Free Web NovelChapter 12: Step 12 to Greatness: To Win Over People, One Must Improve their Standing First
Back in the tribe...
It had been a couple of hours since Adrian and his slave left for the hunt. The women hadn’t waited for them at all. Instead, choosing to scavenge for plants, berries, and insects to eat.
It was their primary diet ever since Mika, the only hunter of the tribe, got injured. Plants were everywhere, and hence it was easier to eat them than go hungry.
"Should we save some for the man?" Amiya asked, watching as the tribeswomen hungrily devoured washed roots and berries.
"No need," Amika retorted, throwing a handful of berries in her mouth. "We need him to hunt. If he can’t hunt, then what’s the use of keeping him?"
The others agreed silently. Given the experiences they had in their tribes, they naturally felt repulsive towards men. Not all of them were as fierce as the twins to show their disgust, but they felt a bit slighted nonetheless.
Just because a priest prophesied they couldn’t bear children, their respective tribes had thrown them away as a burden. They found their path to one another by chance and banded together to form the ’Barren’ tribe.
Mika was the only one among them who left the tribe by choice when they kicked Amika out. Since they were the chieftain’s daughters, they were taught a few things.
That’s how Mika had learned to hunt, and Amika learned to forage edible plants and berries. As for Rixxa, the Tribe Mother, since she was the eldest and wisest of the group, they made her their leader.
Then there was the ’diviner’, Aka. She had been the one who told Amiya to go look for their ’savior’. That’s where Amiya found Adrian, and the rest was history.
Before Amiya could defend Adrian or Amika could abuse him, they heard the bushes around the camp rustle. They immediately grabbed sticks and stones, ready to defend themselves from animals.
Instead, a disheveled Adrian walked into the clearing, followed by an even more disheveled-looking Sera. Both of them were holding two chickens by their legs. These were the chickens that perished under the weight of Sera’s ass.
"Sorry... I forgot the way back," Adrian said, handing the chickens over to Amika. "Hold them, please."
Amiya walked over to Sera and took the plump and heavy chickens from her. As she did, Raven flew down and landed on Adrian’s shoulder, much to the tribe’s amazement.
[Tribe’s favorability towards you has improved by 29 points.]
[Current favorability: 32/40 points]
[Current Standing: Accepted Member]
Eh? Just four chickens did so much? Hehe, just wait till you see the rest of them.
Little did Adrian know, the rise in favorability wasn’t merely because of the chickens, but the raven.
After all, most tribes considered them messengers of the gods. So having one on his shoulder was as good as saying that he was chosen by the gods.
"Um, do you guys have ropes?" Adrian asked the Tribe Mother. "There are more chickens, but they are alive and need to be tied up, or else they’d escape."
"There’s more...?" Tribe Mother mumbled in disbelief. "And alive? Why didn’t you kill them?"
It wasn’t their first time seeing chickens. People in their former tribes sometimes managed to catch them, but they had never kept them alive. After all, they were food and food should be killed. freewebnovel.cσ๓
Mika had tried to catch them too, but they were too fast and often ran away upon seeing the big woman.
Adrian didn’t bother explaining his reasons as he realized that it was better to show them than to explain what domestication was.
"Just bring them back alive," he said, sending Sera a text to guide the women to the pit. "Sera and Raven would show you the way."
"M-Master, you’re telling me to carry more of them!?" Sera complained.
Just one of the chickens weighed between fifteen and twenty kilos. She had carried two, just like Adrian, but she didn’t have stats like him, and her arms already felt like they would fall off at any time.
And he was telling her to get more of them. To make things worse, they were alive! She was already scratched all over the place from their relentless assault.
No! I would rather die than step into the pit again!
Adrian sensed her thoughts and sent her another text.
[You don’t have to go down there. Just guide them to the spot. They will do the rest.]
Only after reading that message did Sera calm down a bit. Meanwhile, the women looked at Tribe Mother, and only when she nodded did Rixxa, Amiya, and Amika leave with Sera and Raven to bring back the chickens.
However, just because Adrian didn’t go didn’t mean he would stay idle. As soon as the women were gone, he took out the last purple card from his inventory.
As soon as he did, a pale-bluish holograph of the [Tribal Longhouse] appeared before him.
"Now then, where should I place this?"
Adrian didn’t dare to place it near the cave where the thatched hut was. It wasn’t like he could place it there without destroying the existing structure, and hence, he set up next to the clearing.
As soon as he did, the holograph materialized into a stone-wood structure.
In a second, an entirely new structure appeared in front of Mika and the Tribe Mother, both of whom were stunned into silence. To them, it seemed nothing less than magic.
[Tribe’s favorability towards you has improved by 11 points.] freёwebnovel.com
[Current favorability: 43/65 points]
[Current Standing: Valued Member]
Even Adrian was surprised by the structure and didn’t notice the increase in favorability. Instead, his focus was entirely on the single-storeyed structure made of wood and reinforced by white stones.
It had a single wide entrance and a fire pit in front, which was circled with flat stones. Smoke was rising from the already lit pit. There were multiple rooms inside with actual beds, not the hay people had been sleeping on.
Each room had large storage boxes as well, and in the furthest room was a large table, which was the crafting table. Behind the longhouse, a small pen had been fenced off with sharpened stakes and vine lashing, meant for raising animals like the chickens.
"...isn’t this everything I needed?"
