Group Outing

Seasons came and went as yet another year passed by in the world. Xing was now 12-years-old and he had grown another few centimeters in height, and his previous childlike chubby cheeks were slowly being replaced with manliness.

Xing was marching through a valley with his mother; Great-Warrior Ying, his cousin; Lei, and his new friend; Wei. They were traveling together with his mother's personal force of 500 warriors and a few dozen Shaman.

Not a whole lot happened over the passing year. It was mainly business as usual for Xing, with the sole exception of him being a frequent visitor to the craftsman's district…

***

Xing was tossing through different ores and metals, 'Is there really no tin around here? You can't make bronze without tin! It's no wonder humans haven't been able to create bronze if they don't have damn tin!'

"No luck yet again… hahh" Xing was sighing when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Just what are you looking for, youngster?"

Xing turned around and saw Craftsman Xun walking powerfully toward him, "Nothing in particular. How is the research going?"

Now it was the man's turn to sign, "Haah, no luck again. I swear I've tried all different combinations of metals and it's all the same." Light left his eyes, before quickly returning, "But I believe we are on the right track!"

"...Isn't there any other ore around here? …Or maybe ones you've seen before but don't have anymore?" Xing asked expectantly.

"Hmmm." Craftsman Xun thought deeply for a while before he replied, "There is one that is quite rare and I haven't even seen it for many years, heck, it was probably even way back before you were even born."

'A lead!' Xing's eyes lit up, "And what was it called?"

"If I remember correctly it was this greyish colored metal. I believe people called it tin or something like that."

***

…Coming out of his remembrance Xing continued on his march through the forest valley, keeping his watchful eyes on every creek bed or mountainside they passed. Stopping whenever a rock caught his eye, hoping he would find the god-metal; tin.

'Hopefully, I at least find some tin on this outing. Who knows, maybe even the tribe we are going to subjugate will have the elusive metal in storage.' Xing thought as he shook his head at yet another rock in his hands, before dropping it back onto the ground.

"Hehe, look at this weirdo. Inspecting rocks wistfully like they are a long lost lover." A loud and chirpy female voice echoed into Xing's ear.

"Lei don't be mean, you know what he is looking for." Came a shy quiet female voice.

"Of course, but that doesn't mean I can't tease him for it. Especially when he ditched us all the time over the past year to go play with rocks." The chirpy voice said.

Xing looked over to where the two voices were coming from, spotting his two female friends; Lei and Wei.

Lei had continued maturing and there was no longer any hint of childishness to her figure, a stunning mature adult woman of 17 was revealed. Wei was still short and hadn't grown an inch. But like both Xing and Lei, she was slowly losing her childlike chubbiness and starting to grow out more adult feature, particularly in the womanly curves.

"Even though I did spend a lot of time with the craftsman, I still training and sparred with you Lei," Xing argued back discontented as he thought back to the last sparring session they had together…

***

With a snap, the training spear held in Xing's arms broke in half.

"Hahh, another one broken by your random gorilla-like strength" Xing sighed at the outcome.

Lei blushed, yelling, "I'm not a gorilla! And it's not my fault that these training spears are so weak!"

Wei rushed over, "Are you alright Xing?"

"I'm fine," he replied to her with a smile, before he turned toward Lei again, "You still can't control that explosiveness can you?"

"No, I can't. People say it's my second element but I should have been able to control it upon reaching Rank 2, yet I can't." Her head drooped

"Don't worry, as you know my mother has a second element, yet she couldn't control it before she reached Rank 3. And now she can release a frosty aura around her, slowly down her opponents. Yours is probably just the same."

Lei perked up, "Yeah, hopefully!"

Xing noticed that the sun was hanging above their heads, "Oh, is that the time already? Sorry girls I've got to go." He dropped the half of the training spear still in his hands and picked up his own, before leaving the field, shouting, "Enjoy the rest of your training."

***

…The memory was broken by a cute snort.

"Hmph. But you did ditch us for metal," Lei pouted before gaining a mischievous look. Turning to Wei and dramatically asked, "Can you believe it, Wei? He ditched us, two beautiful maturing women, for smelly sweaty men and dull rocks!" She put a hand to her forehead, "Has he no mercy on a maiden's heart?"

Wei joined Lei and appeared a little disheartened, agreeing, "Your right, no mercy."

Xing didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the pair's act, so he just remained silent.

"Oh well, it is he who shall suffer. After all, you overtook him and became a 2nd Circle Shaman before him." Lei high-fived Wei, "Good job!"

This time Wei did not look agreeable, "But Xing has a rare element to comprehend, while I'm just an ordinary Water Shaman. And he is still stronger than me."

"Awww, little Wei's defending him." Lei teased Wei until she had a bright red blush covering her cheeks. "He is only stronger than you because you still don't want to use those killer spells on humans." She reminded.

"Lei's right, if you used those water spells there wouldn't be a whole lot I could do." Xing agreed.

Wei furiously shook her head, "There is no way I can ever use such spells on humans; especially not friends!"

While Lei continued teasing Wei, Xing thought about his training sessions with Umbra into comprehending the Dark Element, albeit, slowly…

***

Within a world of darkness, made up of countless shadows, Xing sat in a meditative posture. He was staring into the black expanse pondering over just how the shadow worked.

All of a sudden light crept through the dark as it receded, revealing the insides of a tent. A little girl's voice echoed within Xing's mind, [I can't go on anymore, Master. I need to sleep.]

Xing awoke from his meditation, sighing, "Hahh, little progress again. When am I ever going to fill the 2nd Circle with elemental energy?"

[You will eventually, it's always increasing. Is it not?]

Xing smiled at the little black snake, [You're right, thanks Umbra, you can be nice sometimes.]

[Whatever.] She sent through his mind as she delved into a shadow, disappearing. Before reappearing a split second later on top of Xing's bed, before curling up into a ball like a common house-cat.

***

'...Speaking of Umbra,' Xing rolled up his sleeve and stared at the black scaled being which was coiled around his forearm.

[Hey, Snake, wake up!] Xing sent his thoughts toward the snake.

Umbra opened her slit eyes ever so slightly, revealing a tired and dull gold glow. [Mmm… Master… what is it?] The sleepy voice of a little girl responded through Xing's mind.

[Why are you so lazy?]

She slowly awoke more and glared tiredly at Xing, sending a groggy reply, [What does Master expect? I'm still a tiny little snake, the heat makes me sleepy.]

[Right…] Xing rolled his eyes, [So, when are you going to tell me why you call me Master?]

Umbra was now fully awake and sent a piercing glare toward Xing, before turning her head up and away, [Never!]

Xing chuckled at the cute attitude he received from his little companion and was about to respond, but before he could, a cold female voice called out to him, "Xing, let's review your knowledge."

He looked toward the voice and saw his mother walking over toward him. She was wearing a thick leather armor, made from the hide of an E-Rank Monster, similar to his own. The armor was tight-fitting and stuck to her womanly figure, emphasizing it further. White hair tied in a ponytail dangled down behind her, with fading light-brown strips hidden amongst the white. She carried a spear in her hand, made from an ivory-white wooden pole with a large and pointy monster's tusk strapped to the tip. It was so large that her weapon seemed to be more of a lance, rather than a spear.

Unlike the motherly figure that she had around him normally, she was currently in her icy cold commander persona. Being around her made the temperature drop and she gave off a thick aura of leadership. None of the surrounding marching Warriors or Shaman even dared look at her, out of both awe and respect. She looked like a true Great-Warrior.

"Well Xing, tell me. Where are we currently? And how far are we to our destination?" She questioned Xing, her voice laced with coldness, yet still contained a warmness for her family.

This happened to be something which had grown common for Xing. Since after he had learned about his parents' ambitions and goals, he took it upon himself to learn all about the surroundings, down to the most minor of detail.

He now knew about the remaining clans in their surrounding area, or about the many major clans further away. He learned all about the nearby threats such as the numerous Centaur tribes and large groupings of Goblin. He had grasped the knowledge of the surrounding geography to the best of his ability.

All of these different factors were memorized for the purpose of helping his parents, and of course, there was the fact that knowing about one's own environment was useful for survival. He did not forget a key concept from his old Earth; information is power. Instead, he embraced it.

It was also due to this knowledge that Xing finally figured out that this was still Earth he was on, albeit with magic, and back in the Stone Age. Before he theorized that he was in an Asian location due to the language being spoken, but now he realized that the Yellow River his parents spoke of was indeed the same river that was located in China in his previous world. Which meant that this was China and now he would get to play a part of its ancient history, well, at least until he died again.

Xing answered his mothers question methodically, "Well, we are currently passing through Narrow Green Valley inside the Rainy Highland Woods, and we are almost at the edge. After which we will need to travel across a plain for around half an hour before we reach our target."

Great-Warrior Ying nodded toward her son, "Good, you're correct."

"Will we need to fight the opposing tribe? Or will they surrender?" Xing asked curiously. What he really meant, and wanted to know, is if he would need to kill humans.

"We probably won't need to fight them, as they do not have a large enough force to threaten us. Also, this tribe isn't mired in tradition, so will be susceptible to our offer of merging tribes and forming an agricultural society." His mother replied. Before she looked at Xing and told, "However, things could always go wrong. So never let your guard down."

"Is father going to be fine going with Peng to subjugate the other tribe?"

Ying looked at her son with confidence, "Of course he will. He has his personal force with him, and he knows what could happen. He is prepared for all eventualities."

"What could happen?" Xing was confused.

His mother replied with stern words, to get her point across, "It goes back to what I was saying before; things could go wrong, so keep your guard up. Always."