Chapter 41: Plans for the New Stage

Guided by Dashi, their first destination was, naturally, the vicinity of the lake.

By this time, members of their tribe were already out on rafts, casting nets across the surface of the water to catch fish.

They were currently walking along the lakeshore.

"As the only water source nearby, don't animals usually come here to drink?"

"They used to."

At this, a wry smile appeared on Dashi's face.

"But after the former chieftain set his sights on them and failed several times, those animals seemed to realize that this place wasn't safe anymore."

"Plus, our people are out here fishing on the water almost all day, so the animals don't dare to approach easily."

"After a while, fewer and fewer animals came here. Even if they do come to drink, they wait until after dark. We can still find some tracks around here from time to time."

Dashi's explanation made the situation quite clear.

In this era, night was still fraught with danger for them, and generally speaking, they would not carry out any activities after dark.

"So right now, are you completely reliant on fishing for food, or are you trying to hunt other animals on the grassland?"

"Right now, we rely entirely on fishing for food."

Zhou Xu was not at all surprised by this answer. After all, yesterday's meals had consisted of nothing other than fish.

As Zhou Xu was thinking this, Dashi elaborated further on the situation.

"The animals on the grassland run too fast and react too quickly; we simply can't catch them."

"Didn't your former chieftain ever think about making traps?"

Traps—Dashi had heard this word from the former chieftain, so he was not entirely unfamiliar with it.

"We tried, but they all failed."

In this era, hunting relied either on bows and arrows or on traps.

Bows and arrows went without saying; however, crafting them in this era was extremely difficult and bound to be a project consuming a significant amount of time and energy.

Given their limited manpower at present, the tribal members were still working themselves to the bone just to secure a daily bite to eat.

Under such conditions, it was difficult for them to spare the time, energy, and hands to research this.

What was even more headaches-inducing was that even if you somehow managed to research bows and arrows, could the accuracy, range, and lethality of those weapons be guaranteed?

In all likelihood, no.

Therefore, considering the actual circumstances at hand, Zhou Xu believed that the bow and arrow project was something they could only pursue once they had sufficient surplus capacity.

As for traps, they could generally be divided into two kinds: one was like the ones Zhou Xu used, requiring a certain degree of craftsmanship, such as basket-cage traps or snare traps. Without some skill, pulling them off was quite difficult.

The other kind was pitfall traps, which required a massive amount of physical labor.

However, for a small tribe of just over thirty people like theirs, pitfall traps were actually not easy to make.

For a pitfall trap to be effective, it had to be large and deep, which meant consuming a lot of labor.

Yet, one must not forget that tribes like theirs were mostly starved of manpower. Keeping a tribe running smoothly and ensuring everyone stayed alive day by day required a steady commitment of labor just for maintenance, leaving virtually no surplus capacity for anything else.

Dashi's former chieftain clearly lacked the craftsmanship to make basket traps or the technology for snare traps, let alone pitfall traps.

After a few simple attempts, he acutely realized all these problems and subsequently shifted his focus to the freshwater lake near their camp.

Truth be told, that fellow should count himself lucky that there was a freshwater lake rich in fish resources near the camp; otherwise, from Zhou Xu's perspective, that guy was destined to starve to death.

The existence of this freshwater lake solved the initial food problem to a great extent, practically setting the game to "Easy Mode" for him.

Yet, instead of leveraging this advantage to develop things like bows and arrows, he had chosen to fight over resources and expand his territory.

What happened afterward hardly needed mentioning.

Currently, the primary tasks of the gathering squad at Black Moon Camp were collecting stones, twigs, and grass, or cutting down trees to obtain timber—those heavy door-like wooden shields were made from this very lumber.

During this process, Zhou Xu scanned every area they passed through using the "Eye of Insight."

Although the stamina consumed by frequently activating the True Word's power yesterday had not yet fully recovered, as long as he avoided high-intensity, continuous use, it would be fine.

Zhou Xu had to admit that he had truly grown accustomed to this; when it came to exploration work, the "Eye of Insight" was simply overwhelmingly useful.

Under the observation of the "Eye of Insight," he quickly caught sight of an agile figure darting through the grass.

Whether the creature had also sensed their presence was unclear, but it shot through the grass with a swish and dived straight into an underground burrow.

"It's a wild rabbit!"

The long ears instantly confirmed its identity to Zhou Xu.

With this thought in mind, Zhou Xu led the group in a brisk walk over to the rabbit hole.

The burrow was quite deep; reaching in with a bare arm was not enough to touch the bottom, not to mention that the entrance might connect to other exits, essentially ruling out the method of blindly reaching in to grab it.

Yet, Zhou Xu didn't care in the least.

Because from the very beginning, he hadn't planned on grabbing it by hand; instead, he was thinking about how to set traps to capture these wild rabbits!

Regardless, the presence of wild rabbits in this area was wonderful news. Without a doubt, they would become a new addition to their menu.

Looking even further ahead, they could even consider breeding wild rabbits to secure a more stable supply of rabbit meat in the future!

At this moment, plans and schemes were clicking into place inside Zhou Xu's mind.

As things stood now, this grassland was truly a treasure trove for him!

Next, they made a detour to the place where they had previously discovered the True Word characters, searching the surrounding area once more.

After confirming that there were indeed no "slipped through the net" items left, Zhou Xu returned to the camp with a trace of lingering regret.

By the time they reached the camp, it was already afternoon, and before long, dusk would approach.

At this very hour, Butterfly and the others from the Salt Lake Tribe, escorted by a contingent of tribal warriors, had successfully arrived at Black Moon Camp!

Needless to say, this was in accordance with the orders Zhou Xu had dispatched to the Salt Lake Camp that very morning before setting out.

With Butterfly and the others successfully relocated, and having smoothly secured Black Moon Camp, the next phase of planning could officially begin!