Chapter 12
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Originally published onhttps://www.cherrytranslations.com/building-a-new-world, authorized to reprint on our site.
Building a New World – Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Fish Meat for Dinner
On the third day after being transported to another world, Jia Zhengjin was cleaning up mushroom corpses near his stone house.
More mushrooms had appeared overnight, walking right into the traps around the house. This irritated Jia Zhengjin, as these mushrooms were poisonous and useless except for making mushroom headdresses!
If they were edible, it might have been acceptable, but he didn’t think his stomach could handle the toxins.
Many traps were damaged, wasting a lot of logs for repairs.
“Hm?” While cleaning up, he unexpectedly found a huge centipede about five or six meters long under the mushroom corpses.
The centipede’s body was pierced by the spikes, clearly as dead as it could be.
“Thank goodness for the spikes. If this centipede had gotten into the house, I’d have been in big trouble!” Jia Zhengjin was startled and hurried to examine it. He found a [Poison Sac] and [Strange Silk] on the centipede’s body.
[Poison Sac]: contains a potent venom that, when applied to arrows or weapons, could paralyze targets.
[Strange Silk]: extremely tough silk, that could be used to make good quality fabric with a loom.
“These are great finds!” Jia Zhengjin’s eyes lit up. The poison sac could be used to coat weapons with its poison, making it easier to kill the paralyzed opponents. The strange silk could be woven into fabric, surely making high-quality clothes. However, he needed a loom, which he couldn’t make yet.
“Awoo~~” Inside the room, the little kobold suddenly started calling out, probably hungry from not having breakfast.
“Stop yelling, Little Gray!” After making and setting up new ground spikes traps around the house and disposing of the mushroom and centipede corpses, Jia Zhengjin picked up his stone spear and called out, “I haven’t had breakfast either. I’m going to the river to fish now. Wait a bit, and there’ll be food soon!”
The little kobold couldn’t understand him and continued calling enthusiastically from inside the house.
Jia Zhengjin took his stone spear to the riverside and crouched down to observe carefully.
The river water was very clear, allowing him to see the dense aquatic plants and strange fish swimming among the plants and rocks.
“Thunk!” Jia Zhengjin tried to spear a fat, large fish, but as expected, it easily escaped.
Unsatisfied, he tried a few more times with the same result. The fish in the river swam too fast to be caught with a stone spear.
“If only I had the fishing net or fish cages blueprints, or had any skill points to use. Then I could easily make a net or a fishing cage and catch these big fish!” Jia Zhengjin sighed, settling for looking for slower-moving creatures in the river.
Luck was on his side, and he soon spotted a seemingly clumsy large fish with what looked like a lamp hanging from its head.
This fish swam leisurely, showing no signs of hurrying. Even when he threw a stone at it, it continued moving slowly, unbothered.
“Breakfast! My breakfast! Haha~~” Jia Zhengjin’s eyes gleamed as he eagerly tossed aside his stone spear and waded into the water, reaching out with both hands to grab the big fish.
He felt this big fish was so stupid it couldn’t possibly escape. And he was right – the fish was easily caught in his hands and dragged to the surface.
A feast awaited! Such a fat fish could provide two meals! Jia Zhengjin was excited that such a dumb fish existed in this other world. How adorable!
However, his joy was short-lived as he forgot that otherworld creatures were often unpredictable!
This seemingly stupid and clumsy big fish, once out of the water, suddenly emitted a strong electric current from its head’s “lamp”. Jia Zhengjin, who was hugging it ecstatically, immediately went numb and started convulsing, involuntarily releasing his grip.
“Splash!” The big fish returned to the water, continuing to move slowly.
Jia Zhengjin, blackened by the electricity, lay twitching on the shore.
Half an hour later, he finally came to. The big fish had swum away, leaving only static electricity as proof that it wasn’t a dream.
“An electric fish!” Jia Zhengjin, having barely recovered, shouted angrily at the river, “I’ll catch you and use you as a generator someday!”
Alas! The fast-swimming fish couldn’t be caught, and the slow one could generate electricity. If not for good luck, dangerous creatures would have appeared nearby, and wild beasts would have eaten Jia Zhengjin during his half-hour of unconsciousness!
This time, he became much more cautious, not daring to enter the river to catch fish barehanded. Who knew what other special abilities these otherworld fish might possess besides electrocution?
But his growling stomach urged him to find food quickly. After two days of eating coconuts, he really wanted a change of taste!
Sitting by the riverside, deep in thought, he suddenly had an idea.
He remembered the poison sac he had found on the giant centipede. If applying it to weapons could paralyze enemies, would it work if poured into the water?
His thoughts quickly led to him taking action!
Jia Zhengjin immediately retrieved the poison sac from his virtual backpack and dropped it on the ground, carefully piercing it with his stone spear. He didn’t dare touch it directly, given its effect.
The stone spear’s tip turned greenish with the venom. Jia Zhengjin carefully placed this spear into the river, stirring gently a few times.
Splash~~
The poison proved highly effective. The nearest fish began to flop around, and within seconds, they floated belly-up, motionless.
“Haha~! So simple!” Jia Zhengjin immediately used his stone spear to pierce these floating fish one by one, bringing them ashore.
The poison sac’s effect was remarkable; the paralyzed fish didn’t struggle, allowing him to collect them.
One poison sac yielded five or six large fish, it was quite a good deal. Other fish were unaffected, likely because the poison was diluted in the water, so only the nearest fish were impacted in the first few seconds.
“Wahaha~~ Fish for dinner today, how fragrant~~” Jia Zhengjin happily took out his knife to scale the caught fish, buried the innards in the soil, then washed the fish clean and brought them back to roast over the campfire.
With no pot available, roasting was the only cooking method. And without salt or seasonings, he wondered if the fish would taste bland.
But regardless, there was meat to eat today!
Pots and seasonings would have to be made eventually, but for now, this would do.
“Awoo~~” The little kobold, probably smelling the fish, crawled out from the gap. It stopped its random calling and quietly watched the roasting fish, drooling.