Chapter 77: Onto human land
Everyone turned their eyes to where Doral was pointing. Joonbum could not see anything with his bare eyes, so he took out his binoculars.
“Oh.”
“The deer died on its own, possibly due to hunger. It’s too big for the Odringo to hunt it,” Grandi guessed as he saw what was going on. There was a big red horned deer corpse. It weighed over 3000 pounds with a height of over eight feet. It was a calm but very strong herbivore. The Odringo had no chance against it. It was fortunate for the Odringos to find such giant meat lying around, but that led to their demise as they were spotted by the Ainos.
The Odringos’ white fur was red as blood was smeared all over them. Some were playing around while hunting as it seemed like they had enough of their fill. As they concentrated on the meat or playtime, Grandi signaled his warriors to close in on the perimeter. The snow covered their footsteps and the wind blew away any small noises they might’ve made.
Grandi stopped and raised his hand. Warriors readied their arrows. Joonbum also readied his assault rifle. Grandi’s hand dropped and pointed at Odringos.
An array of arrows were fired upon the Odringos. It penetrated the unexpecting Odringos, and any surviving Odringos started to scatter as they screamed. The Ainos warriors stopped firing their arrows as the Odringos began moving quickly, but gunshots erupted, killing a fleeing Odringo every time it fired. A total of three Odringos couldn’t manage to run away.
“Whoa.”
“Wow.”
Everyone seemed to be impressed at Joonbum.
“Joonbum, that rifle is amazing!”
“I never thought it was possible to kill a monster running away that far!”
Even Grandi nodded at Joonbum.
“It is an amazing weapon,” Doral commented and Joonbum scratched his head.
“The weapon did all the work, not me. I can’t do that with a bow.”
Doral shook his head.
“No. We can’t use the rifle like you. Part of it is your work.”
Joonbum grinned as Doral complimented him.
“It’s also good that our hunt ended so quick on such a cold day.”
“We will quickly skin the dead Odringos and return to camp. We will also check the dead deer to see if there is any meat left that is edible.”
Warriors scattered to skin the Odringos and check on the deer.
“This deer is in good shape too.”
The Odringo had their feast, but a large part of deer was still intact. In addition, they were able to gather some of its leather which they could use for crafting shoes. After they finished gathering the meat, they loaded everything onto the sleigh to take it back to the camp. Joonbum set steel traps around the bodies of the Odringos and the remains of the deer. The traps were strong enough to capture anything that did not walk on two feet, so Joonbum also made some marks around them so that they could easily be spotted.
Interested in Joonbum’s work, Grandi asked, “Is that the trap you’ve been talking about?”
“Yes.”
“If you step on it here…”
Joonbum poked it with a stick.
“Wow. This would be hard to escape from.”
Grandi was surprised as the trap clamped its claws like a jaw strongly onto the stick.
“It’s made to capture predators. Even the big ones will not be able to run away from it.”
Joonbum either tied the traps to the thick trees or hammered the stakes to the ground. They were ready to head back to the base camp as Joonbum was setting up the traps and they began to return.
After they moved quite a bit, Grandi took out dried leather, a small bottle, and a rope.
“Oh, that!”
“Oh.”
A few grinned as they realized what it was.
“What is it?”
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Doral grinned at Joonbum’s question.
“That’s our trap. It’s set to capture Drix easily.”
“Drix? Oh, that giant wild boar-looking animal? I thought they were too strong and aggressive? I remember you said arrows don’t work well against them either. How do you capture it easily?”
Joonbum remembered Doral’s explanation. The Drix was like a giant wild boar of this land. It was way too big to be considered a simple animal. Its thick hide and fur reflected arrows easily, so Joonbum wasn’t sure how they could capture it.
“Oh. Haha. You will see.”
Warriors began tying a rope to the large boulder on the ground and threw the rope over a tree. They began pulling the rope and soon, a boulder was lifted right above the location of the Drix’s entrance. Grandi then covered the boulder and wrapped it with a leather rope. The last thing he did was spray a liquid over the leather that wrapped the boulder.
“Ugh.”
Joonbum was quietly watching until he smelled the foul stench from the liquid Grandi sprayed on the boulder. Doral grinned.
“What is it?”
“It’s their urine.”
“Why that?”
“When a Drix that passes by and sees that rock, can you guess what it will think?”
“Huh?” Joonbum was puzzled.
“It will think that another Drix has invaded its territory. They’re too dumb to realize that it’s not a living thing. It will begin fighting against the rock, ramming at it. So tomorrow, it will either be that rock or the head of a Drix that will be destroyed. All we need to do is just pick up the dead body when we pass by.”
“Wow.”
Joonbum was shocked. It was a funny and clever trap.
‘Does it really work?’
*
The Odringo hunt continued. The trap that Joonbum installed captured many animals. One of them was a giant cat predator called the Smarime, and a Berix, or a kind of a bear. The Smarime looked like a giant lioness with an enlarged head. It was about seven feet long, and its jaw was big enough to bite the human body. But it was captured, helplessly crying on the trap. An arrow was shot into its eyes, penetrating through the brain. Arrows fired by the Ainos from close range never missed. The Smarime was killed first, and next was the Berix. It roared in anger and tried to pull on the trap, but it did not budge. Another arrow pierced its head, killing it in one shot.
The hunt was going well. Joonbum’s doubt was answered in three days, which made his hunting party shout with joy even after not finding any Odringos for two consecutive days. They ran to the trap they set up at the news of the Drix being caught by it. There was a dead Drix lying on its back with its four legs upward.
‘Wow, this crazy pig is really dumb.’
The pig’s head was full of blood. A buck tooth that looked like it was twelve inches long was broken in the middle and the boulder that it hung on was also crushed in multiple places.
“That’s our ancestor’s wisdom! Haha.”
Everyone let out a joyous laugh. Joonbum laughed also.
“Let’s send it to town.”
Drix meat was one of the more delicious ones among the others. They thought about the Drix meat feast waiting for them when they returned to the town after the Odringo hunt.
The Odringo hunt was a huge success. The Odringos that Joonbum killed only had one gunshot wound in the head, so its fur was considered the best among the best. Winter quickly passed as they processed the Odringo leathers and furs.
It was winter, but it was busier than any other winter from before. There were over thirty greenhouses that had fruit and crops, feeding over 150 people with constant fresh harvests during the winter. Everyone loved the freedom of not being restricted to dried fruits in the winter. The greenhouse was popular to other tribes too and Sunsook had been busy because of it. She was invited to all of the tribes to teach farming and she also began making preparations to create porcelain dishes. She planned to start creating them in the coming year. She was busy, but she seemed really happy to work on what she loved.
Heavy snowfall covered the entire town, which required weeks of shoveling. Snow was piled over six feet, and after three more heavy snowfalls, it was the middle of March.
The weather began warming up and all of the snow started melting away. Trade goods that were prepared during the winter were gathered together. Joonbum began taking out the things he had brought over during the winter. He first took out a cart with tires and began loading it with all of the leather from past hunts, including the Odringo and Kerox leathers. He also loaded all kinds of crafted goods that were created from monster bones or various trees. Next were the food items like the watum extract and honey that were valuable. The last thing he prepared and loaded was the middle-grade potions. Each tribe prepared 1200 to 1500 bottles of middle-grade healing potions.
‘Wow, they really don’t have anything other than the potions.’
That was Joonbum’s honest opinion as he looked at the trade goods prepared in front of him. He imagined how difficult their lives would have been if they did not have potions. But the problem with the potions was that they were created in bulk and had fixed trade routes, so they began trading it for less as time passed by.
The elders and others who made the trade knew they were in a bad business position, but since they had to rely on human merchants, there was no other way.
‘But not anymore. They can’t be cheap by taking food as hostage.’
Joonbum did not intend to fight or threaten them, but he wanted to bring the potions to their rightful price. It was now possible for the Ainos to not take the cheaper food items as Joonbum was now able to provide them with rice. It was not a native food source, but Joonbum managed to acquire an enormous quantity at a cheap price, and it was enough to be a source of food for a few years. There was also a large amount of flour and wheat.
Joonbum grinned.
‘We have the upper hand now.