The So-Called 'Happiness'

You could call Black Forest a rundown place, but it produced salt, and now coal had been confirmed to exist here as well. With just those two resources, there was absolutely no way to call it rundown.

But if you said it was a good place, the surrounding area was all Desolate Land, and there were no ample, stable freshwater resources. Animals would not come here to drink, and only tenacious rats and insects could survive here.

The trees all grew in bizarre shapes, too. At night, they looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

Staying here meant surviving on rats and insects, chewing tree bark and roots.

According to Zhou Xu's original plan, this place was only meant to be a temporary foothold for their tribe. They had settled here temporarily because they had truly had no other choice.

They might stay here for two or three months. Once they had stockpiled a supply of food and explored the surrounding area, they would find a better place to live, slap their butts, and leave.

But now...

The existence of these two resources really did make him reluctant to leave.

The appearance of coal was far too important to the subsequent development of their forging industry.

In fact, even setting forging aside, as a fuel, coal was easier to store than branches, took up less space, and burned for longer.

With coal as their main fuel, they could reduce the time spent gathering branches even further and use their limited manpower elsewhere.

For example, external exploration!

Why had their exploration efficiency been so low before?

Because they had never had a dedicated exploration team!

When Dashan and the others explored Black Forest, they also had to gather supplies, pick up branches and stones, and catch insects along the way.

Within the tribe, the task of supplying these resources had all fallen to Dashan and the others, leaving them heavily burdened with gathering duties.

Under those circumstances, they had to gather as they traveled. Once they had collected a certain amount, their movement would be affected, and they would have to return to the tribal camp.

That trip there and back wasted quite a lot of time, making it difficult to improve their exploration efficiency.

But there had been no way around it. If they could not gather enough supplies to bring back, the tribe's internal operations would be affected, directly impacting the survival of every member.

When exploration and survival were placed side by side, survival naturally came first. They had to stay alive before worrying about anything else.

Previously, he had made bark rope and used it to bundle branches, allowing Dashan and the others to bring back more branches in a single trip and thereby improve the efficiency of the entire operation.

But even so, the improvement had not been great enough for them to disregard everything else and carry out exploration missions without restraint.

The appearance of coal had undoubtedly changed everything.

However, mining coal meant that the handcrafting team would have a new task: grinding stone picks.

In this short while, Zhou Xu had already organized a rough plan in his mind. Now, all that remained was to put it into action step by step.

Of course, today they would have a big feast first!

The spider's legs were incredibly thick. The thickest section was as wide around as an adult man's waist, and there was no way to roast an entire leg.

In fact, even if they cut it apart section by section at the joints with stone axes, the spider legs were still far too large.

But this clearly did not trouble them. They only stared at those thick spider legs, grinning from ear to ear.

The tribe's five stone stoves were quickly lit, and without wasting words, they began roasting at once.

Zhou Xu had only ever seen ingredients like this in certain anime before. They did not exist in the real world.

He had never imagined that one day he would actually get to eat one.

But he had no experience cooking something this huge, so he could only rely on his instincts.

Sniffing the air, he estimated that it was nearly done, then used a stone axe to smash apart the shell.

In an instant, visible steam billowed out, carrying an even clearer fragrance of meat.

When he pried open the shattered shell, the sight before him made Zhou Xu grin so broadly that he could not help laughing aloud.

The tribal members gathered around him swallowed hard as well.

The entire inside of the shell was packed with snowy-white leg meat, its firm texture clearly visible to the naked eye.

Using two branches of suitable lengths, their bark stripped away to serve as chopsticks, he tore off large chunks of leg meat to check whether the inside was cooked.

"Mm, it should be done."

Muttering to himself, Zhou Xu used the piece of shell he had knocked off as a plate. Even a casually picked piece of leg meat was as large as a fist. Its tender white flesh steamed with heat, looking so enticing that his stomach wailed without end.

He sprinkled on a little coarse salt and, without another word, took a huge bite.

At that instant, the sensation of his entire mouth being stuffed full of meat made Zhou Xu throw back his head and gaze at the sky.

The so-called 'happiness' is probably something like this, right?

That was his most genuine thought at that moment.

"Share it among yourselves."

There was no jostling. After receiving Zhou Xu's permission, everyone began dividing up the food before them in an orderly fashion.

There was truly an astonishing amount of meat on a single spider leg. Without eating until they were stuffed, and merely eating enough to escape 'hunger,' two spider legs were basically enough to provide the entire tribe with one meal.

One leg per day meant that eight spider legs would last them four days.

During those four days, they could turn all the rats they had caught into cured meat, increasing their food reserves and preparing for their next move.

On the new day, perhaps because everyone had eaten their fill before bed the previous night, they were all in excellent spirits.

By this time, Dashan and Fei Que had already set out with the hunting and gathering teams, while Zhou Xu remained in the tribe, having the handcrafting team grind stone picks.

After all, until the stone picks were made, they could not mine coal, which would affect all their subsequent plans.

Of course, this matter was easy to resolve. Now that they had already managed to grind stone axes, there was no reason they could not grind stone picks.

At this point, the tribe's demand for stone axes had already begun to decline, allowing Zhou Xu to reassign manpower to grinding stone picks with ease.

During this period, Dashan and the others had also basically completed their exploration of this entire stretch of Black Forest.

They could now confirm that the fissure cavern serving as the giant spider's nest lay in the central area of Black Forest. Aside from that, they had made no new discoveries.

With their exploration range expanding, Zhou Xu had inevitably begun pondering the matter of making a map.

Although they don't have ink or dyes, they should be able to use the juices of some colorful plants as substitutes. They can make do with branches for pens. As for paper... they definitely can't make it yet, but they could use animal hide for now...

An update has arrived! It's confirmed that the second recommendation round will be this Sunday. Friends, don't forget to vote after reading!