Got a Gallery in the Wild

The bite force of a dragon that chewed mithril as if it were a delicious snack.

Seeing that, the first thing I thought was that sooner or later, an accident was bound to happen.

For Tyran, even a gentle bite could end up tearing off a good chunk of flesh.

And since he played with Wonmo all the time, the chances of something happening were even higher.

Fortunately, Wonmo had already learned to control his strength while playing with the raccoon.

For everyone’s safety, I had to teach Tyran to control his as well.

“Tyran. Bite me here.”

“Peep?”

I pointed at my forearm while holding him on my shoulder.

Tyran carefully looked at the spot I was pointing to, as if concentrating.

“Bite me slowly until I say it hurts. Like this. Nom!”

I even mimicked biting my own arm, and Tyran tilted his head curiously.

Since it was difficult to explain with words, I decided to teach him through actions.

I didn’t mind him biting us as a sign of affection, but his bite force was simply too great.

Before an accident happened, he had to learn how hard he could bite.

I had to teach him and drill it into him.

“Peep!”

As if he had perfectly understood my intentions, Tyran smiled brightly and bit my forearm.

Crunch!

“Aaaaagh!! No! No! Not like that! Let go! Let go!”

“Peep?!”

He almost broke my bone with that bite.

I hurriedly stopped him.

The moment he heard my scream, Tyran immediately backed away.

When I looked at my forearm, there was a perfect bite mark imprinted on it.

‘How did it only leave a mark? With that kind of force, it should’ve pierced straight through the flesh.’

Fortunately, he hadn’t broken the bone, but the bruise was pretty severe.

Looks like I’ll have to inject myself with a little elixir using a syringe soon.

“See? You’re that strong. So you can’t bite your friends too hard.”

“Peeeeep……”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. Anyone can make mistakes. Come on, try again.”

After repeating the training over and over, Tyran quickly learned to control his strength.

Since he was so intelligent, he seemed to immediately understand what I wanted.

Now that accidents wouldn’t happen anymore, only one concern remained.

‘How am I supposed to manage the food?’

With another mouth to feed, the food supply had become an urgent issue.

At least Largo only needed leaves to eat, but the others didn’t.

‘And they’re all gluttons.’

On top of that, winter was just around the corner.

We had to stockpile food to survive it.

Among the ideal winter foods, potatoes were one of the best options.

I already had the seeds GrowGrow had given me, so all that remained was planting them.

‘…Should I make kimchi for the winter?’

That ridiculous thought crossed my mind, but I immediately dismissed it.

Kimchi in a situation like this?

I didn’t even eat that much kimchi myself.

It would be better to check the Gallery.

And if I couldn’t find anything useful, I could always ask.

‘Oooh… How interesting. They’re talking about bread too.’

Finding information about food for the winter was quite easy.

From the smoked meat I’d previously cured with salt to vegetables preserved the same way.

Above all, rice and wheat were perfect for storing throughout the winter.

You just had to keep them in a cool place.

At first, I planned to ask GrowGrow.

And if he didn’t have any, I’d look for seeds at the Auction House.

‘They’re also talking about cabbage, spinach, radishes, and potatoes, but…’

If I stored too many different things, I’d just end up confusing myself.

‘This winter we’ll survive on wheat, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Just those three. Then…’

The next step was figuring out how to properly store the wheat.

Instead of looking it up myself, I decided to ask GrowGrow directly.

It would be much faster.

[GrowGrow: If you’ve already harvested the wheat, you need to dry it within the next four hours. That way it won’t lose its quality.]

[WildGrills: What if I don’t?]

[GrowGrow: It’ll rot or grow mold.]

[WildGrills: ;;]

At first, I’d planned to make bread with the flour.

But after hearing the explanation, I gave up on the idea.

There were simply too many steps.

Making noodles was much easier than making bread.

Just producing the flour alone took an enormous amount of time.

‘Now that I think about it, there are bakers, but no profession dedicated solely to cooking rice.’

Since I’d spent my whole life cooking rice at home, I’d assumed making bread would be just as simple.

But just as turning rice into rice cakes was complicated, making bread was too.

So I decided to give up on wheat and switch to rice.

GrowGrow didn’t have any rice seeds either, so I’d have to ask someone else.

‘I guess I can ask HeavenlyDemon.’

Since she came from the murim world, there was a good chance they cultivated rice there.

After giving the soil to GrowGrow, I contacted HeavenlyDemon.

[HeavenlyDemon: You mean you need rice?]

[WildGrills: More specifically, the seeds. I want to grow it.]

[HeavenlyDemon: Understood. I’ll have one of my subordinates get some for you.]

[WildGrills: Thank you very much.]

Since HeavenlyDemon would soon send me rice seeds, I decided to start by drying the wheat.

To dry it, I first had to thresh it, but removing the grains from each ear by hand was unbelievably labor-intensive.

So I needed a threshing tool.

Besides, since I’d soon be harvesting rice as well, it was no longer a luxury but a necessity.

‘More than the thresher, I’ll also have to remove the husks afterward… Did farmers really do all this by hand?’

I felt a renewed respect for farmers.

I entered the Auction House to see if they sold a thresher and some kind of grain dehusking tool.

‘Doesn’t this look like a comb?’

There was a thresher that looked like a comb.

More precisely, it was a comb-shaped metal tool.

I bought it and examined it.

It was roughly the size of a human head.

‘You just insert the stalk here and pull it through, right?’

One look was enough to understand how it worked.

So there was only one thing left to do.

Put Ludwig to work.

First, I spread a cloth over the ground.

Then I placed a chair at the edge and secured the thresher to it.

“All right. Time to work.”

“Hmm.”

Ratatatat!

I inserted the wheat stalks between the teeth of the thresher and pulled them through.

Immediately, ripe grains began pouring down in abundance.

“Lick. Lick.”

“Heh, Tyran! That’s not food!”

“Peep?”

Halfway through the work, Tyran tried licking a few grains, but I managed to stop him just in time.

After that, we diligently finished threshing all the wheat we had harvested.

Once we had gathered the grains, we spread them out in a spot where they would receive plenty of sunlight.

I figured drying them the same way people dried chili peppers would be enough.

I also made sure to apply insect repellent.

‘…The birds won’t come, right?’

Ever since they sensed Tyran’s presence, the birds had completely disappeared.

As long as Tyran stayed here, at least they wouldn’t return.

And what should we do while the grains finished drying?

“Mister Ludwig. I’m going to scout the area a little.”

“Mmm.”

I headed out to scout and hunt at the same time.

Ludwig alone was enough to protect the shelter.

Besides, Lackey was there too.

At that moment, Lackey was also diligently using the thresher.

After all, we couldn’t survive the entire winter eating nothing but rice or noodles.

Actually, I’d planned to leave Tyran behind too.

“Peeeeep! Peeeeep!”

“I’m only going to be gone for a little while!”

“Peeeeep! Peeeeeeep!!”

But he insisted that I not leave.

And if I was going, I had to take him with me.

He was unbelievably persistent.

In the end, I had no choice but to bring him along on the expedition.

Of course, the Sloth was still hanging on my back.

“Do you really have to sit there?”

“Peep!”

“Do whatever you want. I’ve already given up.”

Tyran settled himself on top of my head as though it were his own nest.

He weighed a little, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

Better that than letting him wander around and end up getting lost.

Besides, something unexpectedly beneficial happened.

Tyran’s reaction.

“Peep.”

He raised his head and let out a small chirp.

As if he had detected something in the distance.

Although I found it a bit suspicious, I decided to head in the direction he was pointing.

“Gruik.”

“Oh…?”

There was a boar.

An enormous boar the size of a bus.

It looked like something straight out of a movie, with huge, razor-sharp tusks.

‘…I think I saw one like this during my military service.’

The memory was still vivid.

While we were working, a wild boar had calmly wandered toward us.

There had been a jeep parked nearby, and the vehicle had looked tiny by comparison.

“GRUUUIK!!”

But the one in front of me now was even bigger.

The enormous boar charged straight at me.

I’d expected something like this, so I was about to move when—

“Peeeeeep!!”

Tyran let out an adorable roar from atop my head.

It had worked on the birds.

But I doubted it would work on a boar too.

“?! Gruik!”

Skreeeeech!

It worked.

And it worked beautifully.

The moment it heard the roar, the boar’s eyes widened, and it came to an abrupt stop.

I didn’t know whether it had recognized Tyran as a dragon hatchling or if it had simply reacted to the instinctive fear engraved in its blood.

The important thing was that it had presented me with the perfect opportunity.

I seized the moment and charged at it.

Crunch!

HeavenlyDemon’s Sword cleanly pierced the boar’s forehead.

With its brain completely destroyed, the beast trembled for a few moments before collapsing.

Boom!

It was so enormous that the ground trembled slightly when it fell.

I let out the breath I’d been holding as I stared at the gigantic corpse.

It was so large that this single boar could probably feed us throughout the entire winter.

Although for that, we’d need to build a huge storage room.

Fortunately, I had more than enough ice.

“…You’re amazing, you know that?”

“Peep!”

When I scratched his chin and praised him, Tyran proudly lifted his head.

As if saying,

“See what I’m capable of?”

He was still adorable.

I firmly tied up the boar with the rope I’d prepared.

There was no way I could carry such a monster, so I’d have to drag it back.

‘Even so, it’s incredibly heavy.’

With something this size, that was unavoidable.

But I considered it an investment in surviving the winter.

Just in case, I placed Tyran on top of the boar to keep watch over our surroundings.

There were far too many thieves in the Forest of Four Seasons to let my guard down.

“Kyuu?”

When I returned dragging the boar behind me, Wonmo had just woken up from his nap and came to greet us.

Ludwig and Lackey were still threshing wheat.

I hadn’t even been gone that long, and I’d already returned with an enormous reward.

“Mister! You know how to butcher animals too, right?”

“#%$#”

“Then please help me.”

Doing it alone would take far too long.

Besides, with something this large, I wasn’t even sure I could butcher it properly.

Fortunately, Ludwig seemed experienced as well.

Perhaps because after completing so many missions, he’d often been forced to survive on his own.

“One… Two! Pull!”

“Hup!”

“Gruuung.”

Even though I was mentally prepared, the preliminary work was still exhausting.

It reminded me of when we butchered the saber-toothed tiger.

The first step was hanging the boar upside down.

That would make draining the blood much easier.

The problem was that it was so huge that even doing that wasn’t easy.

So we asked Largo for help.

Since she was unbelievably strong as well, she managed to lift the boar exactly where we wanted it.

She was practically a living crane.

I never imagined I’d end up using her for something like this.

Drip… Drip…

While the animal finished bleeding out, I took the opportunity to build the storage room.

It wasn’t exactly a traditional underground cellar.

It was closer to a freezer.

It wouldn’t be used for storing tools or other items.

Only food.

Since I could produce ice almost endlessly with my ability, all I had to do was properly insulate the inside.

‘I need to leave a good heat outlet… Ah, I’m short on sand again.’

Every time I acquired one thing, I needed another.

And once I got the second thing, a third necessity appeared.

It felt like an endless cycle.

But that was only natural.

If I were alone, it’d be different.

Now there were many more of us, so naturally our needs kept increasing.

‘There’s still time but I’d better hurry.’

I went down to the lower part of the river to collect sand.

Then I returned and continued building the storage room.

I carefully coated the inside with clay and straw to improve the insulation.

And once that was finished, I resumed butchering the boar.

I would’ve liked to leave that job to Lackey.

But unfortunately, he was a gorilla.

The structure of his hands simply wasn’t suited for such delicate work.

Crack… Crack…

Once the butchering was well underway, I filled the storage room with ice.

Then I stored the boar meat inside, along with grains, vegetables, and anything else that could be used as food.

‘I’ll temporarily cover the entrance with cloth. I don’t have time to make a proper door.’

By the time I finished all the work, it was already four-thirty in the afternoon.

If I’d been alone, I never would’ve finished everything in a single day.

Many hands really did make light work.

“Good work. Are you going to take a bath?”

“Mmm.”

I prepared some water so Ludwig could wash up after all that hard work.

And of course, I planned to bathe all the animals too.

Interestingly enough, Lackey knew perfectly well how to bathe himself.

All I had to do was prepare the water, and he handled the rest.

As for Largo, brushing her and wiping her down with a damp cloth was enough.

Finally, there was Tyran.

“PEEEEEP!! PEEEEEP!!”

“Huh? What’s wrong? You don’t want a bath?”

“PEEEEEP!! Peep! PEEEEEEP!”

Could it be that he was really like a cat?

He adamantly refused to bathe.

But for hygiene’s sake, there was no alternative.

He had to be bathed no matter what.

Even if he didn’t have fur, who knew what kinds of ticks or parasites might be hiding between his scales?

“If you don’t take a bath, there’s no food.”

“Peeeeep……”

Fortunately, the moment I threatened to leave him without food, he immediately became obedient.

And just like that, another peaceful day came to an end.