While Adrian enjoyed himself in Amika’s embrace, a camp on the other side of the forest was shrouded in gloom.
They had once been the best camp in the region. While other players tried joining tribes, they had captured a tribe and made it their own.
It wasn’t difficult. The tribals never fought back. By the ti they did, they were too weak to defeat the players. They killed the males or used them as slaves while using the won for obvious reasons.
Everything was going well, and even their farming strategy was great.
Hunting newbies did not put them in the rankings, but it was bountiful. As certified thugs of their world, they naturally didn’t have morals.
In short, their lives were comfortable as long as they made soone miserable.
Unfortunately, all that changed three days ago.
"...Chief Juan."
A woman covered in tribal tattoos called out to the lean man before her.
"Hm..." Juan replied, his eyes never leaving the communal fire.
"Two more wanderers have gone missing."
"Hm... You don’t need to report to about anything other than matters related to Junito’s killers," Juan instructed in his soft voice. "If I started caring about everyone, I’d die from grieving."
From his silhouette and soft voice, no one would guess that he had ruthlessly killed over a dozen males of the Saber-tooth tribe. He didn’t even use any weapon.
The tribal woman, his tribal woman, still rembered how her family had taken him in only for Juan to poison them all. However, the poison only killed the males, not the won or children.
Nadri snapped out of her thoughts and continued her report.
"Chief, those were the ones who found the young chief’s corpse."
Juan’s hands stopped stoking the fire. His taut shoulders slumped down.
Junito was his only brother. Just because one of his teachers had touched him, Juan had done unspeakable things to that teacher’s family that landed him in prison.
It was only because of the stupid ga that they were reunited. However, their reunion barely lasted two days when... Junito died.
"Is that so?" Juan said before going silent again.
Apart from the cackling of the firewood, no one dared to make any noise. They just sat around the firepit, eating in silence with their heads down.
Juan got up, staring at the fire he had been caring for like a child, and frowned.
"Too damn noisy."
Before anyone could move, he kicked it with all his strength. Ember and burning chunks of wood were flung all over the place. Everyone around the fire jumped up in panic.
Juan didn’t care about all that. His eyes were burning bright with madness, unlike the flickering embers on the ground.
"Find the bastard who killed my brother!" he snarled. "Search every corner of this fucking forest! Either bring his head to or bring yours!"
***
The next morning, the sun had barely risen when Adrian led the won to the stream.
He had realized sothing very important last night. The won of the tribe looked excellent and could make any man drool. However, kissing them was another affair.
Amika’s lips felt great, but what ca after wasn’t. After all, they did not have any sense of hygiene other than washing their bodies. He couldn’t bla them, since they didn’t know any better, but that didn’t an he couldn’t help them.
Adrian squatted down by the edge of the stream. The won were also squatting around him.
"Today, I will teach you sothing very important," Adrian said, pointing at his teeth. "Just like you wash your bodies, you must also wash other parts of your bodies as well, especially your teeth."
As he did, he took out a water bottle in which he had already poured so impure salt. He scooped so water into it and mixed it, then tightly wrapped a small piece of animal hide on the bottleneck and the top for filtering purposes before closing the cap, which had a small hole in it.
When Adrian turned the bottle upside down, within seconds, clean salty water drizzled out of the hole. Seeing the water pour out, Adrian nodded and turned to the won.
"Watch carefully."
Adrian took a mouthful of the salty water, swished it around his teeth and gums vigorously, then spat it onto the ground. He repeated the process two more tis, making sure to scrub his teeth with his finger as well.
"Saltwater cleans the invisible monsters inside the mouth," he explained. "If we don’t do this, those monsters can make our breath sll bad and our teeth can rot."
On his way to the stream, Adrian had told them about invisible monsters called germs. In his words, if they didn’t follow his instructions properly, they could fall sick, and those germs would eat them up from the inside out.
After that, he handed all of them their own bottles. They were confused about why they all needed one of their own. The explanation for it was even simpler.
"When you fight, don’t you need your own weapons?" he asked. "This is also a fight. Hence, everyone needs to have their own weapon."
Adrian would have preferred using boiled water, but until Sera made the bowls, this was the best they could do.
The won nodded at his explanation and filled up their water bottles. Even though they didn’t entirely understand the concept of germs, they trusted Adrian enough to follow his words like gospel.
"Male... like this?" Amika asked before copying him.
The other won did the sa, but they couldn’t do it for long. The mont the salty water touched their tongues, their faces twisted in disgust.
Yet, none of them spat it out and kept swishing it around in their mouths.
"Ugh... Male, it tastes... horrible!" Amika gasped after spitting the first mouthful.
She brought her tongue out, showing it to Adrian. At the sa ti, Mika made a gagging sound and threw out the liquid.
"It burns and tingles like ants are walking in my mouth!" she complained, looking at the bottle suspiciously.
"It is the invisible monsters!" Nixa yelled. "The water is fighting the germs inside our mouths. That bad taste ans the battle has started. Sisters, we must keep going until the monsters lose."
Hearing her words, the won gritted their teeth and continued cleaning their mouths despite the awful taste. They truly believed the strange, bitter, burning sensation was proof that the ’germs’ were fighting back.
None of them wanted to appear weak in front of their Male, so they forced themselves to rinse again and again. Suddenly, Rixxa got an idea, and instead of rinsing her mouth, she tried swallowing it instead.
Adrian saw it, and alarms went off in his mind as he snatched the bottle from her.
"Oi! Don’t use so much! Enthusiasm is great, but you cannot win this war in one day!" Adrian yelled, trying to calm them down before they began chugging the saltwater.
Further away, Sera was surveying the area for clay to make the pots when she saw them and smiled. Although Adrian’s intentions for teaching them new hygiene concepts weren’t noble, he was still doing it for the tribe’s well-being.
"This guy isn’t bad at all..." she whispered, staring at him before shaking her head. "Clay. I need to find clay first."
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