“Quieto, Chico,” said Esperanza to Dali as she looked closer at the trio of native hunters. She was no expert in facial features, and the fact that these three were not exactly human by any means also made their looks somewhat harder to discern, but she thought that the three of them looked particularly alike that they might be a family or sorts.

Esperanza couldn’t be certain about their ages. Their appearance had that odd sort of ageless quality to it, not unlike what she had seen before with the parents of some of her asian-american classmates who could easily pass as their kid’s elder sibling. That they weren’t human further muddled it up. The younger ones could be twenty or two hundred for all she knew.

That the one who stood protectively in front of the other two was older and likely their elder was obvious, since he – they had very human-like bodies so it was easy to tell their gender at a glance – had noticeable wrinkles on the corner of his eyes. The coarse facial hair that grew on his chin and upper lip also helped, since the younger male barely had little more than what looked like pitiful amounts of stubble on his.

The third member of the group and the obviously female one seemed the wariest of the three, as her eyes never left Dali for even a moment. That was despite how Dali had quietly plopped down on his butt and sat calmly since Esperanza’s arrival. The way he barked earlier – to call for Esperanza – must have scared the natives quite a bit, especially given Dali’s level.

Because these natives had very low levels in classes that might have given them any actual fighting prowess.

The younger male identified as a [Farmer’s Child Lvl20/Junior Fletcher Lvl20/Hunter’s Apprentice Lvl4], while the woman was an [Orphan Lvl20/Cook Lvl20/Hunter’s Apprentice Lvl3]. The old man was somewhat better as a [Hunter’s Child Lvl20/Novice Hunter Lvl20/Veteran Hunter Lvl12], but not even he gave off any feeling of danger to her, despite his being well into his third tier.

It probably had to do with the quality of the classes they had, as Oldies once explained to her. She herself had noticed how the classes she was offered for the second tier had a noticeable gap in quality between the best and the worst one. If these people were stuck in a poor situation and were forced to rely on a haphazard mix of low-end classes to survive, then she was likely more than strong enough to take all three of them on her own.

And that was not even counting Dali and Gordy’s presence.

With them in the equation Esperanza felt that she could likely take on dozens of people around the older native’s level, if their class quality were all that poor. She had heard from Oldies that the natives got the short end of the stick from the system in general, but she had not expected it to be this bad. Given how experience gain from creatures of lower tiers was so low it was no surprise that the older hunter barely had more levels than the younger ones even if he was decades older.

And the worst thing was that he could likely not handle anything that gave him decent experience, either.

“W- Who are you? What are you? What are these… creatures?” stammered the female native after a moment of prolonged silence. Her eyes were still transfixed to Dali all that time, as if he was some sort of predatory beast that would leap and tear out her throat the moment she took her eyes off him. Her younger male compatriot on the other hand looked just as warily at both Esperanza herself and Gordy.

The male looked torn between trying to put on a strong face – probably for the female’s behalf – and keeping from shivering with fear. Esperanza could see the obvious dread in his eyes, and even from a distance her new skill picked up impressions of the young male running away while screaming at the top of his lungs. No doubt what he wished he could do at that moment.

“Hush, child,” said the older male after a moment, his arm extended before the younger pair as if to hold them back. He looked the calmest out of the trio, and as Esperanza turned to face him, she noticed that the way he looked at her was not one tinged with fear. It was instead a gaze that was full of recognition, longing, and most of all, worship.

“This humble mortal greets the honored messenger of the Deities of Yore,” said the older native even as he dropped to his knees and bowed so low that his head laid flat against the soil.

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Before Esperanza could react or say anything, the two younger natives reacted as if they had been shot when they heard the words said by the older one, and similarly prostrated themselves before her. None of the three moved from their position even as she watched with wide eyes, dumbfounded by the sudden development.

She knew that Oldies said that their worshipers would be able to tell she was granted power by them, but she had not expected this level of obeisance.

Much less when the younger two had been so afraid of her pets tearing their throats out just moments ago and now willingly bared the backs of their necks to her just like that. The worshipful attitude of the three had caught her completely off guard, and of all things, was probably the one thing she had not expected to have to deal with.

“All right, all right, that’s enough of that. Rise up, por favor,” she said, intoning the last word so it was less a request and more a command as best she could. Even then, the natives took a bit more coaxing before they finally rose up to their feet, their heads held low as if they were afraid to even look her in the eye. It was a rather exasperating situation for her.

“You all probably won’t listen to me even if I tell you just to treat me normally, so at least help me out by answering some of my questions,” said Esperanza with another exasperated sigh. Now that she had approached the natives the thoughts of worship were very easily discernible from them, the three acting as if they had seen their own god right in front of them. “Let’s start with something simple. What are your names? Where are you from?”

“This lowly one is Adan-Zil, honored one. I am a hunter in service of our community of the adherents of the old ways here in the Iskalle Forest,” said the older native as he gave another low bow to Esperanza. “These two are Eda-Zil, my adopted daughter and apprentice, and Kvar-Litu, another apprentice of mine. We are out here hunting to help feed the rest of our village.”

“I see,” said Esperanza with a nod of her “head”. “How many people live in your village? How long has your community been living here?”

“To answer the honored one, there are thirty-six families in our village, approximately a hundred and fifty heads in total,” replied Adan-Zil while he kept his respectful bow. The two younger ones mostly held their lips shut and held a similar pose of obeisance, probably too afraid of saying the wrong thing and thus offending her that way. “As for our community… we have lived in our current location for around a generation.”

“What do you mean, your current location?” asked Esperanza with unhidden curiosity. Gordy and Dali had prowled over and rubbed their furry bodies against her legs by then, which elicited a slight wince of wariness from the youngsters, though Adan-Zil seemed unaffected by their presence and retained his calm all the while.

Esperanza also took a moment to look at the way the three hunters were dressed and armed. Their clothes were rough, made from what seemed to be animal hide cut and sewn into coarse tunics that went halfway down their thighs, with no pants underneath. They did wear wrappings of leather around their feet that reminded her of native american moccasins, but that was about all they wore for clothing.

As for weapons, all three had long spears with a wooden haft and a spearhead that looked like it was formed from flaked obsidian in their hands. They also carried a crude knife made of the same material, with the handle part of it wrapped in layers of leather. In their other hand they each carried three javelins, each only around a meter long, topped with sharp heads made of the same material.

None of them carried bows of any sort, though they carried a long stick – the youngsters carried one of wood, while the older hunter’s looked like it was carved from the femur of a large animal – with an upraised notch on its end in their javelin hand as well. They looked like mesoamerican spear-throwers she saw in a museum once, and probably served the same purpose.

Other than that, Adan-Zil also carried a paddle-like club which he held together with his spear. The narrow sides of the club had many razor-sharp blades of flaked obsidian embedded in it, which probably made for a vicious chopping tool, if one with very limited durability. Either way it was clear to Esperanza that the community these hunters belonged to probably lacked the means to process metal.

“We… were forced to flee our home when I was young, honored one. Eda also lost her parents during our escape back then,” replied Adan-Zil to her query after he took a moment to arrange his words. “The forest had shown its displeasure for our presence back then and we were overwhelmed by a tide of beasts. Less than half of our people made it out and escaped to where we now live.”

“Is that sort of occurrence… common?” asked Esperanza.

“We used to live in the deeper regions of this forest, for our safety, but had been forced to leave for the shallower regions several times by now. My own late father told me stories of two previous exoduses he lived through, and there were older tales of others before that as well,” replied Adan-Zil. “This forest had grown more dangerous and less hospitable over time, and we fear for the day when we would be forced out into the open.”

“I see…” muttered Esperanza as she gathered her thoughts. Oldies had not given her much in terms of clear instructions, and instead asked her to see and decide things for herself. Even if the constant worship and obeisance of these natives were somewhat exasperating, they still represented the first choice Esperanza had to observe this world from the side.

She made up her mind and decided to go with them, at least for the time being. Considering how weak the old hunter was compared to her despite him having a tier and a half’s worth of levels over her, she was not exactly worried that the village could overpower her. That, and she trusted Oldies enough to not worry about them sending her into a trap, at least.

“Would you be willing to lead me to your village?” she asked in the end. With how worshipful these natives were, she had little doubt that they wouldn’t even if she got all bossy and commanded them to take her there. She had nothing to lose by being polite, however, and being all bossy was just not something that ever really crossed her mind to begin with. “I wish to see it for myself.”

“As the honored one wished, it shall be done,” replied Adan-Zil. He finally straightened up and gestured to the two youngsters, then led the way towards their village. Esperanza, Dali, and Gordy all followed wordlessly behind him and the youngsters, with some anticipation building in her mind.