The Rise Of A Tribal Deadbeat - Chapter 60

[Your familiar <Cero> has slain a level 23 B-grade Prinora. 1.5 Exp multiplier has been applied. Exp +6000]

[You familiar <Cero> has levelled up to level 24.]

‘Wow this was unexpected… just four of them were enough to evolve Cero… and I missed out on a lot of exp… tsk.’ Zok thought to himself as the notification appeared in front of him, ‘At least I got some attributes from them, but not what I would have wanted to get.’

Saying so, Zok stored a couple of Prinora corpses in his inventory to be used later while leaving the others behind. He didn’t want to fill up his inventory with the corpses that he might never use again. With that being taken care of, he then headed towards Zus, who was still in awe of Zok and Cero’s strength.

“Let’s get you back to the cave and get you fixed,” Zok said and helped Zus climb over Cero, “then we will have a long chat…”

It might not look like it but Zok wasn’t in a good mood at all. Firstly, he couldn’t gain Exp, then he couldn’t tame the creatures inside the dungeon and lastly, his [Elude] ability didn’t activate a second time against the Prinora which had him lost.

He didn’t know why it was happening but it was his guess that [Elude] ability might only be activable once per target. If he got hit, that would be it. No more cheating for him. The ability won’t activate again on the same target.

That was the only possible reason he could think of. However, he wasn’t sure about it as he had never tested this theory of him. It was because none of the creatures had ever been able to lay a finger on him while the ability was active.

Either way, there was nothing he could have done about it at that moment. For now, he had to focus on obtaining information about what the hidden boss of the dungeon could be. Even then, after his encounter with Prinoras, he wasn’t sure he would be able to take the boss creature on by himself.

But he had no other way. He couldn’t tame another beast inside the dungeon, thus he had to make do with what he had. Even if that wasn’t what he wanted.

The journey to the cave was fairly uneventful. Zok thought Zus’ blood might attract other beasts, but the Prinora blood on him and Cero were enough to keep away any beast who had any intention of attacking them.

They swiftly made their way inside the cave and Zok pulled out a bunch of herbs from his inventory to treat Zus. But he stopped for a second.

‘Should I use these on him…?’

The herbs he had with him were priceless, at least for Zok. He didn’t know when he would be able to get his hands on those herbs if ever. He would still have a lot of herbs left with him, even if he used the needed amount to treat Zus, but he was thinking whether doing so was worth it or not.

The viable option was to… kill the man and get his knowledge. No. Killing is not always the solution. He had already made up his mind to not kill him! He couldn’t always go around killing people… the urge… he had to control it before it got out of hand.

While he was contemplating whether it was the right decision to use the herbs on Zus or not, Zus seemed to have picked up on Zok’s dilemma. But in the wrong way.

‘Maybe the kid does not have enough herbs.’ Zus shook his head, ‘No matter how strong he is, at the end of the day, he is still a kid. He needs someone to guide him, and if I can be that person then everything will be alright. I’ll get my revenge and be done with everything.

Cero on the other hand was just interested in relaxing and conserving his energy. The majestic beast was still getting a hang of his new bulkier body. One could even say he was half asleep at that point.

After a few moments, it appeared Zok had made a decision. Using Cero’s tail, he started making a paste out of the herbs he had. While he was at it, he decided it was as good time as ever to start gathering more information about the cold lands from Zus.

“Alright, I’ll answer your questions if you’ll agree to answer mine.” Zus replied to his question with a question, “Hm… you go first. What do you want to know?”

“About this place, you know, the area and stuff. That would be helpful for me to look for what I am here for.”

Zus nodded and began telling Zok whatever he knew about the place known as Cold Lands. And he had quite a lot to say since he had spent almost two decades wandering around like a nomad. But even in those years, he had only discovered a handful of things and only mapped the area he could on foot.

Zus called the place Polaria, as according to him, the place was located at the edge of their continent. As for vegetation, there was little to no plants there. The few types of plants that could survive the harsh weather were often feasted upon by small rodent-like creatures known as Marinae. These were the only herbivorous creatures he knew about.

There were creatures who fed upon the Marinae, and then there were creatures who fed upon those. It could be said that the food chain of Polaria was heavily dominated by carnivores who could eat anything that moved.

“Till today, I thought those giant creatures were on top of the food chain here, but now… I’m not so sure about it.” Zus finished his tale by saying that, “As for you, who are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I have seen a lot of things in my life kid, but I have never seen anyone like you..” Zus said with a smile on his face, “So I’ll ask you again. Who are you?”