From noon, when he hurried back to Black Moon Tribe, until the afternoon, when he began working on handicrafts without pause, Zhou Xu had barely spent a few minutes idle all day.
As the sun sank westward and fires were lit for cooking in the camp, Zhou Xu took advantage of everyone's return and stood up...
"Everyone, look over here. I'm planning to form a transport team of five. Your main job will be to carry some necessities from Black Moon Camp to Salt Lake Camp, then carry coal ore and salt from Salt Lake Camp back to Black Moon Camp."
Under the gazes of all the tribe members at Black Moon Camp, Zhou Xu quickly explained the transport team's duties.
"This job requires excellent physical stamina. Anyone among you with outstanding stamina, step forward."
Aside from Zhou Chongshan and the others, Zhou Xu currently had a clear impression of no more than five of the other people in his tribe.
There was nothing he could do about it. Their Five-dimensional attributes were all only two stars, after all.
Of course, that did not mean he looked down on two-star attributes. He had more or less figured out this star rating: two stars was the level of an ordinary person.
Was there anything wrong with being ordinary?
There were more ordinary people than anything else in this world, along with the occasional ordinary person who thought they were extraordinary.
More than ninety percent of humanity was probably made up of ordinary two-star people. Yet it was precisely these ordinary people who made up the vast majority of humanity and formed an indispensable part of the species!
Still, although he did not look down on them, they truly lacked distinctiveness and memorable traits in Zhou Xu's eyes.
With all their panels showing two stars, Zhou Xu had no way to tell from their Five-dimensional attributes who among them had better stamina.
The only thing that could distinguish their abilities to some degree was the equally ordinary talents they possessed.
But the same problem remained: there were too many people, and it was difficult for him to remember them all.
As for using the Eye of Insight to inspect everyone in the tribe again, the expenditure was actually rather substantial. He really did not want to burden himself with unnecessary consumption over this matter.
After all, according to plan, he intended to spend some time later studying the Skeleton Control ability.
But only eleven or twelve people had stepped forward, so this was not much of a problem.
[Eye of Insight]
Talents such as "Gathering Expert" and "Tenacious Will" clearly did not meet Zhou Xu's requirements.
"You, you, you, and you..."
After making the appropriate comparisons and weighing his options, Zhou Xu quickly selected the five members of the transport team.
"That'll be the five of you. Starting today, you'll be responsible for this work."
Actually, to improve transport efficiency, Zhou Xu had considered making a wooden cart or something.
But in an era like this, how could wheels and axles be so easy to make?
Compared with making a wooden cart, he now leaned more toward taming animals such as cattle and horses. That way, he could use them to carry goods.
Unfortunately, he had yet to encounter any.
Once he did, he might be able to take a turn and usher in the age of animal husbandry ahead of time.
In any case, once he had dealt with the matters here and stabilized the camp, the scouting teams venturing outward could begin their operations as well.
Hopefully, they would have something to show for it by then.
After assigning the members of the transport team, everyone ate and rested.
Zhou Xu, meanwhile, followed his original plan and began studying his Skeleton Control True Word.
"Chongshan, gather all the skeletons we collected."
"Yes!"
Having received the order, Zhou Chongshan moved quickly. After calling for help and busying himself through several rounds, Zhou Xu soon found a pile of skeletons filling the space before him.
They counted them and found a total of thirty-nine, all carried back bit by bit over the past few days.
The sky was growing dim by now. Seated amid the pile of skeletons, Zhou Xu truly gave off an eerie air.
The former members of Black Moon Tribe had evidently grown accustomed to this sort of thing. After all, their former chief had done the same.
As for the former members of Salt Lake Tribe, they were not afraid either, simply because the person sitting there was Zhou Xu.
He had no intention of making everyone leave. One ancient syllable after another soon issued from Zhou Xu's mouth...
[**Skeleton Control!**]
In an instant, an invisible force spread outward. Green, ghostly flames ignited in the hollow eye sockets of the skeletons. Then, amid a chorus of clack, clack, they climbed to their feet.
At that moment, looking at the skeletons standing around him, Zhou Xu felt slightly surprised.
Because at that very moment, all thirty-nine skeletons present had gotten to their feet!
He had indeed activated the True Word with the intention of seeing how many skeletons he could raise, but he had never expected to accomplish this much.
After all, when that other transmigrator had used Skeleton Control to launch an attack, the total number of skeletons had only been around twenty.
Zhou Xu did not believe that the other party had only been able to find twenty skeletons at the time. Most likely, that was simply the number of skeletons he could control.
Yet Zhou Xu had surpassed that number with ease.
And besides, one must not forget that he had raised thirty-nine skeletons now because there were only thirty-nine skeletons nearby—not because thirty-nine was all he could raise!
After pondering this situation briefly, Zhou Xu had a clue.
[This is probably related to my Spirit attribute, which reached three stars from the very beginning. After all, it's the only attribute whose strength is particularly outstanding right now.] [Following this line of thought, the strength of the Spirit attribute affects the abilities of True Words. This might manifest in the number of times they can be used—in other words, consumption—or it might manifest in their power...]
With this thought in mind, Zhou Xu began trying to control the skeletons and arrange them into the Attack Formation he wanted. But the skeletons seemed unable to understand him. Even a very simple formation appeared to be beyond their comprehension.
Later, Zhou Xu changed his approach.
[Advance forward!]
This time, the skeletons finally understood and began advancing forward one after another.
[Attack that stone!]
Upon receiving the order, the skeletons immediately began swinging their arms and relentlessly attacking the stone.
[I understand now. These skeletons can only understand commands that are extremely simple and crude. The moment even the slightest bit of difficulty is added...]
Thinking of this, Zhou Xu issued another command.
[Pick up that stone.]
Sure enough, the skeletons had no idea what to do. They simply stood there in a daze.
This allowed Zhou Xu to basically figure them out.
Put simply, he could treat them as animals with intelligence lower than a dog's, completely incapable of carrying out complicated commands.
With this premise in mind, combined with his previous conjecture, a new idea arose in his mind.
[Let's give it a try.]
As this thought flashed through his mind, the ancient syllables once again issued from Zhou Xu's mouth...
[**Skeleton Soldier Control!**]
Before you continue