Zoey casually picked up a branch nearby and started drawing on the ground while explaining to Tanku,
"Father, look, these are a few females. After you sort the males by age, if one male doesn't make a female pregnant, then he should go to the back of the line and wait for his turn again."
Tanku understood the words but didn't understand why it should be done this way. Before he could ask, Zoey explained further,
"When a female and a male become partners but there's no pregnancy, it doesn't mean there is something wrong with either of them. Maybe the time or their bodies weren't in the best condition yet. If we let them try again later, sooner or later, they will succeed."
Tanku nodded thoughtfully. Zoey was worried he still might not understand, so she added,
"Father, just trust me. This way, our kind won't decrease, we will actually grow more and more. I came from the continent outside, and there, our race is very large in number."
"Good, good! Father understands now. I'll go back and arrange this right away!"
Once Tanku completely understood, he stood up, ready to return and reorganize things. Zoey quickly stopped him and reminded,
"Father, if we don't want our kind to keep decreasing, we must not fight or kill each other anymore."
Tanku nodded, looking very anxious to leave,
"Don't worry, I already told them. Even if we have to eat the weak animals behind the mountain, or even grass, we must not fight among ourselves anymore! Besides, they all have partners now, and later they will be busy having children. They won't have time to fight!"
After saying that, he hurriedly walked away. Zoey didn't stop him, but shouted again behind him,
"There are a lot of small fish in the sea behind the mountain, they can be eaten too. Lex already went to catch some fish for me. Roasted with fire, they taste really good! You can let them try it as well!"
"Alright, I'll have Lex teach them later!"
After those words, Zoey looked up and felt the ground shake as Tanku had already run far away.
She only hoped this way the dinosaur tribe would decrease slower and go extinct later.
After a while, Lex came back, carrying more than ten fish and throwing them onto the pile of rocks outside the cave.
He walked over to Zoey and immediately asked, "Zoey, why haven't you turned back into your beastman form?"
"This way is fine."
Zoey looked up at the stars in the sky. The real reason was that she couldn't bear to use her transformation pill.
"I don't think it's fine…"
Lex muttered unhappily. Zoey turned her head to look at him,
"What's not fine? Do you think I'm ugly? Or are my legs too short?"
While saying this, Zoey clenched her fists, eager to act. If he dared to say anything bad about her, she wouldn't hesitate to give him two punches right on the nose!
"No! You're not ugly! Your legs aren't short! I like you! It's just, just…"
"What is it?" Zoey frowned.
Instead of answering directly, Lex begged her to change back into beastman form,
"Please, can you turn back into your beastman form first? If you do, I'll tell you."
As he said that, Lex changed back into his beastman form.
Looking at Lex acting spoiled like this, Zoey had no choice but to take out a transformation pill and swallow it. A moment later, she became her beastman self again.
The moment she changed, Lex picked her up in his arms and ran straight into the cave.
"Hey? Lex, what are you doing!"
"You… hey? Lex!"
This guy always takes the initiative, almost to the point of exhausting her.
[System check: Host's pregnancy period has been pushed forward by three months. Delivery will happen in three years and two months.]
Back when she was in the snake tribe, the pregnancy period would at most be shortened by thirty days. But now, just once it shortened by three months, and after two times it was already six months early.
Zoey thought she must remind Lex to restrain himself. Otherwise, if the baby in her belly came out before it fully developed, wouldn't that mean it might be deformed?
"Zoey, the fish is roasted for you. Do you want to eat now?"
Seeing that Zoey was awake, Lex asked softly beside her.
She shook her head without speaking, then curled up again, planning to continue sleeping.
She was not in beast form now, so she did not need so much energy.
"You said before that fish doesn't taste good once it gets cold. If you don't eat it now, then I'll eat it first. Later if you get hungry I'll roast more for you."
Seeing she wanted to rest, Lex did not disturb her. He went to the cave entrance, picked up the roasted fish, and ate on his own.
The taste was actually quite good, much better than eating those low-level beasts.
After finishing five fish, Lex added a whole dead tree to the fire.
He was going to rest inside the cave too, and this dead tree would probably burn until morning.
That way, when the sun rose, he could easily roast more fish without having to make fire again.
Looking at his own "clever" idea, Lex smiled proudly and clapped his hands. He considered himself the smartest male on the grassland.
Finally, he walked into the cave, pulled Zoey into his strong arms, and then closed his eyes in satisfaction to rest.
[Congratulations, host. You spread the method of making fire, benefiting fifteen beasts.]
[Reward: five transformation pills, one pregnancy-protection pill, one hidden pill. Level down by two, current level 980, points left 99,977,000.]
[Congratulations, host. You spread human civilization, benefiting fifty beasts.]
[Reward: five intermediate transformation pills, two intermediate pregnancy-nourishing pills. Level down by five, current level 975, points left 99,972,000.]
[...]
At dawn, Zoey woke up. She had no choice because the system kept sending messages without a stop switch, repeating again and again.
She stretched lazily, saw the sky outside still dim, and noticed Lex was still sleeping, so she quietly sat up.
But just as she sat, Lex's voice came to her ears.
"It's not daylight yet. Sleep a little more."
He wanted her to rest longer, since she had gone to bed late and he had tired her out yesterday.
"You go back to sleep, I'll walk outside."
Zoey stood up and walked toward the cave entrance, reminding him,
"No need to wake up in a rush. Sleep more if you want. I'm not hungry, I'll just sit outside for a while. When the sun rises you can roast fish."
Not caring whether Lex heard clearly, she walked out.
At the fire pit, she saw half a dead tree still burning. She sighed and looked back toward the cave.
Of course Lex had been lazy again, simply throwing a whole tree into the fire.
Strong and powerful, but too willful. Even for a campfire, he burned whole trees.
Zoey was sitting by the fire, thinking about what else she could do to help this beast world continent.
She also wondered how she could help the dinosaur tribe, since the baby in her belly would still take a long time to be born, so for now she could not rely on that.
Suddenly the ground shook, and when she looked far away, she saw about a dozen dinosaurs running toward them.
She quickly ran back into the cave. She did not want to change into her beast form, since she would be so small that she might get stepped on.
"Is someone here?" Lex, who had just woken up, asked casually when he heard the noise outside.
Zoey rolled her eyes. With such a huge noise, how could it be just one person?
"You'd better go out and check. I don't want to go," she said, pushing Lex out.
Lex turned into his beast form, his huge body slowly walking toward the cave entrance.
Zoey stayed inside, not planning to go out, but she kept her ears sharp to hear what was happening outside.
Suddenly a dinosaur roared loudly, then the others followed, roaring like they had gone mad. One after another, until it sounded like thunder rolling across the sky.
Zoey thought it was ridiculous. If they wanted to talk, they could just talk, why roar like that?
And they were doing this right outside her cave. She was a pregnant female after all. They were showing no respect for her, no respect for any beast!
After a while, things became quiet again. Zoey took her hands off her ears and saw Lex walking back inside.
"Zoey, they are all males from the tribe. They know you're pregnant, so they don't eat their own kind or the low-level herbivores. That's why they brought food for us.
I put it on the big stone outside the cave. There are lots of fruits and fish. Whenever you want to eat, I'll get them for you."
Zoey was surprised, but also very grateful.
"Lex, I'm so happy! Please thank them for me."
She thought about turning into her beast form to go out and thank them herself, but that would mean taking a transformation pill, and she did not want to waste one. So she let Lex thank them on her behalf.
"Don't worry, I already did. They also said they want to learn from me how to roast fish over fire. I came in to ask if it's okay for them to learn."
"Of course it's okay!" she said, very excited.
She sat up happily and told Lex, "If you can teach them how to make fire and use it, then you'll be a great hero in my heart, and even a hero of the grasslands!"
Lex was overjoyed. He did not care about being the grassland's hero, but being Zoey's hero meant everything to him.
He promised himself that today he would teach all the males in the tribe how to make fire and use it.
Seeing how happy he was, Zoey did not want to dampen his mood, but she still reminded him seriously,
"Lex, you must make sure they remember not to be lazy like you. After using fire, they have to put it out completely. Otherwise the whole grassland will suffer."
Lex scratched his head and laughed, "Hehe, I'll remember. Don't worry, I won't let them be lazy!"
"From now on, I also won't be lazy. I'll put out the fire every time, and never leave any danger behind."
"You're amazing, Lex!" she said with a smile.
Zoey gave Lex a thumbs up with both hands, praising him.
Lex stared at her quietly, then slowly turned into his beastman form.
From the look in his eyes, Zoey knew what he wanted to do, so she quickly stopped him.
"Lex! Control yourself!"
"I haven't even had breakfast yet, I don't have the energy to mess around with you right now!"
"Go out and teach them how to make a fire and roast fish. Later, bring me some when it's ready! Hurry up and go!"
Zoey pretended to be angry, put her hands on her hips, and pointed to the cave entrance, driving Lex out.
Lex looked at her with a wronged expression. He knew what she said made sense.
But it was not all his fault, since the fire inside him was something he could not control at all!
When he was almost at the cave entrance, Lex turned back to look at Zoey with hope in his eyes.
Seeing that she was still standing there, angrily pointing at the entrance, he dared not hesitate, and even more dared not think of anything else. He left the cave unwillingly.
After Lex left, Zoey finally relaxed. Even though he looked big and strong, he was just like a child. She had to praise him when he deserved it, scold him when needed, and if she was angry, she should not bottle it up.
She quietly went to the entrance and saw Lex teaching the dinosaur beasts how to make fire and use it. Only then did she feel at ease and went back inside.
"Zoey, everyone wants you to come out and eat roasted fish together!"
Soon after, Lex came in and called her out.
"Don't worry, they are all high-level males and have already turned into beastman form. You don't need to change into your beast form, you can just go out like this."
Zoey nodded and followed Lex outside. She saw that more than ten beastmen were gathered around the fire.
When they were in dinosaur form, Zoey could not tell their ages, but now in beastman form, she could clearly see who was younger and who was older.
One older beastman was the first to speak to her.
"Lex's female, look, we roasted all of these. We followed Lex's instructions. Come and try them, see if we did it well?"
At this time, Lex introduced him to Zoey.
"Zoey, this is Brother Renuo. Last night he formed a partnership with a female from the tribe. He wants to learn so that he can roast fish for his female too."
Zoey smiled and nodded to Renuo. The two male beastmen beside him also held out the fish they had roasted, wanting Zoey to judge.
They too had formed partnerships with females last night. If their roasting was successful, they wanted to bring fish back for their females as well.
Some other male beastmen, though they had not yet formed partnerships, had the same thought.
They wanted to learn in advance, so when they did have partners, they could roast fish for them.
"Wow, these look really good! All very successful! You all did great!"
After carefully checking each roasted fish, Zoey smiled and gave her answer.
The male beastmen were very happy when they heard this. They immediately handed her the roasted fish in their hands.
Then they went back to roast more fish together with the other beastmen.
Looking at the seven or eight delicious-smelling roasted fish in her hands, Zoey did not hold back. She thanked them, then happily started eating.