“I have some plans,” Alex said. “Of course, I am going to leave as soon as I can. However, we operate on an entirely different concept of time, so what is soon to me may not be as short to you all.”
“But you are going to leave.”
“Of course,” Alex said. “I only have a few things I need to do, and I will be off.”
“Do you require some help with that?” the chief asked.
“Father, you’re making it sound like you want him to leave again,” Mili quickly said.
“He understands what I mean. You two don’t need to butt in every time.”
Alex smiled. “I’m afraid there isn’t much any of you can do. I will have to do it myself. Although, I could use some help in preparing new clothes for me.”
“I will have the seamstresses get together to make you proper silk clothes,” the chief said.
Alex smiled. “Thank you.”
The truth was, Alex had stayed behind for two reasons precisely. First, he wanted to watch over these people he had come to get acquainted with and make sure their cultivation was going at a decent speed.
Second, he needed some things in preparation for him leaving this place. And those were things he needed to make himself. ‘I should get started in searching for it then.’
Alex attacked the seal before going to sleep that night and woke up early in the morning. After a small session of training with his Intent again, he left for the mountain.
A few people went with him, wanting to learn about more herbs. Alex was fine with that. He taught the people what they wanted to know. At the same time, he searched for any sort of beast he could find in this mountain.
He was told that while most beasts had left the mountain, there were still some snakes, rodents, and occasionally deer that came by. He was searching for one of those deer.
He could probably make do with what he wanted with the fish too, but the deer was what he had learned it with, so he wanted to find one for the sake of familiarity.
It took Alex nearly three hours of walking around the massive mountain before finally finding a deer. By that point, most of those that had come to the mountain with him had to go back to the tribe already.
Barely three other people remained.
Alex sensed the deer and found it to have a True realm cultivation base as well, albeit quite low. ‘This should do,’ he thought and swung his sword. The deer’s head was sliced off cleanly, the beast dying with no pain at all.
He walked over and carried the beast. “Let’s return.”
They walked back down the mountain and asked for the chief’s knife to begin flaying the dead beast. The chief asked, curious about what he was doing, but Alex didn’t answer him. He chose to wait until he was successful.
Once Alex had the hide of the beast, he gave the other parts to the tribe, letting them eat the meat. He had no use for the meat, only the hide.
There were many steps still to deal with the hide, most of which the tribe was familiar with, so he let them handle it. The chief’s wife took control of the process, where she was going to turn the hide into leather.
He could speed up the process through some mixture of herbs he could make a paste out of, but even then, the process would take some days at least. So, he spent the rest of his time as he would on other days.
Alex taught a group of people about herbs and pastes. Their daily routine was to learn what they could from him, record it all down, and practice it on their own for days they would need it.
He went to the ocean next to get some more cores and improve the quantity of ores in his body. After that, he had the people learn about Qi Manipulation. He also taught them some physical combat skills just in case they needed it. Whether it be men or women, everyone wanted to learn as much as they could from him.
By the time he was done with it all, evening came around, so it was once again time to fight the seal and go to sleep.
The next few days passed the same way until, on one particular day, the leather was ready.
“Mother says the leather is ready.”
“Really?” Alex was excited. It had taken way too long.
Alex arrived at the chief’s house after being called by Mili right after he taught others about the herbs. He rushed back, surprising many others along the way.
Mili failed to keep up at all.
Alex arrived at the house and saw the woman outside the house in the sun, scrubbing at some tiny imperfections on the leather. She turned as he arrived.
“Here, it’s done. Please check if it is up to your standard,” the woman said.
Alex walked up to the leather and checked it thoroughly. There were some cracks around the leather, which was generally bad, but there was a large chunk at the center that was more or less perfect.
“This will do,” Alex said. “I need something sharp to cut it.”
The woman nodded and brought a sharp rock to him. The rocks they used for cutting were obsidian they found at the depth of the ocean, so it was rather sharp.
Alex began cutting at the leather, making a perfect circle around the portion with no imperfections.
The woman was slightly taken aback to see him cut it so quickly. She had expected him to have better use for it.
“You’re cutting it already?” Mili asked right as she arrived. “I thought you were going to use the whole thing?”
“I was,” Alex said. “But I can only use the parts that are good. Everything else must go.”
Mili frowned. “What are you making anyway with that tiny piece?”
Alex smiled. “It’s something called a storage bag.”