“Arthur! There is something coming towards the village!” Nick yelled with a shaky voice, breaking Arthur out of his creative zone.
Having enlisted the help of Kurt and tearing down the initial hut, the prototype of the heavy duty cart was almost done.
‘Oh shit… Here we go again, what’s the deal this time…’ Unhappy about the constant interruptions, Arthur raised his head and saw Nick running towards himself and Kurt.
Nick briefly explained what happened. Since Sinde was suspecting a pack of wild animals stampeding nearby, Arthur rubbed his head and felt exhausted. Too much had happened in a short period of time.
“Get the villagers ready and inform Mei as well. She’s good with animals, so maybe she’ll have some ideas about the situation.”
Within a few minutes, most of the villagers were marching towards the forest’s boundary.
After looking around, Arthur could not see Mei anywhere and pulled Nick’s sleeve.
“So where is Mei? I specifically asked to bring her too.”
“I have no idea… She is playing around as she likes with her groyotes, so maybe she will pop up soon?” Nick looked at the frustrated Arthur with a bitter smile.
“Whatever, let’s not be rash and observe the situation properly first.”
The villagers set out as one big group. Few of the hunters scouted ahead and signaled to continue normally.
As the group advanced forward, the trees, bushes and vines started to increase in density, and in height. Some of the ancient trees were massive in size, and bore fruits on the tall branches covered by the large leaves.
The ground shook again slightly, and a few of those fruits fell down from the shaking branches on the ground with a plop.
Being curious about the fruits on the ground, Caleb picked a handful of them and ate one.
“What are you doing Caleb? What if they are poisonous?” One of the villagers reproached him, and sought help from Arthur.
“Relax, I know what I am doing.” Replying curtly, he savored the fruit for a moment before turning to Arthur. “They are very sweet, I could imagine they would be popular with both humans and animals. What if there was a large omnivorous creature that didn’t know how to climb those tall trees, what would it do?”
Arthur slapped his hands together as he understood the implication. “You mean…There’s something that’s making a ruckus just to get to the fruits and it has nothing to do with Nick?”
“I can’t say for certain, but the tremors are coming from deep in the forest. As you can see, the deeper we go, the larger the trees are, which in turn have more fruits in them.” Sinde took a glance in the direction of the origin of the tremors and shrugged.
Fifteen minutes passed in a flash. The tremors were strengthening as they got closer to the epicenter. Some of the villagers were starting to be afraid of the creatures that could make the ground tremble like that.
In the midst of the large trees, Arthur signaled everyone to be quiet and careful.
He was sure that the creatures causing all this were just beyond the small hill when he saw one of the large trees shaking violently.
“If we don’t have to, don’t show the creatures any hostility. We just have to make sure that they are not a threat to us.” Whispering quietly, Arthur remarked.
Slowly the group advanced and saw the culprits in a glade beyond the small hill. The glade itself was fairly large, surrounded by massive trees and a small spring in the middle of it.
The sun was hanging in the clear, blue sky that illuminated half of a glade in a warm light.
Small purple birds swam past a massive creature drinking without a worry in the world, reflecting light and leaving only quiet ripples in the water behind them.
Furry. And very big. That’s what came to the group’s mind when they saw the creatures chewing the fruits and grass off the ground.
The creatures resembled a yak from the Earth, but with horns like deer. The thick, black fur covered 95% of their massive body, leaving only the area around their three eyes and snout furless.
“Chief, I don’t think we should even try to hunt these things. They must weigh at least 500 units of stone… What can we even do if those things just decide to walk all over us?” Scared villager said with a trembling voice, and unconsciously backed a few steps.
The others reluctantly agreed with the assessment, and wished to return quickly back to the village. They felt that it was a wasted trip and even the most experienced hunters felt that their pathetic spears or stone axes wouldn’t even get past their fur.
Arthur on the other hand was daydreaming. They seemed omnivore and pretty relaxed, but what if there was a chance the beasts could be tamed?
The previous incident with the groyotes came to his mind, and a petite face of a certain person came to his mind.
“We need to get Mei here as soon as we can. If there is someone who can bond well with animals in our village, it is Mei.” Arthur muttered quietly.
“Are you serious? Just look at those things, how are we supposed to gain their trust?” With a disbelief on his face, Sinde couldn’t believe the direction Arthur wanted to take.
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“You said it yourself, they eat those fruits on the trees and grass. What if we get plenty of food, a person who could gain their trust and a comfortable place for them to live, would it not be possible?”
Arthur rubbed his hands together and signaled everyone to retreat. He took one last glance at the beasts and concluded that it would be possible as long as it was done right.
It was now time to make preparations for gaining the beast's trust and get in touch with Mei.
“Chief, when we find Mei what should we tell her?”
“Tell her everything, especially about the fruits and that they are able to coexist with birds and so on. Put an emphasis on the fact that they can’t be enraged… If they trample our village, there’s nothing we can do…”
One of the villagers near Arthur asked what they should call the beasts. After all, it was better to make things clear.
If there were new species spotted often, there would be confusion with the naming. When Arthur tried to think of a name for the new species, Sinde shoved him with his elbow and playfully suggested to Arthur to let Mei name it.
“Hell no. If I let her name them, they’ll end up being furfurs or hoofhoofs. It’s better to think about something ourselves.” With a shudder, Arthur immediately denied the suggestion and let Nick or Caleb decide the name this time.
And the deciding rights came to be won by Nick after a round of rock paper scissors. It was the duo’s go to deciding method that Arthur taught after a small spat they had been in.
The final name for the massive creatures became Berox.
Caleb and the rest scratched his head with confusion, thinking where did the name come from and Nick explained carefreely that they were like him: When calm, they were friendly but in his mind when they were angered, they would go berserk. Thus the berserk ox, Berox was settled as the name.
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A few hours later back at the village, the search for Mei continued and few of the villagers were already organizing themselves.
During the trip back to the village a few of the villagers had collected and ate a few fruits from the trees and liked the sweetness. It was not enough to have just fish or rely their luck with the hunter’s prey, some of the villagers seeked diversity in their meals and made up their mind to start assembling a gathering party for the fruits.
Charlotte was in charge of the job related buildings and actively encouraged the villagers to gather resources for the new ones.
The pile of resources started to diminish as new buildings started to pop along the main road towards the sea.
A Blacksmith shop, woodworker’s shop and herbalist’s shop had been built in just a few hours. The newly built blacksmith shop left Arthur both happy and sour at the same time, as it consumed most of the little iron he had there.
Arthur walked inside the blacksmithy and was greeted by the man who picked the profession.
“Howdy Chief! What was going on with the forest?” Todd asked curiously while trying to fan the flames inside the furnace.
“Ah, we found a pack of massive beasts that can be of use for the village, but it takes time. I came here to ask how blacksmithing exactly works here.” Curiously, Arthur brushed off the topic of the Beroxes in the forest and looked around the shop.
The interior was both neat and pleasant. The system template actually gave some furniture and the essentials, such as forge, anvil and furniture when building it, resolving some of his worries.
Even a few chairs and a counter were in the front section of the spacious shop.
‘Well I'll be damned. I wonder if I can rip off a few chairs from the shops to my shack so that I don’t have to sleep on the floor.’ With this thought in mind, he asked Todd. “Have you tried moving the furniture outside of the shop?”
Todd raised his eyebrow and turned his attention away from the billowing flames. “Nope, but it’s impossible. “Share inspect: Chair.”
Just as Arthur was about to ask what was that about, he saw a notification to accept or reject [Inspect].
‘Accept’
Chair Rating: Common [ Furniture, Bound to blacksmithy ] Effects:
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Weight: 2.5 kg Durability: 45/45 A common chair that is comfortable to sit on after a long day
“Does your inspect work on other stuff as well?” Throwing the thought of stealing the chairs and furniture for himself out of the window, Arthur found something crucial from the inspect window.