He excitedly opened the leaves on the basket to show Su Tang.
Su Tang was stunned when she saw it.
"bamboo?"
The gray wolf chieftain explained from the side, "The orcs of the bamboo bear tribe say that this is not ordinary bamboo; it is edible. When their tribe's orcs have no prey, they eat this."
Upon closer inspection, Su Tang realized that what was inside was not bamboo, but tender bamboo shoots.
It was just wrapped in a dark coat and covered with some mud.
It looks quite fresh.
The gray wolf leader opened another box.
It's also bamboo shoots.
"The beastmen of the Bamboo Bear Tribe said that there are many kinds of bamboo, all of which are delicious, and each one has a different taste."
Looking at the rows of bamboo, Su Tang suddenly had a strange thought.
What kind of bear doesn't eat meat, but instead eats bamboo?
"Chief, what do the orcs of the Bamboo Bear Tribe look like?" Su Tang asked.
The gray wolf chief thought she was just curious, because females rarely had the chance to go to other tribes unless they were fleeing from the tribe.
He summoned the orc behind him and gestured:
"Tell Ah Tang what that bamboo bear beastman looks like."
If you ask about appearance, you must be asking about animal form.
Because in the eyes of orcs, humanoid appearance is simply too difficult to describe.
Their vocabulary is very limited.
"The bamboo bear beastman is very large and round, with black and white fur in concentric circles. Oh! There are also two black circles around its eyes."
The gray wolf orc recalled.
This was also their first time visiting the Bamboo Bear Tribe.
When I saw the bamboo bear beastman's beast form, I found it quite comical.
"They are all very strong and fat; there are no skinny orcs in the tribe, and they are also very good at climbing trees..."
The gray wolf orc also thought that Su Tang was curious about the outside world, and explained it in great detail.
"Isn't that a panda?" Upon hearing this, Su Tang immediately pictured a giant panda in her mind.
No way!
The Bamboo Bear Tribe is actually a group of giant pandas!
No wonder the food they brought back in exchange was all bamboo shoots.
“Cats? No, they’re bamboo bears, not cats,” the gray wolf orc explained.
A bear is a bear, and a cat is a cat.
How can there be orcs who are both bears and cats?
The gray wolf leader then opened the basket behind him.
"Squeak squeak squeak..."
There was a sound coming from inside.
It sounds a lot like the sound of babies grinding their teeth with bones.
Su Tang looked and saw that the food in the basket was still alive.
A basket full of rats!
To be precise, they are bamboo rats.
Su Tang knew about this thing; there were some in the nearby bamboo forest, but very few, because the gray wolf orcs had already caught and eaten them all when they cut down the bamboo.
Su Jianyuan also went to catch them a few times.
There isn't much meat, but if you manage to catch a fatty one, it'll be juicy and fragrant when grilled.
Perhaps it's in her genes that she's interested in animals like mice.
But this bamboo rat is very fat!
It's visibly plump and round, clearly indicating that it's been eating very well.
Seeing that Su Tang was very interested, the gray wolf orc explained:
"The beastmen of the Bamboo Bear Tribe said that these bamboo rats live in their bamboo forests. They don't usually eat them, but wait until they grow fat before eating them, which is why they grow so well."
Giant pandas are omnivores.
They like to eat bamboo, bamboo shoots, and bamboo rats.
Su Tang nodded knowingly, thinking to herself, "The pandas of this ancient continent have pretty progressive ideas! Isn't this just a disguised form of domesticating bamboo rats?"
After all, there's a big difference between bamboo rats that eat bones and those that are plump and greasy.
"Chief, we can also raise bamboo rats in the bamboo forest, just like the Bamboo Bear Tribe. Bamboo rats can reproduce and can also be used as food."
Su Tang suggested.
If she hadn't known about the Bamboo Bear tribe's practices, the other beastmen would have found it incomprehensible if she had brought it up rashly.
Now that there's a precedent, things are different.
The gray wolf orcs helped her search for supplies, and she taught the gray wolf leader how to survive.
Mutually beneficial, that's good.
"That's a good idea." The gray wolf leader nodded. "When the rainy season comes next year, we can catch bamboo rats to eat directly, which will be another wave of supplies."
"But what if the bamboo rats escape or get eaten?"
The gray wolf orc behind him asked with concern.
Most of the people here are carnivorous orcs. If they are released, they might be captured and eaten by other orcs tomorrow.
"We can build a wall with stones to enclose part of the bamboo forest," Su Tang suggested.
As for the other issues, those are left for the leader of the gray wolves to resolve himself.
“Alright, do as Ah Tang says. I will give orders to the tribe’s orcs that no one is allowed to capture the free-range bamboo rats.” The gray wolf chieftain said almost without thinking.
Listen to Atang, you can't go wrong.
Ah Tang wouldn't hurt him.
There are four baskets of supplies in total: two baskets of bamboo shoots and one basket of bamboo rats.
There's still one box that hasn't been opened.
"We don't know what this is. The beastmen from the Bamboo Bear tribe said it's made of stone and very sharp. They said their tribe didn't have any other valuable resources, so they brought this back to us as well."
As the leader of the gray wolves explained, he opened the last crate of supplies.
Su Tang glanced at it and almost doubted that she was hallucinating.
"iron?!"
Those sharp, blade-like things in the basket, what else could they be but iron!
Has the ancient continent already entered the Iron Age?
"You know Ah Tang?" the gray wolf leader asked in surprise.
Then he remembered that she had come as a refugee and had probably seen more tribes along the way than he had, so it wasn't surprising.
Su Tang nodded, replying half-truthfully, "I've seen it before in other tribes."
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
