After the meal, Eric repeated once more to Thomas that one catty of soybeans could produce two to three catties of tofu.
After hearing this, Thomas's expression grew even more cautious.
"Yesterday, when Max returned, he told me that you want the tribe to start farming. He also told me that ten catties of wheat can yield a thousand catties." Thomas got down to business, his expression extremely serious.
Eric nodded and added, "If we grow the soybeans ourselves, ten catties of soybeans can yield about five hundred catties."
Of course, he was speaking of high yields; when painting a future for others, one naturally had to aim high.
Thomas and Luci looked at each other, both seeing the gravity in the other's eyes. It had to be said, the yields Eric spoke of were indeed very tempting, but at the same time, they had their own worries.
Not to mention Eric was just a beast cub and whether what he said was reliable; even if these things were true, farming would require a significant investment of manpower.
Their Snow Wolf tribe sent out warriors to patrol and hunt daily. Besides providing food for the tribe, they also had to prepare food for the winter. And on this continent, their Snow Wolf tribe was not invincible. Warriors were often injured during hunts, and when faced with natural disasters, they frequently went without food.
This made Thomas extremely hesitant. He was tempted by the benefits that farming could bring, yet he was also afraid that farming would lead to insufficient manpower for hunting, and when winter arrived, their food supply would be even worse than in previous years.
After all, they weren't like the Ox-Head tribe, which had always subsisted on farming. If they messed it up, wouldn't it all be for nothing?
Eric guessed the other's worries from his expression and voiced his own thoughts:
"Thomas Uncel, the Ox-Head tribe has always had a good reputation on this continent. They never hesitate to help any tribe in difficulty. We can absolutely go and ask for their guidance. I think they will certainly be happy to see us learning to farm like them."
Although the members of the Ox-Head tribe were all large, their personalities were gentle. Even the human merchant caravans that entered the Fantasy Dream Continent to trade with the various races chose the Ox-Head tribe and the Elf tribe as their top choices.
The Ox-Head tribe was gentle and wouldn't seize their goods, while the Elves were arrogant and considered themselves civilized, disdaining to lay a hand on them.
Thomas made up his mind, patting Eric's shoulder and saying, "It's autumn now. We need to store enough food for the tribe to get through the winter, as well as firewood and animal hides for warmth. When winter comes, we will go to the Ox-Head tribe's settlement together to learn how to farm, and at the same time, trade for some seeds with them."
In that case, the amount of prey the tribe needed would only increase, multiplying the pressure. Thomas looked at Max; fortunately, he had a son who possessed immense strength. His own son could even single-handedly kill a fifth-tier magic beast!
A great weight was lifted from Eric's heart. He said happily, "I can teach them how to make tofu. They will definitely be very willing to teach us how to farm."
Luci sighed with emotion, "Eric has grown up, he's sensible now."
In the past, when she cared for Eric, she had always been disappointed by his despondent attitude. His parents were the strongest warriors in the tribe; as their son, Eric shouldn't have been so weak.
Now, seeing Eric become more open and having his own ideas, she was happy for them.
...
The magic beast's entrails left at the doorway reeked. The larger the size, the stronger the stench. It was no wonder the Snow Wolf people didn't eat it at all.
Eric thought he had to use it up quickly before it stank up the place. He gathered a lot of vines to prepare for making a fishing net.
Functionally, fishing nets are divided into gillnets, trawls, purse seines, beach seines, and cast nets, etc...
A trawl net, also known as a dragnet, is suitable for areas with a relatively flat seabed and a coast consisting mainly of sandy beaches. Flat areas along the riverbank could probably be used as well.
He recalled as he wove. Previously, he had loved to tease streamers who filmed wilderness survival videos. He watched these things to better immerse himself in his favorite farming novels.
He never expected it would all be useful now. If he could one day return to the modern world, he would definitely send a lot of gifts to these people to express his gratitude.
At first, he didn't even know how to start, wasting quite a few vines. Finally, as he wove, he figured out some tricks and slowly continued.
Originally, he hadn't wanted to go through so much trouble and had planned to just make a fishing rod.
But then he thought about the size of the magic beasts in this world. The fish probably wouldn't be any smaller. He didn't know how deep the river was; it surely concealed many large fish. He didn't want to get dragged down as well.
As he neared the end of the weaving, he was too lazy to undo the mistakes in the fishing net and just patched them up. An ugly fishing net was finally completed.
With no plastic to make floats, he tied some wood to the top as a temporary substitute. He then tied on some rocks to act as sinkers, and it was done.
He eagerly led Leo, carrying the fishing net and the magic beast's entrails, to the riverbank. Suddenly, he remembered that he didn't know how to swim, and froze.
Was there anyone in the tribe who could swim? Eric wondered. With his strength, casting the net wouldn't be a problem at all, but retrieving it would require being in the river to slowly gather it from both sides.
Michael and the others were probably continuing their training now; he felt a bit embarrassed to go and bother them.
The tribe's beast cubs were still playing by the riverbank. Among them was a little girl who had helped Eric make adobe bricks in the morning.
Eric remembered the little girl; she was a petite and cute female beastman. The reason he had such a deep impression was that when making the adobe bricks, she felt it would be easier with two hands and had transformed into her human form.
The problem was, the beast cubs in the Snow Wolf tribe were too lazy to bring animal hides with them when they went out, so the little girl had sat there completely naked.
Sinful, so sinful. The beastmen were still quite primitive now. For adult male and female beastmen to not suddenly transform in front of each other was already considered very polite. The beast cubs, for the sake of convenience, didn't care about these things.
Flower looked up with her big, round eyes and asked in a childish voice, "Big brother, do you want to play with mud again? Can I help you like I did this morning?"
The little girl was more than ten years younger than Leo.
Eric chuckled. He squatted down and patted the little snow wolf's head, "I want to catch fish in the river, but I don't know how to swim."
Once, while playing with her friends, Flower had caught a fish that leaped up. When she held it in her mouth, she accidentally bit it open, and she still vividly remembered the unpleasant, fishy stench.
"Fish tastes awful! Don't catch them, big brother. I've eaten it before, it stinks!" the little girl said, sticking out her tongue.
Eric coaxed her, "I'll make the fish delicious. When I catch some, I'll let you have a taste."