New Stage

The importance of a map is undeniable; it not only facilitates their record-keeping but also allows them to pinpoint their current location.

Following the train of thought in his mind, beast hides and branches were readily available. As for the plant sap to substitute for ink and dye, the Black Forest also had it, and within moments, he had already sent people to gather it.

"Dashan, come here for a moment."

Taking advantage of the time before dinner, he called Dashan over.

"Tomorrow morning, you won't be responsible for gathering supplies in the Black Forest anymore. I plan to assign you to an exploration mission."

"Yes!"

Zhou Xu wasn't too surprised by Dashan's prompt reply.

In fact, as their tribe's strongest individual combatant, having him continuously gather supplies in the Black Forest was undoubtedly a waste.

He hadn't had a choice before, but now that he did, Zhou Xu was more inclined to give Dashan more opportunities for training.

"First, I'll teach you how to draw a map."

"A map?"

Clearly, Dashan and the others didn't have the concept of a map yet.

"Watch carefully."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu had already spread the map out. He then picked up a stone and mashed the collected plants. While mashing them, he explained...

"The sap of these plants has color. I'm going to use it as dye. Mashing it like this should be about right."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu picked up a branch that had also been prepared long ago.

"Dip the tip of this branch in it, and then draw on this beast hide."

Zhou Xu said as he began drawing a triangle in the center of the beast hide. However, the branch pen and plant dye were really not smooth to use; with just a few simple strokes, it took him quite a bit of effort.

Looking at the three triangles piled together, he drew a small circle around them, enclosing the three triangles.

"This is our tribe camp. This is the saltwater lake..."

As Zhou Xu spoke, he drew another circle next to the tribe camp, adding several wavy lines inside to represent the lake.

"This is the Black Forest."

While drawing these markers, he also explained to Dashan what they represented.

After simply sketching the surrounding terrain, he drew a cross arrow in the upper left corner of the map. Based on the premise that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, he marked the cardinal directions of east, south, west, and north, and explained each one to Dashan.

These things were actually not complicated. As long as one had a normally functioning brain, it wouldn't be difficult to remember them.

As it turned out, Dashan learned quickly.

"Very good, Dashan. You can pick two people from the original gathering team to form a three-person team with you to carry out the exploration mission."

As Zhou Xu spoke, he handed the completed beast hide map to Dashan, signifying entrusting the mission to him.

Then, he shifted his gaze to Fei Que, who was standing nearby...

"Fei Que, I need to reassign the five people who were transferred from the gathering team. The remaining members of the hunting team will still be led by you. However, starting tomorrow, the hunting area will be completely expanded to the entire outer perimeter of the Black Forest, and you will be responsible for confirming the specific deployment locations."

The hunting team's activity range remaining on the outer perimeter was undoubtedly the result of his careful consideration.

This Black Forest was not as large as he had initially anticipated. Under this premise, the central area, with that spider web serving as their hunting trap, was already sufficient.

The reason the giant spider had been waiting for prey to come to it for so long was that it lacked bait. In the past, besides its superb skill of 'dead waiting,' it mainly relied on the prey being stupid.

Fortunately, it was the only predator in this area before, otherwise, it wouldn't have survived until now.

This was also the main reason why the giant spider's hunting difficulty began to rise sharply after they arrived.

Now, at the mine, they had taken over the spider web used for hunting. As long as some bait was placed to attract prey, that spider web would likely be even more effective than their basket traps.

As for the hunting team, although the number of people had decreased, their hunting area had increased.

In other words, the 'competitive' pressure between each trap had lessened. Under normal circumstances, they should all be able to catch more prey.

After assigning new tasks to Dashan's exploration team and Fei Que's hunting team, Zhou Xu turned his attention to the remaining seven people.

The main task for these seven people remained resource gathering, but unlike before...

"Three of you will continue to be responsible for gathering supplies in this Black Forest. As for the four of you, you will be responsible for mining coal in that mine."

With this personnel adjustment, their Salt Lake Tribe officially entered a new phase.

The very next morning, the three-person exploration team led by Dashan officially set out.

Dashan had actually undertaken similar exploration missions before the previous chief died, so he was not unfamiliar with it.

As a result, they had barely reached the outer perimeter of the Black Forest when, with the vision enhancement Zhou Xu had given them, Dashan clearly discovered something and quickly called out a warning...

"Quick, hide!"

Following his low shout, the other two reacted swiftly and immediately hid behind the main trunks of the nearby black trees.

At this moment, Dashan leaned against the main trunk of a black tree, cautiously peeking his head out and casting his gaze outward.

Soon, two figures wrapped in beast hides came into view.

"It's people from other tribes."

The other two members of the exploration team who had also discovered the presence of the other party's existence had visibly shifting expressions.

"Dashan, should we make a move?"

"It's too far. If they run, it'll be hard for us to catch them. Let's wait until they get closer."

Facing this sudden situation, Dashan remained relatively calm. After a simple judgment of the distance, he made a wise decision.

However, for some reason, from a great distance, those two people stopped after seeing the Black Forest. After exchanging a few words, they turned around and left.

This situation caused the expressions of the three members of the exploration team to darken.

"Should we chase?"

"We can't catch up."

Dashan, who uttered these three words, already had a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"Hurry back to the tribe and tell the chief what's happening here. We'll keep an eye on them here! Go!"

Under Dashan's urging, the tribal member didn't have time to think and immediately rushed back to the tribe at full speed.

Upon receiving the news, faint wrinkles involuntarily appeared between Zhou Xu's brows.

Since arriving here, he hadn't seen any outsiders other than the people from his own tribe.

Of course, he knew that other tribes existed in this world, but that didn't mean he wanted to encounter them.

From Zhou Xu's personal perspective, this was a primitive world with scarce resources.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that he had lost a lot of weight since arriving.

In this situation, what did the appearance of people from other tribes signify?

It meant that they would most likely enter into a competitive relationship over limited resources! This was not a good thing!

Update delivered. Thank you to the book friend 'Little Boy Who Sells Teemo' for the reward and 'H Shuiping' for the Alliance Leader. The bonus chapter mechanism is out; details can be found in the pinned post in the book club. Thank you all for your support!