Today, Michael and the hunting party had worked together to hunt a level-five magic beast, a Giant Ice Wolf. This giant wolf was extremely fast, and they had to chase it for a great distance before finally finishing it off.
The Snow Wolves cheered as they transported each kill back to the tribe. Hunting a high-level magic beast was a matter of great prestige. Moreover, the fur, bones, and blood of a high-level magic beast were very valuable and could be traded for many necessities from the humans.
Michael remembered Eric had once said he wanted some magic beast fur. Although he didn’t know what he needed it for, he still picked the Giant Ice Wolf for Eric. Unsure of how much he needed, Michael rushed to find Eric as soon as he returned to the tribe.
Eric was deeply touched. The more intact a magic beast’s pelt, the more valuable it was. Yet, just because he had once mentioned wanting some magic beast fur, Michael had remembered and saved the best level-five magic beast pelt for him, unafraid that he might ruin it.
He quickly said, "The tribe already gave me a gray rabbit yesterday. I’ve finished making a brush with the gray rabbit’s fur, I don’t need magic beast fur anymore."
"How can gray rabbit fur be as strong and durable as a Giant Ice Wolf’s?" Michael thought he was being too polite to accept and tried to persuade him.
"I’m just making a small brush to apply oil. Rabbit fur is good enough. Using fur as good as a level-five magic beast’s would be a waste," Eric explained.
Besides, this level-five magic beast was hunted by several Snow Wolves together. If Michael really let him ruin the pelt of a level-five magic beast, he would be resented by the others.
"Alright then." Michael looked at the wall where only a single, pitifully small skewer of meat hung, and pulled Eric along to get his share of the meat.
It just so happened that there really wasn’t much meat left in the house. Eric followed Michael to a large open area in the tribe used for butchering magic beasts.
Thomas was dividing meat for everyone in the tribe with Kevin.
When Kevin saw him arrive, he happily cut a large piece for him from the thigh of the skinned Giant Ice Wolf.
Eric almost couldn’t hold it. He lifted the piece of meat in his hands to feel its weight. Good heavens, this piece was twice as heavy as the one he was given when he first arrived.
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. This saying was demonstrated to perfection among the Snow Wolf tribe.
The original owner of his body never received this kind of treatment. It seemed his efforts to cultivate relationships with delicious food these past few days had not been in vain.
After saying his thanks, Eric was about to head home to cook but was stopped by Thomas.
"Max told me about your thoughts on farming yesterday. Later, bring Leo to our house for dinner, and we’ll discuss it in detail," Thomas said with a smile.
Eric was both surprised and delighted. He hadn’t expected to receive a response so quickly; he had originally thought it would be a long, slow battle.
"Oh right, Michael, can you give me a set of the magic beast’s internal organs?" He had almost forgotten about this.
Michael looked at him in astonishment and said, "What do you need that for? It’s dirty and smelly. We Snow Wolves don’t eat it."
Could it be that Eric could even turn internal organs into a delicacy?
Eric rubbed his nose in embarrassment, "I want to use the organs as bait to catch fish in the river next to us."
Fish was also very unpalatable. Michael looked at him with an indescribable expression, but couldn’t bring himself to refuse. He pinched his nose and found some of the magic beast’s internal organs for Eric.
Eric wanted to cry out at the waste again. The amount of internal organs the Snow Wolves threw away would surely be fought over madly in the modern world.
Such large ones were much easier to clean than pig intestines. He remembered his grandfather used to make pig intestines for him to eat, and they had to be washed over and over again to get them clean. Being large and easy to clean, they were the perfect ingredients.
For now, the most he had for seasoning was wild onion, so he would have to give up on things like small intestines for the time being.
Eric went home for a moment, placed the organs and the meat at the doorway, washed himself clean again, and then carried Leo to Uncle Thomas’s house.
Luci warmly invited him in and mixed a bowl of fruit jam and thorn beast honey water for both him and Leo.
She stood by, beaming as the two of them drank, and praised, "The fruit jam you made tastes wonderful. The scent carries so far that even I could smell it."
With that, she began to prepare dinner. Eric went to help as well.
Luci’s ceramic pot was very large. Eric cut some more meat and put it in the pot, stir-frying it first. After the fat rendered, he added some chopped wild onions he had brought, poured in a flask of clean water, and let it simmer slowly.
Luci also skewered the meat that they needed to eat and placed it on the fire to roast.
As she roasted the meat, she said to Eric, "Are those white pieces Max brought back today the tofu? They smell much better than dried beans."
"Tofu is made from beans that are ground into milk and then cooked, so it doesn’t have much of that beany smell. Plus, one pound of beans can make two to three pounds of tofu," Eric replied.
Luci’s eyes widened as she stared at the basket in astonishment. Food could be multiplied? She had thought it took a lot of beans to make such a large basket of tofu. She was even worried if the beans Max had taken yesterday were enough, hoping Eric didn’t have to add more of his own.
If what Eric said was true, then this amount of tofu used less than a fifth of the beans from her house. It was truly a way to save grain.
While the two were talking, Max and Thomas returned, carrying their share of the hunt.
Thomas was also carrying a wild chicken four or five times larger than the chick Eric had caught on the first day. This kind of small prey was brought straight home and didn’t need to be divided.
"I finally get to eat it today. The aroma has been wafting into my nose for days, so fragrant that I’ve been drooling every day," Thomas said with a hearty laugh.
He must have smelled the chicken soup Eric made on the first day, which was why he had brought back a large wild chicken for him today. The Snow Wolf people were truly simple and lovable.
The meals he had cooked these past two days were never enough, so he couldn’t share any with Uncle Thomas and Luci, who had always taken great care of the body’s original owner.
Seeing that Luci’s house had another ceramic pot, Eric took it out, planning to cook another pot of chicken soup to fulfill Uncle Thomas’s wish.
Just as he was about to go outside to process the wild chicken, Max beat him to it, taking the chicken outside to clean it.
Eric had Leo run home to get some mushrooms. Braised chicken with mushrooms was a perfect combination.
After the ceramic pot heated up, Eric put most of the chicken in, stir-fried it until the moisture evaporated, then added wild onions to release their fragrance, and also added water to stew it.
Luci mixed a glass of fruit jam and thorn beast honey water for herself, Thomas, and Max.
"This is also made by Eric. Have a taste, isn’t it delicious!" she said to Thomas.
The sweet fruit water entered their mouths, the sweetness of the thorn beast honey and fruit jam seeping deep into their hearts.
Thomas drank it all in one go and laughed, "I think this fruit jam of Eric’s is even better than the fruit juices from the Elf tribe!"
Eric was embarrassed by the praise. The broth in the ceramic pot gradually began to release its aroma. He added mushrooms and tofu to the chicken soup, and tofu and wild vegetables to the other meat stew.
When they were almost cooked, Eric added coarse salt to both pots.
Thomas held the hot stone bowl, unafraid of the heat as he shoved a piece of tofu into his mouth. Unsurprisingly, the tofu, soaked in the rich broth, quickly conquered him as well.
The soup was savory and the meat fragrant. The unique aroma of the mushrooms and the beany fragrance of the tofu blended very well. The wild vegetables in the meat stew also balanced the richness of the broth.
A bite of roasted meat, a slurp of soup, everyone ate without lifting their heads. The other Snow Wolves in the tribe could only smell the tormenting aroma, eating it alongside their own dry roasted meat.
This was especially true for the few Snow Wolves who had tasted these dishes before; they were also roasting meat at home in the way Eric had taught them.
Although the roasted meat was more delicious than before, the smell from next door was still agonizing.
It is easy to go from poverty to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury back to poverty.
The Snow Wolves who had been baptized by fine cuisine could no longer return to the time when they were not picky eaters.