Chapter 18: Preparation for The Hunt Part 1
After the day of celebration, a lot of tribesmen finally accepted Alfred as one of their own, some even showed respect to him when they saw him. Alfred was quite satisfied with his current situation, also with Leo's growth, he became really playful, and he was also old enough to eat meat.
Alfred went back to his repetitive activities, he still went to Elder Ahote's shelter to learn crafting. Elder Ahote became his mentor or teacher after the work they did together. A few days had passed, when the hunting party finally came back.
Chief Viren called the Elders, Vir, and Alfred for an important meeting. When they finally gathered in one place, chief Viren become serious and said.
"The sixth moon is near, we only have one moon and a half, we do not have a choice but to hunt a beast for its Life Stone."
After hearing these the other two elders and Vir became depressed.
"Is it the time already?" Elder Ahote asked in sadness.
"We do not have time to be depressed, Vir is the arrows ready to hunt a beast?" Chief Viren asked Vir.
"Not yet, but I will make sure they will be ready." Vir replied.
"You must do it quickly, we cannot delay the sacrifice to the Guardian Tree any further."
"Yes, I will do what you ask."
Alfred raised his hand and asked.
"Uhm, may I ask what is this hunting a beast and sacrifice is all about?"
"Ah, how can I forget you lost your memory so you probably do not know about the sacrifice. You see young Alfred, every tribe has a tradition to sacrifice a Life Stone to the guardian tree every sixth moon, to show our respect and gratitude." Chief Viren replied to Alfred.
"What will happen if you do not sacrifice a Life Stone to the Guardian Tree?"
"The Guardian Tree might become dissatisfied and stop protecting the tribe."
"Did something like that happen to another tribe?"
"It happened to a lot of tribes, the Guardian Tree stopped protecting them, and now those tribe was gone." Shaman Catori interjects.
"What Shaman Catori said is true, so this hunt for the beast is really important. Do you think you can do something to help the Arrows hunt a beast young Alfred?" Chief Viren asked.
"I understand now, do not worry I will try to create something that will help the Arrows hunt a beast in the remaining time." Alfred replied.
The meeting was ended After Vir reported their hunt and Chief Viren informed Vir about what happened in the past few days that they are gone. When Alfred got back to his tent, he lie down with Leo and immediately tried to think of something that could help the Arrows.
While he was considering every option he had in his head, A sudden inspiration came to his mind.
'I can put an Augmentation Rune to an item or weapon to make them durability, sharp, seal, or pierce more, but what if I can put an Augmentation Rune to an accessory like strength, speed, or sturdy? isn't that going to be a big help to the Arrows?
But the problem is I can only carve a rune with mud or clay soil. Wait, can I make an accessory using clay soil? I should probably ask Elder Ahote.'
Alfred instantly stood up and startled Leo.
"Come on Leo we need to go to Elder Ahote's shelter."
Alfred was about to walk outside when he heard Leo's purr, he looked back to see if Leo was following him, but when he did, he saw the little lion still sitting on the bed and just looking at him asking why he did not carry him.
"No Leo, I am not going to carry you, you should walk on your own, you are going to get lazy if you keep this up."
The white lion whimpered while showing to Alfred his pity look.
"No, I am not going to fall to your pity look this time, where do you even learn to do that? If you are not going to follow me, I am going to leave you."
Alfred continued walking outside, after a while he felt something brush his left foot, then he saw Leo walking with him. He smiled with satisfaction and said to Leo
"You think you can fool me, you little cat."
Leo just grunted at Alfred and ignore him. Alfred laughed and just continued walking. After Alfred reached his destination, he just walked inside Elder Ahote's shelter. Because the two became close enough they decided to be casual with each other and stopped doing something awkward like asking for permission to enter.
When elder Ahote saw Alfred walking inside, he smiled.
"You are here, what do you want to learn this time?"
"I am here about the beast hunt." Alfred replied
"Did you think of something that can help the Arrows?"
Alfred explained to elder Ahote what he wanted to do, and he also asked him if they can make accessories using clay soil. Elder Ahote thought deeply and finally answered the question.
"The idea of Runic Accessories is very amazing, this idea will definitely help the Arrows on their hunt, but I do not think using clay as a material is a good idea. Yes, I think we can make accessories using clay soil, but this accessory is easy to break especially when fighting."
"How do you think I can carve Runes on a solid material such as woods, bones, or stones?"
"Well, if you want to carve a rune with those materials you need tools to do that. Carving a complicated thing like a rune to solid materials will be very hard, especially if you want to use your hands to do it, but if you want to use energy to carve using a tool, you need to reach 3rd Stage Energy Coating before you can coat the tools with energy, and that will take you a lot of time before you reach it. So, it is better to think of new ideas rather than to linger on an impossible one."
"I see, but how can I reach this 3rd Stage, what do I need to do?"
"You need to cover at least one of your limbs to master 2nd Stage Energy Manipulation, and to do that you need good control together with a large capacity of Life Energy, to be able to cover one of your limbs. After that, you will start your way to 3rd Energy Coating by attempting to coat an item you are holding with energy.
I know I do not have to tell you this, but I will still be going to say it for a clearer explanation. The only thing you can do to have good control of the energy is by just practicing nothing more, and to enlarge your energy capacity you need to use it repeatedly. Just think of it like a muscle, the more you used it the stronger and larger it became."
"Thank you for your explanation Elder Ahote. So, if I cannot use the Augmentation Rune to help the Arrows, the only thing I have is the Elemental Rune, but I do not have any idea how can I help them using that."
Elder Ahote and Alfred talked for a long time and exchanged ideas to help the Arrows. Both of them do this for a few days. One day while Elder Ahote was busy making some tools. Alfred suddenly burst into Elder Ahote's shelter while panting, he had this excited look and a wide smile on his face. Elder Ahote was startled by Alfred's sudden arrival.
"Why are you in so much hurry that you are panting, come sit and take a breather"
"I- I have a p- plan" Alfred replied while panting.
"Stop talking and compose yourself first, then explain. I cannot understand you if you are like this."
Alfred took Elder Ahote's advice to take a breather and calmed down. After he was finally calm enough, he explained to Elder Ahote his plan. When Elder Ahote heard his whole plan, his eyes brightened, and excitedly said.
"That plan is genius, you should definitely tell this to Vir. I think this plan of yours is very plausible, and if he heard this he will definitely agree to this plan."
Alfred agreed with Elder Ahote, then immediately walked out to talk to Vir. When Alfred was in front of Vir's shelter, he shouted.
"Head Arrow Vir are you inside?"
When Vir heard someone calling him outside, he walked out to see who it is. Vir saw Alfred waiting for him.
"What is it, Alfred?"
"Oh, it is kind of important, this is about the hunt for the beast." Alfred replied.
"Let us talk inside."
After they walked inside and sat down, Vir said.
"Explain."
Alfred eagerly explained his whole plan to Vir. After Vir heard the whole plan, he stood up and walked outside. He gave an order to one of the Arrows to call Armani, after that he sat down and didn't say anything.