At the same time, at the Black Iron Tribe.
"Clip Clop Clip Clop!!!"
The loud sound of horses' hooves running down the path of pebbles resounded in the distance. Most women and children had already left the village to go to the river for their daily chores. The men also left to hunt in the forest but about 30 vigorous barbarians were still there protecting the village.
They immediately noticed the approaching riders in the distance but after being instructed by Achi, none of them threateningly rushed to meet them. Instead, ten of them jumped on their horses, including Achi and prepared to receive them at the entrance of the village.
The person leading the group of riders was actually a player; his IGN was Iron Shark. He was tall and charismatic with long hairs floating in the wind. He was leading a group of 10 players towards the Black Iron Tribe.
"Greetings, townsmen. May I know the purpose of your visit!" exclaimed Achi when the group of players arrived at a reasonable distance.
"Greetings, chieftain! We are here to investigate the whereabouts of a criminal! A member of an evil cult, who is potentially a demon, has been spotted at Etora Town 3 days ago. He escaped in this direction and we are chasing after him," said Iron Shark.
"A criminal? Can you describe that person's appearance?" asked Achi while holding the reins of his horse.
"Of course! Here is a wanted picture," said one of the players next to Iron Shark. She was a beautiful young lady who was wearing barely enough clothes to cover her private parts. With a swift movement of her hand, a scroll appeared in her hands which she opened and showed to Achi.
Achi let out a surprised expression; on the scroll, the portrait of Five could be seen, drawn with ink and brushes.
"Indeed, that person came to the village just yesterday," answered Achill.
"Really? That's great! Where is he now? We need to quickly capture him to complete our quest!" declared Iron Shark.
"Unfortunately, he left the village a few hours earlier and I don't know where he went. He went towards the forest but that is all I know," said Achi.
"What? How could you let this demon go? He is not only a criminal but also a demon! You know how they almost exterminated humanity a century ago," exclaimed the young woman.
In truth, Achi did not care much about the war that occurred in the past. He only knew about the teaching of the Shaman of the tribe which did not mention it. He naturally knew about the demons, but the Barbarians never considered them as enemies.
Seeing Achi's reaction, Iron Shark quickly reacted, "That's enough! I am sorry chief. We are just very tired and on our nerves after such a long chase from Etora Town."
Achi smiled, "That is fine! You can rest in our village! If you want, we will arrange a tent for you to recover from your journey!"
"That would be perfect."
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Quickly, the group of players was brought to the village.
"Wow! They look like one of those African tribes!"
"Yeah! I have seen movies where there are people like them who hunt for food every day!"
The players were commenting among themselves, making sure that none of the barbarians could hear their conversation. They did not want to get into trouble with those burly muscular men who all held heavy axes or longbows.
The only one remaining silent was Iron Shark. He was closely observing the village. "Chief, are there any items that we can buy there? Things unique to your tribe?"
"Of course, of course! I am glad you said that. I will show you what we have but you should first rest. You had a long journey!"
"Naturally. There is no rush," answered Iron Shark. The other players were confused at Iron Shark's behavior.
But the latter simply sent them a private message via the party's chat: "This is a good opportunity! We are probably the first players to get here. We can use this to buy exclusive items from the Barbarians. With that, we can secure a source of income for our Blue Lagoon!"
...
At the top of the waterfall, a group of children was happily chatting while observing the wild nature in front of them. Mira was cheerfully following her older cousin, Zeke. She remembered her father's warning and like an obedient child, she stuck to her cousin, who was also Toba's son.
Zeke was the leader of the group; he was only 14 years old, but his physique was already that of a young adult in his prime. His body was well developed and muscular after all the physical work and training set up by his father.
"Stay behind me. Did you bring everything?" asked Zeke. He was already standing just in front of the two bushes hiding the entrance.
"Yes. Here are the torches, the animal fat and the flint and steel!" said one of the children. Just like Zeke, he was also well built and was carrying the materials for exploration.
All the young men also had some sort of weapons with them. Zeke had a smaller version of his father's ax while many others held short daggers at their waist. Even Mira had a small knife, ready to be drawn at all time.
"Good! In that case, let's go!" Zeke quickly swung his ax, chopping the bushes blocking the entrance. Very soon, the small hole was completely exposed, and the torches were ready to be used.
The other children had already smeared the torches with enough fuel to hold for a while. But they could not light it up right now since the entrance was very tight. They would have to crawl to get in and doing so with a lighted torch could be very inconvenient.
"I'll lead the way!"
Zeke quickly crouched and started to crawl through the hole. "I am in. Give me the torch and the flint."
Mira immediately tossed the requested items through the hole and a few seconds later, the children outside could see that the torch had been lit up!
They all became excited and one by one, they started making their way in the cave.
"You should all stand behind me. We don't know what this place hides!" warned Zeke. He calmly waited for the 20 children to get into the cave; 5 of them were holding torches.
Mira was excited at the idea of exploring the unknown. She did not find the cave creepy or scary but instead, she found it mysterious and secretive. She closely followed behind her cousin who was opening the way.
"Wait! What is that?" exclaimed Mira. She suddenly saw a faint light appear in the distance before immediately disappearing.
"What is what?" asked one of Mira's friends.
"I saw a small bright dot appear over there, but it is gone now!" answered Mira.
"Don't worry, it was probably the reflection of the torch somewhere!"
But at that moment, another bright dot appeared in the distance and this time, several children saw it.
"What is that? That light can move!" exclaimed the children.
Zeke frowned, it was the first time he was seeing something like that. He raised his ax and waited as he saw the light dot slowly zigzag towards the group.
Another child next to Zeke raised the torch to be able to see further and quickly, Zeke finally saw the source of light.
The children who were previously scared by the floating light all immediately relaxed. In fact, they found the scene quite funny; they were all scared to death by a small insect.
It turned out that the dot of light was merely a firefly. It was their first time seeing one but when they saw that it was merely an insect that did not even try to attack them, the children quickly lowered their guard.
Some even laughed at themselves for their reactions, "Haha! We were scared of a small insect!"
"I feel stupid now!"
Mira also relaxed. She looked at the firefly that seemed to be flying without a goal. The small firefly flew around her before briefly landing on her arm. The little girl was scared at first but since nothing happened when the insect touched her, she laughed. She initially thought that since it was emitting light, the insect would be burning hot but to her surprise, she only felt a tingling sensation when the insect landed.
"We should resume the exploration. This place is larger than expected. We should not waste too much time," said Zeke.
"Yes! Mother said to get back before lunch. We should start moving," said another child.
And so, the group of children resumed their exploration with a new friend buzzing on Mira's arm.
The children were slowly progressing; they were wary of this place and took their time. A few minutes later, they arrived at an intersection and stopped.
"Where should we go? Right or left?" asked one of the children.
"It does not matter but we should mark the way we came from to avoid getting lost!" said Zeke. At the same time, he bent down to grab a piece of rock on the floor to scratch the wall and leave a mark.
But to his surprise, the rock had a weird texture; it still had those sharp ends, but it also felt smoother than a regular rock. More importantly, Zeke felt that his hand was dirty just from touching the rock. Intrigued, the young man approached one of the children holding a torch to examine the rock.
"Wait... Isn't that coal?"