Chapter 125, A Far-Fetched Reason
by SilavinTranslator: Silavin
“By the way, Shaman, where will we be fishing?” Cang Shi asked, puzzled. He recalled that they used to catch fish by the river in the Ancestral Land.
“At the lake not far from the Tribe.” Su Bai calmly said.
“Shaman, but there are Stone Armoured Crocodiles there. We can’t fish there.” Cang Shi worriedly stated.
Su Bai raised an eyebrow and asked in return, “Of course not with the Stone Armoured Crocodiles around. Have you forgotten about that small cliff?”
“Oh! Right! We can fish from that cliff.” Cang Shi suddenly realised and continued, “But in that case, the fishing line would need to be very long.”
“That’s exactly why we can’t use the Long Silver Snake tendons and need to find alternatives,” Su Bai nodded.
“Shaman, these fishhooks look very small. I’m afraid they can’t be used for fishing.” Cang Shi said with a serious face, “Because we don’t know what’s in the lake, if we use these small hooks and encounter a powerful Ferocious Beast, I fear our people might be dragged into the lake.”
The Hunting Team Leader was quite cautious. After all, having hunted outside for years, he had seen many types of Ferocious Beasts and knew of their ferocity and oddities.
“I’ve considered this, which is why I wanted to ask you what’s in the lake.” Su Bai asked.
Using small fishhooks in a lake with Stone Armoured Crocodiles was indeed dangerous. If a Ferocious Beast took the bait, they could lose the hook at best. At worst, both the person and hook would fall into the lake.
“We don’t know exactly what’s in the lake. All we know is that Stone Armoured Crocodiles are often by the shore.” Cang Shi shook his head.
Every time they went to fetch water, they were extremely cautious. The Stone Armoured Crocodiles alone were enough to worry about, let alone looking for other creatures in the lake.
“Let’s leave this matter here for now. Go and see if you can find plant vines that can substitute for Long Silver Snake tendons. We’ll discuss further after you find them.” Su Bai stated.
“Yes.” Cang Shi nodded.
“Chieftain, how is the training of the Archery Team going?” Su Bai asked.
“Shaman, when the Archery Team first started training, it wasn’t going well. Almost none of them could hit the wooden stakes,” Yan Jiao paused, then continued, “But after these few days, there have been remarkable results. Most of them can now hit the stakes.”
“Very good. Let them be more dedicated to this skill. If their performance is good for that day, give each of them an extra portion of meat.” Su Bai knew the principle of ‘great rewards produce brave men’.
Moreover, in this primitive era where everyone was hungry and only cared about meat, using meat as a reward was enough to motivate almost anyone.
“Alright, they will definitely practise harder.” Yan Jiao nodded firmly.
The Chieftain also understood this principle. The young adults and Warrior Trainees certainly did not get as much meat as the Totem Warriors every day. Naturally, they were not fully satisfied with their meals. With meat as an incentive, they would naturally practise more diligently.
“Which of the two teams has shown better results?” Su Bai continued to ask.
“The training situation of both teams is about the same, neck and neck.” Yan Jiao reported.
Su Bai thought for a moment and arranged. “How about this, let the two teams have a competition.”
“Competition?” Yan Jiao heard this unfamiliar word for the first time.
“Yes, give both teams the same training time, and let them compete at the end.” Su Bai took a sip of water and continued, “The team with the best results will be rewarded with a day’s worth of meat.”
Yan Jiao widened his red eyes in surprise and said, “Shaman, this is an excellent method, but… but isn’t a day’s worth of meat a bit too much?”
He was still worried that there would not be enough meat in the Tribe to distribute, After all, this was being given to young adults and Warrior Trainees when even Totem Warriors might not have enough to eat.
“It’s alright. We’ve been continuously producing linen recently, So, we can keep exchanging for food with the Spotted Deer Tribe.” Su Bai put down his cup and continued, “Plus, the Hunting Team has been constantly hunting. So, there should be enough food.”
“Yes, then let’s implement the Shaman’s method. With a day’s worth of meat as a reward, they will certainly train seriously. The results will definitely be good.” Yan Jiao nodded.
“This matter is urgent. The Archery Team needs to be trained and formed as soon as possible.” Su Bai said in a solemn tone. [It would not be long before we need to attack the Black Snake Tribe and reclaim the Ancestral Land. We can only quickly form the Archery Team to increase the Flame Dragon Tribe’s combat strength.]
“Urgent?” Yan Jiao silently repeated this phrase in his heart, not really understanding why, but just nodding silently.
“Alright, if there’s nothing else, you can go now.” Su Bai waved his hand.
“Yes.” The Chieftain and Cang Shi responded and left the Teepee.
Su Bai looked at the swaying door flap, stood up, and said, “Xiao Yu, let’s go check on the chilli peppers and lettuce.”
“Okay.” Yu Ying responded without hesitation. She had wanted to check up on them for a long time today but had not found the time.
Su Bai stepped out of the Main Teepee, walking towards the chilli and lettuce fields. A few minutes later, they arrived at the lettuce field. Even before they got close, they could see a patch of tender yellow.
“Shaman, look! They’ve sprouted, they’ve sprouted!” Yu Ying ran over joyfully.
“Yes, just as I said, this place is indeed great for plant growth,” Su Bai said with a slight smile.
This was close to what he had expected. The soil in the primitive era was indeed very suitable for farming. The lettuce seeds had only been sown two days ago, and tender green shoots had already emerged. The chilli seeds were also growing better and better.
The sweet potato slips were the same, branching out more green leaves, looking full of vitality.
“What? Shaman, you predicted this?” Yu Ying asked in surprise.
“Uh… because I have Shaman Technique, I can sense some things more or less,” Su Bai explained awkwardly.
This reason had been used twice today. He silently thought that in the future, he should not speak so directly.
So not only is the author conflating porcelain with regular mud pottery and forgetting he has no way of sealing his fruit juice in an adequate container so it can safely ferment into alcohol without turning into a toxic moldy sludge literally crawling with insects, and has overlooked how both processes, as well as paper manufacturing will all take longer than her has before the floods come, but he’s completely forgotten about the food shortage and his linen industry.
Within the same conversation with the chief about the archery training, he went from rewarding the rate individual IF they happen to perform well for the day to guaranteed rewarding half of them, regardless of their individual contributions, as well as increasing the reward from an extra portion of meat to being awarded double the DAILY ALLOTMENT of meat, just for missing a stationary target less often than the other team. Then when the chieftain reminds the MC about the food shortage and how even the totem warriors didn’t always receive a full daily allotment of meat, he responds with “Trust me bro. It should all work out.” Should? SHOULD?!
Rather than making everyone a set of their own linen armor (look up “linothorax”) for the upcoming battle he decides to waste time fishing instead of hunting those crocodiles into extinction, which should be far easier than any one of his endeavors in technological advancement, particularly if the warriors were all properly equipped with at least ONE spear each instead of a measley long knife. But the “brilliant” MC completely forgets that he could make his fishing line from linen.
Oh, and instead of wasting time creating paper when he has perfectly functional animal hides, making walnut ink when he already possesses everything required to make charcoal ink (which is resilient enough to last 30,000+ years in real life), and making quills (real ones requiring a metal nib to prevent breaking constantly) when he can just sharpen a small pencil-sized stick. He needs no more than this since no one else understands his writing system, he doesn’t understand those with their own system, and he doesn’t have the years it takes to teach literacy to modern children, let alone however long it’d take to teach literal cavemen.
To top it all off, his brilliant strategy to rely on novice archers who are struggling to hit a stationary target in a calm, relaxing setting absolutely would not work. Practicing in a training field does nothing to simulate the metal strain of a combat environment, moving targets are far harder to hit than a stationary target, and that’s without even accounting for the event totem warriors essentially being demigods who can move much faster than a normal person and are far more intimidating when even the weakest are capable of pile driving logs into hard-packed dirt.
Not to mention how the author is generally eating the intelligence of all tribesmen in this story just to elevate the MC. So much of what the native inhabitants of this world don’t know was invented by real life stone age people’s on Earth, and while I know these are different worlds, that’s a lazy excuse just to make the MC APPEAR to be intelligent.