By the time they got back to the tribe, it was well past curfew, and the whole settlement lay silent and still. Xia hadn't turned in yet—when Sam spotted him sitting on the doorstep waiting for them, he jolted awake from his drowsiness, guilt flooding his veins.
He ducked his head, shooting Xuan a panicked glance. *We're so busted. Are we ever gonna sneak out again?*
Xuan, though, looked completely unfazed as he greeted their clan leader. "Father—you're still up?"
"Waiting for you two." Xia's eyes flicked to the trussed-up spotted brushbeast in Xuan's hands, and his eyebrows shot up. "Everything okay?"
"Not a scratch on us." Xuan gave the beast a little shake for emphasis. Xia studied them both for a long moment, then turned and walked back into the house without another word.
"Xuan! What do we do? We got caught!" Sam poked Xuan's side anxiously. Xuan shifted awkwardly, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Relax—Father knew we were sneaking out the second we left. We just gotta make sure Papa never finds out."
"Is the clan leader gonna tell him?" Sam's voice went up an octave with worry.
"Trust me—he won't."
"Really? So we can still sneak out later?" Sam pressed, not fully convinced.
"Course we can. Stop stressing."
The two of them trailed after Xia into the house. Sam shot Xuan a meaningful look—now was the perfect time to spill their news to the clan leader.
"Clan Leader? We got something to tell you." Sam called out, stopping Xia just as he was about to head for his room.
Xia paused, turning to look at him, then glanced at the still-thrashing brushbeast. "What is it?"
Sam stepped forward, holding out his bone blade and the bamboo shoot he'd snapped earlier. "This is a bamboo shoot—before it grows into a full jointed tree. It's edible, and they grow like weeds—there's a whole grove of 'em out there. We should send the gathering team to collect as many as they can in the morning."
He paused, then held up the shoot and carefully peeled back the rough outer husk to reveal the tender, pale flesh inside. Sam remembered his own failed attempt to snap one off and added, "They keep well if we process 'em right, but we'll need tools—those husks are brutal. You'll tear your palms up trying to peel 'em barehanded."
Xia nodded, his expression serious. "I'll tell Qiuye first thing tomorrow. We'll send the team out at dawn."
"There's this too." Sam held out the bone blade. Xia's eyes stayed fixed on it, waiting for an explanation.
"Yuqing coated the blade with blackthorn grass juice. He caught this brushbeast all by himself—didn't need me to lift a finger." Xuan dragged the beast over to Xia, pointing to the deep gash on its flank to prove his point.
Xia's eyes widened in genuine surprise—the first time Sam had ever seen him look truly shocked. He dropped to his knees to examine the beast, his mind racing as he took in the details. The only wound on the beast was the single slash on its side. No other marks, no signs of a struggle.
"How did you do this?" Xia looked up at Sam, his voice sharp with urgency.
"It's the blackthorn grass. I crushed it up and smeared the juice on the blade. When the beast charged me, I cut its side—about ten heartbeats later, the poison kicked in. It numbed it all over, and it collapsed. If we try this on bigger beasts, though, the wait time'll probably be longer." Sam explained the whole process clearly, his voice steady despite the yawns threatening to escape him.
Xia's eyes went even wider. Spotted brushbeasts weren't the toughest small game, but they were sturdy—far too strong for a sub-beastman to take down alone, let alone capture alive. If this trick worked on even just small beasts…
He trailed off, his mind flooding with possibilities. No more sub-beastmen defenseless against strays. No more cubs getting mauled because a hunt went south. No more…
He fell silent, lost in his thoughts. Sam, though, was rapidly losing his fight against the drowsiness debuff. His eyes watered as he yawned repeatedly, his words slurring together. *When is this stupid debuff gonna go away? Another two weeks? Ugh, feels like forever.*
He slapped his cheeks hard to stay awake, pushing through to finish his thought. "I still got some blackthorn grass left back at the room. Can you make a blade like this for Qiuye too? And if we can gather more grass, maybe we can arm all the sub-beastmen in the tribe. We haven't tested it on medium or big beasts yet, but it'd give everyone a fighting chance against small ones. We could even coat traps around the tribe perimeter with the juice and—"
His voice faded to a mumble, then to nothing at all. His knees buckled, and he would've hit the floor if Xuan hadn't lunged forward to catch him.
Xuan swept Sam up in his arms, nodding at Xia. "Father—I'll take him back to bed now." He hesitated for a second, then added, his voice soft with concern, "He… he doesn't know how things work here. Not really. He's got all these amazing ideas, but he's as clueless as a cub about the tribe's ways. I'd appreciate it if you could… keep an eye on him."
Xia stared at him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. He understood exactly what Xuan meant. Sam had knowledge they could only dream of, but he was also naive—like a newborn cub seeing the world for the first time. He tried to hide it, but Xia had seen right through him from the start.
…
When Sam woke up again, the sun was high in the sky—high enough that it was already past noon. Oddly enough, Qiuye wasn't home either.
He went back inside to find a meal laid out on the stone table—clearly, Qiuye had come home, eaten lunch, and then headed back out.
Sam ate slowly, his mind racing with plans for the future. Once his house was finished, he needed to figure out how to rack up energy fast enough to buy useful stuff from the system mall. He'd flipped through the *Beast World Compendium* and found that most modern crops had rough equivalents here—but tracking them down would take time. It was way easier to just buy seeds from the mall. Speed was key to developing the tribe; he wasn't gonna waste time chasing wild plants when he could just spend energy and get results. Penny-wise, pound-foolish—ain't nobody got time for that.
Just then, the system's voice chimed in his head:> Hidden Quest Completed: Develop a new use for blackthorn grass> Hidden Quest Completed: Discover a new food source> Random Quest Issued: Explore additional uses for jointed trees
Two hidden quests done in one night! Sam's eyes lit up. He checked his energy storage space—sure enough, the misty energy had thickened considerably.
He wasted no time pulling up the mall interface, immediately skipping over the finished products tab. The useful stuff was way too expensive, and the cheap stuff he could make himself.
Since it was spring, he focused on high-yield, low-maintenance crop seeds—he remembered seeds were super affordable in the materials section. First on his list: sweet potatoes and potatoes. Potatoes had a higher yield and kept longer, but they were pretty bland. Sweet potatoes had a lower yield but were naturally sweet and could be eaten raw, which made them way more convenient.
Sam stared at the mall panel, looking at the two seed options, and stroked his chin. *Which one to pick? Man, I wanna get both!*
He did a quick mental calculation. Once the house was done, he could make practical daily items out of bamboo to earn even more energy. Plus, the ongoing rewards from his previous quests would keep trickling in. He grinned to himself. *Kids have to choose—adults take everything.*
Time flew by in a blur. The construction on Sam and Xuan's houses was already wrapping up.
Every night for the past few days, Xuan had snuck Sam out to the patrol zone to scavenge for useful resources. They'd only managed to gather a decent amount of hemostatic grass and a small batch of blackthorn grass, though—no blood-nourishing grass at all. These days, all the blood-nourishing grass in the tribe came from the hunting teams; they turned in most of their haul to the clan, then split the rest among themselves. Since Sam was the one who'd discovered the herbs' uses and the only person who knew how to work with them, the clan gave him a share every time they stockpiled a decent amount.
In his free time, Sam used the bamboo Xuan had brought back to make a bamboo chair and a set of bamboo storage jars.
Moving day arrived before Sam knew it. He stood at Qiuye's doorstep, clutching his woven bag, as Qiuye held his hand tightly, looking absolutely heartbroken. "Why do you have to live alone? Can't you just stay with us? Living by yourself means you gotta do everything on your own—it's no fun at all!"
Sam didn't know what to say, so he just smiled awkwardly and kept his mouth shut. He was dead set on having his own place.
Thankfully, Xia noticed his discomfort and stepped forward, wrapping an arm around Qiuye's shoulders and nodding at Sam and Xuan to make a run for it. "Kids grow up—they all want their own space eventually. It's not like you're moving far—you can come over for dinner every night if you want. Remember when we were their age? We couldn't wait to get away from our folks too."
Sam was still a little confused, but Xuan—who knew his parents way too well—grabbed his arm and hissed in his ear, "C'mon, let's go! If we stay any longer, Papa's gonna start crying, and we'll never get out of here."
Sam snapped to his senses, hugged his bag tight, and followed Xuan's lead, practically sprinting away.
Just as they were out of Qiuye's line of sight, Sam glanced back. Xia had his arms wrapped around Qiuye, blocking his view, and was murmuring something to comfort him.
The houses the beastmen built were way more spacious than anything Sam had seen back home—even the living room was big enough for a beastman to shift into their animal form and roll around comfortably. At Sam's request, Xuan had picked a relatively secluded spot with a huge empty lot around it, enclosed by a wooden fence—roughly half an acre of land, perfect for planting.
The two houses were close enough that it only took two or three minutes to walk from one to the other.
While the houses were being finished, Sam spent a little bit of energy to use the system's search function to look up ancient methods for making wooden doors and windows. He roped Xuan into being his grunt labor for two days, and together they built a bamboo door and set of bamboo windows using the same principles. When the house was fully done, the system rewarded him with another hidden quest completion: *Craft and use wooden doors and windows*.
The night after Sam caught the spotted brushbeast, Xuan had brought back the perfect beast fur for toothbrushes. While Xuan was busy figuring out the bamboo door, Sam had used the fur to make his first toothbrush—earning himself another chunk of energy.
Sam stepped into his new house, pushing the bamboo window open to let the sunlight flood in. The room was still pretty empty—just a stone bed with animal hides spread over it, a stone table in the living room, and a small partitioned-off space on the right that served as a kitchen, with a stone stove built exactly to Sam's specifications.
He couldn't have been happier—it was exactly what he'd pictured. Xuan, Lie, and Mu were amazing craftsmen. He made a mental note to save all the good stuff for them in the future.
He was sorting through the pile of things Qiuye had stuffed into his bag—despite his protests—when he heard a somewhat unfamiliar voice calling from outside. "Sam? Are you home? I'm Luo's mate—Ronglin."
Luo's mate? Sam thought back. The beastman who'd almost bled to death from an artery wound a few days ago—his name was Luo, right? What did his mate want with him?
He opened the door to find Ronglin standing on the porch, carrying two animal hide bags, with a ten-year-old cub standing beside her, struggling to drag a massive beast that looked like a wild boar—except way bigger and way more ferocious-looking.
"Hi—I'm Sam. What can I do for you?"
"I heard you moved into your new house today. I thought you might need some stuff to get started, so I brought you a few things." Ronglin set one of the hide bags down and held it out to Sam. "There's salt rocks, wild vegetables, and a set of brand-new stone bowls, pots, and knives—we haven't used any of them."
She fumbled with the bag, pulling out each item to show him, then quickly grabbed the second bag and held it out too. "This one's full of animal hides—all new, never been used." She pushed the bag of hides into Sam's hands.
"Oh, and this!" She nodded at the huge beast the cub was struggling with. "It's an adult fanged beast—everyone in the tribe loves eating these."
The cub beamed with pride at the mention of the beast, finally managing to drag it over to Sam's feet.
Sam stared at the mountain of supplies in front of him, his hands shooting out to wave them away. "Oh, you didn't have to do this—I can't possibly take all this!"
But Ronglin cut him off before he could finish, her eyes glistening with tears. "Please—you have to take it. We'll never be able to repay you for saving Luo's life. If you hadn't been there… he would've died. Our boy's only ten—if he'd lost his father, I never would've been able to raise him strong enough to join the hunting team. Please—don't make us feel even more indebted to you."
Her words were so heartfelt that Sam—who was already terrible at saying no—couldn't bring himself to refuse.
"How's Luo doing, anyway?" He asked, stepping aside to let Ronglin carry the bags inside.
"He's doing great! He caught this fanged beast himself—he'll be back with the hunting team in a few days." Ronglin's face lit up with a smile, her eyes filled with gratitude as she looked at Sam. Luo had made a full recovery—he was just as strong as he'd been before the injury.
"That's awesome to hear. Did you and Luo go to learn how to identify the medicinal herbs? I don't think I saw you that night."
"We did! Luo woke up the next day, and we went together first thing in the morning."
Once all the supplies were inside, Ronglin didn't stay long. She herded the cub toward the door, pausing to say one last thing before she left. "If you ever need anything—*anything* at all—just come find us, okay?"
Sam nodded, and she finally left, looking much more at peace.
Thanks to Ronglin's generous gifts, the house didn't feel nearly as empty anymore.
Sam walked over to inspect the fanged beast, marveling at how much it looked like a giant wild boar—at least twice the size of the ones back home. There was no way he could handle butchering something that big by himself.
He grinned to himself, already making plans. He'd leave the beast to Xuan to take care of—then they'd have a stone-grill barbecue, invite Lie and Mu over to thank them for helping build the house, and send a big portion to Xia and Qiuye to thank them for taking him in.
With that settled, he turned his attention to the bag of animal hides Ronglin had given him. The hides were all high-quality—including a huge, pristine white one. Sam knew that most of the hides the tribe used for clothes and bedding were dark brown or gray-black; light-colored hides were rare, and pure white ones were practically unheard of.
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