We coated all seven baskets inside and out with resin. Now these baskets look as shiny and glossy as if they've been coated with tung oil, making the other indigenous people very envious.
Dante filled all the baskets with water as I requested, and they needed to stay in the water for an hour.
If the water level doesn't drop after an hour, then the baskets are waterproof and can be used to store salt water.
In the evening, Su Su used the salt I gave her to cook a nice dinner for everyone.
Considering the potential threats on this trip, I used a powerful anesthetic that Dante used to drug his prey before he came.
I still had some empty poisonous blowguns on my body, so I just used them all to absorb the liquid made from this unknown fruit.
Then I replaced the tail fin with a larger one like the one on a blowgun. I plan to use this with a more accurate blowgun, so that at least one arrow will be enough to safely harvest large animals.
...
Today, the sky remains overcast, and the dewdrops on the leaves sparkle. Fortunately, it hasn't rained yet, otherwise the ground would be even more slippery.
We shouldered our belongings and trudged towards the area we had been in before.
This time, all I brought were my weapons and a metal pot; I can't forget my tools of the trade.
The rest of the tribesmen seemed much more relaxed than I was; they had nothing more than a spear and a bow and arrow.
Seeing that I was carrying a lot of things, Su Su offered to carry the pot for me.
Dante, however, had his eye on my blowgun and asked me to give it to him. He was confident that once we reached the tribe, he could arrange a fine game meal for everyone.
I smiled and nodded, handing the blowgun to Dante. I greatly admired Dante's archery skills; the blowgun truly excelled in his hands.
I originally wanted Top to stay in the tribe with Pat, but Top refused and insisted on coming with me.
To my surprise, Pat, who usually likes to find a place to laze around and sleep, actually followed me all the way this time, which is quite unusual.
Finally, it jumped into Dante's basket and began to squat and doze off like a mother hen. Dante also liked Pat very much, and Pat's willingness to be close to him made Dante quite happy.
This time, we had a larger group, which made us feel much safer on our journey. Since we were traveling during the day, we didn't encounter any large wild animals.
The few birds that occasionally appeared before us with a bit more meat on them all fell victim to Dante's blowgun.
One of them was still flying in the sky when Dante shot it down with an arrow; his archery skills were truly remarkable.
When we arrived at the original tribe, just as Dante had said, he had already hunted enough game for our team, mostly wild birds, and a decent gray rabbit.
The village looked exactly the same as when we left, with little change. If it weren't for the red tiger ant attack, it wouldn't look like an abandoned place to anyone.
Although it was daytime, we had been away from here for quite some time. Just to be on the safe side, we prepared our weapons and slowly entered the quiet tribe.
It looked fine from the outside, but now that I'm inside, I realize that time has changed things a bit.
Because of the recent rain and high humidity, the conical thatched houses are covered with a layer of lush green moss, and a musty smell can be smelled through the air.
This has nothing to do with the structure of the house; houses that have been uninhabited for a long time will develop this kind of smell.
If you get closer, you can see that some spider webs have been woven on the thatched hut, and the dried insect corpses on them tell the story of the changes that have taken place here over the past period.
However, as we expected, there were no longer any red tiger ants here. They usually don't stay in one place for more than fifteen days, so it seems they have moved away.
We need to find a place to stay today, and these thatched huts are still in good condition, so we'll use them as our shelter for today.
We found three houses in total, and the three houses were lined up in a row.
The six of us men split into two groups of three, with each group staying in the first and third rooms respectively. Since Susu was a woman, I arranged for her to stay alone in the middle room.
That way, if anything happens at night, we can support each other immediately and quickly assemble to deal with it.
After traveling for half a day, I was feeling a bit tired, so I found a place to sit down and rest.
Susu and Dante knew where the tribe's firewood was, so they went together to get some to prepare a meal.
I also plan to use this time to smoke out the house we're going to stay in with some dry grass under the house. This musty smell is still a bit uncomfortable for people to live in. Using a torch with smoke is the quickest way to deal with it.
To prevent the thatched hut from catching fire, I specially added a protective cover to the outside of the torch using raw branches. This would make the smoke thicker without causing any open flames to leap out and ignite the hut.
When I was smoking the house, I found some potatoes inside. They must have been left by the local people who lived there before, who didn't have time to take them with them when they temporarily left.
These potatoes have turned green and sprouted new green shoots due to the continuous damp weather. Such potatoes are no longer safe to eat; the toxins inside can cause poisoning.
However, some of the cassava was preserved relatively well, so we can roast it and eat it together today.
I picked out all the edible things. We don't know how many days we'll be here, so having more food is always a good thing.
I was still tidying up the house when I soon heard hurried footsteps outside.
I heard the hurried sound of the approaching figure and my heart tightened immediately. Could something else have gone wrong?
I took the crossbow off my back, quickly nocked an arrow, and ran outside.
Just then, Dante ran towards me excitedly, looking like he'd won the lottery. I couldn't help but wonder what this guy was up to.
But he wasn't going to say much to me. He wanted to shout, but he was out of breath from running so fast, so he could only shout intermittently, "I...I'll go...close the door, behind...the back..."
Before Dante could finish shouting, I had already nocked my crossbow and run towards the place he mentioned. I knew the place he was talking about; it must be where Lothar had lived before.
The red tiger ants attacked because a lot of meat was stored there.
It is evident that Dante's expression was not panicked, but rather somewhat excited, proving that their situation was not bad, or at least they had the upper hand.
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