Orc Girl's Tribal Daily Life

Chapter 199 What a Cub Should Do

Simply put, charcoal is the result of wood burning away its moisture, but not completely burning.

There might be some complicated chemical reactions involved, which Jiang Luoluo didn't quite understand, but she knew roughly how charcoal was made, which was enough for her.

When the time comes, we'll find a few smarter members of the tribe to try it out, and we'll eventually find a suitable method.

Why doesn't Jiang Luoluo do it herself, but instead goes to find other clever clansmen...? Hehe, she's still a child, she needs to learn to be lazy.

The kiln was built in the middle of an exceptionally large cave. Its area itself was not very large, occupying less than one-fifth of the space. The remaining area was mostly filled with piles of wood, in an astonishingly large quantity.

Considering the upcoming snow season and the resulting travel difficulties, it's understandable to prepare a sufficient amount of firewood in advance.

As Jiang Luoluo had instructed, the kiln was built in the shape of a furnace, and extra care was taken to ensure the seals were tight, so there shouldn't be any major problems.

Jiang Luoluo looked around but couldn't find anything that could be adjusted—with the current materials and technology, this was the best it could be.

The rest is up to the kiln itself to see if it can withstand high enough temperatures to melt the metal.

Oh right, Jiang Luoluo remembered something and told Zao, "Before it's officially put into use, the kiln needs to be fired up for a few days first."

I don't know the principle behind it, but it works better after burning it once.

Zao glanced at Jiang Luoluo and said, "I know this simple truth without you reminding me."

Jiang Luoluo was startled for a moment, but then calmly accepted it. Well, she already knew that there were many smart people in the tribe.

There are many things that the tribe members haven't yet figured out how to use, but they understand the underlying principles.

After leaving the kiln and returning to the cave where Zao was built, Ge knew that Jiang Luoluo had something to say to Zao that wasn't suitable for him to hear, so he voluntarily stayed at the brick kiln to help with some tasks.

Jiang Luoluo followed Zao back into the cave and immediately went over to him, her face full of excitement, and began to talk about Yuan and Shou.

Zao appeared indifferent, simply focusing on polishing the stone tools, but as Jiang Luoluo's voice narrated, his movements slowed considerably.

When he learned that Yuan had not blindly agreed to Shou's marriage proposal because of him, but had made the decision to marry him after careful consideration, Zao's expression softened considerably.

If Yuan really dares to lose his temper because of her, then Zao should reconsider whether or not to attend Yuan's wedding ceremony.

But now it seems that the child has not lost the ability to think normally, which makes Zao quite relieved.

After discussing these trivial matters, we returned to our main topic.

Now that the kiln has been made in advance, it's time to start forging—the first step in forging is to find suitable metal.

To be precise, this step is actually quite complicated.

Because most mineral metals exist in combination, there are no pure minerals that are directly mined and contain only one type of metal element.

It may be possible, but it's rare.

Most metal ores are mixed together, and to make use of them, they must be separated or re-blended after finding a suitable ratio.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

So, to be precise, this step involves finding all the types of metal ores that can be obtained from each tribe, extracting them individually, observing their hardness and density, and determining whether they can be used to make weapons.

To be more specific, we need to first try and find the extraction method for each metal, and then experiment with what they can be used to make.

Once we've figured out the extraction methods suitable for different metals, and the items that are appropriate to make from them, we can proceed to the next step: weapon forging.

Just thinking about it made Jiang Luoluo tremble with fear at the thought of such a heavy workload.

The only saving grace is that Jiang Luoluo doesn't need to get involved in this matter.

Zao did not make any demands on Jiang Luoluo, and even refused the help that Jiang Luoluo offered.

It wasn't that Zao thought he could do it all by himself, but rather that in Zao's view, this kind of thing didn't need a seven-year-old cub to do it.

If the cubs have to do everything, then the adults who have lived for decades are rather useless.

As for cubs, they just need to act like cubs, doing things like eating and drinking, and playing around every day.

……

It was still early when they left the house; at least for Jiang Luoluo, it wasn't lunchtime yet, so she could wander around outside for a while longer.

The weather was just too cold, so no one wanted to stay outside much.

Jiang Luoluo estimated that the temperature was probably around zero degrees Celsius.

If we put the water outside the cave, we might see some frozen ice blocks by tomorrow morning.

If you crush the ice cubes and drizzle some jam on top, you can make a pure, natural jam smoothie!

If you think about it another way, what if you add a little water to the jam, put it in a mold, and then freeze it outdoors? That would make a ready-made popsicle!

However, the current temperature may not be enough to freeze it solid. We might have to wait a few more days for the temperature to drop further before it becomes a smoothie.

The thought of making popsicles made Jiang Luoluo restless. She planned to drag Ge to find carpenter Cong to customize a popsicle mold, which would be useful in a few days.

They weren't worried about the cold weather making it inconvenient to eat. Although it looked like summer... well, the hot weather after the Little Beast Season was more suitable for eating something cold, but the tribe didn't have the means to make ice!

As for the ice in the icehouse behind the mountain, some of it was stored during the snow season, and the rest was mined and transported from the glacier.

Yes, icebergs. On the other side of the river, there is a vast, continuous group of icebergs.

According to the tribespeople, that group of icebergs is something like "the end of the world".

Jiang Luoluo didn't believe in this. As long as the land where people lived in this world was still a "planet," then to be precise, there could be no end.

However, the icebergs were simply too vast. For the tribe, the Taz Forest, which they had explored less than half of, seemed like a small fry compared to the icebergs.

So regardless of whether that group of icebergs is the end of the world, it is indeed the end of the tribe's exploration.

Furthermore, there were no wild animals to hunt on that iceberg range—why would a wild animal choose to live on an iceberg with nothing at all, instead of the resource-rich Taz Forest?

Therefore, most of the tribespeople can only stay at the foot of the icebergs and find it difficult to actually cross the icebergs and see what is behind them.

Although it is said that ice can be mined from the iceberg, the journey is long and transportation is difficult. Unless there is an unbearable high temperature disaster or a more important special reason, the tribe will not take the action of mining ice from the iceberg.

Jiang Luoluo also felt that if there really was a high-temperature disaster, it would be more convenient to lead all the Luo tribespeople to move to the other side of the ice mountain rather than to go to the ice mountain to collect ice.

Why not just come back when the temperature drops?

But perhaps Jiang Luoluo was oversimplifying things; there were many difficulties she was unaware of.

Lost in thought, they soon arrived at the carpenter's house.

The cave in the carpenter's den was much more lively than Jiang Luoluo had imagined, with many tribesmen coming and going, carrying logs in and out.

Carpenter Cong is directing them to process the wood in different sequences.

When he saw Jiang Luoluo, a hint of fear appeared in his eyes.

His expression shifted many times before he resignedly walked towards Jiang Luoluo, "Luo... what are you going to do now?"

"You're quite busy." Jiang Luoluo coughed lightly, suddenly realizing that the carpenter Cong Hui's current enormous workload was, in a sense, thanks to her.

"Yes, I'm really too busy," Carpenter Cong said, pointing to his dark circles under his eyes, unable to hold back his tears.

"I haven't had a full night's sleep in a long time."

"I want to settle down and start a family, but I don't have time to meet people..."

The more the carpenter Cong spoke, the more guilty Jiang Luoluo's expression became.

"Tell me, Luo, what are you planning to do now?" Carpenter Cong sighed deeply.

"Uh... actually, you don't need to bother..." Although the little gadget he wanted could be made by carpenter Cong in just a few hours, seeing the scene on his side...

Jiang Luoluo really couldn't bring herself to ask the carpenter Cong to make such a small mold for her.

"Really?" Carpenter Cong asked skeptically.

"Ahem, really, I just came over to see you. You're so busy, we won't bother you. Ge, let's go back." Jiang Luoluo pulled Ge's arm and backed away.

The carpenter's eyes showed a thoughtful look, followed by a burst of intense relief.

It was as if they had survived a catastrophe.

Great, he doesn't have any new workload. Once he finishes these, he can rest... probably.

Jiang Luoluo, who had run away with Ge, finally let go of her restless conscience and breathed a sigh of relief.

Ge was a little worried. On the way here, Jiang Luoluo had already told him what she wanted to do.

"Luo, what about the popsicle molds? Should we make them ourselves?"

While it's not impossible, doing it yourself... I can only say that some things should be left to professionals, and should be left to professionals.

Otherwise, the thought that the cubs might eat wood chips or splinters when they eat the popsicles he made made him made him uneasy.

He has never studied carpentry!

"Of course not." Jiang Luoluo was well aware of her own abilities. After hearing Ge's question, she shook her head and raised her arm to point to the living area where the retired elderly clansmen lived.

"Let's go find Li!"

"Lift?" Ge scratched his head, his eyes lighting up.

Tai was a carpenter from the previous generation, and also the father of carpenter Cong.

He's only been retired for a few years, and while his skills aren't much better than Cong's, in terms of proficiency, Cong is still far inferior to his father in carrying things.

However, Ge hesitated for a moment, "But, Luo, it's not a good idea for us to go over like this."

No matter what, they're already retired. If we can still bother them at will, it's no different from not being retired at all.

Moreover, because of such a trivial matter, Ge felt somewhat guilty.

Jiang Luoluo shook her finger. "No, no, no, we're going to check on the glasses manufacturing process."

Jiang Luoluo raised her head, revealing a sly smile, "If Tai happens to have time, we'll ask him for help again."

The cave was unusually lively.

Ever since word got out about the glasses, a group of elderly people with nearsightedness or presbyopia have been crowding around the cave, urging him to make them glasses.

Over time, this place became an activity area, and even those who had been assigned to the Glasses tribe would come and stroll around it several times a day.

The main purpose was to show off his glasses.

According to the good customs of the tribe, many fights usually break out at this time, with people vying for ownership of the glasses.

Unfortunately, everyone's nearsightedness is different. Even if you get someone else's glasses, it's useless if the prescription doesn't match. You can only watch the other person show off in front of you.

In addition, Jiang Luoluo had earnestly reminded them that if the glasses prescription didn't match, it would be even more harmful to their eyes, which further reduced the occurrence of disputes over glasses.

Unless you happen to meet someone whose nearsightedness is similar to yours.

But generally, people are quite sensible and know in front of whom they can show off or flaunt this thing, so arguments rarely occur.

...Yes, there are very few left. Even if they are taken away, it is useless. But some hot-tempered tribesmen feel that they should at least be beaten up to vent their anger.

Ti had no way to deal with these tribesmen, and he knew their longing for glasses, so he lined them up according to the severity of their blurred vision and made glasses for each of them one by one, without preventing them from gathering in his cave.

As people get older, they tend to enjoy lively scenes. Being able to spend time with so many people of the same age has helped to heal many of the clan members who were originally suffering from depression.

It even attracted many healthy members of the tribe to join.

It's not because of the glasses; I just like the environment where I can chat with other people.

When Chief Jing and the shaman learned of this, they took the initiative to pay for the glasses—otherwise, would they really ask these elderly tribesmen who had dedicated their lives to the tribe to give up what little they had left in exchange?

This is what the older generation of the tribe deserved, and what the tribe should have done.

Jiang Luoluo and Ge Gang received an extremely warm welcome as soon as they arrived.

In this area where few young people from the tribe frequent, Jiang Luoluo and Ge were like Tang Sanzang who had mistakenly entered the Land of Women, receiving considerable attention and being watched by many.

The older members of the tribe, who hadn't participated in a hunt in a long time, valued it even more, and kept asking Lago about the hunting arrangements that would begin in a few days.

The questions were so detailed and complex that even Ge couldn't answer them. The questions even mentioned many hunting arrangements that Ge was unaware of—after all, Ge had only been hunting for a short time and couldn't possibly have been exposed to everything.

After sacrificing Ge to appease the tribesmen, Jiang Luoluo quietly slipped out of the encirclement and ran to Ti's side.