Just the wild duck eggs collected along the way were an unexpected spoil; whether they actually caught any wild ducks no longer mattered.
Originally, this was just a whim of Eric’s, wanting to take the cubs out for a relaxing trip.
After digging two traps in the reed bed, Eric herded the group to the sparse forest nearby to dig a few more.
Sam’s paws were itching, and he couldn’t sit still either. While the cubs were diligently digging traps, he also toiled away, digging a massive pit right next to them.
This location was quite far from the riverbank, so there was no fear of hitting groundwater. Eric ignored him, as long as he didn’t dig the pit so large he injured himself.
For each completed trap, he carefully tied a strip of hemp cloth to a nearby tree branch, in the most visible spot. This way, even if tribe members didn’t recognize the trap signs, they wouldn’t easily misstep and fall in.
The entire group, except for Eric who was just standing and directing, was covered in mud from head to toe.
He then found a thick, clean snowdrift and signaled for the wolf cubs to bury themselves in the snow and roll around to their hearts’ content. Of course, Sam was no exception.
The pristine white snowflakes quickly pulled away the mud clinging to their fur. In just a moment, they had turned back into clean, fluffy white cotton balls.
As for the Dwarf children, Eric had to brush the dirt from their hair and clothes, then gently rub snow on their faces and hands, which were red from the cold. Doing so would help prevent them from getting frostbite in the freezing weather.
They had been outside for a while, and the Dwarf children couldn’t withstand the cold as well as the wolf cubs. Eric decided to lead his "cub troop" back to the tribe, first taking the Dwarf children home to warm up.
The healthy little Snow Wolves naturally didn’t want to go back yet; they immediately pulled Leo along to find another spot to continue playing.
Eric couldn’t help but inwardly sigh in admiration at the physique of these kids. Even the Dwarf children were impressively sturdy. He thought, if human children were this healthy, with that frightening reproductive rate, humans would probably have unified the continent long ago.
After taking the children home, Eric also took a stroll around the area.
When he got near Joseph’s house, his sensitive nose suddenly caught an indescribable stench. He quickly covered his nose, reflexively taking a few steps back.
"Is that you, Eric?" Bruno stepped out from the house next door, speaking up when he saw Eric’s expression.
"I don’t know what’s gotten into old Joseph lately. He keeps running to the latrine area to dig up earth every day, then holes himself up in his house doing who-knows-what. This smell is going to smoke this old man to death!"
He grumbled, his expression full of resentment.
No wonder it stank so badly... Eric felt momentarily embarrassed, the back of his neck feeling a bit itchy. In the end, he was the source of this matter. Who would have expected Joseph’s drive to act would be so strong.
"Huh, Evan? Why is he here?"
The corner of Eric’s eye caught a familiar figure in dark green robes. It was indeed Evan; he couldn’t help but ask in surprise.
Following Evan’s gaze, Eric saw a very lively scene: several dozen Dwarves were swinging hammers and various tools, forging iron in the middle of winter, dripping with sweat.
"Him?" Bruno, a long-time bachelor, glanced at Evan and pouted, his voice sour: "He’s already wandered around the tribe today, attracting who-knows-how-many gazes from the girls. He looks as scrawny as a twig, I don’t get what’s so good-looking about him that they’re all smitten."
To be fair, while Evan’s physique wasn’t as muscular as a beastman’s, it was by no means weak. One could tell from Bruno’s words that he was just jealous.
Evan then retracted his gaze, leisurely walking toward Eric.
"I was just a little curious, wanting to see what Dwarves and beastmen living together would be like."
"So, after seeing it, what do you think?" Eric asked curiously.
"It truly exceeded my expectations." Evan’s tone carried sincere admiration: "Snow Wolves and Dwarves living together... are unexpectedly harmonious. This is truly far different from what I imagined."
Eric slowly glanced around, a small sense of pride in his heart.
"You humans always have prejudices against us. We beastmen aren’t barbaric; we’re very reasonable, you know."
Evan chuckled, his gaze fixed on Eric’s face: "You are a very capable tribal chief."
"Actually, I just took the post, there’s still a lot I don’t know." Eric scratched his head in embarrassment: "Right now, everything relies on help from Thomas and Joseph. I’m just a chief in name only."
But throughout his walk, Evan had heard countless people unintentionally mention Eric.
Regardless of whether they were Dwarves or Snow Wolves, when this name was mentioned, everyone was full of praise.
Even he himself was not treated with hostility only because he was "the human Eric brought back". Thanks to this, he was able to walk around and observe the entire tribe freely without any hindrance.
It must be known that neither of these two races was very friendly toward humans; the current situation was the complete opposite of the restricted-at-every-turn scenario he had anticipated.
Evan had originally only planned to stop by this strange tribe out of momentary curiosity, and to evade his pursuers. But now, he didn’t want to leave at all.
His curiosity had become entirely focused on this strange tribe with its astonishing tolerance, and especially... on the little cub who seemed to be the source of it all.
He shook his head slightly, an enigmatic smile flashing in his eyes that made Eric feel a chill down his spine, as if he were being pricked by thorns.
He couldn’t understand why this human had such a strange expression; he clearly hadn’t said anything wrong.
This morning, when Evan had expressed his desire to go out and look around, Eric had agreed immediately. In any case, their tribe didn’t have any big secrets that outsiders couldn’t know.
It was just that, to ensure safety, he had specially instructed Max not to let him go too far. Moreover, Evan already knew about their salt refining, so they definitely couldn’t let him be "picked up" by other tribes.
It seemed Evan was merely curious about their tribe’s unique organizational structure. It made sense. In the eyes of outsiders, Dwarves and Snow Wolves were like fire and water.
Especially since the humans in this world were still in a feudal system, their thinking was bound to be more conservative; it was normal to feel it was strange and want to take a look.
Eric paid no more attention to his strange gaze, looking instead with worry toward the tightly closed door of Joseph’s house.
If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have told him about gunpowder. He hadn’t expected Joseph’s reaction to be so strong, or his temper to be so hasty.
Right now, it was just researching saltpeter. When it came to actually making gunpowder, he just hoped there wouldn’t be any explosions. Then again, the armor forged by the Dwarves was incredibly sturdy. Nothing would probably happen... right?
Bruno at the side was still enviously stealing glances at Evan’s flawless, straight back, so annoyed he was tugging at his own beard.
Eric ignored his petty emotions, pulling Bruno’s sleeve to instruct:
"Keep an eye on Joseph lately, will you? If his room suddenly explodes one day, remember to run over and save him."
"What?" Bruno put his hands on his hips and roared: "If it really explodes, don’t you dare let it involve me!"
What fair-weather brotherhood. Eric was completely exasperated, he could only wave his hand dismissively and leave.
Evan had seen enough of his walk and set off to follow Eric.
"Eric!"
A familiar call suddenly sounded by his ear. Eric turned his head and saw Sam holding up a giant octopus with one paw, while his other three legs waddled toward him in an extremely odd posture.