Ugh. I think I might become vegetarian. I’d never eaten much meat before, seeing as how expensive it was, but I’d relished the opportunity when afforded the chance. Having to skin the bodies, clean the carcasses, bury the entrails, and butcher the raw meat itself, though?

Not a fan.

It was also somewhat awkward using Kiria’s chakram as a knife. Sure, it had a blade, but it was still basically a circle with a grip.

I sighed. A lot had happened over the past day, and I was surprised it was still only the early afternoon, judging from the sun’s position high in the sky. It felt as though Kiria had left hours ago. My movements by this point had become rote, freeing my mind to ponder my recent actions.

The first was that I’d been wholly unprepared to explore this island. Despite my harrowing experience in the ocean, I don’t think the realities of my situation had truly sunk in yet. To be honest, half of me still expected to wake up in the hospital after a severe bout of hallucinations.

Two skills I’d had for less than a day and a sling I’d picked up a couple hours ago were not enough to make me combat ready. Only training and experience could help with that. Hell, even if I’d had a sword, I probably would’ve just impaled myself on it after one swing. Just learning how to shoot a basketball didn’t prepare you to play the game.

My flight through the jungle also surprised me with how tired I’d become. They’d only been chasing me for twenty, thirty minutes before I tired. Admittedly, my stamina building had primarily been with wheels on (relatively) smooth, paved concrete, but it was concerning how much navigating uneven terrain affected me. I wouldn’t find any roads here; the only pathways would be animal trails.

And while it was probably just fatigue, I could almost swear my body felt heavier.

I shook my head as I finished disassembling the last rat. It wasn’t perfect, or even proficient. The bones would need to be cleaned further before being used for something, if the people here used bones. I couldn’t tell what level of technological advancement they were because of the strange dichotomy I’d already encountered.

The people in the camp lived in yurts, but they were far more elaborate than tents. They even had doors, which meant they should be past Earth’s equivalent hunter-gatherer society. Yet, the people here hunted and gathered, and I hadn’t seen any sign of fields. If they were trying to settle here and found a village, weren’t crop fields a necessity?

As for their metallurgical knowledge, Kiria’s chakram was strong but light. A type of steel, perhaps? But that was the only instance of metal I’d seen so far, barring the boat’s anchor. The spear from before had been purely of wood tapered to a point. The axe wielded by the young guard was made of stone, and the sling from the tailor’s shop was woven from fibers.

Did they not have a blacksmith or did they not have the resources?

One thing that was clear to me was that these were no simple colonists. Their camp had been sparse, and the fence surrounding it was only rope. That could hardly repel wild animals or monsters on its own, unless there was something about it I was missing.

Which, considering the fact that magic existed in this world, could very well be so. But it still looked flimsy and spoke to the lack of resources these people had. Then there was the fact that I had seen several races of people straight out of a fantasy film, but no other humans. Add in the boy, Rozhe’s, aggressive greeting the situation became clearer.

These were refugees. And they were fleeing an army either predominantly or completely composed of humans.

No wonder the chief was wary of me. I didn’t know how far the mainland was, but if they were hidden here, then they could interpret my presence as some advanced scouting party. But in that case, wouldn’t it make more sense to confine me to the village so I couldn’t report back to my would-be superiors?

I was missing something. Some critical piece of information that would help me piece together this puzzle.

In the grand scheme of things, though, did I even have to? Sure, I was curious, but I would find out soon enough. Assuming I found this Oracle, which with Kiria’s help may be a lot easier than I thought, maybe then I could get some answers. Not only on what was going on, but on how I had arrived in this world to begin with.

And what a world this is, I marveled as I picked up a claw from the pile I had separated them into. It was heavier than its small size would indicate, measuring about two inches with a visible curve to it. The back end of it had connected to what seemed to be the knuckle of the rat’s outermost digit.

How was it possible for a biological animal to grow a body part consisting of metal? While I knew that all living beings required metals like iron for something, it wasn’t in amounts this large, and usually those metals never manifested themselves. Unless you had too much and got sick or something.

The only thing I could think of was “magical shenanigans.” But then, animals weren’t supposed to have mana in any appreciable amounts. Fluke mutation, then? One that got passed on and spread through natural selection? Or did monsters not give birth to new monsters, but to weaker animal forms of themselves?

There was a lot I wanted to know about, but before I could sit down and contemplate them, I probably needed to address the stack of raw meat I was trying not to think too much about. I considered starting a fire to grill the meat over, but I was hesitant to try doing something I had little to no knowledge or experience in when an expert was on her way back.

It’d be nice if I had a fridge or cooler or something to preserve the—

Oh. Right.

I stepped over to the meat, reached out with my mana, and pulled the energy into myself with [Heat Transfer]. I could sense that I wasn’t affecting the entire stack at once, so I focused on cooling the largest portion in the center where most of the energy was concentrated.

My body warmed as the skill ran its course. This wasn’t going to work. With a 1:3 transfer ratio, I would overheat before cooling the food to a meaningful degree. Unless…I could swap the efficiency so that for every joule of energy I absorbed, three joules were removed from the target. If the skill could go both ways, surely its conversion ratio could too, right?

I focused on the feeling of mana within me, willing it to reverse its usual process. I could feel its natural inclination to augment the flow of heat into a higher energy density. In the back of my mind, the impression of a nozzle formed. The flow of heat remained the same on either end, but its diminished area increased the velocity of the flow and resulted in greater kinetic energy. In a real nozzle, this additional energy would come from the pressure driving the fluid flow. Here, the flow of heat was driven by mana, and so long as I could continue supplying it, the skill would continue to function.

But I didn’t want to increase the influx of heat. I wanted to decrease it. To diffuse it. I held onto the faint mental image of the nozzle and imagined it rotating one hundred and eighty degrees. Now flipped, the small side would capture the flow and the large side would disperse it. The larger area would slow the speed of the flow, while the overall volumetric flow rate remained the same. In a real diffuser, that is.

Now, I pictured the heat traveling not directly to me, but around me. The mana dispersed the energy that came, absorbing some for itself and redirecting what it couldn’t use. I was practically wasting energy, depositing the heat into the surrounding area. But that was exactly what I wanted.

Sweat beaded on my skin as it attempted to cool itself, but right as my body temperature was feeling uncomfortably hot, the skill modification worked. The flow of heat instantly dropped by a factor of nine, changing from 1:3 to 3:1.

Skill Advanced: Mana Manipulation Lv. 2 → Lv. 3

Mana Manipulation Lv. 3 — Channel mana to modify a skill cast by the user.

Success! I switched the target of my skill to the ground to sink off the excess heat I’d absorbed in that experiment, then cooled the pile of meat. I didn’t need to freeze it or anything, just get it cold to the touch to slow down the spread of any bacteria and preserve even a modicum of whatever taste may exist.

That chore complete, and with no sign of Kiria, I returned my attention to the pile of metallic claws. I briefly wondered if I should be worried that she’d been gone for a few hours already, but maybe it just felt longer. And besides, if anyone could take care of themselves in this jungle, it was someone with an actual combat class who had both stealth and fighting skills. Not to mention that I was pretty sure she had fun with that sort of stuff.

I certainly couldn’t say I enjoyed fighting the rats, but the concept of metal claws was fascinating to me. The cleanup was unpleasant, but the harvest was plenty. Overall, I’d collected a good deal of iron. Five digits per paw and four paws for each of the six rats yielded one hundred and twenty iron claws in total.

Could I possibly make something out of this? With my [Heat Transfer] skill, I should be able to get the iron up to its melting point fairly easily. Metals like iron were extremely thermally conductive and required less energy to increase their temperature.

The problem was that I wouldn’t have any way to controllably manipulate the shape afterward. Even with my ability to cool my hands, I didn’t really want to touch molten iron. Burning my hands earlier had been a last resort and, honestly, rather foolish.

Smelting the iron down completely was out, lacking a forge and any smithing knowledge whatsoever. But I didn’t really need to change the shape of the claws too much for what I had in mind. Each individual claw was curved and somewhat small, but if I could straighten one out and combine it with another, it would be a perfect pointed dart, like an extended arrowhead.

I dug into the ground at a spot with less grass and plants, creating a groove just large enough to fit two of the claws, one atop the other. The earth should be resistant to heat, and I wasn’t directly affecting it anyhow. I grabbed a third claw to use as a prod and invoked [Heat Transfer] to move energy from myself to the bottom claw.

The flow of mana was the smoothest I’d felt yet. The iron claw felt almost hungry, eagerly accepting the offered energy. Within a minute, the iron glowed a faint red, and I could see the surface soften. I switched my target to the top claw, which by this point had also heated due to direct contact with the bottom claw.

When it glowed, I switched back to the bottom claw and gave it more energy to return it to equilibrium with the second, and used the claw in my hands to try and push them together. I had to limit the duration of contact with the third claw and actively keep it cool so the heat wouldn’t travel through it into my hand.

It didn’t work at first, but the ground hadn’t caught fire yet, so I figured it was safe to continue. I continued donating heat to the first two iron claws and taking it from the third. After a few cycles of transferring energy between myself and each of the three targets in sequence, the top claw sank into the bottom one.

Quickly, I used the third claw to smooth out the surface and straighten it out. It wouldn’t be perfect, but that was okay. It just needed to be roughly symmetrical and have a hole in the back to string the rope through. Using the tip of the claw, I cut out a loop of sufficient thickness that I didn’t think it would just snap off. Then I tapered the iron out into a pointed isosceles triangle. Or something vaguely resembling one, at least.

When complete, or as complete as I thought I could manage, I pulled the heat back out to cool it instantly. I didn’t know much about quenching metals, but I did remember that you shouldn’t let it cool naturally because of defects or contaminants or something.

I retrieved the dart from the hardened dirt and examined it. On the bottom side, there were obvious patterns left over from the ground and the soil. The top side featured obvious marks where I’d run the third claw over it to try to straighten it out. The whole dart was misshapen, but workable, I hoped.

“Wow, that was incredible!” a voice suddenly exclaimed above me. I jumped, startled at the sudden sound, and looked up to find Kiria watching from a short distance. She smiled abashedly and said, “Sorry for scaring you.”

“No, it’s fine,” I shook my head. “I should’ve been paying attention. When did you get back?”

“Just a few minutes ago,” Kiria said. “About when you started shaping the metal. Is that for this?” She held up the bundle of rope in her hands.

“Yes, thank you,” I smiled and accepted the rope. It was a few feet long, felt strong, and was smooth to the touch. “This is perfect. Did you have any trouble getting it?”

Kiria shook her head. “Nope! It was pretty easy, actually. Gerik, the tailor, was preparing a bunch of short ropes for some reason. I just snagged one when he wasn’t looking. He probably won’t even notice and will just think he miscounted.”

“We should try to get these skins to him later if we can,” I said. “I met him earlier, and he said he could tan leather if he had the materials.”

“Ooh, yeah, that’s a good idea,” Kiria nodded and approached the disassembled rats. “Hey, not bad. I remembered on the way there that you probably wouldn’t have done this before, but these aren’t in horrible condition. There are better ways to skin the beasts to avoid damaging them, and you want to try to preserve the tendons so they can be used for crafting. I see you cooled them down with your magic, too. It would still be better to thoroughly bleed them, but this should work in the meantime. Good work!”

“Thanks,” I said, relieved that I hadn’t botched it up entirely. “You’ll have to show me how to better prepare those later.” Best-case scenario was that I wouldn’t have to do this again, but chances were I was going to be fighting animals or monsters in the future. It would be to everyone’s benefit to prepare myself for that eventuality.

“Sure” Kiria nodded. “Next time, though. I’m really curious what you’re making. I’ve never seen a melee weapon made of rope before. Well, unless you count a whip, but this isn’t one of those, right?”

“No, I’m not sure what this would be called,” I told her as I looped one end of the rope through the opening of the dart and tied it up in a knot. A couple of quick pulls confirmed it wouldn’t instantly come loose or snap apart while swinging it. It felt secure. “I think I’ll call it a rope dart.”

“And how does it work?” Kiria asked, bobbing up and down on her toes, leaning slightly forward. “Can I see it?”

“We’ll find out,” I smiled wryly, hoping I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself. The rope was longer than I’d expected at around ten feet, so I looped it a few times around my forearm and began to circle the rest in place, much like the sling.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered. I used [Throw] to propel the dart forward in a straight line ahead of me. The iron blade shot forward, pulling the rope through the air. Fortunately, it seemed [Throw] still activated so long as the dart traveled with its own momentum. The line pulled taut, and I yanked it back, the rope constricting my arm. It was harder to retract the dart without the advantage of the skill. The iron point fell into a swing before reaching my hand, so I reeled it back in. “Hm. The force of the throw was like the sling, but it took longer to retract than I’d hoped.”

“Try using both hands,” Kiria said. I looked over and noticed her sharp eyes fixed on my hands. Her tail no longer swayed; she was still. “Hold one end of the rope in your off-hand and swing the dart with your dominant hand. Guide the rope without releasing either hand.”

The shift in tone surprised me, but I shifted my grip on the rope dart to comply. It reminded me of her seriousness when we first met. This was no longer me just experimenting with an idea. This was training.

I began swinging the dart again, a length of rope connecting my left and right hands. My mind came up with several ideas on how to continue the maneuver after flinging the dart forward. I couldn’t just pull it back and catch it — that would be too slow. Instead, I needed to keep it in motion.

Once ready, I set my feet into a more balanced stance and throw the dart forward with astonishing speed. I let the rope pull my hands together to give the dart more range. When the rope fully extended, I snapped it back and pulled back my left hand while holding my right arm out before me. The dart gradually fell, but this time I resumed circling the dart in the opposite direction; an underhand swing as opposed to the initial overhand swing.

“Can you throw it behind you?” Kiria asked.

Still in my “backward” rotation, I nodded and flung the dart out in the opposite direction, twisting my hips so I could feed the length of rope with my left hand and retract it immediately after. This time, I resumed circling the dart “forward.”

“Interesting,” Kiria muttered. “So this rope dart of yours is compatible with your [Throw] skill, hm? How quickly can you aim? Can you control its direction?”

“Um, I’m not quite sure,” I said, eyes widening. That was a lot to figure out at once. I was pretty much happy with this already. I basically had a sling where I wouldn’t lose ammo, though the range was limited to the ten feet the rope could extend. I wondered how I might go about figuring out how to obtain finer control over the makeshift weapon. Perhaps I could—

“You think too much,” Kiria declared, and an orb of water about the size of a basketball coalesced in her hand. “This is [Waterball], a Tier 1 [Water Mage] skill. It’ll disperse when pierced or slashed.” A flick of her wrist sent it into the air above her. She grinned, revealing her sharp teeth. “Don’t get wet!”

Oh no. The ball of water reached the apex of its ascent, paused for a moment, then plunged straight toward me.

I loosened my grip on the rope the moment the dart was aligned with the water, sending it into the air and grazing the side of the orb. It was enough. The [Waterball] popped like a bubble and dispersed into a fine mist that sprayed my face. I sighed in relief, letting the dart drop to the ground.

My celebration was premature. “Don’t relax yet, we’re just getting started!” Kiria said, creating a second ball, and then a third. Both rose above her shoulders, and I started circling the rope dart again.

The two orbs shot forward. I tried to swing the rope dart leftward, but it wouldn’t move over quickly enough. I leaned out of the way and dodged one of them, the second splashing on my shoulder. “Ah!” I winced at the touch of the freezing water.

“Again!” Kiria called out, conjuring another pair of [Waterballs]. “Think about how the dart moves. You’re not holding it directly — you can’t swing it like a sword or a spear. To redirect the dart, you need to redirect the rope. Don’t forget they’re a pair!”

I nodded and resumed circling the rope dart. Throwing the dart in a single direction was easy enough, but it was too slow to retract. I couldn’t just switch to a sideways swing because there would be a delay in the dart’s precession. Rotating my “forward” direction would likewise be too slow since the dart would want to continue its current revolution.

Kiria sent the first [Waterball] toward me, then turned and threw the second from behind her back with a flourish. I shot the dart forward and punctured the first ball. As the water dispersed, I stepped forward and raised my elbow to the outstretched rope and pivoted as I retracted the dart with my anchor hand. The rope pressed against my bent forearm, locking in place. From there, I spun, yanking my arm inward and sending the shortened rope dart into a lateral swing that sliced through the liquid orb. The two halves floated apart and turned to mist.

“That was amazing!” Kiria exclaimed with a leap.

I panted, similarly astonished. I couldn’t believe that just worked. This would need a lot more practice, but maybe I could turn this into a proper weapon after all. And I had to admit: it was pretty fun to use.

“Thanks for your help,” I said, bowing my head. “Would you be willing to continue? I have a couple more ideas I’d like to try.”

Kiria grinned. “Gladly! Don’t think I’ll go easy on you, though. My mom always says fighting’s the one thing I’m good at!”

I blinked. She said that so…happily? I decided not to think too much about it and brought my rope dart into its downward revolution. “I’ll do my best, so show me what you’ve got.”

“You asked for it,” Kiria said. She conjured a [Waterball] above her forehead, then two more at her shoulders, and another three below them to create the vertices of a hexagon.

A chill ran through my body, either a remnant of the first ball or a premonition of my immediate future. My smiled wavered. Too late to take it back now, not that I would want to. This was how I’d stay alive.

The six balls of water shot toward me in a sequence. I threw the dart forward and brought my hands together. It was time I learned to chain some combos.