Chapter 21: On your own

Solan entered the council room, and as he expected, everyone was there. He hadn’t even called for a meeting, but it was common for them to meet when important events happened in the village.

"What is our next course of action?" Elder Nala asked.

"It’s clear that we will prepare for war, yes?" Elder Warren was sure, confident that Solan would see the truth now and would want to go to war.

Solan leaned on his open palm as his elbow rested on the new table. He looked around at each elder before breaking his silence. "I’m undecided."

"What?!" Warren was furious. He couldn’t believe that after everything that happened, Solan still didn’t wish to attack the Typhon Tribe.

"Can we hear your reasoning, Chief?" Elder Hal asked

"It’s their motive, their reason for attacking us. We don’t know it. So, until we do, I will not make any rash moves."

"That’s cowardice speaking!" Warren shouted.

"No, it’s wise." Elder Lars agreed with Solan. He didn’t wish to send their people to an untimely death.

"No! I do not, will not accept this! We lost a warrior today; he had a child!"

Solan sat up straight to speak this time. "And he served his duty. Do you wish to take other fathers and mothers away from their families? Sons and daughters away from their parents? We need to learn their motive, Elder Warren. Once we do, then we can start making preparations to deal with the Typhon Tribe."

"You’re nothing but a coward!" Warren spat.

"Warren!"

"No!" He looked around at his councilmen and at the chief. "No! No! No! No! No! I will not sit back and watch as our people are picked off one by one! If you will not handle this, then I will!"

Solan’s glare made Warren swallow hard, but he didn’t back down. "Who agrees with me?" Warren asked

No one raised their hand or spoke up, and Warren broke the silence with an annoyed growl.

"Warren, I will not stop you from what you’re doing, but if you decide to leave, you and whoever follows you will not be welcomed back into this tribe, as you will be going against the council and your chief."

"Once I get rid of the Typhon Tribe, I will return to show you my accomplishments. Lord Nemean shall watch over me, lead me to victory, and they will forgive me for my transgressions against you all. But I will not apologize. Goodbye, Solan."

When Warren left the room, Elder Trena turned her attention toward Chief Solan.

"You’re just going to let him go?"

"Arguing with him would only lead to more conflict. Letting him go is for the best. If he returns victorious, then that is on me, and I will beg the gods for forgiveness for my incompetence."

---

Over the course of the next few months, Kanan spent his time around the village learning about every Role to register them in his system.

Simply seeing them in action was enough to register them in the system, but Kanan also wanted some hands-on experience. So he worked hard to learn what to do, using the system for help when he needed it.

He found farming pretty easy, but that was a given since he used to help out on the farm some years ago.

Blacksmithing was incredibly hard, and Kanan had nothing but respect for the blacksmith and his apprentices.

Lumberjacking was fairly easy for him. Having enhanced strength allowed him to chop wood with no issues at all. If it weren’t for the fact that the lumberjacks knew Kanan wasn’t blessed yet, they would have assumed he was blessed with their Role.

Mining wasn’t too fun. Spending hours working in a hot cave, constantly coughing because of the dust and dirt, while also needing to avoid loose and falling rocks was something Kanan was fine not doing ever again.

This, of course, had him get laughed at by the workers, including Viola, but he didn’t mind. After all, once they were finished working, he would fuck her so hard that she would pass out. At least these times he was able to cum inside her.

He didn’t get hands-on experience with some Roles such as Guards, warriors, and hunters. He had promised Glena that he wouldn’t hunt anymore.

However, after a food scare, she allowed him to go on hunts with the expierenced hunters so he could bring back some food. So, he did get hands-on hunting expierence after all.

Once every Role was registered in the system, he would spend hours reading over all of the information so he could familiarize himself with everything.

He didn’t truly understand why he was given this system by the gods, but he would make sure to use it for his people and their future.

Each day got colder and colder; the nights were longer, and snow started to fall. Winter had come.

The Typhon Tribe hadn’t done anything after their first few attempts failed, so the village was able to relax and look forward to the upcoming blessing ceremony.

"Ah, what a beautiful day it is. The sun’s out, the weather is nice, a bit cold, but nice, and I have enough food to last for two weeks. Yeah, this is great."

"Kanan? What are you doing?" A woman asked, walking to his hut

"Oh. Warrior Selin. Good morning."

"I told you already, just call me Selin." Selin was one of the warriors in the Village. All of the young people looked up to her, as she was among the most powerful and friendliest to approach.

She was also good friends with Dilon, so they shared a common acquaintance.

"Sorry, sometimes I forget. What brings you here today?"

"Do you remember when you were attacked by that Typhon Tribeswoman?"

Kanan couldn’t forget. "Yeah, I do. Are they back?"

"Heh, no, they’re not. We had captured those months ago, interrogated them, and now they are sentenced to death. However, the chief decided to let you young ones finish the job. So, we chose nine promising young adults like you to participate. Come."

It was common for young children to learn about every task before getting their own blessing. This helped when there were certain tasks that didn’t have enough people in them. Around a quarter of the farmers were retired warriors and hunters.

"I see." Kanan followed behind her. As a warrior, Selin wore more clothing than others to protect her body. Still, she showed off a lot of skin.

Maybe it was because of the way her ass swayed, but Kanan reached out and grabbed it, giving the soft flesh a squeeze.

"Kanan? What are you doing?" A genuine question, with no malice or disgust in her words.

"I just had the sudden urge to grab your butt. Sorry. It felt nice."

"Haha, well, if you think so, then you can grab it again later. We’re here."

They had walked outside the village to a spot where no one was around. It would be bad if the villagers heard the cries of people getting killed.

Other people around Kanan’s age, soon-to-be-blessed, as they were called, were present. He recognized some of them, like Terin, but others, not so much.

There were nine of them, yet there were ten prisoners.

"Now that Selin is here, we can begin." A tall, muscular man proclaimed. "I’m sure that all of you might not like what we will be doing today, but it is imperative that you learn how to take a life."

Some of Kanan’s peers were eager to learn, while others didn’t have the same drive.

"Our village isn’t what it used to be, so we need to be strong for the next generation. Even if you do not get the Blessing of a Warrior, this feeling is something that will help you in times of need. Hesitation will get you killed, so we aim to eliminate that hesitation."

His words were the truth. Living in such a world meant that you had to kill to survive, no matter what your role was. It was an eat-or-be-eaten type of world.

The man grabbed a spear that was handed to him and aimed it at a prisoner’s chest. There were 10 of them, one for the man to kill as a demonstration, and the other nine for the soon-to-be-blessed.

"You will take this spear, then you will jab it into their hearts like this." In one clean motion, the spear was lodged into the man’s chest, blood spewing from his mouth as his body went limp.

[Registering Task: Warrior - Press for more details]