Got a Gallery in the Wild

After the flock of sparrows, now there were moles too.

Farming was far more difficult than I’d imagined.

And honestly, I was starting to get angry.

Ludwig seemed to feel the same way because, the moment the moles stole the sweet potatoes, he immediately went out to hunt them.

The first thing he tried was fairly simple plant the sweet potato seeds and catch the mole with his bare hands the moment it appeared.

I asked him why he didn’t just stab it with his sword, but he said it was difficult.

Apparently, the mole was too fast, and since he couldn’t use mana, it was better to try catching it with his hands.

Craaack!

“Kyyeee!”

“Damn it!”

Surprisingly, he actually managed to grab the mole with his bare hands.

The problem was that the creature’s strength was so overwhelming that it nearly dragged Ludwig underground.

Fortunately, he managed to break free, though he didn’t come away unscathed.

His arm was hanging limp.

“……”

“……”

Judging by the way his arm was dangling, it looked like he’d dislocated his shoulder.

Even so, it seemed he’d gone through something like this before because he popped it back into place himself.

Just to be safe, I also gave him a little elixir.

From now on, it’d be better not to provoke the moles.

It would be wiser to think of another solution.

Title) Don’t Go Touching Moles Recklessly—Ludwig Had His Arm Pulled Out of Socket

WildGrills

(Photo of the marks left behind where the mole stole the crops.)

(Photo of Ludwig sitting with his back turned, wearing a completely dejected expression.)

The flock of sparrows stole our wheat, so we switched to survival crops.

Then the moles immediately stole the sweet potatoes. I was speechless.

This gentleman got so angry that he tried to catch the mole with his bare hands.

But the thing grabbed his arm in an instant and tried to drag him underground.

We managed to pull him free in time, but he ended up dislocating his shoulder.

At least the sparrows stay above ground, but these bastards live underground, and you can’t even catch them.

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) Young man, you weren’t hurt, were you?

ㄴWildGrills) I’m fine.

ㄴSwordmaster) If that man nearly had his arm ripped off, that thing must have pulled with monstrous strength. That’s pretty terrifying.

ㄴAfter the sparrows, now it’s moles. Hahaha. The forest is literally telling you not to farm.

ㄴGrills, just buy bread from the Auction House and stop suffering. Hahaha.

ㄴDwarfPassingBy) Hey, now that I think about it… what happened to my wheat? Did you end up harvesting nothing?

ㄴWildGrills) ? A little while ago you said barley. Why’d you change your mind?

ㄴDwarfPassingBy) After thinking about it, I realized I can make beer with wheat too. Would you give me some?

ㄴWildGrills) Yeah, I can give you some. I’ll send it over later.

ㄴDwarfPassingBy) Thx, thx.

ㄴI think that guy cares more about alcohol than Grills. Hahaha.

ㄴThe alcoholic dwarf. Hahaha.

ㄴDwarfPassingBy) That guy is always saying he’s injured, but he somehow survives every time. As for me, I can’t live without alcohol.

ㄴWildGrills) (Photo of a horrible scar.) What the hell?

ㄴDwarfPassingBy) Maybe I’d better not say anything, huh?

ㄴWhat a fast change in attitude. Hahaha.

ㄴEvery time these two talk, I crack up. Hahaha.

ㄴGrowGrow) Moles are difficult. The only option is to locate their tunnels and catch them directly.

ㄴWildGrills) Aren’t there machines or some kind of poison?

ㄴGrowGrow) There is poison, but it could also affect Wonmo.

ㄴWildGrills) Tch… I understand.

In the end, I had no choice but to leave the mole problem for later.

But I couldn’t treat them the same way I treated the sparrows and simply offer them part of the harvest.

At least the flock of sparrows had raided the crops head-on, using brute force.

The moles, on the other hand, acted like ordinary thieves.

In the first case, you could swallow your anger and think about getting revenge later.

But in the second.

It felt like they were making a fool out of me.

I had to stop them somehow.

“Ah, sir.”

“……?”

“We’re going to dig up this entire field.”

Without a trap, catching the moles was practically impossible.

So the only option left was to dig up the entire field and cover the surface with bricks.

No matter how well they could dig, they shouldn’t be able to break through solid stone.

And if they managed to break through even that.

Then we’d have to come up with another solution.

In any case, the conclusion was obvious.

Time to get back to hard labor.

Whack! Whack!

“Ow… my back.”

“#%%#”

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been digging today.

My back was starting to hurt.

Ludwig didn’t seem to be doing any better either; he was even frowning in pain.

Normally, he always wore that stern, expressionless face, so seeing him like this meant he was genuinely exhausted.

‘But I can’t give up.’

It wasn’t a matter of, “If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it.”

If you can’t avoid it, then face it.

I’d like to enjoy things too, if I could.

But this wasn’t civilization.

It was the wilderness.

The moment I let my guard down, I’d lose my life, so I had no choice but to stay prepared at all times.

After that, we dug the field even deeper and built a wall covering the entire surface.

Just to be safe, we made it double-layered.

It had to be impossible to break through.

Once everything was ready, we planted the sweet potato seeds again.

Whoosh!

Before long, the vines began to grow.

Scrraatch!

From beneath the ground came the unmistakable sound of a mole scratching at the bricks.

Both the flock of sparrows and the moles detected the crops the instant they grew.

It was truly strange.

Did they have some kind of special sense?

Or was it because the seeds came from the outside world?

In any case, we’d already confirmed that the mole couldn’t break through the bricks.

All that remained was harvesting.

Clench!

But first, we had to deal with that damned mole.

I walked over to where the noise was coming from and stabbed the HeavenlyDemon’s sword into the ground.

Didn’t feel like I’d pierced flesh?

Then I stabbed it again.

Thrust!

After several attempts, I finally felt the sensation of the blade piercing flesh.

At the same time, the sound of the mole digging disappeared completely.

It was probably so focused on trying to break through the bricks that it never noticed a sword being driven down from above.

‘Let’s see what you look like.’

I grabbed the shovel and started digging.

I was curious to see what kind of mole it was.

Ludwig seemed to feel the same way because, instead of asking anything, he simply picked up another shovel and started helping.

“…Is that really a mole?”

“……”

When we finally dug it out of the ground, its size was terrifying.

As far as I knew, an ordinary mole was only a little bigger than two fists put together.

But this thing was anything but ordinary.

It was roughly the size of a medium-sized dog.

Very similar to the giant golden frog I had found at the beginning.

What on earth had it been eating to grow so large?

First, we had to take a picture.

“Hold it for a moment.”

I handed the giant mole to Ludwig and took the photo.

When I mimicked the gesture of taking a picture, Ludwig responded with a thumbs-up.

Title) I Caught a Mole

WildGrills

(Photo of Ludwig holding the giant mole while giving a thumbs-up.)

But are moles normally this big?

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) How big is a mole usually?

ㄴSwordmaster) As far as I know, they’re tiny. That’s the abnormal one.

ㄴWhat kind of mole is as big as a person’s torso? Hahaha.

ㄴNow that I think about it, that thing was tunneling underground lol.

ㄴAt some point, Grills’ posts stopped being about survival and turned into a farmer’s diary. Hahaha.

ㄴThen what does that make Ludwig?

ㄴA farmhand?

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) Sir Ludwig is not a farmhand!

ㄴThe moderator snapped again. Hahaha.

ㄴHey, Moderator. What have you been up to lately?

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) I’m on my way to Eldorado’s capital right now! I have a bad feeling something is about to happen!

ㄴIsn’t Eldorado’s capital extremely dangerous right now?

ㄴYeah. The Holy Knights are patrolling everywhere. Things look bad.

ㄴDidn’t they say they’d already arrested several people?

ㄴI’d stay away if possible.

We’d already eliminated one harmful animal.

Now it was time to harvest the sweet potatoes.

As for the mole.

Wonmo would probably have no trouble eating it.

Though, just in case it had parasites, I also planned to give him a little elixir.

“Alright. One… two!”

Whoosh!

As we pulled on the vines, enormous sweet potatoes came popping out one after another.

Would you believe me if I said each one was as thick as my forearm?

It was an incredible harvest.

For a while, we wouldn’t have to worry about food.

‘We’ll have to eat them all before winter arrives.’

GrowGrow had already warned me.

Sweet potatoes were extremely sensitive to the cold.

Unlike regular potatoes, they couldn’t withstand low temperatures and rotted easily, even after being harvested.

We’d have to finish them before winter arrived, or right as it began.

‘Some of them should be roasted.’

Few things were better than roasted sweet potatoes in winter.

And as luck would have it, we already had a fireplace in the cave.

I brushed the dirt off the sweet potatoes and stored them in a sack.

I would’ve liked to plant something else.

But I was completely exhausted.

“I’m done.”

“Done? Then come help me.”

“I want to rest.”

“Are you still talking back to me?”

“Bastard. You’re really a bastard.”

But work was work.

Using the logs Lackey had prepared, I started building the roof.

It wasn’t enough to just place the beams.

I also had to hammer them into place.

Now I understood why DwarfPassingBy had said it was a difficult job.

But it had to be done.

‘Thankfully, the Auction House sells nails.’

Surprisingly, nails were incredibly expensive.

I guessed it was because factories didn’t exist yet, so everything had to be made by hand.

Even so, I had enough money to buy a good supply.

I would’ve liked to make the nails myself as well.

But I didn’t have the time.

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t DwarfPassingBy the one who said that if I wanted to learn how to forge swords by hand, I first had to learn how to make nails?’

That could wait.

First, we had to finish the roof and the rooftop.

Ludwig, Lackey, and even Largo.

Everyone helped.

Some people might wonder what a giraffe could possibly do.

“Largo, can you pass me that beam?”

“……”

Surprisingly, she was a tremendous help.

She acted as a natural crane.

With the strength a giraffe like her possessed, it was perfectly possible.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

We hammered each piece firmly into place, then positioned another beam.

Again and again.

If the roof collapsed, it would be a disaster.

So I made sure to build it as solidly as possible.

The same went for the rooftop.

I never imagined building a sloped roof would be so complicated.

“It’s done!”

Thank goodness I wasn’t alone.

I looked at the completed house with immense satisfaction.

Honestly, it wasn’t much to look at from the outside.

It was nothing more than a huge square box.

But who cared about design out here in the wilderness?

Out here, functionality was all that mattered.

“Do you like it?”

“Ooooh! It’s amazing!”

“……”

Once I laid the mattresses on the floor as well, both Lackey and Largo looked absolutely delighted.

Afterward, I explained to Lackey how to use the fireplace once winter arrived.

Since he already knew how terrifying winter was, he listened carefully to every explanation.

“By the way, how did you survive the winter when you didn’t even know how to start a fire?”

“I just survived.”

“Huh… I see.”

This guy wasn’t just tough.

He was absurdly tough.

Otherwise, he would’ve died a long time ago.

But at least, from now on, he’d be able to spend the winter somewhere warm.

I carefully inspected the entire structure to make sure there were no flaws before heading outside.

We’d worked all day.

The sun was already beginning to set.

[WildGrills: Here’s the wheat I harvested today. By the way, could you give me some cooking oil?]

[DwarfPassingBy: Sure. What are you planning to make with it?]

[WildGrills: Yes. And if you give me barley seeds, I’ll harvest them right away and send them to you.]

[DwarfPassingBy: Ok.]

While I was at it, I made another trade with the dwarf.

I’d give him wheat and barley.

In return, he gave me cooking oil.

I wanted to make something.

“Sir, could you peel the sweet potatoes? I need to prepare Wonmo’s food.”

“#%#%”

I asked Ludwig to peel the sweet potatoes.

Meanwhile, I fed my animal companions before starting to prepare dinner.

Today we’d harvested sweet potatoes.

So we’d be eating something special.

‘Honey should be enough.’

Candied sweet potatoes.

Since I didn’t have sugar, I used honey instead.

First, I cut the sweet potatoes into appropriately sized pieces and dried them thoroughly.

Then I fried them in the cooking oil DwarfPassingBy had given me.

Once they were nicely golden, I took them out and cleaned the pan.

Normally, you’d use rice syrup or sugar and heat it up.

I used honey instead.

‘As long as it’s sweet, it should work.’

One of the classic cooking mistakes was changing a recipe however you felt like it.

But the taste should be similar.

So I coated the sweet potatoes with honey and finished making a special Forest of the Four Seasons version of candied sweet potatoes.

“Alright. Time to eat.”

“#@%”

Since eating only sweet potatoes would be too cloying, I also prepared fish.

Now we didn’t just have a main dish.

We had side dishes too.

I would’ve liked to harvest rice, but that could wait.

“Is it good?”

Ludwig answered with a nod.

Perhaps because the honey came from the Forest of the Four Seasons, he devoured the sweet potatoes at an incredible pace.

Afraid he’d eat them all, I also kept moving my chopsticks nonstop.

“Wonmo, here.”

“Kyuu!”

“Lackey, Largo. You two as well.”

“Ooooh!”

I gave candied sweet potatoes to my animal companions too.

And then—

“Kyuuaaa!”

“One more! One more!”

“Grrrrooo!”

“Hey, you bastards! That’s our food! Get out of here!”

War broke out.

That day, I learned the effect of combining something sweet with something even sweeter.

From now on, it’d be better to make candied sweet potatoes in moderation.

Someone once said that if you can’t avoid something, you should enjoy it.

“Hey, human! Stop eating by yourself and come help!”

“……”

I definitely couldn’t enjoy this.