With the orders handed out, and the tribe prepearing the requested squads, Rex finalized a few neccesarry actions, buzzing to life his natural energy formations, turning the village into a small fortress that could summon a monster, shouold the situation grew dire enough. Of course said monster was Rex himself, since he had begun to create a unique runes that served as life saving treasures for his people. Once mortal danger was detected, said rune would activate, creating a pulse of distorted space, protecting the carrier from the gharm and summoning Rex to the location.
Said rune was reserved for his women, and important locations, so no ordinary foot soldiers would have them. Those would recieve a lesser version, only providing emergency teleport away from the danger zone. Still, Rex laughed to himself when he imagined the cost of such runes in auctions. Every lord would want a couple for their spoiled brats or favorite women, but like Blood mages, space mages were a rarity as well, even if not quite as rare as the former. Soon, Kara informed that the expected guests have arived, and with that Rex slowly moved to a prepared room in the chiefs hall. Outside said room, nervously stood six men, clearly the guards of the chief, though upon noticing rex all of them stiffed, not daring to look at the man, even if he was notably shorter than them.
Entering the room, Rex saw his relaxed women already sitting there, enjoying their tea. The two guests, a man and a woman in their early fifties looked quite nervous, the woman especially so. Rex felt the pull to tease the ordinary looking pair, so he gazed at them and asked.
"Now, did the Warcaller title scared you so much, or was it the way I dispatched the other group?" The unexpected question caused the duo to flinch, causing a small smile on his lips. He wanted to continiue, yet was stopped by Diana.
"Shush now. Dont you see they are scared as is, dont make it harder on them than already. Its a wonder they even managed to reach here in that state." Diana reprimanded Rex, who just grinned at the woman. And after a brief pause addign her own growing curiosity to the mix.
"Though I would actually like to know the answer to said question as well."
Her own mischievous nature caused Rex to laugh, and elicited a small giggle from Mary and Vivian as well.
Seeing the relaxed Warcaller and his women, the guests managed to become slightly less tense, but they still felt like being on the knifes edge, where one wrong answer could plinge them, and worse, their tribe, into chaos and destruction. Still, it was just as dangerous to make the man wait, so the chief swallowed his saliva hard, somehow managed a bitter smile on his face that looked more like a smile someone with a gun at his head could make after being forced to eat dirt and forced to praise its taste.
"Would you believe if we said its both? Their leader was rather well known hunter in these floors, so the fact even he could not react to the movements of the great Warcaller showed the immense difference between not only them but between us all as well. So, the title reknown was elevated once again, causing our current situation."
"Might we inquire about the reason we were sommoned?" Asked the wise woman, now slightly calmer, yet still as cautious as possible when interacting with Rex.
"Our husband has taken a liking to your tribes straightforwardness and honor. Thus, we have decided to grant you the privilege of being a friend and a partner in our upcoming raids to gain large numbers of slaves for both sale and personal use. And unlike the tribes coming to us soon with intention of stealing whats not theirs, you get to maintain your independencce from us." Spoke Diana.
"Is it regarding the truebloods?" Asked the chief, and seeing Dianas nod his look became more solemn. "How sure are you of being able to fend off multiple large scale raids from a few of the largest tribes?"
"How sure are you of your death should you encounter Apexus?" Rex asked back, causing a confusion in the visiting duo.
"Just answer." Giggled Vivian.
"We are guaranteed to die, without a corpse left to show our passing." Answered chief, and the shaman nodded.
"See, I am just as sure that they will all fail. I am here after all, besides, Apexus aint all trat strong anyways." Rex spoke, causing the two guesst look at him in disbelief.
"While we do not doubt your might, Apexus is a monster in a whole different league. The last time anyone had hunted one was more than..." And then the sentense abruptly stopped, as the wise woman of Wolfs Holw tribe stared at the necklace that Diana had lifted in the focus.
"Then can you guess what beast these come from?" she asked as her fingers slowly slid over the two pairs of ceremonial fangs of the Apexus. The wise woman stood up in her stupor, extended her hand toward Dian and walked a few steps forward. Then she fell back on her ass, missing the sofa she had stepped away from, disbelief and shock ornamenting her face.
"LORDS ABOVE! THIS SERVANT HAS RECOGNIZED THE LORD." the wise woman quickly changed her posture to a kneeling position with her forehead on the ground, bowing in utmost reverance.
"Aint no lord or whatever. Pipe it down. So, regarding our offer?" And to his words, the wise woman quickly got up, not needing to be told twice, she turned to her chief and instructed him to accept the generous offer. Refusing would be an insult, and not acceptable and likely end with their tribes extermination, or so she asumed. And so, the chief quickly accepted. Then, they spent a few more hours discussing a few important points in how to best utilize their cooperation and the plans for the future. Then, before the departure of their guests, and now allies, Rex gave them a plate of sorts, and instructed them to place it in an unused room, and once the plate was in place to tear apart another item he had given them alongside the plate.
When the guests left, Vivian asked what purpose the plate served, and Rex explained that it was an anchor for him to teleport to. It would ease the response time as well as serve as a strategic mobility point, and he would have them in every village that was to fall in line with his goals. Either as an ally, or as a vassal. Once the signal would be sent, Rex would teleport there and create another gate, thus ensuring a web of nodes for the maximum speed of deployment and retreat. Even if Svergi people would not be considered as his own, they would still become an afiliated force, so Rex saw no reason to waste their lives. Thus the current plans came into existance.
A little while later, with his women remaining in the village, armed and prepeared for near anything, and with the hunting group assembled, Rex ordered them to move out. This small few day expedition would serve as both a training camp, exibition hunt as well as a chance for Rex to do a quick regular monster hunt to bolster the food storage of the tribe, since no one in his mansion would even consider consuming food made of below earth grade meat, and there was no way in hell that tribes hunters could even dream of hunting in the deep floors. A privilage for his girls for sure, but that was something they could afford, thus it was not an issue whatsoever, but the tribespeople could never afford such luxury, nor could they even imagine it.
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Rex oriented himself a bit further in the back of the hunter group, masking his own presence as much as possible, while still keeping his mana and aura sonars in full capacity. Rex could sense every living being in quite the rage, but now was not the time for him to show off, it was the hunters, so he just observed how they scouted and tracked different tracks left my a miriad of possible preys. The trackers were quite good, but it would be odd if they were not, since only the most seasoned and best hunters were sent out this time. Rex wanted to see tribes best to get a baseline evaluation of their skills in their element.
A few hours had passed since the start of their hunt, and the group had managed to fell a few beasts so far. A couple of mana deers and a singe mana boar. While not bad of a quarry, it was nowhere near enough for them to call this a succesfull hunt, so they continiued. Rex had noticed that the lack of a proper sensor forced them to depend too much on a few trackers who could only find monsters whose track they ran into, thus missing quite a few opportunities that would have been found by a proper sensor. In the same line, they had avoided a few rather nasty packs of predators, who while not really a danger to said hunter group, could pose a threat to most of the newer teams that were learning the ropes. Sensor would have prepeared them for any such possible encounter by warning them in time, reducing the possible amount of injuries.
And with instructions from Rex, the hunters moved towards the deeper floors. Their group was large enough to safely camp for the night and not be wiped out by a random predator, though they still had to be vigilant. Their first night out was rather peacefull, and by the noon of their second day they were already hunting in the tenth floor. Rex knew their limits, so this would be the deepest they would descend. So, their plans was to hunt here for the remainder of the day, and then, in the morning to go back with their haul. They would have just enough time to finish with their expedition and arrive home before the anticipated visit from the larger clans.
Rex would interwene rarely here, but just enough to ensure no hunters were injured to make them a liability or grant a permanent disability. Such accidents would be counterproductive, and Rex did not want to do double the work. Closer to the evening he asked th leader of the hunters as to why they dont have a proper sensor, recieving a nonsensical answer about tradition or something. Rex did not waste time into ordering hunters to have at least one sensor with them at all times, tradition be damned. Their job was to provide for themselves and the tribe, and stupid traditions that prevent them from working more efficient could be ignored. And to prove his point, Rex started to guide the group, easily leading them to large hosts of beasts roaming the level, ensuring their hunt would be more than successfull.
As they were setting up their camp for night, Rex could hear many excited talks about how much of a difference this new method could make in the future, raising the spirits of the group, as well as talks about the raids their warcaller would bring them to. As expected, hard men longed for hard games and entertainment, and raiding was both at the same time to them. And since they would be marching home in a decent tempo and with quite the haul, Rex allowed them all to rest as he took charge of the night shift. It was something he had done last night as well, though he never notified the hunters of his actions, not giving them a reason toasume that it was Rex who ensured no accidents or anything else happened during the night. That included a few A class predators that he took out without much ceremony, and in the morningthey made a small detour where said hunter group saw their Warcaller in a bit of an action.
Rex had lead them towards a group ofdozen wooly mamoths of sorts. It took him a few moments to dispatch the beasst and then, with practiced precision and teamwork the entire group quickly stripped the beasts from their usable materials, stashed whetever they could in their few space pouches- a courtesy of a few adventurers who had fallen in their hands as well as the traders who had free passage through Svergi controlled teritories. But even then, they still had quite a bit to carry, so their return home to the village took slightly longer than anticipated. Rex was now guiding them back and working as the security, allowing them to focus on the haul. Rex wanted to get home without spending an extra night out, so the few hours they traveled during the night was a dirrect result of that, exausting the group more, but in return, they managed to reach the village before midnight. A feat that pleased both Rex and the hunters since the ussual dangers of the night did not caus them any problems this time.
Their group quickly sent a guard on duty to call Kara, who once present was asigned to deal with the distribution and other decisions regarding the haul, and as a smart woman, she barked a few orders around, and left alongside Rex, who had a rised eyebrow at the situation in front of him.
"They can manage the rest without me." Kara said as she yawned. Those were the only words they exchanged during their walk towards their respective homes. And once at the chiefs hall, she noded her head and left for her own abode. Rex too entered his, where the trio of ladies pounced on him as soon as they sensed his presence in the building. They had recently retired to their beds, but his proximity had stirred them awake. Thus the current situation, and without any complaints, Rex ensured that all three women are satisfied before he lied down for a few hours of sleep.
In the morning, after the ussal ritual of their joint breakfast in Elysium, Rex sat on a small balcony on the second floor of his current residence in Silver owl tribes village, his sensors extended to their maximum ranges, scouting the surroundings for their expected guests, who might appear any time soon. The village was bustling with activity. Under the now watchfull eyes of Kara, their last nights haul was properly seperated, sorted and prepeared so it would hold for much longer time than it would if just left as is in their natural freezers around the village.
Around four or five in the evening, based on his old words time senses, Rex started to sense humanoids entering his detection range, and there were a lot of them. From what he could make out, there were at least five groups, each sporting some few hundred A class entitites and a couple S class ones. That alone proved once and for all just how much value did Svergi people attribute to truebloods.
"Heh." Rex smirked "Lets see your colors when there is no insurmountable wall and unstoppable beast in front of you, and how you act once they emerge." He felt justified in his desire and willingness to use deciet and games to see the true colors of the people he is going to deal with, since this was a sort of a trial run for a rather well planned out tactic that he was trying to work out before employing it during his campaign in the Echlisiarchys domain. He was willing to spare those who were not yet rotten to the core and willing to help out or deal with those their faith has deemed monsters. If that sliver of compasion and humanity would be seen, said people would walk free, if not, death and slavery awaited them. With the atrocities their people had performed, just death would be far too soft of a punishement, and would not equalize teh damage they had done.
With his mind back on the present, Rex descended from his meditation spot, seeked out Kara and his girls and gave them the news. In response, Kara quickly sent a few orders, recalling anyone who was close by outside the walls, and ordered people to prepare for a possible siege. Though with Rex here it was more of an order to not get in hsi way and ensure no stray fires set their village ablaze.
"If I did not know better, I would have guessed you had been training to lead the village while prepearing a cou in the shadows during the last chiefs rule." Rex joked, but seeing the nervous glance away and how she was playing with one of her locks, Rex raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously?"
"He was a tyrant, and whats worse, he himself did not have the power to hold the seat. Such a leader can not only bring a tribe to their knees but even cause their end. In good consciense I could not allwo that to happen.It is my home after all." Kara explained, by now aware that Rex was more chill guy than his individual power would suggest.
And when sun was about to set, the five groups had finally reached the village. They all stood outside the village walls, palpable tension hanging in the air. Since the village had only one entrance, the S class warriors from each tribe, clearly the leaders from their respective forces, stood in front of it, a small seperation between each of their group. Each group was carefully eyeing the rest present, both the leaders and their forces, calculating their odds should the situation devolve into a brawl or open bloodbath. And while no one wanted an all out battle, they were even less willing to let go of the oportunity to attain at least a few more S class warriors for their tribes. That was after all the most likely result should they have some of their S class men seed the trueblood they could aquire here, and with enough S class, they could call the other tribes to the grand hunt, and once again descend into the raid tier.