Old Place and Memories

A boy can be seen riding a flying Machine shaped like a bird, he was flying freely through the air. The bird was told to fly above the beach as the boy wanted to enjoy the scenery and the breeze.

Just as he was about to turn and head back to the forest, the water level suddenly surged, and a huge dark shadow appeared.

Three menacing dragon heads broke the sea's surface, towering above the boy and bird. if we compare the size, well… It's like a small bird standing in front of a human.

*Roaaaaar

One of the heads roared at the little machine in front of it, cold air could be felt even before the frozen breath gushed out, engulfing both of them. White frozen cloud covered the boy's vision. His body and the machine turned frozen rock solid before descending uncontrollably.

*Bang

They both disintegrated into a million little pieces after hitting the ground.

*Gasp

Marco's body suddenly jerked and his eyes opened with cold sweats on his body. Dying isn't a good experience, it doesn't matter if it's painful or not.

"Phew… just a bad dream. I thought I died again." Marco sighed in relief as he wiped the cold sweats off. it's been a while since he last had a bad dream, you could say it's been 500 years since he had one.

The wounds on his chest are almost completely healed, the scabs have formed, and by tomorrow only scars will be visible. He was relieved that the claw is rusty or he might have fucked up.

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼]

Ding

New Quest

Hunt [Scourge]

3/?? Machines killed

Reward: 5 free attributes point

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼]

"Oh right, I almost forgot about this one. Wait… why is the reward so low? "

[They are literal bugs, I don't think they're even worth 5 points as you can one-shot them. They only pose a challenge if they latched on to a strong machine. ]

"You have a point there. So where should I find the [Scourge]?"

[The base troops usually encountered them in a huge herd of machines. So you need to get lucky.]

"I need to rely on luck? Might as well visit the tribes on the mountain while I'm at it." Marco quickly decided. He's not confident in his luck, so he'll do the sure thing first.

One converter is already a bit heavy, let alone 2 converters, which will definitely slow down Marco's travel speed. So before leaving, he will reload bullets, energy cells, and food. For the bullets, in this base, there is a lot of scrap metal, way more than needed. Using the converter was easy, all he had to do was collect the wood, cut it up, and put it in the converter.

An hour and a half later, Marco cast 60 bullets, casting more would not fit into his bag. While casting the bullets, he also charged his energy cell with the other converter.

With everything ready, he left the base.

---

Navigation has now become easier with portable maps, thankfully the base also mapped the surrounding area.

Marco followed the map and arrived at the river. He decided to take a bath first and get rid of the dirt and sweat on his body. After cleansing his body, he continued his journey north, towards the tribe on the mountains.

But before going to the mountains, he wanted to visit his old tribe or what was left of it.

'I should have done this sooner. I don't think I even have any attachment to them, but why…am I uncomfortable.' Marco thought, his feelings about this were quite complex. He didn't feel anything a week ago, but somehow Marco's old memories are affecting him a little. Marco doesn't understand why the memory is affecting him now.

It's like something is tugging at his heart, causing him discomfort. The fact that the tribe didn't treat the old Marco badly from his memory didn't help lessen the discomfort. Since old Marco was an orphan, he also formed a connection with the people who raised him.

'Thank goodness his and my memories didn't merge.' Marco thought, if their memories were merged, he would be in agony.

*sigh

A sigh escaped his lips and he moved on with the journey.

---

The journey went smooth and nothing attacked him.

Three days later, he arrived at his old base.

He didn't even go in and immediately continued walking. The old tribe's dwelling is his destination.

Why? He wanted to look around and bury any corpses, if any remained. Maybe this will get rid of the discomfort in his heart.

With his current speed, it only took him two hours to arrive at the place.

The place was ruined, and something smelled... The hunting trophy that was proudly on display was now a mess. Some wooden houses are damaged, and the village is in bad condition. There was no one here, silence covered the place. Can it still be called a village without anyone in it?

He sniffed the air and frowned. He knows this smell all too well, the stench of dead bodies. Following the smell led him to some rotting corpses. The three corpses are still intact, probably due to the lack of bugs and flies.

"I'll give them a proper burial I guess," Marco said while starting to dig a grave nearby. He laid the corpses down and shoveled the dirt back in, and marked the graves. He sighed after marking the grave, this strangely brought him a sense of… relief.

After he's done, he walked around. Huge black marks on the ground from what seems like caused by an explosion vague three triangle tracks were everywhere. Thus he concluded, the cult had the help of Machines and was fitted with heavy armaments.

He looked back and said, "Maybe one day I'll come back and rebuild this tribe". This isn't a promise but a fleeting thought, maybe one day just he'll return just like he said.

With the discomfort gone, he resumed his journey to the north.

---

3 days later, he arrived at the tribe's outer territory.

It seems his luck isn't reliable as he found a herd of {Colt] but no {Scourge] within. But he is not worried, as maybe the mountain tribe can help. He remembered the tribe's name, it should be [Steel Talon Tribe] if he remembered it correctly.

Their territory is called the Northern Highlands. 'It makes sense' Marco thought, as they lived in the north and high in the mountains. The residence of the tribe itself is still a few km away, he's now still camping in the forest on the foot of the mountains.

'Hmmmm…' He was thinking of a good reason for his visit. Well, he decided to just tell them that his tribe was annihilated. Maybe they'll pity him and let him stay.

"Yeah, I'm just going to say my tribe was annihilated. " said Marco while laying down.

---

Marco woke up early and started climbing the hill. In order to enter the tribe, he needs to climb this hill first. Luckily, the hill wasn't covered in snow, some trees, shrubs, and grass covered most of the hill, so Marco wasn't shivering all the time.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Marco suddenly heard a shout.

"My name is Marco. I'm here to seek shelter and to trade." He shouted back. As a guest, it's better to quickly state our purpose of being here. It'll increase the chance of being a welcomed guest, not an uninvited one.

"…" silence greeted him.

*Whoosh

The sound of something cutting through the air was heard. Marco looked up and saw a bird Machine diving down from the sky.

'This thing must have seen me way before I climbed up.' Marco felt kinda stupid, he knows what kind of Machines the Steel Talon tribe possessed, but he didn't even look up and check the sky.

"Go and call the chief here." Marco heard the man say to his 'pet'.

The bird flew away as a man walked out with a ghillie suit. Well, it's more appropriate to say that he's bush with how bush-like he is.

While waiting for the chief to come, he tried to strike a conversation.

"Hello, what's your name? What's the bird called?" asked Marco.

"…" The man didn't say anything and just stared at Marco.

'That failed spectacularly…' he thought before shutting himself up.

Not even a minute later, the chief arrived.

'Holy shit, that was fast. How strong is this guy?' he inwardly thought. The bushman whispered something to the chief. The chief nodded to the bushman and the man went back to being… a bush.

Marco's eyebrows twitched a bit before looking at the chief.

"I'm Jarl, the chieftain of the tribe. Which one is your tribe?." Jarl said to Marco.

"It's the tribe inside the forest, your tribe traded with us before."

"Then why did you leave your tribe? We don't accept outsiders." said Jarl while frowning.

"Sigh… the tribe… was wiped out." Marco answered with a sigh.

Jarl's eyes opened wide, it's not every day you get the news of a tribe's doom. "Wiped out? By whom? Machines or man?" he questioned.

"Both…, I was out hunting and when I came back… so I ran away."

Jarl's frown returned as he looked at Marco. "How do you know that?"

"I came back and saw the damage, cold weapons, and blast marks."

Jarl's expression softened a bit and then he said: "The tribe can accept you but you can only live as an outsider or an Outcast."

"You have my gratitude." replied Marco as he followed Jarl back to the tribe.