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Today is a day off from helping. I can’t spend a day doing nothing and just idling around…! Recently, I’ve come to understand the situation I’m in, and I’ve come to think that I should work to make it a little better.

Trust matters. I learned that my family was not trusted because of my parents, and I realized how dangerous the situation was. If my parents can’t do it, I have no choice but to do it.

What do you need to do to win the trust? It will help you. However, I don’t think it’s good to just draw water all the time. It’s true that fetching water is hard work, and there’s no doubt that they’ll be happy if you help them. But I want to help you go one step further.

Gathering food and procuring meat. In the forest there is meat for food such as deer, wild boar, birds and rabbits. But I’m a weak 10-year-old kid, so I can’t kill big deer or wild boar. I have no experience, so I don’t know how to kill birds.

The only thing left is a rabbit, but I think I can hunt it if I want to. But there is one animal that pleases me more than hunting rabbits. That’s a hole mouse.

As the name suggests, burrowing rats live in burrows under trees. It is 30 to 40 cm long and has well-developed front teeth and claws for digging. It has a strong reproductive power and gives birth to 7 to 10 cubs in one birth, and it seems that the cubs will become adults in less than half a year.

They have an excellent sense of smell and can dig holes to find food in the ground. They are omnivorous and eat a variety of things, from nuts to insects, but they are hated by refugees because of this ecology. This hole mouse is after the food in the food warehouse.

Seeing an opening, they dig a hole from the side of the food warehouse and invade it, or bite the gap in the warehouse with their teeth to widen the hole and invade. It’s really troublesome to be targeted at night when the eyes of the guards are loose, and if you see it, it’s an immediate extermination target.

If there was a lot of damage, I would search for holes and exterminate them, but now if I see them around the food warehouse, I just exterminate them or drive them away. Few refugees are willing to go out of their way to get rid of the rats themselves.

This is why hole rats are more popular than rabbits. Also, it’s relatively easier to get rid of than rabbits that run around and run away. It’s the biggest meat procurement method I can do right now as a child with no physical strength.

I’m thinking of making a tool to catch and hunt hole rats. The way to catch them is very simple. A rod with bait is inserted into the hole, and the hole mouse bites into the bait along with the branch. When it bites, pull up the stick and hit the place where the head comes out with a stone ax to stun it.

“Let’s start with a stone ax”

Procure thick branches from the forest. After that, I have to make a hole in the branch to put the stone in, but I need an iron tool. When I went to the warehouse where I borrowed the scythe, this time a different uncle was watching over me.

“Um, I want to make a hole in the branch, so can I borrow a tool?”

“Oh, a hole? Ah… wait.”

He gave me a sullen look, probably because I didn’t trust him yet. Even so, I entered the warehouse with a troublesome look to see if they would lend it to me. After a while, what came out was a small iron tool.

“Here you go. I can’t lend you a knife, but this one suits you.”

Saying that, the only thing he handed me was a tool with a flat blade at the tip. To be honest, I wish I could borrow a sharp knife or something, but it can’t be helped. Disappointed, I bow deeply and make a hole in the branch with a chisel. It took me a day to make a hole using a small chisel.

Next is the stone part. I went to the river and looked for a long and slightly flat stone that could fit into the hole. After an hour of searching, I found the perfect stone, but it was a little bigger than the hole.

Then, the work of rubbing the stones against each other and shaving them to fit the hole is started. This was quite hard work, and it was difficult for a child to cut it off easily. After all, this work took two days, and tool making entered the fourth day.

Finally, insert the stone into the hole drilled in the branch. This was also quite hard work, and I was able to hit and push it many times. The perfectly fitted stone will not come off even if you hit the wood, and you will be happy when you are satisfied with the completed stone axe.

“Now let’s make a bait stick”

Easy to make. It climbs trees, grabs thin branches and jumps down to break them. Remove the leaves and twigs from the branches so that they do not get caught when they enter the hole. After that, split the tip of the branch and insert the worms that you have collected between the split ends.

It took four days to make the stone axe. No, it’s an important tool making, so it can’t be helped if it takes time. Now you can finally hunt for burrowing rats. Earn credit and do your best!

I grabbed my stone ax and started looking for mouse holes near the food warehouse. Look for the roots of the trees, push your way through the grass. I thought it wouldn’t be so easy to find, but I found a hole in the eighth place.

Immediately sit down on the ground and put the bait stick in the hole. I put it in slowly and stopped when the end of the stick was barely out of the doorway. All that’s left now is to wait for the scent to lure the hole rats to bite the branch.

When I stared at the branch, it suddenly started to move violently and tried to withdraw into the back. But I won’t let you!

“Good”

Grab a branch with both hands and pull the branch. The load is quite heavy whether the hole mouse is resisting in the back. I’m going to stand up and pull the branches.

The branches are slipping out. As soon as I looked into the hole, I saw that the hole mouse had come up there. Even if the hole mouse notices us, it won’t let go of the branch with food on it.

Pull the branch with a jerk, and place the branch on the ground when the head of the hole mouse comes out and stop it with your foot. Then, I picked up the stone ax that had been placed on the ground and swung it down with all my strength toward the head of the hole mouse.

“quick”

With a dull sound, the hole rat let out a short scream and fell to the ground. A hole mouse that does not move while lying down. But don’t let your guard down. I swing the stone ax down on the head of the hole mouse one more time. This time there was no cry, only a dull sound.

“Are you okay now?”

Even if I try to poke it with a stone ax, it does not twitch. No, only my legs were moving like they were jerking and convulsing. There, he finally grabbed the hole mouse by the hand and dragged it outside.

The hole mouse that rolled on its back was plump and very fleshy. If it is this, there are many places to eat and it seems to be pleased. I am happy and smile.

“Well, how many more are there?”

Try putting the bait stick all the way in again. As I waited patiently again, the stick began to shake violently. Just like before, grab the branch and pull it up. When the head of the hole mouse comes out, it steps on the branch and swings down the stone ax twice. That’s it.

When I placed two burrowing mice side by side, they both had similar body shapes. The burrow here is a hit.

In the end, I was able to catch three rats in that burrow. He triumphantly brought it to the lady, who gave him a small compliment. I am very happy that it seems to have been accepted. The next day’s soup had burrowing meat in it and mine had big chunks of it.

Alright, let’s try fish next time!

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