Chapter 22

Owlbear (3)

Now that the name had been decided, all that remained was to bond with Wonmo.

Giving him honey had raised his affection toward me considerably, but he was still only a cub.

He couldn't yet tell right from wrong, and with his mother dead, I would have to take care of him.

But then the biggest problem occurred to me.

'How am I supposed to raise him?'

Even back home, I had never owned a single pet.

I had barely been able to take care of myself, so raising an animal had never even crossed my mind.

At least I had seen enough dogs and cats to have some idea of how to handle them.

An owlbear, however, was a completely different matter.

Aside from the fact that they had enormous appetites and were extremely ferocious, I knew absolutely nothing about them.

'The most important thing is making him recognize me as his owner.'

I watched Wonmo scurry around the cave.

Perhaps because he was still young, he was overflowing with curiosity.

"Sniff. Sniff, sniff."

He wandered around the place where his mother had died for quite some time.

Judging by the way he kept sniffing the ground, he seemed to remember her scent.

Unfortunately, the mother owlbear had already been shipped off to America...

No, to the auction house.

People were still steadily bidding on it, so I would soon receive a large sum of money.

'But that tiny thing is really going to grow that big?'

The mother owlbear had been, with only slight exaggeration, about the size of a house.

But look at Wonmo.

The round little fellow was only the size of a medium-sized dog.

Even the pale color of his fur suggested that, just as the Gallery users had said, he had only recently been born.

"Kueeeek!"

"Oh dear."

He was far too curious for his own good.

Why would he try eating the fasting pills inside the sack?

With his sharp sense of smell, he should have noticed their bitter scent.

Why had he still eaten one?

"Kuaaaak!"

Rip!

Yet even as a cub, his ferocity remained intact.

The moment Wonmo swung his claws, the sack tore open.

I nearly screamed when the fasting pills inside came spilling out.

"Hey! Park Wonmo! You can't do that!"

"Kyuu? Kyuu?"

"No matter how bad they taste, you can't just tear the sack apart!"

Even as I scolded him, I hurried to deal with the mess.

I laid the torn sack on its side so the remaining pills wouldn't spill out.

Then I bought another sack of a suitable size from the auction house and transferred them into it.

'Didn't they say owlbears would even eat rotting corpses?'

Just how disgusting were these fasting pills for every animal to react the same way?

I had grown used to them, but apparently animals couldn't tolerate them.

'First, I need to make him understand that this is his home...'

That raised another question.

Why had the mother owlbear brought her cub here?

Owlbears were highly territorial animals, which meant they were extremely sensitive about their domains.

In other words, they normally avoided entering another creature's territory.

Even if she had been scouting the area, there was no reason for her to bring along a newborn cub.

'Did something drive them out of their original territory?'

No.

That probably wasn't it.

The mother owlbear had been in perfect condition when she encountered me.

She hadn't immediately tried to tear me apart either. She had first examined the area.

Perhaps they had simply been moving...

I couldn't be sure.

The best way to find out would be to locate their nest.

'That's impossible right now.'

Just look at that ball of fur staring at me with those huge round eyes.

He was sitting on the straw-filled mat, gazing blankly at me.

"Come here, you little cutie."

"Kyuu."

He was so adorable I could hardly stand it.

How could anything be this cute?

I showered Wonmo with affection, scratching beneath his chin and stroking his head to my heart's content.

Right.

How could I possibly leave him behind?

Even if I did go somewhere, I couldn't leave the cave unattended until he understood that this place was his home.

'Then repairing the cave is probably my best option...'

It was a little disappointing, but it wasn't a bad choice.

The greatest problem, however, was still water.

I could manage my own hygiene, but Wonmo was another matter.

There was no telling what kind of disease he might bring back, so bathing him was essential.

'Washing him in the creek would be difficult.'

The golden poison frog wasn't the issue.

The problem was that I had no idea where Wonmo might run off to.

If he crossed to the opposite bank, it would be a disaster.

And if the terrain changed at the exact moment he crossed, it would become an even greater disaster.

'Isn't there a better way?'

I stared at Wonmo, who was watching me blankly, then silently picked him up.

His fur was this fluffy, yet I hadn't been allowed to name him Fluffy.

I'm sorry, little guy. Your owner failed you.

As though he understood my feelings, he rubbed his face against me.

Grrrrumble.

Then a strange noise reached my ears.

It definitely hadn't come from my stomach.

I slowly set Wonmo down and stared at his face.

"Kyuu..."

"Are you hungry?"

"Slurp."

Don't lick your lips while staring at me.

That's terrifying.

Before Wonmo could go berserk, I hurriedly opened the auction house.

It sold all kinds of goods, so I could easily buy some suitable meat.

'They even sell monster meat?'

Orcs, goblins, gnolls, trolls, and more.

I had no idea why anyone would list that sort of thing at the auction house.

Apparently monster meat was so tough and foul-tasting that nobody ate it unless they were desperate.

The sellers had probably listed it simply because they didn't know what else to do with it.

Its price was also comparatively low.

"Here. Try this."

"Sniff, sniff, sniff."

I bought some orc meat and placed it in front of Wonmo.

He sniffed it curiously before taking a huge bite.

"Nom, nom, nom."

"Is it edible?"

"Nom, nom, nom, nom. Crunch! Chomp!"

He ate it without hesitation.

As expected of an owlbear, his diet appeared to be close to that of an ordinary bear.

I placed a bowl of water beside him, then went outside.

It would take him a while to finish all that, so I intended to complete the rest of my work.

Thwack! Thwack!

After chopping away with the axe for some time, the tree had begun to wobble slightly.

The sound was no longer a dull thud but closer to the noise of splitting firewood.

After checking the tree's position relative to the cave, I kicked it hard.

The tree slowly tipped over before collapsing with a series of loud cracks.

Craaaack!

Thud!

It was so massive that merely falling produced an enormous amount of noise.

Surely that wouldn't irritate any nearby animals.

Fortunately, the greatest threat in the area—the owlbear—had already been sold through the auction house.

'Should I cut it into three sections?'

I walked over to the fallen tree and estimated its size.

A tree this large could probably provide enough material for three or four sections of barricade.

The problem was that I still had to split and shape the thick trunk.

'Why did I do this?'

One problem after another.

There was still an overwhelming amount of work left.

I should have learned an internal energy cultivation technique first, just as I had originally planned.

I had gotten bored, started doing something unnecessary, and only created more work for myself.

After letting out a deep sigh, I decided to begin by removing the smaller branches.

There were so many that I wouldn't have to worry about firewood for quite some time.

Once I had roughly cleared away the branches, I planned to cut the trunk into smaller sections.

'A sword probably won't work. I'll need to buy a saw...'

Just thinking about sawing through it made me dizzy.

Still, I couldn't give up now.

Before buying the saw, I returned to the cave to rest.

"Grrrrr..."

When I entered the cave, I found Wonmo asleep on the mat.

He had completely finished the monster meat I had given him earlier.

No matter the species, babies tended to spend most of the day sleeping.

I watched Wonmo, curled up into a ball, then silently opened the Gallery.

***

Title: Our Wonmo Is Sleeping

Wild Grylls

(Photo of Wonmo curled into a ball while sleeping.)

Isn't he adorable?

Ah... This is so healing...

More! Give us more!

He really looks like a ball. LOL.

The more I see it, the more I think Wonmo was the perfect name.

I seriously want to hug him at least once.

The responses were overwhelmingly positive.

Anyone who could look at this and remain unaffected couldn't possibly be human.

As I proudly read through the comments, one in particular caught my attention.

Passing Dwarf: Is that emergency food? Looks tasty.

Wild Grylls: Are you insane?

Passing Dwarf: I drank yesterday and just woke up. What happened?

It was Passing Dwarf.

Apparently he had only just woken up after drinking himself to sleep.

How could anyone look at Wonmo and call him emergency food?

I thought the dwarf was an idiot in more ways than one, but the other Gallery users were even worse.

So Grylls became a pet servant. LOL.

I'm telling you, the moment he gets hungry, he'll eat you first. LOL.

Wild Grylls: You people are seriously insane.

Right.

This was the Gallery.

I let out a hollow laugh.

Since Passing Dwarf was here, I decided to ask him something.

Wonmo isn't Grylls's emergency food. Grylls is Wonmo's emergency food. LOL.

Passing Dwarf: Really? So you've taken in a master.

Wild Grylls: Dwarf, can you get me a good saw?

Passing Dwarf: A saw? Oh, did you cut down a tree?

Wild Grylls: Yeah. But just thinking about sawing it makes my balls tremble.

Passing Dwarf: Unless it's made of adamantium, one saw is about as good as another. It's better to chop into it with an axe first, then start sawing.

Wild Grylls: That's still too exhausting.

Passing Dwarf: Did you think it would be easy? That kind of work normally takes at least two people.

It was infuriating, but I couldn't argue with him.

Nothing was ever easy.

The best option would be to learn an internal energy cultivation technique from the Heavenly Demon.

If I could use mana, surely the work would become easier somehow.

Until then, I had no choice but to brute-force it through sheer effort.

Passing Dwarf: Or sell the log at the auction house and buy a fence or barricade. Wouldn't that solve it?

Wild Grylls: There aren't any.

Passing Dwarf: Why not?

That wasn't the only strange thing.

Why weren't there any?

I had searched too, but couldn't find what I needed.

There were a few fence-like structures, but none in the form I wanted.

Wild Grylls: Why are you asking me? If there aren't any, there aren't any. And wouldn't they be expensive?

Passing Dwarf: Even if they are, they'd still be cheaper than the log you cut down. Do you have any idea how valuable wood grown in the Forest of Four Seasons is?

Wild Grylls: Of course I don't. I told you I came from another world.

Passing Dwarf: Wasn't that just drunken nonsense?

Wild Grylls: You bastard. LOL.

Hard to blame him for not believing you. LOL.

LMAO.

Wild Grylls: Why didn't you tell me sooner?

Passing Dwarf: So you'd suffer a little.

Wild Grylls: You son of a bitch.

Passing Dwarf: Sawing isn't the end of it. You need to dry out the moisture, plane the wood, and do a bunch of other things.

Wild Grylls: What happens if I don't remove the moisture?

Passing Dwarf: Mold everywhere!

Wild Grylls: Ha...

Looks like reality just hit him. LOL.

At least you gained knowledge. Have a drink!

No.

Why did everyone seem so untrustworthy?

I really wanted a drink now.

Had I known this, I would've at least asked the Gallery before starting.

Just as the dwarf said, it seemed better to list the log at the auction house.

'In that blocky world, they made things so easily.'

That was only because the protagonist over there had absurd abilities.

As long as he had the materials, he could instantly craft anything from a sword to a pickaxe.

That was what made him incredible.

Why had I been dropped into this hellish world without a single useful ability?

The situation made me want to sigh endlessly, but at least I had the Gallery.

'Should I ask the dwarf to make it?'

He was irritating, but no one I knew was better at this kind of work.

After thinking for a moment, I asked Passing Dwarf.

Passing Dwarf: Except when I'm drunk. LOL.

Wild Grylls: What are you holding right now?

Passing Dwarf: Beer.

Wild Grylls: You son of a...

Passing Dwarf: It's basically a soft drink to a dwarf. Got a problem?

That is technically true. LOL.

It's the kind of truth that deserves a beating. LOL.

Wild Grylls: Then if I give you the log, can you make me a suitable barricade?

Passing Dwarf: Just buy one at the auction house. I checked earlier and saw a few. Drying the wood alone takes several weeks.

Wild Grylls: The auction house doesn't have the kind I want.

Passing Dwarf: Fair enough. They might sell fences, but probably not proper barricades. I'll see what I can find.

Wild Grylls: You're not messing with me, are you?

Passing Dwarf: I don't joke about this kind of work.

That was a relief.

My head was spinning.

What kind of alcoholic lunatic was this?

Still, he didn't seem to be joking, so I looked through the auction house again.

As expected, there were no barricades in the shape I wanted.

Once a barricade was built, it tended to remain in place, so demand was probably low.

Even if someone needed one, they would likely cut and process nearby timber rather than buy it.

'I should list the log first.'

I registered the fallen log at the auction house.

I had no idea how much it would sell for, but I hoped it was as valuable as the dwarf claimed.

If it fetched a high price, every tree around here would become a savings account.

'I'll have to wait for the barricade.'

The dwarf said he would list one soon, so I could buy it when he did.

Until then, I planned to improve the area around the cave little by little.

'It's not like I'm going to live here forever, but...'

First, I marked the trees that needed to be cut down.

I planned to dig a moat after installing the barricade.

Once I had roughly marked the trees with my axe, I returned to the cave to rest.

Wonmo was still deep in dreamland.

He was truly adorable.

I smiled warmly and opened the Gallery again.

Many more comments had appeared in the meantime.

Among them, a comment from the familiar named user PraiseTheSun stood out the most.

PraiseTheSun: Hey. Have you brushed Wonmo's fur?

Wild Grylls: Why would I need to brush him?

PraiseTheSun: Animals with thick fur need regular brushing. Either that or a bath. Try brushing him once.

I didn't really understand, but I should probably follow the advice.

It seemed that PraiseTheSun also raised animals.

I bought a fine-toothed comb from the auction house and approached Wonmo.

Then, careful not to wake him, I gently began combing through his thick fur.

"...What is this?"

Now I understood why PraiseTheSun had brought it up.

Something was wriggling between the teeth of the comb.

It looked absolutely disgusting.

"T-Ticks?"

I desperately needed water.

Right now.