After Ulf got back home, he still couldn't think properly. The events of the day brought everything upside down for him.
'Gods and their messenger Guardian? Do the gods really exist in this world?'
It became a dilemma for Ulf. Till now in the past life or here, never had the idea of gods' existence gone through in his mind. This must have been impossible. However, the appearance of that so-called guardian brought him a big shock. Its power was enormous. Ulf remembered the pressure, Olaf, the chief of the village had emitted, when he had watched the first big competition. Still, compared to it, the pressure he felt today was out of this world. The heaviness and crushing strength he sensed was something Olaf wouldn't be able to come close to. It was like a small lake in contrast to the huge sea.
The reaction of the villagers was another subject. In the eyes of these people wasn't fear, but reverence and admiration for this being, which they weren't even allowed to see. The first reason must have been the respect for the strong. it's the ancient world, you had power, then could have almost everything. Second, because it's a newly formed cultivation world. The place where your physical prowess was most important.
However, there weren't still enough reasons for Ulf why the tribesmen and women worshipped it and weren't feeling even a little bit of fear. It was when Ulf recalled the shamaness's words about the good deeds of the guardian.
'Perhaps it really saved the tribe from the big dangers?!'
It was a possible and also logical explanation, but didn't make Ulf relaxed at all. He could feel it clear that if he tried to catch a glance of the guardian then would be killed mercilessly by it.
'The voice too!' Thought Ulf.
The final question of Ulf was what kind of being the guardian was. There could have been many responses to it, but in the village, only one person had the answer - the shamaness. This granny had been a huge mystery for Ulf till now too. Out of her good skill in healing the wounds, he hadn't seen anything more.
The final conclusion was that the guardian was a very strong and dangerous existence. Thankfully, Ulf hadn't shown his abilities in the past or else he may would be under the observation of the unknown guardian. Who knew what kind of abilities it had. If it had any way to find out that Ulf was from another world and got reincarnated here, the result of it wouldn't be enjoyable for Ulf.
Ulf decided that he must hurry up to get stronger first of all in order to feel safe himself.
When he got back Hilda wanted to ask Ulf what had happened in the temple, but the mother stopped her.
"You will find out for yourself in the future. It's forbidden to ask anyone in the village!" Inga had a very serious face.
"Mother, did father tell you anything in the past?" Ulf asked. He knew that it would bring sad memories back, but couldn't stop himself.
"No, he said it was something that must not be mentioned, even if he gets tortured." Inga sounded sincere.
'It seems. For some reasons, there will be a great danger if anyone speaks about the guardian outside of the temple. Then it would be better not to risk it.' Ulf sat the seal on speaking about the guardian with his mother.
After a few weeks, life in the village continued as it had been in the past. The vice-chief sent a few groups to take care of the vagrants, which had tried to ambush and take their food. Ulf didn't know what had happened there, because his group wasn't among the hunters, who went to raid. However, it must not have been a tour just to harass the vagrants. After a few days, the hunters brought young boys and girls with them. They had horrified expressions and were scared of everything, especially fearful of the hunters next to them. As Ulf was watching these children, could find a difference between the tribe's kids and them. The newly brought ones were skinnier and looked shorter than the tribe's kids. Their skin was bit lighter and the hair wasn't as dark as theirs, most of them had brown hair.
It was not hard to understand what may have caused the hunters' ruthlessness. After the ambush of the unknown enemies and the disappearance of Bjorn, the whole tribe was furious and didn't have anyone or anything to blame for that tragic event even after seven years. As Ulf knew the big groups of humans would rarely get close to their village and the attacking Hadda tribe hunters had only occurred several times in the past decades.
The unexpected arrival of the vagrants gave a chance to his the tribe to vent their anger on them. Seeing the tools and the weapons of a different kind, made Ulf understand that everyone other than those children in front of the entrance of the village must have been killed.
At the time when Ulf saw them, there was also Be next to him.
"Do you know what will happen to them now?" Ulf asked this teammate.
"There are hundreds of families in the village. Some of them will willingly take them for their personal use." Bo said as if he didn't care much about the fate of these children.
' "Personal use" doesn't sound good at all.' Ulf felt little pity for them, but couldn't change anything, because first of all, he was very weak, but also that these vagrants brought it up on themself. The weak was prey for strong here and source to get even stronger. It was also one of the ways to make the population of the village larger. The absorption of the little groups of humans wouldn't cause many troubles to the tribe. It was also a rule that these boys and girls weren't allowed to cultivate or else they would be killed. If they get married to the tribe's families, only then their children would have the right to it.
Ulf also got his new weapon, the spear made from the horn of the mountain rhino. It was around thirty centimetres in length and less than ten centimetres in width. The spearhead was very beautiful, had white colour and extremely sharp edges. Even the light touch on it caused the bleeding from Ulf's finger. The shaft was also something made from really high-quality material. It had a dark colour and was much tougher than the shaft of his last spear, which had been much sturdier than any wood tools on the earth. Even if this shaft had the same size, it weighed at least ten times more. The whole spear was a little heavy to use even when Ulf used his external qi, but he knew that the inner qi would balance this problem perfectly.
"It's a very good weapon boy, give it a name!" The elder Temur told Ulf when they were going out from the tools storage of the main building.
"Name? Does it really need it?" Ulf was a bit stunned.
"Of course, every good weapon needs a good name too, don't just choose randomly. The name will always follow it together with you."
'Name for the weapon? If it is about the spear, what else can it be other than...' After taking some time, Ulf remembered the perfect name for his weapon.
"Aeglos! Its name will be Aeglos." Ulf felt happy that he had a chance to use this name for his spear.
'You look white like snow too.' Ulf was focusing on the spearhead.
Aeglos. It was the name of the weapon from Ulf's favourite fantasy novel from the earth - The Lord of the Rings. The weapon was owned by the elf king and the name meant "snow-point".
"Aeglos? is a little strange name but sounds good. Where does the name come from? or why did you select it?" The elder was interested in the name Ulf picked.
"I don't know. It also sounded good to me as I was thinking." Of course, Ulf couldn't tell the real reason.
"Haha, I have heard from others that you are a weird boy. They were right about it. Haha..." The elder Temur became happy and started going back to his room.
After checking and measuring the spear in his hand, Ulf could understand the reason why the spear wouldn't be suitable for the warrior-rank hunters. Sometimes the hunters had to wander or hunt for the whole day without the rest. Aeglos's weight was tolerable to use for a few hours, but after that, even Ulf would be very tired if the inner qi wasn't used. Ulf was warned that he could use the weapon however he wanted, but shouldn't affect his group with his actions. It meant that he must be able to hunt as long as usual in the wild and not hold his team back.
Ulf started to train with his new weapon in the centre of the village, but he couldn't use the inner qi there, so didn't know what kind of changes and surprises it would bring to him in figting.
After training for a few weeks Ulf thought that he was ready to hunt some creatures outside of the village. However, he needed to inform his family and the group leader before leaving. Every step taken outside would be risky, so the rules demanded that some people in the village be notified.
Getting permission from his mother was the hardest part of his plan. Ulf had to play the role of a very stubborn and unruly child. Inga knew that he had been a very obedient son and was shocked due to Ulf's current persistence to depart for hunting in the wild. Thanks to the Hadda tribe's characteristic unflinching determination, Inga finally agreed, after trying for a few hours. She was still hesitant but seemed to acknowledge that her son was already strong and personally grown-up even if he was twelve years old. Age mattered little if you had the power and firm will in This village.
"Leave? You just came back, man. Why would you endanger yourself by travelling outside alone? You should have plenty of food brought from the last hunt and also given from the village." Ursa wasn't astonished by the fact that he wanted to go out but from his point of view the decision was made a very early by Ulf.
"Yes, but I want to go out not for food. I want to gain more experience in hunting animals. I am not going to hunt far into the forests, just in the woods around the tribe to train. Sparing is a good choice, but it also has limits of helping us in hunting the creatures." Ulf tried to give an explanation that looked realistic and acceptable for the tribe.
After that Ursa couldn't refute and just told him that could leave anytime, but must not stay for a long time there. It wasn't uncommon for the hunters to leave for hunting outside. Even if it was very dangerous, there may also be different circumstances. Some of the hunters wanted more food or cultivation resources, others to find the medicine that was needed and the village was out of it at that moment. Some hot-blooded or strong hunters wanted to train themself.
"After the two weeks, it may be our turn to go for patrolling or get the hunting mission outside. I was going to tell the group after I got the order, but it seems I should warn you in advance. You must come back in time to have the opportunity to regain energy for the job." Ursa told as Ulf started to walk away.
"Okay, I will be back after a few days." Said Ulf.
After that, the next morning Ulf took both of his spears, bow and arrows. He would use mostly the Aeglos, but it would look very foolish action if other hunters would see him before departing. Ulf was just a warrior rank hunter for the entire village, that was why fighting with just the leader rank weapon wasn't a wise choice for them.
P.S. Sorry guys for my absence for the past few days. It's time for the master's exams at my university right now.