We arrived home with the new additions to our family. I did wonder if they would return to the lake cave after seeing the house (which couldn’t really be called a cave at this point), but the ants didn’t seem particularly bothered.
All righty then. Welcome home, I guess.
Chai took one look at the giant ant and tucked his tail between his legs.
Hey, don’t be scared, boy! It’s friendly...I think.
I shot a glance at the giant ant, but it wasn’t reacting to Chai’s apparent fear. I couldn’t really tell what it was thinking, but since it wasn’t actively threatening Chai, I chose to believe that it was indeed friendly.
It’s a new friend, okay? Don’t worry, boy.
“Giant ant” was getting a little old, so I decided to give it a name—a unilateral decision, of course, but what else was new?
“Shuri.” The name came from the kanji for “vermilion” and “wise.” I couldn’t tell, of course, but I wanted to believe that the giant insect liked its new moniker.
I surveyed the wasteland of stumps before me.
I know I’ve gotta do something about this soon...but not today. Sorry, but I’ve got other plans!
I was going to spend the rest of the day experimenting with the salty fruit. Specifically, I wanted to find out whether or not I’d be able to turn the juice into a hardened form; crystallized or powdered salt would be far more convenient than liquid for use as a seasoning. I turned my back on the stump field and made a beeline for the kitchen.
Everyone, you’re free to enjoy the rest of the day however you like...! Just like always, I guess.
In total, we’d harvested sixty-five of the strange black fruits. It was a lot, but if I could use them to make salt, I was happy to have as many as I could get. Plus, I had a seemingly permanent time stop storage room too. For starters, I placed a bowl I’d shaped out of the silvery ore on the counter and secured a thin piece of cloth over the top to use as a filter. Careful not to crush it, I cut the first fruit in half and squeezed it over the bowl. It produced far more juice than I’d expected from its size, and by the time I’d finished juicing the fifth fruit, the bowl was pretty full. I decided to stop at five for the first attempt. If I screwed up, at least I wouldn’t waste too many of the fruits.
I used magic to slowly warm the metal bowl and evaporate the moisture content of the juice. I noticed some scum floating to the top of the bowl as the liquid receded, so I paused for a minute to filter the remaining juice again. As to avoid burning the juice, I stirred the liquid constantly as I warmed it. Little by little, the liquid evaporated until I was finally left with a tiny pile that resembled sorbet. My heart raced as I trailed a fingertip through the damp, loose crystals and pressed it to my tongue. Just as I’d hoped, it was perfectly salty.
Oh, man... I could cry with happiness.
I transferred the sorbet-like salt to a clean cloth and wrung as much of the remaining liquid out as I could before spreading the fabric flat and carefully drying the contents with wind magic. I succeeded. I’d finally acquired salt.
I can’t believe fruit was the answer, though... This really is another world. I mean, salty fruit?
All in all, today had been an excellent day. I’d found some new friends and salt.
I fetched some of the smaller nodes of the golden ore from the basement and returned to the kitchen. Willing the strange magic power inside me to penetrate the metal, I visualized a small, lidded container.
“Transform.”
It worked. I transferred the finished salt into the container and started the whole process all over again, focused only on turning every last fruit into glorious salt. By the end of the day, I’d filled four whole containers.
More salt than I could have dreamed of... I’m so happy.
I felt like I’d gotten better at fine-tuning my magic over the course of the afternoon too. I’d had to give the heating process my complete, undivided attention; if I lost control for even a second, I risked heating the bowl too rapidly and burning the liquid within. One such failure had been enough.
What is it they say? Slow and steady wins the race... Or something like that anyway.
With my work finally done, I treated myself to a heavenly meal of heavily salted meat and a moment of rest. The steak tasted several times more delicious than usual.
I’d love to get my hands on some eggs next. Mayonnaise would go great with this too... Oh, and some garlic would be nice, and dashi for cooking... There’s still a lot of stuff I want, huh? But I shouldn’t be greedy. I’ve just gotta focus on one thing at a time.
All of the tree stumps were gone by the time I went back outside.
What the—? Where the hell did they all go?!
I quickly spotted a new hole in one corner of the now-open field. A large hole. With a very large head sticking out of it—Shuri’s.
Oh, it’s not a hole—it’s a nest. Ants build nests.
I saw something odd out of the corner of my eye. It was a singular stump that had yet to vanish, though it appeared to be in the process of doing so, given that it was—for some strange reason—moving. I peered at it closely and realized it was being carried by a swarm of antlets. I watched as they lugged it across the field and into the hole.
Maybe they’re gonna use it for something... What, though? Oh well. It’s made my job easier. I had no idea what I was gonna do with a bunch of stumps.
I continued watching as a team of One Eyes appeared outside. In no time at all, they’d constructed scaffolding around the hole, and their project quickly took form: a wooden canopy to prevent rain from flooding the nest.
Wow, you guys can do this kinda construction work too? Awesome!
I was only slightly concerned about just where they’d learned how to build scaffolding and canopies. It certainly hadn’t come from me.