"Ah… maybe I can use the fire of the campfire… but do I have to touch it?"

Leon wondered why he didn"t think that sooner. Regardless, he probably didn"t have to burn himself. The fire itself was just a combination of oxygen, heat, and fuel. So just approaching enough the flames and feeling the temperature should be enough to learn it, and just like Leon expected, it was true.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Fire Manipulation.

You obtained 01 status points.

It was complicated to manipulate fire since wind and fire were just gases with different properties that couldn"t take a definite shape. Earth was the easiest to manipulate since one could see and feel clearly. Regardless, Leon would have a lot of time to master those. Besides, even though it was the hardest, he didn"t truly have to manipulate fire. He could just use a torch and put it near the object he wanted to give shape.

"I have to train to use both at the same time, as well. I will have to a.n.a.lyze how much earth and water I will have to mix… perhaps it would be easier to create earth itself instead of just manipulating, that way I could give the shape I want without using the other elements. However, I have no idea how to do that…"

Leon learned how to transfer mana by chance, and thanks to that, he learned how to control some elements of nature, but he had no idea how to make his mana turn into something visible like earth. Based on the things he learned in chemistry cla.s.ses, every type of thing had different compositions. If he had memories of those compositions, he perhaps could transform his mana into some element… then again, he had no idea how to change the structure of his mana.

"Well, considering that everything that happened so far has connections with game elements, perhaps when my Earth Manipulation reaches level one hundred, I will obtain the knowledge of how to create earth itself… probably."

One could only dream since it was for free, but Leon couldn"t imagine the knowledge just popping inside of his head. While Leon was thinking about things, he created a sphere, and while his mana was keeping that shape, he approached a torch to harden it. When the minute ended, the sphere didn"t disintegrate, so Leon picked it up. He used half of his current mana to create a mud ball of the size of a marble. It was a small achievement, but it was progress nonetheless.

"The shape isn"t all that good, but… oh, well. Maybe I should try a new shape and create a bed. It will be better than wake up dirt with sand…"

It would be a good practice, so Leon made a mental note to improve his shelter by combining earth and water manipulation. His mana and recovery were increasing at a steady pace, so eventually, that would be possible.

The next morning, Leon woke up feeling hungry. He was recovering his average weight quite fast, but it looked like his diet was missing proteins. He woke up wis.h.i.+ng to eat some meat.

"Meat, huh? Almost one week has pa.s.sed since I came to this island… I guess it is time to hunt."

Bananas and coconuts were great, but Leon also needed proteins to return back to normal and to improve his body. Monsters lived nearby now, and there was no telling when the new monsters aside from those weird fish would come.

"Those things are as ugly as h.e.l.l, but their meat doesn"t look that bad… it should be edible. Hopefully, if they are not, I will obtain the poison resistance skill… if I don"t die, that is."

Leon had plenty of arrows, and his accuracy got a little better. Besides, those fish weren"t so far away. The chances of Leon killing them with a single arrow were quite high. The creatures were clearly visible in the shallow water, so he didn"t waste much time aiming. Leon shot and hit the first fish, but the arrow didn"t penetrate the fish body. In fact, Leon didn"t even make the creature bleed.

"d.a.m.n… those things are st.u.r.dier than they look."

Bow and arrows with his current skills wouldn"t help Leon to eat fish. However, he wouldn"t give up after the first try. While using Earth Manipulation and Strong Arms, Leon created a hole in the foresh.o.r.e. Fortunately, the tide on that island wasn"t strong and didn"t move all that much, so that hole would stay there for quite a while. His skills helped Leon quite a lot, but he stopped several times to rest.

"I guess I won"t find any wreckage of that plane… my luck is terrible."

Leon still didn"t find a single piece of the airplane after several days, so it was time to give up and keep acting without hoping for a magnificent tool to appear suddenly.

At noon, Leon finally finished the hole, now the just needed to make a pa.s.sage to the ocean and his fish trap could be used. Fortunately, it looked like only that would be enough. Even without being seen, the closer Leon got to them, the more agitated those fish became. One of them even jumped from the ocean and fell on the sand before Leon could even finish the pa.s.sage. Even after several minutes of struggling, the monster didn"t look like it was about to die… they were fish but could survive outside of water.

"… I must bring a big rock before I finish this."