Chapter 399: The Players Return

Woolsprout, the daughter of the Curly-Horns’ tribal chief did not differ much compared to the average Sheeple.

With her long blonde hair, white gown, and a little leather bag hanging off her waist, her looks were more on the side of charming and sweet instead of beautiful.

If one had to put their finger on it, she perhaps had a slight plump attractiveness from the perspective of a sheep’s proportions. However, she had the same volume of hair as a human, which was fewer than most Sheeple—her kind change coats periodically, and the Curly-Horns tribe often made clothes and fabrics out of the fur shed.

One should mention here that while only rams grow horns in nature, the Curly-Horns tribe grew horns as well without regard of gender (and was also their namesake). Still, male horns were longer sharper while female horns were quite tiny, appearing like an ornament and much more dainty.

“Sorry for the trouble.”

The young Sheeple who had learned about the specifics of the current situation bowed at the two Long-Ears. Her eyes were crystalline and her pupils a rare violet, just like a sparkling high-grade carnelian.

“It’s fine. And instead of observing meaningless gestures, we should get a move on.” Rangka had no idea why Laybit would agree to bring the Curly-Horns’ princess along their return home, but he could not decline now that it had happened, and merely grumbled, “Time waits for no lazy rabbit.”

The girl sensed Rangka’s impatience and so said nothing as she quietly followed them along on their return journey.

It was a dull journey until Rangka paused, seemingly sensing something.

“What is it?” Laybit asked in alarm.

Rangka picked out a single strand of fur from his hat, which was squirming and bending like a caterpillar, as if it was alive.

“This is a heartstring imbued with sorcery that your father gave me before we left.”

There were rarely any nonhumans who could use magic, and only shamans were capable of sorcery—aside from individuals who awaken their ancient bloodlines to obtain pseudo-magic.

Their sorcery resembled the divine arts of the various churches in the Eastern Continent, but because ancestral spirits were not actually gods and each tribe worshipped a different spirit, a corresponding god could not be created and only exists in the form of sprouts. That in turn left the nonhumans with an incomplete sacred arts system that eventually developed into sorcery—a special branch that did not require high divine energy, instead needing compatible conditions to activate, mainly through rituals or motions.

Swordtail Grayclaw’s dark sorcery and the Long-Ears’ martial sorcery were included in that domain. It was precisely because sorcery was equivalent to the magic of the Eastern Continent in the perspective of nonhumans that they consider it an ability their kind possessed. Therefore, while Swordtail’s dark sorcery does violate certain taboos, the other nonhumans did not protest too much when he used it to claim the spot as his tribe’s chief.

On the other hand, the Long-Ears’ shaman was very old and died when they moved to their new settlement. Moreover, there had yet to be a new shaman groomed and just a handful of candidates who could take the roll, which was why their elderly tribe chief had to play the role of shaman too.

Still, the Long Ears were no fools despite being vulnerable, and since the Players did not hold back, their tribe soon developed a method to communicate from across long distances.

Having been put on the backfoot because of that, the Long-Ears promptly asked the Players for details, but unfortunately that ability required conversion to the Church of Games, and they must become true believers too.

Even Rangka, one of the Long-Ears who had already planned to declare his faith in the God of Games, was unable to immediately forget his reverence towards his ancestors which had grown and accumulated over the years and simply shift his faith to a new entity, which was why there had yet to be any Long-Ears Players.

With the Players’ forums hence remaining unavailable, the Long-Ears chief had to give up and asked the Players about other ways to communicate over long distances.

That was when one of the Players revealed how they kept in contact before the Player forums came online.

At the time, Players would often be revived at far-flung places after they died in a dungeon or an event. They had to communicate in real-time as well, which was why some Players simply agreed upon a meaning for the different order which they arranged their buffs, so that after several refreshes, the other Players in the party could tell what was going on.

That method certainly couldn’t be used by the Long Ears since they couldn’t see a fellow tribesman’s HP bar or status bar.

Nonetheless, they were inspired by the story and developed very simple sorcery.

The effect was to cut a heartstring in two down the middle to dod something similar.

“Three twists and two curves.” Rangka’s gloomy look turned cheerful right then. “Players are returning to our village.”

“That’s wonderful!”

Laybit breathed a sigh of relief as well.

After all, if it were only the Long-Ears, they would never really be able to hold their own if the more fearsome Nonhuman tribes come calling.

“What is a Player?”

Woosprout asked in curiosity after listening to them, and had a hunch from how the other two Long-Ears were relieved. “Could they be some magical beasts your tribe tamed?”

That being said, it was too troublesome to tame magical beasts in this day and age. While it was fine for the Eastern Continent with their systematic nations and churches, the Western Continent was much more chaotic that even the human territories were always caught in a conflict between feudal warlords. That meant catching a powerful magical beast was already difficult, and having them to procreate like your typical domesticated beast was even more so.

Even over at the Eastern Continent, the most successfully bred magical beast was only the wyvern flocks of the Temple of Glory.

As such, even if some nonhumans had the immense luck of capturing a magical beast and taming it, they had to be released back into the wild when the creatures were in heat. They would have to wait and see whether it might bring its young back to their settlement, because magical beasts could get very violent in heat and would threaten the entire tribe.

That was why Woolsprout would assume that the Players were some powerful magical beasts when she saw how relieved Rangka and Laybit were upon learning their return.

“N-no… Urgh, if I had to say it…”

Rangka denied it by reflex, but suddenly found that Woosprout was not exactly wrong after thinking about it. They would often eat and drink what the Long-Ears had and defending their tribe when there was trouble, occasionally helping them with menial labor. They would leave the village when it was time for one of their feast, before returning after some time…

They certainly resembled domesticated magical beasts in that respect.

Be that as it may, Rangka would never dare to directly label the Players as magical beasts, and shuddered when he remembered how they destroyed the Tigermen and the Nightstalker in quick succession.

“Hmm,” he said solemnly, “they are beings more horrific than magical beasts, and could well be a calamity.”