novelraw Chapter 1122 - 335: The Stairway of Civilization
Chapter 1122 - 335: The Stairway of Civilization
Chapter 335 [The Ladder of Civilization]
The race from "history" had finally climbed another rung on the ladder of civilization.
Chen Yan read about how some tribes gradually grew stronger, annexing more and more tribes and occupying larger territories and spheres of influence.
Some tribes achieved breakthroughs in productivity, domesticating more wild animals, acquiring the ability for animal husbandry, and unlocking new skill books.
Others domesticated plants, forming the rudiments of an agricultural civilization, taking over more land, and turning land into the greatest guarantee of productivity.
Until one day, Chen Yan read a record.
There was a tribe originally living near a large mountain. After a wildfire broke out, burning for many days, the surviving tribe members returned to the mountain and discovered stones that had been burned for days.
Inside, they found something extremely hard—much stronger than the wooden or stone tools they were accustomed to using.
Reading this, Chen Yan speculated that the mountain was likely a type of metal mine, and very fortunately, the mine was a surface-exposed vein, which was then fortuitously ignited by a wildfire, burning some exposed ore.
History, many times, is full of chance events.
After finishing this record, Chen Yan put down the scroll and let out a long breath.
The smelting of metal has appeared!
This race’s civilization is about to transform from a stone civilization into a metal civilization again!
It might be bronze, or perhaps some kind of iron, but in any case, this marks a huge advancement.
·
The emergence of metal tools allowed this tribe to quickly strengthen in certain aspects!
This tribe, called the "Hunting Tiger Tribe," seemed to have gained a powerful advantage.
Of course, the name "Hunting Tiger Tribe," with the character "Tiger," is not accurate, as from the textual character it should be "Hunting X Tribe." X is a primitive character.
The character X actually has no precise interpretation.
In the dictionary compiled by the mad old man that Chen Yan obtained, the meaning of this character is not tiger, but generally refers to "ferocious and powerful beasts."
Therefore, the accurate meaning of this tribe would be "a tribe that lives by hunting fierce and powerful beasts."
As the name implies, this name vividly expresses the characteristics of this tribe.
Brave and skilled in battle, they are known for hunting fierce beasts.
The people of this tribe probably have some genetic advantages, naturally taller and stronger than those of other tribes.
Another hidden meaning is that this tribe is likely more belligerent.
The advent of metal added a massive buff to the areas in which they excelled and most enjoyed.
The Hunting Tiger Tribe began to produce metal tools on a large scale, learning to distinguish between ordinary stones and "ore," and learned to use fire to smelt ore.
They started to burn down the mountains on a large scale.
The metal they obtained was used to strengthen their weapons, and then they began to expand and wage wars.
At their peak, they controlled all the river basins near the mountain.
They defeated nearby tribes and used the captured populations as slaves to mine more stone, cut down trees, and burn them.
But the Hunting Tiger Tribe did not end up being the ones who had the last laugh.
·
The Hunting Tiger Tribe did not take the agricultural route; they were considered a mountain tribe, living off the mountains, strong and brave enough to fight beasts.
But mainly, they followed a "hunting plus gathering" production route.
This route, however, spelled one thing: unstable output.
Hunting is like this.
If you catch game today, you can feast on meat!
But if you catch nothing tomorrow, you’ll have to go hungry for a day!
The unstable output model severely limited the development of this civilization.
After activating the "metal" skill point, the Hunting Tiger Tribe experienced a period of rapid expansion.
The boost from metal increased their combat prowess, giving them a significant advantage in hunting and suffering fewer casualties, with some increase in harvest.
They won more battles than they lost in skirmishes with other tribes.
But soon, they encountered another powerful tribe: the Earth Worshiping Tribe.
This was an agricultural civilization.
·
The Earth Worshiping Tribe was not known for warfare; they illuminated the skill point of domesticating some plants, which could be cultivated, harvested, and processed into food.
The agricultural route depends on land, but its advantage is: as long as there’s land, there’s output!
During production, the risk is minimal, and most importantly: the upper limit and lower limit of output are generally stable!
With stable output, the tribe’s population can rapidly increase, as long as there’s enough land!
History is full of coincidence, but many things are also inevitable.
For example, tribes with unstable output cannot match the population growth of agricultural tribes!
The Hunting Tiger Tribe was powerful and had exceptional combat prowess, but due to unstable output, they relied on plundering and hunting, lacking stable output, resulting in slow population growth.
The Earth Worshiping Tribe, meanwhile, slowly consumed more unoccupied land further away.
More land meant more food production, and stable food production at that!
Stable food production allowed the Earth Worshiping Tribe’s population to grow steadily and rapidly!