Reborn to be a Hermit

Chapter 5: The Elephant Rope and the Void

The stench of the decomposition was fading, replaced by a sharp, clean, earthy aroma that smelled suspiciously like money.

Rina knelt beside the collapsed form of Edam, whose shallow, ragged breaths were the only sign that he was still among the living. His skin, already a ghostly alabaster, was now slick with sweat, and the faint, black spots above his temples—the nascent horns—seemed to pulse with residual magical heat. His core was empty, utterly and irrevocably drained by the activation of the [Universal Decomposer]. He was an exhausted, magically bankrupt husk—and a priceless asset.

Rina reached out and gently checked his pulse. It was slow but steady. The exhaustion was physical, not fatal. His magic had been converted into pure physical labor, a spectacular demonstration of the Demonkin race’s raw power applied to a terrifyingly efficient skill.

She looked up at the towering, impossible geometry of the Elephant Reeds. The plants, fueled by the rapid decomposition of the entire sewage pond’s accumulated filth, now stood twenty feet high, their gigantic, man-sized leaves rustling like thick, parchment banners in the breeze. The pond beneath them was a mirror-like sheet of clean water, swarming with the blind, white Gnawer fish—the living processors that would turn the reeds into their final, formidable product.

We didn't just survive the Awakening, Rina thought, her eyes glittering with cold, focused ambition. We built a self-sustaining, magically immune, cash-generating factory.

The Elephant Rope, woven from the reeds’ processed fibers, was a rare and valuable commodity, prized for its strength, its resistance to most mundane spells, and its exotic origins from the dreaded Demon Continent. It was a resource that the local nobility, the Bright family, would have to pay dearly for. The irony was a delightful, bitter taste on her tongue.

She roused Edam with a gentle but firm shake of his shoulder. "Get up. You need to eat. And we need to work."

Edam groaned, his eyes fluttering open. He looked at the vast, alien landscape of the massive reeds and the clear, clean pond that had replaced the stinking swamp, a look of numb disbelief on his face. "What… what did I do?"

"You cleaned up your yard, Edam," Rina replied, her voice flat. "And in the process, you destroyed your magic core, making you useless to the Eleventh Prince. Congratulations."

She pulled him to his feet. They had a mountain of work to do before the sun fully set and the nocturnal predators of the surrounding forest emerged.

---

The First Harvest

The first task was sustenance. Edam's home, a wretched, leaking shack, was still their best base of operations. Rina dug into the meager provisions she had brought from her own parent’s house—a fist-sized piece of salted, smoked fox meat, a rarity for their impoverished village.

"We need a basket," Rina announced, pointing to the thicket of bamboo and wild vines that grew at the edge of the newly purified pond.

She activated her skill. The [Inch Blade] manifested in her hand—a single, one-inch-long sliver of pure, annihilating energy, humming with silent, terrifying potential. It was still maddeningly small, but its efficacy was absolute.

She used the blade not for fighting, but for precision carpentry. With the razor edge, she sharpened a bamboo thumb-sized branch into a perfect dowel, then sliced thicker bamboo shoots into perfectly flat, two-foot slats. She arranged the slats into a nine-pointed star shape, securing them with the dowel, and began to weave the vines around the frame with the practiced speed of a former soldier performing field repairs.

The basket she created was rough, a simple tote design, but sturdy enough to haul the heavy, cut reeds. The whole process took less than an hour, a testament to the Inch Blade’s power and her soldier’s efficiency.

"The work is divided," Rina instructed, handing the basket to Edam. "You are the worker. I am the processor."

Edam looked at her, then at the basket, and finally at the colossal reeds. "How do we get to them? We can't walk through the water."

"You're going to build a raft," Rina replied, already pushing him toward a small stand of waterlogged timber and thick vines. "I'll start dinner."

While Edam struggled with the basic engineering of a bamboo raft—a task she could have completed in half the time but which was necessary for his recovery and continued exhaustion—Rina turned to the fox meat. She sliced the tiny piece of meat with the Inch Blade into microscopic portions, then mixed it with rice and water, creating a thin, but flavorful and protein-rich porridge.

The porridge was barely enough to sustain them, but it was enough to replenish Edam's energy.

Once the makeshift raft was ready, Rina pushed it onto the water, using a long bamboo pole to navigate the newly formed pond. She was now the harvester.

She guided the raft toward the thickest cluster of Elephant Reeds. The goal was simple: slice the reeds, and let the Gnawer fish begin their work.

Rina reached her hand into the water, placing her finger just below the surface against the thick, rubbery stalk of a reed. She activated the Inch Blade, and a quick, precise cut severed the plant cleanly.

The moment the reed was cut, the water around it erupted in a silvery froth. The Gnawer fish, drawn by the sap, swarmed the fallen stalk, their blind mouths chewing voraciously, stripping the thick, pulpy flesh from the hardy inner fibers. This was the processing stage—nature’s brutal efficiency turning plant matter into Elephant Rope fiber.

Rina repeated the process, cutting dozens of reeds, letting the severed stalks float freely in the water for the fish to clean.

As she worked, she remembered a crucial detail about the finished product. The leaves.

The man-sized leaves of the Elephant Reed were notoriously difficult to handle. They could not be cut by mundane steel, and touching them with bare hands caused immediate, severe burns. They were toxic, almost like a defense mechanism.

Rina paddled the raft to a section where the tops of the reeds were still upright. She had to separate the toxic leaves from the stem before the fish began to chew their way up to the top.

She steadied herself on the raft, feeling the faint, familiar surge of leveling up as her proficiency with the Inch Blade increased. She checked her internal status. The blade was now slightly longer, perhaps 1.4 inches. A paltry gain, but a gain nonetheless.

She positioned the tiny blade carefully and sliced the first giant leaf exactly in half, separating the toxic pulp from the usable stem. She repeated this process, the Inch Blade humming silently, cutting through the rubbery membrane of the leaves as easily as a common kitchen knife cuts through air.

She bundled the severed leaves, tethered them to a rock, and pushed them all into the water for the Gnawer fish, leaving only the processed stems floating free, secured by a vine she had threaded through the pile.

---

The Necessary Isolation

As the last rays of the sun bled from the sky, casting the pond in a terrifying, blood-orange hue, Rina paddled the raft back to shore. She had a mountain of processed Elephant Rope fibers floating gently on the water, enough to weave a substantial initial product.

Edam was waiting, looking healthier now that he had recovered from the exhaustion.

"You need to go now," Rina stated, pulling the raft onto the muddy bank. "The Bright family will be watching us, and likely a low-ranking mage from the Royal Academy will be sent to confirm our cores are truly 'dead.' We need to establish that we have no connection."

"But... your family?" Edam hesitated.

"They sold me once. They'll sell me again for a coin," Rina replied with a cold shrug that made the betrayal seem inconsequential. "I need a safe house, and I need to disappear."

Her plan was meticulous. They had bought time, but time was a fragile commodity. The Inch Blade and Universal Decomposer could not fend off a determined nobleman or a trained Royal Mage. Their only defense was obfuscation. They had to successfully tick the box of 'not talented' and 'unprofitable.'

This meant establishing a clear, deliberate separation. She couldn't be associated with Edam, the demonkin, or her own greedy, desperate family.

"I need to leave the village tonight," she continued. "My goal is to set up a temporary safe house in the forest. You need to stay here. The reeds are your alibi. They are your new source of income. You are now the village idiot who got lucky with a swamp plant."

Rina saw the flicker of disappointment in his eyes, but also the dawning comprehension. He was an unwilling accomplice, but he was a survivor.

Edam offered her a small, boiled-down portion of the Gnawer fish he had managed to catch. "For the road," he murmured.

Rina accepted the fish, placing it in the small, newly woven basket. "Thank you. Now, listen to my final instructions for tonight."

She needed one last resource: the Desert Death mushrooms, a powerful, magical crop that would be essential for her survival in the deep forest.

"I need you to go into the woods tomorrow and collect specific mushrooms. All of them. Just take a clay pot, pluck them with a long stick, and place them directly inside. Do not touch them with your bare hands, and if you feel the slightest hint of thirst, come back immediately. Your life matters more than the mushrooms."

Edam nodded, the gravity of her words settling over him. He was a piece of the puzzle, and she needed him to survive.

With a final, silent nod of farewell, Rina slung her newly woven basket over her shoulder. She made her way to the forest edge, carrying a bushel of wild vines and sturdy bamboo. She tied a vine to a large, prominent tree—a lookout point she had marked in her head—and began to climb.

She would spend the night tethered to the highest branch, performing an 'animal safety check' and preparing more tools for her future life in exile. She was leaving the village not as a fearful refugee, but as a soldier departing for a long, necessary campaign, her Inch Blade and her Void Core her only allies. The darkness was her shield, and the towering reeds of Elephant Rope were her first war chest.