Austin's slumber within the Dragon Nest Tribe didn't cause much of a stir. Apart from the daily prayers in the morning and evening, the lives of Dragon Nest Beastmen continued on the usual path, gradually moving forward. Under various divisions of labor and cooperation, the Dragon Nest Tribe is steadily expanding, with its strength growing rapidly and swelling.

The Blood Claw captives are also obedient, not causing any trouble because of Austin's slumber. Through successive treatment and subsequent military training and transformation, the captives from the Blood Claw Tribe have started to integrate into the entire Dragon Nest Tribe system.

It is conceivable that soon, the Beastman captives will completely integrate into the Dragon Nest Tribe.

This also allowed the upper echelons, including Vinek, to breathe a sigh of relief. In fact, before his slumber, Austin had handed over the War Horn and Magic Crossbow Arrows confiscated from the Blood Claw Tribe to Vini as an emergency precaution in case of any accidents during his slumber.

Now it seems, they can indeed breathe a sigh of relief.

...

With the addition of a large number of Beastman captives, the total population of the Dragon Nest Tribe now steadily exceeds two thousand, with over fifty extraordinary Beastmen among them.

Such a large force has become an undeniable dominant force in the nearby region, justifying Austin's decision to enter slumber and delegate security defense to his clan.

Given such a large population, the daily consumption of food is also enormous. Fortunately, after the previous cold winter ended, the Dragon Nest Tribe started reclamation and planting. After half a year of reclamation and development, the tribe has accumulated a large amount of food. Although, due to time constraints, planting only Earth rice can sustain the Dragon Nest Tribe, which has expanded to over two thousand people, for only a little over two months.

However, now there are still half a month away from the cold winter season. Coupled with the Earth rice and various grains harvested from the reclaimed fields, the tribe can barely support itself through the three-month cold winter period.

Of course, this calculation is purely based on consumption. In reality, Dragon Nest Beastmen, apart from the harvest from the reclaimed fields, can also go out to gather and hunt.

As the cold winter approaches, whether it's fruits or various prey, the forest has become very abundant, and all living creatures seem to be having their final celebration this year.

Sending Beastmen out for hunting and gathering each day yields a large amount of fruit, Earth rice, and seeds. Additionally, with the joining of Centaur Beastmen and the urgent efforts from the Goblin Manufacturing Workshop, enough arrows have been produced to allow Centaurs to exploit their long-range advantage.

During each hunting expedition, due to the excellent discipline among various hunting regiments and their teamwork, combined with the Centaur Beastmen's strong running endurance and ranged advantage, they basically return fully loaded.

After a few days, the harvested prey not only supplies the tribe but there is considerable surplus.

Although the Beastman hunting teams can hunt a lot of prey each day, a large part of the daily harvest is directly made into jerky by the Beastmen, with only a portion mixed with Earth rice and other grains consumed on the same day.

Besides reclamation and planting, and hunting and gathering, some of Austin's previous plans have also begun to show their effects.

For instance, the mushroom room led by Finn produces a large amount of mushrooms daily, which the tribe can't consume entirely. Many nontoxic mushrooms are dried, stored, and taken out to enjoy when they can't cultivate mushrooms in the Banyan Forest during the cold winter.

Also, in terms of animal husbandry, the wild cattle herd obtained after capturing the Minotaur Tribe doesn't need much mention; hundreds of wild cattle are enough for the entire Dragon Nest Tribe to eat for over half a month. Of course, the Dragon Nest Beastmen wouldn't squander them like that. Wild cattle not only accelerate the reclamation speed of the Dragon Nest Tribe but, once trained, the Cow Cavalry can exert extremely powerful strength, whether for production, transportation, or combat. The wild cattle herd plays an incredibly strong role unless diseased, injured, old, or weak, Beastmen wouldn't easily eat the wild cattle.

Although wild cattle cannot be slaughtered, the wild boar herd raised is easier to slaughter.

Despite Earth rice harvested after planting and Beastmen's leftovers can be used as feed for the penned wild boar herd, to save feed during the cold winter, the Dragon Nest Beastmen picked out over a hundred wild boars for slaughter, leaving only around thirty as breeding pigs for next year.

Of course, those over a hundred penned wild boars are presumed to be slaughtered after the cold winter sets in because the entire Dragon Nest Tribe is preparing for its arrival. Hunting outside, gathering, harvesting from reclaimed fields, everyone's workload has reached the limit. Even the Blood Claw Tribe captives, after a few days of simple training to develop some discipline, have increased their labor hours significantly, thus reducing military training and transformation time, which can only be resumed in a strict phase after the cold winter arrives.

Also, it is indeed convenient to pen these hundred or so wild boars and slaughter them after the cold winter sets in as the cold and snow will preserve them.

Regarding animal husbandry, besides wild cattle and wild boars, the wild rabbit population has also exploded.

Under the Beastmen's management, comfortable living, sufficient food without worrying about sudden threats from Hunters, the wild rabbit population has exploded, initially only a few dozen, growing to over a thousand silently in six months. To corral these creatures, Beastmen had to build several beast pens to accommodate them all.

Compared to the penned wild boars and wild cattle, the fate of these penned wild rabbits might be even less fortunate, as Vini plans to slaughter most once the cold winter arrives, leaving only a small portion as breeding rabbits.

Even though the Dragon Nest Tribe's population has surged by seven or eight hundred, breaking the two thousand mark before the cold winter arrives, thanks to the harvest from reclamation, hunting, gathering, and various methods of animal husbandry, the Dragon Nest Beastman Tribe hasn't faced a "food crisis."

It is expected that if nothing unexpected occurs during this cold winter, the food within the Dragon Nest Tribe will suffice to support the tribe's survival and development for half a year, which is far beyond the duration of the cold winter. We can anticipate the Dragon Nest Tribe will be free from hunger this cold winter.

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