Chapter 35: Ignition, Branch, Weighted Flight

"There are some ferocious fish in the mangrove water, and some that spit water at creatures on the mangroves, but as long as you prepare yourself mentally and hold tight to the vines beside you so you don't fall into the water, there won't be any danger.

And above the mangroves, there are always some mimetic creatures, like the Dead Branch Snake; they pretend to be a dead branch and prey on small animals or insects passing by, but they won't actively launch attacks on creatures larger than themselves……"

Rivarina spoke of the points to pay attention to in the mangrove forest, while Broly poked his head out from underwater; he had fish hanging on his body, and after coming ashore and giving a shake, he flung those fish into the basket woven from vines.

Although no Danger Beasts could be seen here, the fish underwater were even stupider; Broly just swam around in the water, and the fish actively swam over — they hooked themselves without even needing to be caught.

Broly shook his tail, flinging the fish biting onto his tail into the vine basket as well.

"Of course, if everyone had a body as powerful as Big Bro's, you could also catch fish by going in the water like that. Otherwise, the usual way to catch fish is to slap the water surface, attract the fish to swim over, and then use a sharpened fork to spear the fish in the water."

As Rivarina spoke, she gave a demonstration; she pierced a fish in the water with a sharpened branch and lifted up a fish as thick as a small arm.

"Pfft pfft pfft!"

The fish struggled on the branch, spitting three mouthfuls of water at the girl.

"This is a Water-spitting Fish; the larger the Water-spitting Fish, the stronger the force of the water it spits."

Shaking the fish water off her face, Rivarina said.

"Heh-ha~"

The other children copied the example, using the sharpened branches in their hands to spear fish; the result was that only a minority succeeded, the majority failed, and one unlucky child even fell into the water — luckily Broly was right at the side, jumped over, and pulled the person up.

"The actual distance of underwater creatures is a bit deeper than what we see from the water surface; if you want to spear fish, it's best to aim at a lower position."

The child who speared a fish shared the experience with the other children who didn't; knowing the technique, these children with decent skills quickly mastered the fish-spearing jutsu.

"These branches are too wet; they can't catch fire."

When they stopped at noon to eat, everyone was troubled because the damp environment meant they couldn't start a fire; along the road coming out of the Gifnora Sea Tree Forest, the children with wild survival experience had already told the others the importance of eating cooked food.

If you don't want to get diarrhea, then whether it's water or food, you have to cook it thoroughly; additionally, some plant-type ingredients have attached toxins that can be removed by cooking them thoroughly.

"If there's no way to make fire, we can only eat sashimi."

"Would there be parasites?"

"What are you all talking about; oh right, the worms on these fish taste pretty not bad."

Everyone turned their heads to look, and saw their own Big Bro pulling a thing that was obviously a parasite off a fish's body and eating it.

The question from just now didn't need anyone to answer; the fish did indeed have parasites, and as for the taste, it even received Big Bro's not bad evaluation.

"You don't need to worry; having worms isn't a big deal, before me and the clan often ate sashimi.

And after eating sashimi, we would still eat some Water Leaf to deworm; the worms won't stay in our stomachs for long, they'll just be pulled out."

Rivarina didn't seem to mind eating raw fish much.

The children: "……"

Imagining the scene of pulling out worms.

"Sister, I don't want to pull out worms."

Kurou tugged on Akame's sleeve.

"I don't want to either, but if we don't want to starve, we have to eat something."

Akame's acceptance was decent; compared to pulling out worms, she thought starving was a more terrifying thing.

"I'll try making fire again."

"No use; the branches here are too wet, they simply won't catch fire."

"We should have brought some dry branches?"

"Broly-san, do you have any good ideas?"

The children were at their wits' end, but someone thought of him.

Broly thought for a bit, then aimed his hand at the branches over there for making fire.

"Bang~"

In just an instant, those branches were blown away.

"Looks like Big Bro can't do it either."

"Just like making shoes, Big Bro has limits too."

The others looked at the tumbleweed on Broly's feet, and deeply agreed with Natala who said this.

Looking at the disappointed looks of everyone around, Broly thought again.

"I'll try again."

He said this, adjusted his Qi output, and gathered a weak bit of Qi on one finger.

Then, aiming at a mangrove branch beside him, he touched it.

"Sizzle!"

The spot on the mangrove branch that was touched gave off smoke.

"Eh?!"

Seeing this, all the children stared over, faces tense.

【Catch fire, it has to catch fire!】

Perhaps hearing the children's heartfelt voices, the branch Broly touched quickly dried from the roasting.

As the last water vapor evaporated, the next moment, a small flame emerged on the branch.

"It caught fire!"

"Yay~"

"Broly-san, you're amazing!"

Seeing the flame, the children cheered happily; this meant they didn't have to eat sashimi, didn't have to pull out worms.

Broly was also very happy; he had learned the trick of using Qi to ignite fire, but just as his happy mood rose, the Qi on his fingertip strengthened because of his heightened emotions, instantly turning into an energy beam that pierced through the mangrove branch, turning the branch to ash; the flame lost its fuel and rapidly extinguished.

Watching the flame go out, the children's cheers abruptly stopped, all staring expectantly at Broly.

"I'll light another one." Broly scratched his head, tore off a fresh redwood vine, and said so.

This time he didn't let his Qi spiral out of control into a piercing light beam; the flame successfully rose.

The fish roasted on redwood branches had a distinct flavor compared to the Great Forest's roasted fish.

"A bit spicy."

"That's the taste of the redwood."

"Is it poisonous?"

"Mildly toxic. It's a toxin the redwood itself secretes for insect prevention."

"Eh?"

"Rest assured, as long as you don't eat too much it's fine."

Hearing this, everyone set their minds at ease.

"Hey, how come you're chewing the branch along with it?"

Just then, that side's black-pupiled voice transmitted over.

"This thing has a taste when chewed, numbing."

Everyone looked toward the sound and discovered Broly's mouth was chewing a Redwood Tree branch.

"Broly-san, this branch is poisonous."

A group of people hurriedly ran over to remind.

"Poison?"

Broly smacked his lips, then nodded at the people running over.

"The poison tastes good. You all try some too?"

As he spoke, Broly tossed the clean-chewed branch behind him.

Everyone looked and only then discovered a pile of tree slag already behind him.

"You okay?"

"What could happen to me?"

Picking up a skewer of roasted fish, bones and all, Broly started chewing on the branch used to skewer the fish.

The somewhat worried kids who ran over faced each other, and in the end could only attribute it to Big Bro's constitution being different from theirs, able to eat many things they couldn't eat.

The roasted redwood branches tasted somewhat like cinnamon with spiciness, which got Broly a bit fired up chewing, but after chewing a lot, he felt a bit disgusted.

For the afternoon's journey, Broly stuck his tongue out, feeling like he'd eaten essence boiled from Vampa Spider body fluid — his whole mouth was bitter, and even rinsing didn't help.

The toxin indeed couldn't take his life, but it disgusted him.

"So hard to eat."

Following the Vampa Spider series of foods, the Mangrove Forest's redwood branches became the second thing Broly disliked eating.

Worth mentioning: the Boiled Green Pepper he heard of from Rin Tohsaka in the Previous World is his third most disliked food, even though Broly has never eaten Boiled Green Pepper.

"Rivarina, still not at your tribe?"

The Water Marsh Region is vast; heading south all the way, walking until evening, the Distance still showed piece after piece of Mangrove Forest.

Expanses of Mangrove Forest formed landmass after landmass on the marsh, and today they'd crossed at least over a hundred such Mangrove Forest landmasses.

"Should be in this direction, but I don't see our tribe's markers."

Standing on a tree, Rivarina looked around but discovered nothing.

"Could we have gone the wrong direction?"

"Possible."

"However, since we're looking for an inhabited tribe..."

Nahashu looked at Broly levitating beside him, looking rather listless.

"Broly-san, you can fly. Can't you fly up high and see where there's human habitation?"

Broly was somewhat out of sorts but still agreed, flying directly to high altitude.

From a bird's-eye view, he soon discovered people active on a large Mangrove Forest landmass seven or eight kilometers to the right.

Broly descended and described what he saw, whereupon Rivarina pounced on him, hugging his neck, and requested Broly take her up to look.

"That's my tribe!"

Though extremely distant and dusk approaching, Rivarina still recognized it; she'd once gazed from afar at the shape of the Mangrove Forest where her tribe resided, like a large leaf.

"Traveling at night isn't very realistic; we probably won't arrive until tomorrow noon."

Having confirmed the approximate distance, Nahashu estimated the specific arrival time based on their group's travel speed on the Swamp Mangrove Forest.

"Tomorrow?"

Rivarina was somewhat disappointed; she was anxious to return home.

"Actually no need to wait until tomorrow. I can fly you all there."

Broly suddenly said.

"Eh?!"

Hearing this, a bunch of kids reacted.

"But Broly-san, can you carry people flying that far?"

"Probably no problem."

Broly wasn't sure either; he'd never tried flying with such a heavy load.

(Chapter End)