"Those stones are pretty good. Find some suitable ones and bring them back."
While digging up stones earlier, he had noticed that quite a few of them met his requirements. Their shape and hardness were both fine.
Since they had come all this way, Zhou Xu naturally had no intention of letting Dashan and the others return empty-handed.
After picking out the stones that met his requirements and gathering up every one they could carry, the group successfully returned to the tribe before sunset.
At the same time, Fei Que and the others, who had been catching mice in the Black Forest, happened to return as well.
Once they counted their spoils, Fei Que and the others had caught a total of twenty-seven mice over the course of the day!
Clearly, Fei Que had caught quite a lot compared to the rest of the hunting team. The other members had averaged only one or two each.
However, this also had something to do with the traps being deployed too close together.
Once they had explored most of the Black Forest, they would be able to spread out the trap locations completely, making their efficiency even higher.
"The mice are handled more or less like the insects. Twist off their heads and remove their innards. The difference is that you also have to skin them."
As for skinning them, Zhou Xu truly did not know how to demonstrate it just then.
Fortunately, Fei Que and the others were already veterans at this. Each of them moved with practiced ease. Even with relatively limited tools and conditions, they could still peel off the mice's hides more or less intact.
But it made sense when he thought about it. One only had to look at the hide tents and animal-skin clothing they wore.
In this era, animal hides were an extremely important resource to them, so the technique of skinning animals had naturally become one of their essential life skills.
While Fei Que and the others processed the mice, Zhou Xu called over Butterfly and the others. They found several suitable sticks, tied animal hides to them, and put together a small hide shelter.
The shelter was not meant to protect them from the wind, but to shield the stove from the rain.
After all, it was spring now. If it happened to rain, it would be a troublesome matter for them.
He also gathered the firewood they had collected, along with the pottery bowls they had made and left there to dry.
This reduced the weather's impact on them as much as their circumstances allowed.
The cleaned mice and insects were soon skewered.
Although Fei Que and the others had only done this once before, they had already begun to show a few signs of familiarity.
There was no way Zhou Xu could roast all twenty-seven mice, one per skewer, by himself in time.
So he simply took on the role of instructor and began teaching Fei Que and the others how to roast food.
They lit three fire pits directly, with ten people around each one. This made the roasting much more efficient.
It was inevitable that some people roasted their food well while others did a poor job, but compared to last night, everyone received more food.
Setting aside that little knot in their hearts, in such an environment, a salt-seasoned roasted mouse was unquestionably a sumptuous meal to them.
"Phew—"
After gnawing every strand of meat from the bones until they were spotless and swallowing his last mouthful, Zhou Xu, seated beside the fire pit, let out a long breath.
Before this, he had truly never imagined that simply eating a few more mouthfuls of food could be such a happy thing. The satisfaction it brought him in the process was unprecedented.
While it was still not completely dark, Zhou Xu rested for a while, then perked himself up and began teaching Butterfly and the others how to weave bags from twisted bark cord.
With these bags, it would be much easier for the tribe members to carry and store mice or insects after catching them.
Most hand-weaving techniques had something in common. Once one learned a single method, picking up other kinds of weaving afterward would be much faster.
Butterfly and the others were naturally the same. Under Zhou Xu's careful guidance, they all mastered the trick, and their efficiency slowly improved.
However, catching up to Zhou Xu would probably still take plenty of effort.
"Fei Que."
As he called out, Zhou Xu tossed the bark bag he had just woven over to him.
"You did well today. This is your reward."
Although he did not understand what a reward was, Fei Que understood Zhou Xu's meaning. A brilliant smile immediately spread across his face.
"Thank you, Chief."
Under the envious gazes of the surrounding tribe members, Fei Que spoke while examining how to use the bark bag.
When Zhou Xu saw that he truly could not figure it out, he walked over with a smile and demonstrated it for him.
"Look here. This is the mouth of the bag. Just stick your fingers inside and pull outward. Like this—the mouth opens."
"Oh!!!"
At that moment, they watched as the mouth of the bag, which had originally been gathered so tightly that even squeezing in one finger was difficult, was pulled open in their chief's hands until it was large enough to fit an entire head.
It was not only Fei Que and Dashan. Even Butterfly and the others, who had been making the bags alongside Zhou Xu, could not help crying out in astonishment.
But that was clearly not the end.
"Put something inside, anything will do."
As he spoke, Zhou Xu tossed a fist-sized stone into the bag. Then he pulled the two drawstrings at its mouth, and the wide opening immediately tightened.
"Then just wrap these cords around the mouth twice and tie any knot you like."
After saying that, Zhou Xu tossed the bark bag back to Fei Que.
The ingenious design left the surrounding tribe members marveling.
To Zhou Xu, he had merely made a hand-woven drawstring bag. But to tribe members who had never seen anything like it, the design was simply beyond their imagination.
They could not even begin to understand how it had been made.
For a moment, the envy in Dashan and the others' eyes as they looked at Fei Que grew even stronger.
Sensing the gazes of his companions around him, Fei Que immediately clutched the bag to his chest, afraid that the bunch would pounce on him and snatch it away the next second. The sight made Zhou Xu burst out laughing.
"All right, I've already taught Butterfly and the others how to make these bags. Everyone will have one later."
Even though Zhou Xu had said that, Dashan and the others still kept their eyes fixed on Fei Que.
Even they, who understood nothing about the process, could tell that what Butterfly and the others had made was on an entirely different level from what their chief had made.
Perhaps because they had eaten a good amount of food for the first time in a long while, everyone seemed to be in better spirits than usual.
Watching Dashan and Fei Que's groups start to playfully tussle, Zhou Xu suddenly remembered something and waved at Dashan.
"Oh, right. Dashan, and everyone who went with Dashan to gather branches last night, come over for a moment. Let me take a look at you."
The power of the True Word 'Eye of Insight' was no secret here, so he had no reason to hide it anymore.
Since he felt he was in fairly good condition today, he might as well take this opportunity to look through the panels of the few remaining people in the tribe.
Let's start with Dashan!
[Eye of Insight]
At that moment, as the True Word activated, Dashan's panel soon appeared before his eyes.
Name: Dashan
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Race: Human
Status: Tired
True Word: None
Talent: Weapon Master: When faced with dangers that might arise at any moment, the best solution is to learn how to use everything at hand flexibly!
Bravery: ★★☆☆
Intelligence: ★★☆
Spirit: ★★☆
Endurance: ★★☆☆
Command: ★★
Update delivered. Thanks for the rewards from the readers 'Absolutely Never Takes a Loss,' 'Three-Nothing Gentleman with No Money, No Car, and No House,' and '768Betty.'
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