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　The meat sure was a strong opponent.

　No, I’m not joking. I nearly died out there, but in order to eat meat I would have to venture out again.

　Naturally, I was scared as I wasn’t fearless.

　I managed to think of something this time, but I should rethink my attack methods. To begin with, when I tried attacking the wild boar while moving, nearly all my stones missed. I couldn’t launch them while moving. Which means, I would have to launch them beforehand……that aside I should process the meat first.

　I was currently standing in the garden.

　I immediately returned home after that. I was scared on my way back so I had used double the amount of monster repellants. But due to that, I was able to make it back safely.

　I was still scared and I had to figure out a countermeasure for next time, but for now, I want to eat meat. And in order to do that, I have to process the meat.

　I took out the freshly-killed horned rabbit. Now…..this……what do I do? I don’t know how to dismantle it. Now’s the time for the handy [Creation Magic] to appear! Let’s turn this horned rabbit carcass into edible meat.

　……But unfortunately, not enough MP!

　But I have a knife. So was the cost of the action still too much? Let’s check the status. 20 MP remaining. It decreased a lot.

　I might be able to use [Creative Magic] to dismantle it tomorrow after resting for the night. But I want to eat it now!

　I looked through my status for anything else I could use. Appraisal, Alert, Detection, Stealth, and Farming. None of them were useable.

　Maybe Life Magic? It didn’t seem like it could be used, but I tried using it anyways. But nothing happened. Right, of course~

　My cooking skill was a bit under-leveled so it probably also wouldn’t work.

　……Now that I think about it, when I was taking a bath, didn’t I just directly take the shampoo itself right out of [Storage]? If so, then perhaps I could also just take a certain part of the animal out……

　I activated [Storage] while concentrating on removing only the fur of a horned rabbit. And I was able to do that.

　Ehh? What’s with this?　

　No wait, isn’t [Storage] way too convenient like this?

　Despite the various negatives of this world, there were also numerous positives I was grateful for.

　For starters, no blood was spilled. This was the positive. But when I took it out a puddle of blood also appeared at the designated area. This was the negative.

　Next, I separated the organs and the edible portions of the meat. Fats. Bones. The brain could be used as a tanning substitute for the hides, I would do it later with [Creation Magic]. And with that, the processing was finished. After finishing with processing the second one, I looked towards the puddle of blood.

“It might be easier to process it if I don’t have to take it out.”

　And…it turned out I could do that.

　I activated storage and found out I was able to specify what I wanted while the item was still inside. This sure was some cheat.

　The processing of the wild boar was also completed in a few seconds in a strange sense.

　Still, why do I feel so mentally exhausted then?

　That night, I made horned rabbit stew. I created spices and add them in as I cooked. I also made cooking utensils such as pots. What material did I use for the pot? I collected iron sand from the river using [Storage]. Although it took a bit of time.

　As for the cooking knife I just used my knife after sterilizing it with [Clean].

　The stew I made was very delicious. This was the first meat I had in six months. At the orphanage, I was able to eat meat about once a month.

　After I finished eating the meat, I had a nice and fulfilling sleep.

　Furthermore, I was happy since I didn’t waste the blood because I was able to remove the salt from it. I also didn’t waste the bone and used it as a base for the broth and the remainder as fertilizer.

　The next day. I was working on improving my attack methods.

　I realized after yesterday’s incident. It was difficult to launch stones when there is movement. Even if I managed to successfully launch them it would be due to luck. But it would be bad if it ended up missing.

　Now then, guns have barrels, which help guide the direction of the bullet forward at a certain speed. So, I suppose I would need something to act as a barrel. But then comes the question of: What would I use? Do I have to make it on the spot every time? Or should I prepare something beforehand? What about the firepower?

　Unlike pots or pans, using just iron only would cause problems. Furthermore, adjusting the carbon content and gathering enough iron to make a barrel would be difficult. It took about a week to collect enough iron sand to make a pot. And about two weeks for a frying pan. But I managed to obtain the skills [Metalwork] and [Blacksmith] in the meantime.

　So perhaps something else…..no wait, do I actually have to use something physically? The kinetic energy I used to launch the stones wasn’t tangible. Then, if I used the air, maybe……

　Right, let’s test it out.

　Thus I tried several experiments.

　And the results. I could make a substitute for the barrel using the air, but it would now cost more MP to launch stones. For now, I decided to go with the name Air Barrel.

　Next, I tried creating a rifling inside the air barrel to improve the overall power. The rifling turned out to be fairly easy to make and so the penetration and speed increased. But since the amount of friction increased, the stones that were launched were smaller. Furthermore, the MP cost doubled.

　The penetration strength increased, but since the bullet was smaller, the damage would decrease. I should probably keep this in mind while using it. I would prefer metal bullets instead……would throwing knives also work? I wonder if I should try making them myself or just buy some from a town. Well, for now, I will just have to proceed without the rifling.

　I also practiced shooting while moving. I’m not really athletic, but in the meantime, I practiced while moving through the forest. The results were good. And I managed to gain the skill [Snipe]. Which would make it easier to get meat. And so I immediately went hunting.

　The results? It was like last time’s struggle never happened. I managed to easily down a stag. It was a bit hard to accept.