Max, standing to the side, sneered.
He didn’t care what Eric’s intentions were, but if Eric went back to ignoring Leo like before, Max would no longer listen to his mother’s advice.
The young of the beastmen were all precious, even a cub from the Golden Lion Tribe.
Eric couldn’t be bothered with what they were thinking. Beastmen weren’t afraid of ghosts and demons like humans; they were all realists, and moreover, very tolerant of their own tribesmen. They wouldn’t put him on a pyre just because they discovered his personality had changed.
Besides, Max had always treated him coldly. Everyone would probably just assume he had finally seen the light and given up.
Returning home, he stacked the damp logs he had carried back into a skin-covered shed built against the wall, meant for storing firewood, waiting for better weather to dry them out.
He placed the meat on the ground and, imitating Max and the others, transformed his hands into sharp claws. He sliced the piece of meat, which weighed over 50 kilograms, into thin strips. Then, he used small but tough vines to string them together and hang them outside to dry.
The coarse salt of the Beastman Tribe was truly too scarce, barely enough for consumption with none to spare. Using it to cure meat meant he could only make dried meat. Without salt, marinating for too long would cause a foul smell, but it was still better than starving when there was no food. Dried meat could also be preserved for a very long time.
Leo silently helped him string the meat by his side.
When Eric was in the modern world, his parents had divorced and started new families.
Although he had relatives, it was as if he had none. It had been a long time since he had experienced the feeling of family affection. He never expected to gain a family member in another world, and one who was so obedient and well-behaved.
He used a clean hand to ruffle Leo’s hair.
Alright, even though there was no toilet paper here, no phone, and certainly no anime world that he loved, not even a toilet, he now had Leo. He also got to see magical beasts and beastmen, and in the future, he might meet the Elf Tribe, the Dwarf Tribe, various mages, and alchemists. Just thinking about it made him incredibly excited. As a dedicated hermit, he really couldn’t refuse.
After hanging the meat to dry, Eric went outside to get a few dry logs, chopped them into small pieces, and lit them. When the wood was half-burnt, he took a pile of rain-soaked straw and smothered the fire, letting it slowly extinguish. The harsh conditions meant the charcoal produced was a bit inferior to modern charcoal, but his requirements weren’t high; as long as it was usable, it was fine.
He suddenly remembered that to make activated charcoal, he also needed vinegar or lemon juice, but he had neither right now. Sigh, ever since coming to this world, everything had to be started from scratch.
The Snow Wolf Tribe probably didn’t have lemons; there were none in the original owner’s memory. He wondered if the Elf Tribe had any, but he couldn’t go trade with the Elf Tribe right now.
Then he could only make vinegar himself. Vinegar could be brewed from grains or fruits, but first, he needed yeast. Eric remembered the method of making yeast from Vietnamese coriander. He would try to find some when he followed the tribe’s gathering team out for food; he was confident he could find it.
He remembered from his childhood in the countryside that this type of grass grew on both sides of the road or along the banks of small rivers; it was quite common.
Besides Vietnamese coriander, he also needed sticky rice and wheat bran. He remembered the chieftain had these two types of grain, which seemed to have been traded from the Ox-Head Tribe. He could go and ask the chieftain for some first.
He had once seen his grandfather make yeast and brew wine. Later, he had read about it many times in various farming novels. Brewing vinegar should be possible. Besides, after making the yeast, he could also brew wine, which could be traded with people from other tribes.
In the original owner’s memory, many markets were held here every year. The largest was the Spring Market, organized by the Ox-Head Tribe every spring. All tribes would send people to participate, and many individuals from other races would also come to exchange for things they needed.
If he could brew wine by then, he could go to the Spring Market to trade with the Dwarf Tribe for some ore and tools. Dwarves loved to drink the most.
If he could get some coal, he could build an earthen kiln to fire his own pottery and tiles. If he was lucky enough to trade for some limestone, he could even try to make cement.
Of course, the best plan for the near future was to follow the tribe’s gathering team out every day to see if there were any usable ores around their tribe.
These things had to be done slowly. For now, Eric used the only ceramic jar in the house to soak that handful of beans.
Half a catty of beans could make about two to three catties of tofu. The amount of beans in the house was about half a catty, all of which had been gathered by the original owner before.
The people in the tribe rarely ate this stuff, usually only when food was scarce in winter, and the original owner was no exception.
The Snow Wolf Tribe did not practice agriculture; the soybeans all grew wild. Occasionally, they would also pick some black beans.
When Eric went out to gather firewood, he had observed the surroundings. The vegetation was lush and the soil was fertile. It was too much of a waste not to farm!
It was already autumn now. At next year’s Spring Market, he must find a way to trade for some seeds with the Ox-Head Tribe.
Although the Snow Wolf Tribe did not lack prey outside of winter, they also consumed a lot of food. When their luck was bad and they hunted little prey, they would also go hungry, let alone in winter, when they could only rely on their stored dried meat and dried vegetables gathered by the beastmen in charge of gathering to fill their stomachs.
Even in winter, these big-bellied, hearty-eating beastmen dared not revert to their beast forms, trying to use their human forms to reduce food intake. Apart from hunting and patrolling, other beastmen tried to limit their outdoor activities, also to reduce energy consumption.
Besides, when people are alive, they should find ways to improve their standard of living. With the quality of life of the Snow Wolf Tribe, even poor households in the modern era would shed tears.
Everyone here was a poor household receiving government aid.