The Valtori tribe

The young beastman wanted nothing more than to tear apart the one who slaughtered his brother, but upon looking at Maya he was stunned. Since when did their Valtori tribe have such a beautiful yet capable female?

Female or not, he was still wary of her.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't see him properly, l assumed he was a wild beast trying to attack me"

The beastman re-evaluated her, a female was...apologising? Could she be one of the tamed ones? Thinking of this, he got excited and didn't care about his dead brother anymore. Not even your real brother is more important than your own offsprings in their Valtori tribe.

"You just killed my brother, you'll have to give back something of equal value to me...a life!"

"Are you saying...I have to give up my life?" Maya's gaze slowly turned cold, her life was a line he shouldn't cross!

The beastman felt a sudden pressure descend on him, he panicked and blurted out "no you misunderstood, I only meant that you should bear my offerings to continue our lineage!"

Maya was irked but the pressure decreased by a lot "not interested"

The beastman could feel that this female wasn't simple, it would be bad to make an enemy out of her. if she could kill someone as strong as her brother in one strike then she had to be and apprentice shifter, in the Valtori tribe, apprentice shifters were revered and rare.

"There is one more option, you can take a life for me"

Maya thought he was talking about hunting beasts, so she took out two dull brown beast cores and presented them while slightly bowing "will these do? I really am sorry about your brother. It was an accident, please forgive me, I could return him if I could, but unfortunately l can't."

Seeing the two basic beast cores, the beastman was elated, even though he could get these himself if he mobilised a team of 5, it still saved a lot of trouble to be given for free. And he could tell that they came from a beast with earth affinity, therefore, their defence had to be neat. Unable to hold in his excitement, he exclaimed "these will make an excellent shield or armour!"

Maya's ears perked up "you know a blacksmith?"

Seeing Maya's interest he chuckled proudly "My great uncle is one of the best blacksmiths in the whole tribe!"

"Can you take me to him?" Maya asked eagerly.

"Sure, but that will cost you one more beast core"

He was only joking, but unexpectedly, Maya took out another beast core of similar quality. He was stunned but still received it and gestured that she follows him.

"It's a little hard to hide the fact that you are a female if you don't shift into your beast form. Please do, otherwise the whole desert will know of you"

Maya took a good look around and realised that they were indeed in a desert, even though she wanted her presence to remain a secret, it made no difference if she transformed..

"Um...l can't...i'm low on energy"

The beast man looked at her tattered clothing and wounds, he understood that she must have been in a great battle. If she was currently weakened but still managed to kill his brother with one hand, he shivered on the thought of what she was capable of when in full strength.

'luckily l didn't attack her on impulse or I would be a mangled corpse before l could blink'

Along the way, other beast men spotted the two of them and very soon, the whole tribe heard about the new female.

They finally reached what looked like a moderately sized sand dune, the beast man rolled away the heavy stone and entered with Maya.

A short elderly beast man with long grey ears saw the two of them and exclaimed in terror "Muddy! What have you done?"

"What's wrong uncle?"

The elderly beast man got up and jumped to slap Muddy in the face "you dare ask me what's wrong? What's wrong with you!"

Muddy was embarrassed to have been beaten In front of a female, he stole a glance at her indifferent expression before complaining "can you not hit me? what did I do wrong?"

"You bought a female in my dune! Salmon should be aware about this by now, you have invited trouble into my dune! Quickly throw her out!" He said anxiously.

Maya step forward "sorry to be a bother, but am only here to ask you to make some armour for me. Once you are done, I will be out of your hair"

"My hair?" He grabbed his long grey hair and inspected it thoroughly.

"No..l meant that I will be on my way"

"Are you crazy? By the time I gather all the materials Salmon would have slaughtered us all!" He nervously bit on his fingernails.

"How about this, I will try my best to protect your dune and you will make me my armour"

"You are the one who brought trouble, why must l pay you to chase away your own trouble?" He retorted as his small nose twitched nonstop.

Maya bought out 3 basic beast cores "I will pay you with these"

The elderly beastman looked at them and laughed mockingly "you think some mere basic beast cores will arouse my interest? You jest me."

Maya gritted her teeth and bought out a yellow coloured soft glowing beast core, when the beast man saw these his eyes lit up "now we are talking!"

He quickly swiped his hand and took away both the mid-tier beast core and the basic ones. Maya wanted to complain but the beast man had already hopped away from her.

Now she only remained with one of the two mid-tier beast cores Smith had given her, the ones she has obtained last night were either absorbed or squandered by those two greedy beast men. At the moment she couldn't less, the fatigue was gaining up on her. She weakly closed her eyes and slept on a pile of hay she found comfortable, half way into her sleep, she could hear the beast man's screech of dispair.

"My food! Female, how dare you! Quickly pay me two more mid-tier beast cores or I will take you to Salmon myself..."

Maya ignored him, she was too tired to respond and soon she feel into a deep sleep.

Looking at the unbothered female, the elderly beast man's nose twitched and he jumped towards Muddy who was lost in thought staring at Maya.

He was brought out of his reverie when a stinging slap landed on his cheek "uncle! Don't hit me!"

But he was only ignored as the beastman hopped away in annoyance grumbling about Muddy bringing a curse into their house. But when he reached his work bench, he took out the yellow beast core and smiled 'what a foolish female, paying me a mid-tier beast core to make her armour? I have never even seen a mid-tier beast core in all 138 years of my life!'