The discrimination against women in becoming a warrior was there, but it was for their own good. The desert was a place of intense Yang, so any woman who ended up going there would certainly die from Yang imbalance like Mili nearly had.
It was understandable now why there were so few women that became warriors.
Alex stuck around to watch the instructors teach the young boys and girls for a little longer, and ended up witnessing them pass on their values to them.
There were just 2 important things that each warrior needed to know and remember.
First, they were the ones that fought to feed the rest of the people. Everyone else’s lives were in their hands, so even if the battle was certain to lead to them dying, they still had to fight it.
Second, letting someone else fight while they were around was a shame to them. They could neither ever ask for help, nor ever accept one.
These were two things that they had to take in from an early age, which Alex wanted to comment on, but didn’t. This was how they did things here, so this was how he was going to let it be. There was no point for a stranger like him to interfere when he wouldn’t even be staying here for that long.
He stayed there for long enough to see something interesting. A few older kids were brought out to the desert, where a large metal cage was pulled out on giant wheels.
Each of those kids had a spear in their hands, all staying in a sort of formation. The cage was opened, and out came a bull. From what Alex could see, it was no ordinary bull, but rather a beast that roamed the desert.
The bull immediately charged at the kids. After spending so many frustrated hours in the cage, it needed to release its anger at them.
The kids seemed ready for it, so they easily dodged the bull and began retaliating when it overextended. They attacked in formation, and while they made some mistakes in their timing, Alex could see that they were still getting the hang of how to fight in a group.
The interesting part was that he could see a major mistake they were making with the formation. The entire formation was meant for a single person to be the core of it, with everyone allowing that one person to fight the majority of the time.
The others weren’t there to fight the beast, but to distract it. And it seemed that none of these kids understood that at all.
After watching long enough to see the kids finally killed the single beast, he decided to tell the instructors.
Gorang listened to his suggestion with a frown on his face. “That can’t be true, can it?” he asked.
“I fear it may be,” Alex said. “You can try my version and see if it works. That should be enough to find out, right?”
Gorang nodded but then shook his head instead. “I can’t make such a decision on my own. I’ll go visit the chief later tonight and ask him.”
“For such a small thing?”
Gorang shrugged. “Every small change in regards to the warriors must go by the chief and his counselors, and since this one is so important, it must especially be run by them first. We only have this one battle formation, so if I am to change it now, it will affect all the students, since they will have to learn all over again, and that could be dangerous.”
Alex thought for a bit and accepted why it had to be reported.
“Since I don’t really understand what the changes you say are good, would you mind coming with me later today when I go to the chief?”
Alex nodded. “I’ll be in my place, so come find me when it is time.”
“Please make sure what you’re saying is correct. You can watch for a while longer. There should be another batch of warrior apprentices that will use the same formation in an hour or two. Please consider watching that too before you make a decision.”
Alex stayed afterward as requested and quickly concluded that he was indeed correct about it all. Whatever formation they had been using for all this time had been altered to the point where the advantages of the formation were not used at all.
He left the warrior training area afterward and roamed around the city, seeing all the different things it had to offer. He walked by a forge and remembered that he needed to forge a few things.
Mostly, he needed to make a sword for himself. While the wooden sword had worked well until now, it was way too weak to be used physically. It would shatter in a single strike if Alex used it in any physical capacity.
The people of this place didn’t have any currency to transact from day to day, so Alex would have to do it based on his own merit. He would have to give something to the city back in order to get something from it.
And that something was no doubt going to be pastes.
It took Alex an hour to find the way back to his own place. Since every location looked similar to each other with no color at all, he nearly got lost a few times.
He managed to find his way back soon enough, however.
When he was back, he found Tala waiting for him outside of his place.
“Oh, hey. I didn’t know you were coming. Did you have to wait for too long?”
Tala gave a gentle smile. “I did, but I came knowing I would have to. Did you go watch my son-in-law teach the apprentices?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “Did you come for something?”
“To deliver some more herbs to you, so you can get started on making those pastes,” Tala said. “It’s all herbs for making healing pastes, but please tell me what you would need to make those other ones. We would love to have them all. Payment, of course, will be made in Sunhearts and beast cores.”
