The beginning of life in another world

1 Another world

What should I do? I had finally gotten healthy again, but at this rate, I was going to die.

Water, then food. After that, somewhere to sleep. Those were the basics of wilderness survival. I had to secure them.

First, I had to move to look for water... I wanted to, but the trees were in the way. No, I could still move, but there were so many trees that I couldn't see very far. Their trunks were thick, too. Trees with trunks over a meter in diameter were everywhere. And everything around me looked much the same.

For some reason, the spot where I stood was clear, though not enough for me to see into the distance. If I just started moving, I would probably get lost. Though getting lost would only mean I couldn't get back here... Was worrying about it pointless?

Anyway, water. If I didn't find water, I would die.

For this... I would trust my hearing. Could I hear running water anywhere nearby?

No luck.

All I could hear was the frightening wind and the terrifying cries of wild animals. And those animal cries sounded like screams. In other words... some wild animal was attacking another.

I took a deep breath.

For now, I would take one step.

...Something felt very wrong.

It was the sensation of the ground underfoot. The clearing had been ordinary ground, the kind I knew. But the ground where the trees grew thickly was hard. Not firm, but hard. Too hard. It was practically as hard as solid rock.

The thick trees and tall grass that had rooted themselves in a place like this were truly impressive. The vitality of plants was moving. But this hard ground would be a real problem. I still didn't know how much stamina my rejuvenated body had, but walking for long on ground this hard would probably hurt my feet. I couldn't be careless about how unexpectedly hard it was.

And another question occurred to me.

Could I farm on ground this hard? I hoped only this forest was hard and everywhere else would be fine.

I raised the Almighty Farming Tool in its hoe form and dug in.

Crunch.

The tip of the hoe sank astonishingly deep into the ground. I pulled it out and repeated the motion.

Crunch, crunch, crunch...

It tilled the ground easily. Oh, this felt fun.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch...

I realized I had messed up. I had gotten carried away and swung the hoe at a thick root stretching across my path. I braced myself for the impact in my wrists, but none came. In fact, I tilled straight through without feeling a thing.

When I looked, the root had been tilled away. Every part the hoe had dug into had turned to scraps.

No, not scraps-soil? From the feel of it, it was quite good fertilizer.

This...

I kept swinging the hoe.

The thick root merged completely with the ground, leaving only tilled soil behind.

Oh!

And, strangely enough, I didn't feel tired at all.

Was that because I was young again? No, perhaps I didn't get tired while using the Almighty Farming Tool?

Just what I would expect from a tool given to me by a god.

Looking at the tool, I suddenly had an idea.

If I moved while tilling, wouldn't I avoid getting tired?

I tried it. Exactly right. Thank you, God.

There was neither water nor food where I had been transported, so I had thought this was some extreme neglect play. But it seemed things had been properly thought through.

Offering my thanks again, I continued swinging the hoe.

For now, I had to find somewhere I could secure drinking water.

Naturally, moving by tilling the ground was slow. At first, I had thought I only needed enough width to pass through, but tilling leveled the ground, and I could till right through roots and trees alike, so I maintained a width of about five meters to ensure visibility.

Perhaps because of that, I had advanced less than fifty meters in an hour. Wasn't this bad?

I didn't know what time it was, but what would I do once it got dark?

Even if I didn't get tired, should I have worried less about visibility? No, no, wild animals might leap out of the forest. Keeping a clear view was important.

Hmm... Help me, God! W-was relying on someone else pointless?

I looked at the Almighty Farming Tool in my hands. It was currently a hoe. Its effect was to turn whatever it tilled into soil.

God had said it could take other forms. For example... a saw.

I changed the Almighty Farming Tool into a saw and tried bringing it against a nearby tree.

No, a saw wasn't what you used to fell trees. Saws were for working lumber; felling trees called for an axe.

I changed the Almighty Farming Tool into an axe and swung it at a nearby tree.

The tree split with a squelch, like tofu.

Oh!

And unlike when I used the hoe, the tree remained a tree. I looked at the fallen tree and thought.

Was what I needed to do not find water, but learn to use the Almighty Farming Tool properly?

For example... I pressed the Almighty Farming Tool, now shaped like a drill, against a trunk over ten meters in diameter.

The drill bored and bored, opening a hole in the trunk.

In less than five minutes, I had made a space with an entrance one meter across, an interior two meters high, and an area roughly four meters square. (Translator's note: "Square" means a four-sided square here, so an area measuring four by four meters. To preserve the original, I will continue using the novel's wording. I won't repeat this explanation.)

Since splinters stuck out inside, I changed the Almighty Farming Tool into a file and smoothed the interior. Any spot I passed the file over once became smooth and clean.

Thinking it was like a giant squirrel's nest, I tossed the wood shavings outside. That secured somewhere to live.

Next was water.

I changed the Almighty Farming Tool into a shovel and dug into the ground. Rather than searching for a river, I would secure a well.

Normally, looking for a river would take overwhelmingly less effort, but that wasn't true for me with the Almighty Farming Tool.

I shoveled the ground away rapidly. I kept digging. Straight down.

After digging about five meters, I could no longer pile the excavated soil outside.

Then I wondered how I was supposed to get out of the hole.

I would have to dig a slope to get out. No, wait, wait, wait.

A vertical hole.

What about oxygen? Was I in trouble? Was I going to die? In a panic, I dug an upward slope and escaped.

Time to reflect.

Next time, I would consider airflow as I dug.

I would mostly dig on a slope, looking for suitable spots to dig upward passages.

It was completely different from the well I had imagined, but as long as air could flow, that was fine.

As long as I ultimately dug downward, there shouldn't be a problem.

Right, I immediately ran into the next problem. Light. Digging on a slope kept the light from coming in. It was pitch-black.

There was nothing for it. I could only widen the opening and let as much light as possible reach the bottom.

At an estimated depth of about ten meters, I struck water. Great. Just as I had imagined. And perhaps because the ground was hard, the water didn't seep out; it flowed like a spring from an opening in the side, beginning to collect at the bottom.

The only question left was whether it was drinkable... I could only try drinking it.

For now, rather than drink it immediately, I would leave it for a while.

Using the Almighty Farming Tool kept me from getting thirsty, and although the ground was hard, digging had still left some dirt in the water.

That settled my shelter and, though it wasn't confirmed yet, my water supply.

Next was food... Should I catch whatever was making those cries in the forest? No, no. I had never hunted before. Besides, it was starting to get dark.

Getting dark... Oh, no!

I had forgotten fire.

Why hadn't I noticed when I ran into the lighting problem while digging the well? I was an idiot.

How could I start a fire? Rub pieces of wood together? With no experience, I couldn't see that working.

I could turn the Almighty Farming Tool into... a lamp? A lamp, an electric light... No. It wouldn't change.

The Almighty Farming Tool wasn't restricted by the name "farming tool" and could take all sorts of forms. If asked whether drills and files were farming tools, people would normally say no. But it could take those forms. It could also become scissors and a spoon. Yet imagining a chainsaw for cutting wood didn't work. Neither did things with engines, or electric lawn mowers.

Anything involving machinery was out. Judging from that, perhaps anything with relatively few parts would work? I needed to pick something that could start a fire.

A magnifying glass!

Success! Now I could start a fire! If it had been before sunset!

Looking at the pitch-black forest, I gave up in various senses, crawled into the hollow in the tree that served as my home, and turned the Almighty Farming Tool into a knife to make small items until sunrise.

As long as I used the Almighty Farming Tool, I wouldn't get hungry, right? For now, cups, plates, and bowls. Then knives, forks, and chopsticks. For materials...

I used the tree I had felled with the axe. As I had hoped, while I used the Almighty Farming Tool, I neither grew thirsty nor hungry, and I didn't feel sleepy.

But without a fire, I could only work by moonlight. This really was another world: there were two moons.

2 The Almighty Farming Tool

The Almighty Farming Tool could change shape. I could bring it out and put it away at will. While using it, I felt neither thirst nor hunger, nor any sleepiness.

But exactly what counted as using it? For example, when I used the Almighty Farming Tool as a hoe, swinging it into the ground through pulling it back out counted as use.

In other words, as long as I kept swinging the hoe, I was using it. The same applied to most tools.

But take hammering ten stakes with a hammer. Driving the stakes counted as use, but moving between them to hammer them in did not.

What I meant was that when I made small items with the Almighty Farming Tool shaped like a knife, its effect worked while I was carving, but not between finishing one item and starting the next. Even brief moments added up to a considerable amount. After all that explanation, the short version was that I was now getting thirsty, hungry, and sleepy.

Feeling the morning sunlight, I first entered the sloping well I had dug yesterday and took out one of the wooden cups I had spent all night carving with the knife.

Water about a meter deep had collected at the bottom of the well, and I scooped up the clearest water near the surface as best I could. It looked clean enough. I would drink it. It should be drinkable. I was already thirsty; not drinking wasn't an option. A man's courage was what mattered.

I tilted the cup slightly and took a little into my mouth.

There was no tingling or strange taste. It seemed like ordinary water. I hoped it was. Why? Because I was thirsty.

Bracing myself, I gulped it down. Delicious.

Now I just had to wait, and if my stomach didn't hurt, it should be fine... Only time could tell.

Next was the food problem.

I took stock of my situation.

I had made a home inside a huge tree trunk. Around it was soft soil I had tilled with the hoe.

A little way from my home, I had dug a sloping well. And leading from where I had first stood was a tilled, five-meter-wide road? I hadn't meant to make a road, but it looked like one. It was probably about a hundred meters long.

I had the Almighty Farming Tool and the small items I had made overnight. The small items were cups, plates, and the like, carved from wood. After working all night, I had quite a lot.

Hmm.

For now, I would have to search for food while moving and swinging the hoe. Fruit would be ideal. Apples or grapes would be nice.

Well, I wanted to get started immediately, but first I had to light a fire. I couldn't repeat yesterday's mistake.

A little way from the tree I lived in, I gathered the wood shavings from making the small items and turned the Almighty Farming Tool into a magnifying glass to light them. After that, I added dry wood to establish a steady fire.

It took longer than I had imagined, but I finally secured a fire. I had succeeded... but leaving it unattended was frightening. A forest fire would be a real headache.

So I would search for food within sight of the fire as much as possible. In other words, I would till outward around my home.

I worked hard.

I kept swinging, expanding outward in a circle centered on the tree I lived in.

I worked too hard.

I made a clearing about two hundred meters across, centered on my home tree. Tilling really was fun.

Along the way, I thought turning all the trees into fertilizer would leave me short of wood, so I changed the Almighty Farming Tool into an axe and felled some trees.

That was when I discovered that if I used that crowbar-like thing for dragging logs-I could use the Almighty Farming Tool just by imagining it, even without knowing the name-to pull the wood, I could move it without feeling its weight.

The Almighty Farming Tool was convenient.

Several large trees, one to two meters in diameter, lay inside my home tree. That should take care of my lumber needs. Thanks to that, I completely forgot my goal of finding food, but whether my luck was good or bad, an incident occurred.

As I tilled the surroundings, an animal appeared in front of my swinging hoe. It looked like a rabbit. But it was the size of a medium-sized dog, its eyes gleamed with hostility, and two teeth protruded from its mouth like a saber-toothed tiger's. A rabbit baring its fangs... But were rabbits canines?

Anyway, I didn't stop the hoe for this rabbit. I swung it down.

One instantaneous blow. The hoe sank into the head and neck of the rabbit as it leaned forward, severing them just like that... Then the upper part of its head and neck turned to fertilizer, leaving the body behind.

Taking a living creature's life came as a small shock, but my stomach was honest. I had gotten the food I wanted. I put my hands together. Thank you for the meal.

I changed the Almighty Farming Tool into a kitchen knife and promptly butchered it. Though I called it butchering, I didn't know how, so I cut through fur and all. Partway through, I noticed the organs and panicked. Cutting up the contents of the organs wasn't good. The heart and liver were one thing, but the stomach and intestines contained what the rabbit had eaten.

Judging by its hostility toward me and the fangs that would get in the way of grazing, it probably wasn't an herbivore. Yes, its intestines weren't as long as I had imagined, either. It was a carnivore.

I carefully removed the organs without damaging them and threw them away.

After that, I cut away the fur, leaving only the meat.

The Almighty Farming Tool could become a frying pan, but I didn't want to expose it to fire, so I gave up on the pan.

I cut the meat into small, bite-sized pieces, skewered them on wooden sticks, and roasted them over the fire. Next time, I would make skewers. I would also work some stone into a stone griddle instead of an iron one. Securing food had given me some breathing room. I started thinking about all sorts of things.

Then, eating the roasted meat, I thought:

It tasted awful.

Since I had simply roasted meat over a fire, that was only natural. I had no seasonings, after all.

But it wasn't inedible. After all, I had spent nearly ten years in the hospital eating bland hospital food. Toward the end, I had lived on an IV drip. Thinking of it that way, I shed tears of emotion over the meat dish I had made myself.

It certainly wasn't impossible to eat.

No matter how I tried to put a positive spin on it, this was roasted meat that reeked of blood. I couldn't fool myself. Ugh.

I had to do something about the food.

As that new thought arose, I ate as much as I could.

Even so, several meals' worth remained. I needed to keep it somewhere cool to prevent it from spoiling... All I could think of was the well, but I wanted to keep that as clean as possible.

There was no choice but to roast all of it before storing it.

Roasting the meat seemed likely to make it tough, but that should be better than leaving it raw.

Afterward, I used the Almighty Farming Tool as a hoe to till the discarded organs and scraps of fur into fertilizer.

My stomach still hadn't hurt, so it seemed I could consider the well water safe. At any rate, my stomach was full.

3 The toilet

When humans ate when they needed to, naturally, they also had to go when the time came.

Would it be all right to go around here? I had tilled the area around my home tree, so the clear view was a problem.

Besides, relieving myself on ground I had tilled felt somehow wrong. That said, doing it on untilled ground was troublesome too, considering I might till that spot someday.

Urine and feces might become fertilizer, but they could not be used as fertilizer immediately after being excreted. They needed to ferment first.

No, perhaps tilling them with the Almighty Farming Tool's hoe would turn them into fertilizer, but I felt rather uncomfortable about tilling my own waste.

So, after securing shelter, water, fire, and food, the next thing I wanted was a toilet.

For now, I chose a spot directly opposite the well, with my shelter tree at the center. The smell would be a problem, so I picked somewhere a little farther away.

Thinking ahead, I dug a sloping passage about two meters into the ground. I had already learned my lesson about digging straight down.

Then there was lighting. Bring in some fire... oxygen! No, as long as I worked fast enough, it would be fine! Come on!

I dug the interior a little wider to secure some space. This should last me the next few years. Probably.

It would be troublesome if the accumulated waste contaminated the groundwater, so I used the Almighty Farming Tool's hammer to pound and reinforce the floor and walls. Just as I had hoped, the soil became as hard as concrete. That should do it, right?

Next came the aboveground part.

First, I covered the opening of the sloping passage with boards. I made the boards by processing the lumber I had secured with the Almighty Farming Tool's saw and chisel. They seemed no different from what a building supply store would sell.

Normally, wood would crack later if you worked it without drying it first, but wood processed with the Almighty Farming Tool's saw and chisel apparently did not need drying. The Almighty Farming Tool was handy.

This covered opening would serve as the access point for removing waste from the toilet.

Next, I cho-

-se a spot that looked roughly above the center of the underground chamber and dug a vertical hole the size of my fist.

I changed the Almighty Farming Tool into something resembling a giant corkscrew.

It seemed to be as long as I was tall, so I did not have to worry about failing to reach the underground chamber. Simply turning the giant corkscrew made it extend downward and easily break through. Couldn't I have done this when digging the well?

Anyway, I fitted together enough boards to cover the hole I had made, creating a floor.

Then I made a hole in one part of the floor, aligned it with the hole in the ground, and prepared a toilet seat. I made it by cutting a suitably sized tree crosswise. After all, I preferred Western-style toilets to Japanese-style ones. I was also the type to sit down even when peeing.

I worked the boards and toilet seat so they could be secured in place without slipping.

Next came... the walls.

I arranged pieces of wood that looked suitable for posts around the perimeter and hammered them into place with the Almighty Farming Tool.

While hammering in the posts, I felt the limitations of my height, but standing on some other lumber solved that. The posts were about two meters tall. The distance between posts was also about two meters, so the resulting space should have been two meters square.

Was that too spacious for a toilet? No, it was better than being cramped. Being completely exposed would feel uncomfortable, but I still wanted some room. Yes, yes.

I carved grooves into the wooden posts, then made walls from boards shaped to fit into those grooves.

Since I had enclosed the whole thing, I hurriedly removed one wall to provide an entrance.

Rather than make a door that opened and closed, I drove upright pieces of wood side by side into the ground a little farther away, like a folding screen, to block the view.

Then came the ceiling.

The ceiling was unfinished. A sense of openness. I would deal with it later.

I fetched water from the well in a large cup, the one slightly smaller than a bucket, and placed it by the toilet I had built.

The water was for washing my hands and rinsing things afterward... oh, no. I had not prepared any leaves to use as toilet paper. That was close.

I headed into the forest, searching for leaves suitable for wiping my backside.

I did not find suitable leaves, but I found some grass that seemed suitable, so I decided to use that.

I hoped it would not give me a rash... my need to go was already so urgent that I had no time to test it.

It did not give me a rash. I was relieved for now.

Afterward, I started building the ceiling.

Since I lacked the skills to make a sloping roof, I had to make it flat.

At two meters high, it felt surprisingly cramped. Thinking about it, two meters was only a little taller than a door.

The next time I built something, I would make it taller.

Having everything overhead covered made it unpleasantly dark, so I opened countless small holes near the tops of the walls to let in light.

That should take care of daytime. Then there was nighttime. Ah, and bad weather too. I would just have to rely on fire.

I shaped a piece of wood into something like a brazier and covered the middle with ash. I was worried that a wooden brazier might catch fire... but this was all I could do for now. I would improve it later.

I also needed something like a water tank for washing my hands and cleaning the toilet... since I lacked the skill to assemble a watertight wooden tank, I had to hollow out a large piece of wood instead.

Thanks to the Almighty Farming Tool, going back and forth to fill it with water was more tiring than making the tank itself. Life without civilization was such a hassle. Anyway, the toilet was finished. Satisfying.

4. Securing food.

After finishing the toilet, I returned to my shelter and went to sleep. I felt a little bad about sleeping during the daylight hours when I could be working, but sleepy was sleepy.

It felt as though I had slept for about three hours, but the sun had not set yet.

Time to assess my situation.

Shelter, fire, water, food, and a toilet seemed covered for today. But looking ahead, food remained a problem.

For now, I had been lucky enough to obtain meat from that rabbit-like animal. But even allowing for fewer meals because I did not get hungry while using the Almighty Farming Tool... I only had enough for five days.

I needed to find new ingredients before I finished it.

But... before that, I needed to consider nighttime. Naturally, sleeping at night would be best. But the forest was scary. That fanged rabbit had been large and hostile. Even the rabbits were like that. A bear could hardly be anything but dangerous.

I had already made a fire, but I had heard that wild animals being afraid of fire was just a myth. Apparently, they might approach out of curiosity instead...

Anyway, I would block the entrance to my tree-trunk shelter with a door.

I cut a suitably sized tree with the Almighty Farming Tool, made something like a handle, and it was finished. It was somewhat heavy... but it would be a problem if it did not weigh at least this much.

Closing the door left the interior pitch-black, which would cause all sorts of trouble. But lighting a fire inside could cause a fire or a shortage of oxygen. Finding a solution to that would be a task for later.

Next came a fence.

I would build a fence enclosing my shelter tree, the well, and the toilet.

Though I called it a fence, I had no nails, so I could not make anything as impressive as a ranch fence. All I could do was use the Almighty Farming Tool to fell large, reasonably straight trees, strip off their thick branches, and arrange the logs around the area. The trees were too large to move without the Almighty Farming Tool, and even lying on their sides they stood over a meter high, so they should obstruct wild animals' paths.

The log fence gave a rather nice sense of marking out my territory, so I got carried away and enclosed a huge area.

About a hundred meters by a hundred meters? Had I gotten too carried away? Anyway, the log fence was finished, and since the sun had set, I went to sleep.

I shut the door. Pitch-black, as expected. I could not do any work, but oh well.

Ventilation holes!

Oh, no, oh, no! I had already thought about the lack of oxygen! With everything pitch-black, I could not find the door and panicked a little.

I finally managed to open the door, made a few ventilation holes in it, and went to sleep. Yes.

The next morning.

I was digging outside the log fence. Having only a log fence made me so uneasy that I had woken several times during the night. I dug hard so I could sleep peacefully.

Its width was... about a meter and fifty centimeters by eye, and its depth was two meters.

I had left a gap without logs as an entrance in the log fence, but the ditch went all the way around.

Then I made a bridge from a plank. The plank was too heavy to move without the Almighty Farming Tool, but since I was the only one here, that posed no problem. Yes, it looked good. Now I could relax. It should be fine. I really hoped it would be fine.

Now... with my home's safety secured, food came next... but digging had taken so long that the sun was already beginning to set.

I was better off not pushing myself. This would do for today. Or so I thought, but I had nothing to do for entertainment.

Without using the Almighty Farming Tool, I would lose stamina.

So, until dark, I tried turning the tilled ground into a proper field with the Almighty Farming Tool in hoe form.

Farming was what I wanted to do, after all. I cleared some ground beyond the ditch and took up my hoe. Was there a standard size for fields? Even if there was, I could not measure it.

So I made a roughly fifty-meter-square plot and formed ridges within it.

I did all of this with the hoe. It was quite enjoyable. I gradually saw the field take shape. To avoid accidentally trampling it, I piled up a little soil around its edges. Looking good. Then I realized. I realized it.

I had neither seeds nor seedlings. There was no point making a field!!

I tilled all night. The entire night. Under the pleasant moonlight, without caring about the darkness.

I single-mindedly swung my hoe and worked the land. Carrots here, potatoes over here. Cabbages there, and what should go over there?

It had become pure escapism.

While using the Almighty Farming Tool, I did not get thirsty, hungry, or sleepy. As long as I kept using it, I could work endlessly.

By the time I noticed, morning had arrived, and fields completely surrounded the outside of the log fence around my home. Hahaha.

I calmed down.

Were there plants in the forest that I could grow? I tilled my way through the forest while thinking about that.

Traveling while using the Almighty Farming Tool was convenient, but would I find any crops I could grow this way? After all, any grass or tree caught by the Almighty Farming Tool's hoe became fertilizer. I could not manage anything as skillful as observing my surroundings while farming. Doing that before had resulted in my killing a rabbit.

I did it again.

A rabbit. How should I put it? Was jumping out in front of me a habit of the rabbits around here? And it was completely hostile. Just as before, the hoe sank into its head and neck, turning them into fertilizer while leaving its body behind. I gratefully accepted it.

I tilled until nearly dark. Though I still had not found any plants I could grow, I obtained three rabbits.

I had encountered four head... four rabbits, but one had its body turned into fertilizer, leaving only its head. I had suspected it before, but once again-

-I confirmed that anything on the inside of the hoe became fertilizer. After pressing my hands together, I turned the head into fertilizer.

The rabbits were the size of medium-sized dogs, so transporting them took some effort, but pulling their bodies with the Almighty Farming Tool, just like lumber, made them light. All hail the Almighty Farming Tool. (Translator's note: The original says "All hail the Almighty Farming Tool." Normally, this should be translated as "thanks to..." or something similar, but that did not feel strong enough, so I translated it this way. Just mentioning it here. The meaning should come across.)

I ate rabbit while giving thanks for various things, and slept well that night.

5. A convenient encounter.

I woke up.

I washed my face as usual, enjoyed roast rabbit for breakfast, relieved myself, and got motivated. My current goal was to obtain plants I could cultivate in my fields.

With the Almighty Farming Tool in hand, I proudly crossed the ditch. Then I stared at the fields in shock.

Tiny seedlings had appeared on the ridges. And they were beautifully evenly spaced.

Had someone come and sown seeds? Who? And even if someone had, this growth was far too fast.

I looked at the Almighty Farming Tool in my hand. God?

I ran into the forest, took a huge tree for lumber, and carved it into the likeness of the god I had met before coming here.

Looking back, he had seemed both old and young. A god with a mysterious air.

My skills probably could not reproduce him perfectly, but I still made a statue that felt similar.

Come to think of it, the one who had prepared the Almighty Farming Tool for me had been described as being in charge of something else.

I did not know what that god looked like, so I could only carve him as I imagined him. Since he was in charge of agriculture, perhaps he should look plump and prosperous? Since he farmed, should he look a little more carefree too?

After considering various things, I made a statue of a broadly smiling old man.

Then I cut away part of my shelter tree, made a somewhat rough shrine, and enshrined the two wooden gods there.

"Gods, thank you."

After a long prayer, I changed my goal.

I would protect the fields.

Time to assess my situation.

The large tree that served as my shelter. The well, fire, and toilet, with a log fence and ditch enclosing them. Around those were twelve fields, each fifty meters square. It was like a four-by-four grid, with the four central plots serving as my living space and fields surrounding them.

And tiny seedlings had appeared in every field. I was the one who would protect them.

First, I would prepare a fence around the existing fields. I would not let anyone approach. Wild animals? I would turn them into fertilizer with this Almighty Farming Tool. Hehehehe.

In high spirits, I built a log fence around the fields. I dug a ditch too. I also tilled away the forest that stood relatively close.

It would make obtaining lumber a little troublesome, but considering something might invade from the treetops, there was no helping it. For now, I also prepared planks to cross the ditch at entrances on all four sides.

All that work took five days.

During that time, the seedlings grew rapidly, and six fanged rabbits and one puppy-sized rat that invaded the fields became fertilizer.

I did not consider using them as food. As far as food went, I already had a gigantic wild boar.

Viewed from the front, the boar stood about two meters tall and seemed equally wide, with a total length of around four meters.

It was quite frightening, but I steeled myself to keep it away from the fields.

I turned the Almighty Farming Tool into a hoe and severed the boar's neck. I made good use of its body as food.

My life was fulfilling now. I was happy. Anyway, my measures against wild animals were working perfectly.

But wild animals were not the fields' only enemies. There were birds and bugs too.

Unlike the rabbits, rat, and boar, I had not seen any giant ones yet, but birds and bugs certainly existed, right? They had not touched my fields yet only because my fields held no value for them yet. But once things started bearing fruit, they would make their move. I needed to think of a countermeasure... huh?

Come to think of it, what exactly would those seedlings grow into? Each field had one variety, and the variety differed from field to field.

They should be something edible, right? I really hoped they were edible. If they turned out to be ornamental plants, I was confident I would collapse to my knees on the spot. Also, did they need supporting stakes? For someone who wanted to farm, I knew far too little about it. If only I had studied more while lying in the hospital...

Regretting it would do no good. I would do what I could.

A scarecrow first, perhaps. Just as I thought that, an animal's cry came from the fields.

It sounded like a dog barking.

It felt like a dog desperately trying to bluff.

I picked up the Almighty Farming Tool and approached the sound.

Beyond the log fence and ditch surrounding the fields stood a very large dog. A pitch-black dog. It certainly was the size of a large dog. Its head reached about my chest, and if it stood up, it would surely be taller than me.

A black dog that size was barking at me.

What was going on? Strangely, I felt no hostility from it.

Behind the pitch-black dog stood another pitch-black dog of the same size. Looking closely, both were injured.

I opened a nearby entrance and laid a plank across the ditch.

The barking dog closed its mouth and stared at me. It was a little frightening.

Holding the Almighty Farming Tool, I naturally calmed down.

Once calm, I looked at the two dogs and noticed something. The one behind was female. Her belly was swollen. In that case, was the one in front male? From the situation, they seemed to be a couple.

Um... well, I could not drive them away, could I? Besides, the female's steps were unsteady. The male kept glancing behind him in concern, then staring at me.

Dogs were farmers' allies.

I had wanted a dog as a child, but that had never happened.

Thinking of reasons to make the dogs my allies, I set down the Almighty Farming Tool.

The dogs seemed to understand too, and stopped staring at me. I did not know whether they understood words, so for now I used gestures to invite them both inside the fence.

6. The dogs.

The two dogs followed behind me. They seemed quite well-behaved.

I led them across the inner ditch and fence surrounding my home and toward the campfire, but they did not follow me over.

Were wild animals afraid of fire after all? That was what I thought, but apparently I was wrong.

The two headed toward the body of the wild boar I had killed. Since the boar was so large, I had cut off the portions I needed and left the rest there.

Were they hungry? They probably were. Wait, wait. Boar meat tasted better than rabbit. I couldn't give them all of it.

I immediately turned the Almighty Farming Tool into a kitchen knife and cut up the boar. I set aside the legs. Next came the loin and tenderloin, but the ribs... they were no obstacle at all to the Almighty Farming Tool's kitchen knife.

I wrapped the meat I'd set aside in large leaves and carried it into my home in the tree trunk. I'd found these large leaves while clearing the area around the outside of the field. Then I gave all the remaining meat and bones to the dogs.

The two started wolfing down the boar with astonishing vigor. I'd thought about cutting it into bite-sized pieces, but apparently there was no need.

Anyway, that work had taught me something. I needed a table.

Thinking about it, I'd been doing everything on the ground until now. I wished I'd noticed sooner.

I split a suitably sized log in half, making a semicircular cross section, then shaved the top of the curve slightly flat for stability. That finished my rustic-looking long table. I also made log chairs while I was at it. It felt like my level of civilization had suddenly risen.

During this work, the dogs were still feasting on boar meat. They ate a considerable amount. I even wondered if they'd eaten more than their own body volume. Well, it was better than wasting it.

Leaving the dogs to their meal, I considered building a hut. If I harvested anything from the field, I'd need somewhere to store it. A storehouse, rather than a hut.

I built it much as I had the toilet. With the Almighty Farming Tool, even my meager knowledge was enough to make one.

But a raised-floor structure was rather troublesome for an amateur. (Translator's note: In Japanese, the "floor" in this architectural term means the floor of a building. Simply put, it's a house on stilts, but the original term sounded more impressive, so I used it.)

In the end, I really did make a hut much like the toilet.

The differences were its size and floor.

It was about eight tatami mats in size. (Translator's note: One tatami mat equals 1.62 square meters.) Since I planned to use it for storage, I wanted a fair amount of space. I used substantial logs for the posts around it, so strength wasn't a problem either.

I didn't lay wooden boards on the ground, leaving the earth as it was. Considering that I'd be storing harvested crops, I felt bare earth would keep things cooler. But would wooden flooring be better for hygiene?

After this, I could make shelves and store the harvest on them.

Now, to fetch wood for the shelves. Just then, the dogs finished eating. The boar had been stripped clean down to the bones. How exactly did their stomachs work? While I was wondering about that, the female let out an agonized whine. Had she eaten too much?

I hurried to approach her, but the male growled, keeping me away.

Just as I was thinking this wasn't the time for that, the female paced around twice and whined again. What was happening? Was she about to give birth? Huh? Out in the

open? Could she give birth somewhere like this? Surely not.

Somewhere to give birth.

My home in the tree trunk? I had meat and small belongings stored there. They'd be in the way.

In that case, I led the two dogs toward the storehouse I'd just built. It had to be better than out in the open.

The female seemed to agree. She immediately entered the storehouse and started circling in a corner. The male watched anxiously.

Giving birth... giving birth... no good. I knew absolutely nothing about it.

In any case, it was getting dark.

Once the sun went down, the temperature would drop. I lit a fire inside the storehouse.

I dug a shallow hole in the ground near the middle of the room, making something like a simple sunken hearth, then scattered ash in it. I stacked firewood on top and lit it.

Smoke escaped through the opening for light. There wasn't a door either, so the smoke probably wouldn't overwhelm us.

Next was... drinking water.

I immediately carved a piece of wood into something like a large bucket and poured water into it.

Judging by how eagerly the female drank, I probably hadn't made a mistake.

Then... if she gave birth here, the babies would land on the ground... would landing directly on the ground be all right?

But I didn't have anything as nice as a pelt.

If I'd known, I would have saved the rabbit and boar hides beforehand.

On a TV show I'd watched once, horses were born on straw. But there wasn't anything as nice as straw around here.

Maybe gathering grass from the forest would work, but it was already dark. Just tilling the soil would be one thing, but cutting and gathering grass in a dark forest would be too difficult.

Wasn't there something I could do? While I was thinking about that, the female began making motions as if digging at the ground.

I tried turning the Almighty Farming Tool into a shovel. Apparently the difference between a spade and a shovel was whether it had somewhere to put your foot, but in my mind, a shovel was something used one-handed. A spade gave me the impression of using both hands. Not that it mattered.

I started digging in a corner of the storehouse with the shovel. I'd already tilled this area with the hoe, so the soil was soft. Shoveling it made it even softer.

I loosened about one tatami mat's worth of soil in the corner.

The female seemed to understand what I was doing. She began digging a hollow in the softened ground, making a place where she could brace her legs and body to give birth.

After that, all I could do was watch... but having someone she'd just met watching her the whole time might put strange pressure on her. I left the rest to the male and stepped out of the storehouse.

The sun had completely set, and the campfire near my home and the firelight spilling from the storehouse only seemed to emphasize the darkness.

I hoped she could give birth safely...

Unable to simply go to sleep, I started making small items by the light of the campfire beside my home.

Incidentally, the boar's bones looked too frightening at night, so I tilled them under with the hoe and turned them into fertilizer.

Chapter 7: Life with the dogs

Morning.

Four new lives had been born in the storehouse. They were four entirely black puppies, just like the male and female.

Although the female looked exhausted, it felt as though she'd given birth in no time. Had television influenced me too much? That couldn't be helped. After all, watching TV had been about all I could do in my hospital room.

Anyway, I was glad the female seemed all right.

Now it was time for breakfast. First, a gift to celebrate the birth.

I'd give the dogs some of the good cuts of boar meat I'd saved yesterday. I called the male over and handed him the meat, and he took it to the female. Was he henpecked? No, no, looking after women was perfectly normal for a man. Especially a woman who'd just given birth. It was only natural.

I refilled the bucket in the storehouse and added firewood to the fire. I wondered whether I should put it out, but if the fire bothered them, they would probably react somehow. Since nothing had happened by morning, I could probably assume it was fine.

Still, it wouldn't be good if the newborn puppies got burned. I made a barrier of earth around the fire. It felt even more like a sunken hearth now.

Then came my own breakfast. And the toilet.

Come to think of it, were those two all right with all those wounds? Looking at the male's body, he was certainly covered in wounds, but they'd already begun healing. Yesterday, they'd been obvious even from a distance. Did he have strong natural healing abilities? As long as he was all right... and they didn't seem to hinder his movements either.

"I'm going to look for food. I'll leave things here to you."

After telling the male that, I headed into the forest.

Since I'd shared the boar meat, my food-storage plans had changed. There was still rabbit meat, but roasting was my only means of preservation, so I wasn't sure how well it would keep. Even if I could manage with the Almighty Farming Tool, I couldn't say the same for those two.

Well, they'd survived just fine before coming here, so they could probably manage... wait.

I intended to keep those two... all six of them, including the newborn puppies, but what did they think? Had they only come here to give birth, intending to leave once the puppies grew up?

That would be a little lonely. The puppies were so cute that I really hoped they'd leave one with me. That probably wasn't possible. No, no, wait, wait. It wasn't certain they would leave.

Anyway, first I'd make them feel this was a good place.

Then, if possible, I hoped they'd help guard the field.

To do that... I needed to secure food first and show them my mettle as their owner.

Ten days passed after the puppies were born.

Brushing aside my worries, the two dogs and their puppies gave off an air of fully intending to let me look after them.

I really hoped that was the result of all the care I'd given them.

Surprising discovery number one.

The two parent dogs could easily jump over the log fence and ditch I'd made. Never mind their combined distance of about three meters; they jumped five or six meters in one leap.

Had they not jumped over when they first arrived because they were injured, or because they were concerned about the pregnant female...?

The parent dogs went off on their own, entering the forest and hunting rabbits and the like.

Since they brought their catches to me instead of eating them on the spot, they were at least treating me as their owner, weren't they? Or were they ordering me to skin them? Either way, they helped secure food.

Also, I was a little uneasy, so I made the ditch deeper and wider.

Even so, the parent dogs jumped across without a care...

Surprising discovery number two.

The puppies' growth rate. Their bodies grew rapidly. They'd been tiny and cute at first, but after seven days, they were weaned and began eating meat like their parents.

Looking closely, I could see their teeth were already coming in, including fang-like canines. But they still looked cute.

Surprising discovery number three.

The dogs, parents and puppies alike, guarded my field.

More precisely, when they found a strange bug, they barked to call me over. They were so dependable.

I'd also been a little worried about where they would relieve themselves, but thankfully, they went to the designated place. These dogs might be highly intelligent.

And during the ten days after the puppies were born, I worked on securing food and building a new storehouse.

I needed food because consumption had increased, and a storehouse because the dogs had completely claimed the first one as "my home," so I changed its job to a doghouse.

Securing food wasn't difficult, thanks to the Almighty Farming Tool.

As for building the second storehouse, with the experience I'd gained, I could confidently say it turned out better than the first.

Wouldn't living here be more convenient? My home in the tree trunk was really just a hole. And because it was inside a tree, it had the disadvantage of not allowing a fire. Should I use my old home as storage and make this my new home? I considered it. I decided to live here.

I laid wooden boards on the floor of the new storehouse... could I put them directly on the ground? The boards I'd laid in the toilet were awfully hard.

First, I spaced pieces of processed scrap wood at regular intervals and laid boards over them. It felt like a huge duckboard without any gaps. But since the boards weren't nailed down, they shifted whenever I walked.

It took some effort, but I made wooden pegs with the Almighty Farming Tool and secured them. That would do for now.

After that, I worked hard at gathering wood and making small items while keeping an eye on the field.

Especially small items... I focused on making plates and cups.

The plates and cups I'd used until now were all being used by the dogs. (Translator's note: The original word for cup here is "koppu," from the Dutch "kop," meaning a cup without a handle. So if you want to know how dogs can use them, ask the author...)

And compared with my first attempts, the things I made now were a level higher in quality. I felt they'd reached a standard where I could sell them.

But I wasn't satisfied with that, and I was now trying my hand at assembling wooden pieces.

Until now, I'd made things by carving wood, but that had the disadvantage of making them rather heavy. That was fine for plates and cups, but something like a bucket for storing water became too heavy to use easily.

Moving things with the Almighty Farming Tool made them lighter, but relying on the Almighty Farming Tool for everything

wasn't good. If I could assemble things from wood, I could probably make them lighter. My ultimate goal was a barrel. For now, I'd try making one for practice. How could I keep it from leaking?

Another task was gathering leaves.

Their main uses were wiping myself in the toilet and making bedding.

For wiping, I'd already confirmed that the grass I'd first used didn't cause a rash, so I'd secured a fair amount. It was easy to find in the forest too.

Then I searched for leaves to make a grass bed rather than a straw one, and was surprised by how unexpectedly difficult they were to gather. They weren't heavy, but carrying them from where I cut them to my home took considerable labor. Still, the results of that labor were quite good.

Incidentally, the puppies were the first to take a liking to these beds.

In any case, putting grass bedding beside a fire made me nervous, so I cleared away the fire I'd prepared. I'd made it for the birth in the first place, and now that they had grass bedding, they probably wouldn't be cold.

Now the question was how long this grass bedding would last. I'd have to replace it once it wilted, but thinking about gathering more was a little depressing. Wasn't there some way around it?

The seedlings in the field were growing well, and the faster ones had already begun flowering.

Incidentally, I could now guess what was growing.

Carrots, potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplants, radishes, spinach, corn, watermelons, and strawberries.

They were all crops I'd pictured while making the ridges. If I wished for something while making ridges, would that crop grow?

I wanted to experiment, but until I harvested the crops in front of me, I wouldn't expand the scope of my work.

After all, the current crops hadn't even matured yet.

I didn't even know whether I needed to water them.

Besides, the crops I knew wouldn't flower this soon.

In other words, they might be crops unique to this world.

So I further divided one section of the field and tried watering only, adding only fertilizer made by the Almighty Farming Tool's hoe around the ridges, giving both water and fertilizer, and giving neither.

Afterward, I'd learn exactly what to do based on the harvests.

The one thing I did for every crop was pest control.

Since I didn't know how it was done in farming, I initially planned to burn the bugs, but I didn't go through with it because of the possible effects on the crops.

After considering various options, I decided to use the water the bugs disliked, sprinkled from the Almighty Farming Tool transformed into a watering can.

I'd first discovered the bugs disliked it when I was about to water the crops.

After that, whenever I found a bug that looked like a pest, I turned the Almighty Farming Tool into a watering can and drove it off with water.

Incidentally, the dogs didn't eat bugs at all. Apparently, animal meat tasted better.

Chapter 8: The dogs' names

I named the dogs.

Calling them the male and female all the time would be inconvenient.

Actually, I'd already named the four puppies.

Since they were all black puppies, I called them Kuro One, Kuro Two, Kuro Three, and Kuro Four.

Kuro One was curious and lively.

Kuro Two was cautious. Kuro Two often stayed beside Kuro One.

Kuro Three was the strongest of the four. She was also the only female.

Kuro Four did things at Kuro Four's own pace. Kuro Four often did things the other three wouldn't.

Since I called the four of them names like that, I suddenly had a thought about their parents too.

Why not simply call them Kuro Dad and Kuro Mom...?

But after I called them that once and they looked at me with terribly sorrowful expressions, I decided to give it proper thought.

Candidates... Kuro, Black, Schwarz, Noir, Nero, Hei, Kurotaro, Kuromaru.

Troubled by my lack of naming talent, I decided to write the names on the ground and let the dog choose for himself.

I intended to write in Japanese, but it turned into unfamiliar writing. Yet I could read it without any sense of anything being wrong. This was probably another effect of the beginner's package the god had mentioned. Since I hadn't spoken to anyone or written anything until now, I hadn't noticed.

Anyway, first I'd settle on a name.

Once I decided Kuro Dad's name, I'd give Kuro Mom a matching one.

At that moment, I once again confirmed how intelligent the dogs were.

Could he read what I'd written? Kuro Dad tried to choose "Schwarz," but Kuro Mom pressed down on his head as if to stop him, protesting, "Choose 'Kuro.'"

Perhaps giving in to her protests, Kuro Dad struggled to place his paw on "Kuro."

"Are you really all right with that?"

I asked without thinking. Although he couldn't answer, Kuro Dad's eyes said, "I can't defy my wife."

...I'd make tonight's meal a little fancier.

Kuro Dad's name was settled: Kuro.

Now then, what should I name Kuro Mom?

The candidates were... Shiro, Yuki, Hyori, and Mizore.

While I was thinking it over, Kuro Mom chose Yuki.

Had she objected to my plan to call her Shiro, ignoring her fur color just because she was Kuro's wife?

More importantly, Kuro seemed to be looking at me with an expression that said, "Huh? Isn't your naming sense better than it was with me?" I really hoped I was imagining it.

In any case, Kuro Mom's name was now officially Yuki.

It felt as though Yuki alone was getting special treatment, but I decided not to worry about it.

Kuro and the others were basically free to do as they pleased, whether that meant going into the forest or watching the fields.

But for some reason, one of them was always beside me. Were they taking turns guarding me?

It made the work a little less lonely.

Between jobs, I tried making a flying disc out of wood.

When it came to dogs, this was the obvious choice, right?

I threw it for the puppies to play with, and it was more popular than I had expected. Not just the puppies, but Kuro and Yuki scrambled to get it too. They were quite serious about it. The puppies were no less competitive. I really wished they could play a little more peacefully.

With no other choice, I made one for each of them and threw them in order, finally getting things under control.

Though that settled the dogs' disputes, I really wished they would stop bringing me their discs whenever I had a spare moment.

Their physical abilities were so impressive that I had to throw with all my strength to satisfy them... My wrist hurt.

Chapter 9: Dogs?

Thirty days had passed since the puppies were born.

They had grown quite large, and their faces were looking more and more like Kuro's and Yuki's.

And I made a new discovery. Horns had begun growing from the puppies' foreheads.

Looking at Kuro and Yuki, I could see places on their foreheads that looked like the remains of broken bones.

But I had never noticed because, unlike the puppies, Kuro and Yuki let me stroke their backs but not their heads. Then, once the puppies started growing horns, they began letting me touch their heads...

Those broken stumps looked painful. Would they grow back? Also, weren't they dogs?

Well, I wasn't particularly bothered by the horns. This was another world. Simply growing horns wasn't a problem. It only meant putting up with a little pain when we played.

But their horns were shaped like daggers made of ore, so I really wished they would stop charging at me headfirst at such speed.

The crops in the fields were growing rapidly.

Almost all of them had begun bearing fruit, and the strawberries and tomatoes were turning red enough to look ready for harvest. The carrots and potatoes had lush leaves too. They were probably about ready to harvest.

My experiments with growing crops under different conditions showed that proper care made them grow faster.

In other words, the crops given both water and fertilizer grew fastest, followed by those given only fertilizer.

Next came the crops given water, and last were those given nothing.

But even the fields where I gave them nothing produced a considerable crop. Was that just how this world worked, or was it thanks to the Almighty Farming Tool?

In any case, I decided to harvest them, only to face a troublesome problem.

There was too much to harvest.

Since I used the Almighty Farming Tool as a sickle, knife, and scissors, harvesting didn't tire me out, but I often felt a little dizzy. Whatever the circumstances, having Kuro and the others help with the harvest wasn't going to work, was it? Ah, yes, I knew you tried. You even ate the fruit you damaged. Were you trying to destroy the evidence?

I had to do the harvesting alone. I didn't dislike it. I didn't dislike it, but... I just had to do it. Keep at it.

Each field took half a day, so harvesting all twelve took six full days.

I had planned to store the food in tree trunks, but once those were full, I started filling my home too.

Problem number one.

The tomatoes were ripening, so they had to be eaten quickly.

Fortunately, Kuro and the others liked tomatoes, so they could take care of some of them.

Problem number two.

The strawberries were ripening too, so they also had to be eaten quickly.

Some of Kuro's family liked those too.

Yuki and Kuro Three liked them. They appealed to the females, but the males didn't like them.

I happily ate them. They were so sweet.

Problem number three.

Some of the produce had been damaged along the way and needed to be eaten soon.

Problem number four.

I had no seasonings.

Problem number five.

I had no cooking utensils.

It seemed primary industry alone couldn't make life comfortable.

First of all, salt. Without salt, even boiled corn wouldn't taste good.

Then I would grow rice next. Rice could be eaten simply by cooking it... As for cooking utensils... Ugh, there were still so many problems.

After finishing the harvest, I began making cooking utensils while eating the produce.

For a start, pumpkin was hard to eat raw. What I would make wasn't an iron griddle, but a stone slab.

I would cut a large rock with the Almighty Farming Tool, drag it into place, and arrange it so I could heat it from below. It looked like a rather low dining table.

Though the Almighty Farming Tool could slice the rock thinly, the rock would break under its own weight, and finding that limit was difficult.

I finished it, but controlling the temperature seemed like it would be difficult. This was probably the best I could do for now.

Next was a kitchen knife.

Even with the Almighty Farming Tool, I still wanted a kitchen knife for cutting large pieces of meat into smaller ones.

This was stone too. I just had to carve a suitably sized stone into the shape of a kitchen knife and give it an edge.

It cut rabbit meat easily, so it should be fine. Including spares, I would make three.

Then came a pot.

I carved it from a large rock. Wood would burn, after all.

With the Almighty Farming Tool, making it was fairly easy... But it was heavy. I hadn't considered the weight. If I found clay, I should make an earthenware pot.

In any case, the pot was finished.

I made a nice-looking stone lid too, but abandoned it when I realized it might get hot when I tried to open it. I made a wooden lid instead. It was a little troublesome that Kuro and the others got excited, thinking it was a new flying disc.

Side story: Kuro

I had no name.

I was a creature that wandered the forest, surviving by hunting again and again.

That was how I had lived, and I thought I would keep living that way.

But then came a shocking encounter. A woman with the same form as me.

Just as I thought she was a fine woman, she attacked me. I fought back without understanding what was happening, but I could do nothing. Even with my confidence in my fighting abilities, I was no match for her.

I prepared myself for death, but after looking at me triumphantly, the woman ordered me to accompany her. There was no possibility of resisting.

I had lived alone until then, but now there were two of us. When a man and woman were together, they did what they did, and the woman's belly grew.

Hmm, did that mean I had a family now? It didn't feel bad.

We lived like that, and just before she was due to give birth, we met the worst possible enemy.

A Grappler Bear.

The people who lived hidden in the forest said it was the king of the forest.

It had an enormous body and equally enormous strength. Though its whole body moved relatively slowly, its limbs were fast. Normally, we would have fled the moment we saw it, but the encounter was sudden, and the woman beside me was pregnant, so I couldn't run.

I stepped in front of the Grappler Bear to protect the woman. It was terrifying. And I understood that winning was impossible. But I couldn't run. I had to buy time for her to escape.

Just as I thought that and stepped forward...

The Grappler Bear knocked down the surrounding trees with its arm, sending small fragments flying at the woman and me.

I protected the woman, and she protected her belly.

Unable to dodge, we took the blow and were sent flying. It was overwhelming. That single attack had left me wounded all over. The woman was injured too. I braced myself for all sorts of things.

But the Grappler Bear ignored us, as though mocking our resolve.

I didn't know whether it was a whim or whether it was full and had let us go.

It was humiliating. Humiliating, but there was nothing we could do. More importantly, we had to move before the Grappler Bear changed its mind. I left the place, protecting the woman.

Several days passed after that.

My wounded body felt heavy, and I couldn't hunt. Some prey even realized how badly off we were and came to taunt us.

I'll kill you.

Even letting out killing intent had no effect. It only made me hungrier. I could manage, but it would be bad if the woman ate nothing. I was worried about the children in her belly.

Just as I was thinking I had to do something, a strange place appeared. Trees lay on their sides, with a trench in front of them.

Leaving the trench aside, the fallen trees were hardwood that I couldn't have scratched even when uninjured, the great trees called untopplable. And they were just lying here? Several of them lined up together?

For the moment, I tried howling. Perhaps because I was hungry, the sound came out more pitiful than I expected. But it wasn't wasted. A human appeared from beyond the trees.

Good. A weakling. Prey.

The instant I thought that, an unpleasant foreboding swept through my entire body. A fear stronger than when I faced the Grappler Bear. I felt it coming from the one before me.

Thinking about it carefully, humans were weak, so although they might appear around the edges of the forest, they never came this deep inside. Even the people living hidden in this forest, who were much stronger than humans, never appeared here.

Yet this one was here. There was no way he was merely what he appeared to be.

At that moment, I felt I was in a very bad situation. When the human took out a stick and readied it, that feeling became certainty.

My howl had attracted someone like this. It was too late even for regret.

The woman behind me braced herself too and stood beside me. In that case, all we could do was give it everything we had.

I hoped I could at least save the woman, but surely things wouldn't go that well. I looked at her face. Thinking this was the end made me feel like crying.

But it wasn't the end.

The human invited the woman and me inside. I suspected a trap, but immediately dismissed it. Against us, the human had no need to do such a thing. Once I thought that, for some reason, I no longer wanted to run.

Following the human inside, I saw a Gate Boar.

Gate Boars were enormous wild boars. Their kind competed with ours for supremacy over the forest. They were opponents neither the woman nor I could defeat easily.

It lay there. No, it had been turned into meat. The strength of the human before us became real to me.

After that, the human gave us the Gate Boar and made a place for the woman to give birth. He even went into the forest and easily hunted prey to give us. I was grateful. And I had no thoughts of defying him. No, both the woman and I had accepted the human as our master.

I wasn't yet sure about the newborn children, but if possible, I hoped they wouldn't defy our master.

"There, there. Good boy."

There was now one problem.

Our master treated us as dogs. The woman, the children, and I belonged to a species called Infernal Wolves... Was that all right?

I was a little afraid of what would happen when he found out we weren't dogs.

Chapter 10: Taking stock again

I lacked far too many things. I already knew that, but it struck me again.

Right now, what I really wanted was seasoning-salt. The crops tasted delicious eaten as they were, but I still wanted salt. Besides, considering cooking and preservation, salt was necessary too. But there was no sea nearby.

Since I had cultivated the area around my home, I could see into the distance, but there were mountains on every side.

It seemed I was in a basin. So there was no hope of finding the sea. That left rock salt as my remaining hope. But was rock salt that easy to find?

I would have to look for it.

Before that, I needed to till the harvested fields again and grow the next crops. Trusting that making ridges with the Almighty Farming Tool would produce the crops I wanted, I carefully considered what to grow next.

I already had a considerable stockpile of crops, so I wasn't as desperate for results this time. More than that, I wanted to experiment and learn what I could and couldn't do. So I devoted part of the fields to fruit.

Fruit would be easier to preserve, and I probably wouldn't have to rush to harvest it. For now, apples, pears, mandarins, oranges, persimmons, and peaches. Rather than making ridges for the fruit, I planted as though I were planting saplings.

Originally, I had planned on one tree of each kind, but I worried that one might not produce enough fruit, so I planted four of each. That used two fields. If they bore fruit properly, I would expand the planting.

Next, two fields of tomatoes, which were popular with Kuro and the others. Then one field for experimenting with rice.

Apparently, once rice became seedlings, it had to be transplanted into a paddy... But I didn't know the details. I would have to try all sorts of things. I was also a little worried about whether the Almighty Farming Tool could make a paddy. With my current method of getting water from the well,

I would work myself to death. But I wanted rice. So I planted only one field of it. I would experiment with paddies gradually.

Then, since I wanted cooking oil, I would grow rapeseed. If it went well, I would have to consider how to extract the oil... Could I turn the Almighty Farming Tool into something that pressed oil? Did such a tool exist? Well, I would deal with that later.

The thought of pressing oil gave me an idea, so I planted a field of sugarcane too. Salt aside, if this worked, I could get sugar.

I also planted some soybeans and wheat.

There was still some empty space in the fields, but I figured I would use it for paddy experiments.

That took two days.

Time for a change of pace.

I headed into the forest in search of new things.

Whenever I went into the forest, one of Kuro's family came along. Sometimes more than one.

Though I appreciated their concern, I hoped they would properly watch the fields too...

I explored in various directions for about ten days, but found nothing special. Whichever way I went, there was forest. The creatures I encountered were the same long-fanged rabbits, large rats, and large boars as always. Their encounter ratio was thirty to eight to one. This forest seemed to have particularly large numbers of long-fanged rabbits.

I also saw something like a large weasel, but it fled as soon as it saw us, so I didn't learn much about it.

Thinking about it, everything except Kuro and the others had been aggressive, so an animal that didn't want to approach was rather refreshing.

Still, it was disappointing not to discover anything new.

Was the problem that I had to get home before dark?

Since I tilled the places I passed through flat, almost like mapping, I wasn't exploring the same places twice. But at this rate, the forest around my home would disappear, making timber difficult to obtain.

Should I set aside a day specifically for gathering timber?

I considered it while eating simply boiled spinach, daikon, and carrots. I wanted salt, or a seasoning that could replace it. If I explored for another ten days and still found nothing, I would focus on gathering timber.

Incidentally, during those ten days of exploration, the rice and wheat sprouted, and small saplings grew in the fruit fields.

I hoped I would be able to harvest the fruit without any problems.

While exploring and tilling, a thought crossed my mind. Couldn't I secure timber simply by not tilling the ground?

In other words, I needed to turn the Almighty Farming Tool into something other than a hoe.

Something other than a hoe that would be convenient for moving around... A wheelbarrow? Could it do that?... It could.

Oh, now I could move at wheelbarrow speed and find things.

After all, I only had to push instead of tilling the ground, so I could move much faster.

But then I realized something.

The reason I hadn't gotten lost in the forest was that I tilled as I went. Without tilling, I would get lost.

Should I give up on the wheelbarrow? Just as I thought that, Kuro Four, who was accompanying me today, jumped into it. It didn't feel heavy at all.

Just what I'd expect from the Almighty Farming Tool. Kuro Four wagged his tail excitedly, but this wasn't a new toy.

Wait. Right, as long as Kuro and the others were with me, I wouldn't get lost. They could go into the forest on their own, catch rabbits, and come back. Oh, that was a pretty good idea. Let's do that.

Incidentally, since a wheelbarrow worked, I wondered whether it could turn into a bicycle or mountain bike, too-but my attempts failed.

Chapter 11: The river

Exploring with the wheelbarrow got me lost, just as I'd imagined.

But thanks to Kuro and the others, I could return home, which greatly expanded the area I could travel through.

Then, around the fifth day of exploring,

I found a river.

It was a mountain stream that gurgled as the water washed over rocks upstream. About five meters wide?

After walking a little way upstream, I found a waterfall flowing down from a huge rock.

Although I called it a waterfall, it wasn't vertical. It rushed powerfully down a cliff at an angle of about sixty degrees.

But it was quite high. Maybe seven or eight meters?

What a magnificent view. Beautiful.

I caught some of the falling water in one hand. It was very cold. And clean.

Could I drink this...?

Since Kuro, who was with me today, was gulping it down, it should be fine.

I asked Kuro which direction home was after he finished drinking.

Without hesitation, Kuro turned his head that way.

I changed the Almighty Farming Tool from a wheelbarrow into a hoe and started swinging it in that direction.

To make a path connecting it to home.

For now, I used the hoe while the sun was high, then returned home with the wheelbarrow when it began to set.

Since I could ask Kuro which direction the waterfall was, I started tilling from home the next day.

With various other things to do as well, it took about fifteen days, but I finally connected the path.

The waterfall was about five kilometers west of home. Quite far away.

The river with the waterfall wound along its course, flowing generally from north to south-southwest. Would I find something if I followed it downstream?

Well, that could wait.

The reason I made a path to the waterfall was to secure a water supply. Although I used well water for drinking and watering the fields, drawing it up from below made carrying it a hassle.

But the waterfall was quite high up. In other words, if I built a waterway from high up on the waterfall, I could secure a large supply of water.

For the fields, the rice paddies, and a bath.

I'd been thinking about a bath for a long time, but I'd put it off because carrying enough water to soak in would be a hassle.

Still, bringing a waterway straight to my home would be dangerous.

Even with Kuro and the others around, there were plenty of dangerous animals in the forest.

If I built a waterway over the moat and log fence, they might invade by following it.

So I would build a large reservoir outside the log fence and moat surrounding the fields.

It would be a hundred meters by a hundred meters, about the size of four fields. Its depth would increase toward the center, like an inverted pyramid. That said, the deepest point would only be about five meters.

Since I worked on this alongside other tasks, it took ten days.

Next, I dug a drainage channel in the ground.

I only had to dig downstream, so it wasn't particularly difficult. It did take time, though.

Several days later, I finished digging it.

I blocked the space between the reservoir and the channel with a wooden gate. Now I only needed to build the waterway... but how?

Unless I drew water from above the waterfall, it wouldn't flow here.

In other words, I needed to build something with a certain amount of height.

Option one: make it from processed wood.

Advantage: it would probably be fairly easy to make.

Disadvantage: it would break easily.

That wouldn't work.

Although I could process the timber with the Almighty Farming Tool, I'd have to assemble it myself.

Besides, even if I wanted to make a wooden waterway, I had neither nails nor rope for building the supports to hold it in place.

I should consider it impossible.

Option two: make it from worked stone.

Advantage: it wouldn't break easily.

Disadvantage: it would be hard to make.

That would be difficult, too.

All I'd need to do was line up rocks and carve them into a shape that let water flow easily...

But lining up rocks all the way from the waterfall to the reservoir wasn't realistic. After all, before tilling, it was forest; afterward, it was flat ground. There weren't any large rocks there.

Even the rocks I used for building stone were only about a meter high. Maintaining the waterway's height over roughly five kilometers using those would be difficult.

Option three... earth?

What if I built it from earth and packed it solid? If I struck earth with the Almighty Farming Tool's hammer, it became as hard as concrete.

That was it!

There was earth everywhere, including what I'd dug out for the drainage channel.

It seemed like a pretty good idea.

Then I put it into practice.

The long task began.

Chapter 12: Starting work on the waterway

I'd made only a little progress on the waterway.

I piled earth along the path from the reservoir toward the waterfall, then compacted it with the hammer. Although using the Almighty Farming Tool didn't tire me out, I was the only one doing the work.

And I had the fields to tend, too. Even after ten days, I'd only advanced about five hundred meters.

One tenth. And the closer I got to the waterfall, the more earth I'd need to pile up. I couldn't simply assume I'd finish in another ninety days.

Should I work day and night? But working day and night would worry Kuro and the others.

Meanwhile, the tomatoes, rapeseed, and sugarcane I'd planted were ready to harvest.

So I had to suspend construction of the waterway and concentrate on harvesting.

As before, Kuro and the others loved the tomatoes. They ate them with relish.

As for the rapeseed, I should be able to press oil from the seeds, so for now, I'd collect the seeds

and store them.

Pressing oil could wait.

I tried biting into the sugarcane, and a raw bitterness and sweetness spread through my mouth.

But it was a sweetness I hadn't tasted in so long that tears welled up a little.

Seeing me take big bites of sugarcane, Kuro and the others gave me longing looks, so I gave them some.

Only Yuki and Kuro Three particularly liked it; the others didn't seem very impressed. Just like with the strawberries.

I'd gather it together after harvesting.

The wheat and soybeans gave me a little trouble because I hadn't considered removing their husks.

I couldn't leave things like this.

For now, I'd harvest everything and figure something out later.

As for the rice... I'd only intended to grow seedlings, but with finding salt and building the waterway taking priority, I'd mostly left it alone.

I hadn't experimented with rice paddies, either.

Well, those paddies were why I'd built the reservoir, and why I was building the waterway...

So I'd thought it would fail like that, but that wasn't the case.

The seedlings had simply grown and borne grain.

I could get rice even without a paddy. Were paddies used because of the yield?

Or was it a different variety? I keenly felt how little I knew, despite my longing to farm.

For now, I harvested all the rice.

The fruit trees had grown quite large, but not enough to bear fruit yet. I'd probably have to wait quite a while longer. Still, even this was far faster than anything I knew.

Then I realized something.

Could I grow cedars and cypresses, too?

Would I no longer have to worry about timber?

No rushing. I'd take it slowly.

Once the harvest was over, I planted two fields of tomatoes and left the rest empty.

Although I wanted to take on more work, there was a limit to what I could do.

First, I'd finish the waterway and get the reservoir working.

I resumed building the waterway.

I kept at it.

Doing nothing else felt stifling, so I explored the forest for a change of pace.

I couldn't give up on rock salt. But rock salt was crystallized salt.

Since there probably wouldn't be much near water, I focused my search in other directions.

Well, I gained nothing beyond a change of pace.

Then thirty days passed.

Just as I was thinking the two fields of tomatoes were ready to harvest, I realized something.

The temperature was dropping.

Cold? Seasons?... Aaargh! I hadn't considered the possibility of winter!

Because the crops grew so fast, I'd completely forgotten.

Seasons existed in the world.

They probably existed in another world, too.

How many days had it been since I came here? I'd harvested twice, and it was almost time for a third harvest. It took about forty to fifty days from making a field to harvesting. Using forty days, a hundred and twenty days? Had four months passed since I started planting crops?

Even assuming it had been spring when I arrived here... I'd died in May.

If everything was the same, it was September now. Or should I consider it around October? Assuming conditions were the same as on Earth, it was about time for it to get cold. There would probably be at least ninety days or so of cold weather, wouldn't there? Could I secure food as usual during that time? Wouldn't snow make it difficult to get around?

This was bad.

This was no time to focus solely on the waterway. I hurriedly started working in the fields.

I focused on potatoes, sweet potatoes, daikon radishes, and carrots, which kept relatively well.

And to fight the cold, I needed fire. A fire needed firewood.

Normally, felled timber had to be dried before it could become firewood, but timber cut with the Almighty Farming Tool could be used as firewood immediately. I was truly grateful.

I piled a large amount of firewood inside the big tree that had originally been my home and was now a storehouse.

Chapter 13: Preparing for winter and new residents

I'd completely forgotten the possibility of winter.

For someone who'd declared he would farm, it was an incredible blunder.

It was only an excuse, but this was entirely due to the plants growing at a speed beyond common sense and the forest giving no sense of the seasons. (Translator's note: Although several harvests a year are perfectly normal in our country, most areas suited to agriculture in Japan are at high latitudes, so they generally have only one harvest a year. That is the standard being used here. This isn't universal, however; hydroponic farms, for example, can produce eighteen harvests a year.)

As for the weather, there had only been two or three days so far when rain was heavy enough to keep me from working. The rest had felt no worse than sunshowers.

Well, I'd simply been careless.

If it were just me, it wouldn't matter so much, but counting Kuro and the others, I had to stock up on food.

To preserve meat, I made a cellar to serve in place of a freezer.

Underground, the temperature would stay relatively low. I really should have made it sooner.

I also hunted rabbits with Kuro and the others.

...When I deliberately tried to hunt them, they were surprisingly hard to find.

I didn't catch a single one, but Kuro and the others brought back prey without any trouble, so I mainly handled bleeding them and dealing with their innards.

Bleeding. The task of draining blood from prey after slaughtering it. Once the blood was drained, the meat's bloody smell diminished. When I remembered to do this and tried it, the rabbit meat became delicious enough to rival wild boar.

So I drained as much blood as possible.

As for the innards... they frightened me for various reasons, so I simply threw them away.

Kuro and the others looked at me as though to say, "Huh? You're just throwing those away?" But innards spoiled easily, and I couldn't eat them unless they were properly prepared.

After all, depending on the circumstances, they might even have feces on them or be coated in gastric juices...

After seeing large, half-dissolved insects and frogs of bizarre colors, I had no desire to go to the trouble of eating them.

The offal used for barbecues in my old world came entirely from herbivores... It was probably better not to force myself to deal with the innards of carnivores and omnivores.

Ah... but weren't they a valuable source of nutrition for Kuro and the others?

I'd never heard of wild animals avoiding innards when eating... If anything, didn't they eat those first?

Drawing on my knowledge from my previous world, I kept everything except the digestive organs for Kuro and the others to eat.

What should I do with this stone-like thing near the heart?

Was it something like a gallstone? But wild boars had them, too, not just rabbits. Was it something all animals in this world had in common? Could something like this be eaten?

For the time being, I put them in front of Kuro and the others, who happily crunched them up and ate them.

Were they tasty?

At any rate, the innards became exclusively Kuro and the others' share. They also had to be from something hunted that day; I wouldn't feed them any the next day.

Come to think of it, although Kuro One, Kuro Two, Kuro Three, and Kuro Four were a size smaller than Kuro and Yuki, they already looked like very impressive adult dogs.

The dagger-like horns growing from their foreheads also gave off a faint crimson glow from their centers.

Anyway, I would leave securing meat to Kuro and the others and concentrate on providing support-or so I was thinking when they drove a large wild boar toward me.

Were they telling me to hunt it?

Did they think I was dependable, or did they want to give me the credit since I couldn't catch anything myself...?

Either way, I couldn't let it enter the fields, so I took its head off with my hoe.

Then I went straight on to bleeding and gutting it.

If it were just me, this amount would have been enough to last the winter, but Kuro and the others ate more than I could have imagined.

We would need several more boars.

I also needed to collect grass.

Some was for wiping my butt, of course, but more importantly, I needed grass to use as a bed.

Considering the winter cold, I needed to gather a large amount.

In fact, the grass I used as a bed was already in tatters after about ten days...

The grass for wiping my butt stayed green for a long time, since I just left it sitting there.

As long as I stored it properly, it would last a long time.

The troublesome part was transporting it after cutting it.

I thought about having Kuro and the others help carry it, but considering that I would have to tie the grass onto them, move along with them, and unload it all by myself, doing it myself was probably the right choice.

I would rather have them concentrate on hunting.

Next came clothing.

Kuro and the others had fur they could be proud of, but all I had was my villager's top and pants.

These weren't winter clothes.

What caught my eye here were rabbit and boar pelts.

I had tried skinning them, but what came after that?

I seemed to remember something about tanning hides, but how exactly did that work?

In a wilderness survival manga I had read before, I thought they softened them by chewing them... Hmm.

On a TV show I remembered watching, they washed them thoroughly, used something to dissolve the fat and leave just the pelt, then dried and stretched it or something...

I experimented with rabbit pelts.

After wasting four rabbits' worth of pelts, I gave up.

I couldn't do it.

It was impossible for a beginner to make use of pelts with nothing on hand.

I would just stay inside all winter, as though I were hibernating.

I put some work into the hut I called home, adding protection against the cold.

For the opening that let in light, I installed a window that could open and close... Or rather, I prepared a cover the same size as the opening and fitted it into place.

I made the plank walls double-layered and packed grass between the layers to keep out drafts.

Until now, I had only blocked the doorway with a suitably sized board, but this time I put in the effort to make a proper door.

The difficult part was the hinges.

Since I had no metal fittings or nails, I quickly gave up on those and instead shaped the door and post themselves into hinges.

Durability might be a problem, but they would probably last through winter.

Adding the door instantly made the place look like a home.

Yes, civilization.

That should do for protecting the house against the cold.

When I absolutely had to go somewhere, I would rely on the Almighty Farming Tool.

What about going to the toilet? That would be cold.

I added protection against the cold to the toilet too.

While I was busy with these various tasks, Kuro Four, who had gone out hunting, came to fetch me.

Another boar?

Following Kuro Four with that thought in mind, I arrived near the waterway under construction.

Was something wrong with the waterway?

I continued with a little unease and found Kuro Three waiting there.

Near Kuro Three was a flat, black object I could see even from a distance.

A black cushion? Just as I thought that, I realized it was a large spider.

It was huge.

Its body was a square about the size of two tatami mats.

Not a cushion, but a square, folded quilt.

It had eight legs, arranged symmetrically on either side.

If it stretched its legs out to the sides, the spider would reach about six tatami mats in size.

I didn't know much about spider species, but its legs probably weren't all that long.

One distinctive feature was that not only its body but its legs were covered in fuzz.

The spider sat quietly in front of Kuro Three.

What was I supposed to do with this?

It didn't seem like they wanted me to hunt it, as they had with the boar.

Kuro Four, who had brought me here, looked satisfied, as though having completed an important task.

Uh...

After I stood there in some confusion, Kuro Three barked as though saying something to the spider.

At that signal, the spider began drawing silk from its rear and deftly working it with its front legs.

What was going on?

After about five minutes, the spider had woven its silk into a gleaming piece of cloth.

It was fifty centimeters square. A handkerchief?

The spider folded it into quarters and placed it in front of Kuro Three, who picked it up in its mouth and brought it to me.

An offering?

When I examined the cloth Kuro Three had brought, it felt finer than the clothes I was wearing.

It even had spider-themed embroidery.

After gently tugging at my pant leg with its mouth, Kuro Four turned toward the spider.

"Don't tell me... you want the spider to make clothes for me?"

Kuro Four barked happily, as though I had given the right answer.

"I see."

I had no aversion to spiders. Spiders were beneficial bugs. As long as it wasn't poisonous, there was no problem. It probably wasn't poisonous. I hoped not.

This world ran on give and take. That was true for animals and bugs alike. There should be no one-sided exploitation or service. We should support and rely on one another.

I decided to have the spider live with us.

Its home would be up in the large tree I had originally lived in.

It could eat anything, but preferred potatoes.

...It could eat potatoes, huh. It was a spider from another world, after all.

And it could make cloth. Not only that, it could turn the cloth into clothes.

Amazing.

It even looked me over and took proper measurements.

This spider might be highly intelligent.

When I told it what I wanted, it also made curtains and such, which I hung over the window opening and inside the door. That completed my protection against the cold.

And that wasn't the end of the spider's talents.

The spider could even tan the pelts I had given up on. It was far more dexterous and knowledgeable than I was. It could also combine the tanned pelts with its own cloth to make some very nice-looking clothes. Its taste was completely superior to mine. I couldn't let it go now.

I gave him a name too. Based on my first impression, I named him Zabuton. He was our new housemate. (Translator's note: Actually, "zabuton" would be a more suitable spelling, since those are the Chinese characters for a cushion. But since the strokes don't look nice, I used "zabuton" instead. It's a phonetic rendering anyway.)

Chapter 14: Zabuton

Spiders apparently couldn't make sounds, and that seemed to hold true in this other world too. However, spiders in this world could use tools to make sounds.

Knock, knock.

I looked toward the sound of wood striking wood. Then came three quick knocks.

South, huh.

Zabuton lived in the large tree that had originally been my home. Since I had tilled the surrounding area, it was the highest point around, more than twice as tall as the fruit trees growing in the fields. From there, it could probably see the surroundings clearly.

Whenever something unusual happened, it knocked on a wooden board to notify me. It could even indicate the direction.

I had told it once before: one knock for north, two for east, three for south, and four for west. Apparently, it had remembered properly.

How capable.

Incidentally, for southwest, it would knock three times, then four.

When I headed in the direction Zabuton indicated, I found Kuro Two driving a beast toward me.

It was a large creature I had never seen before. How should I put it? A weasel? Anyway, being chased by Kuro Two had made it hostile.

It swung its front claws at me.

I couldn't let it get me, so I immediately took out the Almighty Farming Tool in hoe form and readied myself.

I nimbly dodged its front claws and drove the hoe into its head and neck.

Kuro Two barked encouragingly and brought its head close for a reward for chasing it, so I petted it.

Although it wasn't as much as a boar, we had secured a decent amount of meat. After I dragged it home with the Almighty Farming Tool, Zabuton came down and began helping butcher it. Zabuton hung it from the tree with silk, making bleeding, gutting, and skinning it much easier.

Zabuton skinned it more expertly than I could, then took the pelt and quickly returned to the tree. There were probably a great many pelts up there by now.

Still, it was really starting to get cold.

If Zabuton hadn't made me new clothes, I might have been in trouble.

I also asked Zabuton to make some large sacks.

Once I stuffed one with the grass I used for bedding, it became my mattress.

Then I prepared another as a quilt, so I would be warm at night too.

Just as I was thinking it was about time to harvest the potatoes, sweet potatoes, daikon radishes, and carrots I had planted for their storage life, it started snowing. Was this place colder than I had thought?

I hurriedly finished the harvest.

After storing the crops in the cellar, I considered whether the fruit trees needed protection against the cold... But I didn't know how to go about it. I would leave them alone this time. Sorry.

Kuro and the others also understood that winter had arrived, and rarely went into the forest anymore, instead staying in the original storehouse that served as their doghouse.

Incidentally, I had added protection against the cold to the doghouse too.

Although they couldn't use fire, I made use of Zabuton's cloth to provide suitable protection against drafts.

Kuro and the others looked quite adorable sleeping huddled together.

I thought we should be able to get through winter now.

For the time being, I would concentrate on whittling wood and carving stone into small items at home during winter.

At present, I still couldn't make a water scoop that didn't leak.

Did I need some kind of adhesive?

I would think about it some more.

Also, since I wanted to grind the wheat and corn I had harvested into flour, I wanted to try making a mortar and a millstone.

Well, there were other things I wanted too, so I probably wouldn't have much free time even in winter.