"Won't you help me up?" Ikaris coughed face down on the ground. He didn't even have the strength to turn his head, but he was acutely aware that he was offering a not-so-glorious view of his bare ass.

Grallu and Malia ignored his groaning, too busy discussing in low voices what had just happened.

"Malia what do you think? Do you think it's worth a try?" The shaman queried her opinion in a whisper. "His talent is undeniable, but his physique and his Spark are too weak. His likelihood of success is very small."

The young woman pondered the pros and cons for a long time before finally answering with a shake of her head,

"Forget it granny. If he was five, I would have had high hopes of turning him into a decent Sorcerer, but he's too old."

The old woman suddenly moved closer to her face and whispered cunningly in her ear,

"You could also... You know..."

"No way!" Malia flatly refused. "He may be weak, but at least he's not a slave to his own mind. Anyway, it's too dangerous for the village. Two Guardians are enough."

"Bah, as you wish." The old Grallu did not insist. "But we really need a new Sorcerer. I won't live forever and the Great Wall has been breached several times. The last few months have been a disaster for our village. We have lost one of our three Guardians and our population has dropped 10 fold in the span of two months despite the help of the Elsisn Stele and all our efforts to capture as many refugees as possible. If it continues like this, or worse, if the situation escalates, our village will fall in less than a month. When that happens, I want you to head to Ballabyne with the Elsisn Stele and anyone else you can save. It is the largest tribe within 200km. With my letter of recommendation they will accept you."

Malia's reluctant and sad face betrayed her emotions. With her chin quivering and her red eyes filling with tears, the distant coldness she usually displayed was nowhere in sight. Right now, she was just a young woman of barely 18 years old fearing to lose everyone she loved.

Biting her lip in frustration, she declared stiffly, as if to convince herself,

"I will not abandon you, Granny Grallu. I will defend this village with you to the end."

"Sigh... My child, promise to listen to me if there really is no hope left. You don't belong here. You can't hide all your life."

"...I promise you. If the village is doomed, I will leave for Ballabyne." Malia finally swore half-heartedly, while clenching her fists.

At that moment, a timid, but undoubtedly fired-up voice interrupted their private conversation.

"Uh, I think I'm ready to try?" Ellie, who was sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, suddenly announced.

Grallu stared at her blankly. How long had it been already? Five or ten minutes? If she pulled off her Black Veil, then her talent for magic was also top tier for a human. Not as absurd as this boy's, but superior to anyone in this village except Malia.

Was there anything special about these Otherworlders they had captured the day before? In any case, it was a boon to the village in these difficult times. Even if it was the last thing she did before she perished, the shaman intended to teach them everything she knew.

If at their age she had known all that she knows today, her current circumstances would be vastly different and she would not be so close to being buried in her grave.

" Try it on me, girl."

"S-sure."

Thud.

A few seconds later, Ellie collapsed face down exactly as Ikaris had earlier. Having regained enough strength to move his head, the teenager started laughing uncontrollably when he saw the crybaby's position.

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Her knees had bent as she touched the ground, making her fall in a provocative posture where her white buttocks aimed at the sky as an open invitation to indulgence. Too bad Ikaris couldn't see anything from his position, but that didn't stop him from imagining it.

Unfazed by the nudity, the old Grallu stroked her chin pensively, then shifted to Malia,

"It's a passable Black Veil. I could still see a little, but the spell lasted about 4 seconds. Her constitution is only slightly better than the boy's, so her Spark is probably 5 to 10 times more developed. This time don't tell me it's too late to train her."

Malia glanced at the blond girl with a puzzled look, but remained silent. Inwardly, however, she was still of the opinion that Ikaris had much better potential.

There was something else that had been bothering her since their first meeting, but with his earlier performance she believed she had a clue. She would get to the bottom of it soon enough.

An hour passed and the two would-be magicians at last managed to regain the use of their limbs. Since Ellie was not injured like him, she was able to get up after a few minutes and immediately asked for some clothes.

The old woman didn't understand her desire to get dressed in this hot jungle, but fortunately Malia and Ellie were about the same size and she could lend her some clothes. It was still rather daring, but it was much better than walking around topless with a simple leaf loincloth.

Ikaris got up much later, but he winced when he learned that there were no clothes here for him. If he wanted clothes, he could go to Doli, the best loincloth maker in the tribe.

At the mention of Doli, he remembered a skinny woman with yellow teeth and he suddenly lost all his zest for life. Before leaving, he wanted to ask some more questions, but Grallu and Malia chased them out, telling them to come back tomorrow.

The other villagers would explain the rest. They informed them just before they left that this settlement was called Karragin and that here each villager was on his own. They had to fend for themselves in order to find food and a roof over their heads. For undisclosed reasons, there were many free tents...

In a somber mood, Ikaris walked slowly out of the cottage, his view lingering briefly on the prisoners kneeling in the sun, before he began to wander aimlessly.

From the position of the sun, it was past noon and with this heat there were not many people out. The other villagers were either eating in their tents, working or exploring the jungle for more victims to capture. The only three barbarians in the square were the guards assigned to watch the prisoners.

To further add to his annoyance, with every step the teenager took, he could hear someone take a hesitant step behind him. He didn't have to turn around to know that it was the sniveling girl.

"Ellie, why are you following me?" He growled in an irritated tone.

The young woman nervously fidgeted with her blonde curls as she avoided his gaze, but he heard her mutter in a tiny voice,

"I-I don't know anyone else..."

" ... "

Ikaris decided to ignore her. If she wanted to follow him, that was up to her. Finding no one in the village, and not daring to knock on a tent, he decided to take matters into his own hands. If he couldn't find anything after that, he could always ask one of the three guards. It would also be a good excuse to explore the village.

He scoured every corner of the village looking for villagers, but he also took the opportunity to familiarize himself with the place. Focused, he tried to memorize everything he saw, including the location of tents, important or useful resources, and where he suspected the food was.

After a few minutes he froze, a frown on his face.

"Wh-what is it?" Ellie asked nervously, not understanding what he was trying to do.

"There's nothing. This village has no assets, no resources." Ikaris replied with a grim countenance.

"What do you mean?"

"In a normal village, even a backward tribe like this one, there should be signs of human activity. A workshop for tanning hides, another for carving tools or weapons, signs of an extinguished campfire for cooking or curing meat, some kind of storehouse, stalls, baskets, pottery, or containers for storing fresh fruit and vegetables. Even if the weather is hot and the adults are working, there should be children playing in the area. There should also be sounds of voices or laughter coming from inside the tents.

"But there is no one there, no riches. Unless they hide all their food and possessions outside the village or inside their stinking teepees, this village doesn't even have enough food to feed themselves this evening."

Ikaris was hoping to find a knife lying around, a sewing needle and some skins hanging in the sun to make a loincloth quickly, but he was stuck at square one.

He had found a workshop, but it consisted of a rectangular wooden table, a few wooden and stone hammers, sharpened stones and a few bones carved into knives and other basic tools. The workshop seemed abandoned and no one had bothered to retrieve these tools.

Upon closer study, he understood why. If they weren't broken, they were at least chipped or brittle. They were probably tools that had been brought in for repair, but that repair had never been carried out.

The youth had found the unoccupied tents mentioned by Malia and Grallu, and he intended to dismantle one of them to make a tunic for himself.

Gurgle...

The audible growl from Ellie's stomach, followed quickly by his own changed his priorities. First, they had to find food.