A Couple of Cows, A Wagon, A Deer and the Plant

"Hmm…"

As the morning came, I was in the sight of two cows that were simply just hanging around my lot like there was no issue at all.

They came last night while I was getting myself ready to sleep. Their figure was that of a simple cow…except for the fact that these cows had a red gem embedded on their foreheads.

"...AK, do you know what these cows are?"

[THESE ARE THE RUBY COWS. KNOWN FOR THEIR IMPOSSIBLE NATURE OF GOOD LUCK, THEY ARE CONSIDERED A SIGN THAT YOUR FUTURE WILL POSSIBLY PROSPER WELL AS YOUR LUCK WELL BE INFLUENCED BY THEIR PRESENCE. ALTHOUGH THEY ARE CONSIDERED A LUCKY CHARM, THEY ARE REVERED TO BE A HOLY FIGURE TO ALL THAT COMES THEIR WAY. IT IS KNOWN THAT IF THEY WERE TO FEEL UNPLEASANT FROM A CERTAIN ENVIRONMENT OR SITUATION, THEY WILL CAUSE A DESTRUCTIVE DISASTER IN THAT PLACE. TO HANDLE SUCH MALICE, ONE MUST SIMPLY LET THESE COWS BE AS THEY ARE.]

"So I shouldn't touch them then?"

[YES]

"Well, I planned to put them behind a fence but since it was a bad idea, I might as well forget about it. Do they produce any sort of milk?]

[THEY PRODUCE A CONSIDERABLE IMPRESSIVE MILK QUALITY THAT WOULD COST A FORTUNE FOR ANY THAT WOULD PLAN TO BUY SOME. BUT BECAUSE OF THEIR NATURE, NO ONE ACTUALLY HANDLES THE RUBY COWS IN TERMS OF MILKING THEM…NOT EXCEPT FOR MONSTER TAMERS.]

"Ok then…I guess I'll just let them be for now." I said as I made my way to the river to wash my face. As long as I don't so anything to them, no harm would go my way.

"..."

After coming back from the river, I planned to capture a wild deer today to try to eat a proper meal.

With that, I asked the All-known book, if there was any sort of animal near me that I could hunt.

"Is there any deer in the area that I could hunt?"

[THE CLOSEST ANIMAL YOU COULD HUNT IS THE RUBY COW.]

"...No, other than the Ruby cow."

[THERE ARE TRACES OF A DEER NEARBY.]

"A Deer?..Is that so?" with that said I prepared all of my easy to carry weapons. Both my sword and 3 daggers were by me and I followed the directions that AK was telling me to go.

I wondered why an animal like a deer was in this world that I was brought to, so to answer that question, AK simply told me.

[SIMPLY SAID, SOME ANIMALS IN THIS WORLD ARE SIMILAR TO THAT OF EARTH…THE ONLY REASON WHY SOME ANIMALS THAT ARE MORE MAGICALLY ENDEARING LIKE THE RUBY COW OR THE CAPATORA IS BECAUSE THEY WERE INFLUENCED BY THE MAGIC AND THE BLESSINGS OF THE GODS. THERE ARE ALSO ANIMALS LIKE WOLVES OR BEARS THAT HAD TO ADAPT TO THE ENVIRONMENT WHICH THEY WERE PLACED IN…]

"So what your saying is that these magical animals evolved while the other species were able to retain their simple nature of instinct?"

[YES]

"Hmm, so magic really does a number on these guys huh…that's crazy."

I said as I was making my way to the location of where the deer was.

After a while, I was lead to a place that had me question the story of what this place told.

An old wooden wagon big enough that it could accommodate at least six people…

A bunch of barrels that were overgrown with weeds and plants…

A skeleton who wore a metal armor and a rusty sword pushing through it's chest…

This scene before me was simply something that I would not find so easily back on Earth.

They were simply laid out in an open area…

"Hmm, maybe I can use this." I said as I looked to the possible potential of these abandoned items.

But before I could move on with that thought, I was able to see a deer on behind one of the trees. I didn't want to spook it away, so I simply stared and looked to it with no harmful intentions yet.

Instead of walking too it, I went near the wagon instead to see what else was left here. My curiosity simply won me over.

Looking at the inside of the wagon, I was able to see nothing but an old rope about 5 meters, an extra wooden wheel for the wagon and a decaying sack filled with mold.

"...This is disappointing." I say as I looked back to search other things in the area. But to no avail, I found nothing too valuable. It must have been stolen by the people who killed the guy here.

".…" Looking at the skeleton, I couldn't help but feel bad about his condition.

"...He died without a proper burial." so to pay my respects, I dug a hole right about next to the skeleton. After an hour of digging, I carried the skeleton and placed it down along with its armor. Burying him and giving myself a sense of peace from this encounter.

And looking at the sword which I pulled away from the skeleton, I was able to see a dragon's symbol on its hilt. The sword itself had a rather fancy design and judging by how valuable it looked, I tried asking the All-known book how much it cost if I planned to sell this to the right buyer.

"How valuable is it?" I asked.

[IF SOLD TO THE KNIGHTS OF THE DRAGON EMPIRE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GAIN 15 GOLD COINS.]

"...Gold coins? Gold? Is it that valuable?"

[THE SWORD HANDLE ITSELF HOLDS THE VALUABLE PRICE WHILE THE BLADE WHICH IS RUSTED, NO LONGER HOLDS ANY VALUE.]

"Where is this Dragon Empire?"

[FOUND WEST OF THIS FOREST, IF YOU PLAN TO RIDE A HORSE CONTINUOUSLY, IT WILL TAKE AT LEAST A DAY AND A HALF TO REACH THE EMPIRE.]

"Hmm, a horse huh…that sucks. What if I walk?"

[A TOTAL OF FOUR DAYS WOULD SUFFICE.]

"Four days? Will that sucks even more!"

"Hmm...maybe if I plan to leave this forest to go to this empire, I might as well bring something else there to sell at least."

"What is a great item found in this forest that could help me financially?"

[ANALYZING…ANALYSIS COMPLETE…FOUND SOMEWHERE IN THE FOREST, A PLANT KNOWN AS THE HAIL-MARY PLANT IS USED AS A MEDICINAL HERB TO HEAL SICKNESSES AND INJURIES.]

"That's great, how do I find this plant?"

[ONLY WHEN THE SUN SETS WILL THIS PLANT SHOW ITSELF…BY NIGHT IT WILL GLOW LIKE A STAR…BY DAY, IT IS AS TRANSLUCENT AS GLASS.]

"So I guess I can only gather that plant during the night huh…"

"Hmm, but if I can actually gather enough for myself..,maybe I can plant them on my own? Is it possible for me to be able to take care of this plant?"

[THE HAIL-MARY PLANT IS KNOWN TO ONLY GROW INDEPENDENTLY UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES…BUT WITH YOUR SKILL TO CULTIVATE PLANTS PROPERLY, IT IS POSSIBLE TO GROW YOUR OWN HAIL-MARY PLANT.]

"Is that so? Well, now I can actually start acting like a farmer with that plant in hand."

With that said, I plan to try to gather as much Hail-Mary plant as I could during the night. But before that, I looked to the forest a saw that a few couple Deers were still in sight.

So to properly catch a deer, I had to ask the book on how I should use a skill of my mine called "Sneak".

[YOUR ABILITY TO SNEAK IS ALREADY IMPLEMENTED IN YOUR NATURE AS A PAST-THIEF. SIMPLY BEING CAREFUL AT YOUR APPROACH WILL ACTIVATE THE SKILL AND IT WILL MAKE YOU 60% MORE UNDETECTABLE BY THE SENSES OF THE HUMANS AND ANIMALS.]

"I see…I guess, I just have to sneak up on that animal like how I usually would."

Hoping that I could catch one by throwing a dagger, I went near them as slowly and as sneakily as I could. By controlling my breathing and steps forward, I was now about 2 meters away from the Deer.

'...one strong throw to the head will work just fine.' I thought to myself as I slowly pulled out a dagger from my leather bag.

*Swosh*

And just like that, I was able to hunt down a deer.

"...Hmm, I guess this is fine." I said as I carried the deer on my back. Despite it being a little bit heavy, I was able to make my way to campfire.

I would have to come back for the wagon the next time since I still have to drain the blood from this deer to properly care for its meat. To properly do it, I had to read the instructions given by the AK.

First up is to prepare for the materials needed. What I needed was a knife, a bucket for the blood to drain into and a rope to hang the animal. Luckily because of the rope I found in the wagon, I was able to hang the deer properly from its legs. For the bucket for the blood, I had to use one of the barrels near the wagon.

Next was to cut its neck so that the blood would use it as a pathway for the blood to drip down. Just cutting it below the jaw and avoiding any vital organs whatsoever. As it drained, I kept on pressing against the body of the deer to make sure that not a lot of blood would remain. After the blood was completely drained, I threw away the blood far away enough that it would not cause harm to me.

Since there was no blood left, I proceeded with laying down the deer on a tree that I cut in half lengthwise. Making the tree a sort of table for me to place the deer on. By placing the deer on this flat surface, I began to cut open its stomach to pull out its organs so that I could preserved the meat well.

A lot of ways to preserve the meat was to either salt it or smoke it…since I didn't have salt, I proceeded with smoking the meat for future consumption.

It took me the whole day, but I was finally able to attain some meat from the forest all on my own. I was a bit scared since the smell of the blood might have attracted some wild carnivores, but luckily, I wasn't meet with those predators just yet.

As the sun was starting to set and the meat was still smoking, I decided to go back into the forest to find some of those medicinal plants. It was said by the All-known book that as the sun would set, it was at that time that the Hail-Mary plant would start to glow.

Thinking of it, I brought the rusty sword an a couple of daggers with me. As well as a red crystal that I would use as a source of fire to guide me back in the night. Looking for the plants in the night was dangerous…so before then, I have to make use of my time.

Walking to the Forest, I came upon a lot of animals like a bear, an owl and even aa couple of goblins that were roaming around. But because of my sneak skill, I was able to pass through without being noticed.

With the help of the book, I tried to use it to navigate to the places where the plants were growing on.

"..." After an hour of searching, the sun was finally replaced by the sight of the moon. And because of that, an hour of searching through this forest, I was able to find the plant because it was glowing like a star in the middle of the forest.

The book told me to carefully pull out the plant along with its roots since I planned to grow some on my garden. Another five minutes later, I was able to find another Hail-mary plant nearby.

My search continued for hours…until finally when I was tired, I returned back to my camp.

When I returned, I was able to find the Capatora simply looking at the smoking meat…the Ruby cows were nowhere to be found, but I didn't care. Placing the Hail-Mary plants down, I noticed that it was glowing but not as bright as before.

"Is the plant dying?"

[YES, IN A COUPLE OF HOURS, THE GLOW WILL DISAPPEAR AND THE PLANT WILL WITHER.]

"!!" So in the quick action, I had to dig a holes for the plants to be planted into. I was able to collect about 15 of these plants so I had to dig fifteen holes for one each.

As one by one of the plants were placed and settled on the ground, I noticed that it was starting to regain its bright light. It could only mean that my skill to cultivate was in the process of taking the plants into care. My skill was working.

"Are the plants going to survive is I just plant them like so?" I asked the AK.

[...ANALYZING…ANALYSIS COMPLETE…JUDGING BY THE CONDITION OF THE PLANTS, THEY ARE SATISFIED WITH THE CARE GIVEN INTO THEIR PLACE. THEY WILL SURVIVE.]

"..*Sigh*" I sighed in relief…because my efforts were rewarded.

But as I looked to the plants in admiration, suddenly a ruby cow comes by and stares at the plant as if it was aiming for its leaves to bite into.

"!!" noticing their stare, I quickly jumped off to protect the plants before they could even take a bit at them.

"Wait!" holding my hands in front of the cow, I warned it not to get so close to these plants.

"*Snort*" but the cow simply looked to me and snorted air from its nose.

"…What should I do in this situation?"

[SIMPLY GIVING THE RUBY COWS A SINGLE LEAF FROM THE HAIL-MARY PLANT WILL SATISFY THEIR NEEDS.]

"Eh…I guess if its just one leaf, I could give it to him." I said as I slowly pulled out a leaf from the Hail-Mary plant.

As I pointed the leaf to the Ruby Cow, it seems as though they were interested. So offering this leaf to the cow, they simply ate it and moved away from the plant like a proper guest. But something tells me that these cows would return from time to time…so I have to be alert.

As I solved the issue with the cows, I turned to the meat. I was hungry.

So I cooked some of the rest of the meat by the fire to eat it as it was. A roasted deer meat is good. I shouldn't complain if it taste gamy or not since this was my only food source for the days to come.

Thinking about the situation that I was in…I needed resources like salt, sugar, some farming tools, some seeds for cultivation, building materials and even clothes. To do this…I needed to go to a city or more likely, the Dragon Empire.

So with that in mind, I had a goal before I would even start building my home and the farm.