kscans

Chapter 6 - The Starting Point

The next morning, under a clear sky, Yuri stepped outside and decided on his goal for the day.

He knew he should hurry to secure a food source, but security came first. This was, after all, "a village where residents were driven out by monsters and wild beasts." It was a certainty that dangerous monsters and beasts inhabited the surroundings. If he did not prepare for them, he could not guarantee his own safety. Therefore, his plan for the day was twofold. First, to review and begin reconstructing the defenses of his home, and if possible, the entire village. Second, to look around the village to see if anything useful remained for that purpose.

...As mentioned before, at this time, Yuri was under a small but decisive misunderstanding.

The source of it was a single sentence in the god’s letter: "...I have given you additional abilities that are minimally necessary to survive there..."

The letter was written by a god, and therefore its contents were written from a god’s perspective and by its standards... but Yuri had read the sentence literally and misunderstood his own abilities to be "minimal." The previous inhabitants had lived in this dangerous land for years. They must have been stronger than him. Yet, dangerous monsters had driven even them to retreat... For a "minimal" being like himself to survive alone in this place, heavy defenses were absolutely essential...

His line of reasoning was not wrong, but unfortunately, the premise it was based on was flawed. The god had given Yuri enough power to be "fine even when fighting such dangerous monsters and beasts," but Yuri, who was so cautious as to be cowardly, was planning everything under the assumption that he "could not possibly stand up to such a monster alone." The conclusion was inevitably going to be skewed.

Incidentally, the area around the abandoned village was indeed inhabited by some of the most dangerous monsters and beasts in the country. And the god had indeed given Yuri enough power to be "fine even when fighting such dangerous monsters and beasts."

A reincarnator with an absurd level of power was about to construct the village’s defenses based on the senses and standards of a modern Japanese person, all while being unaware of his own abilities.

The abandoned village had apparently been surrounded by a wooden fence, but it was now broken.

"In light novels, they use earth magic to build walls..."

The village was quite large, so surrounding the entire area with a new wall would take time. A cheat protagonist from a light novel would probably use their overflowing magic power to build it all at once... but unfortunately, he had only received "minimal" power... or so Yuri believed. In reality, he had been given well over twice the magic power of an average magician, but Yuri, who did not know the average values of this world, did not even consider it. It was something he could have easily found out by opening the help file in his Status Board skill... but the god’s considerate letter had backfired here.

As a temporary measure, he surrounded only the area around his house, an area that included the well and the toilet, not just the single building, with a sturdy earthen wall. For now, he made it three meters high and about fifty centimeters thick. He carefully hardened the wall, creating a stone wall that would not budge from a few light taps. He made a door in the same way, so it could be barred from the inside.

"I guess I’ve made the bare minimum preparations..."

Though it looked like even a grizzly bear could not break it with a body slam.

"I’ll build the wall around the whole village bit by bit later."

"As I thought, there’s nothing decent left..."

He rummaged through the houses in the village, looking for materials to make weapons, but anything of value had been taken when the villagers left, and there was almost nothing usable. If there had been at least a pole, he could have tied his billhook knife to it to make a makeshift spear... but lamenting would not change anything. There were no bladed tools left, not even broken ones. He had hoped for at least some old nails... but it seemed iron nails themselves were hardly used. There was a risk of damaging the houses if he tried to pull them out forcefully, so he decided against collecting them. Still, he found some torn old pots, which he could probably repair or reforge using earth magic.

Speaking of earth magic, in light novels and the like, it was often treated as an invincible skill alongside alchemy, but contrary to his expectations, he could not extract metals from the earth. At the time, Yuri could not tell if this was how it was supposed to be or if his skill level was too low, but the truth lay somewhere in between. The earth magic of the Forea World was fundamentally poor at separating elements from compounds, though it could remove mixtures. For example, it could gather iron oxide or iron compounds from iron-rich red soil, but it could not reduce them to iron. That was the domain of alchemy or blacksmithing. Of course, if one mastered earth magic, it might become possible, but it remained an unsuitable method. On the other hand, earth magic could shape already refined iron. However, it seemed it could not do things like mixing carbon into iron to forge it into steel.

However... in truth, the unique skill Rural Life Guide that Yuri had received was a collection of various useful techniques, and it integrated the basics of skills like Blacksmithing, Alchemy, and Pharmacology. So, if the level of this skill increased, the things he had just been pondering would not be impossible... but for now, Yuri had no way of knowing that.

Therefore, after trying various things, the weapon Yuri settled on was...

"For now, I guess I’ll have to rely on a club made with earth magic... I’ve sharpened the tip, so I think it can be used like a spear... but I don’t know how strong it is..."

In reality, it was more than enough to handle any common beast, but for Yuri, who firmly believed his power was "minimal," it was little more than a comfort.