The amount of meat Sane gave Kaelen was enough for him to eat for a few days, and moreover, the wild vegetables he had scattered seeds for in front of the cave entrance earlier grew very lushly, completely eliminating the need to go into the forest to forage. Therefore, during those few days, Kaelen decided to cultivate while rearranging his cave.
After more than two consecutive days of failure, Kaelen finally understood the rules of mortise and tenon joints, and also successfully made a spice rack. However, to make large-scale furniture, his strength alone was not enough.
Kaelen thought for a moment, then took his two precious jars of barbecue spices and two pieces of salted meat, put them into a woven vine basket, and skipped toward the center of the tribe.
Along the way, except for those who didn't hate Kaelen and proactively greeted him, everyone wore looks of disgust, avoiding him as much as possible. Kaelen was used to this long ago and completely didn't take it to heart.
Arriving in front of a familiar cave, Kaelen didn't go in immediately but familiarly went to a spot next to the cave entrance, taking a wooden mallet to strike a simple wooden gong.
This item was Kaelen's exclusive "doorbell." Of course, only a few households had it, and Kaelen also only visited these few households.
Cassian was sitting sharpening a bone knife; hearing the knocking outside the cave entrance, he immediately spoke up:
"Is that Kaelen? Come in quickly."
Elian, a Sub-Beast, Uncle Cassian's child, proactively stood up to go to the door to welcome him. Elian was one of Kaelen's three rare friends.
"Kaelen, Cael and I were just talking about you this morning. Come inside quickly."
Kaelen stepped in with a bright smile, placed the basket on the stone table, and put his hands together:
[Hello, Uncle Cassian.]
"Yeah, sit down. What do you want to ask Uncle to do again?" Cassian looked at the basket of items Kaelen brought, immediately understanding his intention. Kaelen's eyes crinkled into a smile:
[Only Uncle understands me. I just thought of some very interesting things, and I want to ask you and Uncle to help me make them.] As he spoke, he presented the items in front of Cassian, implying this was the payment.
Cassian frowned, saying in a stern voice:
"If you bring things over again next time, we won't help you. Not mentioning other things, just this barbecue spice of yours is worth many times more than this piece of meat; being so polite like this, you don't consider us as family, right?"
Kaelen scratched his cheek embarrassedly. The items he wanted to ask the two of them to make were quite numerous; if he didn't have something to repay them, he felt very apologetic. Elian giggled:
"Daddy, if you say that, Kaelen won't dare to come next time, then what should we do? Besides, Kaelen's spices are unique; I've been craving them for a long time."
He didn't know how Kaelen managed to create such a fragrant spice powder; just by marinating the meat with it for a while and then grilling it, the aroma wafted around the tribe, making everyone drool with craving.
However, craving was one thing, but once the tribesmen knew that item came from Kaelen's hands, they would immediately snort and walk away. Truly too hateful!
Cassian cast a reproving glance at Elian but didn't say anything more because he was craving it too. This stuff was delicious but rare; he also hadn't tasted it for half a year.
Kaelen felt it wasn't that delicious, but regarding its rarity, it was truly rare. This pepper-like Sima fruit only bore fruit once a year, and each time yielded only a few tiny bunches; filtering out the pulp to get the seeds, drying them in the sun, and grinding them into a fine powder, three or four bunches of fruit only left a tiny bit of powder. As for the mushroom extract, it was even more precious.
Wild mushrooms were washed and crushed to break their cellular structure, helping the mushrooms release their maximum characteristic meaty sweetness (umami), followed by crushing berries to extract their juice. The mushroom extract was boiled in a stone pot, and once boiling, salt was added, then simmered over low heat for an hour.
After simmering, the berry juice was added, and it continued over low heat, continuously stirred with a clean wooden stick until the extract thickened and turned dark brown, completing the process.
In short, it was extremely laborious. At that time, Kaelen kept wondering why he had thought of this dish; thinking back on it now, it was probably due to leftover instincts from his past life, right? In his past life, he loved tinkering with these kinds of things.
Recalling it now, besides pepper and Thick Mushroom Sauce (that's right, it was pepper and Thick Mushroom Sauce), Kaelen also knew how to make many other things to help make food even more delicious. For example, how to turn coarse salt into refined salt, make fish sauce from salt and fish, make sugar from berries,...
Besides cooking, regarding knowledge of farming, construction, medicine, handicrafts,... Kaelen knew a little bit of everything. Don't ask why he knew; Plant Masters in his past life were nothing more than a bunch of coolies. Besides farming, wherever people were needed, Plant Masters were stuffed in to make up the numbers.
Saying he was highly skilled wasn't accurate, but he still grasped most basic techniques. People always talk about primitive humans eating raw meat and drinking blood; all the knowledge that modern humans acquired was accumulated from one era to another. It wasn't for no reason that people in the past, upon seeing dragonflies flying low to the ground, knew heavy rain was coming, or when the horizon suddenly turned the color of chicken fat, they knew a big storm was approaching. It was all due to accumulated experience.
Therefore, Kaelen firmly believed that as long as he provided a few ideas and basic suggestions, these primitive people could invent hundreds, thousands of interesting things.
Not to look far, his wooden spice jar with a lid, hasn't it now been developed into fat jars, meat marinating jars, medicine jars, drinking cups, boiled water jars, etc.?
"Do you need it urgently? If it's not urgent, I and Icarus will come over in the afternoon. I'm currently busy making some things for a few households in the tribe."
Cassian, Icarus, and Kaelen's Daddy all belonged to the Leopard race; although the three families weren't blood relatives, they were closer than blood relatives. On the battlefield nineteen years ago, Uncle Cassian's front leg was injured, unable to move, and he was almost bitten to death by a Cipher Tribe beastman; fortunately, Uncle Icarus rushed over to save him in time. However, because of that, Icarus had his hind limb bones crushed and could no longer walk.
It was also these two who watched helplessly as Kaelen's Daddy was trampled to death by a bull beastman of the Cipher Tribe without being able to do anything, in excruciating pain. That was also one of the reasons they treated Kaelen like their own son.
Two disabled beastmen unable to hunt beasts or join the warrior squad could only take up handicraft work to support their mates and children.
Uncle Cassian's mate was originally frail, and became even frailer on the run as refugees; managing to hold on for about three years before passing away.
Uncle Icarus's mate was an incredibly fierce Sub-Beast but was very fond of Kaelen, even wanting her son to take Kaelen as a wife. Regrettably, Theron had absolutely no interest in Kaelen and fiercely objected.
Kaelen also disagreed with this matter; first, he didn't like Theron, and second, he knew Elian also secretly loved Theron; if he agreed, this hard-won friendship would slip away.
Looking at Cassian's unnaturally drooping shoulders, then looking at his weak, trembling hands, Kaelen suddenly thought of something: Uncle Cassian's arms didn't seem to be broken?
When Uncle Cassian transformed into his beast form, both his front legs completely lost their strength, unable to support his body. But if in human form, both arms could still move, able to do some tasks that didn't require great strength.
How is this condition so similar to a dislocated shoulder?