No matter how much Nathan experienced it, he could never get used to dying. The pain was the least of it, he could get used to it, what mattered was that each death meant that his mind accumulated more and more tension.
Some deaths were worse than others, the ones where he died instantly didn't hurt as much, and they didn't give him time to think.
But this time, he had to endure having his head impaled by the spear for a few seconds at most.
When Nathan came back, he clenched his jaw and took a deep breath, as if he needed air.
As he did not approach the totem to study it, Maya took his place and began to approach. Nathan coughed and stopped her.
"Don't go any closer"
Maya stopped and looked at him with an irritated expression.
"You don't tell me what to do"
Nathan frowned and sighed slightly.
"If you want to die, go ahead"
Maya frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Nathan drew the bow he carried on his back and prepared an arrow, he aimed at the ground in front of the totem pole and fired.
The arrow hit the water and seconds later a spear shot up, crashed into a branch, and broke it before falling back into the water.
They were all visibly surprised; they had never thought there could be traps. But that was normal, none of them had ever faced tribal calamities, nor did they think their intelligence would be enough to set traps.
Maya was pale; had she walked a few more steps, she would have suffered the same fate as Nathan. The young woman looked at him in surprise, as did the others.
"How did you know?"
Nathan remained silent. He had no excuse to give her, so he chose his right to remain silent and then looked back at the totem.
"We were very reckless, it was only thanks to the totem that we realized we were in their territory. If it hadn't been there, we might have suffered casualties by now"
No one spoke, everyone agreed with his words. The cadets looked nervous, even Maya was still processing the fact that she was about to die, the only one who was relatively calm was Syril.
On the other hand, the two soldiers were also calm. Their job was not to help them, only to monitor them. They might have helped them with the ambush as soon as they entered the realm, but only because it was also against their safety.
Nathan wanted to know what they were thinking.
'I wonder if they knew about the traps...'
In any case, things were different now. Nathan looked at Syril, who was staring at the totem pole.
"What else do you know about tribal calamities?"
Nathan had heard what Syril knew a few hours ago, but he wanted to know more.
The young woman stopped looking at the totem and looked at him.
"I don't know much more than what I already told you... they live in small villages, they are omnivores... but they can also become cannibals in a bad season"
Syril put a finger to his chin in thought.
"Like I said, they're smart compared to the other disasters... but not smart enough to set traps"
Nathan nodded at her words.
He didn't know much about the calamities, and he knew that one day he would have to study them. He realized that information was very valuable for survival, so much so that it was sometimes more important than strength itself.
Nathan was silent for a few seconds.
"At least there's some good in all this"
Maya looked back at him with the same annoyed expression as always.
"Something good?"
She almost died, how could there be any good?
Nathan felt the young woman was blinded by her prejudice against him, but then again, he didn't care.
"Yes, we know they're not smart enough to set traps, so we can assume two things"
Nathan held up the index and middle fingers of his right hand.
"Either we simply didn't know they could set traps before, and the tribal disasters are smarter than previously thought, or someone gave them that knowledge"
Syril's eyes widened slightly as she realized what Nathan's thought implied.
"Then it's possible that the special category calamity was the one who set the traps, or at least told them how to do it"
Nathan nodded his head.
"Exactly"
The cadets began to murmur amongst themselves, while the soldiers remained as silent as ever.
Nathan looked back at the totem pole.
'Now the problem is to move on'
The first trap was just a welcome one, and it had already killed him once. Nathan didn't know how many different traps there might be, or where.
They had no way of identifying them... at least the others did not.
Nathan sighed, knowing he would probably die several more times.
'If I can avoid it better...'
Nathan walked over to a tree and forcibly removed one of its branches, checking that it was the right length, then began to approach the totem pole again. He felt around on the ground with the branch.
When he realized that the trap had not been triggered again, Nathan understood that it was safe to proceed for now.
He turned to look at the others, some of whom looked at him curiously, others just lost in thought.
'They're newbies'
Nathan was also a novice, but unlike the others, he knew much more about the importance of concentration. It was something Boreas had taught him and instilled in his soul from the very beginning.
During his training with the old man, a lapse of concentration would have led to his death. So, Nathan had to learn the hard way.
"I'll go first, you follow"
Maya started to say something, but Syril put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her and moving closer to Nathan following him. The young redhead bit her lips softly and, after watching the other cadets join the line, decided to form up as well.
The soldiers fell into line without saying anything, just following the group.
They began to walk through the swamp again, this time with Nathan leading the way. For nearly an hour, dozens of traps forced them to stop.
Most of them were easily identified by the branch Nathan was carrying. They were not very elaborate traps either, most of them were not even lethal, but for Nathan that was more dangerous.
There were spikes, tree trunks, even poisoned darts.
Nathan had managed to avoid most of the traps, only two had killed him and three had left minor wounds on his body. The problem with the poisoned darts was that the poison was not lethal enough to give him a premonition of death, which could make him unaware of the real danger of the trap.
Fortunately, Nathan was able to dodge all of the darts, mainly because even though they were very small, they were slower than Dilliard's attacks.
But after that hour, Nathan realized something.
'The territory of the tribal calamities is huge'
Their pace was slow, but after an hour they had covered at least a few kilometers, and they hadn't found the village Syril had mentioned.
Nathan stopped and looked around, they were definitely lost, but they had no way of finding their way. There was nothing around them but trees and vegetation.
However, to answer his thoughts, a deep roar was heard in the distance. Then several peaceful bird-like calamities appeared flying above them in the opposite direction, as if they were running away from something.
Nathan looked at the birds and was surprised.
He hadn't realized there were such things in the swamp, they must have been hidden all along.
'What else is hidden in this place?'
The sight of the birds made Nathan realize that his perception of his surroundings was as poor as his essence control. He looked at Syril behind him and didn't see her confused at all.
It was as if the young woman knew of the birds' existence, not just her, but the other cadets as well. They just hadn't mentioned it because they thought it was obvious, and besides, they were peaceful calamities.
They were second and third categories for a reason, their perception was much better than Nathan's.