The Rise Of A Tribal Deadbeat - Chapter 43

Lie detector was gonna be very useful for him to gather information about a lot of things without killing people. Although, Zok would kill them either way to get some stat points. But there would be times where violence won’t work and he would have to use the perk either way.

‘Why don’t I try using it now?’ Zok thought and started communicating with the girl using hivemind, ‘Do you have a name I can call you with?’

‘Shira…’ The girl replied.

Zok was surprised that she could not only listen to him but reply as well using Hivemind. Neither Kaira nor Cero could reply to him in that manner. But then again, unlike the girl, his familiars did not have knowledge stat and that was probably the reason why they couldn’t talk back using the established link.

Also, Hivemind could be considered as a language of its own. A universal language using which anyone could know what the other was thinking and since thoughts are not a language and could be easily transmitted from one body to another. Thus the other party had no problems in understanding what the former party was talking about.

‘Let’s see whether that was a lie or not.’ Zok used the lie detector perk.

[True]

‘Seems easy enough to use.’ Zok nodded and carried on with his impromptu interrogation of the girl.

‘Who are you and did you kill those people?’

Zok could see Shira hesitate for a moment. The brave face she had was long gone. She kept fidgeting in her place, unable to make eye contact with him. Zok repeated his question but this time, the voice of his thoughts was a little bit friendlier and Shira finally opened up to him.

‘We are from a tribe located at the southernmost region of the Wilderness.’ Shira replied, ‘We usually kept to ourselves, not bothering anyone else living a happy life serving our god. Then one day, a beautiful blue-skinned woman found us out of nowhere. She claimed to come in peace, to help us live a better life but our god warned us about her ill-intentions. So we tried to fight her back.’

Shira took a deep breath before continuing, ‘The woman was not happy because of the hostility we had shown her. As a result, she cursed us. A curse that forced us to lust after the flesh of our own kin. Even our god couldn’t protect us from the curse. Brothers turned against brothers, fathers against his sons, and mothers against their newborns. It was a complete bloodbath. That woman kept laughing at us as we sunk our teeth into the flesh of our own. After some time the woman left us to our doom and as she did… the curse slowly diminished. But it wasn’t completely gone.’

[True]

What Shira had just told him, shocked Zok to the core. Since what she told him was true, it meant the Zukiras weren’t the only tribe occupying the Wilderness, there were others as well. However, it also meant that either they weren’t the first ones in the wilderness or Skah was aware of the fact and intentionally hid it from the others.

Another reason to be shocked was the involvement of the shamans. Judging from what Shira told her about the woman, it was clear that the mysterious woman was a shaman and could possibly even be the Shamanka herself!

For the first time ever since he was betrayed and decided to wage a war against the shamans, he was scared. If the Shamanka was able to do things like that, did he even stand a chance against her? Wasn’t it better to just live the rest of his life in hiding than to try and defeat someone with such godly strength?

‘No… I have to defeat them no matter what.’ Zok rigorously shook his head, ‘After learning what she was capable of, it was all the more important for me to stop her otherwise who knows what she would do to the Wilderness… Do I even care about the tribe anymore? I don’t think so. But I do care about my revenge and that’s enough.’

With the momentary scare, Zok slowly managed to recollect his thoughts. Even though he was willing to fight the shamans, he had to rethink his strategy. He couldn’t just depend on his familiars anymore. He had to increase his strength and gather allies as well.

However, Shira wasn’t done yet. She still had a question to answer.

‘Yes… I killed my parents.’ Shira replied as tears welled up in her eyes, ‘We somehow managed to escape the carnage and find this cave. However, my parents couldn’t control their bloodlust and tried to kill me. Our god gave me this weapon, before instructing me to kill my parents and free them from this curse. I did that… I killed them. Then I got hungry… so I-‘

[True]

Shira couldn’t continue anymore and broke down crying. Zok didn’t know what to do but Kaira’s maternal instincts took over and she went to lick Shira’s tear-drenched face. It had been a long time since Zok hardened his heart. He still felt a bit… sympathetic but not enough to care about Shira. However, after hearing about the horrors the Shamanka was capable of, Zok realised something.

He needed allies. A lot of them and this girl could be one of them. She too shared a deep hatred towards the shamans and that was enough for them to ally with each other. Zok walked up to Shira and squatted in front of her.

“Wipe your tears off.” He firmly told her, “This is not the time for us to cry, but the time to make the others feel the despair we have. Our enemies are one and the same. So why don’t we join each other and give them as much pain as they have so graciously given to us?”

Shira looked at his face and thought for a minute before taking his hand. Zok was right. Alone they might not be enough to defeat the shamans. But together… they at least had a chance to give the shamans something to remember them by.

[Special Quest completed!]

[Depravity: 12.10% —> 62.10%]

“By the way, who is this god you keep talking about?” Zok asked her one last question.

“The same one you serve,” she replied.

[The Depraved one smiles at you.]

‘I should have known….’