#9

#9

It has been a while since I last wrote anything. Rann started to trust Tefa and the skeleton enough to let them keep a lookout. Then the skeleton offered to keep a look out for the whole night since he doesn’t sleep, and I accepted it happily.

Since then I have been sleeping the whole night properly. It has been blissful. We have traveled a long way to the south and encountered lots of different races during it.

I wanted to visit them all, but most were hostile and didn’t let us in to their villages or towns. Even if they were obviously starving, they still refused our help and wanted us to leave.

A few places were in horrible condition and we helped them even though they tried to refuse. If we left them alone, they would have died from starving if beasts didn’t attack them first.

If the group has enough strength to hunt, then they can survive well here but hunting is always dangerous and if everyone who is capable of hunting dies then they will have a bleak future ahead of them.

Farming or gathering edible vegetables and herbs can sustain them but they won’t be able to defend against beasts that way. Farming requires them to stay at one place and defending their farm which they can’t do if they have no one that can hunt the beasts.

Gathering works but it is dangerous since you can never know when you are going to run into a beast or another race that is hostile to you. If a race is forced into that situation then usually it is only a matter of time before they are wiped out completely.

There are some exceptions like races that are fast and can outrun the beasts or stealthy enough to be undetected. Also, we stumbled onto place where bird people were living peacefully and farming their food. It was a place that was surrounded by mountains so to get there you had to climb a mountain and not many beasts do that.

They were quite friendly too and let us stay there for the night. It was a fun experience.

There were other friendly races besides the bird race that was living in seclusion.

I helped them as much as I could by providing them food that we hunted or helping them build better defenses in their villages. I also suggested that they would travel to my village and some of them said that it was a good idea.

I am worried about the distance and whether they will be alright during the journey but if I stopped and went back every time someone needed help to get there I would never advance in my travels.

I could send one of my companions to protect them but how would they find us after that? Also, they aren’t as strong as I am so it would be dangerous for them.

Especially since we are heading toward the south and the beasts are getting stronger. The races that live here are getting stronger too, but most are weaker than the beasts. I wonder why that is? The human like species are weaker than the pure beast like species. Human like species can think and come up with strategies so shouldn’t they be stronger than the beasts?

I guess in the prehistoric times the beasts or animals were a lot stronger than the prehistoric humans, but they did overcome it over time. Oh yeah, I suppose they absorb more mana since they fight and hunt their entire lives.

Well in any case most places are dominated by the beasts and human like species are struggling to survive. It’s not as civilized here as I would want it to be.

Maybe things are different if I head even more to the south but who knows.

Or in another continent things are different for a special reason, but I can’t know how things really are before I experience it myself. All I can do is continue my travels and try to change things as much as I can.

Oh yeah, the reason why I had time to write now was because right now my companions are fighting a huge rock monster and it is taking forever. It is also the first inorganic living thing I have seen here.

Does it mean that anything can live thanks to mana?

Like my sword for example?

A living sword?

#8 #10