The Tribal Chambers

The Kahuna smiles as she hears the latest update with the war. A war that has been progressing far faster ever since Death killed the Clan Leader of the Frost Clan along with three of his Clan Chieftains. Significantly shifting the balance of power in the war.

If only Death wasn’t in a constant fall, I’d have thanked her a million times over by now!

At first she was very skeptical about having Death come to Arian, but after this? All of her skepticism has turned into pure joy for having the beautiful young woman on their world.

In fact, she regrets that she’s already granted her immigration rights, thereby most likely leading to the woman leaving their world. Once she’s done falling, of course.

Which could take a while.

“We’ve already managed to take back the territories held by the Clan Chieftain who had first battled with Aria using ice magic, so our next target is-” Ake’s words are interrupted when an emergency warning flashes on all of their phones. A warning that makes every last tribal chief in the room along with Ake shoot out of their chairs.

But their panic is quickly turned to joy when they realize the devices are flashing green instead of red.

Meaning it’s urgent good news, not bad news.

The device – something they’d purchased from the Eternal Dynasty in the month since Death and the Silver Merchant had arrived – soon shows a hologram of the tribal chief in charge of a fortress close to the front lines on the opposite side of the enemy captured territories from the newly reclaimed territories. And without any hesitation, the man shouts, “Lady Death has found a Hunter’s Spot at the center of the planet! It’s not a core after all! It’s a fucking Hunter’s Spot!!!”

Silence fills the Tribal Chambers for just a moment before every last one of the tribal chiefs shatter it at once, asking one question after another. Meanwhile Ake feels like her face is growing sore from just how much she’s smiling.

“Bring us the details as soon as possible,” Ake quickly tells the man in the hologram, her voice cutting across the tribal chiefs’ voices. “And is Lady Death still at the Hunter’s Spot?”

At that question, the tribal chief grows slightly quiet before he answers, “Err, yes. She… is apparently planning on living there for a few years.”

Silence fills the chambers again.

“What?” Ake asks, staring blankly at the hologram. But the look on the chief’s face makes it clear he isn’t joking.

Living… in a Hunter’s Spot.

She continues to stare for several seconds amidst the silence in the chamber.

I just can’t let my guard down around this one…

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Aria

Always wanted to try roughing it out in the wild at some point.

This might be fun.

Although my version of ‘roughing it out in the wild’ and others might differ a little. Considering that I don’t need to eat, sleep, take breaks, or do any of those pesky body maintenance things.

Makes me wonder why other people have to do it. I mean, it’s such a waste of time to do all those things. Like going to the bathroom, making sure you eat and sleep a certain amount, and whatever. Not to mention watching how much wine you drink. Could never do that myself.

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I enhance my right shoulder with soul energy before igniting it, burning the massive mosquito that had landed there without so much as pausing in my way through this little tunnel of the nest.

Could do with fewer bugs though. But at the very least I can’t get those bug bites other people often complain about. So there’s that.

Although…

I glance down at the mosquito currently sticking its incisor mouth thingy into my calf.

…not sure if this is what they mean when they say bug bites.

I quickly burn the thing before pausing when I find myself at some sort of cavern inside of the nest. One that’s rather massive and with a lot of bugs flying around and climbing the walls all over.

So I do the most sensible thing I can right now.

I summon hundreds of Lesser Death Spirits to go around slaughtering the lot of them. Since these are all Tier 1 mana creatures no doubt, judging by how close they are to the entrance. Not to mention that they don’t seem to be letting off all that powerful mana.

Over the years I’ve slowly become able to detect mana myself. In the same way I can detect soul energy. Just slightly different.

So I can at least see a general idea of how powerful a mana creature is. I also finally saw just what it meant on the internet when people say that all raising your level really does is increase the amount of mana naturally in your body. Just that it’s focused in different locations and in different ways depending on your Class.

And that’s basically what mana creatures are. Creatures born straight from the mana of a world.

Well, assuming Arian can really be considered a world.

I’m just gonna keep calling it one though. Because I don’t feel like figuring that mystery out.

On another note, my Death Spirits quickly get to work tearing the bugs apart, leaving me to stand here at the edge of the room with my arms crossed and a smile on my face.

The only downside to living down here is that I can’t exactly restock my supplies.

A bummer.

Would certainly be nice to have some explosives down here. Could do a lot with those.

My thoughts come to a halt when my phone buzzes again, making me pick it up while burning another mosquito that tries to latch onto my neck. And I quickly find the call to be from Shirogane.

So I answer it while raising it to my ear. And killing another mosquito.

What’s with these mosquitos? They just never end.

Although at least these bugs count as an entire kill unlike regular bugs. Which does help confirm my theory that it’s based on life span.

“Aria? I heard you’re down in a Hunter’s Spot right now,” he says, surprising me a little by the fact that he’s in business mode.

“Yep,” I answer while watching the beautiful handiwork of my Death Spirits. “There’s a lot of bugs down here.”

“I heard,” he says before quickly getting onto business, “Please go into your phone and check out the Dynasty Transport app I had you download from our servers not too long ago.”

That gives me pause for a second. Then I shrug and go ahead and do that.

“This app lets you teleport items and equipment from one app user to another,” he explains without pause, making my eyes widen in shock.

Well… that just solved my problem.

“You have any explosives I could buy?” I ask with a grin forming on my face. “I might need a lot.”

“Already on the way,” Shirogane says immediately, making my grin grow wider. “Your favorites too.” Then his emotions return to his voice as he adds, “Stay safe down there and don’t end up in the stomach of some massive bug for years.”

And without another word, he hangs up the call. Following which crates of explosives and other stuff appear in front of me.

Including wine.

Gotta love the fact that he sent me wine without me even asking.

He knows me so well at this point.

I kneel down while my Death Spirits go to town on the bugs in the cavern, all of the critters rushing around in a panic due to the mini army of Death Spirits attacking them. But I ignore all of that as I open the crates, checking to make sure the explosives are correct and functional.

After that, I go and summon a bunch more Death Spirits, feeding my soul energy pool with the dead and dying bugs around us to do so, and order the Death Spirits to pick up the explosives and go around the edges of the cavern. Then I proceed to have some of them dig into the walls and upwards, since the walls and general structure of the nest isn’t the greatest. To the point that they can literally dig with their bare hands through it.

It’s so large though that some explosions shouldn’t even leave a dent in the entire thing’s structure.

Might attract more bugs though, but that’s not a problem.

I wait for a bit while watching the Death Spirits go about their jobs. Some of them killing bugs, others distracting them, and the rest going about setting the charges. Most of which are being set in a large circle at the edges of the roof. With some more above the roof.

And after watching for a bit and feeling that the last one has finished his mission, I pull out a remote that was in the crate, and with a lovely smile on my face, I press the button on the remote.

Causing all of the explosives to blow up all at once, destroying the connecting points of the roof and bringing the entire thing down on the massive cavern.

Amidst the dust and whatever in the air, along with the constant ringing of kill messages, I nod my head with a sense of satisfaction and dismiss all of my summoned Death Spirits.

It’s nice to be able to blow things up in a Hunter’s Spot.