'Sweep.'

A tree tumbled over with the wave of my arm.

Not expecting the sudden collapse, I hurdled over to the right avoiding the falling tree.

I had expected it to take a bit more sweeps but it seems I was seriously underestimating the strength of a Mythical grade technique.

Rachel who was sitting to the side didn't seem too surprised with my sudden action but was completely intent on examining me. Was she trying to learn it by watching me? I don't think that would work unless you were a heaven sent genius of some sort.

The considerably small tree compared to its peers fell near the stream with a loud thump.

It was hard work trying to find the right tree because some could collapse onto other trees or even fall directly onto the stream which could cause a dam to form. There were also dead trees which were rotting that could not be used.

"Hey aren't you going to help out?" I said.

"Eh, but I'm not as strong as you."

"I know that's a load of crap but can you at least separate the leaves from the branches."

—x minutes later—

[Air Manipulation - Sweeping(Mythical) has reached level 5]

[Received: 100 Merit Points]

I finally broke up the large log into workable building material. It was hard but I gradually got used to sweeping with my arms.

Honestly, it required a lot of strength and I was also quite fatigued from the consecutive sweeps. If I was using a weapon like a sword or a spear to channel the sweep, it would have made the task much easier but Rachel was here. If I pulled out a spear from thin air, it would be hard to explain while the sweeping and piercing technique could be passed off as a skill I picked up somewhere.

I went over to check out the large leaves. After poking and stretching them a bit I figured that they were pretty durable and were definitely waterproof.

"Do you have something like a knife?" I asked Rachel.

"I still have my gauntlets." She said, showing me the two wristbands on both arms.

Now this was a problem. Did this mean that we had to rely on my sweeping to cut things apart. Ah sh*t. If only I had something sharp... Wait, where's my training sword. Even though it was a bit blunt, it should be more than sharp enough.

Oh my god, I left it behind in the bag with all my spare clothes. And I left the bag around the clearing where we encountered the slug... F*ck.

Come on now, just what did my troglodyte ancestors do in these stressful situations? Using a cave for shelter was out of the question since this was a damned forest.

Tools! How did they make their tools?

Making up my mind, I searched the surroundings for rocks.

After gathering a pile of rocks, I found the largest one and a round rock that fit just right on my hand. I could only pray that this would actually work.

I knocked on the large rock in my hand as hard as I could with the round rock.

The result—it crumbled. This wasn't supposed to happen was it? Were those survival films all fake? Damn it, let's try again.

I picked up a mediocre size rock that was more flat than it was round. I clenched the round rock and struck the more rounded side.

It broke...

To be exact, the round rock broke. Was it because I clenched it too hard when I banged it on the flat rock?

Unlike the other large rock that crumbled, this one broke into multiple fragments creating flaky pieces of rock similar to fish flakes.

'Ouch.' I dropped the fragments. I looked at my left palm.

It was cut.

I threw away the flat rock in my right hand which was now unneeded and examined the rock fragments on the ground. This was exactly what i was looking for. A sharp edge that could serve as a blade. It was half the width of my palm and its length was the same as my middle finger. It was rather short but it should do the job.

I grabbed the rock flake by the rounded part and used the pointed edge to cut the leaf. I made a quick and easy tear through it almost as if it were a sheet of paper.

I cut out a line of leaf and checked out its sturdiness. I pulled on both ends as hard as I could and to my surprise, the leaf did not rip apart. It was as sturdy as rubber. This could possibly be used to tie things together.

Thinking that, I used sweeping again on one of the wood pieces; cutting out a small block-like handle and roughly trimming it into a proper rounded handle with the rock flake.

I placed it vertically on the ground and brought the rock flake down on it which split the top part of the handle in two. Wedging the rounded part of the flake into the small gap, I used the line of leaf and wrapped it around the handle tightly so the flake would not fall out.

'Perfect.' And this my friend, was a makeshift knife.

Was this how my ancestors felt when they discovered the art of fire bending? Being proud was a major understatement. I like it, I like this feeling of self accomplishment.

"So now what?" Rachel said, looking at me performing a Guts Pose.

"We build a tent of course!" I said.

—x hours later—

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, we finally did it!

Before us was a tent-like structure that surrounded a giant tree. It was pretty simple really. I figured that we should take advantage of the sturdy tree and use it as the foundation to build our shelter.

We placed leaves on top and on the ground to protect ourselves from rain and to make it cozier.

The roof that was made of leaves was actually pretty simple. By tying all the leaves together and tying it against the wood tightly, we were able to utilize tension to keep it in place. As long as the leaves did not rip apart all of a sudden, it should work perfectly fine as a roof.

As I grinned at the finished product, I heard a loud grrr. Turning to Rachel, she looked at me with a faint blush. An even louder grrr came from a certain body part of mine as if responding to the first grrr.

"I guess that means a meal for two huh." I laughed.

Grabbing the two makeshift spears I made with the spare rock flakes, I threw one over to Rachel and we went over to the stream.

The stream was rather big and could even be mistaken for a small river but it didn't change the fact that the water was fresh and there was aquatic life in it.

Spotting a fish swimming toward us, I waited for it to get closer before throwing the spear at it with lightning speed.

Maybe it was a result of practicing Spear of the Myriad Forms, but I could somehow predict where the fish would move in reaction to the spear. I used the crudely made spear as if I had used it for years so my throwing and stabbing were always accurate to a certain degree. I went down to the water and pulled the spear—I tried to at least.

I used both hands this time and tried pulling as hard as I could. Rachel, seeing what happened also came down to help.

As one would normally expect of a horribly made makeshift spear, it snapped.

Since the water was only up to my waist, I could reach the stream bed by bending over a bit. As I went down to pull again, I stopped and properly inspected the area which the spear struck. It was stuck in between two heavy stones. There seemed to be a hole of some sort hidden underneath.

The fish was already dead as I pierced it through the head so it wasn't squirming at all. I pushed one of the stones away and pulled the spear up.

When I pulled the spear out, I noticed the peculiarity. I flailed my hands around in the water because the fish's blood made it hard to see clearly.

Underneath the stone that I pushed away, was a formation.