2 The First Step To Godhood

In Chu'a village a festival was under preparation to celebrate the birth of The Chief's third daughter in a month. Rumors also leaked that The Chief was going to decide on a husband for his eldest daughter therefore all men were expected to wear their finest prizes on their clothing to display their martial prowess the mightier the beast the more likely one would be when The Chief would decide his daughter's husband.

Things had been going smoothly into a corpse like boy washed up near the local beach, some tribe scavengers tried looting him mistaking him for a dead kid into they heard him mumble some words in a strange language.

The Chief a middle aged man with wild bull like locks of dark brown hair covering powerful brown eyes with wrinkly skin over his prominent cheekbones displaying signs of his former handsomeness in his youth was puzzled by this odd turn of events, he heard a rumor of foreign men settling down in places inside the central coast but it shouldn't be anywhere near them, he would need to talk to the boy when he awoke.

While in his thoughts he heard a voice suddenly snap him back to reality.

"I refuse to be married!"

A beautiful young girl only 17 years of age with dark brown hair and sword like brows on top of determined amber eyes with slightly tanned delicate skin yelled with a haughty tone at The Chief.

"Sikya you're being too stubborn just like your mother; I agreed to postponing your marriage two years ago hoping you would see the bigger picture, but no more! You will be married to a great man who can protect the tribe and you when I die."

Taregan truly favored this daughter of his, she resembled him the most out of his children in both looks and talent but she inherited her mother's temperament and pride normally he would give into her demands but this time no negotiations could be made; it's all due to when his Strongspear Tribe went to war with the traitorous Dusk Tribe centuries ago his ancestor slayed their Head Shaman the backbone of The Dusk Tribe winning them a large amount of territory to host their people as well as depriving the world of powerful Dark God worshippers, but it came at a cost The Shaman on his deathbed casted a Whisper curse upon all men of the head Strongspear Tribe family as well as their future sons to age rapidly when burning their Totem Energies in battle.

"Father! I can protect The Tribe myself I don't need a man weaker than me, after all the rules of our Tribe states that as long as you can defeat every other member you can serve as chief right?"

Taregan was filled with anger at these alien like words to him yet he could only sigh. While it was true only the strongest could act as Chief of the tribe it was still a fact that The Strongspear tribe was a traditional tribe above all else holding to the times when women would serve as wives as well as healers to injured men after a hunt, even after The Totem God reforged Humankind into being capable of using Totem Energy having women as leaders was never thought of nor would any self-respecting Strongspear tribe members accept a female Chief.

"Out of the question, we both know you're too hot headed to tackle the delicate difficulties of making these honorable men follow a woman's orders."

Truthfully Sikya was close to being stronger than even her father with the only step left is to reforge her body into The Clan Totem beast which would trigger a transformation granting her great powers in her new form; unfortunately few prodigies could withstand the pain of forcefully transforming their bodies into The Totem Beast Form with Totem Energy alone which is why most required the help of a Totem Stage expert to soften the pain.

"Bah! I know that Father but I still won't marry any man weaker than me and older than Thirty."

His daughter was truly stubborn on this never leaving any room for discussion yet he could only sigh into an expression of happiness appeared on his face as he thought up a great idea.

"Very well then at the celebration in a month's time we will host a tournament limited to men below Thirty any who can defeat you will serve as your husband, if none win then you can choose to marry whoever you want at your own time agreed?"

Sikya was proud of her talent as a Totem Master being capable of defeating veterans of the tribe since she was a child never would her personality allow her not to agree to this.

"I agree!"

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Elsewhere a weak and skinny boy with curly raven white hair contrasting with his dark skin was eating a tiny bowl of soup even with the simpliness of it he had to admit it tasted much better than many meals from inside this incarnations memories.

"Now that you're a bit more fed and full of energy I'd like to ask what's your name and which totem tribe are you from boy? I haven't seen any that quite resemble you around here."

An old man with cynical dark eyes and grey hairs surrounded by burly armed man had spoken to him using what they call the power of Totems allowing the caster to be understood no matter which language the parties spoke. He couldn't help but to chuckle inwardly at being referred to as boy into remembering this weak vessel of his wasn't more than 14 years of age probably a bit older since the time he spent fusing his former body's memories and experiences into this one not to mention the slave masters definitely cared little about a slave's birthday resulting with the former owner of this body being confused with it himself.

"I'm Nevaeh Malakai I was abandoned by The Serpent tribe and sent to die but luckily I washed up on your beaches and didn't drown to death."

The old man never heard of such a tribe nor any with names like the boys' but one thing he learned from old age is that this was a large world with many powerful beings even he was unaware of and sensing that the boy possessed no Totem Energy to speak of it's not surprising he was abandoned.

"I see, feel free to finish your meal while I get the chief to notify him you're awake."

The Old Man removing his condescending glaze from the boy moved urgently as he went to the chief, Nevaeh had a faint smile on his face as he knew the old man believed his tale of course he was sent to die but not by the hands of any such serpent tribe this was only a story he made up with what little information was provided to him

'This new body of mine is truly trash to think my Ancient Cult's descendant would end up in such a horrid state, luckily I harvested enough magics from my other few human incarnations to use on this one, of course my Demonic Serpent magic is out of the question into I find a method to improve this bodies physical condition I can still quickly become a very powerful spell user with the remnant memories I bought along with me.'

The Serpent turned into a man could only grin as he felt his ancient magics slowly filling his body full of power, it was faint enough to be blown out with a tiny breath but soon it would turn into a river then ocean into eventually an endless sea.

'Totem power might come in handy, I'll be sure to take any information I can out of these mortals about this method it could be used to strengthen this fragile bodies physical condition, enough to let me take my true form again"

His first goal was to fulfill the task he promised this bodies former owner and that was to get vengeance on his tormentors, without doing so he was afraid that the former owner's spirit would wake up and attempt to take back control.

Of course he wouldn't just do that he would also corrupt these tribes people into worshipping him as their god not just them but the entire world would learn to fear and worship The Serpent Who Devoured A God.

Knocking him out of his thought process a strong man with bull clothing on his body followed by the old man from before entered the room.

"I'm Taregan The Chief of this Strongspear tribe I heard about your exile by The Serpent tribe is it? What do you plan on doing from here on out?"

Fainting the expression of a weak and fragile person the serpent slightly opened his mouth in a quiet voice as he asked.

"I wish to join this tribe and become a Totem Master, I had asked my tribesman to teach me about Totem Energy but they refused keeping me ignorant."

Taregan pitying the boy decided to explain, he didn't expect the boy at this age to truly be capable of becoming a Totem Master but there was no drawbacks to telling him anyways.

"Totem Energy is the power granted to Humans from The Great Totem God his ivory flames reforged Human Beings into existences capable of going toe to toe against Forest Beasts and other creatures with bodies as hard as steel; alongside other rare abilities only located in certain totem bloodlines those who could access these powers are called Totem Masters."

"Of course with the interference of The Totem God in mankind's fate The Dark God whose true name name cannot be spoken had transformed simple Forest Beasts formerly hunted by Mankind into Abyss Beasts while gifting humans who served him the power of The Whisper allowing them to call upon his power to directly harm any who they desire, the more it's used the more of the bearers soul is fed to The Dark God we refer to these people as Abyss Masters."

Taregan had a displeased expression whenever mentioning Abyss Masters and The Dark God as he continued.

"To become a Totem Master one must engrave the image of a tribe's totem on their body and channel their bloodline energies within it, only those favored by The Tribe's Totem Animal can access its power, of course few Totem Tribes would let you do that as all consider their Totem Animal sacred and precious only declining tribes would let one use its image on their body as part of a pact any who engrave a Totem Animal on their body without consent of The Tribe would be hunted down by all other Totem Masters."

Nevaeh couldn't help but to grin inwardly as he realized that Totem energy would be the key to improving this bodies fragile and weak physical condition as for the Totem Engraving what would he care about rules enforced by mortals? If any had an issue he would kill them as simple as that, he would also look into tapping into the power of Whispers but his first task was to try out a method that formaliated in his head after hearing he needed to engrave a Totem Animal on his body.

"The Stronger the Totem engraved on the user's body the more abilities and an advantage one would have over a totem master on the same level, we classify Totem masters within the ranges of Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and Master with levels from 1-5 within each one as for ranks above master those are only rumors it's doubtful they even exist."

Curiously Nevaeh spoke.

"What rank are you then Chief?"

The Strongspear Chief had pride on his face as he said.

"I've broken through to the Expert Stage as of this year at only forty years old I would be considered a genius if you didn't take my daughter into consideration who stepped into the advanced stage after a bottleneck at only 15 years old now she only need to engrave her entire body into that of The Totem itself to become an expert."

Nevaeh was about to ask about this process into The Chief pulled up his hand signaling not to ask, as a realm like that is heaven to earth for the him of right now.

"Alas I'm afraid I'll have to cut this short we can talk about you joining the tribe after I finish with some more arrangements, for now I'll leave you to enjoy your meal and recover youngster."

The guardsman quickly followed their chief while the old man pridefully spoke before walking away.

"Be thankful The Chief has enough time to waste on an abandoned person like you."

Nevaeh only smiled softly at those words as he inwardly marked to kill this old man for speaking to him in such a tone, nevertheless it was time to remove the shackles of this mortal body and begin his first step into becoming The God of This New World. Not just this tribe but the entire continent as well as the world would be devoured by him soon and this incarnation he won't fail!