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[A week later]
–?--
He happily hummed to a tune he could remember from his previous life, sipping on water that he collected from the lake, inside a stone bottle type shape he built using explosions as a way to carve out his preferred shape.
The fire in front of him crackled as he rotated the fish he caught, once again, using explosions. He had no spices to speak of, since the lake was a freshwater lake, but after prolonged periods of hunger? Even unseasoned and slightly burnt fish tasted like the best meal he had ever had.
That cave that he found a little distance away from the lake? The one with the very small entrance? Yeah, that was a godsend for him right now. He had used explosions, tempered down to their lowest setting, just to widen the entrance and once he'd done that, oh boy, he had stumbled upon something that he was currently sitting in.
His current dwelling. It was more than large enough to house him on the inside and had a hole of entry so small that most predators would not be able to cross through. Hell, even he had to shimmy through the hole, facing outside obviously. Who knows who might be just waiting to take a bite out of his ass once his eyes are on the inside of the cave.
His gaze went to the shirt that was being dried using the stones he kept outside to absorb the heat during the day, so that it could be used as a dryer during the night. So far, he had never once allowed himself to be naked, to be out of reach of his greatest protection. He washed both the shirt and the pants every day, but in cycles.
The shirt would be washed, and dried with the heat stones, and once the shirt was back on, he would do the same with the pants. It was…paranoia, yes, but it is not paranoia if they truly are out to get you. Doubly so, when you didn't know who was out to get you.
Absentmindedly, he waved the large leaf he found nearby, having enchanted it with enhanced durability[mild], moving the smoke towards the direction of the hole. Organic matter was just not strong enough to get anything beyond a mild level enchantment. Even then, this leaf would be gone once he woke up, having withered into nothingness because of the strain of the energy coursing through it, just like all the others.
He had read somewhere in his previous life that smoke would be a sign of fire, and presumably human activity, so people could come and check on you if they saw fire in an obviously remote forest area. Well, they were wrong. He had been constantly sending smoke out of that hole for the past week now and nothing.
Nada. Zilch.
As the days went by, so did his hope for rescue anymore. He had resigned himself to figuring out a way out of here, but still held some hope that someone would come since this was the seventh day now.
In his mind, once this day was gone, he would earnestly begin preparing to just live out here for years to come, waiting for his body to grow up, his magic to grow up, before venturing out. So far, he had not met any of the predators here, aside from those wolves but he would be foolish not to prepare before doing something as stupid as adventure.
He had magic so he knew he would encounter people and animals with magic as well. And he knew quite well that sometimes monsters came in human form, far more cruel and dangerous than actual animals.
He heard a slight popping sound, one after the other, as the pebbles were all out of their absorbed thermal energy. Sighing, he walked over and checked the shirt, to see that it had all dried out.
Putting it on, he activated the Self Clean enchantment just to be sure and put it on. Sure, it could self clean and very effectively at that, but it just gave him the ick to wear something for long periods of time without washing it.
He went back over to the fire, and without thinking, began chewing on the fish. It was okay, but it was sustenance for him in this forest, which was more than enough.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, he would begin building a home for himself. He had not done anything serious to the interior of this cave, since it would just be temporary for him but now that help was not coming, he might as well make it cozy enough for him.
His brain had been swimming with ideas on how to use enchantments in the most ridiculous of ways. His mind would just take a look at an enchantment and all of a sudden, he would get this overwhelming urge to just enchant. It was also related to his stress levels, because for the past week, he had his basic needs met, so he had been enchanting very little, aside from the heating pebbles, the water gathering and the exploding ones ready, primed like landmines near the point of entry.
To his credit, he had figured out a way to have the forcefield projected by his clothing to be used as the authorization to deactivate the bomb pebbles, without even having to actively do anything. It was awesome. The first few times, he flinched but now? Now he just walked on top of them without any worry.
Ironically. Exploding rocks, those were the best things that he had made until now.
With that done, he threw the fish bones outside the cave, cleared the smoke inside the cave, checked on the explosive pebbles, primed to explode, and, using his force field as a hard pillow, went to sleep.
___xx___
[The Next Day]
He woke up with a yawn, his position facing the hole in the cave directly as sunlight landed on his face. Getting up, he rubbed his face and got ready to venture out of the cave.
Today, he would start treating this seriously, like the matter of life and death that it rightfully was.
He crawled out of the hole in the wall, counted the explosive pebbles he had, and went on his merry way to the lake, to fill in water, then clean his clothes, and to fish as well. There were multiple holes in the icy surface of the lake but since he had no fishing rod here, he could not fish the normal way.
Nope, exploding pebbles was the requirement for that.
On the way here, he had already put the biggest rock he could find out in the open, so it could absorb as much heat as it could, allowing him a much larger heat battery than mere pebbles, hopefully something that would last him days at a time.
….
…
Once he had secured the fish, washed the pants, and collected drinking water, he walked back to his cave, a question lingering heavily on his mind.
At first, he thought it was the shock, the trauma of being taken from a well-off civilised life and dropped in a forest with little to no support. Also, can't forget the fact that he was in the body of someone with a single-digit age number.
But over the course of the week, he realised something that only seemed to increase the horror he was feeling.
He couldn't remember.
He couldn't remember his name, how he looked, who his friends were, or who his parents were. Nothing. He could barely remember blurry faces now. Even that felt like wading through sand in order to recall.
That was also one of the reasons why he never kept his clothes off for a long period of time, since they had the Calm Mind enchantment on them, stopping him from freaking out. If he allowed himself to think in that direction for a long time, he might just break down from the anger and sadness he felt over his situation.
BUT Mama didn't raise no quitters, even though he didn't even know her name or remember her face anymore.
Washing his face over the small hole he had carved in the icy lake, he looked at his reflection in the water. A child stared back at him. Brown eyes. Brunette hair. Baby fat. All of the works.
He should really figure out a name for himself. Not just because it would be very unhealthy to not have an identity in terms of his overall mental health, but also because in most magical systems he remembered, names were a very integral part of how magic worked. True Names, for example, could actually be used to great effect, depending on the school of magic being used.
Also, he wanted something he could use to name his home that he was going to build for himself.
Shaking his head, he dragged the fish back to the cave, the rock bottle of water in one hand. Speaking of which, he had discovered that he now had enhanced strength. Even in a body this small, he could effortlessly lift stones twice the size of his body, without much strain. To be sure, he tried that without the force field active and got the same result.
Small mercies, he supposed. In exchange for dropping him in an unknown forest with very little in terms of resources, enhanced strength was something that could be genuinely helpful.
It was odd. Now that he knew that no one was coming and he actually had the resources to build himself a nice little space, he was actually excited.
The Time I was reincarnated in A Forest with no company, allowing me to build my base without any issues.