Luban squatted beside him, examining it carefully. He pointed to the position of the alcohol outlet pipe:
"This part is a bit difficult to seal, but if we add a little red copper to the material, it will be more malleable, easier to bend..."
Eric listened with one ear and out the other, feeling as if he were in a physical chemistry lecture. The more Luban talked, the more animated he became, and the other Dwarfs also gathered around. It soon turned into a heated debate.
Eric took the opportunity to slip away, letting out a sigh of relief. It had been a long time since he’d had to listen to a lecture, and he was still yawning just like in the old days. In the end, Luban was the victor, and he puffed out his chest, booming:
"Haha, I’ll have it ready for you in no more than two days!"
"Thank you so much, Luban! I’ll invite you to taste the very first batch of wine right away!"
In the Magical Beast Mountain Range, Michael wiped two blood-stained magic cores on a piece of animal hide until they were transparently sparkling before putting them into the cloth pouch at his waist.
"Why are you picking those up? They aren’t worth much." Kevin wondered.
Michael smiled, rubbing the pouch: "Eric wants to use them to decorate his new house."
"Ah, all children like shiny things." Kevin nodded.
"Is that so? I just remember that time you dove into the river to search for stones and almost got a beating from your father." Michael said, feigning reminiscence.
Kevin, embarrassed and angry, chased after Michael to hit him. The two of them laughed and joked as they ran off, kicking up a cloud of dust. Max stood there, his gaze fixed on the pouch at Michael’s side.
Back home, Eric set to work making paper. He decided to use reeds, which were abundant here, to make toilet paper first. He dug a few pits, placed pottery vats inside, and mixed the reeds and lime together to ferment.
A few days later, Luban brought over the completed distillation set, intending to show off his craftsmanship, only to find Eric huffing and puffing as he steamed a pile of withered grass. He was curious, but seeing how busy the boy was, he didn’t disturb him.
After steaming the reeds, Eric used a large stone to grind them into a pulp, then put it in a cloth bag to filter and wash it clean. Finally, using a homemade bamboo screen, he scooped up thin layers of pulp from the water and spread them out to dry in the sun.
Seeing him pause, Luban approached: "Eric, what are you making?"
Eric smugly wiped the sweat from his forehead and put on a secretive air: "You’ll know in a bit. This is good stuff."
[I don’t believe you Dwarfs don’t have your own troubles when it comes to hygiene!]
He asked Luban what they used to draw blueprints before. The old dwarf explained they used goatskin, but the smell of the preservative was as terrible as long-dead fish.
"Are you children planning to learn how to write?" Luban asked curiously.
Writing? Eric hadn’t thought that far ahead; he simply wanted to make toilet paper.
That’s right, he’d been here for so long and had forgotten an important matter. The beastmen didn’t have their own civilization; their development was still in the Stone Age.
Teach them how to write? The national script? Spelling out B-A-BA might be easy, but trying to recall the entire set of spelling rules would probably give me a stroke right here. Eric scratched his head for a moment, then decided to shelve the idea for now. He had returned all that knowledge to his kindergarten teacher long ago.
"I was just curious. So, is goatskin for writing expensive?" Eric tilted his head and asked.
"It’s ridiculously expensive!" Luban said with a pained expression: "We only use goatskin parchment for particularly complex structural drawings; the rest we have to cram into our heads."
Goatskin had to be processed by a tanner and treated with anti-moisture chemicals to be preserved for a long time. This made it a luxury item only used by the upper class.
He sighed again: "I’ve heard the Elf tribe has a type of leaf that can be written on naturally and isn’t afraid of sun or rain. They are truly the favored children of the heavens."
Hearing this, Eric’s eyes turned red with envy.
What kind of race was so favored? They had long lives and great strength, were proficient in magic, had no shortage of food, and even their paper was a readily available "organic" product.
It would be unreasonable if they weren’t wealthy. Unlike him, who had to make even his own toilet paper through his own labor.
But he knew that no matter how good a gift from the heavens was, its quantity was limited. His paper might not be of the same quality, but the raw materials were abundant. This point alone already surpassed Elven paper and goatskin.
He thought again, it was a good thing he was a beastman here. If he were an ordinary human in another kingdom, the first day he made tofu, he probably would have been captured by some nobleman and forced into slavery to make money for him.
Luban watched for a while and then left, returning in the afternoon.
Eric went inside and poured him a cup of freshly fermented glutinous rice wine. The previous batch of berry wine had already been finished off by Michael and his friends.
The sweet, fragrant glutinous rice wine slid down his throat, and Luban let out a long, satisfied sigh.
"Eric, my boy, I don’t know what’s stored in that head of yours. At first, I thought you were the messenger of the God of the Forge, then I thought you were more like the messenger of the God of Agriculture. You know how to do everything, and even the wine you brew is exceptionally delicious."
Who told him to come from an era of information explosion? He just chuckled, replying without a blush or a flutter of his heart:
"It’s natural talent. What can I say!"
Luban was left speechless.
The autumn sun was harsh. Eric estimated the time and saw that the paper was completely dry. He led Luban over to the bamboo screens.
"This is my new creation, take a look!"
On the somewhat clumsily made bamboo screen, the layer of liquid had dried into a sheet of yellowish paper, looking a bit like the joss paper people burn for the deceased.
Luban carefully lifted it, gently stroking its rough surface with his hand.
Seeing him examine it for so long, Eric was about to explain its use when Luban suddenly shot his head up, startling him.
"This... this... can this be used for writing? No wonder you asked me about goatskin this morning!"
Luban’s face, already dark and swarthy from years of working the forge, now turned as red as a pig’s liver from his excitement.
Without waiting for Eric’s reply, he carefully folded the sheet of paper, tucked it into his shirt, and took off at a run towards the Dwarfs’ tent area.
Eric froze for five seconds, his hand still outstretched in mid-air, his face as dumbfounded as a statue. He was used to the Dwarfs’ strange reactions to new things, so he just shrugged and picked up a sheet of paper to crumple it himself.
The paper tore with a little force. After being crumpled and opened, it was wrinkled and even had holes in some places.
This quality... it was probably worse than dried banana leaves for wiping.
It seemed there was still much room for improvement.