57 Saboteur

It'd been a couple of days since Luca and the others had slain the Giant Scorpion. A celebration was thrown once the tribe had been told about the vast salt deposit they'd found, Luca could've sworn he'd even seen Sarr'vuln smile... Though, if he did, the man-made sure to quickly hide it again.

Afterwards, the village scrambled to secure the resource before anyone else could. Though, salt wasn't the only 'valuable resource' that was currently there. The body of the Giant Scorpion itself was seen as a treasure, its Exo-skeleton being tougher than most types of stone, while also significantly lighter.

It was difficult to get the corpse out of the cavern, but they eventually managed it. Of course, they were forced to mine at the entrance for a bit to widen it enough, as well as cutting off the Scorpions limbs so it could fit through.

Afterwards, they brought many jars clay pots they'd purchased from the Tomnal tribe to gather up all the poisoned salt. Luca had tested the scorpion blood tainted salt on an animal, and it immediately became sick from it. Dying a few hours later... Of course, he had force-fed it quite a lot, so it might not kill a human using an average amount, but it was still incredibly dangerous.

Luca took control of the tainted salt and stored it away where the other villagers wouldn't be able to access it, though, Sarr'vuln and the other hunters were still questioning on what he actually wanted to do with it. Luca made up some half-hearted excuses, as they definitely wouldn't like what he intended to do with it.

Once the Scorpions corpse was dragged out of the cavern, the tribesman got to work building make-shift roof panels to put over the holes in the cavern's ceiling, to make sure no rain reached the salt bed and ruined any of it.

Sarr'vuln, once he heard about the Giant Scorpions exo-skeleton wanted to harvest it and replace the tribe's weapons with it. Something Luca wouldn't argue with. It would give them an incredible advantage over the other tribes should another war start.

Of course, flint tools weren't able to do anything to the exo-skeleton, so Luca was forced to chisel away at it with his Stone blade... Other tribesman wanted to try and use it, but found it was 'too heavy' for them to lift. Something Luca had no problems with... Must be some sort of magic?

Nobody really questioned the new mystical blade he seemed to have acquired, his relationship with Sarr'ina and other great feats such as killing the Lord of the Forest, Giant Toad, and Giant Scorpion made it seem relatively normal, all things considered.

Soon enough, the tribe had acquired many spearheads and arrow tips made from the white exoskeleton. They were difficult to sharpen, but once the effort was put in, held the edge incredibly well. There were also many tools made from it, white axe-heads, shovels, shears, and even a pickaxe... Though the latter belonged to Luca so he could experiment with minerals.

Truth be told, the new material was very, very noticeable. And it wouldn't be long until the other tribes noticed the 'white-tipped' weaponry the tribe was using... Sure, some would think they were just using bone as opposed to flint or stone, but the curious few who found the truth may be tempted to try and steal some.

Sarr'vuln had obviously thought of this, and had majorly increased security around the storehouse where they kept the unused exoskeleton and tools.

Now that the tribe had acquired salt, the conflict with the Gutizia tribe wasn't all that big a deal... Indeed, they now had an advantage over them. All of the Gutizia tribes allies only put up with their disrespectful attitudes due to their dependency on salt...

Now that the Sua'jiki had acquired salt though? Compared to the Gutizia, the Sua'jiki were known as honourable, trustworthy, humble. Something all tribes saw as respectful. Now that they had some leverage over the Gutizia, it wouldn't be long until other tribes started jumping ship and buying salt from the Sua'jiki.

Luca had other ideas to gain an advantage though. The other tribes were still unaware of the Sua'jiki's salt, this would give him time to deploy the plan he'd been brewing up. While Sarr'ina and the other hunters were busy doing other things, he'd gathered the many pots of tainted blood and slowly been making his way to the Gutizia's territory.

The journey was long and arduous, especially since he was carrying heavy pots of salt with him, but eventually, he reached the outskirts of their territory. The mountainous area south of all the other tribes that solely belonged to the Gutizia.

It was midday when he arrived and started spying on the tribe, the raised rocky positions making it rather easy to hide from sight. He knew his plan would be ruined if he was noticed, so he paid extra care to staying hidden.

He observes them for a while, memorizing the various buildings, people, and routes. The building he needed to locate the most was their storage hut.

After a few days of this, he was finally ready to move... He lit a slow-burning fire on the opposite side of the village where the storage hut was, it was meant to cause a distraction and allow him to sneak inside for a moment. Of course, it worked fantastically, almost the entire tribe running to try and put it out, including the guardsman of the storage hut.

He quickly carried in all the pots of tainted salt and replaced the 'good salt' with them. Fortunately, the pots of the Tomnal tribe all looked the same, so no one would notice anything strange. Once he was done, he snuck back out with the non-tainted salt.

Luca didn't waste time and quickly started headed back to the Sua'jiki tribe, he wouldn't know if his plan succeeded or failed for a few days to a couple weeks. So there was no point staying to watch them put out the fire.

He made sure to hunt a couple of animals on his way back so no one would be suspicious of what he was up to while gone. He was sure Sarr'vuln and some of the people who knew him better could tell that something was up, but weren't able to put their fingers on it.

Luca himself was just relieved that everything had gone off without a hitch, he'd sabotaged the Gutizia's salt supply while acquiring some salt of his own. Obviously, he wouldn't be able to show anyone otherwise they'd realise the tainted salt wasn't well, tainted. That didn't mean he could use it himself though.