Chapter 8: Chapter 7: Transaction

[Red Lion Tribe]

Hearing Darganth agree to exchange his information made Gervas smile. While he would loose a few treasures, nearly nothing could compare in worth to information on this continent, at least for beastmen. He knew quite well that there were entire tribes specialized in gathering and selling information, with it being even lucrative enough that some beasts above the third rank do so too.

“Then I am not going to stretch this unnecessarily. While I have quite a few smaller pieces, there are four major things you should be aware of.” This surprise Gervas somewhat as, while he didn't know what exactly was the threshold for major news, this many large changes were still alarming.

“The first may be of particular interest to you as you said that your tribe is planning to change the location of your camp towards the shore. That is because there is currently already a tribe living there. While they number around the same as yours, they have no second ranks. Currently they are in the process of building a ship to reach to another continent. The reasons for this are connected to some of my other news.” At his words Gervas looked interested.

“Are there some among them that are worth offering a place in my tribe?”

“Yes, but their tribe has recently encountered a tragedy, so it is going to be difficult. My advice would be to simply ignore them until they have left.” At Darganth's words most of those present nodded in agreement.

“The second piece of information is that there is a peak second rank basilisk in the area. Due to obvious reasons I have not seen it myself, but I have heard from the previously mentioned tribe that it was able to kill both of their third order aura soldiers. Afterward it killed their remaining second rank individuals and attacked at least one other group of beastmen. From the wounds of this group I managed to find out that it is still quite a bit away from reaching the third rank.”

This information made both Gervas and the others in the room nervous. They were all well aware that this is not an enemy they could fight. Erupting in a hectic discussion among them, the tent devolved into chaos.

“Do you know what exact version of basilisk?” Gervas asked, causing the others to shut up.

“Not the exact, but I know it possesses both venom and petrification that affects an area. I don't know if its petrification also affects the entire body if it makes eye contact.” This made the people even more nervous. While the venom is bad, the fact that the basilisk has a petrification that affects everything it looks at makes fighting it harder. Compared to one that only takes effect after direct eye contact this is far harder to go against.

“There is one thing I don't understand. When such a beast is in the area, why do you want to stay here instead of directly running away?” Someone asked Darganth.

“Because there is a good part to this, the basilisk is still quite far away. While I don't know much, I found no traces of it within a four days walk from here.” At these words they let out a small sigh of relieve. While it was not much, at least it was a small piece of good news.

Darganth meanwhile was inwardly laughing at their relieve. While it was true that during his travels this was the closest he found traces of the basilisk, he noticed older ones a bit further away. While slow, the basilisk was making its way here, but he didn't intend to let them know.

“The third thing may be connected to the basilisk staying away, namely the presence of at least one dragon.” At this the tent erupted in total chaos. Some of the guards present nearly fell over due to the surprise and even Gervas had slightly jumped up.

“A dragon? And what do you mean with at least one?” Gervas asked in shock.

“I know for a fact that there is an extremely young dragon in the area, but I wasn't able to confirm the presence of either of the parents.”

“Which species?”

“Neither of the two known outside of legends and even among legend I found no potential candidate.”

While giving out this information may bring Darganth some trouble, he knew that the treasures he would get were well worth this. Besides it wasn't as if they were any danger to him.

“Chief, when there is a dragon, then maybe the young master..”

“I know!” Gervas shouted before the guard could finish.

“A Dargon is even more of a problem than a basilisk and we seem to be between them. Please tell me the last piece of information is better than these two.” He said to Darganth.

“Better yes, good only maybe. A few days ago an entire group of over a thousand ice-bears died. First, they came into contact with said dragon and the rest were later nearly completely killed when they attacked the tribe I mentioned beforehand.”

“So there is currently a power vacuum?”

“Yes.” After hearing Darganth's answer, Gervas nodded and sank into his thoughts.

“While it will require a slight change of plans, we can use this to our advantage. While mostly negative, your information is of great help for us.” After saying this to Darganth, he turned to one of the women and continued, “Serania, bring our guest to a free tent and ensure that he enjoys his stay. Once I finish here, I will show him the treasury.”

After he said these words, Gervas turned to one of the men in the room and motioned him to come closer. Listening only to the start of their conversation, Darganth looses interest once he notices that they talk about their plans to move to the shore. The women, Serania, has meanwhile arrived before him.

“Please follow me, I will show you your stay.” She said with a light bow.

 

Following her out of the tent, the two of them walked for just a few meter before they arrived in front of a tent that looked just like the rest build in the camp. Walking inside, Darganth notices it to be empty, despite most of the camp seeming cramped.

“Why do you have empty tents, while most of your tribesmen live with too many in the same tent?”

“Because the chief ordered one tent to be always available. I heard that the heir of a large tribe once visited and got mad that we didn't have free space, thus we now always keep some as precaution.” This explanation made Darganth chuckle at its stupidity.

Ignoring this reason, he looked around in the tent, finding a mat lying on the ground. Besides this, there were a handful of other objects in the tent, most of them being improvised chairs and tables. The only other thing was a chest in one of the corners. Sitting down on one of the chairs, he looked towards Serania who stood at the entrance, clearly waiting for his order.

“Do you wish for someone else to accompany you this night, or is there something else you want to ask?” She asked when she noticed the questioning look in his eyes.

“I just was curious as to what you were waiting for. If I may ask, why do you wish to spend the night with me, aren't you one of Gervas wives?”

“No. The only women that belong only to him are those that have carried his children. The rest of us are normally accompanying the guards during the night.”

“That explains it. But I am currently not in the mood for these activity’s. Now that I have a safe place for a few days, I wish to use this time to the fullest to train. Make yourself comfortable somewhere if you wish.” With these words, Darganth sat down. Continuing his routine of increasing his mana pool, he waited for Gervas to show him the treasures.

After about three hours, he notices Serania staring at him intensely. While it started already two hours ago, by now it started bothering him.

“What is it that you want to ask?” He says, turning towards her.

“I didn't mean to bother you, I will stop staring.” She quickly said, looking down.

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“Just ask.”

“When the chief trains, there are always these different colored hues around him, why is that not for you?” This made him chuckle. Not even due to the question itself, more so due to Gervas training method. While his method of purifying flowing aura does work, it is by far less efficient compared to nearly all other methods.

Darganth's way to increase his mana quality for example has two large advantages over this method. By using mana from the atmosphere to increase the quality of his mana, its purity increases faster and he also doesn't have to pause due to running out of mana. In general, every mana training method and control training method is more effective when working directly at the heart or other mana storage organ instead of letting it curse through the body.

In the case of mana quality, this is because it is calculated by how much the mana can be compressed and purified, something that happens at the heart. During the absorption, the mana gets compressed at the entrance to the heart, making it more potent. This additionally also increases the mana pool slightly, just how a larger mana pool subjects the mana to higher pressure, leading to a slight quality increase. And while repeated emptying and refilling of the mana pool trains this effect, similiarly to a muscle, it is far slower.

“That is because our training methods aim to archive different effects. He increases his mana quality, while I enlarge my mana pool.” He explained, leaving out the ineffectiveness of the chiefs method.

“Is that because you use a different power than him?” She asked.

“Yes. Do you not know anything about aura and magic?” He asked her, slightly surprised by her lack of knowledge in even the basics of either.

“Yes, why would I. Women are weaker than men, so it is normal that the tribe would focus on teaching it to men.”

This statement surprise Darganth somewhat, as while that is true, women were generally more dexterous. While this meant that they would more often train a weapon that required slightly less strength, it is by no means a rule. Aura can easily bridge this gap, while this difference doesn't even matter with magic.

Deciding not to clear her misunderstanding, at least for now, he continued his training. After a while, a guard stepped into the tent and asked Darganth to follow him.

Arriving back at Gervas tent, he was brought inside and to one of the connected rooms. Stepping inside, he found himself in what seemed to be a living room. While the furniture was only crudely made from wood, it was still better made than the one in the rest of the camp. Standing before a shelf at the back of the room stood Gervas.

“Welcome. As promised, I am going to show you the treasures we have found and not yet used.”

Stepping closer to the shelve, Darganth noticed quite a few somewhat decent treasures lying there. This made him quite sure that Gervas didn't know of every treasures uses, so he planned to take that into account and try to increase his gain. While he was inspecting the treasures, Darganth decided to ask Gervas a few questions.

“I have heard that you see to be prioritizing men when it comes to teaching aura. While there are different reasons for someone to do so, what is yours?” At this question Gervas grinned.

“The reason is quite simple. If they learn how to wield aura, its likely that they won't continue being as obedient. I simply made the decision to ensure the men's loyalty by ensuring that their desires are satisfied and keep the women weak enough that they can't retaliate.” At this explanation Darganth nodded. He had already expected something like this and it lined up with his initial evaluation of this tribe and Gervas in particular.

While he didn't particualarly cared for this, he found the thought of an uphval changing this entertaining, which is why he withheld the knowlege of the basilisk nearing. He didn't doubt that it would only focus on the warrors, allowing at least most others from the tribe to flee. A beast that learned the taste and positive effect of the meat from magic users would rarely bother with humans without an active mana flow unless they held massive amounts. And in the ensuing chaos the tribe will likely experience a massive change.

After a few minutes, Darganth had chose the priorities for each treasure. Talking with Gervas about it, he was allowed to take nine of the treasures. Inwardly he was extremely happy because he was quite sure that at least two of them would be completely out of his reach had the chief known about their full effect.

“May I ask why you choice fell onto exactly these? Some of them don't even have any effect beyond possessing much mana.” Nodding, Darganth decided on a fake explanation. Splitting them into groups, he made up different reasons.

“These three may be worthless to you, beyond their high mana, but that is because you have neither mages, nor potion masters among you. Taken for themselves, they can boost a mages spell casting, while also being three of the ingredients for a somewhat rare potion. These five are quite well known in their effect so I believe you already know of it. As for why these specifically, its mainly my guess as to which combination would allow me to come the closest to the limit you would allow. As for the last one, it is mainly because it serves as a great boost for potions. While I myself am not well versed in them, we have a potion master in our tribe and he would probably pay quite well for it.” This explanation seemed to be enough for Gervas.

“But how do you plan to transport this many treasures?”

“With this.” Saying these words, a small vertical rift formed in front of Darganth's hand. The treasures that were still in his hand were sucked into this rift and when the last one was in it, the rift closed after not even five seconds of being open.

“Space storage. While only small obejcts fit inside, it is one of the easiest space spells to learn and use. While my affinity for it is only at twenty-one, it is quite a handy spell to have.” This explanation left Gervas with wide eyes. He never expected to ever meet a mage who can use the space element.

“A space mage? I would love to meet your tribe, when they can allow someone that possesses the space element to travel around. Would your kind even let me join if I begged them to?” He said with a laugh.

“Probably not. We live high enough that you would even find it hard to reach us and while I have nothing against it, our Leader would probably throw you right back down the mountain when she hears of how your tribe treats women.”

“You have a women as leader?” Gervas asked in surprise.

“Yes. A strong time mage. In general are our number of mages quite high for this continent.”

“How come I have never heard of your tribe? You should be quite famous.”

“Living high enough leads to only very few interaction with outsiders. But enough of my tribe, there is still one question I wondered about since our first meeting.”

“Oh, what is it?” Gervas asked.

“The picture depicting you slaying a Wyvern, how did you manage to do it? While only a lesser dragon, a Wyvern is still a draconic creature and should be far more powerful than you are.” This made Gervas laugh out loud.

“Yes, it should. Why do you think I only have the picture and not the skull. While I truly killed a Wyvern, it was only a baby, thrown out by its own parents. I had hoped to take it as a pet but the artifact I used doesn't work on beings too intelligent or powerful. If I can't have it, no one can.” Seeing Darganth reacting with disinterest, he continued.

“Has your tribe managed to kill a mature one? I have heard that aura users are at a larger disadvantage against draconic creatures, more so than mages, so your tribe should find them easier targets.”

“While mages truly have less problems against most of them, they are still powerful opponents. Besides, this advantage exists only against a few lesser dragons, with Wyverns being one of them.”

“Oh, why is that? I hear often that aura users are a dragonic creatures easiest prey, but few know the reason behind the saying and make it out to be just that, a saying. But while I doubt it to be as extreme as some say, I doubt that it doesn't have any basis in reality.”

“It actually quite easy. At lower ranks, an aura users only way to survive a dragons breath is to dodge or endure it with their body. Mages meanwhile have different spells they can use to conjure shields or even fly away, making it easier to come out unscathed. Of course, this differnce becomes less prominent at higher ranks and doesn't only apply to dragons. Technically it applies to all species with a similiar innate ability, a dragons breath is just well known for its power and enduring it is thus far harder.” Slightly surprised by his reason, Gervas continued questioning Darganth about a manner of topics. 

Talking for a few more minutes, Darganth ended their conversation and made his way out of the tent.

Once he returned to his tent, he sat down and took out the treasures he had gained. Going over them once more, he decided which of them he should use now and with which he should wait. While most of them had rather straight forwards uses, two would be wasted if simply ingested. The reason why the tribe didn't know of the use for a few of them was mainly, that they either lacked the method to use them or they were only effective for beasts. For the first group, Darganth could simply use his dragon eyes to observe the treasures mana and reconstruct the method from his expirience, while the latter would still work for him due to the dragons ability to absorb mana. While less effective than the intended way, it was still better than nothing.

Deciding to keep these two in storage and use the rest, he took the first plant and started the absorption process. Despite their low effects, the process took quite long compared to normally as he had taken them while polymorphed. This would not reduce their effect, but it would increase the time it took to absorb them.

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