I Wanted to Use Magic, So I Trained My Magical Power. I Wanted to Eat Meat, So I Went Hunting. And Then, Before I Knew It, I Had Become the Strongest... - Episode 3: This is not for sale!

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Episode 3: This is not for sale!

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I’m walking around with ten straw hats.

Of course, I’m wearing one on my head.

The reason I have ten straw hats is because Altan-san—Clarissa’s father—saw the straw hat Clarissa wore home. And he seemed to think it would sell. So he asked me to make ten of them.

“Hello~ I brought the straw hats~”

“Okay~”

Clarissa comes running from the back.

Did she want to see me that badly? Fufufu.

“Hey, Clarissa.”

“They’re already done, all ten of them, Nois!”

“Yeah.”

As I hand the straw hats to Clarissa, Altan-san comes out as well.

“Hey, Nois. Already finished, huh? Let me see… yeah, well done. Here’s your reward.”

“Thank you very much.”

I received twenty iron coins from Altan-san.

One straw hat is worth two iron coins.

Iron coins are the lowest value currency used in this area.

There are also copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins. One hundred iron coins equal one copper coin, fifty copper coins equal one silver coin, and twenty silver coins equal one gold coin. It’s a bit complicated.

Us commoners mostly use iron coins, sometimes copper coins.

I’ve never even seen a silver or gold coin. So it’s not a problem.

You can think of one iron coin as being worth about 100 yen.

So that means I earned 2000 yen at the age of five.

By the way, if you bring medicinal herbs to the pharmacist Nainen, she’ll buy them for four iron coins.

“Nois, let’s play!”

“I don’t mind, but what about watching the store?”

“Papa, can I go play!?”

“Don’t do anything dangerous.”

“Okaaay!”

Clarissa takes my hand and starts walking. Her hand is soft and squishy.

“Where are we going?”

“Let’s go to the forest and collect Tetemis fruit.”

“I love Tetemis!”

Tetemis is a fruit shaped like a loquat.

Wild Tetemis grow in the forest. And the fruit is sweet and delicious like a peach.

Right about now—peak summer to early autumn—is when they’re in season.

“Alright, let’s collect lots of Tetemis.”

“Yeah!”

The forest is wide. But I’ve been going in and out of the forest and mountains with my family since I was small. So it’s like my backyard.

I already have a rough idea of where Tetemis can be found.

“Ah, over there!”

“That’s Tetemis.”

Just as I thought, there was Tetemis.

Tetemis is a vine-type plant that wraps around trees and stretches its vines way up high.

There’s usually no fruit in the low places. And most of the Tetemis grow up high in the trees.

Probably because they can’t get enough sunlight down low. So they use the tall trees for photosynthesis.

“I’ll climb up and pick them. So Clarissa, you catch them down below.”

“Okay.”

In my previous life, I never climbed trees. But I grab the tree’s bumps and grooves with my hands and feet. Then I activate body enhancement magic.

Thanks to using up my magical power every day, the duration I can maintain body enhancement magic has increased.

Even though it’s a plain kind of magic, being able to use magic is exciting.

I make sure not to use up all my magic at once. I only strengthen my fingertips on both hands and feet partially.

By doing this, I can significantly reduce the consumption of magic and keep the enhancement going longer.

I climb smoothly like a monkey. Surprisingly, I did it pretty well.

I didn’t expect to be this good at partial enhancement.

Maybe it’s a byproduct of draining my magic every day.

The branch is pretty high up. If I fall, it won’t just hurt.

“Clarissa! I’m dropping it!”

“Okay!”

Clarissa spreads her one-piece skirt to catch it. I can see her panties.

I’ll say it again—I’m *not* a lolicon.

Just because I saw Clarissa’s panties, it doesn’t mean I got excited!

Clarissa puts the Tetemis she caught in her skirt into a straw hat. Pretty clever, huh?

I jump from tree to tree.

At five years old, my body is light. So the branches won’t break.

And thanks to the body enhancement magic, I can grip the trees firmly.

I’m basically a monkey.

“I’m dropping it~”

“Okaay~”

I pick the Tetemis and drop them down to Clarissa.

Thanks to body enhancement magic, it didn’t take long to fill two straw hats.

“We got a lot!”

“Yeah, a lot!”

Clarissa and I happily walk back to the village.

“Alright then, see you! Bye-bye!”

We wave goodbye in front of Clarissa’s house (shop), and I head home.

“Oh, Tetemis? Give me one.”

When a villager sees the Tetemis in my straw hat, they give me one iron coin in exchange for one Tetemis.

“This is not for sale—” 

Before I could say that, the money was already dropped into the straw hat.

Well, one fruit is fine, I guess.

“Tetemis? I’ll take one too.”

“I think I’ll take one as well.”

“Yeah, me too.”

My straw hat ended up with around twenty iron coins and not a single Tetemis left……..

If I knew this would happen, I should’ve eaten one myself.

I go home and put the iron coins into the jar. This jar is my piggy bank.

Someday, I’ll leave this house.

So I need to save money for that day.

That’s just how it is for the third son.

That night too, I lay down on my straw bed, let out my magical power until it’s all used up, and fall asleep.

Lately, it’s been taking about thirty seconds to use it all up.

I can really feel that my magic power is increasing. Which makes me happy. I’m going to keep growing my magic power like this!