Chapter 31 – Simple and crude
Translated by Sunyancai
Of course Shao Xuan would like to learn old Ke’s skills, not only his skills in stone crafting, but also his skills in setting up traps, which were quite useful when hunting outside. It was just too early for him, who had no foundation in training. What Shao Xuan could do now, was start with simple striking and prepare to learn more advanced skills later on.
In fact, Shao Xuan understood old Ke’s attitude towards him. A long time ago, old Ke had started to help him, however, sometimes old Ke said something that could easily be misunderstood by others. Take yesterday for example, when he approached old Ke to learn crafting skills, he merely got an evaluation of “waste” after he peeled off the stone flakes. Others would have misunderstood old Ke if they did not know him as well as Shao Xuan did. Luckily, Shao Xuan had a quick mind and knew what old Ke was referring to after some thinking.
Seeing that Shao Xuan had no rejection to their theories, Ge was relieved immediately. When he left, he planned to drop by old Ke’s place to brag about his deeds, and perhaps get something as a reward from old Ke.
After finishing helping Shao Xuan with his cabin, Lang Ga and the others left, for they had a lot of preparations that needed to be completed before the hunt. After all, the first hunting mission of the year was just around the corner, and, as was the same for every hunting mission, warriors had to risk their lives. Preparations were the only guarantee for their safe return.
There were two hunting groups in the tribe, and they took turns going out for hunting missions. While one group was out, the other would be on duty rotations within the tribe and maintaining the security of the tribe. After all, there were still so many ferocious beasts in the mountains, and just as many many sick or elderly people in the tribe.
Among every hunting group, there were two hunting teams. According to Lang Ga’s description, warriors were distributed into two hunting teams based on their personal abilities. The first hunting team was formed by warriors living in the mountain side district and above, and the second was formed by warriors that lived in the mountain side district and below.
Lang Ga and his friends belonged to the second hunting team, and naturally, Shao Xuan would join them when he goes out for hunting missions.
After Lang Ga and the others had left, Shao Xuan took a look at the newly built cabin.
Caesar was wandering around the cabin curiously.
“I’ll toss you out if you dare to poop inside.” Said Shao Xuan.
When they lived back in the cave, Shao Xuan had trained Caesar to go pooping at the special place where all the kids did their pooping. Here, Caesar had to strictly go outside to excrete his waste.
“In the future we’ll be living here. We’ll make a wooden desk, and chairs, and stools, and …”
After lying down on the bed for a rest, Shao Xuan took out the animal skin bag that Yi had delivered this morning. He then went out and filled it with some sand and crushed stones, before weighing it with his hands.
Shao Xuan used the heavy smashed stones, tossed away after crafting stoneware, as the gravel to fill his bag. There were a lot that were thrown away at the gravel place, piled up like small hills. The stones were not suitable or attractive to stone worms, so stone worms were rarely found there. Hence, not many people would go there either.
Shao Xuan had thought about that place when Lang Ga was talking about load training. So he asked someone to sew him the animal skin bag in a special shape. It weighed about one hundred kilo when filled up with the smashed stones.
Shao Xuan had once wondered if those stones were metal ore. However, after serious observation, he realized that the stones were just like other stones in the gravel yard, except for the fact that they weighed more.
Of course, Shao Xuan wanted to have some ironware, however, not only did he know nothing about forging and puddling, he also had a bigger, more important issue. In this world, there were many things that differed from his last life, including the strange stones, so he could not judge things the same way he used to. Because of that, instead of spending time researching, Shao Xuan preferred to deal with the problems he had at hand and decided to forget about forging and ironware for now.
He tied a few animal skin bags onto his arms and legs and, after he was all set, moved a little. He found that he was still quite agile and could carry another stone.
It seemed that the body strength of a totemic warrior was really good.
So, he began to combine the load training with his daily life.
Even though for now, Shao Xuan could not carry a thousand kilogram thing like Ge, he could lift a few hundred kilo’s easily. If Shao Xuan were still in his last life, he never could have dreamt about this kind of strength.
As Shao Xuan was trying out the animal skin bag, he noticed that Caesar was facing the outside and baring his teeth. Shao Xuan untied and put down the animal skin bags. As soon as he finished doing so, he heard someone calling his name.
“Is Ah-Xuan around?”
The people coming were two tall and strong warriors, who seemed young, around the same age as Lang Ga. Muscles covered their bodies and their voices were rough, with a heroic sense.
“My name is Tuo, and this is Keke. The Shaman asked me to bring you something.” Said Tuo
Tuo was obviously more mature than Lang Ga, and although he sized up Shao Xuan with his eyes, he had no intention of harming him. There were even traces of a faint smile on his face.
The Shaman kept his promise that, on the very first day of Shao Xuan having his own place, he would have someone bring up food, as compensation for him.
There was a lot of meat, all of it had been processed, and some of it was already preserved. Along with the meat, there were some tubers, plants, and fresh fruits.
Besides food, there were two packs of mixed herbs. Shao Xuan was familiar with one of them, they were used for normal diseases, since he used them back in the caves and knew how to apply them. The other pack of herbs, as Tuo explained, were used for traumatic bleeding.
As for the other person that came, Shao Xuan figured that he was someone restless judging from his name. Also, Tuo said that the Shaman asked him to bring up something. He mentioned “me” instead of “us”. So apparently Keke was not here under the Shaman’s command.
Keke had been staring at Caesar from the minute he entered the room. Since he was facing Shao Xuan with his back, Shao Xuan could not see the expression on his face. However, according to Caesar’s reaction, Keke could not be looking very friendly towards him. Warriors who had been hunting forever would see any animal as game and would gladly pierce them through with a spear.
Caesar’s body tensed up, nearly baring his teeth, preparing to fight.
“Hey! A wolf can actually develop like this!” said Keke.
Just when Shao Xuan was wondering whether the warrior was despising Caesar for being so timid, and not ferocious like wolves in the wild, Shao Xuan heard Keke smack his lips while saying, “It’s worthy to be eaten after another half a year!”
Caesar bared his four sharp teeth towards the warrior immediately. He looked quite alarmed, and growling sounds could be heard in his throat. He was sending a warning, as if he would rush towards him to bite the next second.
“Okay!” the warrior took out a stone knife he had at his wrist, and said with enthusiasm.
Tuo was explaining the usage of the mixed herbs as he heard Keke. The muscles on his face froze for a second, and then twitched twice heavily. He immediately dropped the things and rushed towards Keke like a gust of wind. He punched Keke as he was standing off against Caesar with his stone knife.
“Fuck you! Put your knife away!!”
Keke got punched and flew out the window directly. With a loud bang, he fell on the ground outside.
Shao Xuan was totally speechless. Indeed, the totemic warriors acted simple and crude.
After that, Tuo returned to Shao Xuan and explained, “He’s just like that. Every time he sees a beast, he would lose his mind out of excitement. Don’t worry, he was just acting out of habit. Trust me, he did not mean it.” After all, they dared not to kill a wolf with a patterned plate from the Shaman.
However, just when he finished his sentence, Keke came inside again as if nothing happened and he had not been punched in the face. This time, he walked towards Caesar again without a knife. However, he rubbed his fingers and obviously he had no good intention as well.
Tuo was running out of options. When the Shaman asked him to deliver something here, he did not expect to meet Keke on the way. Once Keke heard that Tuo was going to the newly-awakened totemic warrior that surprised everyone during the ritual ceremony, he immediately got excited and insisted to tag along.
At first Tuo wanted to chat more with this little warrior that was so valued by the Shaman. However, based on the current circumstances, Tuo regretted for letting Keke to tag along. Perhaps he would fight the wolf for real if they stayed. Such a young wolf would be easily killed by Keke’s single punch. What if Keke killed the wolf? They would be yelled at by the Shaman.
Shao Xuan sensed a shadow flash in front of him, and the next second, he saw Tuo appeared behind Keke. He grabbed Keke’s head with his arms as he dragged him out. In the meantime, Tuo looked back at Shao Xuan, “We’ll leave since the thing is already delivered. We’ll have plenty of time for chatting when you go for hunting missions with us in the future.”
After they had left, Caesar relaxed, too. He sniffed around, and began to drag an animal bag out, it was the one brought in by Keke. It looked like Caesar wanted to toss it out.
Shao Xuan hurriedly stopped him. Because inside the bag there were some dried fruits. Shao Xuan had not tried many of them. So it would be a big waste if Caesar just threw it out.
As Shao Xuan was sorting things out, he recalled Tuo’s words earlier. The last sentence meant that they were in the same hunting groups as Shao Xuan. However, Lang Ga had never spoken of these two people while they talked.
Were they from the first team?