas and the like.
Although the time off I was taking was not bad, I ended up falling into a routine where I kept postponing my hunts and with that, two weeks passed quickly.
As an excuse, I would like to say that because I almost died, it weighed on my mind, and I was taking time to recover, so I didn't go hunting.
But if I said that, I would be lying.
Honestly, I was afraid.
The farthest I got from the cave was to get more fruit that I had further along the river bank.
I believe that anyone in my position would feel the same way.
Obviously, given my situation, I didn't stay for nothing during that time.
Considering that magic exists and I can feel it flowing inside me, that means it is possible to learn it. If I could, it would be a great addition to my battle ability.
During those two weeks, I spent most of the time trying to manipulate the magic in my body. Since Shadow-san hadn't given me any knowledge, I had to put what I had learned from anime and manga to the test.
In the first week, despite my efforts, I saw no results, but in the second week, the time finally came. Using all my willpower and imagination, I managed to gather a tiny amount of magic in my hand.
Although this was already an achievement, it was far from enough for me.
Unlike what I expected, the magic I gathered was not on the surface of my hand as I expected, but inside it. When I say it was a tiny amount, I mean far beyond that. It was something really tiny, I believe it was not even a hundredth part of what is inside me.
During the last week, I have tried to gather a larger amount of mana and externalize it.
In the process, I found that the larger the amount, the harder it was to manipulate. Whenever it went beyond a certain limit, it dissipated. Since this was the case, I focused on getting the magic out of my body first, and only afterwards would I try to increase the amount I could control.
Despite the frustration of not being able to improve as fast as I had hoped, I constantly tried to go further and finally achieved this a day ago.
Unfortunately, the magic didn't come out the way I wanted it to.
Facing the cruel reality, my happiness did not last even a second.
The moment I thought I had succeeded, that's when the magic exploded inside my hand.
Although it was not a severe wound, it was enough to leave a small hole about half a centimeter across the palm of my hand. Since it hurt like hell, I took the opportunity to see how effective the potion was on myself.
After applying some to the wound, I felt my hand go numb and the potion made my hand return to what it was before, as if nothing had happened.
Despite having something so miraculous in my hands, the trauma was enough to make me decide to stop my training magic. That is, at least until I get a way where I can learn safely.
If with a tiny amount it was enough to make a little hole in my hand, what would happen with a larger amount? I might even lose my hand. Although I know that the potion recovers lost limbs, I don't want to test its effectiveness on me.
The time I spent not hunting was also useful in a way. I was able to confirm that even without getting XP from animals and monsters, I can still reduce the amount needed for the next level with training. Unfortunately, for the amount that has increased, it would be a very time-consuming process.
As I looked at my hand that had been injured, I began to think about what to do next.
While I was at it, Rin came over to rub her bald head on me.
As the days went by, she gained a little more body mass and was no longer as skinny as before. Even her skin was no longer as rough and with the two daily baths that I made her take, she lost any traces of bad odor.
Despite this, she still remains frightening when seen in the dark.
Rin had not been the only one to gain weight, Kurama had also gained a little, but kept a good shape, since he was constantly out hunting rabbits.
Putting my hand on Rin's bald head, I came to a conclusion.
"I need to get out of here."
Although it is the opposite of my original intention to leave only when I am very strong, staying here is very dangerous. I don't have the proper means to learn magic, nor do I know anything about the surroundings.
Staying would be too inconvenient, so the best option at the moment is to look for a city.
With my knowledge gained from the survival programs, I knew that if I followed the riverbanks, the chances of me finding a town were greater.
However, this is not the Earth. You never know what I might encounter if I go wandering around carelessly.
With that said, even if I wanted to leave, the safest option at the moment was to stay here and get strong so that I could get out safely.
Even though I am afraid of what might happen, if I keep putting off the hunts, it could end up becoming an even bigger trauma.
With this in mind, I got ready to leave very early the next day.
It's time to go back to hunting.