So the task naturally fell to them, and the people in the tribe were very united, and they were happy to help Susu and Dante after they finished their own work.

Apart from women, the elderly, and children, all the men in the tribe have found the animal that belongs to them and have begun to train it every day, either in their own way or according to the advice of others.

The animals that everyone practiced were all kinds of things, including not only wild beasts but also some insects.

For example, those who train mantises always have more than ten kilograms of weight on their arms, while those who train fleas focus on the extreme training of their leg muscles.

What's most striking about this is the training method that Su Su and I used.

Especially over there with Susu, a group of people were throwing potatoes at one of the people. The leader initially thought there was some kind of conflict or fight going on.

After learning that it was during training, the leader wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought to himself, "These young people these days really know how to have fun; even their training is so bizarre."

However, the leader did not stop them. No matter how bizarre everyone's methods were, the leader considered them all normal.

This was also what the great god Aseda told him: if you want to unleash everyone's potential, don't restrict them, let them seek development on their own. This has a bit of a natural and profound feel to it.

My progress, like Su Su's, slowed down considerably. For those of us who have almost pushed our bodies to their limits, the effort required to improve further is immense.

Every time I try to add more weight, my limbs become less flexible. After a while, my body is covered in red and swollen areas, all thanks to those stinging caterpillars.

Su Su and her group were in an even more precarious situation. Their eyes were practically popping out of their sockets as five or six people randomly threw potatoes at them. Their reaction speed had reached an incredible, almost superhuman level.

However, we all believed in our own hearts that we would succeed. Su Su and the others did not give up, and I would not give up either.

As a master, if I don't produce something truly valuable, how can I protect my apprentices in the future?

However, we all realize that there's no time to rush things now; we can only let time slowly refine and fully integrate these skills.

…………

Today, everyone went out to search for supplies in their assigned small teams, and I was one of them.

Our team still consists of seven people, but coincidentally, our leader is also in our team today.

Our task today is still to go hunting, but unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating and it's starting to drizzle.

The road was muddy all the way. On rainy days like this, larger animals would usually seek shelter in caves and wouldn't be out foraging for food.

The roadside weeds are always covered with dew, and when people pass by, a shower of water droplets will fall on them, making the wet feeling very uncomfortable.

What's worse is that most of these weeds have leeches on the back of their leaves, and they are especially active on rainy days.

Fortunately, the leader had prepared plants to deal with these leeches in advance, and I recognized them.

The tobacco leaves used to make tobacco contain alkaloids and nicotine, among other irritants, posing a significant threat to leeches and other mollusks.

Experiments have shown that nicotine can even kill leeches directly.

As long as we kept wiping ourselves with tobacco leaves along the way, those leeches didn't dare to get close.

However, there are never just one type of vampire in the jungle, and the mosquitoes are a bit of a headache.

They completely disregard the smell of tobacco leaves and will not stop until they have ripped off anyone who passes by.

In the end, we only managed to hunt a few unidentified wild birds under the tree to report back, but we did have some other gains.

I found at least a lot of yellowish-brown weathered ore under one rock wall; the ore here is some good pyrite.

These ores can not only be refined into the iron we need, but the sulfur dioxide gas, a byproduct of the smelting process, can also be collected to produce sulfuric acid, which is known as the mother of industry.

Sulfuric acid is an essential raw material for producing nitric acid. As long as I have nitric acid, I can replenish my shotgun rations. This stuff is extremely lethal and is very useful for dealing with large numbers of attacking enemies.

In the time that followed, besides cultivating, I was responsible for smelting iron in the kiln. With this iron, our chances of defeating Haru would increase.

There's been a lot going on lately. Yesterday, the leader approached me and said he wanted to strengthen the defenses around his residence, asking if I had any good suggestions.

I've thought about this problem before. I once considered making some mechanisms for defense, just like I did back in my hometown.

But then I thought about it again. Even the Sand Beast could find the weaknesses in those traps and destroy them. Could these traps really stop the even smarter Haru?

Based on past experience, I won't do anything that's a waste of resources and manpower. It's more practical to build the repeating crossbow than to undertake a large-scale project involving mechanisms.

In a sense, the repeating crossbow is also a type of mechanism, belonging to the category of mechanisms that can be actively triggered, just like the rope-pulling arrow mechanisms I set up on the trees before.

It's simply a matter of scaling down the mechanism to a point where people can freely control its direction.

Such a mechanism, which can be actively controlled, is more mobile and intelligent, and it is very difficult for the enemy to disrupt its launch mechanism.

I shared my thoughts with the leader, and he agreed that what I said made sense. There's still a problem with setting up these mechanisms: they can't distinguish between friend and foe.

It's fine for adults, but there are many mischievous children in the tribe. It's difficult for adults to keep a close eye on them while they're busy, which is where the drawbacks of these traps and mechanisms become apparent.

Threatening mechanisms don't need to be deployed, but some basic early warning mechanisms, such as signal arrows, should still be set up within a few miles of the tribe in order to prepare for a response in advance.

The iron-producing efficiency of pyrite is much higher than before, thanks to the assembly-line smelting process in the tribe.

In just a few days, I obtained roughly 100 pounds of iron blocks and granules.

Since I could not continue to neglect my cultivation, my leader also took me under his wing as his second apprentice. He mainly learned how to forge hundred-refined steel.

This steel is very important to us. Whether it's for making everyday tools or for the mechanical parts in crossbows, we need high-quality steel to support it.

Then I first made a hammer, and then used the hammer to make kukri knives and triangular spearheads.

Since we're going to have a fierce battle, our henchmen's equipment can't be inferior to theirs. We must bring in deadly weapons like kukri knives and triangular daggers.