"Then I'll need to learn leather tanning as well."
"It seems to me that I didn't come here to enjoy life with you, but to suffer with you." Alice's slightly annoyed look made Leo burst into laughter.
"Give us a year or two, and you won't have to do anything. I'll build you a big house and buy you a big boat that can catch tens of thousands of kilograms of fish at once."
"Let's buy a few more big trucks, then we can go wherever we want."
Leo gently held Alice's hand, her words sweeter than honey.
Since you've put it that way, what else can I do but wait for you?
In the afternoon, Leo carried a large bag of fruit into the village.
Under Alice's guidance, each household received a small share, and amidst expressions of gratitude, Leo and Alice were fully integrated into Falling Sunset Village.
The next day, Leo went to the back mountain alone.
With swift footsteps, they quickly emerged from the path trodden by Falling Sunset Village and entered the dense forest.
Following the scents of the forest, Leo quickly found the location he was looking for.
Wild animals all have their own habitats and special trails; as long as you find such trails, you can easily hunt prey.
Lassos, tripwires, bamboo skewer traps...
The traps set in the morning yielded results in the afternoon.
When Leo returned home that evening, he had seven small prey hanging from his body.
That's amazing!
Alice looked at her prey in surprise and said.
"I found the Wild Animal Trail. Those wild animals had never seen a trap before and were just blindly running into it."
"I've also set ten traps inside. Go there tomorrow morning; there's bound to be a big haul."
Leo put the prey in the yard, skinned it, and butchered it. This meat was enough for the two of them to eat for several days.
Unfortunately, there's no refrigerator, so the game can't be kept for very long. In the end, it has to be made into cured meat, otherwise it will just rot away.
"I've never seen a trap before; I want to go tomorrow."
Alice helped Leo process the prey; she was going tomorrow too.
"If you're not afraid of hardship, let's go together and see how amazing your man is."
"Cut"
Alice's face instantly turned red, and she lightly punched Leo's shoulder with her little fist, making Leo burst into laughter.
Worried that the prey in the trap might be eaten by other wild animals, Leo got up early to go check on the back mountain.
Unexpectedly, Alice's promise to go together yesterday was true. She got dressed, slung her little basket over her shoulder, and accompanied Leo toward the back mountain.
With Alice following along, Leo couldn't move quickly and arrived at the location where the traps were set an hour later than planned.
All they found in the trap pit was a skeleton with scattered blood at the bottom; clearly, his prey had been eaten by another creature.
"Many wild animals come out to hunt at night, so it's normal for the animals trapped in the snares to be eaten."
Leo wasn't upset about not getting anything; instead, he was thinking about why this had happened.
"Let's check out the second trap."
Leo set up traps on both sides of the wild animal trail, a necessary route to the stream for drinking water, where wild animals were abundant.
There was also a reward in the second trap, but when Leo checked it, he found only one leg locked with a noose made of hemp rope.
It was obvious that the trap had caught its prey, only to have other carnivorous beasts get there first.
Leo untied the noose and looked at the teeth marks on the severed leg, clearly indicating that the one who had intercepted him was a large carnivore.
"It seems our haul this time won't be too good. The density of wild animals here is higher than I expected, and there are even large, ferocious beasts like this."
Leo put the severed leg in his basket, thinking it was better not to eat it and use it as bait in a trap.
The third through ninth traps also yielded results, but the animals either ate the prey or the traps themselves were destroyed.
Those large wild beasts seemed to be telling Leo in this way whose world the night belonged to.
"The materials I used to set the traps were the simplest ones, so it's normal that they couldn't trap some wild animals."
Alice came specifically to check on his trap today, but found nothing. Leo was a little embarrassed and could only make excuses for himself.
"We have enough food at home, no rush, take your time. Besides, there's still one last trap we haven't checked."
Alice comforted Leo, saying that although she had prepared the basket early, it didn't matter if she came up empty-handed.
"Good."
Leo had given up hope on the last trap; now he was thinking about how to improve them so that they wouldn't be eaten by other predators when they caught their prey.
Before they even reached the last trap, they heard two mooing sounds, one large and one small.
"We've caught our prey."
The moment he heard the shout, the embarrassment of his previous fruitless attempt vanished from Leo's face. He grinned, showing his big teeth, and ran quickly to the trap in just a few steps.
What they saw was a two-meter-tall, jet-black cow circling the trap, while in the center of the trap, a calf was mooing.
The calf was startled when it saw Leo and tried its best to climb up, but it dug up a lot of soil and couldn't climb up.
The mother cow wanted to rescue her calf, but unfortunately she had no hands and couldn't grab it, so she could only anxiously watch from beside the trap.
Leo dug this trap a bit too deep; the calf is still very small, so it's normal that it can't climb out.
The cow became anxious when she saw Leo. She lowered her head and pointed her horns at Leo, as if to say that if Leo took one more step closer, she would gore Leo away.
"How pitiful."
Alice looked at the calf crying pitifully in the trap and, overcome with compassion, said...
"Let's rescue him and take him home. When the calf grows up, we can sell him for money or use him to pull carts. I've heard that oxcarts are slow but very stable, and when he gets old, we can still eat his meat. I've heard that beef tastes very good."
"..."
"I'll listen to you."
Leo took back what she had just said about Alice having a sudden burst of kindness; what Alice was actually thinking about was eating beef.
Leo stared at the fiercely guarding cow, realizing that he needed to subdue the mother and calf if he wanted to take them back.
Just by looking at the cow, which was taller than him and covered in sizable scars, Leo knew that this was definitely the most shrewish and temperamental member of the herd.
As soon as Leo took a step closer, the cow mooed and charged towards Leo, determined not to let Leo get near her calf.
"Snort"
Leo snorted coldly, pressed his body down, grabbed the cow's two horns with his large hands, and with a sudden burst of strength, knocked the cow down with a 'bang'.
"Come with me, or I'll kill you right now."
Leo didn't release any breath, but his cold eyes made the cow lying on the ground tremble.
Those eyes seemed to conceal a carnage as vast as mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
The cow, still just an ordinary wild animal, couldn't withstand Leo's death stare. She had a feeling that if she dared to refuse Leo's kindness, she would die instantly.
"Moo"
The cow begged for mercy in a low voice, and when Leo let go, she obediently got up and stood beside Leo, not daring to move.
"That's a good boy/girl."
Leo touched the cow's back, which was as smooth as water, and its black fur even reflected the sunlight, clearly indicating that it was in its prime.
Seeing that the cow didn't dare to move, Leo gestured for Alice to come forward. As a result, the cow became even more docile under Alice's hands, and even knew to lick Alice's palm with its tongue.
Even these wild beasts know who the real head of the household is!
Leo walked to the edge of the trap and pulled the calf up with one hand. As soon as the calf was up, it ran to its mother's side, looking at Leo and Alice in fear.
"Haha, let's go home, we have cows now!"
Leo carried Alice onto the back of the cow, and he led the way. Although he didn't know what these two cows could do, it was still a welcome addition to the family.
Nine out of ten traps turned out to be empty, but the reward from this one trap was enough to make Leo laugh out loud. He had completely regained the face he had lost in front of Alice.
" Xiao Bai is really capable; he managed to catch such a good cow."
Upon entering the village, the two cows caused a sensation. In small villages like Falling Sunset Village, the main source of income is usually the sea.
The area behind the mountain was limited to casually planting some land and picking some wild fruits.
In their eyes, the wild beasts in the back mountains were more dangerous than the sea, so they never went in; they just picked some wild fruit outside.
Leo's second trip into the mountains was enough to catch such fine cattle, one big and one small, which was a rare and joyous occasion for their village in decades.
"It's all good luck, just good luck."
Leo walked ahead, with the cow carrying Alice swaying behind, almost as if a bell was hanging around the cow's neck, jingling softly.
If he were dressed in a red outfit, Leo would look exactly like a groom welcoming his bride.
After returning home, Alice looked at the two cows in the yard and felt somewhat worried.
"What will these two cows eat? Am I supposed to go and herd them again?"
Alice was a little depressed; why did she feel like she had more and more work to do?
"Don't worry about them. I'll find a few people to help build a cowshed tomorrow, and then they can go out to graze on their own every day. They'll come back on their own at night," Leo said without any concern.
"What if they run away?" Alice was a little worried. She would be heartbroken if such a good cow got away.
"No, it won't."
Leo glanced at the cow, and the cow seemed to understand the conversation between Leo and Alice, even shaking its head in a human-like manner.
"Look, even they themselves say they don't dare to wander around."
Alice rolled her eyes at Leo. Although she didn't detect any energy fluctuations, she was certain that Leo had used some methods. What ordinary person would have such methods?
If these two cows could be tamed using wizarding methods, there would be no need for Leo to take action; she could tame all the wild beasts on the back mountain by herself.