Day 2

I was awoken by the warm rays of the sun flashing his light on my face. Making me shield it with my arms.

The cicadas are singing as they announce that it is indeed spring.

The fragrance of the grass that I smelt as I shifted my head sideways was pleasant.

Yes, it was indeed spring.

Huh-?

‘Grass? Spring? Am I not in Tokyo just now?

Where the hell?’

Is what I thought but when I tried to scratch my ears, I was dumfounded. It became longer than normal. I touched it a numerous times and pinch it, yeah it’s real. It’s my own ears.

Shocked by the sudden change on my body, I panicked and tried to find a mirror or anything that has the ability to reflect my image. But there was none in the vicinity.

But, I can hear a noise that coming from gush of water streaming ferociously.

Following the noise, I found myself in front of a small lake with a wide and high falls.

I quickly run and turned to face the water surface to find my face and hair changed a little and with my height left unchanged or it became more shorter? being still short like an average eighth grader, barely reaching five feet.

My face became more childlike as if it reverted to my appearance back when I was just about to enter my elementary days. Originally, my face was already a baby face and was subjected to being the class plushie or mascot though I don’t hate it.

More or less I became more youthful.

My eyes still had the sharp gaze I inherited from my father whenever I got serious. Though, my iris was already changed from the normal brown into that of light emerald.

My normally long hair easily reaching the sole of my ankle even though it was braided and tied into a ponytail has now changed from the normal raven colored hair into a gold-platinum hair.

Aside from the appearance including my new attire which was a kin to a farmer’s guise or a carpenter’s work clothes different my casual clothes that I wore to tour Akiba, it seems nothing else changed.

Sighing in relief that there is nothing else, I turned myself to face another problem.

It was, ‘how the heck did I come here? More importantly, where is this place?’, questions.

I believe this is not the Japan that I have lived my whole life in.

It was due to the different feeling I got in the ecosystem. It screamed the word ‘Danger’.

The whole thing started to scare me, no living person is around. I can hear rustling of leaves everywhere every once in a while. And the fact that I don’t have a clue what just happened and where I am, escalated my fear even further.

Scared and tired, I sat down beside the river bend.

I tried to suppress all of it by using the technique my father thought me to use whenever I was feeling uncertain of something or conflicted or scared.

I crossed my legs, both hands on my thigh, both eyes gently closed and then I started to breathe in air slowly and released everything out of my mouth with a shout.

I repeated this for quite some more until I finally chased I way the fear that clouded my heart to push forward and my mind to think rationally.

With that, I looked for something that can help me defend myself in case danger approaches.

First, I searched my body.

I found out that a set of tools was just hanging right at my left waist – small wooden mallet, chisel, carving knife, small hand axe and a small leather pouch containing metal coins.

‘Great, I can make a weapon from wood with this tools! But what should I make?~ A wooden long sword perhaps? Right, A long sword and a short sword is perfect! Just like the samurais in the Sengoku period’

Confident of my skills as a son of a woodworker and a model hobbyist, I searched for some tree to be cut into a timber and process into a working wood.

What I stumbled upon was a thin rosewood like three with a purple bark.

The diameter was just perfect for my hand axe to handle so I started right away chopping the tree showing my skill in handling wood related things.

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After some thirty minutes, the tree creaked as it fell into the ground.

I don’t have that much stamina to start with even though I gave it my all in trying to raising it well. It was even better now though since I can now exert myself to do hard work for ten minutes max and seven to nine minutes minimum compared to the past where I can’t even last for seven minutes.

Regardless to say, I suck at physically strenuous activities that my PE marks are just only a nil before the failing grade.

I rested for some fifteen minutes before I returned to work.

I then examined the tree to find the best part and estimated the length of the swords.

Done with the estimation, I started to carefully cut the portion I was going to use from the tree.

I extracted it after four fifteen minute breaks to catch my breath.

The sun was already at its peak when I finally extracted the timber. Thus~ I have finally felt my stomachs anger as it howls of hunger.

So I went back to the bush I saw earlier that giving off the fragrance of sweet citrus smell. They are small red and round berries.

I harvest half of it and start eating.

Surprisingly, it was delicious!

< You have acquired a basket worth of Very Berries >

The taste was somewhat a mix of guava, pineapple, and orange.

The berries were able to sate my hunger after I almost finished the other remaining half left on the bush.

< You have eaten two basket worth of Very Berries, Hunger Level increased from 10% to 80% >

Then, I went back to the falls and drank some water.

< You have drank some water, Thirst Level increased from 25% to 100% >

‘… hmmm? What was that just now? Anyway, nevermind…’

Heaving a sigh, I then thought that it will be inevitable to camp here tonight with the pace of my work.

“Urggh! It can’t be helped! Not that I can roam freely without a weapon in this forest anyway!”

I yelled as I turned to the direction where I left the wood for the wooden swords.

Slowly, I hauled the wood back to the fall together with the leftovers after a couple of trips.

Surprisingly, the wood was a fine grained. It was hard and it’s surprisingly flexible.

Discovering that, I thought that bows made from this wood will be extraordinarily strong and hard to pull.

‘I think, I’ll make some later after I finished the swords.’

Estimating the brightness of the sun, it appears it was already approaching three o’clock in the afternoon.

The day was almost over and the weapon has yet to be finished.

‘If only I have more stamina this could have been dealt with faster.’ Is what I thought since I have been getting a lot of breaks.

Setting the project to a halt, I began to prepare for the night.

Leaving me a good three hours, I started to gather an amount of firewood that can last throughout the night, some dried leaves to easily start a fire and some decently size stones to place around the fire.

I was done before sunset and has already lit the fire with a little bit of patiently rubbing a stick, which I carved and smoothed, with a dried bark.

I purposely made it big so that when the dark finally came, the place is still well illuminated.

Aside from the main fire, I also placed another four small fire forming a square with the main fire at the center that should hopefully give me enough light to proceed on my work.

Secured with fire, I started munching some more berries as my dinner.

The wind was cold but thanks to the fires I built, I can comfortably sleep later.

I worked on the weapon just until I finally carved out the perfect piece of wood for the two weapon. After that, I finally took the freedom to sleep.