Chapter 8

Alyusha's lines are intentionally written with many hiragana to convey a childish tone. They may be difficult to read, but please bear with it.

The morning of the fourth day.

After using the toilet and fetching water, I apparently had fallen asleep.

I had hidden myself in a depression on top of a rock and slept, but it was far too defenseless.

"Good morning, big sister!"

I was rudely awakened by Alyusha diving onto my stomach.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes and checked my surroundings.

I felt relieved to see that Alyusha had properly eaten the fish and drunk water for her midnight snack. Without an appetite, one's strength doesn't recover.

"Good morning, Alyusha. Could you please wake me up more gently in the morning?"

"But I'm already gentle!"

"Diving onto my stomach isn't gentle. It startled me."

"Anyway, what are we doing today? Are we going on a trip?"

"Not yet."

While calming the high-spirited Alyusha, I headed to the toilet.

Peering into the hole, I saw the slime I had secured yesterday sitting quietly.

Squatting over the hole, I could see the slime absorbing my waste.

"Hmm, this doesn't feel too good, does it?"

But this completes the toilet setup. I'll have to overlook the mental discomfort for now.

As I left the toilet, Alyusha went in next.

After a while, she came out with a surprised cry.

"Big sister, there's a slime! There's a slime!?"

"Yeah, it's there. I decided to have it work as a toilet."

"Eww, that's gross!"

With a frown and slumped shoulders, Alyusha expressed her disappointment and went back inside.

After a while, she came out with her usual pose, hands raised in victory.

"Big sister, it's amazing! It's sucking it all up!"

"Okay, okay, I get it. Let's wash our hands first."

"Oh, okay."

I had her wash her hands with the remaining water from the bottle and explained today's tasks.

First, we moved to the small room to make a water bag using the wolf's stomach. Once this is done, we can carry a decent amount of water.

Next, we tanned the skin to make clothes.

Especially my underwear. When I transferred, I wasn't wearing any, and the magic knight outfit didn't include underwear.

In other words, I'm still without underwear.

Wearing leather underwear might not be comfortable... but I can't be picky.

And there was one more thing I wanted to make before the water bag—

"So, Alyusha, I'll tan this fur, and you can wash the fur part, okay?"

"The fur part?"

"Yes, please."

We moved to the small room, and I took out a dagger to start skinning.

I carefully tanned the skin, removing the fat layer. While my dexterity isn't very high, it's still on par with a general front-liner.

I could handle the knife as I intended, so it took time, but the fur turned out much better than expected.

"Once the skin part is washed and the fat is removed, the fur will be complete."

"Wow, clap, clap, clap."

"Okay, Alyusha, wash the fur carefully. I'll do some other work here."

"Okay!"

The first thing to do was to make a rope.

I bundled a few tail hairs and twisted them to make a rope about thirty centimeters long.

After making a few, it seemed Alyusha had finished washing.

I cut a few bundles of fur from the tail and gave her the next instructions.

"Alright, use this rope to tie the fur together."

"Like this?"

Alyusha showed me her hair tied in twin tails.

Oh, a little girl with angel wings and twin tails... she's too cute!

"Y-Yes, like that. But a bit smaller, about the thickness of two fingers."

"Got it!"

Watching Alyusha diligently bundle the fur made me feel warm.

But I couldn't just admire her; I had to make my own.

I bundled a few hairs into a two-centimeter thick strand.

I burned one end of the bundle with the crown of the Holy Fire King and cooled it.

This should make the melted hair stick together and not easily come apart.

Next, I used the dagger to trim the unburned end.

The final product was a cylindrical shape, about two centimeters thick and five centimeters long.

I tied it again in the middle to prevent it from falling apart.

I made a few adjustments to Alyusha's as well.

"Big sister, what's this?"

"It's a simple toothbrush. Do you know it?"

"Know it! Usually, we use a chewed branch!"

"Right, I remember hearing that they used to chew branches to make toothbrushes."

But with that method, the fine thorns could get stuck in the gums and hurt.

Wolf fur is coarse and hard, making it perfect for a toothbrush.

"So, let's brush our teeth, Alyusha. A girl's teeth are her life!"

"Okay!"

The handle was short, making it a bit difficult to brush, but the sensation of the bristles on the teeth was not bad.

In fact, it felt better than modern toothbrushes.

After brushing, I tried to rinse my mouth and remembered something...

"Did you use that fountain to wash the fur? I don't feel like using that water to rinse my mouth..."

"Hmm? Then, just drink directly from the source."

Alyusha pointed to a statue by the wall.

Water was still spurting out from the suggestive tip.

"...I'd rather not put my mouth there."

"Big sister, you shouldn't be picky."

"No, it's not about liking or disliking it..."

While I hesitated, Alyusha hung from the protrusion and put her mouth to it.

The scene was... well, inappropriate.

"Here, big sister."

"I'll use the fountain's water—"

"No! We used it to wash our bodies and the fur. It's dirty."

"Ugh..."

I hesitantly reached out and took a sip.

Just one mouthful. I felt like I had lost something.

"Ahhh... Why do I have to go through this?"

I rinsed my mouth, tears welling up. Hey, this water tastes salty?

"It's just regular water?"

"No, it's the tears of my heart..."

"Hmm?"

Alyusha tilted her head at my incomprehensible words.

Anyway, I had to change my mindset... or rather, forget about it and move on to the next task.

I took out the wolf's stomach, which I had set aside from last night's disposal, and cleaned it. The contents were eaten by the slime.

I washed it thoroughly, applied the juice of specific herbs as directed by Alyusha, and washed it again.

Repeating this process would infuse it with antibacterial properties, disinfect it, and prevent decay.

Next, I tied the opening to prevent water from leaking out. Drying it would complete the water bag.

"We made five water bags. It's a shame some of the stomachs were ruptured."

"But they can hold a lot of water."

A wolf's stomach is stretchable. A goat's stomach can hold up to twenty liters of water.

A wolf's stomach should hold over five liters. With five, that's twenty-five liters.

"True, not bad. But I'd like more, maybe double... or more."

Storing them in the item inventory means I don't have to consider size.

Each inventory slot can hold up to thirty thousand items.

This is probably for storing consumables like arrows and bullets.

"So, are we going to fight in the dungeon more today?"

"No, we have a lot to do today. We need to dry the fur and the water bags, and turn the meat into jerky."

We went outside and hung the fur on the rock.

Next, we made jerky.

I cut the meat into appropriate sizes, rubbed it with herbs as directed by Alyusha, and hung it in a sunny spot.

I don't have knowledge of wild herbs, so I followed Alyusha's instructions. Without her, I couldn't survive.

We needed a lot of herbs for the bird meat from yesterday. Alyusha ran around the grassland to collect them.

While processing the meat, I cut the skin into long strips to make leather ropes. The toilet's wall was secured with woven grass ropes, but they lacked durability.

Leather ropes should be stronger, though they might rot in the rain. We can improve that later.

"Let's make a roof for the toilet. We need some boards."

"Okay!"

I took wooden pieces from the inventory and tied them with leather ropes.

I arranged the wooden pieces like a curtain and secured them to the top of the wall with leather ropes.

"Hmm, something feels off."

"What's off?"

"Well, leather ropes usually take a lot of time to make. But it feels like the process is completed instantly."

"Is that so? Craftsmen do it like this too. When they hammer iron, it turns into a sword."

The process of creating products by skipping steps feels game-like.

In Midgard's Online, alchemy was a skill that alchemists could use to create items.

But making leather ropes doesn't qualify as alchemy.

"Creating things is called 'alchemy,' I know that!"

"---Huh?"

Alchemy was indeed a skill in Midgard's Online, but only alchemists could use it. Making leather ropes doesn't count as alchemy.

"Could you explain that a bit more?"

"Well, unlike cooking, changing one thing into another is considered magic."

"Magic... so making jerky is—"

"That's cooking. Alchemy is the magic of creating tools and potions."

Creating tools and weapons is considered magic, while cooking isn't.

Is creating things through skill considered magic...?

"Magic also uses materials to produce effects, right? If we see materials as ingredients and effects as products, they're similar."

"Is that so?"

"But using skills without recognizing them is impossible in a game... or rather, we don't think about using skills for cooking, right? Hmm..."

Skipping the processing steps is impossible in reality. If it's magic, such steps shouldn't be necessary.

Since magic can be used, the physical laws here are different from reality... thinking too deeply about it might lead to a dead end.

"Big sister, you're saying something I don't understand?"

"Maybe this world has different physical laws from games and reality."

"Hmm?"

"Anyway, we need to put a roof on the toilet first. If it rains and the slime absorbs water, it could overflow and expand... "

"Ughhhhhh!?"

Imagining a giant slime overflowing from the toilet, Alyusha waved her hands and cried.

"We need to put a roof to prevent that."

"Quickly! Quickly!"

"Okay, okay."

I smiled and secured the curtain board as a roof.

To prevent rain from seeping through the gaps, I covered the roof with tanned skin.

This would protect against rain.

"Hmm..."

"What's wrong?"

"If we leave it like this, the skin might be blown away by the wind."

"Right."

To prevent the skin from being blown away by strong winds, I secured it with wooden pieces on all sides.

I left gaps in the walls for ventilation to prevent odors from building up.

Finally, the toilet was complete.

The explanation about alchemy is quite rough.

It's a setting to create a world that feels different from both games and reality.

I'll post another chapter tonight.