Catching Fire, Tree Branches, and Weighted Flight

"There are some fierce fish in the Mangrove Forest's waters. Some of them spit water at creatures on the mangroves, but as long as you're prepared and hold tight to the vines around you so you don't fall into the water, there won't be any danger.

Above the mangroves, there are always some camouflaged creatures, like Dead Branch Snakes. They pretend to be dead branches and prey on passing small animals or insects, but they won't actively attack creatures larger than themselves..."

As Rivarina explained the things to watch out for in the mangroves, Broly poked his head out from underwater. Fish hung from his body, and after climbing ashore and shaking himself, he flung them into a basket woven from vines.

Although there were no Danger Beasts here, the fish underwater were even dumber. Broly only had to dive in and swim around, and the fish would swim right up to him. He did not even need to catch them—they practically took the bait themselves.

Broly flicked his Tail, sending the fish biting onto it flying into the vine basket as well.

"Of course, if you have a body as strong as Big Brother's, you can go into the water and catch fish like this too. Otherwise, the usual way to catch fish is to slap the water's surface to attract them, then use sharpened forks to spear the fish underwater."

As she spoke, Rivarina demonstrated. She stabbed a fish in the water with a sharpened branch and lifted up a fish as thick as her forearm.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

The fish struggled on the branch and spat three mouthfuls of water at the Girl.

"That's a Spitting Fish. The larger the Spitting Fish, the more powerful the water it spits."

Rivarina shook the fish water from her face as she spoke.

"Hey-ha~"

The other children copied her, using the sharpened branches in their hands to spear fish. Only a few succeeded, while most failed. One unlucky child even fell into the water, but fortunately Broly was right beside them and leaped over to pull them out.

"The actual distance to underwater creatures is a little deeper than what we see from above the water. If you want to spear a fish, it's best to aim lower."

The children who had hit fish shared their experience with those who had missed. Once they understood the trick, these skilled children quickly mastered the Fish Piercing Technique.

"These branches are too wet. They won't catch fire."

When they stopped for lunch at noon, everyone grew troubled because they could not start a fire in the damp environment. Along the way out of Jiffonora Sea Tree Forest, the children with wilderness survival experience had told the others how important it was to eat cooked Food.

If they did not want diarrhea, both water and Food had to be boiled thoroughly. Besides that, some plant-based Ingredients contained toxins that could be removed through cooking.

"If we can't start a fire, then we can only eat sashimi."

"Could there be parasites?"

"What are you talking about? Oh, right, the worms on these fish taste pretty good."

Everyone turned to look and saw their Big Brother pulling something that was obviously a parasite off a fish and eating it.

No one needed to answer the earlier question. The fish really did have parasites, and as for the taste, Big Brother had even given them a favorable review.

"You don't need to worry. A few worms are no big deal. My clanspeople and I used to eat sashimi often.

After eating sashimi, we would eat some Water Leaf to drive out the parasites. The worms wouldn't stay in our stomachs for long before being expelled."

Rivarina did not seem particularly concerned about eating raw fish.

The children: "..."

They imagined what it would be like to pass worms.

"Older Sister, I don't want to pass worms."

Kurome tugged on Akame's sleeve.

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

Akame was fairly accepting of it. Compared to passing worms, she found going hungry much more terrifying.

"I'll try starting a fire again."

"It's useless. The branches here are too wet. They simply won't catch fire."

"We should have brought some dry branches."

"Broly Big Brother, do you have any good ideas?"

The children had run out of options, but someone thought of him.

Broly thought for a moment, then pointed his hand toward the branches meant for the fire.

"Boom~"

In an instant, those branches were blown apart.

"Looks like Big Brother doesn't have a solution either."

"Just like with making Shoes, Big Brother has his limits too."

The others looked at the Tumbleweed around Broly's feet and deeply agreed with Natala's words.

Seeing everyone's disappointed expressions, Broly thought again.

"I'll try once more."

As he spoke, he adjusted his Qi output and gathered a faint amount of Qi onto one finger.

Then he pointed it at a mangrove branch nearby.

"Sizzle!"

Smoke rose from where the mangrove branch had been touched.

"Eh?!"

Seeing this, all the children stared over with tense expressions.

Catch fire. It had to catch fire!

Perhaps the branches had heard the children's heartfelt wishes, because the branch Broly had touched quickly dried out.

As the last of the moisture evaporated, a small flame sprang up on the branch the next moment.

"It caught fire!"

"Yay~"

"Broly Big Brother, you're amazing!"

At the sight of the flames, the children shouted happily. This meant they would not have to eat sashimi or pass worms.

Broly was happy too. He had learned how to use Qi to start a fire. However, as soon as his excitement rose, the Qi at his fingertip strengthened with his heightened emotions. It instantly turned into an Energy Beam, piercing through the mangrove branch and turning it to ash. With no fuel left to burn, the flame quickly went out.

As they watched the flame die, the children's cheers stopped abruptly. They all looked at Broly with pleading eyes.

"I'll light another one."

Broly scratched his head and tore off a fresh redwood vine.

This time, he did not let his Qi lose control and turn into a piercing beam. The fire rose successfully.

Fish roasted on redwood branches had a unique flavor compared to the grilled fish from the Great Forest.

"It's a little spicy."

"That's the flavor of the redwood tree."

"Is it poisonous?"

"Slightly poisonous. It's a toxin secreted by the redwood tree itself to ward off insects."

"Eh?"

"Don't worry. As long as you don't eat too much, you'll be fine."

Hearing that, everyone relaxed.

"Hey, why are you chewing the branch too?"

Just then, Kurome's voice came from nearby.

"This stuff tastes good when you chew it. It makes your mouth numb."

Everyone followed the sound and discovered that Broly was chewing a redwood branch in his mouth.

"Broly Big Brother, these branches are poisonous."

A group of them hurried over to warn him.

"Poison?"

Broly smacked his lips, then nodded at the people who had run over.

"Poison tastes good. Want to try some too?"

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

Only then did everyone notice that there was already a pile of wood pulp behind him.

"Are you all right?"

"What could be wrong with me?"

Broly picked up a skewer of grilled fish, swallowed the whole fish while spitting out the bones, then started chewing the branch used as the skewer.

The children who had rushed over in concern looked at one another. In the end, they could only attribute it to Big Brother having a different constitution from theirs, one that allowed him to eat many things they could not.

The roasted redwood branches tasted somewhat like spicy cinnamon. Broly found the flavor addictive at first, but after chewing too much, he started to feel nauseous.

Throughout the afternoon journey, Broly kept his tongue hanging out. It felt as if he had eaten an extract boiled from Vampa Spider Bodily Fluid. His entire mouth was bitter, and even rinsing it did nothing.

The toxins truly could not kill him, but they had disgusted him badly.

"It tastes awful."

After the Vampa Spider series of Food, mangrove redwood branches became the second thing Broly disliked eating.

Worth Mentioning, the Boiled Green Pepper he had heard about from Rin Tohsaka in the previous world was the third Food he disliked, even though Broly had never eaten Boiled Green Pepper.

"Rivarina, haven't we reached your tribe yet?"

The Marsh Region was vast. They had walked south until evening, yet the distance was still filled with stretches of mangrove forest.

Patches of mangroves formed chunks of land across the marsh, and they had passed at least a hundred such mangrove islands today.

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

Standing in a tree, Rivarina looked around, but found nothing.

"Could we have gone the wrong way?"

"That's possible."

"Still, if we're looking for a tribe with Inhabitants..."

Nahash looked at Broly, who was floating nearby and seemed a little listless.

"Broly Big Brother, you can fly. Could you fly up to High Altitude and see where there are Inhabitants?"

Broly was not fully alert, but he still agreed and flew directly into the sky.

From a bird's-eye view, he quickly spotted people moving about on a large mangrove island seven or eight kilometers to the right.

After Broly descended and explained what he had seen, Rivarina pounced on him and wrapped her arms around his neck. The Girl begged Broly to take her up so she could look for herself.

"That's my tribe!"

Though it was extremely far away and dusk was approaching, Rivarina still recognized it. She had once seen the shape of the mangrove island where her tribe lived from afar—it resembled a large leaf.

"Traveling at night isn't very realistic. We'll probably reach that place around noon tomorrow."

After confirming the rough distance, Nahash estimated their arrival time based on how fast their group had traveled through the Mangrove Swamp.

"Tomorrow?"

Rivarina looked disappointed. She was eager to return home.

"Actually, we don't have to wait until tomorrow. I can fly you all over there."

Broly suddenly said.

"Eh?!"

Hearing that, the children came to their senses.

"But Broly Big Brother, can you fly that far while carrying people?"

"Probably."

Broly was not sure either. He had never tried flying with such a heavy load.