When Thomas was seen with Gask, every pair of eyes turned to him.
"Oh, that hairless beast has survived? F*ck, I lost the best, here's the money.."
They were immediately startled. It was clear no one expected they expected him to live.
"Damn, a pup this young has survived crossing the deadlands. How old is he, fourteen?" A skinny lion complained, he couldn't believe somebody at the level of the boy to accomplish something like that.
"Keep your roars low! This old beast wants to sleep!"
"All of you, shut up." A soft voice echoed across the camp, anyone who heard it immediately closed their mouths as a thin lion cub.
'This must be the third young miss.'
Having about the size of a Chihuahua, the little lioness was the most cute puppy he had seen in his life. It's a crime for beasts to look this cute?!
Seeing her, he knew very well if the ones that attacked humanity had just 20% of her looks, he would not feel confident in being able to kill it.
All the lions opened space for the little pup as she came in front of Thomas. Her gaze swept over the latter before she smiled and said, "Little monkey, I am Nahake, the third daughter of the Earthly Core Tribe's Chief. But everybody calls me Nana since I don't like my name. I was waiting for you to take up, come speak with me in my tent, only Gask is allowed to follow."
"Understood!" All the lions saluted the young miss as she leaded Thomas and Gask into her tent.
"Thank you very much for rescuing me. I am Ries, I'm from very far away.." Thomas smiled as he sat down in a wooden block. After the minutes with Gask, he got used to the language of this world which was only a little bit similar to the one demons use.
"So you got sucked into a hole and then appeared here? Me doesn't understand" The little pup curved her head, not seeming to understand the scale of the distance.
At this point, even Gask who accompanied him was startled by his words. What concept was this? To them, it was hard to image such a hole could take one so far away.
Because his eyes showed those were people he could trust, Thomas told them a little about earth, but only stories he knew it wouldn't be too suspicious.
Gask and the young miss Nana listened to all he had to say before entering deep though. "So the world out there is this big? Gask, do you believe that sage can help in his case?"
Gask was unsure in his answer. "Maybe, I don't know. I was planning to taking Ries to see the Sage because I remember hearing the Sage had an body structure and features similar to the humans like Ries. However, only the tribe chief can ask for a meeting with the Sage so we must see your dad first."
Right then, a male lion came running to the tent, calling out to Gask. "Gask, we got news from the tribe chief."
"I'm going." Getting up, Gask turned to Thomas and Nana. "I'm going to see what it is about. Ries, you can keep talking with Third Young Miss."
As soon he said that, Gawk left tent and followed the other lion, soon leaving the field of vision.
The two of them kept taking for a while longer before Thomas recalled they talked before, and so he decided to ask. "Since we have some time before the sun rises, can you two tell me more about this place? I very curious about it."
The little lioness puffed her chests and exclaimed. " Of course, let big sis tell teach you about everything you want to know.
Thomas held back a laugh by covering his mouth. "Pfff, Big sis?"
"Humph!" Nana stomped on the ground and pouted as he punched him with her paws. "Why I'm not big sis, I'm clearly older than you. You said you are seventeen years old, I'm twenty-four and a half, I am also a Grade 4 Beast. so it is only right you call me big sister."
The paws felt so soft it didn't even seem like she was even trying. Removing the paws away from his face. "Grade 4 Beast? What is a Grade 4 Beast?"
The little Nana froze, for a second she forgot Thomas is someone somewhere far away so none knowledge about anything. "As long as I remember we beasts are are ranked according to their battle power and bloodline level. Generally all beasts will be born at Battle Power of 1-Star since it represented their current strength. As for bloodline grade, this one is almost impossible to change and represented the rarity of the bloodline, talent since it symbolizes the limit of one's natural growth. My Battle Power is only 2-star for now but I it will soon reach 4-star as I am a Grade 4 Beast, anything higher than that will be up to my on luck."
Thomas quickly understood what she was trying to say. Beasts had many innate abilities, if a species was more rare and powerful it would easily squash any weaker species even if its battle power was lower than their opponent.
"Good, I see you understand now." Returning to her seat, the little lioness seemed happy as she began her explanation.
Through their conversation, Thomas also came to known more about the Lavitein Isle, located a few miles away from a continent around the size of Africa.
In the past a long time ago, beasts of Lavitein lived in the abundant forests, rivers and mountains scattered across the island. Thousands and thousands of tribes battled for territory in fight that lasted centuries when everything changed.
Now, three cities spread across the island, and their management was done by the mayor of the specific city. In this case, an tournament would be hosted every ten years and its winner would be elected the mayor for the next ten years.
Aaron is the city with the greatest amount of fertile land where a variety of crops would be planted and harvested every year. It counts with a population of five thousand beasts, of different species.
Right now, the city is under the management of the Battle Heart Tribe, a tribe with a close relationship with the Earthly Core Tribe for the past twenty years.
At first, they couldn't keep up with the previous management so the city quickly turned into a chaotic mess. Fights happened every single day and almost a hundred beasts were sent to the hospital.
Well, it was to be expected. From what he was told by Nana, the Battle Heart are a tribe that holds battle power and fight as the most important thing and the first change their made was to legalized fights within the city.
Everything had to be decided through a fight, whether over personal or business matters. Because of this single law, it was dangerous for one to walk on the streets without being hit behind the head by somebody that simply wanted to pick a fight with you.
This problem continues for years before somebody finally arrived, a mysterious traveler that had just passed by the city was astonished by the crazy and sick laws approved by the city management so he headed into the prefectural house and had an intense discussion with the chief of the Battle Heart Bears.
Right on the next day, a vote which annulled the free-fighting law was held and the city was finally safe again.
Not much time later, several new reforms were approved. An aqueduct that carried water from the Hoji River to the city was built, then came the monetary reform, several new inventions started to be sold around the city such as carriages driven by converting internal energy to a strange device called engine.
It is said the Sage even thought the beasts how to extract minerals and combined them to create a new material called Steel Alloy.
Hearing all of that from Nana's mouth made Thomas dumbfounded. Wasn't much of these inventions so similar to the ones made on earth.
To these beasts, the sage is somebody with infinite knowledge, somebody with answers to everything and anything.
By now, his interest in this mysterious Sage multiplied.
Nana seemed pretty excited as she spoke of all the new creations as if they were discovered by her. "I know its amazing how much a single person was able to do for the city, but this is far from the most amazing thing. One day, I heard from my father who had a meeting with the sage and he said the Sage doesn't have any energy or power inside him."