Leo woke up and came to find him, holding a bright red fruit in his mouth.
Seeing the fruit, Eric remembered that there was still a basket of fruit left there. He turned over and sat up.
He praised Leo with a pat on the head and took the fruit from the little one’s mouth.
He took out two catties of flour, kneaded it into a dough, covered it with a wooden lid, and left it to rise slowly. Without yeast or a sourdough starter, he just had to let the dough ferment on its own. At the current temperature, it would probably be risen by tomorrow morning.
Eric had done this before when he didn’t have yeast powder.
After washing the pottery jar, Eric selected more than ten fist-sized wild fruits and tried his best to cut them into small pieces with his sharp claws. He only removed the seeds; the motion of peeling was too delicate for him to do with his claws. Besides, keeping the skins could add a bit more flavor.
In a purely natural world like this, he wasn’t afraid of being poisoned by not peeling them.
He poured the thorn beast honey from the bamboo tube into the pottery jar and mixed it evenly with the chopped wild fruit pieces.
He placed the pottery jar on the embers left over from roasting the meat. The fire had already died down by now, and the temperature wasn’t high, so it could be used to cook the fruit jam over low heat.
Without adding any water, he just stirred it slowly. When the wild fruit pieces gradually turned reddish-orange, it was almost done.
He scooped out the fruit jam and set it aside. There was some residue left at the bottom of the pottery jar. He conveniently added some water and brought it to a boil, creating a sweet fruit juice. He had a bowl, Leo had a bowl, and the two of them drank it happily.
It tasted a lot like plum syrup.
As the sweet juice went down into his stomach, Eric let out a long, satisfied sigh.
Just then, in the distant eastern sky, a purplish-red color like a sunset glow suddenly flared up, accompanied by a loud explosion that startled the two of them.
The Snow Wolves in the tribe all stood up and gazed far into the east.
"Who is the Elf race fighting with again? Looking at this commotion, the power is even greater than a forbidden spell..." The elderly and knowledgeable Jessica muttered.
Sigh, although the Elves all looked gentle and harmless, it was a pity that deep in their bones, every one of them was a battle maniac.
Eric, of course, had no idea what a forbidden spell was. He just sighed at how strange this otherworld was. It wasn’t even dusk yet, but a multi-colored cloud and an explosion had appeared.
He turned back and happily drank his thorn beast honey juice, mentally planning to bring some fruit jam to Luci tomorrow. Michael was also very good to him, so he would bring him some too.
He soaked the beans he brought back today to make tofu tomorrow. This time there were plenty of beans, so he didn’t need to be frugal. Tomorrow he and Leo could also try thorn beast honey-flavored soy milk and eat some thorn beast honey tofu pudding. Just the thought of it made him happy.
A tall figure sneaked over, looking extremely comical.
Eric took a look. Wasn’t that Sam, who was supposed to be in training? He must have skipped it.
Sam saw the cub’s questioning gaze and scratched his head in embarrassment, saying with a laugh, "The tofu you made today had a very special taste. It’s just that there was too little, so I..."
He took out a large bag of beans from behind his back with some pride. "I’ve gathered all the beans in our tribe and brought them to you!"
Eric’s eyes almost popped out. This... this looked to be over fifty catties at a rough glance!
"If I use all of this to make tofu, I won’t have enough coarse salt..."
"You need coarse salt for it? No problem, I’ll go get it for you!" Sam put the bag of beans on the ground and ran off like the wind. A moment later, he ran back with a large bamboo tube of coarse salt and gave it to Eric.
"I don’t need that much," Eric said, pouring out the amount he needed from the bamboo tube and having Sam put the rest away. Since he had to make tofu anyway, he might as well do it all together.
It was just that this quantity was truly a bit large. Seeing his worried expression, Sam patted his chest and said, "We’ll come help you tomorrow. Neither I nor Max need to go out hunting tomorrow. I’ll bring Max along for you."
He even seemed a little proud. Eric’s inner self coughed up a liter of blood. The original owner’s reputation was truly too powerful. ’My intentions are pure!’—he was so tired of having to explain himself.
He didn’t stand on ceremony and began to command, "In that case, Sam, please help me carve a few large stone basins. I need them to soak the beans and to hold the soy milk tomorrow."
If even he could carve stone, in the hands of an adult beastman, it was probably as soft as tofu.
If he had known there was free labor, he would have saved that glutinous rice and wheat for him to grind earlier, Eric thought with a dark heart.
Speaking of free labor, an idea flashed in Eric’s mind. "Sam, can you help me shape these scraps into stone slabs of a similar size?"
He showed Sam a size equivalent to a modern brick.
Sam said cheerfully, "No problem!"
Eric found some yellow clay, crushed it, added some water, found a stick, and stirred with all his might until it was very thick.
While Sam was carving the stone slabs and basins nearby, he took the finished slabs to a spot a short distance from the house and began to build.
He recalled a video he had seen about how to build an earthen wood-fired kiln, first sketching out the general shape in his mind.
He used the stone slabs to build a square foundation first, sealing the gaps between the slabs with yellow mud, leaving only an opening for firewood.
Having lived in modern times for so long, he had immediately thought of using coal to fire bricks, forgetting about this type of wood-fired kiln. With his current conditions, making a wood-fired kiln to fire bricks was not a problem at all.
Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Since he thought of it today, he would start right away. After all, office workers are a pitiful lot. Thinking back now, working overtime wasn’t so tiring.
At least he didn’t have to start everything from scratch.
The base of the wood-fired kiln was finished. Eric stroked his chin and walked around it once. After confirming there were no problems, he began to build upwards.
He filled the base with sand and gravel, leaving only the opening for firewood. Eric stacked the stone slabs up piece by piece, holding a wooden board in his hand to plaster the mud.
Sam thought he was just playing. When the remaining stone slabs from making the basins weren’t enough, he ran out again to find more stone to make slabs for him.
The wood-fired kiln was square at the bottom and round at the top. Eric stopped stacking when it reached about two meters high, sealing all the cracks inside and out with yellow mud.
Leo curiously walked around it, his tail standing straight up in excitement.