After Luci finished her bun and saw Thomas offer her another half, she didn't refuse it. She took it and said to Eric, "I've never seen anyone who could turn wheat into such a beautiful and delicious food. If the Ox-Head tribe knew how to make this, I think many beastmen would follow them in growing wheat."
Eric could only offer an embarrassed smile. He wasn't that great; he was just someone who brought knowledge from another world here.
Sitting nearby, Max said nothing, but his gaze towards Eric held a new depth. He had vaguely guessed this young man's purpose.
Seeing that everyone had more or less finished eating, Thomas stood up before the tribe members could disperse. He coughed twice, successfully capturing everyone's attention.
"The food Eric just shared with everyone, he made it using wheat."
What? That dry, hard-to-swallow wheat grain, the kind that gets stuck in your throat? The entire Snow Wolf crowd was astonished, feeling it had absolutely no relation to the soft, white bun they had just eaten!
Thomas was very satisfied with everyone's reaction. He continued, "And the tofu you've all been eating for the past two days was also made by Eric from beans. Making wheat into buns results in some loss, but making beans into tofu yields a product three to four times greater in quantity!"
The surrounding people were once again stunned, and they began to whisper amongst themselves.
"I can't believe beans can make so much tofu." A warrior said in a low voice, "I got a few delicious, soft pieces yesterday, but it was too little. My mother and I just had a taste and it was all gone."
"I heard Sam mention it, but I thought he was bragging..." another warrior replied.
Hearing this, Sam said smugly, "See, I told you guys! All the beans I asked you for, I gave them all to Eric. The tofu he made was much more than the amount of beans I brought him!"
After letting the tribe members talk for a while, Thomas raised his hand, signaling for silence. He said seriously, "Historically, we Snow Wolf people have relied on hunting to fill our stomachs. But when winter comes or we encounter natural disasters, we have no prey. The skins and fur of the demonic beasts we hunt must be used to trade for crude salt with the humans, and every autumn we have to stock up a large amount to exchange for food from the Ox-Head tribe to get through the winter."
Thomas's gaze swept across the crowd.
"The Ox-Head tribe can sustain themselves through farming, and they even have a lot of surplus food to trade with us. So why don't we grow it ourselves? That way, we won't go hungry even in winter, and our tribe will become wealthier."
At his words, the surrounding tribe members fell unusually silent.
Eric couldn't help but feel a little worried.
First, this farming policy would not be easy to implement because the Snow Wolf people were accustomed to hunting, and a sudden change might be difficult to adapt to.
Second, they had previously viewed the Ox-Head tribe's food as merely something to stave off hunger during winter; few thought of eating it because it was too hard to swallow.
Now, this issue had been shattered by Eric's own dishes.
Sam was the one to break the silence. "The Ox-Head tribe eats even more than we do, and they can still support themselves by farming. We probably can too."
The warrior Tang added, "If every dish is as delicious as today's buns and tofu, then farming is fine."
"If all the grain is made into this kind of bun, I'm definitely willing to eat it," Kevin chimed in.
"But I only know how to hunt. The Ox-Head tribe has been farming for so many years, we don't know anything," a tribe member raised his concern.
Thomas had already discussed this with Max yesterday. He smiled and said, "We will hunt more, stocking up enough dried meat and pelts. In the winter, I will lead some tribe members to learn farming methods from the Ox-Head tribe."
To completely dispel everyone's doubts, he continued, "We will select some people from the gathering team and the warriors to be in charge of farming. The rest will continue as before, responsible for gathering, patrolling, and hunting."
This time, no one had any more objections.
Carrying Leo home, Eric happily lifted the little one and spun him around a few times. The first step had succeeded with unexpected ease, largely thanks to the simple nature of the Snow Wolf people.
He took out the crystal that Michael had just stuffed into his hand.
Held under the sunlight, it refracted seven-colored rays just like a large diamond, incredibly beautiful. This was the magic core from inside a demonic beast. It was said that only demonic beasts about to advance to the second tier or higher possessed them.
High-level magic cores were things one could only stumble upon by chance, not seek out. They were highly sought after by humans to inlay in weapons or to power magical arrays. Michael knew the pups in the tribe liked shiny stones, so he had specially found this for Eric.
Eric truly liked it. He fiddled with it in his hands, reluctant to put it down, before carefully storing it away.
He looked at the row of large fish on his wall and started to worry, not to mention the mountain of demonic beast meat in front of his house.
If left out in this early autumn weather, the meat would surely spoil, and he didn't have much crude salt for curing. After thinking it over, he decided to put extracting crude salt on his to-do list.
Eric attached a wooden handle to a fish scale, making a temporary scaling knife, which was much more convenient than using his claws. He filleted most of the meat, sliced it into strips, and hung it to dry.
He remembered watching a video that taught how to render fat and then store meat in pottery jars to preserve it for longer, but he didn't plan on doing that.
First, he didn't have many pottery jars, and second, he didn't like overly greasy food. However, he planned to teach this method to the tribe later, as not everyone preferred a light diet like him.
Day after day, if he wasn't busy eating, he was on his way to cook, or gathering ingredients. The life of a primitive tribe was just that simple and unadorned.
As for the remaining bones and large fish, Eric realized he and Leo couldn't finish it all. He decided it would be better to invite everyone over for a gathering tonight, as a way to repay their trust and help.
Eric went to Luci's house to borrow two large pottery jars, and while there, he told them to come over for dinner after they finished their work.
When he got home, he painstakingly broke the large bones and put them in a pottery jar to simmer into a broth.
He had used up all the wild onions at home. He let the bone broth simmer on a low fire, mixed the remaining flour with some old starter to form a dough, and left it to rise. Then, he took Leo and went out to gather.