Fantasy Starting from the Stone Age - Chapter 38
Only Noblemtl
Episode 38. Perseverance. Exchange. Inheritance. 3
Several hundred years and several dozen generations passed. Some of the wolf tribe, who were mixed Bark-Datun, took over the ranch.
It was impossible to go near Dator, which was in ruins and where the Hanjutamal was spreading, but cattle were raised in the wide pastures above it.
“It is the spirit of a cow.”
And to make the name Wolf Tribe seem meaningless, they created a small animal spirit. Some tribesmen grew horns on their heads and grew very large while herding cattle.
“This is a bit tricky. Our ancestors are wolves, not cows.”
The wolf tribe pondered and concluded that there was a clear difference between these herders and themselves. They did not want to live like cows, but wanted to eat cows.
The animal spirit is the union of a human and an animal. For animals, this is the same as the human spirit. Just as the wolves of the Wolf Clan were able to stand up and walk, the cows of Dator also began to stand on two feet and become human-like.
And then one day, the Hanjutamal spread. All of Dator’s herdsmen, the Bark tribe, fell ill with the Hanjutamal and died.
However, the walking and talking cattle were a bit different. Like leopards and lions, the hairy cattle were not affected by the Hanjuta language.
They say, Oh, I can tell you that. Because you’ve really become human.
“Our ancestors were cattle raised by Daton. Later, the Bark tribe made us human. They retreated from the disease, but they will return someday.”
“Oh my. They liked us. There’s even a statue of us over there.”
“They will return someday, so let’s live on this ranch and take care of the shrine made from the bones of our ancestors!”
A race similar to the commonly thought of Minotaur was born. The small people believed that Daton would return someday, so they interacted with the Gigard tribe in the north and the Bark tribe in the east and protected their lands.
Unlike other races that are roughly called animals + beastmen, they also have their own unique name. It’s ‘Kwako’. It means cow herding cow.
Just before the suppressant of the Hanjutamal was created, a woman came to the outermost part of Dator where the ranch was located. The pilgrimage that started from the center and its administrative power had finally reached the outskirts.
“They say there was once a village here······.”
I thought it would be desolate. Perhaps all sorts of creatures would take over the village. The scaled hippopotamus would be free from the control of the spirit tree and become ferocious, and all sorts of beasts would return to the wild, eating each other.
But when I actually got there, it wasn’t like that! There were walking cows living and cultivating the pastures. And they were raising other cows like oxen and rhinoceroses.
“uh?”
The Quako tribe had grown to nearly 3 meters in size due to their interactions with the muscular Barks and the large Gigaard tribes, rather than the thin Daton tribes. The Quako tribe was very surprised to see Daton at their ranch.
“Daton! Daton Immer!”
“Oh. Right. A cow?”
“We are Quako. The cows of your ranch have become people. We have been waiting for you.”
A very strong dialect, but clear Daton-Bak. She is amazed when she hears explanations of the history of the place.
“Then you are our friends. Not family······.”
“Friend! Alright. Here is the legacy left by your ancestors.”
The place they were taken to was a magnificent altar or temple built on a hill and decorated with cow bones and stones around it.
What is there are two statues, one carved from stone and the other carved from smelted cow horn.
Nearby was a mountain of cow bones, not placed intentionally.
“That’s right. This was cut by Daton!”
“Oh my! We have made this place a sacred shrine. Do you have anything to leave here?”
It was a curious thing. Do sculptures have wills?
She wants to introduce the Quako tribe to Datang and rebuild the ranch around this place.
And I feel like I have to leave something behind like the previous ranchers.
She happened to be a sculptor named Raphi, and she decided to carve a statue of a cow from a nearby rock, following the existing cow horn sculpture and cow painting on the hill, and to make it the symbol of this ranch and the symbol of this Kwako village.
“Datun will come here too. Your land will still be yours.”
“Yes. It was nice to meet our ancestors. Daton.”
The tradition was passed down in a different way among the Barks, which means that someone has to do it after that.
With the advent of Marech, the stagnation period ended and the suppressant of Hanjutamal was spread. Although the vicious disease is still feared, life has become somewhat more livable.
As the reconstruction period began and interactions with other races increased, the ranch and village in the north prospered greatly. This was because a significant portion of the northern part of the grassland was part of this ranch, as there was no interruption in external interactions. The Quako tribe, whose diet did not overlap with that of the Daton, were also very reliable workers.
Initially, the shrine contained only a sculpture and a painting, but it was filled with sculptures carved from cow bones, skulls, and nearby rocks. Continuing a tradition passed down from the early days, the Daton ranch owners carved their favorite cows and placed them there.
“I don’t have any more pieces to try, so what on earth should I carve?”
The woman is troubled. She must do something to follow the tradition that has been passed down since the beginning, but the previous owners of the ranch must have been in the same predicament, because they brought stones that were only found in the far north and put in a lot of effort, such as carving them or cutting them into jewels.
There are many people who left behind paintings, people who made pottery, and there are many people who left behind sculptures, but since it is a tradition that has continued for a very long time, there is nothing left for the next generation to do. The woman who owns the ranch is really, really worried.
The answer came surprisingly from an outside guest. They were a strange race of people who were short like children but stocky and had hair on their heads and noses. They called themselves the Baekkan tribe.
“I came to buy it because the kneecap of the kneecap is so strong and good.”
“Hmm. And in return?”
Baekkan mutters something, and the Bark who was interpreting looks perplexed.
“I don’t know what this is called in Daturn. Look.”
And what the Baekkan tribe handed over was a smooth lump, cut into squares, shining golden.
Because this is literally gold. She is amazed.
“Huh, huh?”
It’s not that I don’t know what this substance is. There are gold mines in Datang, too. However, gold is so reactive that it exists only in liquid form. This is the first time I’ve seen something this pure in solid form.
“How did you make this not flow?”
Baekkan is perplexed. He replies that he dug it out of the ground and then simply melted it in fire and hardened it.
“Oh, no, that won’t work?”
The rancher melts it with his fire spirit, just like the second rancher. As the saying goes, the metal just melts, and when it cools, it doesn’t harden again.
But when the Baekkan tribe put it back in the furnace and did some processing, it hardened. It seems that Baekkan knows a technique that Daton doesn’t.
“Let’s make a deal first.”
She takes a keen interest in this. When she melted the gold she received, it flowed as it was, but when she added the most suitable clay, molten copper, and the Baekkan technique, it became hard and she made a cow out of it.
When combined like this, it was incredibly strong. I could melt it, though.
“If we apply this a bit, it seems like we’ll be able to develop some great technology······.”
She gets the Innovation Medal. That’s the end of it for her generation, but if she studies the smelting thing a little more, something will come out of it.
A festival was held in the village of the Quako tribe, for their rancher, who had gone north a hundred years ago, had returned.
He liked cattle, but he seemed more fascinated by them after the previous rancher brought him the refined metal. He went north and did not return for a while.
Later, the Quako tribe took over and successfully domesticated other cattle while carrying out the work of transporting goods using cattle, but they did not keep them because they were not qualified to make sculptures.
“It’s been a long time since you’ve been back. Did you make any money?”
“Yes. I know how to make molten metal return to its original state.”
This is a technology that the Baekkan tribe created to make metal processing easier. And for Daton, who can only live in high-power areas, it was essential, but it was also incredibly difficult to go there and learn about smelting.
The old rancher reveals his amazing method.
“Metal melts because it is imbued with magic. So, all you have to do is simply remove the magic.”
“How do I get rid of it?”
“It’s simple. You don’t burn with ‘magic power.’ You burn ‘magic power······!”
Since I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, the ranch owner demonstrated.
First, a mold is made and cold but molten metal is poured into it. Normally, this would be called casting, but in places where the concentration of magic is high, the metal reacts to the magic and remains liquid.
“This is not only a mold, but also a kiln. Here, fire is made naturally without using spirits.”
Let’s light the mold. The metal inside starts to boil. The owner of the Sunseondae ranch then breathes ‘will’ into the fire that is attached to the kiln.
It is, so to speak, the work of creating spirits from natural objects by will. Creating a new fire spirit.
However, the magical power that makes up the spirit is extracted from the metal. When this happens, a new fire spirit is created and its magical power is sucked out of the metal, leaving the metal without magical power.
And when this cools, a neatly solidified sculpture comes out in the shape of a mold. He takes out a sculpture cast in the shape of a cow from a small mold. And when he covers it with something like glaze used in pottery firing, it stops melting in the surrounding magic, so he uses this to create his work.
“How is it?”
“Umm!”
He taught his skills to many Quakos and Datons. He left the cattle herding to the Quakos and took care of the blacksmithing work that the cattle hated, and he was confined to his workshop. He studied this skill diligently, but did not consider it perfect.
“I know the principle, so I’m sure I can make something better next time. I’m sure of it.”
He now felt it was time to raise a successor, not one who would take up dairy farming or transportation, but one who would develop this smelting technology.
Raised as a blacksmith rather than a herder, the next rancher develops the skills discovered by his predecessors to the fullest extent and places a statue decorated with luxurious jewels in the cow hall. A tradition that has continued for a very long time is also carried on.
Suddenly he thinks.
“To be honest, I’ve lived on a ranch my whole life, but I’ve never really liked cows······. It’s different when you make it yourself.”
Suddenly, I felt a gaze. I turned my head and saw an object carved from a bull’s horn. It was the first sculpture. It was made by the first ranch owner in an era when I don’t know exactly how many thousands of years ago.
“Something feels strange······. It feels like it’s looking at me.”
He takes it lightly.
Artificially create spirits through the individual’s mental power (and refine them)
What Daton still hasn’t figured out is what that means. It’s common for technology to find utility in places other than its intended purpose.
The gradual changes are almost at a critical point. It will not be long before Daton gains new mysteries.