Chapter 21

What could be the biggest difference between humans and other animals?

Tool usage? That’s a pass since some primates and sea otters that crack open shellfish with rocks know how to use tools too.

Presence of intelligence? Many animals are pretty smart—dolphins, crows, dogs, and horses have intelligence comparable to young children.

In my opinion, the biggest difference between humans and animals is the ability to use fire.

The intense heat and bright light, all advantageous traits for humans, must’ve been incredibly important for primitive humanity.

Fire provides warmth in cold environments and its bright light wards off wild animal threats, making it a precious inseparable element for human civilization’s first steps.

Sure, there are cases like fire bears that aren’t afraid of fire but instead show curiosity, but those are rare exceptions.

Using fire to cook food opens up new possibilities—making inedible things edible, removing parasites and microorganisms through heat to enable long-term food storage.

There’s nothing as crucial as fire for humanity’s first steps.

Some groups even deified fire by enshrining goddesses of hearths as family guardian deities or creating religions around fire itself. Fire is truly an inseparable element for humanity.

Anyway, holding the tool to create such flames in the hands of god, I looked upon the largest group of humans in this world.

A bountiful environment—countless animals to hunt and fruit-laden trees everywhere.

Thanks to this rich environment, a primitive village with hundreds of primitive people has formed.

This place should be sufficient for spreading fire.

Of course, I planned to give fire to a few other places too, including the lizardmen.

I can’t possibly favor just one group of humans, so I need to treat everyone fairly.

Though teaching the skill to make fire depends on their abilities—I can easily create fire with magic, but…

I prepared several methods: rubbing a thin stick in a grooved wooden board, making a primitive bow-like device from plant fibers, or forcefully pushing a branch back and forth in a grooved board—but…

How many of these will they be able to replicate? Hard to say.

Maybe I should infuse elemental spirit power into small flint stones to make fire easier to produce? But that might create a big gap between those who have the flint and those who don’t.

Well, let’s teach them first and see what happens. Yeah.

It’ll work out somehow… somehow.

Even if I don’t teach them, they’d eventually figure out how to make fire in some way. I’m just speeding up the process.

Holding the bundle of firewood as a gift, I began walking toward the group of primitives.

—

“Kiik! Kik!”

Primitive humans who communicate through cries rather than language. They started making strange threatening noises around me.

Well, my appearance is quite different from theirs—not furry, different facial structure, silver hair…

Most notably, I have horns on my head.

The primitives are holding tree branches like weapons, warily watching me. After casually scanning them with my divine power…

While primitives don’t understand magical power yet, they were merely standing guard without understanding what I was doing.

With a light clench of my fist, I pressed down on the shoulders of the surrounding primitives.

“Kiaaaak!!”

The primitives, suddenly feeling an overwhelming force, fell to their knees screaming. They probably don’t understand what just happened.

Well, it’s better they don’t understand. I have no intention of explaining.

“You’re aiming too high.”

“Kiik… kik!”

“When will you learn language? The lizardmen took hundreds of years after their creation.”

Hmm… might hundreds of years not be enough?

And getting all the scattered humans to learn the same language… well, that’s practically impossible, right?

No, wait. If I empower someone learning language to conquer the world… would that spread the language?

It sounds far-fetched, but it could be interesting!

“Kiik…”

“Sorry about that. I was spacing out for a moment.”

I released the pressure on the primitives, and they slowly lifted their heads.

The eyes of the largest primitive, wearing poorly tied animal skins around his waist, met mine.

The leader of this group I observed earlier.

Once the pressure disappeared, he prostrated himself before me.

Then the rest of the group followed suit, bowing to me.

Was that too scary? No, this level is necessary to get their attention.

Modern humans are still very close to animals at this stage.

After stacking some firewood from the items I brought, I channeled magical power to ignite flames.

“Kyaack!!! KiyaAAAK!!!”

The humans were shocked by the flames I conjured—have they never seen fire before?

Makes sense. Unless they encounter ifrits, they rarely see fire.

After transferring the flame to the pile of wood and shaking off the remaining embers, I nodded—it caught well.

The burning logs radiating intense heat kept the humans at bay.

I gestured to the apparent leader.

“Kiik…?”

The leader, not understanding my gesture, only looked around confused.

Ah, language is necessary. Definitely.

I used magical power to pull the leader closer to the burning logs.

“Kiik!! KyaAAAK!!”

Anyone watching would think I’m trying to burn him alive. How can someone so fearful be a leader?

Well, sometimes you need to offer carrots as well as wield the whip.

I picked up a nearby rock, slightly larger than my palm.

Applying a single magic spell to transform the rock into meat! Now the hard rock becomes a juicy piece of meat with just the right amount of fat marbling.

At first, it used to turn into dry chicken, but after countless improvements, it now produces meat that can rival any gourmet dish.

Anyway, after using magic to float the meat above the fire and roasting it evenly, once it smelled delicious, I took it out to check.

Let’s cut it into bite-sized pieces.

“Kiik? Kkungkkung…”

The leader’s nose twitched as he sniffed the mouthwatering aroma.

I offered a properly cooled piece of meat to the leader, who hesitated for a while before giving in to instinct and putting the meat in his mouth.

Great, hooked.

“?!?!”

The leader, unable to properly vocalize, likely had his taste buds overwhelmed by the well-cooked meat compared to raw meat or fruits.

The leader’s expression melted away with bliss. Can’t let him enjoy this alone.

Using magic, I cut the roasted meat into bite-sized pieces and distributed them to the surrounding humans.

At first wary, the humans couldn’t resist the aroma stimulating their appetites.

“Kiik…?”

“Kyaack!!!”

You guys really need to learn language. I can’t understand what you’re saying.

Anyway, this should make you understand the usefulness of fire… Wait! Why are you trying to put your hand in the fire?!

I stopped the leader’s movement and shook my head to indicate it was forbidden, but he didn’t understand my intention.

Sigh… this is inconvenient without language.

I quickly extinguished the fire and handed over a few fire-making tools to the leader.

After examining the items I gave him, he carelessly tossed them aside. You beastly primitives…

Suppressing my rising wrath, I demonstrated how to make fire using each tool—one with a grooved wooden board and stick, another with a string-made bow, and finally the groove-and-stick method until…

“Uuukiik!! Kiiiik!!”

The leader seemed to understand that these tools could create fire.

Sigh… Can I really guide these beastly primitives in the right direction…

My worries pile up like Mount Everest…