Thirty days had passed since the puppies were born.
They had grown significantly, and their facial features were beginning to resemble Kuro and Yuki’s.
Then, I made a new discovery.
Horns were starting to sprout from the puppies' foreheads.
...
Looking closely at Kuro and Yuki, I noticed what looked like the remnants of broken bone on their foreheads.
The reason I hadn’t noticed until now was that while they would let me pet their backs, Kuro and Yuki—to say nothing of the puppies—never used to let me touch their heads. They only started allowing it once the puppies’ horns began to emerge.
The scars where the horns had broken off looked painful. I wondered if they would ever grow back.
So, they weren't dogs after all.
Not that I particularly minded the horns. This was another world, after all. A horn or two wasn’t going to be an issue. It just meant I had to endure a bit of pain whenever they played with me.
Haha.
Since their horns were shaped like knives made of ore, I really wished they would stop charging at me head-first with such momentum.
The crops in the fields were growing rapidly. Most of them had borne fruit, and the strawberries and tomatoes were turning a deep red, signaling they were ready for harvest. The carrots and potatoes were also doing well, sporting lush green leaves. It was almost time to pull them up.
As for my experiment with dividing the fields and varying the cultivation methods...
The results showed that the more effort I put in, the faster they grew. In other words, the plants that received both water and fertilizer showed the best growth.
Next were the crops given only fertilizer. After that were the ones given only water. Finally, there were the crops I had left entirely alone.
However, even in the neglected fields, the crops grew reasonably well. I wasn't sure if that was just the way of this world or if it was thanks to the Universal Farming Tool.
At any rate, I decided it was time to harvest, but I immediately ran into a problem.
There was far too much produce.
Even though I didn't get tired because I was using the Universal Farming Tool as a sickle, kitchen knife, or scissors, the sheer volume was enough to make my head spin. I didn't expect Kuro and the others to help with the reaping, so I had to do it all by myself.
I didn't mind the work, but... well, there was nothing for it.
I worked myself to the bone. It took half a day to clear one plot, and six days to finish all twelve, but I finally managed to complete the harvest. I had planned to use the hollow of a tree trunk for storage, but it wasn't nearly big enough, so I ended up stacking produce inside my own home as well.
Problem one: the tomatoes. They were perfectly ripe, which meant I had to eat them quickly. Fortunately, Kuro and the others were happy to help, so we managed to get through them.
Problem two: the strawberries. They were also ripe and needed to be eaten immediately. However, the pack had specific preferences here. Yuki and Kurosan loved them, but the males didn't seem to care for them at all. It seemed the females had a sweet tooth. I made sure to eat my fair share as well.
Problem three: at this rate, the produce was going to spoil if I didn't consume it fast.
Problem four: I had no seasonings.
Problem five: I had no cooking tools.
Heh... I suppose one can't live an abundant life through primary industry alone. For starters, I couldn't even boil corn without some salt.
Next, I wanted to grow rice. If I had rice, I could just boil it and... right, cooking tools.
The problems were piling up.
Once the harvest was done, I began crafting cooking tools while snacking on the raw produce. For one thing, eating pumpkins raw was a bit much. I needed a stone plate—rather than an iron one—to use as a griddle.
I used the Universal Farming Tool to cut a slab from a large boulder, hauled it over, and positioned it so I could build a fire underneath. It ended up looking like a low stone table. While the tool made it easy to slice the rock, the slab would crack under its own weight if I made it too thin, so finding the right balance was tricky.
Once it was finished, I realized it would probably take a very long time to heat the stone through. This was likely the best I could do for now, though.
Next was a kitchen knife. I could use the Universal Farming Tool to slice crops, but I wanted a dedicated knife for things like butchering meat while the tool was busy lightening the load. I made this out of stone as well. I carved a suitably sized stone into the shape of a knife and sharpened the edge. It sliced through rabbit meat easily enough, so it would do the job. I made three of them, just to have spares.
Then came the pot. I carved it out of a solid rock since a wooden one would just burn. It was easy to make with the Universal Farming Tool, but it was incredibly heavy. I’d have to find some clay and make an earthenware pot eventually.
Regardless, the pot was finished. I even made a nice stone lid for it, but then I realized how hot it would get and how difficult it would be to lift, so I abandoned that idea. I decided to make the lid out of wood instead.
I ran into a bit of trouble when the puppies saw the wooden lid and started jumping around excitedly, clearly mistaking it for a new flying disc.