Overwhelming Firepower

While Lucen was resting, he was deep in thought. He was unsure how many tribes there were nearby, but if he did the same thing every time to convince them one by one, he didn’t like that thought at all.

Even with his skills and traits, repeating an Einvígi again and again would eventually wear his body and mind down.

’Not to mention, I might not be able to recruit many tribes if I just do an Einvígi every single time. There must be a faster, easier way to do this.’

Lucen opened his eyes and stared at the wooden beams above him. ’I guess, there’s no use thinking about something that I won’t get an answer to. First, I need more information. Thrall only knew about the Einvígi, but maybe Varek knows a better method.’

Once Lucen rested a bit, he quickly went to look for Varek. Sir Thalos and Thrall followed behind Lucen as his bodyguards.

Seeing how quickly Lucen got back up from such an intense fight against him, Varek laughed heartily.

”Kakaka! As expected of a warrior of your caliber. To think that after receiving that much damage, you healed after a short rest.”

Varek’s laughter echoed through the longhouse, deep and unrestrained. He crossed his arms over his chest, dark blue tattoos stretching as he looked Lucen up and down.

”I have a question, Varek.”

”Ask away,” Varek answered without hesitation.

”Is there a way to make all the surrounding tribes fight with me in the upcoming Styrhord?”

Hearing Lucen’s question, Varek started thinking about it. There were a few minutes of silence as Lucen waited for a response. After a while, Varek finally spoke.

”I don’t know how many other tribes there are, but I can call over the ones near here, including the Ashfang tribe that the boy belongs to.” Varek glanced at Thrall as he spoke.

”Once everyone is gathered, we can discuss the situation. We’ll see who would be willing to fight alongside you. Do you want me to do that?”

Lucen thought about it for a bit, and right now, that was the best solution. Lucen nodded his head. ”Please do.”

”Good. Then we’ll do this properly.” Varek grinned widely as he stood up and exited his house. He then spoke to a nearby warrior.

”Send word to the nearby tribes!” Varek barked. ”Tell them the Stone Hawk calls for a gathering. A council of chiefs!”

***

After Varek sent out a few messengers to call for a meeting between the chiefs of each tribe, Lucen and the others had nothing else to do but wait.

Seeing as there was no immediate danger of any kind, Sir Thalos and Thrall started doing their own thing.

Lucen took a stroll through the tribe. The scenery here was something he had not seen in the game, so he was truly curious about the place, the culture, and the people.

Warriors trained openly in small groups, their movements sharp and deliberate. Bare fists struck wooden posts reinforced with bone and stone, the dull thuds echoing through the valley like distant drums

There were also warriors wrestling against one another, with laughter mixed with grunts of exertion.

Lucen noticed that no one corrected another unless it was necessary. If someone made a mistake and did not notice it themselves, they would simply keep making it until it either worked or failed badly enough to be obvious.

Others practiced throwing axes and spears at carved targets wedged between the stone pillars. Misses were met with jeers, clean hits with sharp cries of approval.

Most of their weapons were worn rather than poorly made. Handles were smooth from years of use, and edges were sharpened unevenly depending on the owner’s habits.

Lucen could see that despite their bodies being filled with many kinds of injuries, they moved unhindered by them.

This scene reminded him of some martial arts movies he used to watch in the past. In fact, he also thought about the similarities between these people and the Spartans from his past life.

As he continued looking around, Lucen climbed a nearby rock pillar to get a better look at the area from high ground. He saw that the tribe was larger than he imagined.

From atop the stone pillar, the full breadth of the Stone Hawk Tribe revealed itself.

What Lucen had first taken for a simple valley settlement was something far more layered. Paths wound naturally between stone formations, not carved but worn smooth by generations of footsteps.

Longhouses clustered in patterns that made sense only when viewed from above, training grounds near the outskirts, living quarters closer to the center.

He also noticed that the oldest person he had seen in this tribe seemed to be around fifty or so. Either the elders looked younger, which was why he could not truly determine their age by looks alone, or there really wasn’t anyone older than sixty here.

Lucen had seen in a documentary in his past life that in Viking cultures, when someone reaches a certain age and can no longer function as necessary, they simply end their lives for the good of the community.

’I’d better stop thinking in that direction.’ Lucen thought to himself as he shook his head.

Instead of thinking too deeply about such things, he sat down and allowed himself to feel the nice wind on his face. He continued watching from his spot quietly.

He started thinking about the Einvígi he had just been in. He had expected that experienced barbarian warriors would be strong physically, even without their spirit tattoos, but he did not expect it to be that much.

He had thought that with the skills, traits, and stats he had built up, he would overwhelm most people if they only fought with pure physical abilities. Yet he was the one who was overwhelmed.

Even now, despite there being no more injuries, he could still feel a sort of shadow pain from the hits he received from Varek.

’Well, that wasn’t the only problem...’ Lucen was once again reminded of the character he played using Acting Adept.

’I thought maybe unyielding could help, or at least since my stats increased, I thought I could somehow resist it, but...’

Lucen thought of how his consciousness felt like it was slipping away as something was trying to take over.

It was completely different from when he regained his past life memories. Back then, his past life and his current one merged into one thing.

But this one, the character he was playing was trying to overwrite him, he was trying to devour him and become the only one.

Acting Adept was one of his strongest and most useful traits. It had helped in numerous situations.

It was all right if he just used it as a way to hide his true intentions, or if he was acting out as a random character. But when he tries using it to gain that character’s skills, it becomes difficult.

He did a few tests before and learned that characters around the lawful to neutral alignment were easy to use, but the chaotic ones with incredibly powerful personalities can overwhelm his psyche, as happened in the Einvígi.

’Should I just stop using characters with those kinds of personalities, or do I just stop using Acting Adept to use those characters’ skills?’

Lucen really didn’t want to stop using Acting Adept to use character skills. He believed that this trait, despite its drawbacks, was still a trait that could be mastered, just like anything else.

’Yeah, I’d better try to train more using it. Alright, time to think about which characters don’t have overbearing personalities, or if they did, just not as much as the last one I used.’

Lucen decided to treat the experience less as a failure and more as data. Some personalities were simply incompatible for prolonged use.

That did not make the trait flawed; just like he was a gamer back on Earth, he just needed to do his best to optimize the skills he had and use them to the best of his abilities.

Lucen lay on the ground deep in thought while looking at the passing clouds.

***

Lucen’s group stayed in the Stone Hawk Tribe’s territory while waiting for the chiefs of the other tribes to arrive. Days passed quietly within the Stone Hawk territory.

Lucen’s group did not idle. They trained with the warriors, joined hunting parties, and took part in the tribe’s daily routines where allowed.

Through this, Lucen began to understand the difference between observing a culture and living within it.

The Stone Hawk warriors treated combat as naturally as breathing. Sparring was not a scheduled event; it happened whenever two people felt like testing themselves.

After the training, they would go out to hunt. The warriors mostly hunted monsters, and if able, would hunt down normal animals as well.

The tribe consumed monster meat as though it were no different from any other game. Thick slabs of roasted flesh were torn apart with bare hands, the rich, metallic scent filling the air.

For the young ones, they cooked the meat differently, and the way they cooked the monster meat was something Robert would have found interesting.

They put on a few herbs to counteract the deadly poison in the meat, grinding them into coarse pastes or boiling them down into bitter broths before cooking.

They would feed their young only tiny portions to increase their resistance to it. Even Thrall had no problem eating slabs of monster meat.

On the other hand, Lucen and Sir Thalos had difficulty eating too much monster meat. So they, like the young ones of the tribe, only ate a little bit of monster meat. They were instead given meat from animals and a few berries.

This routine of theirs continued for a few days, until finally the chiefs from the other tribes arrived.