The pond, trapped between bumpy and green land, was clean even though it was surrounded by trees. The reflected sunlight shone on Roland's eyes, making him wince and squint.
But with the current situation, he couldn't even speak in awe. His throat was parched beyond belief. So, he didn't even begin to admire the pond or check for danger. He instead greedily bent down and began slurping water.
Five seconds later, he arose coughing, choking from the large intake of water. But as soon as his coughing halted, he plunged his face into the water once again, but this time he drank slowly, controlling his urges.
Finally hydrated, he got up and began to work for his survival. Realizing that he would have to set up a proper camp somewhere, he decided that this peaceful and graceful pond would be the one.
Even though the fact that there were no insects or leaves contaminating the pond scared him a little, he still decided that it would be best for his survival to stay next to this large source of water.
But in order to make the water drinkable, he knew that he would need to boil it for consumption next time — unless he wished to always have a stomachache.
With his head clearer than before, he began working. First, he needed to scavenge firewood — some nice, dry wood that would be able to burn well, allowing him to cook food.
After wandering for a while and gathering sticks, it was time to haul something larger, which would allow the fire to burn for longer. For this, he unfortunately had to use mana to push it into his muscles, making the logs move.
After he was done gathering wood, it was time to create a rope, a key survival tool, which he could use to make traps and start fires with. For rope, he first needed to gather plant fiber, then dry it in the sun and twist it together.
Summoning a sharp knife, he began doing just that. By the time he was done, the sun was close to setting. But he had created a vital tool in human development — a bow of sorts, which could be used to light a fire by taking a stick, twisting the string around it, holding the stick with a piece of carved wood lightly while pressing this stick into a groove on a larger piece of wood. He could create a lot of friction with little effort.
Even though he had solved the problem of fire and water, now he was lacking food. But it was okay for one day to not eat. He knew that he could survive without food for a while. And venturing during the night wasn't even something he was willing to consider. Not only would foraging food be difficult due to the lack of light, but he also wouldn't be able to spot nighttime horrors capable of gobbling him.
Yet he wasn't feeling tired — in fact, he had slept, or rather he had been knocked out, for too long. So, his body was still brimming with vigor.
So, he decided it was time to wash his clothes and disregard the ripped shirt. Conjuring a bucket, he took some water out of the pond and dipped his pants and underwear into it.
His socks and shoes had long been ripped, so he decided that walking barefoot wouldn't be the worst thing to do.
After dipping and straining his pants and undergarments a couple of times and sniffing them to make sure they no longer reeked of blood, Roland hung them on a nearby branch which he could reach and began to work on somewhere to sleep.
"Alright, now I gotta make myself an impregnable fortress that is better than even my quarters at the castle. Impregnable? Quarters? What am I, Shakespeare? A sturdy house better than my room at the castle. There — I'm speaking like a human again."
First, he built a wall and hardened the dirt by stacking it and splashing some water on it to convert it into mud, then kept adding more dirt and compacting it, making the wall able to stand on its own and even take a bit of impact. He did this four more times, making something resembling a square. Except the wall facing away from the large pond had a hole so that he could enter and exit.
Then he had to make a ceiling, so he made yet another wall with the same technique but rotated it 90 degrees and, using a lot of mana, made it levitate up and onto the four walls. Then he fell to the ground exhausted from mana use. It seemed that even though he had been training mana for nearly two years, his heart still couldn't contain too much mana, and his human nature was also holding him back from growing his mana too much.
He had also neglected to read more about mana practices, so he didn't know how to solve this problem.
"Well either way this is my best work yet. I'm so proud of this amazing... house? Yes house" I'm pretty sure not everything is going to be able to break it. But you know what let's abandon the mana problem for now since there's no point in dwelling on what I can't solve. Instead I really think I should work on what this toddler body of mine is capable of.
So first he lit a fire slightly away from his door so that a little heat could be collected in his house and so that smoke wouldn't enter his house, making him have carbon monoxide poisoning.
Entering his house, he thought:
I haven't showered yet, have I?
Sniffing his armpit, he jerked back and pinched his nose. The guy reeked probably the same as some abomination which had taken a shit and mixed it with its toe grease.
Still naked, he grabbed the bucket he had conjured up earlier and hauled some water out of the pond and just splashed it over himself. Repeated it once more. Then he began rubbing his body and hair furiously, trying to get all the grime off. Without shampoo or soap, it was hard. But after four to five more buckets, he felt clean enough.
Rushing over to the fire, he erected a seat and began drying off.
Wait, I'm stupid. Why didn't I put my clothes next to the fire? So what if they smell like smoke a little bit? At least I won't smell like rotting blood. And I will have pants to wear so that my glorious sword isn't so exposed.
Bringing his clothes over, he remembered what he was doing.
Wasn't I supposed to work out?