Chương 69: Chapter 68 The Shaman Who Was Fading

For now, he was using the warriors' weapons as an excuse to practise. The first few he produced had been terribly uneven around the cut surfaces. The warriors who received them still celebrated as though they had been given priceless treasures.

"Ugh. Karath's body is becoming stiff." After spending a long time alternating between sawing and mana recovery while sitting cross-legged, Karath stood.

"One, two, three, four." He twisted his body in different directions and stretched. When he finished, Karath selected a relatively balanced section of drake bone and held it with both hands. He placed it across his shoulders, bent his knees, and counted silently. The bone became a barbell for squats. After completing four sets of fifteen repetitions, Karath moved on to deadlifts. Since he lacked a bench, he strapped a drake bone across his back and performed push-ups instead of bench presses.

He repeated several other exercises remembered from gyms and online videos in his former life. After seeing his weakened reflection in the well several days earlier, Karath had immediately begun rebuilding his lost muscle. Arnold had never trained like a professional athlete. He began exercising in his late twenties for basic health maintenance. Programming was a profession that gradually destroyed the body, and surviving without exercise had become increasingly difficult.

Later, when he became the head of a company, appearance and self-discipline also became important. Even so, most of Karath's knowledge came from personal trainers and exercise videos.

"Perhaps Karath should teach the tribe later." The thought occurred while he trained alone. Orcs developed enormous physiques even when their only exercise consisted of fighting and surviving. What would happen if they followed systematic strength training? Karath imagined it. He could almost smell the sweat.

"Still, everyone would enjoy it." In orc society, an enormous muscular body was the highest form of beauty. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. If Karath created exercise equipment and taught them how to use it, the tribe would probably become obsessed. He decided to attempt it later. Then the same routine began again. Karath ground the bone with Wind Cutter. When his mana ran low, he recovered it through breathing.

When his body became stiff from sitting, he stood and exercised. The work that began in the morning finally ended near sunset.

"Here, Aunt Gerina. This one will become Krog's axe." Karath handed her the section of bone he had shaped into an axe head, then ate dinner using the prey brought back by the warriors.

"Karath! You made Kaden's weapon today, right?" Kaden returned carrying prey and immediately asked the same question.

"Buddy, it is time to eat." Karath ignored him. As promised, he selected the part of the monster Buddy liked most and gave it to the wolf. Karath possessed priority over the prey even though he had not participated in the hunt. The reason was simple. It was naturally because Karath was the future chief and the settlement's hero. That was not the reason at all. Karath could have demanded such treatment, but he had no interest in using authority and honour for something so petty. He was a generous man.

This arrangement was a trade. The warriors who received weapons made from drake bone surrendered their priority over the best portions of prey in return. Karath willingly shared part of that reward with Buddy.

"Karath! When will you make mine?"

"Good boy. You are eating well." Ignoring the sound of a noisy dog nearby, Karath stroked Buddy's head while the wolf devoured the meat. Karath was a generous man. After finishing his remarkably magnanimous meal, he returned home and began reading. The books he had first brought from the laboratory had already been read so many times that he had nearly memorised them. That did not matter. The books before him now were different.

Several days earlier, Karath had returned to the underground laboratory with a group of warriors and brought back more volumes. He told them that he had discovered ruins containing the knowledge of the ancestors. The lie was ridiculous, but no one questioned it. Thus, Karath worked and exercised from morning until evening, then studied at night. His life became the perfect example of labouring by day and reading after dark.

"Yaaawn." The following morning, Karath stretched as he rose. As usual, he left the house intending to head toward the warehouse.

"Waaaah!"

"Krahahaha! You are not going to cry today, are you, Kuzan?" Several orcs had gathered before another house and were laughing excitedly.

"Ah. Today is Kuzan's coming-of-age ceremony." Karath finally remembered that it was his cousin's birthday. Kuzan had been born five months after him. Karath recalled his own ceremony and decided to watch for a while.

"D-do you think Kuzan would cry?" Kuzan emerged from the house while making an unconvincing display of courage. He headed toward the home of Kairin, the tribe's official shaman. When Kuzan approached, Kairin opened the door to welcome him. Karath's expression immediately hardened. Only five months had passed since his own coming-of-age ceremony. During that brief period, Kairin's face had become far more gaunt. Shamans aged rapidly whenever they performed their rituals.

The previous shaman, Aunt Garlik, had suffered the same fate. Karath had never understood the reason or known how to solve it. Because of that, he had deliberately ignored the problem. Primitive faith remained important to the Bloodclaw Tribe. No matter how much influence Karath gained, he could not simply order them to abandon their rituals. However, the first thing Karath remembered when trying to sense mana had been the spiritual power used by Kairin and Garlik.

There had to be some connection between shamanism and magic.

"Damn it. Karath became too obsessed with the drake." From the moment he first learned magic until the monster's death, Karath had focused entirely upon finding a way to kill it. He never considered helping Kairin. That explanation was only another excuse. More than a month had passed since the drake hunt. The truth was that Karath had not treated her condition as a serious problem. While he ignored it, she continued fading. Karath had intended to use magic to protect and strengthen every member of the tribe.

Instead, he had neglected one of them.

"Wait." Karath stepped forward. There could be no exceptions within his tribe.

"Kairin, Kuzan. Would it be all right if Karath entered and watched today's ceremony?" For now, he intended to observe her ritual directly. He would discover the true nature of orc shamanism and find a solution that could save her.