Hehehe.
With the birds now making their home within my castle, I spent the next two days quietly watching them. If I had a mouth or eyes, there would be a huge smile plastered across my face right now.
After ten full days of mind-numbing boredom, I finally had something to entertain me!
The bigger bird with the red patch—Jack—was an absolute male.
Not only did he bring back materials for the nest, but he also went out to hunt worms to feed all of his wives. And guess what? None of the wives were jealous. They were all happy, sharing food with one another!
Meanwhile, the three wifey birds were masters of nest-building.
In just a few days, using all the branches and leaves Jack collected, the girls had already built a nest so large it could comfortably house all of them. And they even added a fluff layer consisted of their own feather on top for extra comfy!
Now, the three of them stayed inside the nest like adorable little fluffballs, spending most of their time sleeping while waiting for Jack to return.
They still went out occasionally to gather seeds and insects, of course, but most of the food was provided by Jack.
And when night fell, the four birds snuggled close together, sleeping peacefully in their cozy nest.
Awww!
What a lovely, wholesome family.
I could watch them forever.
And then—
On the fifth day after they arrived, as soon as the first ray of morning sun hit my castle wall and I checked their nest…
The first egg was laid!
Damn! Watching Bella shit out the huge egg was so magical!
WWWOOOHOOOO!
Soon after that, Mira and Sophia laid eggs too!
I couldn't contain my excitement when it happened. Their eggs were so small, so cute.
For a brief moment, my first thought was omelets.
Yeah, I felt like an evil criminal for even thinking that.
But anyway—soon, baby birds would hatch. My castle would be welcoming new family members!
Haha… even though they probably weren't aware of my existence, to me, they were already family.
As I was thinking that, a question suddenly popped into my mind.
Wait!
Is there a way to tame these birds?
Maybe… if I could tame them, I could command them to do things for me. Scouting, for example. Or better yet, have them communicate with other birds—and maybe even other life forms in the forest—and bring them all to me!
Muahaha! If that works, I will soon be the Lord castle of this Forest, controlling all the animals!
So I asked:
System! Is there a way to tame these birds?
But nothing happened.
No notification. No message. No response at all.
I tried rephrasing the question several times, but the result was the same. No matter how I asked, the system remained completely silent on the matter.
Sigh…
It was useless.
But it's not like I would give up that easily!
If the system wouldn't tell me, then I'd just have to figure it out on my own.
Now then… how do you usually tame animals?
For some absurd reason, the first thing that came to mind was beating them half to death and then capturing them in magic balls.
But nah! That couldn't be right.
They were real birds, not pocket monsters!
And besides, how was I supposed to beat anything when I didn't even have arms?
Which meant there was only one thing I could do right now.
And that was—
FOOD!
Yes. FOOD!
Naturally, food was the universal method for taming animals—or monsters. And luckily, I actually had a way to produce food!
With that idea in mind, I checked the shop again.
At the moment, I had exactly 3 point, generated by the Level 1 castle core's point-generation skill.
With one point, I could convert it into one unit of food.
And with one unit of food, I could buy bread.
And with bread… I could feed the birds!
That sounded reasonable enough.
But—
URRGGH!
Spending precious points on something as trivial as bread… Didn't that feel like a scam?!
Just a few days ago though, I even made a promise to myself to stay F2P! I refuse to let the system win!
But… I had no other choice! I need to tame these birds now!
Arrgh! Not like this!
"Alright, system! Take my damn point! Convert it into food!"
[Ding! Purchasing resource successful]
[-1 Point]
[+1 Food]
[Points remaining: 0]
Then, using that food, I purchased two loaves of bread and stored them inside my hidden inventory.
Now then… system, dispatch one bread!
I focused on the spot beside the bird nest, imagining the bread appearing there—
Boom!
It appeared.
A large loaf of bread dropped right next to the nest.
CHIRP!!!
The three bird girls startled at the sudden appearance of the bread, clearly scared out of their minds. They flew back for a split second, then immediately swarmed the loaf!
Poke. Poke. Poke!
They clawed and pecked at it with their beaks! Dealing small damages to the poor bread!
The bread nearly tipped over.
Fortunately, it didn't fall. And soon, it seemed the birds realized it was actually food. They calmed down and began eating happily.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! You have successfully interacted with a lifeform within your territory!]
[Achievement Unlocked: First Interaction!]
[Points Gained: +3]
[Skill Unlocked: Citizenship Granting]
[Citizenship Granting: You may grant citizenship to intelligent lifeforms within your territory who possess sufficient positive affection toward you.]