Meeting the tribes

"Alright! We made it just in time! You guys wait here for a moment, I'll go and report to the village. There are so many tribes that are arriving, so we need to keep things in order. Karv, you look after the guests," declared Baltra as he signaled everybody to stop.

The group of riders let out sighs of relief and a few of them even jumped down their horses. Five and Ariel were naturally one of the first to do so; they were not used to riding and after being forced to remain in the riding position for the whole day, it was normal for their body to ache.

The journey was pleasant and peaceful for the most part. The only inconvenience of the ride was the fact that Baltra refused to let them stop with the excuse that they would be late if they did so. The barbarians' horses had an abnormally high stamina, allowing them to run all day long. The horses themselves were not affected by the lack of rest, instead, it was the riders that were.

As they could not stop, they naturally did not get the opportunity to stretch their sore muscles, nor could they relieve their bladder or prepare their lunch. Fortunately, Five was the least affected by it; not only did he not need to go to the toilet, but he also had the foresight of purchasing some food rations through the dungeon shop and storing them in his inventory. In the end, under the jealous stares of the barbarians, only Five and Ariel had the opportunity to enjoy a quick meal.

Skipping one meal did not have a lot of impact on the barbarians as they would usually not eat during their hunt, but the fact that Five ate under their nose naturally attracted some animosity. Five and Ariel spent the majority of the journey together at the back of the group. The barbarians also naturally stuck to their group most of the time; it was only near the end of the journey that one of the barbarians, Karv, decided to slow his horse down a little bit and greeted Five.

After a few exchanges, the two eventually lowered their guards and started chatting about random things. Baltra naturally noticed what was happening and as a result, he ended up giving the task of looking after Five and Ariel to Karv.

"Ahhh, so many tribes have already arrived. I wonder how many will respond to the call," said Karv.

"Do you recognize all the tribes there?" asked Five. The Wild Bull Village was only 100 meters away from Five; from his position, he could clearly see several groups of barbarians waiting in the distance like them.

"Of course, wouldn't it be a pity if we cannot even distinguish ourselves? Look over there, that group comes from the Scarlet Crow Tribe, they are good friends with our tribe. This one is the Swift Gazelle Tribe, the strongest tribe of the region. The group over there is the Black Vulture Tribe, you should stay away from them, they are not very friendly," said Karv as he pointed to each group waiting in the distance.

Five observed the barbarians from the other tribes but as much as he strained his eyes, he could not find any feature that would allow him to distinguish between the tribes. They did not have flags or special tattoos, nor did different tribe wear special clothes. Furthermore, all the barbarians had similar physical features and their horses were all identical.

"How do you distinguish between the tribes? Do you know the barbarians individually?" curiously asked Five.

"How could I? There are so many of them. As for how I do it, that's our secret, I am not allowed to reveal it to outsiders," answered Karv as he laughed at Five's confused expression.

Soon, Baltra came back riding his horse and quickly signaled everyone to enter the village. As soon as they heard their leader, the barbarians quickly made their way to the village and disappeared from Five's line of sight. "Huh, you are really abnormal. Anyway, meet us at the central place," said Karv before disappearing.

"Master, I will also take my leave for a moment," quietly said Ariel before hurriedly approaching a female barbarian. Five lightly smiled as he took his time to observe the village. Compared to him, the barbarians and Ariel did not have the luxury of ignoring nature's call and after a whole day of restraining themselves, they could no longer wait to relieve themselves.

'It was a good thing that Ariel used the Language Orb,' thought Five as he made his way to the center of the village. The Wild Bull Village had a similar design to the Black Iron Village. Some of the houses were made of thatch and wood but the majority of the houses were in fact tents made of animal furs and cloth, held by wooden sticks.

While he was walking, Five could feel the stares of the barbarians around him. As the sun had already set, the hunters and the women already came back to the village and were spending some quality time with their children before proceeding to cook a feast for all the guests they were receiving.

The Wild Bull Village was a well-known tribe of the region, famous for its absolute neutrality which is why it was selected to hold the meeting. As a result, the barbarians around Five simply looked at him but did not show any animosity. From his physical appearance, they could easily tell that Five was not a barbarian but since he was a guest, they treated him well and allowed him to continue on his way.

As much as he was tempted to, Five did not wander around the village and soon arrived at the central place. To his surprise, a large number of barbarians were currently sitting in groups in the open area, waiting to be served some refreshments by the busy women of the Wild Bull Tribe.

"So many tribes... There should be at least 100 barbarians from the other tribes and they just keep coming," said Five to himself. In the corner of his eyes, he quickly found Baltra and the others waiting and quickly walked toward them.

"I am starving!" complained Karv as soon as he saw Five, hoping that the latter would be generous enough to share some rations with him. Unfortunately, Five ignored him and quietly waited for Ariel.

"Alright, alright. I will just wait for them to serve us food then. I heard that the Wild Bull Tribe is the best host to have! They should be preparing something special for us, there's no way they will let us sleep while starving," murmured Karv.

Five nodded, he was also looking forward to the dinner. From Five's initial observations, none of the tribes had sent their leaders to this meeting. The barbarians of the different tribes stayed among themselves and simply waited. It was different from the scene Five was expecting, where the different leaders would interact with each other or try to befriend others; it seemed that while the different tribes acknowledged each other, none of the barbarians knew each other at a personal level.

While Five was engaged in a conversation with Karv about the tribes, he did not notice Ariel who quietly sat behind him. The young harpy easily attracted the gaze of the barbarians; she was pretty but more important, she was the only female guest; many barbarians were wondering about her presence but decided to keep it to themselves.

As time went by, the barbarians slowly started to interact with their neighbors while more and more tribes arrived at the central place. The Wild Bull Village was much larger compared to the Black Iron Village but the sheer number of burly men present there easily made Five feel constricted. Fortunately, the neighboring tribes were quite friendly despite their scary appearance.

The Wild Bull village soon attended to their guests and campfires were set to roast recently slaughtered beasts. Women started to carry bottles of alcohol and appetizers to the guests. Very quickly, a lively atmosphere started building up as the barbarians were anticipating the feast being cooked in front of their eyes.

"Clap Clap Clap!"

In the middle of the barbarians, a muscular barbarian loudly clapped to gather everyone's attention. "Hello and welcome to the Wild Bull Village. My name is Soren, I am the chief of this humble village. I would first like to thank you all for responding to the tribes' meeting, as it turned out, all the invited tribes are present with us tonight. I know that you are all exhausted from traveling which is why we organized this modest feast for you all."

"Please enjoy yourselves for the night and do not hesitate to ask any member of my tribe if you have any queries! After a good night of rest, we'll naturally get to the serious matter but for now, please enjoy our hospitality!"

As he finished speaking, the tall barbarian, Soren raised a gourd with his right hand and quickly took a sip of the strong red wine it contained. Immediately, the surrounding barbarians cheered and imitated him.

"The food will be served shortly!" announced one of the women as soon as Soren stepped to the side. As he heard her, Five shifted his attention to the roast beast in front of the women. While Five was comparing the different pieces of meat to find the largest one, he noticed a strange movement in the corner of his eyes.

Soren had been going from tribes to tribes, befriending the barbarians by drinking with them when suddenly, a barbarian of the Wild Bull Tribe pull him to the side and started whispering to his ears.

The next second, Soren's expression changed from his casual and carefree face to a serious one. He quickly left the central place in the direction of the entrance of the village.

"Did something happen?" asked Five to himself. He turned toward Ariel as he wanted to ask her about the situation but he quickly found that the harpy was engaged in a conversation with the women of the tribe.

Ariel kept to herself for most of the time, she did not really want to interact with humans but under the persistence of the female barbarians, she soon gave in and started chatting, after all, she could not be impolite and cause trouble. The female barbarians were especially kind toward her as they pitied her for having to travel for an entire day before reaching their village.

"Anyway, there are so many barbarians here, there should not be any problem!" thought Five as he turned back his attention to the pieces of meat being distributed by the barbarians.

Soon it was his turn to be served. Five swiftly grabbed the plate he judged to have the largest piece of meat. He was delighted; he could smell the faint aroma of the different spices. Aside from the meat, Five's plate also contained a thick stew, some boiled veggies and a piece of bread. It was nothing extraordinary but this meal could easily be considered above average even at the Black Iron Tribe.

Five was examining his meal, wondering how he was supposed to eat the meat since no cutleries were provided when he heard a loud commotion coming from the other barbarians. He raised his head, only to find that many barbarians stood up to make way for people to walk into the central place.

Between the tall barbarians, Five quickly spotted Soren, the chief of the Wild Bull Tribe, accompanied by a small group of barbarians. "Didn't he say that all the invited tribes were already there?" thought Five.

However, he soon received the explanation he was looking for. "Look, it is the Wandering Ram Tribe!" exclaimed Karv as his eyes lit up with excitement.

"Wandering Ram Tribe? Is there something special about them?" curiously asked Five. From the barbarians' reaction, he could easily tell that this tribe was special.

"Of course, how can you be that ignorant. The Wandering Ram Tribe comes from the Central Plains! They are the one and only nomad tribe who do not have a fixed location for their village! They are only a small tribe but each one of them is at least as powerful as our village chief. It is said that the Wandering Ram Tribe always abstain from interfering in conflicts between tribes but whenever townsmen are involved, they will immediately turn up to protect the barbarians' dignity! It is thanks to their tribe that we were able to maintain our territory during the last war with the townsmen! According to rumors, whenever the Wandering Ram Tribe would show up, we, barbarians are guaranteed to win!" excitedly explained Karv.

"So that's why everybody reacted like that... They are basically the equivalent of the heroes of war..." murmured Five.

He observed the barbarian of the Wandering Ram Tribe. They did not differ much in terms of appearance but they indeed had more charisma than the other barbarians. More importantly, compared to what he had observed before, this time, the barbarians of the different tribes quickly tried to approach them and attempted to befriend them.

The leading man lightly coughed as he was being overwhelmed by the surrounding barbarians, "Cough cough. Sorry to disturb your meal. I just wanted to say that my tribe has already settled a few hundred meters away from the Wild Bull Village. We understand that we were not invited to this meeting but we treat matters concerning the townsmen very seriously. As we have heard rumors of potential attacks, we have decided to roam around this area and coincidentally, we decided to camp there for the night. I was graciously invited by Chief Soren here to join you but unfortunately, I would have to decline as my tribe has already made preparations. It would be a shame to waste our limited resources but I still came here to greet you all and to thank you for turning up to the meeting."

Quickly, many barbarians went toward the man and insisted on him staying for the feast. As he understood the situation, Five quickly lost interest and focused on his meal. Even if it was no longer necessary for him to eat, it was still hard for him to resist the temptation of the appetizing meal. He quickly started digging in, completely ignoring his surroundings.

The Wandering Ram Tribe leader politely declined the invitations of the barbarians and swiftly made his way toward the exit. But before leaving, he quietly looked at each tribe present, making a mental note of who he would need to interact with tomorrow. As he observed the barbarians, his gaze was quickly attracted to Five and Ariel who easily stood out. His gaze lingered on them for a moment before the tribe leader finally turned around and left the central place.