“Frogs?”
Lakrak knew much when it came to the frogs. They were slippery, swam well, jumped up and down, and some even had poison.
‘We are able to eat the ones with poison now after God gave us his Blessing.’
Many frogs lived in the ponds, and when the end of winter came, they would run out of food and had to come out of hibernation. The Lizardmen would catch and eat them.
The footprints looked similar to the ones left by those frogs the Lizardmen had eaten, but were very different in size.
“Frogmen. A species that walks on two legs.”
“Do they know how to speak?”
“Yes, as much as we do.”
Frogmen were a rare sight given their natural habitats were few and far between, such as rivers and lakes. Even for Lizardmen with their wide range of activities, Frogmen were hard to come by.
Lakrak searched through the bushes and counted the footprints.
“There isn’t just one, but quite a bit of them. Maybe five?”
“They must be scouting too.”
“Are they belligerent?”
“They might be, as they made their home here first, but that’s not always the case. They’re the same as any other bipedal species. Some are good, and some are bad.”
After finishing scouting, Lakrak and the star catcher went back to their temporary village and had a meeting. Zaol, who managed domestic affairs, and Yur, who was the best of the warriors, were actually the only other Lizardmen in attendance.
“It seems that a species called Frogmen have settled down somewhere in this area. We can’t be sure how many of them there are, and they are reluctant to present themselves to us so far. Thus we can’t tell if they are good or bad Frogmen. However, we can’t guarantee they are good Frogmen just because they are taking caution. Tell me each of your opinions on what we should do.”
“I would like to do as you wish, chief,” Yur said.
Zaol sighed.
“Yur, you’re unrivaled when it comes to your hunting skills, but you could use some more wisdom.”
“What does that mean, Zaol?”
“We’re going to do as the chief says at the end of the day, but that doesn’t mean he is always right. Don’t you think so?”
Yur nodded.
“My knot was better than the chief’s when we were tying the buffaloes up. You even used my method to tie the knots afterwards.”
Lakrak scoffed.
Zaol chuckled and said, “If the chief shared his opinion, we would respect and follow his way and wouldn’t think otherwise. That is why the chief allowed us to speak our mind first so that our voices wouldn’t be stifled.”
The star catcher nodded in agreement, and Yur let out a small exclamation as if he had just realized this.
“Oh, I see. I actually did have something I wanted to say.”
“What is it?”
“I didn’t say anything because you weren’t saying anything about it, either, but I think it would be good to find out more about how strong the Frogmen are. Why don’t I gather a scouting party and go deeper into the forest?”
Zaol seemed to think carefully and then said, “I’m against it.”
“Why is that?”
“This land may or may not be dangerous, but it is rich.”
Yur seemed to not understand why that mattered, but Lakrak and the star catcher nodded in agreement.
“If those Frogmen are a similar species to us, they would be as strong as we would be in a rich environment. We may have over 300 Lizardmen, but their tribe could be bigger. You need to assume that their tribe is much greater than ours and then think about if they are hostile.”
Yur agreed with half of Zaol’s words.
“But isn’t God with us? If their abilities to fight are comparable to ours, us Bone Warriors will be stronger.”
“You can’t guarantee that. Even if we are stronger, we will be at a disadvantage if they have more men.”
Lakrak agreed.
“Warriors need to prioritize the protection of our clan, but we also can’t stay unaware of our opponent. Why don’t we send our warriors to scout in a wider range instead of going deeper into the forest? We need to check how far they occupy the area, if there are any other tribes, and if there is any other danger rather than going to them and checking them up close. We need to protect our clan, so we can’t send our warriors too far out, or send too many of them at a time. Yur, have a meeting with the rest of the warriors and make a scouting plan. Then brief me tomorrow.”
“All right, chief.”
There were currently about 40 Bone Warriors in the clan. Sung-Woon had additionally Blessed some of the Lizardmen that were initially part of the Blue Skin Tribe. Compared to the size of the clan, the number of Lizardmen of the Warrior class was quite high, but given that there wasn’t a perfect distribution of work yet, there was still some flexibility that they could fulfill other roles. It was reasonable to leave the work to someone who knew each warrior well like Yur. Even Sung-Woon thought so.
Zaol was the next one to offer her opinion.
“Chief, we should be mindful that the Frogmen will keep an eye out for us as much as we do them.”
“That’s true, Zaol. Do you have a good idea in mind?”
Zaol nodded.
“As much as we don’t know how they will act, it is best to keep the worst situation in mind. If they look down at us as a small, weak tribe, they might attack us right away.”
“That’s right.”
“Therefore, we need to deceive them into thinking our clan is large when seen from the outside. Here’s what I think. There are lots of trees here, so it’s easy to make a fire. We’ll have a bunch of guards keep an eye on the fires at night, and if we make more fires here and there, they’ll think our group is twice the actual size despite the fires not being of use. It will also be good to keep watch at night, keeping in mind that the warriors will go on a reconnaissance.”
The others agreed with Zaol’s suggestion. If Lakrak’s Clan were to be more cautious and on the lookout, there would be more Lizardmen who were tired during the day, but the benefits were greater than the energy expended.
“Let’s do what Zaol said. However, the work will need to be equally distributed amongst the Lizardmen staying guard so that no one complains.”
“Alright.”
Lastly, the star catcher said, “I don’t have anything too different to share.”
“You may speak your mind without reservations.”
“I would like it if we could change the way we are building houses.”
Lakrak’s Clan dug the ground to make a space, built a wooden frame over it, and then used thinner tree branches, leaves, reeds, and such to cover the top to prevent rain from leaking in. Digging the ground that way was a good way to keep warmth, so it was a method the Lizardmen of the Blue Skin Tribe had been using.
“What is the reason?”
“This land is warmer than the land before. There are many plant roots under the ground, and it is humid. Besides, it’ll rain more in the coming days.”
Lakrak accepted the advice of the one-armed star catcher, guide, and wise Lizardman. The star catcher’s scales had been a different color than theirs, but they were now turning black just like Lakrak’s. This was likely due to God’s Blessing.
“All right. You can tell them it was I who said to do so, and you can supervise the clan build the houses.”
The star catcher nodded.
***
A few days passed at their new home.
The water buffaloes adapted well to the new environment and seemed satisfied as there was plentiful food, and because of this, it didn’t take too many Lizardmen to look after the water buffaloes, and the clan started to pick up speed as hunter-gatherers. The Lizardmen also consistently gathered information about the surrounding areas.
Lakrak was actively using the written language he had recently discovered. When the warriors came back from reconnaissance, he would always listen to what they saw at the big, wide rock in the middle of the village.
“We went this way when the sun was rising, and we arrived at a small river when the sun was in the middle of the sky.”
“From where and to which direction does the river flow?”
“Relative to the direction the sun rises…like this… It flows diagonally.”
“And how wide is it?”
“It’s not that wide. It’s about the distance from here to that tree over there.”
Lakrak nodded, grabbed a spearhead, and marked the shape of the river onto the large rock. On the rock, the village was marked at the center, and distances were marked based on a particular scale to show the topography of the area. To be exact, it was a map?that was developed from hunting marks, but the idea of making a permanent record like written language was applied. This record was actually useful, helping the warriors that were split into groups to figure out the surrounding terrains while Lakrak was away.
This served as an opportunity for the clan to become interested in the utility of writing and records, which were made possible because their now more stable lifestyles allowed them more spare time. Rather than having them overwork themselves, Lakrak recommended keeping written record as they went about their various activities. As an example, he told them they could each write down how many pieces of fruit they had collected every day so that it was possible to know exactly who worked less and who worked more.
Nevertheless, Zaol was worried.
“Well, if you tell them to do so, wouldn’t the ones who are dull and slower be criticized?”
“Possibly, but I don’t think so.”
In fact, once the Lizardmen started recording things, the ones who were more diligent reduced the amount they collected by a reasonable margin rather than criticizing their fellow Lizardmen, while those who fell short collected more. It was just as Lakrak had expected. However, he gained more insights than he had expected.
‘When we relied on our memories, we would live by compromising. It caused emotional stress since some were more diligent, while others got lazy. And no one was able to say anything because there was no clear evidence. Now, though, everyone is being careful as they know records are permanent.’
Although Lakrak’s idea hadn’t been recognized by the game system, Sung-Woon noticed what Lakrak’s idea stemmed from.
A simple discovery was meaningless. Once the culture of writing and recording began, they could do a greater variety of things than before, and realizing the importance of this idea was the first step.
‘They’re doing better than I thought.’
Sung-Woon hadn’t been able to pay much attention to Lakrak’s Clan recently. Even though Lakrak’s Clan was Sung-Woon’s only tribe, he had many other things to do just like in the game of The Lost World, as gods had many more responsibilities outside of managing their tribes.
Sung-Woon currently had three large swarms of insects. These swarms weren’t simply controlled by Sung-Woon; each group had grown into their own entity. One of these swarms was the swarm of locusts in the west that indirectly benefited Lakrak and his clan. These locusts focused on disrupting and eliminating factors that could pose a threat or create unnecessary variables to Lakrak’s Clan.
The second swarm of insects, which Lakrak and his clan weren’t even aware of, were in the far south of the forest. In the game, there was a trick called Small Area XP Farming, and the south of the forest was dedicated for this. At this place, Sung-Woon was creating and cultivating all kinds of insects to transform the area into a nest full of insects. Because of this, Sung-Woon was able to surpass level 3 for ‘Small Area: Insects’ and reached level 4, which gave him a new skill.
If there were other players nearby, they definitely wouldn’t just watch and do nothing at the sight of this kind of farming, but because Sung-Woon’s starting location was on the outer part of the peninsula, it seemed that other players hadn’t discovered it yet.
‘I have to take advantage of the fact that I started in an area with only a few other players.’
If other players were around, there would be many technical benefits from a clash of civilizations just like when Lakrak’s Clan and the Blue Skin Tribe met, so rather than Sung-Woon being ahead of the other players, it could be said that he was trying to make up for potential losses.
‘…at least for now.’
The third swarm of insects was also one that Lakrak’s Clan was not aware of, and it was a lot closer to the village compared to the second one. There was a reason Sung-Woon had used the swarm of insects that he’d recently created to lead Lakrak’s Clan here.
‘I was a bit surprised when the Abomination appeared though.’
The Ancient Beetle was an anomaly in Sung-Woon’s plan of leading Lakrak’s Clan to this land, but they overcame it without much difficulty thanks to Zaol. Lakrak’s leadership over the next few days was also superb.
‘Thanks to you, Lakrak, I was able to finish the preparations.’
The Frogmen tribe that Lakrak was soon to encounter was in fact a tribe that Sung-Woon had known about for a long time.
‘It’s the one I was considering other than Lakrak’s Clan when choosing the first tribe.’
At that time, they were a strong tribe of 500 Frogmen. Sung-Woon had kept an eye on them because they could become his second or third tribe if needed. However, a special event that occurred sometimes in The Lost World was associated with this Frogman tribe.
‘This special event made it slightly difficult to have them as my second or third tribe.’
The Frogman tribe had grown into a large tribe of 1,500 due to a Courtesy Event, and there was a reason Sung-Woon had let this large tribe and Lakrak’s Clan encounter each other.
‘Tribes need to interact and face one another in order to grow.’
Sung-Woon observed the first encounter between the two tribes.
***
“Chief! The Frogmen are coming towards us!”
Inside the hut at the center of the village, Lakrak received the message brought by a warrior. Calmly, he responded, “Didn’t I already mention to include how many of them there are, if they’re armed, and how fast they’re approaching when delivering a message?”
“Sorry. There are six…no, seven in the group, they are all armed, and they are slowly making their way towards us.”
“Anything special?” .𝘤𝘰
“That is…”
Lakrak was briefly surprised by what the warrior said, but he decided not to think too deeply about it before he saw and judged things for himself.
‘Being armed but approaching on foot means there’s a chance for conversation. Their numbers are also small.’
Lakrak decided to lead ten armed warriors to meet the Frogmen before they reached the village. He took ten because they needed more numbers for safety, but they also shouldn’t look intimidating just to have a conversation.
The two tribes met at a small clearing in the forest. The warriors had been observing and delivering information about the Frogmen until now, so their first sight of the Frogmen wasn’t completely unfamiliar. Their skin was slippery, and they were somewhat smaller than Lizardmen. They were characterized by their large eyes and transparent eyelids, and their short necks and bodies that looked hard and firm seemed common for Frogmen.
‘And that’s…’
Lakrak confirmed that the special note relayed by the warrior was true. There were six Frogmen, and next to them was a Lizardman with grayish brown scales.
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