Valtar wasn't surprised by what Zho said. In fact, he expected something like that. After all, it was only natural to earn enough to eat; there's no free meal in the world.
He calmly strode forward to Zho and said to him, "Teach me how to fight."
Zho was surprised by the straightforward request of the outsider. But he let out a small smile and said, "Sure, however, don't think you will be treated specially just because you're an outsider."
Valtar didn't reply and simply nodded. Then Zho called out someone named Gino. He was someone who often trained new warriors as he is a good teacher and is one of the older ones among the warriors.
Gino naturally started his training immediately on the forest side. Gino's instructions were crystal clear: to listen to his instructions no matter what. Otherwise, he wouldn't teach him, and no one else would either.
As such, with Gino, Valtar had started his training, and it was quite harsh. Gino taught him how to fight mostly through direct combat with him, and there were many times Gino almost injured Valtar badly, but he endured it. After 7 days of constant training, Valtar did indeed see his basic level of combat power increase quite a bit.
The tribe warriors mostly used wooden spears with the top made of metal.
Of course, despite his slight progress with 7 days of non-stop training, he didn't stand a chance against tribal warriors who pretty much dedicated their entire lives to fighting the shadow beasts on the western lands. But Gino said he should be able to survive and probably hunt a single lowest-level shadow beast if he played it smart.
Then the time came for the warriors to venture into the western lands again, and this time Valtar naturally went with them. They wouldn't allow him a free meal anymore; he had to earn his food.
Since the tribe was in the east, they had to go directly in the opposite direction, the west, to reach the western lands.
It was about 3-4 days of travel distance to reach the western area, and similar to the Tribe, both dark elves and Fae folk hunted the shadow beasts, but they had a direct border with the western lands, so they faced much more danger compared to the Eastern tribe, which did not share a direct border with that place.
But the elves and Fae folk were extremely strong as well compared to the human tribe.
As they were getting closer and closer to the west, the trees in the forest kept getting bigger and bigger, and as if the world itself was becoming darker and darker, or to be more precise, shadows were everything the more they approached it.
It was difficult for Valtar to suddenly get used to this. To him, it almost seemed like the world was losing colors. Thankfully, the system helped him adapt to the new vision.
As they were running at one point, almost close to the west, they encountered a group of dark elves.
The group immediately became alert. Zho shouted to their leader, "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be in this area?"
There was a slight sense of threat in his tone and a tone of fear, which was a bit weird because the team of elves only seemed to be 6, and there were probably another 4 in hiding as far as Valtar understood.
'Were dark elves that much stronger?' He thought in his mind.
The dark elves had shadow-like skin but almost felt like they were glowing dark, but in a beautiful yet dangerous way. The one most eye-catching was their leader.
She was a gorgeous female with delicate curves and a charming face who approached them with a small smile, but the sense of danger Valtar felt from her was also the greatest.
She said to the warriors, "No need to be so tense. We're just checking the area to make sure there aren't beasts wandering outside of their, you know how dangerous it can be even if just one starts living outside of the Western lands."
Zho replied in anger, "You can take care of your own damn area. We will take care of ours."
She replied calmly, "Of course, if you say so."
After this strange but short exchange of words, they slowly walked backward in sync and seemed to disappear into the darkness of the shadows. The group was vigilant for a while and went forward with alert.
But after seeing they were truly gone, they continued at their usual pace. After another day, they finally reached the western lands. It truly felt like a land where everything is made of shadow, and there are so many strange beasts here.
It was at this moment Zho declared, "Let's go to the wolves' area. This time we must get a pack leader." Valtar was naturally told the plan and the general information of how things are done.
As the Eastern tribe did not have any powerful beings within them, they could only hunt the lowest level of shadow beasts that had no core.
Powerful creatures all had one thing in common within their bodies: they all had a core.
Whether it's a human, mythical creature, or beast, once they reach a certain threshold of power, it would develop a core. The size of the core would depend on its race or body size, and the quality of it also depends on those factors.
And if you are able to consume a core of the lowest rank, you can become an "awakened."
Awakened are beings who walk on the path of power in this world. This information was revealed to him by Gino when they were training back in the tribe.
The system prompted him to get more information on this, unfortunately, as the tribe members spent their entire lives within the forest, no one knew of anything more than this, and this information was only said by an elder who was an "awakened" in the tribe, but he died about 10 years ago trying to protect warriors from a core beast at that time.
That elder was someone who met an injured core beast of the lowest rank that was on the brink of death while the warriors were hunting on the western lands. After consuming the core, despite not knowing about it, he became an awakened. They were significantly stronger beings.
Also later, Zho revealed to Valtar after meeting the dark elves' group that unlike the East area, Dark elves and Fae folk have many, many awakened among them, unlike the humans, and the leader of the Dark elves they met was also a strong awakened.
Zho said, "None of the 3 tribes are actually allowed to kill each other without a proper reason and cannot enter each other's territory."
Valtar responded, "Why?"
But it was Gino who replied, "We don't know. It's just a rule that's been there since the beginning. We have reached the wolves' area, so stop asking unnecessary questions."
Valtar shut his mouth and became vigilant of the surroundings. First, they had to wait and see for the right opportunity to arrive. There were about 50 shadow wolves living close to a cave-like structure. Smaller units called packs contained 10-12 wolves together, and there would be one stronger wolf among them to lead the pack, which is basically a pack leader.
The wolves from far away looked like normal wolves, but they were a lot bigger in size, had shadow-like grace to them, but they were physical creatures undaunted, even the normal ones. The stronger ones seemed to be larger.
A pack leader is significantly stronger, though pack leaders are not a core creature. They are assumed to be halfway there. Only the leader of the whole 50 wolves is a proper shadow core creature. Compared to all the other wolves, its strength was off the charts.
The warriors waited patiently for a few packs to go out to hunt, so a few of the packs after a while did indeed go out to hunt. Thus, the warrior group split into 3, and they followed one pack each quietly. Valtar was in the same small group as Zho and Gino.
The wolves seemed to be hunting a beast with 4 horns, similar to a body shape somewhat similar to a deer's.
Those beasts are called Hornets. Zho said, "There is a reason why we hunt the wolves and not the Hornets. Those hornets have special poison in their horns. When the wolves fight them, they become affected by the poison and become slower and start to dysfunction, but a human can easily die if it gets into our bodies."
Valtar did not respond and kept his stoic face as he continued to watch the hunt of the wolves calmly.
There were 10 wolves that were after 2 or 3 of the Hornets, and like wild animals hiding in the bushes to suddenly catch their prey off guard, the wolves pounced at their prey, and 2 of the 3 were directly caught in their mouths by the wolves. The other was actually able to escape since they were quite fast.
The Hornets struggled, but they were unable to escape and simply died.
At that perfect opportunity, the tribesmen rushed at the wolves like madmen and pounced at them, going for a direct kill.