Fight using pigs? What kind of nonsense is that?
To be honest, when people think of pigs, they often imagine something like a wild boar and might assume pigs raised on farms are incredibly fierce. But the reality is different.
Farm pigs are raised by human hands from the time they are piglets. During this process, they get injections, have their tails docked, and have their teeth clipped, and the males are castrated, among other things.
Just like how a single bad experience at the dentist in childhood can give a person lifelong dental trauma, pigs undergo an even more intense series of procedures almost from the moment they are born.
As a result, after experiencing enough traumatic events involving humans from a young age, pigs naturally run away the moment a human approaches. If you finally manage to catch and lift one, they just scream as if they're being slaughtered, offering no resistance whatsoever.
They are creatures that are utterly helpless, despite their large size.
They aren't completely stupid animals—there are exceptions, like how they'll gather when they smell food. And excluding the boars kept for stud purposes that aren't castrated (though we don't have those on our farm), based on the reasons mentioned earlier, telling me to fight using pigs, given my own pathetic combat skills, is basically telling me to stupidly just watch the farm burn.
"What, are you telling me to form an army with them? The very definition of a ragtag mob is the 'Tang Dynasty army,' but if I tried to fight with these guys, the new definition of a ragtag mob would be me and this pig farm!"
The message window fell silent for a moment, as if considering my words, then began to continue its spiel.
[You are truly a hopelessly pathetic person! Did you really think I would tell you this without having made preparations for it?!]
"Ugh..."
Frankly, if someone suddenly tells you to fight using pigs, who's going to accept it and think, 'Ah, the pigs will protect me, so I can sleep soundly tonight with my legs stretched out'?
[Don't make excuses! You were the one who jumped the gun and cut me off before I even finished speaking!]
Well, I can't argue with that. But still, my outburst was because their explanation about fighting with pigs was insufficient, so let's just say it was unavoidable. Hmm.
[Ahem! Then I shall continue!]
As soon as the message window finished speaking, a new message window with a deep blue background, different from the transparent ones I'd seen before, suddenly popped up in front of me.
[First, to establish the link between the Awakener and the farm, please grab the handle in front of you now.]
It felt like reading a product manual.
But this window popping up so suddenly, and without even hearing a proper reason...
[Please, grab it.]
The blue message window floated right up to the tip of my nose, approaching with a fierce intensity as if it would push me away if I refused. Naturally, I felt uneasy.
It shows up out of nowhere ten years ago, doesn't even say hello, let alone help, while the world is changing, and now it says, 'If things continue like this, your farm will burn, so take my hand?'
And on the very first day I'm on my own?
But even if it's suspicious, if the farm burns down whether I grab it or not, I at least need to know why it burns down. So, I really had no choice. Calling it a 'tutorial' sounds nice, but it's basically a forced quest.
The moment I grabbed the pigpen door handle as the message instructed.
[Tutorial Starting!]
"Suddenly?! No, wait, you should explain things properly before we—"
As I flusteredly tried to protest the sudden start, a bright light suddenly began to emanate from the handle I was holding, as if it wouldn't tolerate any rambling.
[Linking the Awakener and the farm. Do not let go under any circumstances!]
It felt like my hand was stuck in a sticky mousetrap. I was scared as the handle seemed to pull my hand in more and more, but I didn't try to avoid it.
Since I'd taken over this farm from my father, everything that happened here was now my responsibility.
It wasn't because I was some filial son observing a three-year mourning period or anything like that, unheard of in this day and age. I just wanted to be able to tell my father, who trusted me with this farm, that I at least tried my best.
More than anything, now that I knew someone—whoever, wherever they were—was trying to lay a hand on my property, I couldn't just sit back and take it. So, I had no choice but to hold onto the handle, despite the unpleasant sensation.
[Link... 27% complete... 28% complete...]
The light emanating from the handle began to spread outwards from me and the handle, and a transparent yet deep blue light, similar to the message window, started to cover everything.
Starting with the pigpen whose door handle I was holding, the ground I was standing on, the feed storage, the manure pit, and even the farm's guard dog, Ddongchi, and Ddongchi's doghouse.
Like a coating being applied, the blue light enveloped everything within the farm's premises—every object, building, and even the animals—and began to slowly fade away along with a message window displaying '100% Complete.'
[The link between the Awakener and the Awakener's farm has been completed.]
Then, suddenly, from beyond the handle I was holding, an intense light—so bright it was visible through the door cracks—erupted, and the startled pigs began to shriek.
"What was that?! What did you do to the farm?!"
I didn't know what it was, but something had definitely happened inside the pigpen, beyond this door. It couldn't just be a flash of light, because the pigs' shrieking showed no sign of stopping.
[It is part of the preparations I mentioned earlier.]
Just a moment ago, when I was passionately ranting about how fighting with pigs was impossible, it had also mentioned 'preparations' back then...
"What preparations?"
[After thoroughly scanning your farm and, furthermore, scanning all pigs inhabiting this land, this dimension, it has been confirmed that there are no pigs possessing the martial prowess required to protect your farm.]
"Well... yeah?"
There have been numerous cases of goblins from spontaneously appearing natural dungeons going out foraging, only to be roadkilled and wiped out by wild boar packs. So, in terms of pure combat power, you could say goblins are inferior even to wild boars.
But the fact that it said that, even including wild boars, suggests that the threat approaching this farm—while I don't know the details—seems to be, for now at least, not merely at the pathetic level of simple goblins.
"But what does that have to do with the commotion that just happened inside the pigpen?"
[The solution is simple! If a suitable pig cannot be found in this dimension, then summon one from another dimension! The cause of the commotion inside the pigpen just now, and the one still ongoing, is due to a pig summoned from another dimension!]
"Damn it, you should have said that sooner!"
You're telling me you introduced a pig from god-knows-where into the pen overnight?
Pigs are smarter than you think.
They live in groups, but they don't just defecate anywhere when they have to go; they have designated areas among themselves, showing strong sociality.
They are surprisingly sensitive about their territory.
The moment a pig that isn't part of their group—meaning, a pig from a different pen, not one they were born and raised with—is introduced, they see it as a challenge to their authority, and a territorial fight breaks out in the pen that very day.
There are no exceptions. Assume they will fight unconditionally.
And it's not just a simple scuffle; they often fight until one side is dead. That's why my father rarely, if ever, introduced new pigs into existing groups.
And you just released a pig into the pen out of the blue?!
I don't know the intention—whether it's to help me or something—but right now, this troublemaker is just a nuisance. Just as I was about to go clean up the mess it made...
"...No, wait a minute."
I cracked the door open slightly, and the pigs' shrieks reached my ears.
The kweeeeeeek kweeeeeek sounds are always noisy, but this shrieking, this crying, isn't the sound of a territorial fight.
They're terrified.
It's like when they see me approaching with a syringe needle.
They are all screaming in unison, terrified by the appearance of some entity they cannot resist.
At least there's no sound of pigs being slaughtered at a slaughterhouse, so it probably isn't a beast of prey or something like that. But I can't delay any longer.
"Whatever it is, they'll get stressed, so I'll go in and check it out first."
[...]
I opened the pigpen door and ran towards the pen where the commotion was happening. The tension that had filled my chest gradually turned into confusion, and that confusion soon turned into shock.
"Hey! Wha—what is that?!"
"Oink!! Oink!!"
Beyond the transparent blue screen, amidst the pigs, was a woman with platinum-blonde hair.
To be precise, judging by the armor she's wearing, she's a female knight, I suppose.
"You mean that thing is..."
[Tutorial First Quest! Tame the pig before you!]