Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: From Primitive Era Chieftain to Space Era Emperor
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The sight of a massive mammoth charging madly, blood pouring from its forehead, was pure horror movie material.
I was certain of my immortality, but getting gored by those tusks would still hurt like hell.
The leader mammoth twisted its upper body in even greater fury and gave chase.
That was fine, though.
The mammoth was slower than our cavalry.
As the third squad raced over for the handoff, Broad Foot's wide-footed mount faltered, failing to stay under control.
To be precise, the mammoth leader—eyes bloodshot and berserk—had spooked the still-training horse into freezing up.
The consequences were dire.
Bam!
Broad Foot barely dodged the tusks, but the trunk clipped him, sending him flying.
Crunch!
"Gah!"
Broad Foot hurtled through the air and slammed into a tree.
I heard what sounded like ribs cracking.
"Broad Foot! Get up!"
But it was too late.
The leader whipped its head around and charged straight at him.
Dirt exploded as it pivoted.
The mammoth leader staggered on its legs from the impact, but rage overrode everything.
I had to decide fast.
Lose an elite ranger here?
If I could save him, I had to.
The tribe would expect no less.
"Everyone, ready javelins!"
We hurled our spears in unison at the turning mammoth.
Ten spears tore through the air, embedding in the mammoth leader's shoulder, flank, and legs.
-Kieeeek!
In that instant, the mammoth's roar exploded out.
It was a deafening screech that made my ears ring.
The rest of the herd reacted to the cry.
The ground shook all around us.
"Woolly beasts from the rear!"
Eagle's Eye shouted the warning.
"Everyone, fall back and loose arrows!"
We were short on time.
I grabbed the bow from my belt too.
Fortunately, the lead mammoth's aggro had shifted away from Broad Foot and back toward us as it twisted around.
That was its fatal mistake.
Its massive bulk worked against it—while our arrows peppered its body, I drew my bow to its breaking point and nailed the leader's left eye dead-center.
The leader thrashed wildly, slamming the ground.
Trees toppled from the shockwave, dust billowing up.
But its knees buckled too.
The javelins in its legs snapped, driving even deeper.
The unbalanced behemoth toppled forward.
I didn't miss my chance.
"Everyone, pull back!"
"Chieftain! Catch!"
Eagle's Eye tossed me a stone spear and retreated.
They knew sticking around would just get in the way.
Thud-thud-thud!
I raced toward the mammoth leader, biting my lip.
Broad Foot's injury might be on me, in a way.
I'd thought our cavalry skills were solid, but I'd underestimated the mammoths' ferocity.
Life-and-death moments were everyday stuff in this survival era, but no one should die from a mistake.
Grind!
"Hup!"
I tensed my shoulders with all my might.
The mammoth was raging hot, and so was I—fury boiling in my veins.
Blood surged to my shoulders like never before.
As I charged, I added momentum and raw power, plunging the spear into its temple.
The mammoth's colossal body convulsed violently... then went still.
Cheers erupted immediately.
"It's dead! The chieftain killed the woolly beast leader!"
"The herd's scattering!"
And sure enough, it was.
The charging females halted upon confirming the leader's death, then wheeled and fled.
Their retreating footsteps rumbled like an earthquake—chilling to the bone.
Broad Foot's condition worried me more than the blood-soaked mammoth corpse.
We hurried to him, pinned against the tree where something had clearly snapped.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Broad Foot. You okay?"
"Doesn't feel like anything's broken."
"Really?"
"Feels like a crack around here, though."
A massive purple bruise bloomed near his left ribs.
I let out a sigh of relief.
As his name suggested, Broad Foot had thick, sturdy bones.
Some people were just built tougher genetically, and he was one.
Anyone else might've had shattered ribs or died on impact.
Anyway.
We'd taken down the mammoth leader, and no major casualties.
"Woo!"
"The chieftain felled a mammoth!"
Success in mammoth hunting, but luring them wasn't viable.
With the leader rallying even the young ones into a furious charge, we needed better strategies.
We couldn't butcher the mammoth right away.
The blood scent would draw trouble, and the wagons wouldn't arrive for half a day to a full day.
At least we'd lured it toward our tribe's direction.
By the time the sun dipped past midday, Black Stone arrived leading the wagons.
"Black Stone! You made good time!"
"Figured the mammoth meat might spoil, so we hustled."
"Good work. Start butchering. Black Stone, check Broad Foot's injury."
"He's hurt?"
"Thinks his ribs are cracked."
Ten tribesmen hopped off the wagons and got to work, the warriors from the fight pitching in too.
Best practice: butcher immediately after the hunt and head home.
Black Stone began his examination(?).
He prodded under the ribs with his fingers.
A short groan escaped, so he applied salve along them.
That was it.
"Just bruising. No cracks."
The warriors sighed in relief.
Broad Foot grinned sheepishly.
If not cracked, he'd been whining too much.
Even with that brutal bruise, any tough guy from this era would shrug it off.
Black Stone took a breather, swigging water by the fire, then dropped a bombshell in his casual tone.
"Chieftain. On the way here, I think I spotted that lime quarry you mentioned."
"What?"
Black Stone pulled a palm-sized white chunk from his belt.
He scraped it with a blade, powder flaking off.
White rock, matte surface.
Black Stone explained.
"Layers stacked thick, like a long cliff of low hills. Rub it, and it leaves a slick powder. White stones scattered everywhere. Puddles were milky. That right?"
"Spot on."
"We camped there last night."
My eyes must've widened.
An open-pit lime quarry?
I ground the chunk Black Stone handed me.
Chalky texture, just like.
Was this really it?
Lime quarries could be valuable resources, depending on the area.
'A lime quarry, though.'
Bronze Age tech was needed for full exploitation, but having one near the tribe was huge.
I wasn't staying a day or two—eventually, I'd develop copper alloys (bronze), mining gear, and birth cement.
No doubt about it.
"Once butchering's done, let's go check it out."
After butchering, I took Black Stone and a few scouts to the lime quarry.
The rest returned slowly to base with the wagons.
About half a day's trek.
The quarry was visible from afar.
The terrain brightened abruptly, one valley wall stripped white.
Lime dust billowed with every gust.
Up close, layered bands were clear.
Grayish whites and milky stripes, fossils peeking between.
Black Stone asked.
"This the lime quarry?"
"Yep. With this, we can build way sturdier structures. From roads to total revolution."
Black Stone had spent enough time with me to grasp most shorthand.
Our current mortar wasn't true mortar—just dubbed primitive mortar for lack of a better name.
But lime?
We had kilns for quicklime.
Architecture would skyrocket from there.
Master iron smelting, and steel-frame(?) buildings weren't a pipe dream.
I showed Black Stone a quick demo.
He was the most seasoned advisor; I'd task him with lime research.
Gathered white chunks, heated them long on a hot stone slab by the fire.
Color paled from grayish to ghostly, cracks zigzagging.
Cool and grind.
Small pieces could be powdered somehow.
"What's this for?"
"Sprinkle on hides for clean depilation. Repels bugs too. Mix with mud, and building gaps harden like stone."
"For real!?"
"Dead serious. Copper mine development comes first, but we have transport."
"Right. Grabbing and firing small chunks ain't hard. Soon two thousand tribesfolk incoming—housing them uses plenty of labor anyway."
Labor was always scarce here, but divvied up, hauling quarry scraps was doable.
Kiln-firing and pestle-grinding was inefficient, but yielded small quicklime batches.
Enough for experiments.
Black Stone grinned at the quicklime.
"So much to do, huh?"