Chapter 2

After I enjoyed the first meal I had on the island, I tried to wander around in search of wood and dried leaves suitable for me to make a simple shelter.

By the way, I already took off my armour. It seems that I just need to think about getting rid of it, and any object I create with my flame will disappear.

I've also tried to recreate it just in case, and it worked just fine.

Now, I don't have to be afraid to explore this island.

Even so, I didn't plan to explore further as the sun was about to set.

With my limited knowledge, I gathered logs, twigs and dried leaves to make a simple house.

Fortunately, the open area by the river was large enough to build a house. So I only needed to clear the grass.

Just as the sky turned bright orange, I managed to finish my house.

Or rather just a small hut made of wood and dried leaves as its walls and roof.

It wasn't pretty, but at least I had a place to sleep for the night.

I'll make it more presentable tomorrow, maybe if my laziness doesn't suddenly kick in.

Night fell, and I lit a fire in front of my base using the remains of the wood I used to build my hut.

Since I wasn't sleepy, I thought it would be a good time to test the limits of my power.

From what I understand so far, this power of mine can create various weapons that exist in my memory.

I couldn't create anything big, like a house or a carriage.

Probably because they're not considered weapons.

But strangely, I can create clothes. Maybe it's because my power considers clothes as armour?

So right now, I'm using the clothes I created using my powers to test how long these clothes can last.

I'll be very glad if these clothes don't have a time limit. I mean, the clothes I've been wearing since the beginning are already in such a terrible condition, I really hope that I can wear these clothes without a time limit.

I don't want to walk around this island wearing nothing like a monkey.

Anyway, I continued my tests.

I created many things, including arrows, knives, and various weapons that I could remember.

I also recreated my armour, but this time I summoned it without directly wearing it on my body so that I could see its shape.

"*whistles* This armour sure is cool."

I have to admit, this armour of my ancestor really looks intimidating.

I couldn't believe this power could recreate my ancestor's armour this accurately.

I mean, even my father couldn't use this armour you know?

And with this power, now this weak-ass me can use it.

I really should thank that statue later.

But I still don't like why he didn't explain this power's ability clearly.

Well, he probably has his own reasons.

Next, I will test how many weapons I can create at the same time.

So far, excluding the armour, spear and clothes I'm wearing, I can create about 7 weapons.

So a total of 10, pretty good I guess, for starters.

After that, I can't create anything else. If I push myself, I feel like my head will explode.

And to test the time limit, I would leave these weapons and armours that I had created out in the open before I went to sleep.

I'm doing that to test if they will disappear when I wake up later.

It's actually still very early to sleep, but there's nothing else I can do.

After all, the sooner I go to bed, the more rest I could get.

So I went into my simple hut, and slept on the bed I made from dried leaves.

At first, I had trouble falling asleep because of the discomfort and itchiness.

It made me wonder, why didn't I just take a bath when there was a river nearby?

But now it was too late for that.

I decided to ignore the discomfort and force myself to sleep.

I was grateful that I decided to sleep early, because of the discomfort, I spent a long time rolling around on my bed, before I finally managed to fall asleep.

-----

The next day, I found that the clothes I was wearing were still there, but the weapon I kept outside had disappeared.

It seemed like the item or weapon I created wouldn't disappear if I still used it.

At least that means I won't have to wear leaves as clothes in the future.

After that, I drank some water and washed my face in the river.

I also caught some fish in the river for my breakfast.

With a full stomach and in great shape, I decided that I would go to the forest to confirm the second power of my flame.

The statue said, (I'll just call it that since I can't remember his name) that this fire can also devour things to grow stronger.

The question was, what was this something?

Obviously, it wasn't wood because I used it to burn wood yesterday.

However, I felt a slight sensation as I burned away the heart and other internal organs of the monster I defeated yesterday.

The heart and other internal organs didn't look like they could be eaten anyway, so I decided to burn them.

And I felt something as I burned them.

So looks like my flame can get stronger if it devours something that has mana, or something like that.

That's my theory for now.

I'll confirm it by going to the forest and feeding my flame with monsters.

"Well, I guess it's time to get to work."

Of course, safety comes first. I didn't forget to summon my armour and spear.

-----

It didn't take long before I found my first monster, and just like yesterday, I found that big cat monster again.

It looks like a tiger, so from now on, I'll call him a tiger monster.

This damn monster was planning to ambush me from behind while it was hiding in the bushes, but with my armour, I was able to detect it easily.

As it leapt at me, I easily spun around and impaled it with my spear.

Not to brag, but my fighting ability with a spear is very high.

I also mastered swords, knives and arrows.

Because when I was a child, in order to impress my father, I practised using all the weapons to cover up my lack of mana.

Unfortunately, he didn't give a shit.

Even so, I continued to train and hoped that I could defeat or at least, be on par with people who had mana.

Back then I was still naive, but as time went by, I realised that defeating someone with mana just by relying on skill was impossible.

I mean, it doesn't matter how skilful I am with a sword. If my enemy has much stronger strength or faster speed, it's useless, right?

You can't defeat absolute power with just a skill.

And so, I stopped training when my father kicked me out of the house.

All this time I thought all that training was in vain, but now, with the help of the armour that increased my strength, speed and my sense, I believe I can now defeat an ordinary knight.

At least, for now.

I'm sure I can get even stronger if I get something for my flame to eat.

So let's start with this cat monster or whatever its name is.

"Alright, here we go."

Pointing my hand towards the monster's corpse, I summoned my flame.

In an instant, the fire burned through the monster's corpse and left nothing behind.

"Wow, not even a bone left, how hot is this flame really?"

The monster's corpse completely disappeared, I couldn't even see the ashes.

But forget that, I clearly felt something the moment my flame finished burning the monster.

I felt something entering my body and my body feels more refreshed, it's hard to say, but I definitely felt something.

I wanted to go back immediately to test whether I or my flame had grown stronger, but I decided to hunt some more monsters before going back.

This way, I could strengthen my strength and also clear the monsters that were near my base.

Two birds with one stone.

-----

Daylight had arrived and I decided to stop my hunt.

Since morning, I had hunted about a dozen tiger monsters and explored the entire forest outskirts in the area where I was stranded.

I decided to return to my base now, not only to test my power, but I was also quite hungry.

Following the signs I left behind, I was able to return to my base quickly.

While sitting in front of my hut, I ate some squirrel meat that I got in the forest and started testing my power.

First of all, I'll start by testing how many weapons I can create in the same time.

"As expected."

Just as I thought, the number of weapons I could create increased from 10 to 14.

That meant my theory was correct.

Although the number wasn't much, but that was probably because the monsters my flames devoured weren't a strong one.

Maybe someday I'll have to kill stronger monsters, but for now, I'll have to settle for this.

But that got me thinking, what's the point of creating multiple weapons at once like this?

I mean, I only have two hands. And even with armour, I can only use four at most at the same time.

That means this is useless.

Unless, there's another function of this power that I don't know about.

What if the main ability of this fire is not to create weapons?

"Hmm... I guess it's worth a try."

I decided to try it right away.

I closed my eyes and focused my mind.

*Fwooosh*

As usual, my flame gathered in the palm of my hand. Once I thought that my flame was ready, I pointed it at the ground.

Slowly, my flame began to take on a human form.

Starting from the legs, body, hands and finally the head.

And it worked.

I managed to create my own shadow.

Why do I call it my own shadow?

Because I can't create anything that I don't know.

I can only create something that I know, or exists in my memory.

And I thought it would be too difficult to create another person, so I decided to just create myself.

But it didn't look like me at all, in fact, this shadow I created didn't have a human face.

Its face was just a skull, which was burnt with flames.

The rest of its body was the same way, my shadow's entire skin, if you can call it skin, looked like it had been burnt.

"Oh, glorious. This will make them look flashy at night."

So I gave him the knight's armour that I often saw in my family's mansion.

Now he looked less flashy, but still...

"Whatever, at least now, my combat power is increasing again."

Then I decided to test how many shadows I could create and there were only five, I can make eight if didn't give them a weapon.

It was a bit disappointing, but that just meant I had to go hunting again.

"I don't have anything else to do anyway. And also I can test this shadow ability, two birds with one stone again I guess."

That day, I spent all my time hunting.

----

Eat, hunt and sleep.

That's all I've been doing for the past few days.

But I didn't hate it.

My flame keeps getting stronger every time I go hunting, at first I could only create 5 shadows, but now I can create 12 shadows with weapons.

Even better, the stronger my flame gets, the stronger my physical strength gets.

Normally, I'd have to rest every few minutes when I'm hunting.

But now, I only sweat after walking for more than two hours.

And since my shadow is created based on me, the stronger I am, the stronger my shadow becomes.

They also have the same abilities as me, which means they also know all the combat skills that I know.

Fortunately, I'm a master of many weapons, so I can give them a variety of weapons.

So these days, fighting is getting boring for me.

Even if I don't do anything, they'll fight for me.

I still had to join the fight though, because not all the monsters on this island could be handled by my shadow.

Especially, that giant two-legged lizard monster that I encountered when I ventured deeper into the forest.

The monster was nearly 4 metres tall, with extremely sharp claws and teeth.

When I tried to fight it without my armour, it ate the lower half of my body.

Seriously, I was really panicking at that time.

Though in the end, I managed to defeat it with my armour help.

The monster even destroyed almost all of my shadows, but I was able to summon them again the next day, so it was fine I guess.

I also learnt that my slain shadows could still be summoned back a day later.

And on the bright side, my flame looked very happy as it devoured the monster.

It looked like it was enjoying a buffet.

I don't know why I thought that, I just felt like I could sense it.

It seemed like the stronger the monster my flame ate, the more its strength increased.

After that I never went too deep into the forest again, I'll come back when I'm stronger.

Other than that, nothing bad happened.

Hence, now I'm just relaxing in my base while making some furniture manually with the carving knife I made with my flame.

Beside me, there are already many wooden crafts that I've made.

Chairs, tables, and some small animal statues that I made from wood.

"Maybe I have a talent for being a carpenter."

I feel so silly but i still smiled with satisfaction at my work.

At that moment, the sky suddenly became dark.

Strange, it should still be afternoon.

Was I too focused on making furniture and carving wood that I lost track of time?

I looked up at the sky.

"Oh, bloody hell."

I could see rain clouds in the distance, and I finally realised my stupidity.

I should have built a sturdier house, the little hut I worked so hard to build, was easily destroyed by the storm.

That night I didn't sleep at all.

When the storm stopped in the morning, I went straight to building a sturdier house.

Although I didn't know anything about building a sturdy house, I decided to trust in my talent as a "Carpenter."

I also summoned my shadows to help, but this time they weren't wielding swords, arrows, or spears.

This time, they would be using tools.

"Oy!! Pick up that part, you fools!! No, I mean the other one! Not the damn rocks!"

It's a bit hard to command them, because if I didn't know how to do something, they also didn't know how to do it.

But I'll make it work.

Through trial and error, I finally managed to build a solid house in 2 days, without sleeping.

It was small, but at least it had a wooden floor instead of dirt. So I don't have to worry about insects anymore.

The walls are also made of sturdy wood to withstand the wind and the roof is made of a mixture of waterproof leaves and wood so that it can withstand rainwater.

This way, I don't have to worry about storms anymore. Probably.

All that was left was the furniture.

I immediately made a bed out of dry grass and leaves and arranged the tables and chairs I had made before.

After everything was neatly arranged, I immediately lay down on my simple bed.

"Ohh... Yeah! how long has it been since I slept this well?"

I felt like I was back in civilisation, why didn't I do this sooner?

Probably because I was too excited about my new power.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever been this happy and free in my life.

My time on this island has been difficult and kinda dirty, but I felt strangely happy.

When I was a kid, I did have a lot of fun, but that all changed when I was diagnosed with a "dead heart".

Because I wanted to get my parents' attention back, I kept training so much that I forgot to play around like other kids my age.

And what did I get in return?

Instead of getting back my family's attention and affection, they kicked me out...

I kept working hard after that, I worked and saved for 5 years so I could buy my dream house, but instead I was falsely accused of stealing and put in jail.

I was really unfortunate back then.

But now, I have the power to change all that.

With this power, I don't need my family's attention, I don't need to look for work and I don't need to buy a house, I can make my own!

No, in fact, I can make this entire island my home!

Wait, why am I only making a house? I can do more than that.

I can make a village, or a city, or even....

A kingdom.

Right, why don't I just do that?

I can make my own kingdom on this island.

No, I will make my own kingdom on this island.

As the saying goes, the finder is the owner, right?

So from now on, this island is mine.

That night, I found a new ambition for life.

It's a bit ridiculous, but it works as long as I'm happy with it.

Also, this time, I can destroy anything that stands in my way.

And I can also run if that "anything" is too strong for me to destroy.