GENSHIN MAD: CHAPTER 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4: Discovery!

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After killing the 3 boars, the same golden light thing happened.

The dead bodies of the boars shone golden and then condensed into balls of light that found their way inside me.

This time, three of them only levelled me up once. I was now level 3.

It is all good. They were only boars, I haven't even hunted a proper monster yet.

Then we collected the loot. Now we had exactly 15 meat slices.

Mean wanted to run back to the tribe immediately and give them the meat. I was not sure why she was having such thoughts though. Did the Shaman do some magic when he said, "Go out and hunt for the tribe!"?

I of course stopped her. I gave a short explanation that all this meat was our hunt, and we should worry about ourselves first before the tribe. She reluctantly accepted my offer and we ate the first two slices of meat.

Eating it raw did taste strange, but not as strange as I was expecting it to be. Hilichurl tongue? I still cooked the meat though.

I wasn't sure about starting a fire in the jungle, but we were at the edge of the cliff. After gathering some dry leaves and two sticks, I tried some techniques on how to start a fire that I learnt from Bear Grils. To think I will actually need his advice one day… Thanks, Bear.

We ate 10 slices of meat. I ate 6 and gave Mean 4. She didn't mind and even was reluctant to accept so much. She's a good guy-... girl. Fuuuh.

"And these 5 would go to the tribe?"

Mean asked as she ate the cooled meat by raising her mask just enough to show her mouth, same with me. I didn't want to see her face while eating food.

Also, aren't 5 slices a bit too many? Hm, should I eat some more?

"..." I nodded with a sigh. "Yes, this would do."

Then again, these meats aren't exactly normal, I realised it after eating some. They heal injuries and recharge stamina. My injuries were healed after levelling up, but Mean still had quite a few scars. So as she ate the food, the scars slowly healed on their own.

Mean was surprised to find out such a thing existed. Heck, she was surprised when the boars just disappeared in the air. She didn't know if that was normal or not, because whatever information the Shaman put in our head, didn't let us know everything.

When we finished eating, I realised normally the bodies don't just disappear, after we came across a Wolf killing some boars and feeding on them.

It was shocking seeing wolves outside Wolvendom, meaning he wasn't with a pack, but we quickly scrambled away since the wolf was a whopping [Level 32].

Since the dead bodies normally don't dissipate, it's safe to say the reason is my [Player] skill. Moreover, the meat I got as loot wasn't normal, unlike the one the wolf was feeding into. I could tell since he was covered in bruises and wounds, but none of them even showed signs of healing.

After that, running far from the wolf, we started heading back 'home'.

It was a hard way home since after I was attacked by the Large Anemo Slime I had run without marking the way. But because of the Mini Map, we weren't wandering randomly for much longer.

When we got closer to the village, tribe, or whatever, I noticed something. I looked at my spot on the map and stopped.

I took cover behind a cliff, waved Mean to hide beside me, and then observed the fight ahead of us after that.

Hilichurls of different levels were fighting in front of me. There were two groups. One had 6 people, most at Level-1 and some at Level-2, while the other team had only two people, but both of them were Level-10s.

Why were Hilichurls fighting amongst themselves...?

Though it wasn't even a fight. The higher level ones were playing with the kids, the newborns. I recognised them for some reason. They all looked the same, but I recognised them as the guys who were born with me.

"B-bastad, those are our people!"

Mean muttered from behind, fright and worry present in her voice. I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Act as if we never saw this," I said seriously. "They are low level, so are we. But the enemies look very strong. Going there won't help, and would instead risk our own lives."

I wasn't the type to risk my life for people I didn't know, let alone monsters.

Mean nodded very reluctantly. She understood that if even I didn't want to fight, she didn't have a chance.

Making sure the enemies don't see us, and also making sure we don't come across any other of them, we fled from there. While wondering about something…

Why were they fighting?

I doubt Hilichurls would randomly fight amongst each other, and the newborns didn't seem to have any food on their hands either… Different tribes? Factions?

I am interested now.

—★—

When we returned to the village, a large crowd of at least 40 Hilichurl caught my eyes.

I kept the meat in a leather bag I luckily found in the forest and walked forward to see what's happening. Mean followed me.

"Everyone, everyone!"

The happy and squeaky voice of the Shaman from back then found its way into my ears, as I somehow managed to slip into the crowd.

The crowd was surrounding the Samachurl from before, and beside him, the Hilichurl Young Master from before stood. I forgot his name though.

"Hugan, the boy who was born as a Level 3 has again achieved the impossible!" The Shaman shouted. "He has reached Level 5 and attained his Element!"

...Oh?

That's… shocking. I have a system, yet I only gained 2 levels in a day. Moreover, since he started high, levelling up would have been harder for him. Yet he still got 2 levels. Makes me wonder what's so special about him… I doubt he is a Reincarnator, he doesn't act that way, so how did he grow so quickly?

"Our King was very pleased when he heard that a Level 3 was born." The Shaman started again. "That's why he hunted some fresh monsters and gave Hugan here some Monster Cores."

"Monster Cores?" A Hilichurl asked out loud. From the looks of it, he was a newborn.

The Shaman tapped his stick on the ground in displeasure before shaking his head.

"Oh yes, I forgot the other newborns existed… Hah." He sighed. "You see, when a monster dies, besides its heart, a condensed Orb of Life manifests. If you eat the Orb, you gain a bit of the monster's life force and mana which enhances your body a bit. Similarly, after feeding 30 Large Slime Cores, Hugan here managed to level up to 5!"

Oh… so that's how he did. By cheating. Though I am not the one to talk. I should be able to jump up to Level 5 right away after killing a single Large Slime.  I guess while a Monster Core gives others a 'bit' of the dead monster's life force, my System absorbs its entirety into me with that Golden Light thing.

I am all good. Let's wait another day before I get my own Element.

The Shaman talked again. "Hugan, why don't you show the others what element you got and what it can do?"

Hugan nodded with a similarly squeaking yes.

He had a bow in his hand that he raised in the air and pointed at the target dummy behind him, around 10 meters away.

He stuck an arrow on his bow, pulling the string behind. The arrowhead then suddenly started to brighten up, a red and orange light shone on its tips.

He released the string and the arrow flung forward, hitting the dummy which caught on fire.

Pyro Element, huh?

"Pyro Element, as you can see!"

Meh.

Nothing special for a Hilichurl. The Pyro Hilichurls are basically everywhere.

"As I have said before, upon reaching level 5, you will gain an element chosen by the Abyss," Samachurl said. "Hugan here was lucky to get the Pyro element, one of the most destructive elements. We Hilichurls are truly blessed by the Abyss. That's why we can use elements without a Vision, unlike humans. It is sorrowful that we only live 10 years, if not, Hilichurls would have been the rulers of this world."

Ah, abyss? Right, unlike humans who worship Gods and Archons, Hilichurls worship the Abyss. That’s why the Abyss Order can so easily manipulate them.

The Shaman then hissed. "Tch, tch, with Hugan growing so rapidly, it's only a matter of months before we have another Mitachurl in our tribe. This way, we will surely win the fight with the Left Side."

"The Left Side?" Another newborn asked, causing the Shaman to growl, but he answered nonetheless.

"If you have gone your way out of the village, you might have seen a bigger Hilichurl Village on the left to ours. They and we have been at war for centuries now. Sometimes we won, took over them, and sometimes they did it. Now, we both had our own sides and were at constant war with each other, currently, they seem to be winning…” He pointed at the dusk sky. “It's getting late, yet, as you can see, many of the Hilichurl newborns aren't back. Some died to monsters, yes, but some were probably raided by those Left Side bastards."

Oh, that clears things up. I nodded.

The Hilichurls we met before must be the ones from the Left Side.

I checked the map again, and as he said, there indeed were two villages separated by a rising wall of earth and rock.

The Shaman was about to talk again as I raised a hand, interrupting him.

"I have a question about elements." I couldn't see his face, but his body language told me he was displeased at me speaking.

"Oh, Bastad, you didn't die in the wild, huh." He grumbled. "Go on, speak your mind."

Ignoring his words, I cleared my throat. "Wielding Elemental powers uses mana, right? It would be a very sticky situation if we run out of Mana mid-battle, in that case. So is there any way for us to increase our mana reserves? Without levelling up, I mean."

That's a question I was interested in. Genshin Impact might be different from the typical fantasy worlds, but it was heavily inspired by both CN and JP fantasy worlds. Basically Cultivation and Medieval worlds. The game Devs were fucking Otakus, after all.

Considering it is indeed inspired by other works, there should be ways to increase one's mana enough so that even a Mitachurl can use Samachurl spells. Right?

"Bfft!" The Samachurl scoffed mockingly. "That's not how it works, boy. Or you think there won't be spell-casting Mitachurl running everywhere, hmm? Stop asking useless questions and use your common sense."

...True, I could see that much from the get-go. But let's be real, with Hilichurls only living 10 years, how much progress can they make in the field of Magic? Moreover, they are dumb monsters. They are also cut from the human world, who are the only ones who should be researching on this subject of Mana capacity growth.

I bowed. "I see. Thank you for clearing things up."

Thank you for clearing up that monsters are dumb fucks.

He waved his hands and instead turned to Hugan. "Follow me, boy, you are a great future asset for the tribe. But we can't just make you train and grow stronger. We need to reward you handsomely too."

The Shaman then walked to the rising cliff and touched the mud wall. Before I could question his sanity again, the wall split apart, a cave coming out of the veil. Clearly, that was magic.

The Shaman guided the young master to the cave, and as he vanished inside, I heard the grunts of some human women… Uh.

Dammit.

A sigh escaped me as I shook my head. Let's not forget I am no longer a human. Better accept that truth before I do amature Monster Mc mistakes.

Pretending I don't have ears, I turned around and guided Mean with me.

I should try some cliche Cultivation or Magic techniques on myself to grow my Mana reserves. Who knows, maybe it will work? If not, I would have at the very least, tried.

I am fond of magic, but the idea of being stuck as a Samachurl isn't fun. I am more of a Spell Sword guy.

Let's see, whatever happens, will be for good.

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