After Jaxon finished telling Kaelen about Sane's past, his heart grew even heavier. He tapped on the tabletop:
"Today I came here originally to discuss a solution to help you hide the baby. However, since you and Sane have reached a tacit agreement, finding a way to store pheromones is no longer necessary.
Nyx planned that when your belly wasn't showing yet, he would create a fake divine oracle and take you out to gain experience with him. In reality, we had considered finding a safe place not too far from the tribe to wait for you to give birth to the child, and upon returning, we would tell outsiders that we picked up a lost child and gave it to you to raise.
But now, I see that this method is also unnecessary. The mates of Snake tribe beastmen all lay eggs; after being laid, they still need to be incubated for another month before hatching, so there's no need to worry about your belly getting big. The eggs of the Snake tribe are only as big as my fist. If you lay it and secretly incubate it in the house, no one will notice at all."
Speaking up to here, he paused as if thinking about something, before continuing:
"After the cub breaks the shell, its Daddy will sense the bloodline connection. Whether you want to let the child acknowledge its Daddy or not will be entirely up to you; we won't interfere anymore."
Kaelen knew the Tribe Leader and the Priest had poured their hearts into worrying about him and genuinely wanted to keep him in the tribe, making his heart swell with endless emotion. He also didn't want to leave the tribe so soon; he had promised to pass on survival knowledge to everyone, and a few months of winter wouldn't be enough time.
Temporarily setting aside the chaotic emotions in his heart, Kaelen pushed a stack of bark paper in front of Jaxon and took out the basket containing the plants Sane had brought back to show Jaxon.
Jaxon carefully examined each drawing as well as the explanations for each item drawn on the paper. From crafting agricultural tools, reclaiming wasteland, to planting... there was nothing that didn't make Jaxon marvel.
"Oh, this thing with three teeth is used for clearing weeds, right? And this flat one is for digging earth? But what are you planning to do with these? We have tried planting starchy tubers before, but we didn't succeed. Telling the tribesmen to reclaim wasteland now, I'm afraid they won't agree."
Kaelen smiled, handed a canna tuber to the Tribe Leader, and introduced its uses. The canna tubers here were very large and contained a lot of starch. A cluster of three or four tubers weighed about ten kilograms. If calculated according to the yield in his previous world, this cluster could be made into 1 to 1.5 kilograms of dry vermicelli.
If kept in a normal environment, dry vermicelli could only be stored for one to two weeks, but if hung over the daily cooking hearth, it could be kept for three to six months. 1 kilogram of cooked dry vermicelli would be enough to fill the bellies of five adult beastmen without them needing to eat too much additional meat.
Hearing this, the Tribe Leader's eyes lit up brightly, and he began to ask Kaelen about the planting methods.
[Winter is coming, so they can't be planted; we can only start in the spring. However, I have already asked Sane, and he said this thing grows densely along the edge of the Magic Beast Forest. Not only that, there are quite a few in the tribe's gathering area as well. Let's harvest their tubers first, keep a portion for seeds, and make the rest into dry vermicelli to use for this winter.]
The urgent problem now was the tool used to finely grind the canna tubers. His millstone still hadn't been successfully made, which was truly distressing.
Kaelen also spoke more about purple yams and some vegetables that could be planted.
Finally, he even expressed his desire to go to the Magic Beast Forest to find a few more edible plants, but was immediately rejected by the Tribe Leader. Jaxon did not allow Kaelen to leave the tribe's protection range and strictly forbade him from sneaking away.
"Let's pause talking about food for now, I am curious about this. Kaelen, is this a cave? You mean you intend to carve a cave into this shape? That seems a bit redundant, doesn't it?"
Kaelen shook his head and raised his hands, but temporarily didn't know what sign language to use to make the Tribe Leader understand. The people here still had no concept of bricks, tiles, and construction; usually, they just found an area with many mountain caves to use as shelters.
He had to use a more direct term, the effect of which was a bit more startling:
[These are fired clay houses, meaning houses made from fired clay blocks shaped like this.] Kaelen pointed to the square in the drawing: [Tribe Leader, I know how to make fired clay.]
Jaxon tightly grabbed Kaelen's hand: "Really? You know how to make fired clay? Can you fire earthen pots that don't absorb water?"
Kaelen nodded, signaling Tribe Leader Jaxon to let go of his hand, and then continued signing. The more Tribe Leader Jaxon looked, the more excited he became, and then he wondered: "How do you suddenly know these things?"
Kaelen pointed to his head: [I woke up from a sleep and they were already in my head. There are still many more, but we can't do them all at once; we have to do it gradually.]
He took out five project plans; these were the five tasks to be done before spring arrived, including: making vermicelli, firing bricks and pottery, building communal houses for Sub-Beasts and cubs, making wool yarn from animal fur, and making sugar candy from berries.
[Currently, the most abundant animal fur in the tribe is rabbit fur. This thing is not valuable; trading it won't yield much salt. However, if we spin it into wool yarn, we can create many more things. We will temporarily keep this for our tribe's use. The main things we'll take to trade at the spring fair are my meat seasoning and the sugar candy made from berries.]
The two discussed while grilling meat for lunch, and in a flash, an entire afternoon had passed. The Tribe Leader spread out both his hands and feet to calculate, suddenly feeling that the three hundred tribesmen of his tribe were still far from enough.
Kaelen comforted him, telling him to just take it slowly, their time was still long. Jaxon shook his head, delivering some bad news:
"We can't be leisurely. The snow season is spreading wider and wider; I guess it will reach us by next year. This winter will definitely be much colder than last year's. Even if prey is abundant, without ways to ward off the cold, the cubs and Sub-Beasts in our tribe won't be able to hold on.
Nyx also calculated that the ice and snow will gradually spread downwards. At that time, not only our place but the surrounding areas will all be covered in snow. We need to seize the time to improve the tribe before next winter arrives."
Hearing the Tribe Leader say this, Kaelen also felt that growing two more heads wouldn't be enough to handle it all. Right at this moment, his stomach suddenly growled loudly, interrupting both of their trains of thought. Kaelen embarrassedly clutched his stomach and offered a sheepish smile to Jaxon. Ever since he got pregnant, his appetite had increased significantly, and he got hungry very quickly. He had only eaten a little grilled meat for lunch without supplementing any starch, so it wasn't even evening yet and his stomach was already growling.
"It's getting late, I will head back first. I'll instruct the Sub-Beasts and beastmen in the tribe to gather the plants you mentioned. As for making fired clay, I will discuss it with the elders and the Priest to see who is best to send to learn from you."
Kaelen nodded and saw Jaxon to the door, watching the Tribe Leader's broad back gradually disappear into the sunset. Only when his silhouette faded behind the cliff did Kaelen withdraw his gaze, thinking about what to cook for dinner.
The edible plants Sane brought back that day had been planted by Kaelen in a hidden corner behind the bathroom, using his ability to accelerate their rapid growth. Currently, he could only promote plant growth within a small area, and the harvested products couldn't be planted for a second crop, so they couldn't be used as seeds.
Having just given some to the Tribe Leader to take back as samples, in his cave now, there were only a few purple yams, some wild Shallot, and Wild cabbages left.
Kaelen decided to stir-fry meat with Wild cabbages and cook a pot of minced meat and purple yam soup.