----------------------------------------

Chapter Six: Tribeswoman

  [You have cast the first circle spell “Burning Blast” for the first time. This spell creates a cone of flames bursting from your outstretched hand. This is an upgradeable spell.]

  “Are you an idiot?!” my sister yelled, rolling off Sheena to give the great cat more maneuverability.

  Thud!

  The giant spider, seeing its home burning around it, dropped to the jungle floor to challenge its attackers. It let out a screech.

  Sheena rushed to meet it.

  I stowed my wand and started casting again. The two great beasts clashed, and though Sheena managed to claw several of its eyes out, she received a powerful bite to her chest in return.

  “Dual Magic Missile!”

  Four shining stars swerved around the tiger and slammed into the spider, the explosions cracking carapace and rocking the arachnid, but not killing it. Lartha ran forward and sliced into one of its legs, sending electricity into its body. The creature twitched as she slashed again, cutting the leg off.

  “Dual Magic Missile!”

  Sheena kept clawing and biting at the spider even as fluid flowed from the holes in its carapace. Lartha ducked under it and delivered a powerful punch to the spot where its abdomen met its head, more electricity surging.

  I pulled out my bow and took aim. True Foe: Jungle Spider, I thought.

  Steady…

  Steady…

  Release!

  The arrow cracked through, directly in the middle of its array of eyes, sinking halfway up the shaft.

  The spider fell.

  Another shriek.

  I turned to see that several small and medium sized spiders had avoided dying to the flames (mostly ones that had crawled down trees) and were now ready to press the attack.

  “Restore!” Renee cast on Sheena, having moved closer to her companion in the last few seconds.

  Sheena and Lartha attacked the medium-sized spiders, while my sister and I used spear and bow to kill smaller ones, even as the flames around us grew higher and spread further.

  I had used six more arrows – leaving me with eighteen out of my original thirty – when suddenly the world was water, and the flames were quenched. I bent over, hacking and coughing as air returned; so did the others. Fortunately, the spiders hadn’t fared any better, and the two tiger-plus-sized ones, which hadn’t yet joined the fight, fell from the canopy and landed on their backs.

  I turned toward them, as did my sister, who sent her lights over to keep them clearly illuminated. In the shadows beyond, I saw two humanoid figures approach. One leisurely, the other at a run, somehow unimpeded by the underbrush.

  With a war cry in an unfamiliar tongue, the greatsword-wielding woman leaped at the spiders before they could right themselves, cleaving into first one, then the other, with startling ease.

  Then she looked up at us and started yelling.

  Ding!

  [Congratulations: you have passed the Sub-Trial: Spider’s Nest. Your rating is: Arachnicidal Pyromaniac. For completing the Sub-Trial in a way that would have guaranteed your own death if not for outside intervention by setting the jungle on fire, you have earned 100 Experience.]

  [No, you don’t also get experience for the kills. That’s included.]

  [Congratulations: you have leveled up from level seven to level ten. You have earned a total of 24 Primary and 12 Secondary CP.]

  That was nice at least.

  The woman who had saved us (I guess) looked fairly young, perhaps in her mid-twenties, but she was far from beautiful. The right half of her face was covered in a burn scar, and the left half had a giant white scar that barely missed her eye. She was tall – slightly taller than my five-foot-ten frame – and quite muscular. Her orange hair was patchy on the right side and down to her shoulder on the left, and she was missing several teeth. Her top was covered in a bloodstained brown chest wrap, while her bottom half had ripped trousers and boots.

  Her companion, who walked up beside her with a bored expression, looked like an elf wizard. He had waist-length blue hair, pointy ears, glittering blue eyes, torn blue robes, a staff with a piece of obsidian on the top, and a pendant necklace. He tapped the woman on her shoulder, interrupting her, then said something in a flat voice. She frowned, then replied at a more normal volume.

  “Moderate Healing,” Sheena said, mending Sheena’s wounds.

  “I’m tapped,” she told me quietly. “No more spells from me today once my lights run out.”

  “They don’t seem to be hostile,” Lartha commented. “What’s our course of action?”

  “Hey, wizardy dude and sword lady,” I called out. “Wanna team up?”

You have extended a temporary party link request.

Should this be accepted, all individuals will be capable of understanding one another’s languages.

…

Svenia and Aguin have accepted your invitation.

  “Hey!” Svenia (I assumed that was the woman’s name) barked. “You can understand me now, right?”

  “Yes,” I said slowly.

  “Good. Now what the hells were you thinking, setting the damn forest on fire?! Were you trying to kill everyone in the whole place?! Including yourselves?!”

  “Aren't jungles supposed to be, like, wet? Not easily set on fire?” I protested weakly.

  Rusty landed on my arm, and Shadow came to stand on my feet. Svenia’s eyes drifted over my full party, lingering on my sister, who was petting Sheena.

  “Ones who have tamed beasts should know better than to make such assumptions,” she said after a long pause, but there was less heat to her words. I figured she realized I had a point. Seriously, a jungle catching aflame made about as much sense as spiderwebs being flammable (videogames notwithstanding, spiderwebs weren't actually easy to set on fire, but the ones here burned just as readily as the not-as-wet-as-they-should-have-been trees). Though now that I thought about it, not only had there not been any rain since our arrival, but it wasn't actually that humid, either. Maybe it wasn't really a jungle? Maybe it just looked like one?

  “My brother is just an idiot sometimes,” Renee said apologetically.

  “Just like when he offered for us to link our parties without consulting the rest of us just now,” Lartha said, irritation in her voice.

  “Well, we weren’t going to be able to communicate otherwise,” I pointed out. “Renee has a spell that would help, but she’s almost out of mana.”

  “Who is the leader of your band?” Svenia demanded.

  “…I guess I am,” I said. “Renee’s part of my party, and I’m the one who initiated the party link with Lartha.”

  “Hmph. A fool like you, leading others? You will only guide them into a Behemoth’s jaws!”

  “…I’m assuming that’s an idiom. Are you the leader of your group?”

  “Yes and no. Of the two of us, yes. But we were separated from the others of my tribe, including the Chieftain’s son.” She stood proudly, thrusting her greatsword into the ground. “I am Warrior Svenia of the Blackmarrow Tribe. My companion is Aquin of the elves, a mercenary wizard with whom we do business.”

  “Elves,” Lartha muttered.

  “My name is Yuan, this is my sister Renee, and she’s Lartha.”

  “Are you not people of importance? What tribes do you hail from?”

  “We aren’t, and we don’t,” my sister said. “We come from a large country called America, but we’re not part of a tribe, and we aren’t all that important.” Renee looked apologetic.

  “I come from the Interstellar Empire, and… well, we use different words, but I guess you could say I am the daughter of an Elder.”

  Svenia nodded.

  “Come, let us leave this place of death,” she said. “We will take you to the clearing where we will sleep, protected by Aguin’s magic.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  By my guess, we still had about two hours to reach the structure, but it was probably around seven o-clock and everything was already cast in dark shadow. If there was a defensible spot, it would be a good idea to make use of it to rest.

  It took less only a couple minutes to reach, which explained how they had gotten to us so fast. We settled in to sleep in three distinct groups: me and my sister, Svenia and Aguin, and Lartha.

  I had a much harder time falling asleep than when we were surrounded by monsters. To help pass the time while my eyes were closed, I focused on advancement. I had 27 Sorcerer CP and 12 Ranger CP, enough for three Sorcerer advancements and one Ranger advancement. I took the second circle spell Fire Beam, then reduced its casting time by 25%, then reduced Magic Missile’s casting time by 25% – and to my shock, it was subtractive, reducing Magic Missile’s casting time by a total of 50%. I decided to hold off on the Ranger stuff for now and wait until I got my next level up, which I suspected would open up more options.

  Eventually, listening to the quiet breathing of my companions was enough for me to drift off.

----------------------------------------

  “Awaken, slugs!”

  I snapped awake at the loud shout, briefly disoriented. Groaning, I struggled to my feet, equipping my sword and bow.

  “Was that really necessary?” I complained to the boisterous woman.

  “Every day must begin with fervor and good food!” Svenia declared. “And so we must rouse to hunt!”

  “My sister has a magic spell that turns berries into a full meal. That’s not really necessary.”

  “Berries?! Are you a prey animal?! To maintain strength you must eat heartily of meat!”

  “What is your problem?” Lartha demanded, rising. “You could have gone out to hunt while leaving the rest of us to sleep!”

  “Are you a carrion bird?! You must hunt if you wish to eat!”

  “Also, why are you so loud?” I said. “We just woke up.”

  “You get used to it, I hope,” Aguin commented, the first words I had heard from him. The elf looked just as disgruntled as I felt. I glanced at Renee.

  My sister was still dead to the world. I had no idea how she could sleep through the tribeswoman’s racket, but she always was a heavy sleeper. Her tiger, on the other hand, looked supremely irritated, her ears flattened. I was surprised she wasn’t trying to rip the woman’s throat out. Possibly she didn’t want to disturb her mistress.

  “Your sister is like a bear in winter!” Svenia said. “Slumbering so deep! I will leave it to you to awaken her, for I fear that her great tiger will not take kindly to my approach.”

  I sighed and bent down, shaking Renee awake.

  “Good morning,” she yawned.

  “Svenia wants us to go hunting. I just realized that I’ve gotten a bit turned around, so I’m not sure the right direction toward the structure, which is pitiful for a Ranger. I’m going to see if there’s something in my advancement menu that can help: Terrain Mastery is worth a shot.”

  [You have gained the feature “Terrain Mastery.” When in wilderness settings, you automatically know cardinal directions, as well as the distance and direction to the closest three sources of water. Your stealth and perception capabilities also improve in such settings. Difficult terrain, such as broken rocks or underbrush, impedes your movement significantly less.]

  Well! That was more useful than I was expecting it to be. Unless there was water at the structure, that wouldn’t help me locate it, though. But… I was sensing three different “pulls,” for lack of a better way of describing it. Given the distance, I was pretty sure that one was the waterfall. The structure should be in the opposite direction… and I was sensing water roughly a mile and a half that way. So, probably our destination.

  “Alright,” my sister replied, stretching. “C’mon, Sheena, let’s get ready to go hunting.”

  “That’s the spirit!” Svenia roared, hefting her massive sword with one hand.

  “I’ve got a good feeling about that direction,” I said, pointing toward the third and closest water source. “One of my class features says there’s a water source about three quarters of a mile that way. We might find some beasts to hunt there.”

  “Perfect! Lead the way, Rabbit!”

  “…My name is Yuan.”

  “You must first prove your might before I honor you with a name! It is the way of my tribe.”

  I stared at her. Was she for real?

  “Right.”

  The wildlife avoided us just as much as the previous day, perhaps even more intimidated than before by the addition of a fierce warrior (and potent water mage, as I found out by asking, but I doubted the animals would care about that).

  When we reached the pond – which was surrounded by a marshy wetland instead of forest, giving us a clear view of the sky – we were met with the sight of a truly massive boar, far bigger than anything that existed on earth: it was about as tall as the giant spider had been. A boar bigger than most cars was frankly terrifying to look at. It was busy eating a jungle cat when we arrived, but it noticed us almost instantly and turned toward us, red eyes glowing.

  Svenia strode out into the clearing, wearing a feral grin.

  “Come at me, my prey!”

  The boar snorted and dug at the ground as though preparing to charge.

  “Is she gonna be okay?” I asked Aguin.

  “Her class choices only made her more formidable than she already was,” he answered. “I don’t doubt she can win.”

  A silvery… aura?… rose up around the warrior as I readied my bow, aiming for the boar’s right eye. What were her classes, anyway?

  The boar charged like an accelerating car, picking up speed far faster than it should have been capable of. I let my arrow fly, blinding the beast in one eye but failing to penetrate its skull. Svenia brought her sword down in a vertical slash, the blade meeting flesh and stopping the charge. She was pushed back maybe a foot, but the boar’s momentum was stopped entirely, her weapon cleaving through its skull and embedding itself in the body parallel to the ground.

  Did… did she just one hit kill a freaking boar the size of an SUV?!

  [You have killed one Greater Dire Boar with assistance. You have killed one Greater Dire Boar without sustaining any damage. You have earned Experience.]

  “We shall feast today!” she declared, placing her boot on one half of its face and yanking her sword free. “Pig is a good meat. Now, help me to skin and prepare it, or I will not share with any but Rabbit, who attempted to help take down the beast.”

  “It’s… kind of big,” my sister said hesitantly. “I don’t know if all of us together will be enough to do it in one day.”

  “Don’t worry,” Aguin said, striding forward. “My secondary class will prove helpful here.”

  “What are your classes, both of you?” I asked. “You said you’re originally a water mage on your home world, but…”

  “My primary class is also Water Mage, which augments my original skills nicely. My secondary class is Animation Mage, which allows me to animate nonliving things. There is a great synergy between my two classes, as liquids count for animation as well. Combining the two enables me to do things like this.”

  He raised his staff, and water streaming out of the pond, forming a giant sphere some fifteen feet in diameter above him. Cutting beams of water shot out, slicing through the creature’s hide before sliding underneath it, shearing it off before returning to the sphere. With a wave of his hand, the now-freed hide lifted away from the body and moved over to a space beside it. After that, he commanded the water to slice chunks off the body, though the cutting power wasn’t great enough to cut through the bones, requiring him to cut around them instead.

  After some of the meat was set aside for our animals, who immediately started chowing down, Renee joined in, using a knife that Svenia had on her leather belt. Lartha reluctantly also helped, using her energy blade. Fires were built, blood was drained, hunks of meat were cooked. Various herbs were gathered by my sister to improve flavor. I helped Svenia with the actual cooking – I had known enough to do it with regular-sized boars, so I knew enough to help out here, though between the herbs and Svenia’s actual expertise, the end result was much, much tastier.

  While we worked, we talked.

  “I chose the classes Vital Warrior and Ki Master,” Svenia told me. “I refused to choose a ‘primary’ and ‘secondary.’ All warriors know that to be half-hearted is to be half-dead, so I demanded that both classes be equal.”

  “And that worked?” I said incredulously.

  “My self-telling says both are primary, and I started earning three class points in each when I increased my level. I now receive twelve each!”

  “What level are you?”

  “I am level eleven!”

  I blinked. She was that powerful and only one level above me? Holy crap. Just how strong was she before this started?

  “What was it like, when you chose classes? Did you understand what was going on?”

  “Not really. Our shaman, who was also with us, interpreted the runes and told us that these ‘classes’ were a way to become stronger to face a great trial given by the gods. He told us to examine each offering and decide which classes we would add to our strength.”

  “Your shaman must be a wise man, to figure that out so quickly.”

  “Of course. How could our shaman not be wise?” she scoffed.

  “So, are you one of the greatest warriors of your tribe?” I asked.

  “We do not rank our warriors,” she answered. “All warriors are equals; only the gods may judge their individual worth.”

  “What’s your tribe like? Like I said, I’m not part of a tribe, so this is my first time meeting a tribeswoman.”

  “The Blackmarrow Tribe is a good tribe,” she said with pride. “My family. My home. We are semi-nomadic, with several permanent encampments that we rotate between depending on the season. We are led by our Chieftain, who is advised by our shaman and our Elders. Many of us are hunters or warriors, but we do have those who tend to or gather plants as well as artists and healers.”

  That was an interesting combination. So they were hunter-gatherers with artist as a profession? I wondered if she was using the term more broadly than I was understanding it. At any rate, this was actually a good sign. I was half-convinced that she was from some battle-thirsty “noble warrior race” sort of tribe, but if they valued art enough to allow people to be full-time artists, clearly they were more nuanced than that.

  “How long have you been a warrior?”

  “Ever since my coming of age, ten years ago.”

  “And that makes you how old?”

  “I am twenty-four years old.”

  “So you’ve been a warrior since you were fourteen? What was your coming of age like? Do you have some sort of ceremony/”

  “Every child who becomes a man or woman of the tribe must undertake a task to prove themselves. Mine was to defeat a den of kormarashes.”

  “What are kormarashes?” I interjected.

  “They are creatures that walk on two feet as people do, but with only half the stature. They are covered in fur, and have a face like a wolf. They use crude weapons and are violent, attacking people for pleasure. They breed quickly, so dens pop up often.”

  “And you had to take out an entire den by yourself?”

  “I wanted to be a warrior, not just a hunter. The tasks for warriors are never easy. It was a quite a battle, but I returned home victorious. I will always remember that day fondly.”

  Yeah, she was definitely a little crazy, I decided, looking at her reminiscing smile. Who had fond memories of fighting a life-and-death battle against monsters as a young teen? A part of me wondered if every girl I met here was going to be partially insane. Lartha didn’t see anything wrong with eating people, so long as they weren’t the same species.

  I had to stop my mind from wandering to thoughts of what other sorts of craziness I might encounter.

  Somewhat to my surprise, Svenia actually liked talking to me – or maybe she just liked talking. From what I gathered from some of her stories, she was the child of a warrior and a healer who got into a lot of fights with monsters and enemy tribesmen. Her missing teeth? From getting bashed in the face. Her white scar? An enemy’s blade nearly taking her life. The burns? Facing down a fire drake to protect the village. Each was a mark of pride: something she survived while fighting for her tribe.

  I don’t think it even occurred to her that others would see them as blemishes.

  In a way, I found that strangely inspiring.

  She also revealed that she had hobbies other than fighting. A friend of hers was an artist and had taught her woodcarving and metal engraving. She showed me the designs etched into the flat of her sword. They were rough and aggressive-feeling, but they had a certain stark beauty to them. Another hobby of hers was some manner of sport that she tried to explain to me. It seemed similar to rugby or football. And she liked poetry, too, but that didn’t really translate so well.

  In the end, we made no progress toward our actual destination that day due to how long it took to prepare and cook things, but it wasn’t an entire waste. Besides having some of the best pork of my life and learning about my new companion, we also got some near gear, courtesy of Lartha of all people. So far, I had only seen her use her homeworld’s technology and her Brawler abilities, but her main class was Technomage. I had assumed that she simply couldn’t use it without other technology to interact with, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

  Because she could conjure nanobots out of nothing by using her mana, and command those nanobots to replicate and perform tasks for her. Apparently she was really bored (she mostly didn’t help out after the cutting part), so she decided to use supplies to make stuff. She could also apparently transmute items into related materials, turning the boar hide into cured hide in a matter of minutes. She used this to make hide armor for my sister, since Renee had no protective gear. Some bones were also transformed into various weapons and tools – or even art pieces, much to Svenia’s delight. She fashioned packs for us from hide so that we could actually carry things, such as the extra meat that we didn’t eat for lunch or supper that day.

  For the first time since the start of the Trial, I genuinely enjoyed myself.

  Of course, nothing could remain idyllic forever.