Coo-cook─!
Coo-cook~!
As soon as I stepped out of the house, the Golden Chickens spotted me and started bouncing around.
Some seemed uninterested, but a few actively observed me.
Assessing!
[???]
[Oh, oh]
[Lily!]
One even sprang towards me, flaunting its large wings (my body is small, after all).
Just before the giant body of the Golden Chicken collided with mine.
Crunch…
Coo-cook?!
I transformed the golden lightning that shot from my body into a very thin needle and fired it.
The Golden Chicken struck by the lightning needle jolted back in surprise.
Though it didn’t suffer major damage, it seemed somewhat wary.
I didn’t let that momentum slip and accelerated my body to catch the chicken in one swift motion.
Grabbed!
“Gotcha.”
Coo-cook~!
[Whoa, what’s this]
[It’s a flying chicken!!]
[Hahahahahahaha]
[Why is it so big?]
[That’s a big chicken]
[Seriously lol]
[Info) Lily got smaller]
[Are we eating chicken now?]
[Why are they attacking Lily?]
Struggling!
“Well, that does seem to indicate a lack of intimacy overall.”
Looking at the chicken feed and the house firmly situated in the Golden Field, I assumed I was the owner of the Chicken Farm.
But now, it didn’t seem like that at all.
Coo-cook…
The chickens weren’t particularly trusting of me.
They just saw me as a raccoon that oddly, but thankfully, fed them. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Not even a lightning attribute chicken, huh.”
Compared to the Lightning Chickens I had seen before, this was just a chicken with golden feathers.
No powers related to lightning at all.
I examined the Golden Chicken I was holding.
Coo-cook!
[Golden Chicken]
– A Golden Chicken with beautiful golden feathers.
The Golden Chicken lays a ‘Golden Egg’ every two days. The Golden Egg hatches into a chick after two days.
(The egg does not eat.)
“It lays eggs.”
[Ooh?]
[This gets a bit complicated]
[Huh?]
[Isn’t this simple?]
[Does this mean clearing the trial is a sure thing?]
[Calculating through the door is a bit tricky;;]
[The egg is a variable]
No matter what, the amount of chicken feed I had couldn’t allow me to clear the trial, but this changes things.
The calculations might get complex, but if I cleverly use the condition “The egg does not eat,” clearing becomes possible.
“For instance, leaving 7 eggs on the 6th day and hatching them on the 8th day to pass.”
I might be able to save even more chickens than I thought.
“If that’s the case… I might save more than seven!”
[Yeah, yeah, yeah]
[I just calculated and it’s totally doable]
[That’s easy, what the heck]
[Lol]
[Info) After day 7 ends, the goal is to save more than 7 chickens, and it’s not a problem if it drops below 7 in between. Meaning, I can let them all die and just save the eggs lol.]
[Wow, a mountain of rice]
[Thanks for the explanation, Over-Explainer!]
“Explanation nerd!”
“[This is going to get complicated]”
“[Wouldn’t it be easier to just kill everything and make chicken?]”
“[LOL]”
“[For real, haha]”
“Well, that’s one way to go. Let’s do the calculations later.”
I put the chicken down and turned my attention to the chick that was darting around.
Unlike the chicken, the chick was completely non-aggressive, and maybe because it had transformed into a golden chicken, it was close to a bright yellow color.
With round eyes and a body small enough for even a raccoon to notice.
Its soft downy feathers were doll-like.
“It’s cute.”
Beep?
[Golden Chick]
– A beautiful golden chick with stunning golden feathers.
The golden chick will mature into an adult in two days.
“The contents are a bit lacking…?”
Caw~ caw~
I instinctively turned my head.
The only thing in the otherwise ordinary field was a crow flying far away.
However, as a raccoon now, I felt an unfamiliar yet familiar sensation.
Sniff sniff.
[Lily?]
[Raccoon Lily is so cute]
[Sniff sniff sniff]
[I smell Lily…]
[What do you sense?]
“…I smell blood.”
It was a scent I was quite familiar with.
There was a predator nearby.
■
I checked all the chickens and chicks while scanning the golden field.
There were a total of 15 chickens without a single injury or ailment, and I conducted various experiments.
First up was the experiment: ‘Do they only eat feed and nothing else?’
The chickens didn’t eat anything other than ‘chicken feed,’ which was consistent no matter what dish I offered.
I prepared raccoon-exclusive food from the house and even created small portions of food using my mana, but they didn’t eat it.
I even made something similar to celestial skewers, but they only showed interest without actually eating it.
“If it were the original, they might have eaten it.”
The second experimentation was to see if I could create ‘chicken feed.’
According to the description of chicken feed, it was made with ‘special ingredients.’
I tried to isolate a piece of chicken feed to analyze its components but ultimately failed.
The composition was similar to regular chicken feed, but just one thing was missing.
The core special power-infused ingredient was currently impossible for me to produce.
If I hadn’t been sealed, I could’ve extracted that ingredient or used magic to multiply the feed infinitely, but…
“At least here in this field, that’s impossible.”
Lacking equipment and power.
If it had been Lasty who fell here, she might have already made an infinite copy.
Understanding!
And for the third experiment…
“Oh, what’s this?”
If I went straight back through the golden field, I would come across a small hill at the back.
All other directions were blocked by transparent walls, but this was the only path open.
I climbed the hill and soon encountered a pack of wolves drooling all over the place.
Grrr…
“Wolves?”
The wolves had golden-colored fur overall, but streaks of ‘blue fur’ streaked across their bodies like lightning.
The ‘Blue Fur’ was spreading across its entire body.
Of course, it was about five times bigger than me.
[Golden Blue Wolf]
– It is a Golden Blue Wolf that resides in the mountains behind the Golden Field.
It attacks the chicken farm during the ‘day’ or ‘night’ to eat the chickens.
Daytime Raid / Golden Chicken.
Night Raid / Golden Chick, Golden Egg.
[Oh wow]
[Are you serious, a wolf is coming out too? Haha?]
[Oh no]
[The difficulty just went up a notch]
[Let’s take them all out here, Lily]
[Looks kinda cool, huh?]
[What’s with skipping the chicken?]
“A wolf…”
Not only do I have to figure out how many chickens I need to save, but now I have to protect them from wolves too?
That definitely means the difficulty has gone up.
Trying to just calculate is risking feeding my cherished chickens to the wolf!
I checked my status.
‘About a level 100 user, I guess?’
Lower Angels, Demon Races, and I’m even weaker than a typical Ancient Beast.
I can exert some power, but the limits are clear.
Grrr…
‘Facing the entire pack of wolves would be tough.’
Based on the wolf’s level, it seems like I could handle two or three without much trouble.
But anything beyond that would be too much for me right now.
“Let’s head back for now.”
[Lily?]
[?]
[Huh]
[Not going to take them out right away?]
“There’s no need to engage them head-on on their territory.”
If I’m lacking in power, using the surrounding environment is also a viable strategy.
Most importantly, seeing the wolves sparked a good idea.
Having returned to the Golden Field, I squeezed out the remaining magical power and laid out a fitting ‘plan’ while waiting for the right moment.
And then.
[“You have prepared various countermeasures to survive the first day of the trial.”]
[“You inspected the chickens and chicks, feeding all of them with the intent to save them.”]
[“Whether that is mere compassion or a genuine scheme to save them all remains unknown.”]
[“What’s important is that at least today, no chickens or chicks have died.”]
[There will be no daytime raid on Day 1!]
[Day 1 has concluded.]
[The sun is setting…]
…
[Day 2 has arrived.]
[Night raid begins!]
It was now Day 2.
■
Just as the owner of the chicken farm, Raccoon Lily, waited for the right moment.
The pack of wolves also waited, their golden eyes gleaming.
The target was ‘night’.
Out of the total fourteen wolves, five participated in operations, moving swiftly and stealthily at night.
The squad leader, ‘Ur’, led the four wolves towards the chicken farm quickly.
This operation was to gauge the farm’s defenses and the delicious-looking chickens.
The raccoon that visited earlier in the day was also quite appetizing but was a strong foe.
If we rushed in to attack, the chances of us getting hurt were high.
‘If we’re going to do this, I need to call the captain. This time, just the chicks.’
“We need to call the captain. This time, it’s just the chicks.”
Chicks can be swallowed whole, but if you mistakenly bite a chicken, it makes noise.
Hearing the chicken’s cry will surely wake up the raccoon.
Without the captain, I wasn’t confident I could fight the raccoon and win.
Woof!
Following Ur’s orders, the other four wolves stealthily infiltrated the farm.
There doesn’t seem to be any traps around.
Even using the ‘blue fur’ to check, nothing seems off, so it’s probably safe.
Woof!
Woof!
While Ur was searching thoroughly, one wolf found a small building.
Inside the straw-stacked building, the chicks were huddled together, sleeping, while the chickens were nowhere to be seen.
“I found it! It’s the chicks!”
Looking at the smell and appearance, they look just like what we saw from afar during the day.
Like the other wolves, Ur drooled, ready to swallow the chicks at any moment, but then he hesitated.
“Wait a second. What if this is a trap?”
Is it common for chickens and chicks to sleep apart?
Did the raccoon separate the chickens and chicks? But why?
More questions kept piling up.
According to the captain’s words, always think and act, I shouldn’t just swallow the chicks now.
Ur held back his appetite and was about to tell the others to withdraw…
Woof!
“You stupid guys!”
They’re already eating!
They had already gobbled down seven chicks and were sliding the remaining three towards Ur.
Woof woof woof!
That’s an invitation to eat. They left some behind.
Ur felt dizzy as he looked at the wolves.
Those foolish guys messed things up, but it didn’t seem to be a problem from eating.
If something strange was mixed in, they would have collapsed already.
So, is it safe to eat?
‘……’
Woof?
“If you’re not going to eat them, then give them to us? Ha. You foolish ones…”
Snap!
He gulped down all three at once.
What I had been worried about was for nothing; they were surprisingly tasty.
“Hmm. Far tastier than usual. No wonder it tastes different from what we were eating…?!”
“Did you enjoy that?”
A voice echoed from the darkness.
His vision blurred.
One by one, the wolves collapsed as Ur struggled against the overwhelming wave of sleep and lifted his head.
“I made something similar that’s very delicious.”
It was the raccoon.
That raccoon I was so wary of…
“Damn it. I told you not to eat…”
“Sweet dreams.”
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