Gathering

"An ordinary native gives me 3 to 5 experience points. What's with these extra 30 points? Campaign experience? I can't use it to learn ordinary skills? Do I have to divide things up this finely even when I'm playing a game?"

After watching the Skeleton Soldiers battle the natives from the sidelines, Liu Zhi stepped forward to collect the bodies, grumbling about his haul as he did.

These natives clearly looked like elite warriors of the Serpent Attack Tribe, yet Liu Zhi could only get 3 to 5 experience points from them—not even as much as from a single Fishman.

He wasn't sure whether that was because he was now too powerful, or because the Skeleton Soldiers had taken some of the experience.

But setting the experience aside, these natives made for a good transport team. After they were all killed, the Skeleton Soldiers didn't go over to dismember them or anything. Instead, they waited nearby for Liu Zhi to come and deal with the bodies.

Liu Zhi took two bronze longswords from the natives. Their style made it obvious at a glance that they weren't from South America, and he had no idea where they had gotten them.

Perhaps the bronze longswords had lost their edge, so the natives had poisoned them as well.

In the end, he handed the two swords over to the Corpse Soul Naga, completing their set of metal weapons.

The natives' Leather Armor was also stripped off and given to the Skeleton Soldiers. The armor came in various sizes and was mostly made from Animal Hide. It smelled awful, but the Skeleton Soldiers didn't care in the least. Once they had put on the armor, they looked a little like real warriors.

As for the spears, Blowpipe Darts, and the like, they weren't as good as the things Liu Zhi made himself. So he simply tossed the remaining useless gear into the Mass Grave along with the natives' corpses.

Unexpectedly, throwing them in produced something new.

It was a new unit in the Mass Grave's recruitment options: a type of Skeleton Soldier wielding an ordinary wooden bow.

[Skeleton Archer: A Skeleton Soldier equipped with a longbow and capable of shooting. Uses ordinary arrows. Without arrows, they have no combat ability.]

The recruitment rules for Skeleton Archers were different from those for Skeleton Soldiers. The number of Skeleton Soldiers that could be recruited was determined by the supply of suitable bones produced that week.

Skeleton Archers, however, worked differently: the bows and arrows put into the Mass Grave set the upper limit on their total numbers.

As for Blowpipe Darts, well, the undead had no breath, so they couldn't use those.

After this discovery, Liu Zhi thought about making the flail a standard weapon and training a unit to use it. But it didn't work at all; he couldn't create a new unit that way.

In the end, Liu Zhi gave up on the idea ahead of time and began mass-producing Skeleton Archers instead. He would build up his ranged forces first.

The Serpent Attack Tribe still had no idea anything was wrong. They had agreed to lead all the giant snakes away again at the same time the next day, so the warriors who had entered the Golden City could come out.

Until then, they had no way to communicate with the Golden City.

But they weren't idle today.

The nearby Deer Eater Tribe had received a message from the Serpent Attack Tribe and had finally brought reinforcements to help.

Compared with the other tribes, the Deer Eater Tribe had a relatively good relationship with the Serpent Attack Tribe.

They had both once been among the tribes that hunted giant snakes, but the Deer Eater Tribe had gradually moved its hunting grounds and abandoned the way of life of its ancestors.

Unlike the Serpent Attack Tribe, which used spears and bows, the Deer Eater Tribe had its own special weapon: a wooden fork shaped much like a deer's antlers. In their eyes, this fork was a versatile treasure. They could use it to pluck fruit from trees, ward off the deadly coils of snakes, and catch fish underwater.

Most importantly, their people had a special fighting style that made use of the forks. Working together in groups of three to five, they could hunt a giant snake.

Their arrival made the Serpent Attack Tribe's chief very happy.

Parker, who had spoken with Lloyd earlier, even came out to greet them in person.

"E Ji, I knew you'd be the first to arrive. You're faster than eagles."

But E Ji of the Deer Eater Tribe wasn't as cheerful as they were. He was a tall, thin man with black skin painted gray, and huge deer antlers drawn across it in bright red pigment.

He carried his distinctive antler fork. Its wooden shaft was reinforced with copper, and the tines were so stained with blood that they had turned a deep green. The handle, on the other hand, had been rubbed smooth. It was clearly an old tool he had used for many years.

"Parker, I didn't think you'd be so reckless. Those snakes have only just eaten their fill this year, and you still dared to provoke them. Aren't you afraid of causing another snake disaster?"

"No, E Ji, you've got it wrong. I didn't go there to fight the giant snakes. I really did discover that someone is unsealing a demon. This is our land. We can't let the demon escape."

"Do you think I'll believe that?" E Ji snorted. "Every tribe has its own story about how the Golden City came to be, but one thing is certain: it wasn't built to seal anything away."

"You don't believe it, but I do." Just then, a voice came from behind E Ji.

E Ji turned and saw another tribe approaching, led by a man covered from head to toe in eagle feathers.

A bronze longsword hung at the man's waist, and he held a diamond-shaped Leather Shield painted with an eagle in flight.

"A descendant of the Eagle Warriors. The Eagle Tribe has always remembered our duty. Even if it's only an ancient legend, there aren't many beings powerful enough to make the Maya, the Inca, and us Aztecs join forces to build a city. And our ancestors passed down the order to guard this place. We can't be too cautious."

At the Eagle Tribe man's words, E Ji snorted. "You're descendants of the Eagle Warrior corps, but we aren't. We're just commoners, auxiliary troops serving the Jaguar Warriors. We never received that order."

"That may be true, but this is our land, our hunting ground. You don't want a demon to emerge and destroy it, do you?" Parker urged.

"Wouldn't your hunting grounds be the first to suffer?"

Parker was at a loss for words at E Ji's disruption, but he understood that he needed the support of the other tribes.

Parker gritted his teeth. "How about this, E Ji? If you're willing to join us, I'll give you some more hunting grounds."

Driven by the offer, E Ji finally nodded his agreement.

"Good. Then it's settled. Once the people I sent to gather information return, we'll find out what happened inside—and whether the demon has really been released."