Chapter 87: Attack the dungeon?
"Alert! Alert!! Everyone, wake up!! Prepare your weapons!"
The old Shaman barged into the silent village and loudly shouted to gather everyone. He did not care about his disheveled appearance and quickly brushed away the few barbarians guarding the village.
"Elder, are you alright? What is happening?" asked one of the barbarians.
"Get out of my way idiot! This is an emergency! Wake up everyone! There is no time to lose!" The shaman snorted and made his way toward Achi's tent. Along the way, he did not hesitate to knock on the bells in front of some tents to wake everyone up. Around him, grunts and complaints were heard and already, several heads were peeking out of the tents to evaluate the situation.
When half of the village was already awake, the shaman finally arrived in front of the chief's tent but before he could enter, a confused and half asleep Achi stormed out of the tent. Achi had clearly just woken up, his eyes were still half closed and he did not even bother to put in some clothes as his hairy torso greeted the feeble Shaman.
"Danger? What is happening?" exclaimed Achi. He looked around him and only saw several barbarians giving him confused looks but soon, a thin staff smacked his head.
"Idiot! How can you be sleeping so soundly when Mira has been kidnapped! Hurry up and gather your man! We are attacking the dungeon!"
Achi's sleepiness immediately vanished as he heard his daughter's name. "What? What happened to Mira? And what does it has to do with the dungeon?"
"She was kidnapped by a flying monster and it is very likely that it came from the dungeon! There is no time to waste, what if she brought her back to feed the other monsters? Prepare yourself and come to my tent, I'll go grab some items!"
"What?" Achi furrowed his brows, "Old man! You promised that Mira would be safe under your protection! If anything happens to her..."
"I know! There is no need to mention that again! Go prepare yourself quickly or would you rather waste time arguing there?" The old Shaman was also on the nerves. It was true that he was at fault but how could he have predicted that a flying monster would suddenly appear.
Without waiting for an answer, the Shaman quickly turned around and walked toward his own tent. He was ready to explore the dungeon to save Mira but before that, he needed to collect some important items that might be useful in the dungeon.
He quickly pushed opened the tent flaps and went straight toward the pile of items. The inside of the tent was still dark and messy but as the shaman was focusing on rummaging through the items, he suddenly heard a childish voice: "Teacher, you are finally here."
The Shaman froze and quickly turned to look at the source of the voice. It was only now that he noticed that a young child was sitting in the corner of the tent while wrapping herself in a blanket. She was looking at the Shaman with a confused a worried expression. She has heard some shouts coming from outside and was wondering if something important has happened and the next second, she saw the Shaman rush into the tent. Clearly, something was going on as the Shaman did not even bother to look around him.
In disbelief, the Shaman jumped toward the young child and put his arm around her tiny body. "Mira? Is that you? How??" He did not care about his own image and quickly examined Mira to make sure that it was not an illusion.
"Teacher... You are hurting me," complained the girl.
The Shaman was still not believing what he was seeing, hasn't his granddaughter been kidnapped just a few moments ago? How could she already be back? Unless... It was a fake!
Realizing that he might be getting tricked, the shaman asked with a serious voice, "Mira, do you remember your father's and mother's name?"
"Huh? Yeah, it's Achi and Ly," answered Mira. She fearfully looked at the Shaman's face; just now, the Shaman's strange behavior and scary expression took her by surprise, he did not look much different from a madman.
The Shaman did not seem to notice the child's fear and squinted his eyes, "mmm... Then do you remember when you were born?"
"On the 12th day of the month of the Mammoth? Teacher... Why are you asking these strange questions?"
'What? Could it be that I was wrong?' thought the Shaman. "Cough cough. I was just checking, you know... I am already old, it is normal to suffer from memory loss sometimes... Anyway, tell me, how did your task go?" asked the Shaman with a dry voice. As much as he wanted to ask what happened to the flying monster, he did not want to directly reveal that he was previously protecting him from the shadows and miserably failed.
"Oh yeah, it went really well. Look!" answered Mira as she gave the small pouch of herbs to her teacher.
"Huh?" The Shaman quickly browsed through the content but could not help but let out a small shout of surprise when he noticed the small Moon Grass lying in the middle of the pile. Just where did that last herb come from?
With a dry smile, he said, "Excellent. Very few people are able to collect all 10 herbs on their first try, you know? Especially the Moon Grass! Did anything happen during your task?"
"Oh yeah. I would have failed the task if I did not meet Angela. It is all thanks to her."
The Shaman immediately widened his eyes, the conversation was going exactly where he wanted it to go but before he could ask any further question, he heard loud steps coming from outside.
"Hmmp, give me a minute," said the Shaman before quickly getting up and checking outside.
...
Outside of the tent, the village was already very lively. Practically everyone was awake and all the men were gathered at the center of the village. In front of the tent, 7 barbarians were anxiously waiting. Among them, Achi, who was now wearing his usual armor, was making his way to the Shaman's tent while holding a giant war ax on his shoulder.
But before he could ask to enter, the small head of the Shaman popped out of the tent flaps. "Oh, it's you. Come in and tell your men to go back to sleep. The attack is canceled. Mira is safe."
Achi widened his eyes, "Mira is safe? Then... What happened? Why did you make such a commotion?"
"Enough with those questions. I am still asking Mira, quickly ask your men to go back to sleep and come inside."
The Shaman's head disappeared back into the tent flap, leaving Achi with a headache. How was he supposed to explain to the others that it was all for nothing? At least, Mira was safe.
After calming everyone and saying that it was all just a drill, Achi left the grumpy barbarians to return to their tents while he entered the shaman's tent.
"You are finally here, come and sit!" said the Shaman.
"Mira, are you ok? Is the Shaman treating you well? Tell Daddy everything, ok?" asked Achi with concerned. His heart was at peace as he saw his daughter safely sitting in the corner.
"Yes yes. I was just telling the story of how I met Angela. I found a Moon Grass near the territory of the Forest Tigers earlier but before I could collect it, they decided to attack me. I was going to use the powder the Shaman gave me but just when I was about to, Angela appeared and saved me. She can fly and she carried me all the way to the edge of the forest, not very far from the village. Also, she gave me a Moon Grass to complete my task..."
"Angela? Who is Angela? Is she your friend?" asked Achi.
"Yes. She is very nice and has black wings on her back. It is just sad that I do not understand when she speaks. She can understand me though..."
"Angela is that winged woman I told you about... If she can understand Mira, she must be an intelligent species," commented the Shaman.
"mmm, did she show you where she came from?" asked Achi to his daughter.
"Maybe she did but I did not understand... Teacher says she comes from the dungeon. I don't know about that but when she left me, she flew in the direction of the dungeon."
"Alright... That was very good Mira. Tomorrow, I will teach you some new things, including the language that Angela speaks. Although I don't speak it too well, there are some records of it in the ancestral notes. We can decipher them together; this way, you can surprise her the next time you see your friend. For now, it is very late. Go back home to sleep," said the Shaman.
"Really? I will be able to understand Angela? That will be great!" happily exclaimed Mira.
"Good. You must be tired after your task. Go home and sleep with Mother. I still have a few things to discuss with the Shaman." Achi quickly prompted his daughter to go back home. She quickly agreed but she clearly wasn't going there to sleep but more to narrate her small adventure to her mother. With how excited she was, there was no way she would sleep any time soon.
After Mira left, Achi turned his attention toward the Shaman, "I am sorry. I know that you did your best but Mira is my sole daughter. Please be more careful in the future..."
"I know. I will be on guard against flying monsters from now on... What do you think? Did that monster come from the dungeon?" asked the Shaman.
"It is possible but from what Mira said, she is not hostile to us. If we meet her again, we should not attack her if she does not do so first. We are used to fight against beasts and are very vulnerable to attacks from the sky. If there are more of this monster, it will be catastrophic for the tribe."
"I know... In any case, the dungeon is not to be underestimated. Be more careful when going in there! As for the monster, we need to confirm if it is an ally or an enemy... Try to push for the 4th floor tomorrow but if you find a winged woman, do not attack her and come back to inform me!"
...
At the waterfall, Angela slowly flapped her wings and landed at the entrance of the dungeon. 2 slim figures quickly stepped out of the dungeon.
With a worried expression, Ariel quickly pulled Angela; "You are finally here! What took so long? I almost thought something happened to you."
"I am fine... I took a bit longer to carry a child to the barbarian's village..."
"A child? What happened?" asked Alice.
As Angela explained the situation, her two sisters did not know how to react. Weren't humans their enemy? Why would she save one?
"Sigh... Only someone like you will save a human. That's fine, was she cute at least?" playfully asked Alice to dismiss the matter.
"Yeah... It was just sad that she could not understand me but I could understand when she spoke."
Ariel nodded, "That's because they don't know the Demon Language. But you know, you can easily solve that if you buy the Language Orb from the dungeon shop. It costs only 1000 DP and allows you to speak and understand any language."
As she heard her sister's suggestion, Angela's eyes brightened, "Is there such an item? But... It is so expensive..."
"There are so many items; how can you know them all? You really want to speak with that human, huh?" said Ariel.
"I just think that it would be nice to be able to speak with anyone..."
"Haha! Then buy the Language Orb. Didn't Master say that you can buy anything you need for your crafting? Just say that you need to understand the weird languages to understand the books!"
"But... That's not true... And I don't want to lie to Master like that..."
"Huh... Then, just ask him tomorrow morning. I am sure he won't say no to you!"
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