"Now that everyone is here.. We can start this gathering." Said the strongest of warriors while looking at the rest of the tribe leaders.
"It would be best." Responded a heavily dressed woman with a few hints of irritation in her voice.
As the strongest of warriors saw that he had obtained the attention of the various leaders tribe leaders, he unstrapped his sword from behind his back, and pierced the ground with it.
The various warriors amongst them turned to look at the sword with shock, which was rapidly turned into envy.
One of them said "That's a good sword.. Is that why you've called this gathering for? Have your scholars discovered a method to mass produce these weapons?"
"No.." Responded the head scholar in a low voice. She then stood up, and took a small sphere from within her clothes, and showed it to the rest of the leaders.
"What is that?" Asked a middle aged man, which was sitting on the opposite side of the cave.
The head scholar looked at the various leaders once again, then said "This is a beast core. A power source completely devoid of corruption which isn't part of our world, just like his sword, and her bow."
"What is that supposed to mean? Have you gone crazy with age?" Asked a middle aged woman with revealing clothes and long black hair.
The strongest of warriors took a deep breath, then, he said "She is telling the truth. These items have been given to us by an individual that we have discovered wandering the abandoned city near our tribe's location."
Noticing the skeptical faces of the variou leaders, the chief hunter got up from her chair, and stood next the two other members of the triumvirate. She then said "This individual claimed to have a way to cleanse our race from the affliction of the corruption. He explained it to us in detail, and demonstrated that, if everything went well, we would be able to prevent our younger generations to absorbing corruption along with the power from monster's meat."
As the chief hunter finished speaking, the backs of every single person within the cave straightened in their chairs.
To claim achieving that wasn't a dream for their entire race, it would be a lie.
Through the past thousands of year, they had always paid the utmost attention to any update directed at this common objective. Now that someone had arrived, and had proposed a deal to them.. A deal which could make their wish come true, and that also had provided proof.. their interest couldn't be any higher.
Many of these gatherings had been held, and in each of them, speaking nonsense about being able to make progress on this specific subject, had become a major taboo for the various tribe leaders. That had convinced them that, if they had decided to bring up the matter, they had found something.
"Speak then." Said the black-haired woman which spoke a few moments earlier.
"His name is Daniel. He claims to be a cultivator of another world, and has shown to us multiple times that he possesses powers beyond our comprehension. He can ingest infected meat and reject its corruption, and he can make items appear out of nowhere." Said the chief scholar in a single breath.
"How do you know that he isn't one of our race who simply found a clean spot to live in our world?"
"He isn't. He couldn't speak our language, but learned it in a matter of days, and most importantly.. His power is not like our aura. He can inject it into weapons, or eject it from his body giving him mobility boosts." Responded the chief researcher to the old man who had just asked the question.
—–
The questions and answers went on for two long hour.
In these two hours, the three of them explained everything they had learned about the uses of spiritual essence, its connection to the spiritual plain, and a few other things that Daniel had explained to them. What they purposely left out, was that Daniel was staying within their tribe.
Instead, they made the rest of the leaders make the assumption that Daniel was a powerful and mysterious man.
"That's all you have?.. The chance that there might be a connection to this 'spiritual plain'.. You know how risky entering the territory of the monster king is.. Remember what happened to our grandfathers?" Asked the first old woman which was the first to talk since the gathering had started.
"We are not waging war to the monsters.. We still haven't recovered from the last time."
"Why would we want to poke the tail of the snake?.. This 'Daniel' has no proof to his claims."
"That's right, I bet he just said what he thought you wanted to hear. He might be manipulating you."
The three members of the triumvirate sat down on their chairs with dispirited expressions.
Of course they had thought about all these possibilities as well, but their hope for a better world for them and their children had never died in their heart.
"My tribe accepts your proposition. I believe that you and our scholars have made a thorough research before inviting us here. If you believe that this person can actually give back a life worth living to our race.. Then I'll trust you." Said a middle aged man with a firm and confident tone.
This middle aged man was the sole leader of the tribe closest to the one lead by the triumvirate, and the two had a great relationship.
After this middle aged man spoke, the various other leaders stood up from their seats, and pronounced their decisions.
At the end of the gathering, five tribes had decided to join Daniel's plan, while the rest, had decided to go back to the life they were used to.
Only the five tribes were left in the cave now, and the leaders of the four other parties were looking at the three members of the triumvirate attentively. They had been asked to stay for a bit after the others left.
Now that only they had remained, the head scholar said "If you want to let your scholars examine the beast cores, Daniel said that he is willing to exchange them for meat of powerful monsters, as he is capable of absorbing its power without being affected by the corruption."
"We will meet back here after we'll formulate a reasonable plan with him." Added the chief hunter before dismissing the rest of the leaders, and concluding the gathering.
—–
Five days later. Within one of the rooms of the castle carved in the cave's rocky wall.
Daniel, the three members of the triumvirate, and a few of the strongest warriors were standing in front of a large table.
On this table, was an old fashioned map, which had been made and updated by the tribe itself due to the lack of maps inherited by the civilization antecedent to the corruption.
"This is the entire prohibited territory?" Asked Daniel while indicating an area that encompassed two third of the area included within the map.
"Yes. Luckily, the base of the mages is near the border of the area, and is only at a full week at running speed from here." Responded the head hunter which had encountered Daniel into the abandoned city first.
After noticing how close the mages' base was, Daniel felt once again admiration for the system's effect 'Karma X Luck'.
The fact that he had appeared so close to a place which he believed to be his best, and possibly only chance of joining back with his friends and finding a way back home, was true luck.
"The place is definitely empty. More than once we've noticed that the monsters kept their distance from it. Unfortunately, the surroundings area is occupied by a large number of monsters, which we are technically able to face, but not for long. As soon as the fight starts, in a matter of minutes, a larger amount of monsters will sense the fight and join our enemies." Added the head hunter with a grim tone.
Daniel turned to look at the three members of the triumvirate, and said with a serious tone "You have to allow me to cultivate. Your warriors are trained to fight against other tribe's warriors, and your hunters are trained in hunting monsters, but not face them in battle. If I am to go there, I need more power to defend myself."
"Not before we explore the mages' stronghold. Even if you were to increase your power, a single additional powerful person would make no difference." Said the strongest of warriors with a firm tone.
Daniel's requests to be allowed to cultivate had become more and more frequent in the past couple of days, and while they could understand that he was currently too weak to make true damage to the monsters, the three of them could not shake off the feeling that Daniel might try to abandon them there..
This diffidence was born out of a history of betrayals, tricks, and cruelty that had shaped their tribalistic society.
Before Daniel could complain about their decision, the strongest of warriors added "Maybe you can instruct our warriors in your ways of fighting.. Or give them decent weapons.. That would be much more helpful than your support in battle."
"…Fine." Responded Daniel in resignation.
"What do you think we'll find in the stronghold?" Asked the chief scholar to him.
"I am not sure. But setting fire to entire cities, flying in the air, turning landscapes into frozen lands.. There has to be something related to the use of the natural mana there. If not a way to tap into the essence of the spiritual plain, there has to at least be some lead on how they did it." Said Daniel with a matter-of-fact tone.
"How do you know that all the material hasn't been destroyed? It's been thousand of years since the stronghold has been inhabited.." Said the chief hunter with doubt.
Daniel turned to look back at her, and said in response "The natural essences of this world, due to the corruption, isn't working properly. The reason why your cities are still in perfect conditions after thousands of years, is due to the malfunctioning of time.. I don't expect you to understand this, as you have no knowledge of mana.."
Daniel's words were true. These people had lived all their lives in this corrupted world, and had no idea of what wind, clean water, and fertile soil were. The difference was only evident to him.
"How is the recruitment job going?" Asked Daniel to the members of the triumvirate.
"Four tribes have decided to join our cause. They will give us a thousand of their strongest warriors each, while the rest of the population will evacuate the caves and hide in close by shelters as per protocol." Responded the chief hunter.
"What protocol?" Asked Daniel in confusion.
"Monster attack.. Or war between tribes."
—–
During the following week, various parties of powerful warriors arrived to the territory of the tribe.
Once there, they would meet Daniel and become shocked by the discovery that he was actually a young man. Some even had the intention of backing out of the alliance, but luckily, Daniel was always able to convince them the same way he had convinced the three leaders of the tribe.. Through speech, and demonstration of his peculiar powers and circumstances.
For a full month, Daniel trained the powerful warriors in the ways he found to be the most necessary for them in order to fight against monsters. Thanks to his incredible ability in combat, he was able to simulate the random pattern of attacks of which a monster would make use.
Amongst these fighters, there was none who had a power below the head hunter's, and that meant that each of them had a higher raw power than Daniel.
Unfortunately, despite their raw power, none of them was able to defeat Daniel unless they made full use of their higher speed and strength during the sparring sessions.
After an intensive military-like training, Daniel recognized the difficulty of increasing the abilities of the warriors beyond the basics, so, he had no choice but to conclude their training.
He then reported to the triumvirate that the army was ready to move, and started to discuss with them a date for the departure.
