Chapter 6

Today, I came to the river. The mole trapping went well, and I immediately felt like trying to catch something new. It’s fish.

I’ve seen adults catch moles before, but I’ve never seen anyone catch fish. Maybe it’s too difficult for anyone to try, so people only come to the river to fetch water or bathe.

Perhaps those who catch fish don’t bring them to the village and eat them by themselves. That would be the best for one or two fish. However, I plan to catch about ten fish and have them added to the village’s soup.

I still haven’t gained enough trust, and the other refugees are cold to me. I want to gain a lot of trust here, so I’m thinking of letting everyone eat fish, which they rarely get to eat. If I do that, their cold attitude should improve a bit, right?

I’m going to start making a trap to catch fish right away. I plan to make two traps to catch a lot of fish.

The trap will be a stone enclosure to guide the fish inside. Of course, it will have a way to keep the fish from getting out.

“Ah!”

Oops, I have something to do before that. Hehe, I’m planning to catch some snacks at the same time today. They are river crabs that hide in the shadows of rocks and between stones in the water. However, it will take quite a bit of time to find and catch them.

So, I came up with a method. Right after leaving home, I lined a basket made of vines with leaves to fill the gaps. I collected earthworms along the way and stored them in the basket. These earthworms will also serve as bait for the fish, so I collected a lot of them, even though it was a bit disgusting.

I scattered the earthworms in the shallow water. The crabs should be attracted to the earthworms and come out from their hiding spots. This way, I can catch them without having to search, saving time while I’m making the fish traps.

I placed a marker stone where I scattered the earthworms and rolled up my pants to start building the trap. I entered the river with my shoes on and started building the enclosure with suitable stones. I used stones of various sizes to make the enclosure sturdy and filled the gaps between the stones to prevent it from collapsing.

Since a large number of stones were needed, the suitable stones around me quickly ran out. Ugh, my back hurts from bending over for so long. Maybe I should check on the crabs.

While building the enclosure, I became curious about the crabs and walked toward the marker. It’s been about 30 minutes since I started, so I hope they’ve come out. I’m a bit nervous.

“Let’s see… Ah, there they are!”

I found crabs crawling out of the gaps, attracted by the earthworms. I quickly went to the shore, took out some earthworms from the basket, and placed them on the gravel, then hurried back to the crabs.

“Hehe, got them. I caught some crabs.”

I put my hand into the river and caught the crabs from below. The crabs were moving their legs, trying to escape, which was kind of cute. But they are important food. I mercilessly threw them into the basket and looked for more crabs in the river. Thanks to the scattered earthworms, crabs were appearing all over. I moved quietly to avoid being noticed by the crabs, put my hand into the river quietly, and grabbed them quickly. After repeating this several times, I had six crabs in the basket.

“Alright, let’s finish the enclosure.”

I left the basket on the gravel and resumed building the enclosure. This time, I brought stones from a distance and placed them near the enclosure. After a while, I had a pile of stones, and I started building the enclosure.

I wanted to make it sturdy so it would last a long time. I built the base of the enclosure to be strong and raised the stones above the water level. After completing the work, I had a 1-meter diameter enclosure trap with a way to keep the fish from escaping.

“Aah, I’m tired.”

When I straightened my back, it made a cracking sound, which felt good. Stretching my tired arms felt even better. After stretching, I finally went to the shore and reached the basket.

The crabs in the basket were blowing bubbles, which was cute and a bit soothing. I carried the basket back to where I had scattered the earthworms.

“Wow, there they are!”

Looking closely, I saw crabs crawling out from all over. Great, this plan worked. I don’t know if there were many hidden crabs or if they came from a distance attracted by the earthworms, but I’m really happy.

I caught them one by one to prevent them from escaping, and the basket was soon full of crabs. I managed to catch 16 crabs in total. With this many, I can not only satisfy my hunger but maybe even have a full meal.

“Hehe, let’s take a break before making the other enclosure.”

I moved to the nearby forest, singing a little tune happily. There, I had a fire-starting kit and a single mushroom I found along the way.

“Alright, can I start a fire for the first time?”

I have some knowledge from watching TV and researching online in my previous life.

I placed two pieces of scrap wood from the village, a larger one at the bottom and a smaller one on top. I placed a straight, bark-stripped branch vertically on the smaller piece of wood. All I had to do was rotate the branch with both hands.

“Huff, apply force and rotate quickly… huff.”

I rotated the branch quickly. As I rotated, I pushed my hands down, enduring until the last moment, then moved my hands back up and rotated again. A high-pitched sound came from the friction, which felt very good.

Black wood dust started to overflow from the friction point, but it wasn’t yet a fire. I continued rotating many times until a red glow appeared. I couldn’t rest even if my arms got tired, as I needed to act quickly to avoid getting exhausted later.

Then, the black wood dust glowed red. I quickly threw the branch away and picked up some thin, long wood dust nearby. I carefully placed the black wood dust into the thin wood dust and blew on it slowly and steadily.

“Huff, huff, huff.”

I didn’t panic, carefully blowing to keep the fire from going out, feeling nervous.

Puff

“Wow, it caught!”

Suppressing my joy, I quickly placed the burning wood dust under the pre-arranged branches and blew on it again. Smoke rose, and the fire caught the branches, turning into a large flame. I successfully started the fire!

“Yay, it caught!”

I was so happy that I cheered. Maybe I have a talent for starting fires?