In the first round of the game, Lucas spent a long time searching because he did not like wandering around the tribe and rarely played with these children.
Just then, Benny, the referee, came over and asked, "Have you found everyone?"
Lucas had not paid attention to how many children there were in total, so he was not sure either. Going by his recollection, he began counting heads. It seemed he had found them all!
So he told Benny, "I think I've found everyone."
Hearing Lucas say that, Benny, who had brought him along, had wanted to give him a subtle hint. Unfortunately, the other children jumped up excitedly just then and told Lucas outright, "You lost."
Seeing this, Benny had everyone call out the child who was still hiding. Only after the child he had failed to find came out did Lucas realize why he had overlooked her.
He did not play with the children much because his mindset had been rather mature before. This little girl was simply shy. Even after being called out, she showed none of the excitement of winning the game and did not jump up happily like the other children.
Instead, she stood there quietly. Seeing this and understanding why he had overlooked her, Lucas knew his loss was fair. He walked over with a smile, patted her head, and said, "Be a little braver."
At Lucas's gesture, the little girl shrank back even farther, wary of someone she did not know.
Just as Benny was about to call everyone together for another round, an adult came running toward them and told him, "Get to the shelter! Magical beasts are attacking the tribe!"
Hearing this, Lucas wanted to go take a look. But on second thought, he was still a small fry. If a magical beast swallowed him, he probably would not even make up a whole piece of dung when it shat him out the next day. He abandoned the idea of going to look!
Benny said to his father, "Understood, Father."
With that, he called everyone together and headed for the shelter. It had been built on a high cliff in the valley, where the rock was quite hard and there was a natural cave. Only one path led there, so it was very safe.
Lucas joined Benny in gathering the children and fleeing to the shelter. When they arrived, he saw his mother and several other women organizing the tribe's elderly and weak.
Lucas went up and asked, "What kind of magical beasts came this time?"
His mother was also a third-rank warrior. She told Lucas, "A pack of Wind Wolves. They come to our tribe every few years. But only their king is sixth-level; most of the others are fifth-level. The tribe drives them off every time, and this time will be no exception."
Hearing his mother's words, Lucas relaxed. Of course he knew about magical beasts like Wind Wolves. Usually, only their king was sixth-level, though sometimes another female wolf might be sixth-level too. Most of the others were their offspring, all fifth-level magical beasts.
Once their offspring reached the sixth level, wolves would drive them away to form packs of their own. That meant a Wind Wolf pack would not be very large, generally numbering a dozen or so, or twenty-odd at most.
Lucas also knew his tribe's strength. His father was one of its strongest warriors, and there were two other sixth-rank warriors. This wolf pack probably would not pose much of a threat to their tribe.
Sure enough, an hour later, someone came to tell them, "Everyone, come on out. The Wind Wolf attack is over."
After leaving the shelter, Lucas saw his father, who had a wolf's claw marks on his body. Lucas walked over and asked, "How are you? Are you badly hurt?"
His father, Abuda, froze for a moment. His son had never been particularly inclined to speak to him before.
Today, his son was actually showing concern for him, so he said happily, "Don't worry. Your old man is a powerful sixth-rank warrior. What's a little scratch like this!" Lucas now knew that the universe he was in might be the Coiling Dragon World. His father, a mere sixth-rank warrior, actually had the nerve to call himself powerful. As someone who knew about Saints, Deities, and Sovereigns, Lucas said to his father disdainfully, "Hah, you? A powerful warrior?"
Seeing that look in his son's eyes, Abuda picked Lucas up in his large hands. Then he said, "Your old man will show you what a powerful warrior is today."
Just then, Lucas's mother, Selina, came over and said to her husband, "All right, put our son down. You're so rough. Be careful you don't hurt him."
Abuda did not care in the slightest and said outright, "I'm the strongest warrior in the tribe. How could my son get hurt so easily?"
With that, he tossed the now four-year-old Lucas into the air, then caught him as he fell. Then he tossed him into the air again!
As an old man, Lucas had been tossed around like this by his own father when he was young. Later, he had tossed his own son like this too. Now, reborn into another life, he once again experienced this sweetness between father and son.
Although he had taken the place of their original son through his rebirth, he naturally had to take on the inherited karmic bond between father and son. He swore that he would protect this sweetness he had gained once more in this dangerous world!
As the sun sank in the west, the other tribespeople saw a harmonious picture in its light after the magical beasts' invasion. Amid the mysterious light and shadows was a scene of a family enjoying themselves together!
Once they returned home, every household received a share of meat from the slain wolves. During the meal, his father took a blue-green crystal from inside his clothes and gave it to Lucas to play with. Lucas naturally knew what it was and asked his father, "Was this taken out while the wolf carcasses were being divided up?"
His father, Abuda, nodded and told Lucas, "There are some more. They're basically useless. I thought you children would like something shiny, so I brought one back for you to play with!"
Hearing his father's words, Lucas became even more certain that this was a Wind Wolf's Magic Beast Core, containing most of its magical power. Unfortunately, the profession of mage most likely did not exist yet, so there was no real way to use such Magic Beast Cores. In the protagonist's era, a fifth-level Magic Beast Core like this would be worth a great many gold coins. Though in this tribal era, gold coins did not mean much either!
The greatest use of Magic Beast Cores was that mages could set them into their magic staffs, allowing them to use the energy inside the cores in place of their own magical power and thus conserve it.
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