"Come, Mira! Let's go back, I have a long day tomorrow."
"Okay!" exclaimed the young child. She quickly let go of the herbs she was examining and stood up. Without even looking back, Mira joyfully hopped toward the village; she could not wait to go back and sleep.
The Shaman sighed as he saw his granddaughter's behavior but in the end, he chose to remain silent. 'She is still a child, I'll just clean up behind her and bring everything back...'
A few minutes after Mira had already reached her home, the Shaman finally entered the village while carrying 2 small cauldrons. He walked toward his tent and along the way, he saluted the barbarians on guard.
Seeing that one of them was, in fact, the chief, Achi, the Shaman signaled him to come to his tent for a chat.
"What is it elder? Do you need my help?" asked Achi with a tired voice. Guarding the village at night could prove to be very taxing on the barbarians; sometimes, standing still doing nothing could be more tiring than actually doing labor work.
"Sit down. Is everything ready for tomorrow? According to the schedule, the townsmen should be coming," answered the Shaman as he dropped the heavy cauldrons in a corner and took off his heavy coat.
Achi nodded and went to grab the teapot, "Yes, everything is neatly arranged in the storage tent. We do not have as many animal products to sell but our blacksmiths did improve since the last trade."
"That's good, you should take care of it. Remember to maintain a good relationship with them but don't go too far. I will speak with the dungeon master tomorrow night. That guy does not trust us well, he did not open any other floors yet."
"Mmm, that's true but opening more floors would mean that we also need to send more people there to efficiently harvest the items. Or at least, we won't be able to train the youngsters like we are doing at the moment. The dungeon is a really good place to train them, especially since we have the guarantee that they won't die. They have the tendency to be rash but now, we can just leave them alone and it would still be fine," commented Achi.
"You still have to be careful though! The future of our tribe will all depend on tomorrow. If the deal holds on, then we'll be able to continue in that direction. Just for tomorrow, focus on gathering that goo you brought to me. It is the fastest way to raise the overall strength of the village!"
As the Shaman mentioned the goo, Achi immediately recalled the painful experience he went through a few days ago. It had been a long time since Achi felt like crying and begging for pain, but nothing could compare to the few minutes he soaked into that bath. The goo of the spectral hound was extremely acidic; when it came into contact with people for a long time, it would generally only leave behind a sack of bones.
However, when mixed with powerful medicinal herbs, it could be used as a quick way to increase one's strength. The acidic property of the potion would quickly damage the user's skin, bones, and muscles but at the same time, the herbs would quickly heal the user's body. In the end, it was just a shortcut to days spent at the gym; exercising was simply the act of damaging one's muscles, repairing them and building up on top.
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"I suppose you did not call me here just to talk about that?" asked Achi. The trade with the townsmen was important but considering that he was never called by the Shaman before to talk about them, it meant that there might be something more important.
The Shaman faintly smiled and revealed a serious expression. "Yes... It is about that student of mine, Angela. It seems that there is a more powerful monster than her. Tonight, she left early because she wanted to welcome her mother back. If I am not wrong, that 'mother' should be at least as strong as Angela. Angela herself is already quite proficient with wind magic. I did not point it out but I can always see her cleverly use the wind around her and it does not seem to be taxing on her! Although I can do the same to some extent, I would not be able to hold for more than 20 minutes but she can do so for a whole session!"
"Her mother? We already knew that the dungeon must have stronger monsters. Didn't he say he had 7 floors already? Judging by the increase in power of monsters of each floor, I am not very surprised if the harpies are not his strongest monsters," answered Achi.
"That's the thing! I've been listening to Angela and Mira when they speak and sometimes, I've been guiding their conversations. It does not seem like the dungeon is as strong as he is trying to show us. It was not very clear but apparently, Angela went through a near-death situation recently. If we take into consideration that her mother was not present, that at least means that there are no other powerful monsters. She did mention that she recently arrived at the dungeon and judging by the timing, it could be related to the strange behavior of the beasts we observed last week?"
The Shaman cleared his voice as he continued, "These are just deductions. I am simply saying that we should not necessarily trust that dungeon master as long as the terms of the deal are not very clear. He tried to make himself look strong. If I remember correctly, he acted as if dying would have no effect on him; he was not scared even when left alone with me when I could easily have killed him! But the truth is he would really die! According to Angela's words, all the monsters of the dungeon fear death, including the dungeon master."
Achi fell into deep thoughts, the news of the Shaman was not particularly worrying but it was better to know the kind of person they were dealing with. The deal with the dungeon was indeed beneficial to the tribe and they were initially very pleased with themselves, but it turned out that their new ally was not as strong as he looked. It meant that the tribe could not necessarily use the dungeon as a way to protect themselves in case of an emergency. Furthermore, if their ally was weak, why would the barbarians need to make a deal with him? They could simply seize the resources by force!
However, Achi had different plans, "I know you are trying to say that we have an opportunity to take over the dungeon but with all due respect, keep your greed in check! I don't really want to act against them, I would very much prefer to have a peaceful cooperation with the dungeon. We are already getting much more than we ever hoped to get! In just a few years, I am sure that we can rebuild the tribe into what it was before you were forced to move! But we should not be too greedy, we already took a lot of risks, and honestly, I don't want to put Mira in danger!"
The Shaman stayed silent for a moment; his eyes were carefully examining Achi's expression. After a brief moment, he let out a sigh, "Alright, I won't be too greedy. I know that I want the tribe to grow back into what it used to be but we should not be too hasty. However, I will continue to extract information from Angela. If we can really overtake the dungeon, I see no reason to not do so. I will act carefully for now and we'll see what he says tomorrow."
"Sure, we'll wait. After the death of Toba, I don't want to take any big risks! That is especially true since there have been some movements at the townsmen encampment, we need to be on our guard. It might just be that new merchant company, but some scouts came back and reported an increase in their armed force and adventurers," answered Achi.
"The safety of the village comes first and even if we just maintain our deal, we will without a doubt become the strongest village of the region! Even strong enough to deal with the townsmen encampment."
...
As she left the Shaman and Mira behind, Angela quickly flew back to the waterfall. As soon as she arrived, she immediately found Alice and Ariel waiting for her. "You are already there?"
"Of course! How could we be late? Let's quickly go to the usual meeting point," excitedly said Alice.
Ariel nodded and took the lead, "Was everything alright? That old man is not too harsh with you, isn't he?"
"It is fine, it is not that hard. I am always with Mira; he does not treat me differently," answered Angela.
"That's right, he better treats you well!" declared Alice.
The three harpies soon arrived and sat down while chatting. They calmly waited but the sky was clear, not a single silhouette could be seen. However, the harpies were not anxious; the night was still long and besides that, Harriet could be slightly late and come back tomorrow instead.
The harpies waited and waited. A long time had passed and, in the distance, the color of the horizon was already starting to change. Dawn was not very far. "Could it be that Mother will come back tomorrow?"
"That's possible. There is no need to be worried. We are the ones who are impatient," said Ariel.