Morning arrived.
Inside the storehouse, four new lives had begun.
There were four puppies, all as pitch-black as their parents. The mother must have struggled during the night, but to my eyes, it seemed like a remarkably smooth delivery. Perhaps I had been influenced too much by medical dramas on TV. It couldn’t be helped, though; when I was confined to a hospital bed, watching television was about the only thing I could do. Regardless, the mother looked healthy and well, which was a huge relief.
Now, for breakfast.
I decided to treat them in celebration of the birth. I took the choice cuts of the boar meat I had secured the day before and offered them to the dogs. When I called the male over and handed him the meat, he immediately carried it to the mother’s side. I wondered for a moment if he was henpecked, but then I shook the thought away. It was only natural for a male to be considerate of a female, and even more so when she had just finished giving birth.
I refilled the drinking water in the bucket inside the storehouse and added more wood to the fire. I had debated whether or not to extinguish the flames, but I figured that if the fire bothered them, the dogs would have reacted somehow. Since they hadn't touched it by morning, I judged it to be safe. Still, it would be a tragedy if the newborns got burned, so I built a small earthen wall to surround the flames. It looked even more like a proper sunken hearth now.
After that, I had my own breakfast and visited the outhouse.
Come to think of it, I recalled the parents’ bodies being covered in wounds when we first met. Looking at the male now, he was still scarred, but the injuries were already closing up. I had noticed how bad they looked from a distance yesterday, so his natural healing ability must have been incredible. Well, as long as he was okay, it didn't really matter.
"I’m going out to look for food. I’m leaving this place in your hands."
I gave the male dog those instructions before heading into the forest. Since I had shared the boar meat with the two of them, my food situation had shifted. I still had rabbit meat, but since my only method of preservation was roasting it, my stockpile felt unreliable in both quantity and longevity. Even if I could manage with the Universal Farming Tool, I didn't want the dogs to go hungry. I'm sure they had survived on their own before they found me, but still...
Wait. I was thinking about this as if I were fully adopting all six of them, puppies included, but I wondered what they thought of the arrangement. Had they only come to me for the birth? Did they intend to leave once the puppies grew up?
The thought made me feel a bit lonely. The puppies were so cute; I hoped they would at least leave one behind if they did go. But that was probably asking too much. No, no, wait—it hadn't even been decided that they were leaving. For now, I just had to make sure they realized this was a good place to live. And if possible, it would be a huge help if they could assist in guarding my fields. To that end, I needed to secure plenty of food and show my worth as a reliable provider.
Ten days passed since the puppies were born.
Contrary to my anxieties, the two adults and their pups seemed more than happy to rely on my care. I liked to think it was the result of my hard work.
The first surprise: the parents could clear my log fence and moat with ease. They weren't just clearing a three-meter gap; they were leaping five or six meters through the air. I wondered if the reason they hadn't jumped over when they first arrived was because of their injuries, or perhaps out of consideration for the pregnant mother. In any case, the parents moved around as they pleased now, venturing into the forest to hunt rabbits and other prey. The fact that they brought their kills back to me instead of eating them on the spot suggested they had recognized me as their master—or perhaps they were just ordering me to skin the pelts for them. Regardless, their help in securing food was a blessing. I did expand the width and depth of the moat just in case, but they still hopped over it without a care.
The second surprise: the puppies' growth rate. They were getting much larger. They had been tiny and adorable at first, but after about seven days, they were weaned and eating meat just like the adults. Looking closely, I could see their teeth coming in, including sharp, fang-like canines. Despite that, they were still very cute.
The third surprise: the dogs, both parents and pups, were protecting my fields. To be precise, they chased away any birds that drew near. Furthermore, whenever they spotted a suspicious insect, they would bark to alert me. They were becoming very reliable. I had also been a little worried about where they would relieve themselves, but they quickly learned to use the specific area I designated. They were clearly highly intelligent animals.
During those ten days, I spent my time securing food and building a second storehouse. I needed more food because there were more mouths to feed, and I needed a new storehouse because the dogs had completely claimed the first one as their own. I decided to let them have it, officially repurposing it into a doghouse.
Securing food was easy enough thanks to the Universal Farming Tool. As for the construction, since it was my second time building a storehouse, I felt proud that the new one was even sturdier than the first.
Actually... wouldn't this be a more comfortable place for me to live? My current bed in the tree trunk was really just a hole. Since it was inside a living tree, I couldn't use fire, which was a major drawback. I weighed my options and decided to turn my old sleeping quarters into a storehouse and move into the new one. I lined the floor with wooden boards and made myself at home.
While keeping an eye on the fields, I devoted myself to gathering timber and crafting small items. I focused particularly on making more dishes and cups. The ones I had been using had essentially been passed down to the dogs, so I needed my own. My woodworking skills had improved significantly compared to when I started; I felt they were almost good enough to sell.
I wasn't satisfied with just carving, though. I began challenging myself to learn joinery. Until then, I had only been able to hollow things out of solid wood, which resulted in items that were unnecessarily heavy. That was fine for plates, but a bucket for carrying water became quite a burden when it was that thick. While the Universal Farming Tool made things lighter when I held it, I knew I shouldn't rely on the tool for everything. If I could learn to join wood, I could make things much lighter. My ultimate goal was to make a tub, but I started practicing by making a square measuring box. I still had to figure out how to make them watertight.
I also spent time gathering leaves. Their primary use was as "toilet paper" for the outhouse. I also used them for bedding. Once I confirmed that the first type of grass I gathered didn't cause a rash, I made sure to keep a healthy supply on hand. Since the forest was full of the stuff, I never had to look far.
However, gathering enough leaves for a "grass bed" turned out to be more work than I expected. They weren't heavy, but hauling enough of them back from the forest to create a soft mattress was quite a chore. Still, the result was well worth the effort. Incidentally, the puppies were the first ones to climb onto the new beds. I realized that keeping a grass bed near an open flame was a fire hazard, so I removed the fire I had set up in the doghouse. It had served its purpose for the birth, and with the grass beds to snuggle in, they wouldn't be cold.
My only worry was how long the grass would last. I’d have to replace it once it withered, and the thought of having to gather that much again was a bit depressing. I hoped I could find a more permanent solution eventually.
The sprouts in the fields were growing well, and some of the faster ones had already started to bloom. I was finally starting to recognize what was what: carrots, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplants, daikon radishes, spinach, corn, watermelons, and strawberries. They were exactly the crops I had been thinking of when I was tilling the soil. I wondered if the crops grew based on what I wished for while I worked. I wanted to experiment, but for now, I decided not to expand any further until I could harvest what was right in front of me. After all, I had never actually farmed before. I didn't even know how much water they needed.
Furthermore, the crops I knew didn't bloom this quickly. These were likely plants unique to this world. To figure out the best approach, I divided one section of the field into four zones: one for watering, one for tilling the soil around the furrows with the hoe to add fertilizer, one for both, and one where I did nothing at all. I planned to use the results of the harvest to determine the best method moving forward.
The one thing I did for all the crops was pest control. I didn't know how to make pesticides, and while I considered singeing the bugs with fire, I was afraid of damaging the plants. After some trial and error, I discovered that the insects hated the water I sprayed when I turned the Universal Farming Tool into a watering can. I had originally just intended to water the plants, but I noticed the bugs fleeing from it. From then on, whenever I found anything that looked like a pest, I chased it away with the watering can.
The dogs, for their part, showed absolutely no interest in eating the bugs. Apparently, they had a refined palate for beast meat.