章 37: Chapter 37

The next day, at the entrance of the village, a group of people meets, intending to start a journey to a nearby mountain.

This group was Naz's group of Guburg's cultivators, and for some reason, they looked like they were waiting for something.

"Hey, Boss. Why do we need to wait for those Esvert people? Wouldn't our team be enough for a little mission like this?" asked one of Naz's men.

"It may be true, but Agathe had told me that she wanted to come and participate in the mission to make sure that we solved the problem, so we should obey," Naz replied seriously.

"Wow, I didn't expect the boss to be tamed so easily by an Esvert girl..." A few voices began to whisper at the back of the group.

"Those at the back, do you want to get your legs broken? I'm only obeying the orders of that girl because my father promised me that if this camp managed to become a permanent village, he would help me get my first tattoo. " Naz said seriously while looking at the cultivators that were talking before, who began to bow and ask for forgiveness.

"Oh, so you are only obeying my orders to get one of those fancy tattoos." Agathe appeared while laughing, with a few people following her.

The difference between both groups was visible at just one glance.

While the Guburg cultivators used armor hides that didn't restrict their movements when fighting hand to hand, the Esvert cultivators were dressed in robes, looking much more like scholars or priests than warriors.

"You don't understand anything, little girl. Those tattoos are a tradition in our village and have accompanied us almost since the invention of cultivation. Only the worthy will get a tattoo, and it should be considered one of the biggest rewards a Guburg cultivator can receive. " Naz explained seriously while the Guburg cultivators behind him nodded to his words.

"I mean, it's not like I don't believe you, but according to the records that I have read, those tattoos are a relatively recent invention, or at least my village has only observed them on your people from not very long ago. Even better, not a single tattoo was mentioned in the records of those that were present in the first meeting of the three villages, so the possibilities of the tattoos being an ancient tradition are almost zero." Agathe explained her theory while laughing.

At that point, it was clear that the Guburg cultivators were pretty annoyed by Agathe's words, and the atmosphere soon became pretty tense between the two groups.

"I shall suggest that you stop talking about things that you have no fucking idea about. It may cause you problems in the future if you meet someone that is not as nice as me." Naz said with a cold smile while nearing Agathe, so he had to look downwards to look at her eyes because of the height difference.

Even though Naz's appearance was pretty imposing, Agathe managed to keep looking at his eyes without retreating even a centimeter, and after a few seconds, he simply turned to his group and separated from her.

"We should stop this nonsense and begin our journey as soon as possible unless you want to camp outside the village tonight," Naz said while looking at his men, and without waiting for a reply from the Agathe group, he began to walk towards their destination.

"As you order, boss." The cultivators from Naz's group replied in unison while they started following him.

Seeing that they were being left behind, Agathe quickly reacted.

"Follow them, and make sure to stay alert. We don't know what we can meet at that place. " Agathe ordered her team.

After that, their journey towards the mountain began.

The mountain was unnamed right now, as no one had explored it yet, even though it was pretty near to their camp. Because of this, they mostly referred to it simply as "the mountain".

The journey was monotonous and safe, as they didn't meet a single beast all the way, so in just a few hours they reached the foot of the mountain.

When they reached that point, they began to notice that something was not right. The place was destroyed, with trees split in half and rocks with deep cuts all around the place. It looked like someone had used that place to train their skills with a sword, only to leave everything cut behind.

This scene made them aware that maybe they should be careful, as it was probably that the thing that created all those cuts was still around. Because of this, they decided to slow down so they wouldn't run into an ambush.

They continued climbing the mountain for a while until suddenly they found a few corpses of beasts cut in half laying on the ground.