The So-Called 'Happiness'

The Black Forest. You could call it a dump, but it not only produces salt, it's now confirmed to have coal mines. Based on just these two resources, you definitely couldn't call it a dump.

But if you wanted to call it good, it's surrounded by Desolate Land, with no stable Freshwater resources. Animals don't come here to drink; only resilient rats and insects can survive here.

The trees are all strangely shaped, and at night, they look like something out of a horror movie.

To stay here, you'd have to live by eating rats and insects, and gnawing on bark and roots.

According to Zhou Xu's initial plan, this was just a temporary resting spot for their tribe. They had no other choice at the time, so they settled here temporarily.

They might stay for two or three months, save up some Food, scout the surrounding map, find a better place to live, and then pack up and leave.

But now...

The existence of these two resources actually made him a little reluctant to leave.

The appearance of the coal mine is too important for the future development of the forging industry.

In fact, even setting aside the forging industry, speaking more practically, as a fuel, coal ore is better to store than branches, it's more space-efficient, and it burns longer.

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

For example, for external exploration!

Why was the exploration efficiency so low before?

Because they didn't have a dedicated exploration team!

When Dashan and the others were exploring the Black Forest, they also had to collect supplies, pick up branches, pick up stones, and catch insects.

Within the tribe, the task of supplying this resource fell to Dashan and the others, which made their collection tasks very heavy.

Under these circumstances, they would collect as they walked, and after collecting to a certain extent, their movement would be affected, and they would have to return to the tribe camp.

And with this back and forth, a lot of time was wasted, and it was difficult to improve exploration efficiency.

But there was no other way, because if they couldn't collect enough supplies to bring back, the tribe's operations would be affected, directly impacting the survival of all tribe members.

When exploration and survival are weighed against each other, survival naturally comes first.

Before, he had made bark rope, and by binding with bark rope, he allowed Dashan and the others to bring back more branches at once, thereby improving the overall work efficiency.

But even so, this improvement wasn't enough for them to go on exploration missions recklessly.

The appearance of coal ore, however, undoubtedly changed everything.

However, in order to collect coal ore, the handicraft team would undoubtedly have to take on new tasks, which was to polish stone pickaxes.

In the meantime, Zhou Xu had already put together a general plan in his mind, and now he was just waiting to implement it step by step.

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

These spider legs were very thick. The thickest part was as thick as an adult man's waist. The entire leg couldn't be roasted.

In fact, even if they were cut at the joints with a stone axe, the spider legs were still too big.

But they clearly wouldn't be troubled by this; they would just stare at the thick spider legs and beam with joy.

The five stone stoves that had been added to the tribe were quickly lit, and without any further ado, they began roasting.

This kind of ingredient, Zhou Xu had only seen in some anime before; it didn't exist in reality.

He never imagined that he would have the chance to eat it one day.

However, he had no experience in cooking such a large creature, so he could only rely on his intuition.

Sniffing the air, he estimated that it was almost roasted and then directly used the stone axe to smash the outer shell.

Instantly, a visible wave of heat, carrying an even clearer aroma of meat, wafted out.

Pushing aside the smashed outer shell, the scene that followed made Zhou Xu grin.

The tribe members gathered around couldn't help but swallow their saliva.

Inside the entire shell was packed with white leg meat, and the meat looked visibly firm.

Using two appropriately sized branches with the bark stripped off as chopsticks, he tore off large chunks of leg meat to see if they were cooked inside.

"Mmm, it should be cooked."

As he muttered to himself, Zhou Xu directly used the broken-off outer shell as a plate. A piece of leg meat he casually picked out was as big as his fist. The meat was white, tender, and steaming, looking incredibly appetizing, making his stomach rumble incessantly.

Sprinkling a little coarse salt, he didn't hesitate and took a big bite.

At that moment, the feeling of his entire mouth being filled with meat made Zhou Xu look up at the sky.

Is this what 'happiness' is?

This was his most genuine thought at the moment.

"Everyone, share it."

Without any crowding, and with Zhou Xu's permission, everyone orderly began to divide the food in front of them.

There was an astonishing amount of meat on this single spider leg. Without needing to eat until full, just to get rid of 'hunger', two spider legs would basically be enough for everyone in the tribe to have a meal.

One meal a day, eight spider legs would be enough for them to eat for four days.

And during these four days, they could turn all the rats they caught into cured meat, increasing their Food reserves and preparing for their next actions.

The new day had begun, and perhaps due to the full meal before bed yesterday, everyone's spirits were high.

By this time, Dashan and Fei Que had already departed with the hunting team and gathering team. Zhou Xu, however, remained in the tribe, instructing the handicraft team to fashion stone pickaxes.

After all, without stone pickaxes, they couldn't mine the coal mine, which would impact all subsequent plans.

Of course, this was an easily solvable problem. With stone axes already being made, there was no reason they couldn't make stone pickaxes.

At this point, the tribe's demand for stone axes had begun to decrease, allowing Zhou Xu to smoothly reassign personnel to craft stone pickaxes.

Meanwhile, Dashan and the others had essentially completed their exploration of this entire Black Forest.

It was now confirmed that the crevice cave, serving as the giant spider's nest, was located in the central area of the Black Forest. Other than that, there were no new discoveries.

Considering the expanded exploration area, Zhou Xu had recently been contemplating the creation of a map.

[Although there's no ink or dye, some colored plant sap could likely be used as a substitute. A branch could serve as a pen, and as for paper... it's impossible to make right now, but beast hides could be used for the time being...]

An update is here. It's confirmed that the second round of recommendations will be on Sunday this week. Friends, don't forget to cast your votes after reading!