Chapter 5

First Comes Food (3)
Now then.

With this, all that remains is to invest some time, and the stone axe will be finished.

Marylia just has to find a well-shaped, sturdy stone, and after that, the job of grinding the stone can be entrusted to the golem. This alone will save a lot of time and effort.

With the time and energy saved by assigning tasks to the golem, Marylia immediately began her next task.

"Next, it's got to be the furnace."

… Yes, Marylia is finally starting pottery!

… However, just because she builds the furnace doesn't mean she can start making pottery right away.

The reason being, it takes a considerable amount of time to make the furnace out of clay.

The furnace is built by stacking clay layer by layer. But clay is soft until it dries. In other words, until the lower layers dry, the upper layers can't be stacked.

Therefore, building the furnace will take several days. Additionally, she has to wait until the furnace is completely dry before she can start firing anything.

Furthermore, just building the furnace doesn't mean it can be used. Fuel is necessary. And currently, the only way to get fuel is to gather deadwood.

Once the stone axe is completed, she can use it to cut wood for fuel, but freshly cut wood doesn't burn well. It needs to be properly dried.

Therefore, it will be quite a while before she can conduct large-scale pottery. In other words, roof tiles and bricks will come later.

However, she wants to fire things like terracotta golems and pottery. Considering future food procurement, she definitely wants at least one golem to carry supplies!

Thus, she will make a furnace! Marylia decided to spend several days building the furnace!

The material for the furnace is clay. And clay can be collected from small cliffs with traces of being eroded by the river. There were several clay pits near the water around the base.

"Let's have a meal after making the first layer. Whew~"

Feeling hungry, Marylia energetically started collecting clay, thinking, ”Well, let's start with the things that take time.”

She used her makeshift shovel to crack the clay layer using the principle of leverage and then broke the clay. She scooped up the broken clay with her hands, placed it in the basket she made last night, and carried it back to the base.

"I really want a pot for fetching water~"

Then, she dumped the collected clay next to the planned construction site for the furnace, and immediately started mixing water into it. However, the only tools available for transporting water were a small pot and a bottle. It's inefficient, but it can't be helped. This, too, is just a matter of enduring until the furnace is made and pottery is fired.

Marylia kneaded the clay, tried to remove as much gravel and roots as possible, and then shaped and stacked it.

"How's this?"

She shaped the clay according to the shape of the furnace drawn on the ground, and the first layer was completed for the time being. It would probably take about six or seven layers, but she had no choice but to be patient.

With that, Marylia washed her clay-covered hands at the riverside and immediately set out to procure food.

"… Nothing this time."

First, the pond. She checked the traps she had set in the morning for any fish, but there were none. It's unfortunate but can't be helped. Marylia reset the traps and went off to find the next food source.

Next, she headed to the berry bushes. There are always berries here, so at least her stomach will be somewhat satisfied.

After eating her fill of silverberries and raspberries, she picked some for dinner and put them in the basket. However, she can't rely on berries as her main food. The berry season isn't long. Eventually, she has to be able to manage meals with just fish and wild vegetables.

Having gained energy from the berries, Marylia headed to the beach. There are many things she wants to collect there.

"Hehe, there they are… so many shells."

Smiling, she gathered shells into a hemp sack. Shells can be used for various purposes. They can be burned to make mortar, used to polish the surface of pottery to make it less likely to crack, and eventually, they might be used when she starts ironworking.

"Driftwood is also important... it needs to be well-dried."

Next, she picked up driftwood. In the current situation where fuel is limited, she wanted to gather as much driftwood as possible. There isn't an endless supply of well-dried deadwood, although there is some.

"And... today's flotsam is... hmm, not much."

She also checked for flotsam but didn't find anything notable near the driftwood pile.

However, she did find a piece of glass, probably from a bottle, in a beautiful color, and picked it up.

The glass shard, worn smooth by the waves, had rounded edges and was in a charming shape. The semi-transparency typical of frosted glass was quite beautiful. Marylia thought, “Since I found it, I'll take it back,” and put it in the hemp sack.

Since this is an island life, she wants to find and enjoy things that can be considered entertainment, not just focus on survival. Humming a tune and cheering at the sight of beautiful shells, she picked them up and put them in the sack.

After carrying the driftwood, shells, and berry basket back to the base and putting them down, Marylia set out again to explore. She tried to explore as much as possible between the base and the beach to avoid encounters with monsters.

"I can never have too many vines."

Marylia collected tree vines.

She split the vines in half and used them as ropes. Ideally, she would soak them in water to soften them, break down the fibers by pounding or rotting them, and then spin and twist the fibers into ropes, but for now, she didn't have the luxury to do that.

For now, tree vines served as ropes and materials for baskets.

Marylia, who wanted to catch fish more efficiently, wanted another two or three fish traps. She decided to spend the rest of the day weaving baskets.

But before that, she checked the trap in the pond. She found two river shrimps, which she gratefully caught and decided to grill.

Grilling the shrimp directly over the campfire wasn't ideal. Shrimp covered in ash doesn't taste good. So, she picked up a relatively flat stone by the river, placed it in the campfire, and used it as a frying pan.

When the shrimp were placed on the well-heated stone, a delicious aroma wafted up.

"...Ideally, there would be about ten more of them."

Two small river shrimps were far from enough to satisfy her hunger. While waiting for the shrimp to cook, Marylia ate the berries she picked at noon, drank water, and managed to stave off her hunger.

It's really time to think seriously about food supply, or she will starve. The preserved food she brought when she was exiled to the island was still saved for emergencies.

"Should I catch fish in the sea tomorrow? Or look for other food? In any case, I want to catch something big soon..."

While thinking about such things, Marylia started eating the grilled river shrimp.

That day, Marylia made two more fish traps and set them in the pond. Hopefully, this would triple the chances of catching fish.

The next morning.

"Well then, how about today's fish?"

Marylia headed to the pond with excitement. Hoping to find something in the traps, she pulled up the three traps to check...

"… Yesterday's catch was better."

To her dismay, all three traps combined had only caught one river shrimp and a small fish about the size of her palm!

This was far from enough to satisfy her hunger. However, there wasn't enough food to satisfy her hunger all at once either. With a sigh, Marylia thought, “Maybe I should gather berries again and catch fish in the sea... but that means making a fishing hook first…” and considered.

Thinking further, “Then for the fishing line, I guess I'll have to use tree vines…” she remembered something.

"Oh, that reminds me..."

There was a larger, edible creature on this island.

"There's the Man-Eater, isn't there..."

Yes, something “big and edible” existed on this island.

"Let's hunt it down and eat it. Hehehe..."

Having decided, Marylia started planning on how to catch and cook the Man-Eater with a smile!