Chapter 276
The hunt was a resounding success. With the assistance of the higher level cultivators among the refugees, the Pack brought back over forty edible category 2 and 3 Beasts, with over half of them in total and almost all of the category 3 Beasts producing a usable core.
That’s enough cores to finish the furnishings for the new building, as well as to provide daily necessities for a month if they’re frugal. The news came as a massive shock to the refugees. That a single day of the group’s strongest going hunting could supply all they would need for a month’s basic survival wasn’t even something they’d dared to dream.
The problem they’re having is that the pack didn’t account for all the extra necessary meat. Almost every species here loves meat. The more the better, but they didn’t plan out enough storage space. A new root cellar, a building built slightly underground to maintain a naturally cool temperature, is being built with several large freezers.
Still, if they keep hunting edible creatures to collect cores, they will end up with more fresh meat than they need, so plans for a smokehouse to preserve the meat are underway, as well as ideas for cooking and distribution.
Alpha Conway plans to hold a meeting about that in the next few days, once they’ve come up with a longer-term plan. The current one’s not bad. Barbecue all day, every day. They’ve produced a set of huge smokers capable of slow-roasting 800 lbs a day, or roughly enough for two pounds per person with the current population.
Werewolves and Dragon Kin are both big eaters, so that shouldn’t produce much for leftovers, but the same flavors constantly might get tiring.
Though, knowing the Wolves, it probably won’t. If they didn’t need other foods for proper nutrition, they would eat nothing but roast meat their entire lives.
Tonight’s dinner has been pulled from the smokers, stoves, and ovens to be served as a public picnic due to the unfurnished nature of the dining halls in the new residences. Much like a restaurant, they’re big enough to seat everyone who lives there, and in a werewolf pack, almost everyone would eat and socialize there at least once usually twice a day. The idea that everyone should eat alone or in small groups is foreign to the werewolves. They’re pack animals at heart, and don’t do well in isolation.
That’s brought everyone out to the center of the compound under a set of crude shelters to keep dry, since getting meals to four hundred people one at a time through the kitchen would take forever.
Despite the rain, the kids are ecstatic. Pudding isn’t a dessert that is served in their world so they will try their first new sweets, still adapting to the culture shock of a new world. The happiness is contagious, and even though they’re getting wet, everyone is still joking and laughing as they wait in line, or gather to eat under the hastily erected awnings and in the unfurnished dining rooms.
After the buffet trays are empty and everyone is fed, they start lining up for the creation circle, monster cores in hand to fuel everyone’s choices of home decor. The pack has done this once before, so they’re more prepared this time, assigning helpers to kids without parents, including the disguised Gerald, and having a standard set of furnishings ready because things like mattresses and dishes every family will need.