NOVEL NEXT Chapter 37: Lukas is Back
The people of the black boar tribe focused solely on the results and not on the process. No one would care if you didn't find an animal when you went out hunting. If you didn't catch an animal, then you would be considered a failure.
This was the same in every aspect, be it collecting roots, berries and fruits or making children. If one was unable to produce results, then they would be considered failures.
Unfortunately, the Black Boar tribe followed a tradition of blaming the females for not getting pregnant. They didn't see if the man was impotent or not, or if there were any other problems.
This would push the "failed woman" into a lower position among the other females and since the tribe also followed monogamy and punished adultery, these women would often end up being mocked until they die.
Nina sat by the door and silently watched as four young women, ranging around 25 boss around an older woman who obediently picked up the feces of the families of the younger women.
She then took it away from the tribe, to a place where everyone's feces would be thrown.
Nina didn't interfere as she recalled the rules set by Amon and one of them was to never interfere in the customs of the tribe. She recalled the words he had said back then and muttered.
"You two aren't saviors. Your goal is to steal their accumulated knowledge."
With a soft sigh, she turned to look at the snakes that were peacefully sleeping beside her brother. He had been sweating profusely for the past few minutes and while this worried her, she couldn't help but sit and wait.
She pursed her lips as she watched him breathe, '…. Assassin and Ice Mage. I've never felt this useless.'
Her jobs were known to be really good and this was something that Amon had told them himself. This was also the reason why Lukas had picked these jobs for her. But now, none of her skills could bring him back to normal.
She then took a deep breath and shook her head, 'He's fine. It wasn't lethal poison.'
As she remembered this, she felt better.
Soon, the people went to sleep and Hero Noma gave the sick some space and took the child to a different, smaller hut. With the whole hut to herself and her brother, she couldn't help but sit down beside him.
She put a dry cloth inside a pot of cold water and squeezed the excess before looking at his sleeping form.
This was the only thing she knew to do when someone got sick.
She wiped off his sweat with her hands and then, placed the cold cloth on his head.
"AAARGH!!"
Nina jumped back in fright as she saw her brother grab the cloth and fling it away. Then he hurriedly looked around in panic until he spotted her.
"…. right…" he said softly as he looked at himself. The smell of sweat was very obvious but it wasn't as exaggerated like cultivation novels in his previous life where the protagonists would shit from all the pores of their bodies.
He sat down and looked around to see his snakes lying all around him. They had their heads up but slowly put them down as they too relaxed. His extreme panic had affected their minds too.
'I thought that using the one way autonomous communication would be perfect but looks like I was wrong.' he thought as he summoned his system.
'Set the vipers to semi automatic communication. My thoughts can be transferred to them but only when I want to. Emotions shouldn't be transferred no matter what.'
[Settings applied.]
There were other modes like manual thought communication and verbal communication but those weren't exactly convenient as he would have to say "All vipers listen" and then give the commands in his head.
As for verbal communication, he would have to talk to them directly. Translation would happen automatically through the system for all the methods.
Unfortunately, there was still one small problem with his current situation. The things that he would bring outside, could not be sent back inside his inventory.
This meant that the vipers would have to stay outside with him. As for the sheep, Lukas didn't really care what happened to it.
'I get sixteen sheep everyday. I don't mind losing one.' he chuckled inwardly as he looked at his sister, "How long was I sleeping for?"
"It's night now."
Lukas looked a little confused for a moment before he realised that it was still the same day. Otherwise, she would have said one, two or three days instead.
"So… approximately 12 hours." he muttered and nodded, "Looks like rest and recovery helps with expelling poison too. Or maybe adapt? Who knows…"
Then he stretched as he felt a little stiff.
"Ugh, that felt good. It's night but I don't feel sleepy…." he said softly as he looked at Nina, "Do you want to go to the place where we were attacked? I want to find clues about the the attackers. Based on the arrows, it should be one of the cannibals but cannibals don't put gems in their teeth."
Nina nodded as she stood up. Then, she glanced at him and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Are you bringing the others?"
Originally, Lukas didn't really have plans on bringing anyone but after hearing her question, he remembered that he wasn't a local. Navigating the forest at night was easy with his Nature's Whisper which was at S rank, but he would rather be safe than sorry.
"Maybe we should take the trio with us." he said and nodded as he walked out of the hut, "I'll go wake up Uke. I'll leave the girls to you."
Without looking back, he walked towards the place where the Uke family usually slept and as he had expected, they were there. All of them lay under a thick tree as they slept peacefully.
Lukas simply touched Uke and the kid opened his wide. This made Lukas wonder if the kid was actually asleep.
Pushing his thoughts away, he leaned closer and whispered, "Come with me. We're going out to find something."