Free Web NovelChapter 4: The River Folk
Rex woke to the smell of cooking fish and the sound of Nara’s voice—low, rhythmic, like a chant.
He pushed aside the tent flap. Sunlight sliced through the canopy, golden and warm. The fire pit had been stoked. A wooden spit held three small fish, their skins crackling. Nara sat cross-legged on a flat stone, eyes closed, hands resting on her knees.
The little feathered raptor watched Rex with unblinking yellow eyes.
[STATUS RESTORED: FULL HP & STA]
[MANA: 2 → 6]
[You have slept in a shelter. +10% XP gain for next 24 hours.]
Rex stretched. His ribs still ached, but the sharp agony had dulled to a thick bruise. He could breathe deeper now.
"You snore badly," Nara said without opening her eyes.
"I do not."
"Like a dying mammoth."
He crawled out of the tent and sat by the fire. The fish smelled incredible. "Are those for me?"
"They’re for whoever eats them first." She opened her eyes, took one fish, and bit into it. "We leave soon. The chieftain holds morning council. If we’re late, he’ll assume you’re a spy and have you thrown into the bone pit."
"Bone pit?"
"A hole where we put things we don’t want to look at anymore." She chewed. "It’s very deep."
Rex grabbed a fish. The meat was flaky, smoky, perfect. [HP +10]
"Allocate stat points," he muttered under his breath. The system panel appeared.
[LEVEL 2: +5 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE]
[STR: 10] [AGI: 12] [INT: 14] [CHA: 16] [LUCK: 8]
Rex thought it over. Strength helped combat. Agility helped crafting and dodging. Charisma was his playboy ace—useful for diplomacy with tribes. Intelligence he’d need for higher-tier blueprints. Luck was a trap stat in most games.
He allocated:
[STR: 10 → 12]
[AGI: 12 → 13]
[INT: 14 → 15]
[CHA: 16 → 17]
[LUCK: 8]
[STATS UPDATED. BONUS: +5 HP, +5 STA, +1% blueprint efficiency.]
Nara watched him over her fish. "You’re talking to your spirit again."
"Uh-huh."
"Does it tell you when to shit, too?"
Rex laughed despite himself. "Come on."
She stood and stretched. Her leather tunic rode up, revealing a lean stomach crisscrossed with old scars. "Come. The village is an hour downriver. We’ll take the path, not the jungle. I don’t want to carry your corpse back."
---
The path was little more than a game trail, but it was wider than the jungle floor. Nara walked ahead, the feathered raptor—she called him Screech—perched on her shoulder. Rex followed, club in hand, watching for movement in the ferns.
"The chieftain’s name is Gorr," she said without turning. "He’s old. Not weak, but old. His son died last winter to a pack of crystal spiders. His daughter... she’s complicated."
"Complicated how?"
"She thinks she should be chieftain. The tribe disagrees. She’s strong, but she’s also reckless. Gorr keeps her on hunting duty to keep her away from politics."
Rex filed that away. Internal conflict could be useful.
"And the dragon’s tribute? You mentioned collectors."
Nara’s shoulders tightened. "Every three moons, Valthorion sends his Mouths—human servants. They come with chains and take ten of our strongest. In return, the dragon does not burn our village."
"Ten people every three months?"
"Used to be five. Then eight. Now ten." Her voice was flat. "We have maybe sixty left. In a year, there will be no River Folk. Just like the last tribes."
[QUEST TRIGGERED: THE DRAGON’S SHADOW]
[OBJECTIVE: Find a way to stop or delay the next tribute.]
[TIME REMAINING: 88 DAYS]
[REWARD: 5000 XP, ?]
Rex’s mind raced. Eighty-eight days. No army. No walls. Just a cavewoman and her pet raptor.
They emerged from the tree line onto a ridge overlooking a river valley. And there, spread along the banks, was the village.
Huts made of mud and thatch—maybe thirty of them—clustered behind a wooden palisade. Smoke rose from cooking fires. Children splashed in the shallows. Women scraped hides on stretching frames. And in the center, on a raised platform of skulls and stones, sat an old man with a crown of baby mammoth tusks.
Chieftain Gorr.
"Impressive," Rex said.
"It’s dying," Nara replied. "But yes. It’s also home."
She led him down the ridge. Villagers stopped to stare. A few reached for spears. Children pointed at Rex’s pale skin, his strange clothes—or lack of them. He was still wearing only the shredded leather wrap that had survived the crash.
"Shaman Nara brings a ghost!" an old woman hissed.
"Not a ghost," Nara called back. "A castaway. He killed a compy with a stick."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Respect, maybe. Or suspicion.
They stopped before the skull platform. Chieftain Gorr looked down at Rex with rheumy eyes that missed nothing. His left arm ended at the elbow, the stump wrapped in leather.
"Shaman," Gorr said, his voice a grinding rasp. "You bring me a naked white man with bruises and claim he killed a compy?"
"He did. I watched it happen."
"With what? A stick?"
"A club. Made with spirit fire."
The murmurs grew louder. Gorr raised his good hand. Silence.
"Spirit fire," the chieftain repeated. "Show me."
Rex glanced at Nara. She nodded.
He opened the blueprint menu. [BLUEPRINTS - TIER 1]. He selected [CLUB]—already built, but the activation glow would still work.
[MANA: 6 → 4]
[BLUEPRINT ACTIVATED: CLUB]
His hands glowed blue. Faint, but visible in the morning light. The villagers gasped. A child screamed. An old man fell to his knees.
Gorr’s eyes widened, then narrowed.
"Nara," he said slowly, "you’ve brought me a demon."
"No," Rex said, stepping forward. "I brought you a deal."
The chieftain’s hand drifted to the stone axe at his belt. "Demons don’t make deals. They take."
"Then call me something else. Call me... a builder." Rex gestured at the village. "Your palisade is rotting. Your huts leak. Your hunters use bone-tipped spears that probably shatter on the first hit. I can fix all of that."
His voice carried—maybe the charisma stats, maybe just practice.
Gorr’s hand relaxed. Slightly.
"Fix it how?"
"I need seven days. A few workers. And access to your resources. After seven days, if your village isn’t stronger, you can throw me in your bone pit."
Nara hissed. "Rex, that’s—"
"Bold, demon," Gorr interrupted. He studied Rex for a long moment. Then he laughed—a wet, rattling sound that turned into a cough. "Bold or stupid. But we’re dying anyway. What’s seven days?"
He stood, towering despite his age.
"Seven days, demon. Prove your worth. If you fail, the bone pit." He turned to the crowd. "And if you try anything funny... my daughter will personally remove your spine."
A woman stepped out from behind the skull platform.
She was tall, taller than Nara, with shoulders like a swimmer and arms corded with muscle. Her hair was shaved on one side, braided on the other. A scar ran from her eyebrow to her jaw. Even with the toned muscle, her curves remained unmistakable. In her hands, a double-bladed stone axe.
"Father," she said, her voice low and flat. "You can’t be serious."
"Rhea, be quiet."
Rhea. The chieftain’s daughter. The reckless one.
Her eyes locked onto Rex. She looked at him the way a predator looks at wounded prey.
"If he fails," she said, "I’m not throwing him in the pit. I’m feeding him to Screech."
The little raptor chirped happily.
Rex swallowed.
[FACTION DISCOVERED: RIVER FOLK - REPUTATION: NEUTRAL (5)]
[REPUTATION CHANGE: +10 (Gorr, impressed by boldness)]
[REPUTATION CHANGE: -15 (Rhea, suspicious)]
[QUEST UPDATE: PROVE YOUR WORTH - PHASE 2]
[OBJECTIVE: IMPROVE THE VILLAGE IN 7 DAYS]
[REWARD: 1000 XP, FACTION STANDING, PERMANENT ALLY]
[TIME REMAINING: 7 DAYS]
Rex looked at the rotting palisade, the leaking huts, the bone-tipped spears.
Then he looked at the system panel, glowing soft blue.
Seven days. I’ve beaten harder games on nightmare mode.
He smiled at Rhea.
"Feed me to the raptor? Sweetheart, I’ve been eaten by pixel dinosaurs hundreds of times. I always respawn."
Rhea’s grip tightened on her axe.
Nara sighed. "You really do talk too much, handsome demon."
