Orleth clan

"Hey Rakahn... are we almost there??, I feel drained of my mana here!!" Cliff complained as he walked behind his companion, he groaned the whole way, protesting against the pain and the famous fatigue who rubbed shoulders with him.

By absorbing the bear's essence, he had received another skill; it was the "body strengthening", with this, his strength had increased drastically, which allowed him to be able to transport this mass of meat.

But...

The wound on his chest was still itchy and his mana manipulation was still very weak, he could not control this large amount of energy surging from him, his mana was very quickly consumed by keeping this skill activated.

" We are almost there." replied Rakahn, they carried their catch attached to a long wooden rod, wide and firm enough to support the mass of the gigantic creature.

They had removed the inedible organs to lighten the thickness, but the old bear was still a heavy weight to carry even for a human and a half-ogre.

His companion stopped abruptly and Cliff did the same, concentrating on his senses, Cliff felt that something was wrong with the surrounding mana, he was like... disturbed?

It was as if Cliff was being pushed back, his senses were blurred, he felt lost, furrowing his brows, he saw one place in particular where the disturbance was more crowded and he saw Rakahn heading in that direction.

Confused, Cliff just stared at him, he saw Rakahn stop and placed his hand on the trunk of a tree which had several patterns forming a circle, a second later the circle lit up with a white light.

A sort of dimensional tear no less than two meters high had appeared in front of them, revealing an entrance to a small village, small houses built in wooden frame platforms.

Two men in sets of leather armor were about to approach them;

The two men each had a black onyx horn on their foreheads, one with brown skin and the other with pale skin, they headed towards Rakahn and knelt before him;

"Welcome back Lord Rakahn!! » barked the two men in unison.

"Help us carry this," Rakahn said, pointing to the animal's remains.

Cliff released the corpse, causing the earth beneath his feet to shake, Cliff massaged his shoulders nonchalantly oblivious to the stunned soldiers who came forward and bowed to him saying;

"O Guest of our lord, we will carry him inside the seat of our clan,"

Cliff nodded and walked over to Rakahn, he patted him on the shoulder and Rakahn turned his head in his direction;

"Um... Lord Cliff, your injury!!?"

Cliff came closer and whispered in his ear.

"Aah I understand, I'll gather the villagers first."

With a smug look, Cliff followed Rakahn and passed the entrance to the village.

"This guy…" Cliff said to himself.

"He told me he was a boss, I thought he was a bunch of scum but I was completely wrong" Cliff muttered to himself.

Well I'll ask him to teach me how to use my mana later, I deserve a good rest."

With the insane amount of mana concentrated under his sternum, Cliff hadn't experienced fatigue in days, even sleeping was impossible, but now that a large amount had been consumed while using skills, he felt felt dry, he wanted to take the opportunity to quench his thirst for sleep.

Together they passed the entrance to the village.

A few minutes later Cliff was standing in front of a crowd he was accompanied by Rakahn, the crowd was gathered to introduce him, Cliff was dressed in a long blue tunic with short sleeves and strange patterns on it, this tunic had been given by Rakahn since he was practically naked, his clothes were torn and dirty, so he decided to wear that for now.

He had treated his wounds with the water that had been found in the cave, Rakahn had told him that it was because he was saturated with mana that he had some healing properties and it only worked on monsters, which 'had made me think for a moment.

"Just the monsters huh??"

-" um... hm As you can all notice today we have a great guest, and he is also our savior, from now on he will live among us, have respect for him, us, the half -humans are a people of warriors we obey the strongest and Lord Cliff Brown is the strongest among all of us here, he is the one who has just killed one of the monsters which is part of the big list and he has us offered his meat to satisfy our hunger."  Rakahn paused in his speech and faced me, he stared straight into my eyes, his amethyst eyes shone reflecting the last light emitted by the sun before setting.

"We of Clan Orleth admire his bravery and charity." he shouted, kneeling on the ground.

The crowd did the same, leaving Cliff embarrassed by their excessive reverence.

Cliff intended to settle temporarily in this village while he could gather enough information to be able to decide on his future movements, and here he is in a delicate position.

"Okay, it can be beneficial to make allies"

Cliff cleared his throat and spoke.

"Warriors of Clan Orleth, I am truly grateful to you for this welcome in your midst, eat your fill, it is a gift that I offer you with good will"

There was silence in the crowd until Rakahn stood up and ordered them to go about their business. They got up and left, leaving Cliff and Rakahn alone.

"Um...maybe my speech wasn't pleasant??" Cliff complained, scratching the back of his neck.

"No, that's not it, we demi-humans respect and obey the strongest, since you proved your strength by killing the mischievous bear which is a variant among the bears, they must have said to themselves that 'They better not offend you'" Rakahn replied softly trying to reassure him.

"the poor people must have been paralyzed. » thought Cliff.

A few hours later while everyone was gathered in front of a fire in the middle of the village, Cliff was sitting on a bed made of wool, in front of him was a young woman who had come to serve him his share of the banquet.

"Are you sure you are not going my lord??, the banquet was made in your honor." asked the young woman, her voice slightly soft as her graceful silhouette, she wore light armor made of leather which covered than some specific part of his body, leaving some part of his skin bare.

"Thank you, that's very kind, but today I'm skipping my turn, today I'm really tired, another time?" » replied Cliff, who turned his head, not really knowing where to look.

"'Um... by the way, what's your name?'" Cliff asked, taking a bite of his meat.

"Delicious, they made it spicy!!"

"I was given the name Dahlia ORLETH my lord" replied the young girl

"Ah, that's a pretty name, nice to meet you Dahlia" said Cliff, trying to catch the eye of the young woman who was staring at the ground, looking shy.

"I thank you my lord" said the young woman who was trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.

Cliff just nodded, with a smug look on his face.

"You can arrange, I think I'll go to sleep shortly... Ah tell Rakahn that tomorrow when I wake up to gather everyone for a meeting." »

"Yes my Lord "

Cliff lay down on the bed his eyelids were heavy but he was no longer fighting fatigue, it was time for him to savor the feeling of sleeping in a real bed.

A week, a whole week had seemed like an eternity.