Morning came and the sun was up once more, the small town was buzzing with noise as everyone was gossiping about the person that was resting in the cottage next to the Chief’s home. The man in question didn’t sleep all that well as he tossed and turned in the unfamiliar bed most of the time, getting in like 3 to 4 hours of sleep. He wasn’t that tired thanks to his new constitution though, but he swore to himself to get a better bed in the future, he even pulled up his cash shop and could see some furniture that had plus stats to resting and relaxation. But he had less than 100 points at the moment so first came the grinding.
He washed his face and brushed his teeth, he got a nice deal in the form of 1 SP for a toothbrush and toothpaste set at least the non magical things were cheap in the store. But there was nothing in the form of electronics in the item store, guess they limited it to non technological items from his old world, guess they didn’t want him selling smartphones around here. People in this world used some strange jade slips that had limited range and the world was huge so you couldn’t just contact everyone you wanted.
*I guess food and furniture will have to do. Well I can turn spirit stones to SP, so I should see if I can sell stuff at one of those action houses, if I grind here enough I’ll probably have a lot of beast cores to spare, think those should sell well.*
Matt whistled to himself as he exited his bedroom and as he opened the door he twitched a bit as one of the serving ladies from the previous night was standing right there. She gave him a little bow and informed Matt about breakfast that he was invited to by the Chief.
“Ah yes, the big guy did say something about eating in the morning yesterday, I guess you’ll guide me there, little miss?”
The girl smiled at him and nodded moving in front of him as they left the house, there were the guards around as yesterday but this time around they didn’t follow after him but remained in place. They were right at the Chief’s place, so there was no use in doing that as there were more burly uncles at his house anyway.
The Chief’s house was also made from logs and wood, it was a lot more spacious then the cabin he was sleeping in. He could see that there were a lot of people living in there as they were buzzing around and everyone was doing something. The Chief had one wife, but he had many children the oldest one being the kid that was berating his fellow tribesmen yesterday. It wasn’t odd to have many wives if the male was of higher status and could support them. His whole family was ready and waiting at a long table filled with many various dishes that Matt wasn’t all too familiar with, but there was a whole lot of meat there.
“Good morning Senior Dong, come sit with.”
He was lead to a spot next to the village leader, he nodded at the people around the table which varied from old elderly people to kids in about their teens, guess they spared him of having children there. He was feeling a bit guilty as the people were making a really big deal of him being here and he didn’t really do much to deserve it besides being the person with the biggest cultivation in the room. The man of the house started prattling on while Matt examined the food on the table, there was something to drink, the cups were dark so he didn’t know if it was water or something else. Most of the dishes were meat based, there was some brown bread in there too though but no butter.
“And this is second uncle Li and his wife Lei”
He nodded at the people not really being able to remember the names as they all sounded a bit similar to him. But he decided to suck it up and just nodded while not showing much emotion on his face, but it twitched here and there as he could swear he heard the same names getting repeated several times.
“Does the honorable Senior Dong want to say something before we eat?”
*Could you stop calling me honorable, you don’t even know me.*
He grimaced a bit while everyone in the room looked at him, their facial expressions ranged from fearful, curious all up to stern as they waited for him to speak. Matt just coughed into his hand and tried replying in a way that wouldn’t make him look stupid.
“Ah, the Tartat Tribe was it, you have my thanks for the lodging and the food, um don’t worry I’ll be sure to repay you, later on, Oh also, could I have a word with you, Chief Shan, after we have eaten?”
The Chief showed a glint in his eye and nodded while laughing, he also ignored that the man got the tribe name wrong. A big smile on his face as he heard that the cultivator would repay them later on and that he wanted to speak with him in private.
“Sure sure, Senior just eat as much as you want and we will speak afterward.”
He mostly wanted to discuss the grinding session that he wanted to do, there were a lot of beasts in that huge forest that was the size of a country on its own. There were a lot of frenzied monsters in there but they weren’t strong or anything. He wanted to strike a deal with the Tribe members, he would provide them with the animal corpses and they would process them for him. The tribe would get all the meat from the beasts as they wanted and the pelts but he would anything that could be used for crafting, like horns, claws, scales and also the beast cores that were also used for that, but could also be used for other things like pills and potions and even for some cultivation techniques.
He took some bread and gave it a bite, it was the brown kind of bread with seeds in them so it had a lot of nutrients, it wasn’t all that fluffy but it had a good taste to it. He was worried about the meat on the table as after killing the wolves yesterday he was afraid that they would cook and serve those to him, he didn’t really want to eat dog or wolf meat. He just asked and was told that it was made from the deer monster instead as herbivore meat was a lot better to consume than carnivore meat. So he took the plunge and started eating the meat, it tasted a bit bland without seasoning but was fine to eat so he chomped and nommed to his heart content and after some time they were done with eating.
Well at least he was done, but everyone else was kind of forced to stop after he was done with his share. They later stood up and he went away with Yang Shan to a separate room to talk. Matt told him about the deal and he was ready to even let them have some of the crafting materials if they wanted them, he was mostly aiming for the cores and the spirit points to further his power level. But the Chief was more than happy to agree to his terms as they were having a bit of a food crisis now, with all the beasts killing each other at an increased pace and the hunters having a hard time procuring meat without casualties. He also had another agenda as he thought that maybe if the cultivator was going to go to the forest to hunt beasts, he might get to the bottom of why the beasts are going mad. He didn’t think that the man was there just for the beast cores though, but he didn’t want to pry further.
“Great, well then I’ll be heading out not sure when I’ll be back, but you don’t need to have people follow me all around this place next time when I return… okay?”
He asked while scratching the back of his neck, the Yang Shan just nodded and opened the door for him while letting Matt out of the room, seeing him off as the large crystal sword was revealed and Zhang Dong jump onto it to fly away towards the forest area while other people just watched him with wonder and envy in their eyes.
