Ook picked up the big stick he had long since made his own. Then he turned to the others around him, including his mate. All of who also picked up their own sticks and walked behind Ook.
Ook was the leader of this group, and today, they would go on another hunt for something to eat. This food was not for them, but for the younglings who had just been born, and could not bast in the sun for fear of other creatures attacking them. As such, they needed to eat normal food like most other creatures.
"Ook!" one of the males made the noise, instantly alerting Ook as he looked over to where he was pointing.
There, a small armoured creature stood on all fours, casually munching grass.
Ook looked at his stick, then shook his head after thinking for a good 5 minutes. The other understood this meaning, and simply turned away. Ook had tried killing this creature before, but because of how weak his stick was, he failed. And not only that, but his stick even broke!
This was why he had spent a whole day finding another stick, that was easily broken off a tree, but not rotten inside.
Thankfully, the group found a small rabbit-like creature not too far away, and after carefully surrounding it, Ook made everyone launch an attack on it at the same time.
The sticks were swung, and many landed on each other in the chase, those spots would soon turn purple and then black in the form of bruises. But that did not matter, as long as they stayed in the sun for a while, it would disappear on its own.
And more importantly, two of the sticks landed on the frightened rabbit that was in the process of jumping away.
*Thwack*
*Thunk*
The rabbit's body fell lifelessly to the ground, and a grin formed on Ook's face, along with the faces of the others present.
"Ho!"
"Ho!"
The group began engaging in a sort of traditional dance around the carcass before finally picking it up to return home.
…
James, observing this scene, decided one thing instantly, 'To you, Ook, I grant the knowledge of shelter, stone tools, safety in numbers, specialisation for efficiency, organisation of numbers, and finally language!'
With James' declaration, he used some of his Collective Energy to establish a one-time communication with the leader of this group. And within the dream of this particular Jerry, he gave him the knowledge of all the basic building-blocks of a civilisation. Of course, the most important part was the procurement of food, but for these Jerries who did not need much food to survive, they instead needed the ability to connect with the others in their group more effectively, and to specialise to improve the efficiency of tasks. They did not need all members to go hunting together, it was clearly not helping much.
On the other hand, they needed a the ability to build better shelters, and needed access to stone tools and how to use them. Finally, he also added how he could collect a bunch of the same species in an enclosed environment, like a cage, and just allow them to breed, for a stable source of food for the younglings.
And with that, James sat back and watched.
…
"Who?!" Ook opened his eyes wide in shock, only to realise he had been dreaming.
But then, he recalled all the information that had entered his mind during this dream, and realised it was not a normal dream.
'It is a dream from…' he paused for a moment, sifting through all the new words of the language he had just learnt, before finding the one he that suited the situation, 'God.'
Ook turned to the others in his pack, and decided to wake everyone up one at the time, before explaining to them the language. He did this by pointing at things and saying the word. At first, he pointed to himself, and repeated, "Ook," so everyone would understand what he was doing.
"Ook!"
"Ook!"
"Ook!"
All those in the group immediately began thumping their chests in satisfaction while saying that word.
Then Ook pointed at a stone, "Stone."
"St- Stoe?"
"Stone."
"Stoe…"
"STONE!" Ook lost his patience and yelled out at those around him, causing them to cower in fear. This was how the Jerries behaved, like true animals just barely surviving.
Still, after a while, he was able to get the word across. Over the next few days, he explained hundreds of words to those around him, and since they had just brought the rabbit, they had another day before they needed to go on a hunt.
During this period of time, Ook also split the Jerries in his group. Those with tougher bodies, which included 3 males and himself, as well as 1 female, were selected for the hunter roles.
Those with weaker or thinner bodies, made up of 6 females were split into two groups. 3 of them were in charge of taking care of the younglings, who could not fend for themselves. The other three were in charge of creating tools.
Ook made a few wooden tools, making a stick sharp using a somewhat sharp boulder, and explained how their hunting group would use it to hunt down food. It took him a while, but thankfully these Jerries were more receptive to understanding new concepts than those in the hunting party. As such, he got them to begin making wooden spears, make-shift shovels which were essentially just plank-like faces of wood with the broader ends sharpened into a tip.
Then, he turned his attention to the 5-member hunting group… full of brainless idiots…
…
James watched in fascination as Ook rapidly improved his living conditions. First the wood tools, then the improvements in hunting tactics. This part actually took him almost a month to make just the 4 other members follow properly. But it was well worth it.
Unlike before, they never missed a single prey that they spotted. On top of that, this group of hunters had also successfully captured 3 rabbits and 1 deer-like lizard, in the hopes of domesticating them.
'Well… I did feel sad for Ook when he kept trying and failing miserably to improve the hunting methods of his group… but it all seems to be working out just fine for him~' James felt a little strange in his heart.
"Is this… a sense of fulfilment?" He wondered to nobody in particular.
Chapter length: 1086 words
{AN: Sorry for the late chapter. I had a lot of stuff to do. Hope this is good so far for everyone? Now the story begins to pick up, and we will be focussing a lot more on the individuals of the race and how their lives and interactions with the mc go for this arc.}