Chapter 116: Chapter 116: The Eldoria Tribe
Asher’s merchant caravan number one also happened to pick up a glowing plant.
After a month and a half of traveling, they had passed through three tribes and were currently resting in a forest about a half-day’s journey from the nearest tribe. They planned that after exchanging goods with this tribe, they would begin heading to the bottom point of the semicircle.
From that bottom point, they would follow the vertical axis back to the tribe. If lucky, perhaps they would converge with Aaron’s merchant caravan number two in the middle, then the two caravans would merge into one and return together. If they didn’t meet, whoever reached the bottom point first would return first.
"Let’s rest and eat breakfast first, then we’ll continue our journey. The people of the Veridia tribe said earlier that the road to the Eldoria tribe takes roughly another half-day. If there are no surprises, we will arrive there right at noon."
Asher stretched his body, shaking his neck to relieve the stiffness. Over a month of traveling had added a bit of maturity to his childish face, making him look more and more like a teacher. Sorin handed a waterskin over to Asher, jutting his chin toward the young Wood-element Sub-Beast sitting cross-legged not far away:
"He has been sitting there since last night; I don’t know what is so fascinating about the patch of grass in front of him."
Asher took a sip of water and asked Sorin in return: "There was a magical beast guarding that spot yesterday, right?"
Sorin nodded: "That’s right, it was a Magical Fox, which we already killed. I also don’t know why it left the magical beast forest to come to this desolate and remote place."
Asher narrowed his eyes: "Who knows, it might actually be something good. Let’s go over there and take a look." Saying that, he handed the waterskin back to Sorin and walked softly toward the young Sub-Beast. Sorin tucked the waterskin back at his waist and quickly followed.
Hearing the footsteps, the young Sub-Beast raised his head to look, blinking eyes that were sore from being kept open. Asher half-squatted beside the Sub-Beast, pointed at the grass patch, and asked: "What have you been looking at since last night without stopping? Aren’t you tired?"
The Sub-Beast rubbed his eyes, looked back at the grass, then leaned close to Asher and whispered: "Captain, that plant with the single white flower is glowing. I told everyone, but no one saw it; they all said I was hallucinating. That’s why I’m staring at it to see if I’m really having hallucinations."
"?" Asher and Sorin stared blankly, looking at the plant the young Sub-Beast pointed to, straining their eyes but seeing nothing at all. Sorin asked doubtfully: "It looks very normal. Do you really see it glowing? How is it glowing?"
"It really is. It has a pale green aura surrounding it. Last night, there were even light spots like fireflies, but when I got close, the light spots landed on my hand and disappeared, leaving only the faint glow. It’s still glowing right now..."
Hearing the part about the light spots landing on the arm and disappearing, Asher immediately recalled Walter’s experience. Walter had also awakened his Divine Energy because he received those light spots during Kaelen’s advancement process. He looked at the young Sub-Beast and said: "After those light spots flew into your body, did you feel anything? For example, your Divine Energy becoming stronger?"
The young Sub-Beast scratched his head, saying in confusion: "I don’t feel anything unusual either." He closed his eyes to sense the Divine Energy in his body, then said uncertainly: "It seems... it seems the color of my Magical Energy is a bit deeper?"
Asher took a deep breath and patted the young Sub-Beast’s shoulder: "Dig that plant up and bring it back for the Great Priest."
Seeing that Asher believed his words, the Sub-Beast was extremely happy. He immediately used a stone shovel to carefully dig up the plant’s roots along with the soil ball, wrapped it in a piece of animal skin, and carefully placed it in the container for strange seeds. Asher instructed the young Sub-Beast to immediately dig up any similar plants he saw without needing to ask for anyone’s opinion.
However, these things were not wild vegetables that could be found just by wanting to. Throughout the rest of the journey, the young Sub-Beast never saw a glowing plant like that again.
It took everyone half a day of travel to reach the Eldoria tribe. Asher had the caravan set up camp far away from the outskirts of Eldoria, while he himself led Sorin and three guards straight to the tribe’s entrance gate.
Unlike the well-fed state of the previous three tribes, the beastmen guarding the gate of the Eldoria tribe looked very skinny and weak. They bristled their fur, blocking Asher’s group outside. The leading beastman stepped forward and asked in a rather unfriendly tone:
"Who are you? What are you here for?"
Asher was completely unmoved by the opponent’s hostility, only saying calmly: "We are merchants from the Crimson tribe, traveling across the tribes to conduct trade. May I ask if you need any goods?"
The leading beastman evaluated Asher’s group once over, then turned his head to look at the beast cub riding on his shoulders. The beast cub sniffed its nose, then whispered something into the leader’s ear. A flash of surprise appeared in the leading beastman’s eyes. This was the first group of people that the cub on his shoulders had evaluated using only a single word: "Kindhearted."
This beast cub had been born with the ability to sense the emotions of the people opposite it; however, the trade-off was that it was blind, never able to see the outside world. Until now, what the cub sensed was always either goodwill or malice; this was the first time it had commented on a different aspect.
The leading beastman turned back to evaluate the group in front of him once more, his gaze stopping on that Rabbit clan Sub-Beast for a bit longer. Seeing the beastman looking at him, Asher blinked slightly and put on a standard merchant’s smile.
The beastman who had been quite fierce just a moment ago suddenly blushed. He coughed and said: "Um, our tribe is so poor that we have nothing left to eat; we truly don’t have any goods to trade."
Asher wasn’t surprised, because the beastmen of this tribe were so skinny they were nothing but skin and bones. He nodded, saying softly: "Actually, there are many edible things that people just don’t know about. We have passed through the Veridia tribe, the Solace tribe, and the Pyre tribe; everyone said their tribe had nothing of value, but in the end, they had many more precious things than they thought."
The young beastman’s eyes wavered slightly, his hand resting at his waist tightening a bit. He turned his head to look at his clansmen, seeing the anticipation in their eyes. The young beastman looked at Asher, placed a hand on his chest, and bowed in greeting. He introduced himself:
"Greetings, I am Weston, the Chief of the Eldoria tribe. May I ask if I have the honor of knowing your identities?"
Asher blinked; obviously, he also hadn’t expected a Chief to act as a gate-guarding beastman. Being stared at, Weston awkwardly scratched his head. The little orange-furred mouse on his shoulders suddenly spoke up: "Weston is embarrassed!"
"Ahem!" Weston reached up and grabbed the little mouse’s mouth, his ears growing even hotter.
Asher pursed his lips into a smile, then said: "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Asher, a person of the Crimson tribe, a month and a half’s journey away from here. This is Sorin and the guards in our merchant caravan."
Saying that, he pointed into the distance and said: "Our goods are all over there. If you agree to trade, you can bring your goods over. We have salt, fabrics, dried meat, and spices. We also have weapons and farming tools."
Asher patiently explained, disregarding whether the other party had the capability to trade or not, introducing the items the caravan had one by one.
A red Fox beastman scratched his claws against the ground, saying restlessly: "Chief, salt, they have salt..."
Weston smiled bitterly: "All precious goods; what do we have to trade with..."
Sorin couldn’t hold back and said loudly: "Just bring whatever is usable. We don’t just need animal skins; edible strange plant varieties or items you feel are useful can all be brought over. If they are truly useful, we can trade for them all."
Sorin’s appearance was very aggressive, making the beastmen of the Eldoria tribe unable to stop themselves from bristling all their fur. Asher hurriedly stopped Sorin, smiling as he said: "We will be there until tomorrow morning before leaving. You can come find us at any time. We will take our leave first."
After speaking, he bowed politely, leading Sorin and the other three away. He softly said to Sorin: "We’ve been out and about interacting for so long, yet you still haven’t gotten rid of your hot-headed and impulsive temper."
Being scolded by his teacher, Sorin stuck out his tongue and chuckled. He knew that Asher was just being a bit strict, but Asher was actually a soft-hearted person, especially toward his own students.
When everyone returned, the food was already prepared. Asher deliberately said to a team member with Wind-element Divine Energy:
"Create some wind and blow the aroma of the food toward the Eldoria tribe."
The Wind-element beastman chuckled slyly, secretly thinking the captain was truly devious. He then took his fragrant piece of roasted meat, took a deep breath, and blew a puff of air. A light breeze stirred up, carrying the aroma of roasted meat accurately toward the Eldoria tribe.
*Gulp, gulp.*
The people in the Eldoria tribe couldn’t help but crane their necks, sniffing greedily as their saliva flowed profusely. Weston clutched his stomach, his face wrinkling up like a three-hundred-year-old man. That group of people truly knew how to torment others.
The little orange mouse immediately grabbed Weston’s leg, nimbly climbing up to his shoulder, saying: "Weston, Weston, there’s meat. I want to eat meat!"
Weston rubbed the little mouse’s head, looked at his clansmen, and gritted his teeth as he said: "Go, gather everything you all have on hand. We are going to take a gamble!"
