"Eric! We could smell it from so far away! You can tell it’s your cooking just from the aroma!"
Kevin and Sam came running from a distance, shouting boisterously.
By now, Eric’s cooking was like a signal to assemble. There was no need for Leo to go call everyone; as soon as they caught the fragrant scent, the whole tribe would tacitly make their way over.
Flower wagged her tail and ran like the wind. Eric hadn’t cooked at home for the past few days, and the little girl was dying from the cravings. Michael arrived and saw his father was also there, and couldn’t help but laugh teasingly:
"Dad, didn’t you say you weren’t coming? And you laughed at me for coming to freeload off a cub’s food every day."
Phong turned his head away in embarrassment, pretending not to hear.
"You’re both here, but Anna isn’t?" Luci suddenly asked.
The atmosphere instantly stiffened. Thomas paused for a beat, while the father and son, Michael and Phong, fell silent. After a moment, Michael managed to speak with some difficulty:
"My mother... she doesn’t really like eating in crowded places..."
Jessica quickly tried to smooth things over: "Alright, alright, let’s eat! I don’t know what Eric made today, but it smells even more fragrant than before."
Standing to the side, Eric snickered to himself. He knew perfectly well that Max’s mother and Michael’s mother had both pursued Thomas in the past, and in the end, Luci had become the chief’s mate.
This had led to a silent, mutual dislike between the two females, and it was also the reason Luci had been hesitant to approve of Max and Michael’s feelings for each other. Thinking about it, it was actually quite funny.
Max turned his head and shot him a look.
Eric coughed lightly twice and quickly lifted the lid of the large iron pot. A rich fragrance immediately wafted out. The steamed bread had puffed up to double its size, soft and thick, with half of it soaked in the savory broth, looking incredibly appetizing.
Today’s stew had a deep red color, and its flavor was fresher than usual. Max carried the whole large pot and placed it in the middle of the group.
"These spices are truly our greatest haul," Kevin remarked as he ate: "I used to think the merchant caravans sold spices for way too much."
Sam, his mouth full of bread, agreed: "Right, right, before, the one thing no one wanted to trade for was spices. They were pungent and expensive."
Getting to eat delicious food, Luci immediately forgot about her old rival: "Next time a human merchant caravan passes by, we’ll trade for more spices with them."
As he ate, Eric thought to himself that with more and more people, he couldn’t handle all the work alone. Maybe he should talk to Thomas about opening a communal kitchen for the tribe?
He could teach Jessica and Li while he worked, or find a few Dwarves to help.
He remembered seeing bread ovens in the Dwarves’ homes. He had been racking his brain about where to even start building a bread oven, but now all he had to do was ask Luban to make one.
After dinner, he packed a portion of the beef stew and bread for Phong to take back for Anna. After seeing them off, Eric called Max over, ran into the house, and brought out the remaining limestone from his sugar-making.
"This can not only be used to make sugar, but it can also be used to build houses. It’s much stronger than yellow mud," he explained.
The piece of limestone looked quite large in his hand, but in Max’s, it immediately looked half the size. Eric was green with envy.
Sooner or later, he would be that tall, that strong!
In Max’s eyes, this was just an ordinary gray stone, but he said without hesitation:
"Do you need this kind of stone? I can go dig some up for you."
Eric happily stepped forward and gave him a hug: "Thank you! Help me dig up some more. This stuff has many uses. After the bricks are fired, I want to build a new house too."
Max froze on the spot, his body slightly stiff, a rare hint of bewilderment on his face.
Oblivious, Eric didn’t notice his unusual reaction.
After so many days, he had long come to see Max as a good older brother. In his mind, this hug was purely to show affection. He turned to go do something else.
He had been busy firing bricks lately, and the soybeans he had started fermenting had been drying for several days. He had originally planned to make soy sauce immediately but then thought that soy sauce made with refined salt would taste better. And to get refined salt, he needed activated charcoal.
Sigh, I’m so tired of this life where I have to do everything myself.
He took out the charcoal he had made earlier, ground it into a fine powder, and put it in a ceramic pot to cook with water and rice vinegar. The only thing left was to watch the fire, a job that was handed over to Leo.
In the meantime, he tasted the sweet rice wine and berry wine he had been fermenting. The rice wine was sweet and fragrant upon tasting, with a long-lasting aftertaste—a complete success. He shared a small bowl with Leo, who was diligently watching the fire.
As a result, Leo got drunk not long after drinking it, collapsing on the spot and snoring loudly.
Eric, unaware, drank it like a soft drink himself, and then also fell fast asleep while hugging Leo.