I Was Born to Be Useful

Now that he had figured out the truth of the matter, there was no reason not to make use of it. Hadn't someone said it? I was born to be useful. Right? If Luo Chong didn't use it, would he still be the little Luo Chong he knew? And don't forget, he could only pick up his own equipment. Poor him—he pitied himself for two seconds.

Besides, these were pure natural, top-grade arrow shafts. Luo Chong didn't mind taking a page from Zhuge Liang and borrowing arrows from this tree with a straw boat.

Once he decided to do it, everything was ready at hand. He used his own Back Basket as a target, tied a long rope to it, and tossed it beneath the canopy. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—the basket was instantly pierced by more than a dozen spikes. Tsk, tsk, the density was frightening as hell.

He dragged the basket back, pulled out the spikes, and tossed it out again. Once more, there were more than a dozen. But when he looked at the countless shadows covering the canopy, as dense as body hair, this little haul could only be considered a drizzle.

He did this twice, tied the spikes into bundles with rope, then carried them back with a spear.

When he went out, the women were still waiting for him. Luo Chong told them that the roots could be eaten, but they were only allowed to gather around the outer edge. Once they reached beneath the canopy, unless they had a cooking pot over their heads, they were walking straight into death. In short, they were forbidden to go beneath the tree.

When he reached the edge of the basin, Luo Chong collected another hundred Man-eating Tree saplings that had already grown to three centimeters thick. They had all grown from spikes carried outside by animals. They could not shed their spikes yet, but each one had grown straight as an arrow, making them the best material for crafting spears.

This would also keep the Man-eating Tree's growth in check. If it continued reproducing with such abandon, there would be no need to come to this mountain in the future.

He called over four of the younger men who had been gathering peppers, and the five of them carried the saplings home together.

Luo Chong hummed a little tune all the way back, looking quite pleased. The four younger men had no idea what these wooden sticks were for, but anything the Chieftain ordered them to do had to be right.

When they returned to the tribe, the children once again gathered around to gawk at the new things their Chieftain had brought back. In the eyes of the pregnant women, however, everything they had brought back was useless. Peppers could not be eaten, and the sticks could not be used as weapons because they were not thick enough. Even if they hit prey, they could not kill it.

But none of that affected Luo Chong's good mood in the slightest.

For the rest of the time, Luo Chong did not plan to run around anymore. He needed to properly upgrade his equipment. It had been proven that there were no large herbivores nearby like the ones he was looking for. As for leopards and tigers, he could not beat them. Besides, there were not many of those creatures to begin with, and they could not possibly provide enough clothing for the entire tribe.

He had to go farther away to search.

He sent the younger men off to dry the peppers, then began processing the spikes.

The spikes actually had a layer of skin on their surface. If he pulled down on the petal from the tail end, he could tear off a strip of tough, flexible bark. This stuff would also make decent rope once twisted.

The stripped spike shafts were white, with a fine, hard texture. They were extremely smooth and only about eight or nine millimeters in diameter—roughly as thick as a cigarette. Their density was high, so if made into arrows, they should be heavy arrows. Their range would suffer, but their penetrating power would be formidable.

The bored Qu Bing also helped Luo Chong strip the bark, but he worked very slowly. A single spike was longer than he was tall. The child had clearly come to play; he tilted his head to watch Luo Chong while tearing at the bark.

Luo Chong had looked very impressive practicing with his staff that morning. Qu Bing did not know what it was, but he really wanted to learn. Unfortunately, he was too small. The staff was much taller than he was.

The three-centimeter-thick saplings were trimmed at both ends and stripped of bark, revealing the same white wood. Once the moisture on the surface had dried, they felt excellent in the hand. It was a pity he had no metal spearheads, or this would have been the sharpest weapon imaginable.

Because Man-eating Tree wood was hard and dense, Luo Chong did not plan to install spearheads separately. He would simply use fire. He would burn one end until the outer surface was carbonized, then grind it into a point. It would not be especially sturdy, but it would be more than enough for hunting. As long as no idiot went poking stones with it, it could be used for a very long time.

The task of grinding the spearheads was given to the four younger men. It was simple, and they could all handle it. Luo Chong, meanwhile, became the first person equipped with this new style of spear—or rather, this standard-issue spear. From then on, everyone in the tribe would have to learn how to use one.

Now all he lacked was a bow. Bow and arrow ranked first among the Eighteen Weapons and were among the earliest weapons equipped by humanity. The finest bows in the world could be divided into two types.

One was the small and exquisite Mongolian Composite Recurve Bow. This bow was relatively short and suited for mounted archery. It had once struck such terror into Europe's heavily armored knights that they fled at the mere sight of it.

But this kind of bow was simply too troublesome to make. As its name implied, the short bow was formed by gluing Beef Sinew, horn, and wooden strips together. Making a single bow could take as long as three years. Among the nomads of the grasslands, a father would begin making such a bow for his child before the child was even born.

Tsk. Not only did Luo Chong lack those materials right now, but even if he had them, he did not want to spend several years making a bow for fun. That left only the other option: the English Longbow.

The English Longbow was the outstanding representative of the self bow. It was famed for its long range, great power, and simple construction. A self bow was carved from a single piece of wood, without any complicated structure, yet its power was in no way inferior to that of the Mongolian bow. If it had to be said to have a flaw, it was simply too cumbersome. At a length of 1.6 to 1.8 meters, the longbow was destined to be used only by infantry.

A skilled bowyer, with all the proper tools at hand, could make a longbow in just two hours. Compared with the Mongolian bow, that speed was absolutely—uh, fine, there was no comparison at all.

Luo Chong did not have a full set of woodworking tools, so if he could make one within two days, he would be thanking every god in heaven.

Cedar was the best material for a longbow, and there were trees like that on the mountain. He only needed to find one that was not too large. What Luo Chong was truly thinking about, however, was the aloe he had discovered the last time he hunted Wild Boar.

Aloe was a plant in the agave family, and the giant aloe he had seen last time had another name: Sisal.

Sisal, yucca, and aloe all looked more or less alike. The greatest characteristic of sisal was its size. The widest part at the base of its leaves was a full palm's breadth, and even its shortest leaves were over a meter long. The patch Luo Chong had discovered was more than two meters long. From a distance, it looked like a gigantic pineapple—the leaves of a pineapple looked just like that.

The outer skin of sisal leaves was rich in fiber, making it the best material for manufacturing ropes. It was widely used even in modern times. The cores of the steel cables commonly used at docks were sisal ropes, and sisal fiber was also used as a composite material in automobile tires. Moreover, because sisal fiber was resistant to acids and alkalis, it was the best material for ocean-going and shipboard ropes, fishing nets, and Hemp Sacks.

The only damn problem was that it was not suitable for weaving cloth into clothes. But Luo Chong did not care about that. Even if sisal cloth could not compare to ramie, it had to be far stronger than animal hide, right? It was also extremely durable.

Besides, although it was called sisal, it really was related to aloe. It was merely larger. The properties of aloe were all present in sisal as well. The juice from its leaves could be used to treat wounds, reduce inflammation, detoxify, clear heat, and dispel internal fire.

The thick, fleshy leaves were edible and could be stir-fried or stewed into soup. They could even be used to brew wine and refine sugar. Every part of it was a treasure, so Luo Chong planned to begin large-scale cultivation next year.

Everything in the world had its use. As long as one was willing to look, one would not miss all kinds of good things. There was nothing that could not be put to use. As the saying went, I was born to be useful. If something seemed useless, it only meant that one had not yet found a way to use it.

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