Chapter 129 Atessa
Ling followed the aboriginals to a natural valley in the Death Ridge.
The vegetation here was also brimming with vitality, but they lacked a sense of strangeness compared to the mutated plants outside. Walking along the path, Ling was certain that they were just ordinary plants, and that they would not be aggressive except for producing plenty of oxygen during the day for the valley.
In the center of the valley, there was a small pond. The pond was only about ten meters long and wide and glistening. Armed aboriginals were guarding the pool. It was obvious that this pool was very important to them.
Surrounding the pond were layers upon layers of wooden huts. However, these layers of woods were built on top of large trees with tangled roots. The wooden huts were simple and rough, but they were natural and primitive.
There were 30 wooden huts in the tribe. According to Ling's calculations, the population of this tribe must be at least a hundred people. It was not a large tribe, but it was not small either. When strangers like Ling and Monnie entered the valley, naturally they would attract the attention of the aboriginals.
The misunderstanding between Ling and the aboriginal woman was dispelled by the arrival of the prophet named Gutner. It was clear that Gutner did not belong to the semitic tribe named by the prophet, either in race or in knowledge. Gutner's fair skin distinguished him from these dark-skinned aboriginals, and it was only after Gutner's explanation that Ling learned that the clear water he had spoken of was the source of life for the Semitic people.
And the source of life that the Semitic tribe regarded as treasure was actually the pool of water in the valley.
Gutner had been a geographer and explorer, and he and his team members encountered a danger during an expedition ten years ago. All his team but himself had died in the forbidden land, and Gutner was fortunate enough to be saved by the Semitics. It was not appropriate to say that the Semitic people saved him. For them, the dazed Gutner was the delicacy for them.
However, when Gutner woke up, he used his advanced knowledge to shock the Semitic people, and was thus regarded as a prophet by the chief of the Semitic tribe. Gutner, too, liked the simple and naive aboriginals, and he stayed, using his knowledge to bring a little more leverage to the survival of the Semitic people.
Among the things Gutner had done for the aboriginals, his greatest contribution was to find the groundwater that the Semitic people called the source of life. This was also thanks to Mr. Gutner's rich geographic knowledge, which would have been a miracle to find an acceptable water in an area full of radiation sources in the Death Ridge. Before Gutner's arrival, the aboriginals either drank the mutated beasts' blood directly or dug out roots that had plenty of water to extract the sap as water source. However, no matter what method was used, it was extremely dangerous. Thus, the average lifespan for the semitic tribe was around twenty years.
Until Gutner found the water, few Semitic people had died of lack of water in nearly a decade.
However, the water source here was not very plentiful either. Other than a small amount of groundwater, due to the radiation in the Death Ridge, the water could only last for about one day. It could be said that the existence of the source of life was only able to distance the members of the Semitic tribe from death. In this jungle, there were also other lethal elements other than water.
In the valley, torches were lit in front of every wooden hut, and a bonfire was placed near the source of life to illuminate the surrounding space. This was the most primitive illumination. Entering such a primitive tribe from the new era which was full of light, Ling felt he was in a trance. It was as if time had gone back to the old days, the good old days.
But the blue flame in Gutner's hut reminded Ling that he was still in a turbulent age which was full of danger.
After sending Ling's group to the house of the prophet, the semitic woman left with her guards. As for the injured aboriginal, he was taken to the tribe's witch doctors for cure, along with the corpse of the shield snake. Gutner ordered the aboriginals to strip off the scales of the shield snake, which could not even been shot through by an M500 and make it into astonishing defensive soft armor combined with some oak fibers.
This was another contribution Gutner had done to the Semitic race. Although he was not a master of weapons, the many years of experience in exploration had brought him into contact with various knowledge. Even the hacksaw used by the woman was designed by Gutner, and he himself went to Phoenix City, where the forger had made it out of his designs.
In the house of the Gutner, Ling saw an oval vessel. There were four or five strange flowers floating in the vessel. From the veined lines of the small flowers with five petals showed a faint blue light trace and the whole flower gave off a bluish white glow, illuminating the entire wooden hut. But Ling knew that their function was more than just illumination, because Ling felt intense radiation from them.
However, the vessel containing the flowers must be encrypted and processed to minimize the leakage of radioactive substances from the blue flowers.
"Go as you like, but don't touch that thing." Gutner pointed at the oval container. "That's Death Flower, have you heard of it?" Yes, they have the strongest radiation in Death Ridge. Believe me, ordinary people will die in five minutes if they directly touches it. "Even though this world is not worthy of nostalgia …"
Gutner poured two bowls of water for Monnie and Ling and gave them some dried meat from some unknown beast.
While the two of them were eating, Gunter kept asking Ling questions about the outside world. It was obvious that the old man had been cut off from the outside world too long, and Ling could think of no reason why he would be willing to stay in this backward and dangerous place.
Monnie had fallen asleep in Gutner's endless questions. The Prophet asked Ling to carry Monnie to the corner of the hut to sleep, but he was studying Colt with a magnifying glass in his hand, as if he were looking at a rare treasure.
Ling didn't want to bother him and walked to the door, looking at the quiet world outside.
It was already late in the night. Other than the guards beside the source of life, the rest of the semitic tribe had fallen asleep. However, in an empty space near the origin of life, there was a graceful figure moving up and down.
It was the black girl who had almost attacked Ling. She held the hacksaw in her hand as she continued to make various attacks on the empty ground. From afar, she looked like an elf dancing in the night, full of a dreamy feeling.
"The child's name is Atessa." Gutner's voice came behind him. He didn't look back, but he seemed to know who Ling had saw.
It seemed this girl, Atessa would practice these combat techniques every night. Thinking this way, Ling observed from afar. However, from her agile movements and the occasional attack posture that far exceeded the ordinary human body's limit, he was certain that this young girl had some achievements in the fighting field. Judging from the waves of silver light on the surface of her weapon as she waved, she also touched upon the elemental domain.
Generally speaking, one who possessed abilities of two different domains was called versatile person, who were either mediocre or talented people. After all, no one could develop the whole abilities of the entire domain. The potential of human beings was limited. Those who wanted to develop the abilities of the entire domain were simply too greedy. In the end, they would only end up empty-handed.
The higher someone was in a specific domain, the more he would focus on developing the domain he was proficient in. Versatile person was also a master of one domain, while ability of the other domains could only be used as an auxiliary.
Ling could be said to be a versatile master. His current ability covered the fighting, sensing, and elemental domains. However, he had no intention of evoluting into new abilities of other domains, as well as the Fire Element that he had absorbed from Soron. The reason was simple. The strengthening of agility in the fighting area could be used to display Ling's best marksmanship. Instead of developing the domain that he was not good at, he preferred to invest his points of evolution in agility to enhance this ability.
Of course, as his understanding of the world of adepts deepened, Ling also understood that Agility wasn't a very powerful ability. On the contrary, it was only a very common auxiliary ability. Therefore, Ling's investment in it was also limited to the early stage. Now, Ling kept the evolution points intact not prepared to invest blindly in any one of these things until he has found a power that suited him and was more powerful.
If everything went well, Atessa who also had versatile abilities would be at least be proficient in cold weapons, low rank strength, Agility, as well as an unknown level of light element proficiency. This was a judgment made after observing her by Ling. Being able to possess these abilities was already a great potential in a backward tribe.
Most importantly, she was still young.
And youth represented the limitless future!
"She is my favorite child, as well as the pride of the Semitic race." Gunter was still not ready to put down the Colt, but he kept his eyes on the sniper and said, "Do you know what does the name Atessa mean?" In the language of the Semitic race, it means the Moon's daughter, and the Semitic people worship the Moon, so you see how Atessa is revered in this tribe, not much lower than me who carries the name of a Prophet. "
"Moon's daughter?"
Ling murmured the ancient word. When he said the last word, Atessa who was in the distance stopped the deadly dance, she seemed to sense it and looked toward Ling.
The darkness of the night could not hide the light in Atessa's eyes which was like the moon sky filled with frost!