A Plan?

Arthur had just finished casting Mana Drain for the twelfth time and realized he was in a predicament. He previously wanted to catch eight fishes, but a gut feeling told him despite each fish weighing roughly one pound it wouldn't be enough. To be safe he caught four more.

Well not "caught" since currently in the stream even without his Mana Sense he could see that there were only twelve fish, the other hundreds had long since swam away in fear. As for the twelve red striped fish they were currently lying at the bottom of the seabed unable to move. Nine of the twelve fish looked no different than previously, the rest still had black miasma coming out, showing they still had mana, but not enough to be able swim.

As Arthur continued watching the fish, he remembered that on his way here he had seen a small seven foot tree with leaves even bigger than the tree itself with his Mana Sense.

If he were to get those tree leaves he could potentially make a makeshift sack.

With a plan now in mind Arthur cast his buff spells once more, left the fish in the stream and ran to where he remembered the tree was at.

After retracing his steps for six minutes, Arthur stopped; he could see with his Mana Sense that the tree he was looking for was three hundred feet to his left.

The reason why he had stopped and not proceeded towards the tree was because if he were to turn left he would be walking straight into the depths of Gaia Forest.

Though on second thought Gaia Forest should be extremely big, so the tree's location should still be within the outer layer.

Even if it wasn't the outer layer with his Mana Sense he could not see any dangerous looking animals. 

There were a few rabbits and squirrels that probably came back after they thought it was once again safe.

Knowing it was safe Arthur decided to make his way over towards the tree going around tree after tree while keeping his full vigilance around him.

290 feet…

250 feet…

200 feet… Still nothing

100 feet…

At this point even without his Mana Sense he could see the tree since within its range no other tree could be seen, only small bushes.

The tree, or more specifically the tree trunk was as mentioned seven feet tall. It was a normal familiar looking tree if not for the leaves that hung down the tree. 

Knowing it was safe he walked over and stood in front of the tree getting a good look at the teardrop shaped leaves which were probably ten feet long and about six feet wide at the base. The petiole was surprisingly only three feet long but with the thickness of an adult arm.

Using his enhanced strength he jumped up, grabbed a leaf by its stem, and pulled the leaf alongside its petiole out.

After falling down Arthur jumped once again grabbed another leaf repeating that two more times until he had four massive leaves with their surprisingly malleable petioles.

Now that he had a way to carry all those fish he hurried back to the stream and luckily after arriving the twelve fish were still there.

With the fish still there, he started on his plan he first tore off the petioles from all four leaves.

After doing so he placed two leaves horizontally on the floor with the base of both leaves overlapping each other and the apex of the leaves facing outwards.

After doing so Arthur needed to get the fish out since his Mana Sense was always on he knew there was no one around. Knowing that he took off his black t-shirt and similarly colored black shorts leaving his boxers on and jumped into the stream which came up to his chest.

After taking a deep breath and holding his breath he crouched down and grabbed a fish each in each hand before resurfacing out of the water placing the fish on the leaves and once again diving back down until all twelve fish were out of the stream and onto the stacked leaves.

Since he was soaking wet and no one was around he decided to wait to put his clothes back on.

Now that the fish were on the stacked base part of the leaves. Arthur grabbed the last two leaves he had and like he did with the bottom he placed two leaves facing away from each other with the bases overlapping with one another. Now came the hard part because if he were to lift the leaves the fish would fall since the leaves were not hard. That was why Arthur had brought the petioles because they were malleable and can be used as substitute string.

Grabbing one petiole, Arthur first tied the two apex's on his left together, then the right.

That now left him with the middle and the most important part, which he decided to tie it in the shape of an x.

By this point, his body, except for his hair, had already dried up, so he put on his clothes and grabbed his candy wrapper? No, it would be apt to call it a "fish wrapper" and started walking back the way he came from.

Despite it taking so long, he felt quite accomplished.

He succeeded in casting Mana Drain.

Multiple times.

He developed a theory that all living beings in this world are made up of mana. Like how humans from his previous world are made up of cells.

Though he would need to experiment more to truly factualize his theory, but for now based on how the fish died after being deprived of mana. He could conclude that mana is essential for living beings in this world.

And the last thing he felt accomplished with was the "fish wrapper" he made.

Initially, he wanted to make a guitar like casing for the fish, so he could wear it like a backpack, but to do that he would need more petioles and most importantly more time. If he were to make a guess it probably took him forty minutes or more for his hunting session.So he didn't want to worry the others more than he probably already had.