Chapter 12: Chapter 12: a fishy breakfast

I ended up laying in the bed for a while after I stopped hearing the elf running away. She did a good job getting me a decent bed, it’s even more comfortable than the couch. I wonder if that couch wasn’t actually that comfortable, and it’s just that this body is more comfortable in general.

The bed is quite nice, with a soft mattress and slightly worn red bedding. It’s more than big enough for me, though it doesn’t appear to be particularly large.

Anyway, I should get moving before I fall asleep, since I don’t want a surprise party waiting when I wake up. Instead of getting out of bed, I decided to stand up in it and just put it in my inventory so that I land standing on the ground. 

While I loot the corpses for their valuables, namely weapons and jewelry, I contemplate on which direction to travel. In the end, I just decide to follow the fifth direction since it points somewhere between north and east. The specific direction is not all that important at the moment, since I just need to get away from this general area.

Traveling through a forest is not that difficult when you are not carrying anything, and with a high performance body like mine, I can cover great distances. It just feels nice to run in the short grass and weave around the trees, so I probably kept on running farther than necessary.

Sometime after midday I encounter a moderately sized river and I take the opportunity to refill some of the bottles Danievil gave me. Instead of continuing north east, I follow the river further north, occasionally jumping from one side of the river to the other, just for the thrill of it.

Just running around and exploring nature has been really enjoyable, and when I finally reached a lake, the sun had nearly set. Following the edge of the lake eastwards, I encounter a decently sized clearing, which I decide is going to be my bedroom for the night.

I bring out my bed not too far from the lakeside, and plop myself down onto it and relax while watching the view of the lake in the twilight while the stars make their presence known. As the insects swirl around across the surface, some fishes tries their luck and jump at them, some succeeding, others not.

I didn’t plan on sleeping early, but the combination of a quiet area, comfortable bed and being abruptly awakened this morning, causes me to fall asleep pretty quickly.

 

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You know those mornings where you just feel good? Yeah, this is one of those mornings. Waking up in a soft bed, staring at the poofy white clouds reflected in the calm lake, with the sun just about peeking out. Honestly I didn’t get out of bed until I was hungry.

I’ve only eaten meat so far, at least in this body, and I could easily eat some more deer, but seeing as there are the fish jumping in the lake, some change would be nice.

But how to get them? Should I swim out and get them? Would they be stunned by my ever present electrical aura? Or should I just be lazy and send a bolt out and collect them?

Do I even know how to swim? I mean, I could as a human, but my tail will probably make it harder. Either way, I don’t think I’ll be able to catch up to the fish, so attacking first it is.

Standing next to the water, I charge up an attack and wait for the right moment. Soon enough, a fish jumps after an insect, and I strike. A flash of lightning, a thunderclap and a surprisingly small splash and my breakfast floats lazily on top of the water among a surprisingly large number of its equally lazy brethren.

Now to collect them. Stepping into the water wasn’t that pleasant. Lowering the rest of my body into the water was less pleasant, and something tells me that submerging my head is a bad idea, so I’m just not going to do that.

Swimming isn’t that difficult and has remained mostly the same in this body with surprisingly little drag from my tail. I swim the twenty or so meters up to my breakfast and put away the six fishes into my inventory.

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Getting out of the lake is what finally made me regret my decision. Wet fur isn’t enjoyable, especially not a soaked tail. Sure it’s not truly awful, but I’m not going to willingly enter the lake again.

So how do I dry myself? Shaking did a bit, but not enough. The constant sparkles aren't visible now that I’m wet, but I can feel them still going, boiling a small amount of water. I guess I’ll dry faster than otherwise, so I guess I’ll just sit down and channel my inner lightning bolt to evaporate the rest.

While waiting for my fur to dry, I start my breakfast with one of the fishes. I don’t recognize the type, but not that I know a lot about fishes anyway. Biting into it, I find that it tastes better than the deer and finish it, bone and all in short order. Not really having my fill from the relatively small fish, I eat another, but cooking it this time. The fish were either a species that taste different, or cooking it ruins the flavor. Still finished it though, as it was edible.

So, what to do for the rest of the day? I could craft something, I guess. Not really feeling it though, I’m just feeling way too content, so I just relax for the moment and enjoy the morning sun while I lay on the grass. You thought I would lie back in bed? Me too, but my soggy tail tells me otherwise.

After a bit, I take out some of the copper and pour some mana into it, molding it with my hands without any real purpose. Maybe I should make a fishing rod? Then I can eat tasty fish without getting wet. But how? A branch to use as the rod is easy enough to find, and a hook can be fashioned from some of the copper in my hand, but how to make the line? I have the fabric from the first elf I killed and the bowstring, but neither of those are easily usable.

I could make a metal wire, and then I could channel some electricity into it as well. That sounds like a good idea, but how do I make a wire from a metal? Is it just drawn into long strands and braided together, or is there more to it?

I try for a bit with the copper in my hands and find that it just breaks every time I try to draw it out. Pouring more mana into it and shaping it with just magic works better, at least after I started using the mana to reinforce it as well as shaping it.

After fiddling some more, and taking out more copper, I end up with three three meter long strands of copper. They seem to hold the mana even after I stop working on them.

I slap myself as I realize that I just enchanted them to not break. I totally forgot that was a possibility. Anyways, I then proceed to braid the pieces together, ending with a metal braid. It doesn’t look quite like the metal wires I remember, but good enough for now.

Satisfied for now, I finish off by making a barbed hook from copper and meld it on to one of the ends before going into the forest to look for a suitable branch. It doesn’t take long to find a suitable branch which I sever from the tree with the help of my claws.

When I get back to my camp, I trim the branch of anything excess, like the leaves and end up with a pretty straight branch, that’s almost as long as the copper wire.

Seeing as I can mold metal with my mana, can I do it with wood? I try, and yes, I can. The branch becomes even straighter, but the bark gets deformed around the area where it was previously bent. To satisfy my inner designer, I then proceed to straighten the bark as well, which turns out to be a fair bit more difficult.

After that, I enchant it as well, though I can’t tell how good the result is. I then finished it by attaching the wire to the rod and waving it around to get a feel for it.

The wire is too short, and can’t be rolled up, but the result is pretty good for an improvised rod. I’ll hold off on testing it for now, so I put it away in my inventory.

That whole endeavor distracted me long enough for my fur to completely dry, so I jump back into my new bed, aiming for a noon nap.