WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈
Chapter 202: Repaying a Favor (2)
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Seeing a dragon happily chew through Mithril made me realize an accident might happen soon.
Tyrano might give someone a light bite and tear off a chunk of flesh.
Since Tyrano often played with Wonmo, the odds of an accident were even higher.
At least Wonmo had learned about controlling his strength while playing with the raccoon dog.
For everyone's safety, I needed to teach Tyrano restraint too.
“Tyrano. Bite here.”
“Peep?”
With Tyrano on my shoulder, I pointed to my forearm.
Tyrano seemed to focus as it carefully examined the spot I was pointing at.
“Bite slowly until I say it hurts. Like this. Nom!”
When I even pretended to bite my forearm, Tyrano tilted its head.
It would be better to show it than explain it with words.
It's fine if you bite us to show affection, but your bite force is too strong.
You need to learn how to bite with the right amount of strength before an accident happens. So copy me.
I needed to teach it that and drill it into its head.
“Peeeep!”
Then, as if Tyrano understood what I meant, it smiled brightly and bit my forearm.
Crunch!
“Gaaaah! No! No! Not like that! Let go! Let go!”
“Peep?!”
The instant it bit down, I thought my bone would break. I hurriedly stopped Tyrano.
Tyrano backed away in a panic as soon as it heard my scream.
When I looked at my forearm, clear teeth marks had been left behind.
‘How did it only leave marks? It wouldn't have been strange if they had sunk right in.’
My bone hadn't broken, but a nasty bruise had formed.
It looked like I would need to fill a syringe with Elixir and inject it soon.
“See? See that? You're this strong. So don't bite your friends too hard.”
“Peeeeep……”
“It’s okay. It’s okay. That can happen. Here, let's try again.”
Through steady repetition, Tyrano quickly got the hang of controlling its strength.
It was intelligent, so it seemed to understand what I wanted right away.
Now that accidents were no longer a concern, only one thing remained.
‘How should I manage our food?’
With more mouths to feed, food had become an urgent issue.
Largo only needed leaves, at least, but the other animals were different.
‘Every last one of them is a big eater.’
As if things weren't difficult enough, winter was coming soon. I needed to stockpile food for it.
Potatoes were one of the most common foods for preparing for winter.
I had received potato seeds from GrowGrow, so all I had to do was plant them.
‘...Should I make winter kimchi?’
The pointless thought crossed my mind, but I dismissed it.
Winter kimchi in this situation? I didn't even eat kimchi that often.
It seemed better to look through the Gallery.
If I couldn't find anything, I could just ask.
‘Ohhh... There’s bread, surprisingly.’
I quickly found foods suitable for winter.
There was the smoked meat I had made by salting it before, as well as salted vegetables.
Rice and wheat were said to be especially suitable for getting through winter. Both needed to be stored somewhere cool.
For now, I planned to ask GrowGrow.
If they didn't have any, I would need to look for seeds at the Auction House.
‘There are cabbage, spinach, radishes, and potatoes too, but...’
If I stored too many different things, it might just become confusing.
‘This winter, let's get by with three things: wheat, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Then...’
I needed to learn how to harvest wheat.
Rather than search through everything myself, I asked GrowGrow. It seemed faster.
[GrowGrow]: If you've harvested wheat, you need to dry it within four hours. That way, the quality won't worsen.
[Wild Grylls]: What happens if I don't?
[GrowGrow]: It’ll rot or grow mold, I guess?
[Wild Grylls]: ;;
Originally, I had planned to make bread with flour.
After hearing the explanation, though, I gave up on that too.
There was way too much work involved. Noodles were much better than bread.
Even making flour took a long time.
‘Come to think of it, there are bakers, but no profession dedicated to cooking rice.’
Since I cooked rice every day at home, I had assumed bread would be possible too.
But just as turning rice into rice cakes was difficult, making bread was the same.
So I changed course from wheat to rice.
GrowGrow didn't have rice either, so I planned to ask someone else.
‘Heavenly Demon should have some, right?’
The Central Plains were part of the martial arts world, so there was a good chance they had rice too.
I gave GrowGrow some soil, then spoke to Heavenly Demon.
[Heavenly Demon]: Are you asking for rice?
[Wild Grylls]: More precisely, rice seeds. I'm planning to harvest rice.
[Heavenly Demon]: Understood. I shall have an attendant procure some for you.
[Wild Grylls]: Thank you.
Since I would be receiving rice from Heavenly Demon soon, I decided to dry the wheat first.
To dry wheat, I needed to thresh it first, but stripping the grains off one by one was incredibly difficult.
That meant I needed a thresher. Since I would be harvesting rice soon as well, it wasn't optional. It was necessary.
‘Not only do I need a thresher, I need to remove the husks too... Did farmers really do all this one by one?’
A fresh wave of respect for farmers rose inside me.
I checked the Auction House for a thresher and a husking tool.
‘Isn't this a comb?’
There was a thresher that looked somewhat like a comb. More precisely, it was a comb-shaped piece of metal.
I bought it and checked it out. It was roughly the size of a person's head.
‘You put the head of the grain in here, then pull it through, right?’
At a glance, I understood how to use it. So what came next?
I would make Ludwig do it. Before that, I spread a sheet over the ground.
Then I put chairs along the edges and secured the thresher on top.
“All right. Let's work.”
“Mm.”
Rattle, rattle, rattle!
We hooked the heads of wheat into the closely spaced teeth of the thresher and pulled.
Plump kernels spilled down in heaps.
“Lick. Lick.”
“Hey, Tyrano. You can't eat that!”
“Peep?”
Tyrano tried to lick up a few kernels midway through, but I barely stopped it.
After that, we diligently threshed all the wheat we had harvested so far.
I gathered the threshed kernels in one place and set them somewhere sunny.
Drying them like chili peppers should work. I also didn't forget to apply bug repellent.
‘The birds... won't come, right?’
The birds had fled Tyrano's might long ago.
As long as Tyrano was here, they probably wouldn't come back.
What would I do while the kernels dried?
“Ludwig, I'm going on a quick patrol.”
“Mm.”
I went out to hunt while patrolling. Ludwig could defend the shelter well enough.
And it wasn't only Ludwig. Kkobong was here too.
Kkobong was diligently using the thresher as well.
We couldn't survive all winter on nothing but rice or noodles.
I had originally planned to leave Tyrano behind too.
“Peeeeep! Peeeeep!”
“I said I'll only be gone for a moment.”
“Peeeeep! Peeeeep!!”
But it clung to me, telling me not to go, and that if I did, I should take it with me.
It was absurdly strong.
With no other choice, I took Tyrano with me on patrol.
Fast Sloth was clinging to my back, though.
“Do you really have to sit there?”
“Peep!”
“Fine. I don't know anymore.”
Tyrano settled onto my head like it was a nest.
It was a little heavy, but not uncomfortable. Better than having it wander off somewhere and get lost.
There was an unexpected benefit too. Tyrano's reactions.
“Peep.”
Tyrano lifted its head and let out a small cry, as though it had spotted something over there.
I was a little doubtful, but I headed where Tyrano wanted to go.
“Squeal.”
“Oh...?”
There was a wild boar.
A wild boar so massive it could be compared to a bus.
It was the size of something out of a movie, and its sharply protruding tusks were impressive.
‘...I saw one like that in the military once, didn't I?’
The memory still came back clearly.
A wild boar had come shambling over while we were working.
There had been a jeep right next to it, but that miraculous wild boar had made the vehicle look small.
“Squeeeal!!!”
A wild boar even bigger than that charged at me.
I had more or less expected this, so I wasn't flustered as I moved to dodge.
“Peeeeeep!!!”
Tyrano, sitting on my head, let out an adorable roar.
It worked on birds, but would it work on a wild boar too?
“Squeal?!”
Screeeech!
It worked. Very effectively, at that.
The wild boar's eyes went wide, and it slammed on the brakes the instant it heard the roar.
I didn't know whether it realized Tyrano was a hatchling or whether instinctive fear had been carved into it.
One thing was certain. A huge opportunity had come to me.
I rushed at the wild boar.
Crunch!
Heavenly Demon’s Sword drove straight into its forehead.
The wild boar's brain turned to mush. It trembled for a while before finally collapsing limply.
Thud!
It was so large that a faint vibration ran through the ground when it fell.
I let out the breath I had been holding and stared at the wild boar on the ground.
It was so big, we could probably spend the winter on this alone.
I would need to make a large storage room, though. Thankfully, I had plenty of ice.
“...You're amazing, huh?”
“Peep!”
When I praised Tyrano while rubbing under its chin, it proudly held its head high.
It looked like it was boasting, See how great I am! It was still adorable, though.
I tightly tied up the wild boar with rope I had prepared beforehand.
There was no way I could carry this, so I planned to drag it home.
‘Still... It’s heavy.’
It couldn't be helped, considering its size.
I just needed to think of it as winter food.
Just in case, I put Tyrano on top of the wild boar. I wanted it to keep watch.
There were too many thieves in the Forest of Four Seasons, so it couldn't be helped.
“Kyuu?”
Wonmo, who had woken from his nap, welcomed us when I dragged the wild boar back.
Ludwig and Kkobong were still threshing wheat.
I had only been out on patrol for a short time, but I had made a huge haul.
“Mister! You know how to butcher too, right?”
“#%$#”
“Then please help me.”
Butchering this alone would take too long.
With its size, I wasn't even sure I could butcher it properly.
Thankfully, Ludwig seemed skilled at butchering too.
Maybe it was because he often had to be self-sufficient while carrying out so many missions.
“One, two! Pull!”
“Hup!”
“Squeal.”
Even though I had prepared myself, the preliminary work was hard. It reminded me of the Saber-Toothed Tiger.
Butchering normally started by hanging the animal upside down.
That made draining the blood easier.
The problem was that the wild boar was so big, hanging it upside down was difficult too.
I borrowed Largo's help here. Largo was quite strong too, and pulled the wild boar up to where we needed it.
It was practically a living crane. I never thought it would be useful like this.
Trickle, trickle, trickle-
Since draining the blood took time, I built the storage room in the meantime.
It wasn't a stone icehouse, just something similar to a freezer.
Not a place to store tools and odds and ends, but a place meant only for storing food.
I could supply nearly unlimited ice with my ability, so it would be enough as long as I handled the insulation well.
‘Make sure the heat can escape easily... And I'm short on sand again?’
Whenever I got one thing, I needed another. Whenever I got that, something else was lacking.
It felt like I had fallen into an endless cycle. Still, that was normal.
If I had been living alone, it would be different, but as the group grew, more things naturally became necessary.
‘Time is okay. Still, I need to hurry.’
I went downstream to gather sand, then came back and piled up the storage room again.
After thoroughly coating the inside with soil and straw for insulation, I returned to butchering.
I wanted to have Kkobong do it, but unfortunately, they were a gorilla.
Their hands weren't suited for delicate work like butchering.
Crack!
Once the butchering had progressed far enough, I put ice into the storage room.
After all the ice was inside, I put in the butchered wild boar, grains, vegetables, and everything else that could become food.
‘I'll just use cloth for the door. I don't have enough time to install an actual door.’
By the time everything was finished, it was four-thirty in the afternoon.
If I had done it alone, I couldn't have finished today. Having extra hands made such a huge difference.
“Good work. Would you like to wash up?”
“Mm.”
I prepared bathwater for Ludwig, who had worked the hardest today.
I also planned to wash every animal, including Kkobong.
Surprisingly, Kkobong washed themself well. As long as I prepared bathwater, they handled everything on their own.
For Largo, brushing and wiping it down with a damp cloth was enough. Lastly, Tyrano...
“Peeeeep!!! Peeeeep!!!”
“Ah, what's wrong? You don't want a bath?”
“Peeep! Peep! Peeeeep!”
Maybe it really was like a cat, because it refused to be washed.
Still, for the sake of hygiene, there was no choice. It absolutely had to be washed.
It didn't have fur, but who knew what kind of ticks might be living on its body?
“If you don't wash, I won't feed you.”
“Peeeing...”
Thankfully, threatening it with food made it obedient.
Another peaceful day came to an end.
Footnotes:
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