Chapter 2: Joining the Indigenous Society (Part Two)

TL: A_Passing_Wanderer

ED: Chrissy

The houses here were crude, primitive structures mostly made out of mud, stone, and wooden material. Still, the fact that they had a fixed residential location meant that they had settled down here for good.

And as alluded to earlier, the village's scale was surprisingly large.

While walking around, many indigenous male and female individuals openly stared at Kim Gi-Wu in wonder. And they all inevitably started prostrating on the ground as soon as the man guiding him shouted something at them.

'I got a rough idea on things now.'

He couldn't spot any metallic items. The item with the highest hardness he had seen so far was probably a stone spear made out of obsidian, about that much? As for their attire, it didn't seem like they had no idea what cotton was, but the fabric made out of the stuff looked rather crude, while the rest of their clothing was mostly a mixture of various leather.

It seemed that this tribe secured sustenance mainly through hunting and gathering. There was also some attempt at primitive farming, but even with a casual glance, Kim Gi-Wu could tell that their farming technique wasn't all that advanced.

Generally speaking, it seemed that farming was done by the womenfolk, while men seemed to be focusing on hunting and gathering.

'Hoh-oh? Would you look at that? They do have decorative items made out of copper, gold, and silver!'

However, not only were those items few in number, there was no sign of metal being processed in this place, either. That was Kim Gi-Wu's initial impression after getting a tour of the village.

Did that mean those items came from somewhere else? It was too difficult to assume that this civilization had already advanced enough to experience their Bronze Age just from a handful of trinkets on display.

As for their writing system, all they had were some crude Hieroglyphic letters. Although paper-like parchments existed, they seemed to be brought in from the outside, and their quality was not good at all.

Whatever the case might be, though, Kim Gi-Wu was now certain that this village traded with the other settlements.

With all the new information on hand, he was able to come to a conclusion. He concluded that, at the very least, the level of civilization this village by the river managed to achieve was equivalent to that of the Neolithic Age.

'Fuu-woo... I've got a mountain of things to do, then.'

Trying to raise this tribe's civilization from that of the Neolithic Age, past the Iron Age, and straight into something resembling the Industrial Revolution without any outside help, was it?

Such a thing would've been utterly impossible for a common man no matter how many lifetimes they had to go through.

But Kim Gi-Wu had one saving grace to help him out in this task—he still had a lot of lifespan remaining.

He had already received the aging suppression procedure before traveling back in time. Of course, he would grow old and die someday if he didn't receive an additional procedure sometime in the future, but the expected time frame for that event was around four to five hundred years from now, anyway.

With that much time on his hands, it seemed that his task could succeed. However, the problem was...

'... Europeans, huh.'

It would've been so much nicer if he could tell exactly what year this was.

After reaching the American continents, the Europeans would resort to oppressive means and superior firepower to massacre the indigenous population. Worse still, they would spread diseases far more horrifying than that, too.

And that would result in countless deaths in the indigenous population. According to one theory, it was believed that up to ninety percent of the indigenous American population got wiped out in a relatively short period.

Of course, Kim Gi-Wu got vaccinated against all sorts of diseases, including the likes of smallpox, before climbing inside the time machine. So, at the very least, he would probably not die from an already-known contagion.

'Thankfully, I don't see any traces of Europe-born diseases yet.'

After Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, infectious diseases like smallpox spread from South America to the north in no time at all. Since Kim Gi-Wu couldn't see signs of those diseases, there was a very good chance of this being some time before the 16th century.

Meaning, he might have around one hundred years left at minimum before the British set out to conquer and colonize North America for real.

While thinking about this and that, the night silently swooped in. With this, Kim Gi-Wu got to confirm something rather important.

'This place is somewhere in North America.'

He was sufficiently trained in recognizing the constellations. And through that, he could get a rough reading on where this place was.

He was now certain of this location being somewhere in North America.

'Is this a good development or a bad one, I wonder?'

Both North and Central and South America had their pros and cons. For instance, before the Europe-born diseases ran amuck, the population of Central and South America easily dwarfed that of the north. In other words, Central and South America were objectively a better option when looking only at the number of people living there.

But North America had the greater latent potential than its southern counterparts. And there was another advantage of the class system not being as prominently developed here compared to the south, too.

Whatever the case might be, though, he was already in North America. He had no choice but to acclimatize himself to this land now. Kim Gi-Wu ended his thoughts there, then began revising his plans for the future.

'A hundred years is a really long time, that's for sure.'

It had been already well over ten thousand years since the Mongoloid Asians crossed the Bering Strait to reach the American continent from Asia.

In a way, it would not be wrong to assume that no notable civilization had bloomed in the Americas yet, save for some pockets of Central and South America. Besides, from what he knew, even those areas should not have fully entered the Bronze Age just yet.

However, the blame for such a slow development was due to various ecological and geographical factors, which effectively prevented the indigenous population from developing their civilization.

'Right. If they had sufficient food and livestock, their civilization would've progressed a lot further than this.'

Other than corn and potato, there weren't much in the way of food crops that could be cultivated as easily here. There weren't even all that many animals that could be taken in as livestock, either. And what little that could be found were concentrated in the central and southern regions, too.

Even if they wanted to cultivate fields, they didn't have any livestock like cows capable of pulling plows behind them. Meaning, they had to farm while relying purely on human labor.

However, things would change starting from now.

If you ask why...

'Some incredible things are sleeping inside my bag right now, after all. Hehehe.'

For some reason, the weight pressing down heavily on his shoulders felt so refreshing right at this moment.

*

"Fuu... What you say is very difficult to believe."

"But Chief, we all witnessed it. We witnessed the greatness of Lord Divine Spirit as he spread his wings and descended from the sky!"

"Yes, it's true!"

"I also saw it, Chief."

The War Chief was having a hard time believing what these men were currently telling him. But it was even more unbelievable to say that all these brave young warriors had witnessed an illusion at the same time.

"What do you think, Ritual Chief?"

"Performing such a miracle could only mean that this being has to be a Divine Spirit. In that case, the spirit must've seen the sun dance we performed the last time and chose to descend after feeling pity for our plight, War Chief."

"Mm..."

The Ritual Chief pointed at the still-healing scar on his arm while smirking deeply. This self-inflicted wound, made with a sharp obsidian blade, was proof that his blood had stained the sacred ground. In other words, it was a badge of honor.

This brief exchange didn't herald the end of the meeting, however. Far from it. The tribal meeting continued for a good while afterward.

This meeting was close to being the ideal democracy on display where young people were acknowledged within the tribe and respected elders freely stated their opinions. All decisions concerning the tribe were decided through the majority vote during tribal meetings like this one.

Unsurprisingly, the treatment of Kim Gi-Wu, the being they deemed as the Divine Spirit, was also decided in this meeting.

"In that case, we shall welcome Lord Divine Spirit into our tribe. At the same time, we shall also appoint him as our Spirit Chief."

The Ritual Chief declared that loudly and no one stepped forward to oppose him. They were talking about the Divine Spirit here, after all. They obviously wouldn't dare to accept Kim Gi-Wu as just another regular tribesman.

Of course, the position of 'Spirit Chief' held a completely different meaning to these people rather than saying the rank of a noble or a king. For them, a 'Chief' was far closer to being a public official, after all.

Deciding everything through meetings, that was the absolute rule of the tribe.

At least, that was how they did things until now. Before Kim Gi-Wu joined their tribe, that was.

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