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Wen Ze asked in surprise, “Collapsed, it collapsed!?”
How did it collapse? Where would they live now?
Yin He brought back some water. The cave was dark, and at first glance, it looked like he was holding a clay bowl.
But when he took it, he found that it was rough, earth-colored pottery.
Yin He continued Zhuo Mu’s sentence, “It’s been raining a lot lately, and our cave has collapsed.”
Wen Ze was so nervous he felt like his throat was burning. He drank a sip of cool water and asked anxiously, “Did you get hurt?”
“No, I wasn’t in the cave at that time,” he said proudly. “Later, I went over and brought out everything that we can still use.”
“That’s good. Where did you put the things?”
Yin He stretched out his hand, then several broken wooden bowls, two wooden spoons, two pieces of cured meat, and a broken stone slab suddenly appeared on the open space in front of him.
“Here,” he said.
Wen Ze then remembered that beastmen had space.
When they were born, their space was about half a cubic meter, and as they grew stronger, the space would also increase.
However, this increase is very limited, and the space for an adult half-beastman is only about one cubic meter.
For beastmen, the space ranges from a few cubic meters to more than ten cubic meters.
Someone like Zhuo Mu, who is extremely powerful and was chosen as a tribal warrior at a young age, could have about twenty cubic meters.
There is no air circulation in the space, so no living things can be placed in it. And because of its small size, people basically put the most important supplies in it.
Beastmen’s clothes are also placed in the space so that they can be worn directly when they changed into their human form.
The connection to the space is mysterious; for instance, with a single thought, Wen Ze can ‘see’ what’s in his space.
Hemp rope, bone knives, stone shovels, and other tools that were essential for his survival.
There are also animal skins, animal oils, herbs, and other valuable living supplies.
Apart from these, there was a deep red pottery jar, a matching cauldron, and a pile of broken pottery pieces.
The pottery shows few signs of use, suggesting that the previous owner valued them highly.
After all, pottery-making techniques in this era were limited, leading to a low rate of finished products.
These two pieces of pottery were exchanged with another tribe that was good at pottery, and it took quite a bit of supplies.
Pottery is fragile and can crack under high temperatures, so if a piece is lost or broken, it can’t be replaced.
That’s why the original owner treated these two pieces of pottery like family treasures.
As for the bowl in his hand, it was something made from their homemade kiln. Not only was it not beautiful, but it was also not durable. The advantage, however, was that it was easy to make. It was good enough for holding water or storing some things for a short period of time.
The combined supplies of Wen Ze and Yin He could be described as “poverty-stricken.”
Wen Ze felt helpless; his parents also died early but they left him a pension, so from childhood to adulthood, he had never experienced the feeling of “having cleaner pockets than face.”
But after feeling helpless, he ended up with a subtle sense of hope. “As long as I’m alive, that’s good enough.”
After taking another sip of clean and unpolluted spring water, Wen Ze’s voice became much clearer.
“In this season, we can gather a lot of food in the wild, so we don’t have to worry about starving to death for now. The most important question is where we’re going to live next?”
“If the weather is good, we can stay out in the wild for a while until the new house… the new cave is ready, and then we can move in. The problem is, this rain won’t stop anytime soon, right?”
At first, Wen Ze was discussing with Yin He, but as the conversation went on, he looked over at Zhuo Mu.
Zhuo Mu, with his silver hair and red eyes, was sitting on a nearby green stone. His broad shoulders and narrow waist gave him an upright posture, with smooth, graceful lines.
His two muscular legs, even when bent, were still long and looked really powerful.
He then interrupted their conversation. “It’ll rain for another half month.”
After Wen Ze became a half-beastman, he also had some sense of the weather, but not as accurately as him.
On rainy days, even gathering and hunting would be affected, let alone building a house.
“I wonder if there are any vacant caves in the tribe where we could stay for a while. Yin He, let’s go ask the tribe leader later.”
Yin He looked to him as the pillar of support and nodded repeatedly, “Okay.”
But Zhuo Mu on the other side said, “Your injury has not healed yet, so you can’t go out. Ask Yin He to invite the tribe leader over later.”
He was tall, imposing, and had a cold, authoritative presence. His beast form also left psychological trauma on Wen Ze, so he didn’t dare to disobey him.
“Okay… then what should we do now?” Wen Ze asked.
Zhuo Mu replied briefly, “Yin He, go start a fire and boil water in the stone pot.”
He then looked at Wen Ze, “Come with me.”
Wen Ze didn’t understand what was going on, but he immediately stood up.
As he walked behind Zhuo Mu, he realized the beastman was half a head taller than him.
He estimated that he must be at least 1.80 meters tall now, so Zhuo Mu must be over 1.95 meters tall?
But considering his beast form was over fifty meters long, a height of 1.95 meters seemed quite reasonable.
While thinking, the two men climbed out of the cave.
In the southern part of the mountain, most of the beastmen were bear beastmen, and their caves were dug into the middle of the mountain.
Zhuo Mu, who preferred solitude, lived at the foot of the mountain, far from the other caves.
His cave was dug downwards and had two floors, and he lived on the second floor underground.
Because the cave’s entrance was high, water hadn’t flowed in yet, though it was quite damp.
On the sheltered side of the cave, four wooden posts were deeply embedded in the soil, and their tops were tied together with hemp ropes to form a simple shelter. It had no walls, and thick dry grass covered the top to shield from rain.
Inside the straw shelter, there were several stones of different sizes, all with flat surfaces.
On the larger stones, there were a pottery jar, a wooden pestle, and some unknown herbs.
Wen Ze immediately understood; Zhuo Mu was going to change his bandages.
He obediently chose a smaller stone to sit on, watching as Zhuo Mu, with a calm expression, meticulously washed his hands, ground the medicine, cleaned the wound on his head, and then applied the fresh herbs.
The taste of the medicine is a bit spicy, and it feels cool when applied to the forehead.
However, compared to these, what bothered Wen Ze the most was the scent on Zhuo Mu.
It wasn’t an unpleasant smell, but if you paid close attention, it was a sharp pine scent. It was so cold that it felt like a punch to his nose, and his soul felt like it was shaking.
Wen Ze received the original owner’s memories and understood that this is the “pheromone” of the beastmen, which is different for each person. It plays an important role in marking territory and hunting.
The stronger the beastman, the more intense the impact of their scent.
He suddenly realized: no wonder his nose hurt so much when he first woke up. The whole cave was filled with Zhuo Mu’s scent, and he hadn’t yet adjusted to this body. How could it not hurt?
“Done.” After changing the medicine, Zhuo Mu glanced at him and then turned to the stone stove to get busy, with Yin He helping him.
Wen Ze stood up. “Can I help too?”
Zhuo Mu said, “Don’t move.”
Yin He said, “I’ll do it, brother!”
They both said it at the same time.
Wen Ze quietly sat back down, looking at himself with nothing to do.
He was now a tall young man with tan skin and four faint abdominal muscles.
The weather was hot, so he was shirtless as well, wearing a brown fur skirt that reached mid-thigh. Because it was not breathable, he sweated a lot.
After a moment… hmm, yeah, it’s bare.
Wen Ze’s expression was a little hard to describe.
After waiting for a long time, Zhuo Mu came over with a wooden bowl.
He handed him the bowl and spoon: “Eat.”
Wen Ze took it and looked… The grayish-white root was sticky from the heat, mixed with the yellowed vegetable leaves. He stirred it with a spoon, and a few small pieces of beast meat surfaced, bringing a strong, pungent smell.
If it were his previous body, he would have probably vomited from the smell.
He’s an agriculture student and gets along well with a few seniors from the animal breeding program. So he have the chance to visit their pig breeding facility.
To be honest, this doesn’t look as good as modern pig food… and it doesn’t smell as good as pig food with feed added.
While he stayed silent, Zhuo Mu said, “You can’t eat too much meat for now.”
Wen Ze looked up. “I understand, thank you.”
With the level of development in the beast world, it was good enough to have something to eat. It wasn’t that he disliked it; it was just that the contrast was too big.
He held the bowl with one hand and scooped some of the porridge into his mouth.
Salty, astringent, bitter… it really wasn’t tasty, but he managed to eat it without frowning.
Food was hard to come by, so he didn’t want to waste it, so he slowly put it into his mouth.
Zhuo Mu left and brought more food to Yin He, with more meat and fewer roots.
Yin He brought the bowl over and ate with him. It was the time when he was growing, and the young beast was already hungry, so he ate eagerly and enjoyed the meal.
Wen Ze watched him swallow a mouthful of meat without hesitation, and said with bright eyes: “It’s the meat of a mountain beast! Brother, we haven’t eaten a mountain beast for a long time!”
He looked at the strong man in the distance with envy. “The mountain rock beast is good at climbing on the rock wall, and its two horns are sharp. It’s not easy to fight it, but it is definitely not difficult for Brother Zhuo Mu! Look, he got the tenderest part of the rock beast!”
Mountain rock beasts looked similar to the modern blue sheep and had similar habits, but it was much larger and more aggressive.
Beastmen who weren’t good climbers would need to deal with mountain rock beasts carefully.
Thinking of Zhuo Mu’s beast form… he probably wouldn’t even break a sweat against a whole group of mountain rock beasts.
The South Mountain Tribe’s has a rule that all the game hunted by the group must be given to the tribe, and it will be distributed in a way that rewards those who contribute more.
The fact that Zhuo Mu was able to get the best meat also reflected his excellent hunting skill.
Not only that…
“Did he cook with a stone pot?” Wen Ze asked.
Yin He nodded, and admired him even more. “Yes! That stone pot is the reward given to Brother Zhuo Mu by the tribe when he became a warrior at the age of 18!”
Although it was an ancient beast world, Wen Ze still felt the societal disparity.
It was difficult to forge metal in this era, and in the absence of tools, it was naturally difficult to make a stone pot.
While the original owner considered the two pottery items as family treasures, the warriors already had access to stone pots.
Of course, the gap between him and Zhuo Mu is also ridiculously large.
Zhuo Mu became a warrior at eighteen, while he was still depending on others for meals at the same age.
If he remembered correctly, Zhuo Mu was only twenty this year, right?
As Wen Ze ate the roots, he chewed and made a decision: he would work hard to improve his life! At the very least, he’d cook something tasty!
In the beast world, people were strong and had large appetites.
He was one of the weaker half-beastmen in the tribe, but he had to eat more than ten kilograms of food a day, and Zhuo Mu had to eat dozens of kilograms.
When you think about it this way, the pressure is really great.
Wen Ze was the last one to finish eating, and Yin He volunteered to wash the dishes.
The evening sky was tinged with crimson as it got darker. Before they could go find the tribe leader, the leader’s son, Wu Ye, came to find him.
He was a beastman with the form of a grizzly bear. In his human form, he’s tall and strong, with gray hair, slightly thick lips, and a ruggedly handsome look. He wears a grass-woven skirt around his waist, with his bronzed chest exposed.
Wu Ye and Zhuo Mu were of the same generation. He greeted Zhuo Mu first, then walked up to Wen Ze and asked about his situation.
“I’m recovering well,” Wen Ze said, giving a thoughtful glance at Wu Ye’s grass skirt. “It’s just that our cave collapsed. I want to ask if there is any cave in the tribe that we can borrow to stay in temporarily.”
Wu Ye replied, “That’s exactly why I’m here.”
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