After a simple one-on-one test, Zhou Xu began trying all sorts of things.
For example, making the Skeleton Soldiers use slings!
By Zhou Xu's reasoning, this should have turned them into skeleton slingers in no time.
But reality soon made him realize that it was best not to get too carried away.
Having a Skeleton Soldier hold a sling was no problem. It could hold one!
Having a Skeleton Soldier hold a stone projectile was no problem either. It could hold one of those too!
A sling in one hand and a stone projectile in the other—no problem at all!
But making the Skeleton Soldier put the stone projectile into the sling, whirl it around, and hurl it out? Sorry, it couldn't do it!
The Skeleton Soldiers made it clear that this question was beyond the syllabus.
At the same time, this completely confirmed for Zhou Xu that these Skeleton Soldiers were confined to the melee class.
As for whether he could unlock ranged units, he estimated that he would need more True Word Characters, such as "Skeleton Slinger" and the like.
With the True Word Characters he currently had, he obviously couldn't assemble one successfully.
During this period, Zhou Xu naturally also tried various combinations of the True Word Characters at his disposal. In the process, he vaguely discovered that the combinations of these True Word Characters seemed to follow some kind of rule—or, more precisely, had to make sense.
Simply put, True Words formed through random or forced combinations couldn't produce any effect.
Aside from the most logical combination, "Skeleton Soldier Control," he had tried quite a few other jumbled combinations as well. Unfortunately, none of them had any effect.
Incidentally, attempting these combinations also consumed energy.
Therefore, Zhou Xu knew when to stop. He had things to do every day and couldn't wear himself out.
As the sky gradually darkened, Zhou Xu had already returned to his tent and lain down. As was his habit, he began pondering a few things before sleep.
[If True Words are powered by a special kind of energy within my body, does that mean I can actually cultivate? But the problem now is, how do I cultivate?]
As far as this matter was concerned, Zhou Xu was truly at his wit's end.
He could only sense a force being drawn out of his body when he cast a True Word. Normally, however, he couldn't find any clue at all. It was genuinely giving him a headache.
After all, only by finding a method of cultivation could he gain a faster path to improvement and make his True Words stronger.
Of course, it was also possible that this energy simply couldn't be cultivated.
Or perhaps it was even simpler and more brute-force: True Word energy would continue growing stronger through the constant cycle of consumption and recovery.
That was certainly a possibility as well.
In fact, compared to the beginning, Zhou Xu did feel that the True Word energy within his body had grown stronger.
[Perhaps increasing True Word energy really is just a matter of repeatedly exhausting and recovering it. Just like physical training is a cycle of exercise and recovery, True Word energy is improved through nonstop daily practice.]
[Even so, I can't exhaust my energy every day to train. Once my energy is depleted, it can't recover quickly in a short time. Besides, in this world, I have to preserve my strength for battles that could erupt at any moment.]
[In ordinary times, it's best to keep my expenditure at around thirty percent, ensuring that I always have seventy percent of my strength available to deal with all kinds of emergencies.]
As he thought, the fatigue accumulated over the entire day gradually drowned his consciousness. As snores rang out, Zhou Xu fell into a deep sleep.
Early the next morning, Zhou Xu, sprawled inside his tent, slowly opened his eyes.
Over this period, he had developed a decent biological clock. Even when he was not fully awake, he would generally wake up around this time.
After all, in this era, he had no time to linger in bed if he wanted to survive better.
But perhaps because he had spent all of yesterday researching and using up too much True Word energy, his head genuinely felt a little heavy now.
After walking out of the tent and taking a few breaths of fresh air, he felt a little more alert.
Just as he had done at the Salt Lake Tribe, Zhou Xu had assigned the various teams and departments their work as soon as he arrived at this camp.
Thus, every morning, he no longer needed to repeat the arrangements. The tribe members naturally began their work for the new day on their own, saving him quite a bit of trouble.
Only the hunting team needed to wait for him before setting out today.
After all, starting today, the hunting team's hunting methods would also change. With the traps being put into use, the number of people required would be reduced even further.
Zhou Xu roughly estimated that three people should be enough to cover the wild rabbits' activity area with ease.
The manpower freed up would naturally be used by Zhou Xu to start forming an exploration team and gradually explore farther outward.
For now, the priority was still to find some crops as soon as possible—especially crops that could serve as staple foods—so that he could successfully usher in the Agricultural Era and solve the food problem one step further.
"Jinghong, I'll leave the task of leading the exploration team to you."
Ye Jinghong's Command Star Rating had already risen from one star to two. Going from one to two was still quite easy.
Given that his command limit was four stars, Zhou Xu did not mind giving him more opportunities to train and helping him grow.
More importantly, Ye Jinghong's Execution Expert talent could also come into play here, improving the efficiency of their exploration.
And that was exactly what Zhou Xu needed at the moment.
Upon receiving the order, Ye Jinghong immediately displayed his swift and decisive side. He gathered the people, brought the map, and set off at once.
On this first day, the exploration range would only extend around Black Moon Camp. They would be able to return before dark, so there was no need to worry too much.
The key was that later on, if he wanted the exploration team to travel far enough, spending nights outside would be unavoidable.
For that, he had to solve the problem of carrying food and fresh water.
The food problem was actually easy to solve. Back at Salt Lake Camp, he had already taught Ye Jinghong and the others how to make cured meat with salt.
Cured food could be kept for longer, and it was also convenient to carry.
Carrying fresh water, on the other hand, was a more troublesome problem.
Within their camp, large quantities of water were stored in pottery jars. But those things were heavy, and they could easily shatter if dropped, making them unsuitable for carrying under these circumstances.
Setting aside pottery jars, the only solution Zhou Xu could think of at present was sewing water bags from animal hide.
They had animal hide, bone needles, and thin cord made from tree bark. The materials were all available, and making them was not particularly complicated. Animal hide was naturally thick and elastic; as long as it was tied tightly enough, it could hold water.
Zhuang Mengdie quickly learned how to make them. From then on, another task was added to her department's workload.
That's right. The original handicraft team had continued expanding its work projects and had now plainly grown into the Equipment Department.
In any case, all kinds of tools and equipment needed by the tribe were currently produced by the Equipment Department.
Naturally, the position of department head went to Zhuang Mengdie.
After arranging the sewing of the animal-hide water bags, Zhou Xu still found no peace in Black Moon Camp. He turned around and headed straight for the rabbit pen.
Although the rabbit pen had only been built a couple of days ago, it already held eight or nine wild rabbits.
The rabbits' limited intelligence clearly gave them no idea how to deal with the hunting traps. In the end, they had been caught with ease...
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