Chapter 488 - The tribe (2)

Upon Eric's last thundered sentence, the crowd struck dead quiet and even started giving harsh looks, it's fair to say that they are portraying an upset c.u.mulative image.

For a second, Eric thought that they'll finally turn on him! These people are isolated from society but they aren't necessarily dumb. They can link it all together, first a random stranger appears out of nowhere and right after he mentions the boots of Kashentis... It's down right suspicious.

But thankfully, that old man who seems to speak for all of the tribe, breaks the mentally consuming silence. "Accursed Demons!"

At that exact second, Eric thought that such hate is directed towards the golden blood himself, but thankfully the old man extended his curses. "They've been attacking us for years, took our little kids even!"

Giving out a strong sigh, feeling a sensation of relief equal in size to a source bear, glad that the plan is finally going smooth, he expresses. "See, you already share a bond with your king!"

And to such a thundered sentence, a cheer followed but it wasn't so heavy compared to what they heard today.

A bit calmer, wanting to further advance the hunt for the relic, Eric weighs in. "We will hunt our enemies and take revenge too, they will die by my hand."

That's no bluff either, this young man is no stranger to killing. Be it animal, human or beast, his merged kill count stretches to thousands.

Hard to believe it once giving it a bit of reflection, but at this reality it's kill or be killed, even for teenagers. 

Liking the thought of revenge but still not understanding that black fire business, the old man first points out. "I'm glad to have you here my King, my name is Qutalis."

And then moves to the puzzling question. "How will you summon this black fire? Maybe we can help, our tribe has summoners."

Now becoming more confused than the old man, Eric asks with an aim to correct as well. "You mean lava blasters?"

Revealing what's not so surprising when it comes to the Calidum Lutum, Qutalis deciphers. "We have lava blasters yes, but I mean we also have summoners... they have connections with spirits, maybe they can help summon black fire."

Realizing that they have been talking here a bit too long, the old man points towards the left and states. "Follow me, I'll meet you with our summoners."

Still staggered about this whole summoner topic, Eric tries to turn attention back to the main topic. "That's nice but I don't think summoners will help with this, I just have to become the greatest fire blaster ever to generate black fire."

Having the young man grabbed around the arm right now, Qutalis weighs in a thought. "Wouldn't hurt to listen, they're all over 1,700 years old and can summon some of the toughest ghosts, maybe they can summon Kashentis too."

Proving quite insistent at this point, the geezer also adds. "Wouldn't it be nice if the fire lady herself guides you?"

"I guess we have some time." Eric expresses, looks back at his group and waves for them to come along.

Although this tribe looks nice, trust can't get a foundation laid in just one day, Calidum Lutum are powerful so it's better to have 3 loyal hot heads backing up the young Electus.

One thing in particular Eric is amazed off, is the lifespan these species have. Qutalis claims that the summoners are over 1,700 years old... how many stories can geezers like that tell?

It's especially interesting considering that the second Era in Ignis was 1,832 years long! Which means that the oldest of the old here, lived throughout most of the second Era and through the entire third one.

The third Era is only 202 years old but the thought of living that long is still astounding. Either an individual learned a lot or is sick of all the bullshit.

...

At the moment they've walked about 2 kilometers from the houses they left behind, it was kind of odd to see houses so little in quantity, especially considering the number of individuals there.

But now it makes a bit more sense, the group are approaching something they've become quite used to, an underground town.

Well that at least how the talkative geezer described it after Eric asked what the hell they're looking for.

They only see trees, dim vegetation and dirt, well all the usual stuff a forest in the break of spring would have.

"Okay... where is the town?" Eric questions, expecting a tunnel or cave of some sort but no the area is pretty much flat.

Wanting to be kind, Sekun offers. "Maybe he needs to cool down for a bit, I can carry you, you seem pretty old."

"I'm 1,561 years old, I think." Qutalis murmurs, counting with his hairy fingers a bit too but thankfully remembers the main point once more and expresses. "The town is right underneath us."

"I don't see volcanic rock." Eric points out, seeing only dirt that has barely any grass on it.

"That's not a good idea if you want to hide. People will think there's precious ore here and dig through it." Genius in a way but how the hell will they get to the town if there's only dirt here?

Not wanting to start any other topics or answer them either, the old man demands. "Now, close your mouths unless you want to poop gold."

"There's gold here?" Eric questions, his eyes widening up.

He isn't drawn by riches, but sending bars of gold to the triangle of domains on the other side of the continent, can help resist any ill.u.s.tratian attack. 

"No, no gold but please close your mouths and don't open them until I say so." Handing his 7 foot wooden stick to Sekun, the old man straightens his back and suddenly seems taller, 9 foot tall to be more exact.

Stretching his arms as well, he murmurs. "Let's see if I can still do this."

Just 3 feet away from the group, he reaches hands towards the ground while trying to keep his legs straight.

At the moment it looks like he's doing yoga but this move's value is much heavier than that.

By every split second his head reaches closer towards the ground, legs started bending forwards even.

Bended forward and started elevating towards the sky, his arms aiding to keep balance.

After a bunch of sweats broken, the old man synced into a complete and almost straight handstand, interesting to see and Sekun started worrying about the old man's safety.

It gave quite a full moon because the old man's fur dress unleashed, so Rash puts in an effort to cover Ada's eyes... she's too young to see an 1,561 year old ass.

Eric's quite paralized too, mostly because of the white hair on it.

Before any of the group could say anything, the geezer releases his grip from the ground, but he's not standing straight no.

Qutalis lets go off the ground and perkes both elbows forward, with a prime intent of hitting the ground with them.

Through that exact second, they suddenly feel the dirt loosen up beyond escape, sinking in it in just a split second as if spirits came out of the ground and dragged them in.

Now, their vision becomes all white which immediately forced eyes to close, it didn't exactly leave them blind but it's not painless either.

Eric now understands why this old man asked for them to close mouths, this probably tastes like it burns.

Just when they almost started running out of breath, light captivated their sight and it took a few eye rubs to push the pain away.

Now, they seem to be in a small cavern, perhaps 40 meters wide? It's not so big if it's meant to contain a town.

As for illumination, there's a pool of lava almost in the middle, perhaps just 7 meters across. Small but it's unleashing a lot of light.

Spotting that the team is tad irritated, scared even, the old man cites. "I hope you didn't eat any of that. Don't worry, you won't poop gold but it can cause you explosive shits if you ate any."

"Well that's relieving." Eric answers, accidentally cracking a joke about poop.

"You can shit in the lava if you want to, I'll allow it if you really have to go." Here, the geezer is practically teasing them, understanding that they got a bit scared.

But Eric the inevitably most curious, questions. "How did you do that? Are you a lava blaster!? I've never seen anything like this."

Indirectly admitting that he's a lava blaster, Qutalis explains. "Lava is crazy, it's more than hot rock, [god] Calidus made it out of many things and when we find those things, we can control lava better."

Well this explanation isn't so clear, someone who lived here for 200 years can easily understand it but not newcomers.

Observing the confused looks on their faces, the old man also adds. "This soft thing can be found in lava or volcanic rock, but we can also spread it, make it replace all the rock and the hot stuff."

"So it spreads like a disease." Eric adds, finally understanding the base.

"It spreads like a disease." The old man assures, wipes off a bit of the white stuff from his skin and adds. "Let's meet the summoners."