Time passed.
“Yu-kun, listen!” Suddenly, Kitagawa Marin tilted her head and perked up her ears.
“Does that sound like…
running water?”
Yu immediately held his breath and listened.
Beneath the rustling leaves, he could indeed hear the faint rush of flowing water carried on the wind from the southeast.
“A river?” Yu perked up.
In the wilderness, a stable water source was a lifeline.
It also meant there would likely be more resources and opportunities nearby.
“Come on.
Let us check it out.”
They immediately followed the sound.
After crossing a muddy depression and pushing through one final wall of thick bushes, the view suddenly opened before them.
A narrow river, roughly three or four meters wide, wound between the trees.
The water was clear enough to reveal smooth pebbles and aquatic plants swaying beneath the surface.
Its gentle current sparkled beneath the sunlight, producing a pleasant murmur.
“It is a river!
There really is a river!”
Marin cheered and hurried to the bank.
She cautiously dipped a finger into the water to test its temperature.
It was cool, but not painfully cold.
She happily removed her shoes and socks, then tentatively lowered her delicate bare feet into the clear water.
“Wow!
This feels amazing!”
The cool water washed over her soles, bringing a wave of relief that made Marin narrow her eyes in pleasure.
Yu did not enter the water immediately.
He remained on the bank and surveyed the river and its surroundings.
With the Eye of Omniscience, a new area label and several pieces of resource information appeared before him.
[Clear Stream]
[Description: A small river with a stable flow and acceptable water quality.
It is an important water source and may contain fish and other aquatic resources.]
He then noticed several smooth rocks along the bank that had been polished by the current.
[Stone (Common)]
What truly caught his attention was a muddy hollow near the water’s edge, where a more detailed label appeared.
[Moist Clay Deposit (Small)]
[Description: Can be excavated to obtain Clay (Common), a basic material used to produce pottery, bricks, roof tiles, and other items.]
[Note: This is a depletable Resource Node.
Yu immediately recognized it as the third type of resource he had encountered.
After surviving his first day on the Wilderness Continent, he had developed a basic understanding of how its resources worked.
Trees such as Oak Trees did not appear to regenerate after being felled, making them finite resources.
Wild vegetables in the Grassland could be harvested again after a night, meaning they were renewable.
The Moist Clay Deposit belonged to a third category: conditionally renewable resources.
Yu did not begin digging for Clay.
He wanted to survey the entire area first.
He turned his attention toward the river.
The water was clear, offering excellent visibility.
Before long, he spotted several silver-gray shadows weaving between the pebbles and aquatic plants.
One palm-sized fish with a long, flat body showed little fear of the humans on the bank.
It leisurely swam toward the shallows near Yu.
[Silver-Scaled Fish (LV.1)]
[Description: A common small freshwater fish with tender, delicious flesh.
It possesses average vigilance and moves relatively slowly.]
[HP: 5/5]
[Attack: 0]
[Defense: 1]
‘Fish!’
Yu’s heart skipped a beat.
He instantly froze and even softened his breathing, afraid of startling the nearby source of protein.
His gaze remained fixed on the approaching Silver-Scaled Fish as his mind swiftly calculated the timing.
With a thought, he opened his personal status panel.
He reset every attribute to zero, then poured every available point into Dexterity.
[Dexterity: 11 → 40!]
A strange feeling of lightness swept through his body.
His reflexes seemed to accelerate several times over, while his coordination and precision reached an almost unbelievable level.
Even his ability to track moving objects appeared to improve.
The world seemed to slow ever so slightly before his eyes.
‘Now is my chance!’
The Silver-Scaled Fish appeared to notice something.
It flicked its tail and began turning away.
Yu was faster.
His hand became a blur as it plunged into the river. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Before the splash could fully rise, his fingers had already closed around the fish’s gills.
With a twist of his wrist, Yu lifted the struggling fish from the water, sending sparkling droplets scattering through the air.
Still crouching, he proudly held up the gleaming Silver-Scaled Fish.
“Marin, look what I caught.”
“A fish!”
Marin rushed over in delight, staring wide-eyed at the lively fish in his hand.
She did not even bother drying her feet.
She ran barefoot out of the water, spraying droplets everywhere as she crowded beside Yu with shining eyes.
“It really is a fish!
Yu-kun, you are amazing!
How did you catch it?”
“It was just luck.
It swam right up to me.”
Yu spoke casually, but the slight curve of his lips betrayed how pleased he was.
He carried the fish onto the riverbank and used the back of his axe to scrape a small pit into the soft sand.
After scooping some river water into the pit and forming a temporary pool, he carefully placed the Silver-Scaled Fish inside.
The frightened fish began swimming in circles within the shallow pool.
For the moment, it was safe.
“One is not enough.
We need to catch several more.”
Yu flexed his wrist, enjoying the extraordinary control granted by forty points of Dexterity.
He turned back toward the clear river and began searching for another target.
He moved quietly along the bank, inspecting every gap between the rocks and every patch of aquatic plants where fish might hide.
With forty points of Dexterity, his ability to track movement and wait for the perfect opportunity far surpassed his usual limits.
Before long, he spotted a slightly larger Silver-Scaled Fish.
Just as he prepared to strike again, something dark green caught the corner of his eye.
The object was half-buried beneath pebbles and silt near the riverbank.
Only a small curved edge remained exposed, reflecting the sunlight with a metallic gleam that looked completely out of place.
Yu stopped.
He temporarily abandoned the fish and carefully stepped across the slippery pebbles toward the strange object.
Using his foot, he brushed aside the silt and aquatic plants covering it, revealing more of its surface.
It was a chest roughly the size of a desk.
Its entire surface was dark green, covered in ancient patterns and mottled patches of copper rust.
Under the Eye of Omniscience, a clear label appeared above it.
[Bronze Treasure Chest]
…