Chapter 37 – Ground komodo tooth sabre
Translated by Sunyancai
Shao Xuan looked at Mai in surprise, for he did not expect him to say something like that.
Wasn’t he supposed to attend the third hunting mission? Why did Mai change his mind?
Unless, it was because of the earlier punch?
“Okay.” Shao Xuan answered.
Of course, Shao Xuan would be very glad to join the next hunting mission. Scenery in the forest changed every day, so one would get to see different sights if he entered the forest in different times. For example, there were some flowers that only bloomed once a year, and some plants would only have fruits and seeds once in a year. So one could see more and experience more when going out earlier. Or one had to wait another whole year to see the same situation.
Lang Ga and Ge both had told him in the past, that many plants in the forest were quite dangerous, so warriors needed to be able to spot and avoid them while hunting. However, one could only know them after seeing them once, or based on other people’s descriptions, one could never get the whole image.
Also, since Mai allowed Shao Xuan to tag along during the next hunting mission, obviously he acknowledged his ability. So Shao Xuan needed to only prepare for the hunting.
At that time, some other person came to look for Mai, that was Tuo. Shao Xuan had met him before and knew that they must have something to discuss, Shao Xuan decided to leave and excused himself.
“Since you are busy Uncle Mai, I will leave now. Thank you again, Uncle Mai!”
After Shao Xuan had left, Mai made a few movements with his stiff palm. He shook his shoulder and slapped his arm, some cracking sounds resounded. Because of Shao Xuan’s punch earlier, a few bones in his arm had been dislocated. And that shake pushed the bones back to where they were supposed to be.
Although his palm looked fine, Mai knew himself that his palm was injured. In the end, he had underestimated the boy!
In fact, Mai had planned to encourage Shao Xuan and persuade him to train more before he could go for a hunting mission. He also intended to share some examples of hunting with him, and take him to the third hunting mission. However, after experiencing the strength of Shao Xuan’s punch, Mai changed his mind.
“What did the boy mean with going back to prepare?” asked Tuo.
“To prepare to tag along with the next hunting mission.” Answered Mai.
Tuo showed some dissatisfaction, “Wasn’t he the one saying that the more preparation, the better? I thought he would be patient enough to wait until the third hunting mission. Did he come to beg you?”
For the sake of the Shaman, Tuo was kind towards Shao Xuan. However, when it came to hunting, Tuo did not want to make the slightest compromise, for, the first hunting mission, that just ended, was a good example. Fei’s several mistakes almost cost the lives of himself and other warriors.
Mai shook his head, “He did not bring up the subject, but I proposed it.”
“Why?” Tuo was even more confused.
Mai’s smile on the face grew bigger and bigger, “Since the blade is already almost finished, sharpening it even more is just a waste of time, for it could not be much more sharper anyway. A talent should not be buried in the tribe, he needs to go outside and challenge himself in the forest.”
As Shao Xuan left Mai’s place, he took big strides going down the mountain. His every step was quite big, and it seemed that he only tipped on the stones and basically just flew down the path.
After going down the mountain, Shao Xuan did not return to his cabin immediately, for he did not worry about Caesar. He knew that Caesar was helping the kids in orphan cave to dig out stone worms.
As he was about to call out Ke’s name in front of old Ke’s house, he saw the straw curtain get lifted fiercely, and an old man with grey hair marched out.
Judging from the old man’s expression, he seemed angry, for his beard almost flew up and reached his eyes.
Seeing Shao Xuan standing at the front door, the old man glimpsed at him from his head to his toe, frowned, as if thinking about something. His look was like a stone knife, trying to peel his body as if he was a stone core in the eyes of the old man. His beard waved a little, suggesting that he wanted to say something. However, in the end, the old man left without saying anything, except for a loud humph.
Shao Xuan was curious about his reaction. Was he mentally disturbed?
Seeing Ge pop his head out and look around, Shao Xuan asked, “Who was that?”
After confirming that the old man had left, Ge chuckled, “That is Lang Ga’s grandfather.”
That was Lang Ga’s grandpa?!
Indeed, he was exactly like Lang Ga’s described him, a grumpy old fellow.
Entering the room, Shao Xuan shared the news that Mai allowed him to tag along during the next hunting mission.
Ge’s jaw almost fell on the ground at the news, he was totally stunned, while old Ke answered with a single “hmm” calmly, as if he had already expected that. Without any more comment, he asked Shao Xuan to come inside and craft the hunting tools.
The stone tools for hunting need to be in much higher quality than those for training purposes, and crafting those stone tools took longer time. Shao Xuan already had plenty stone tools for training, but he only had a few for actual hunting purposes. Half of his handiwork was traded out by old Ke, and he gave those specially-made tools to Lang Ga and Mai as gifts. So what was left for his own use was quite limited in quantity.
Shao Xuan also did not explain more, and he went inside after taking off his animal skin clothes.
Ge looked at the straw curtain hanging there as a separator, and snickered. He knew that old Ke was treating Shao Xuan pretty seriously and he was hiding him from the others!
It was true that during this period of time, old Ke allowed no one to come inside the house. However, there were people like Ge, who would try to enter by using the window. Of course there were also others that couldn’t be stopped by old Ke, and Lang Ga’s grandpa was just one of them.
Old Ke was trying to keep Shao Xuan hidden from the others so he didn’t get stolen away by some other stone crafters.
“Hey, old Ke. Do you know why they allowed Ah-Xuan to join the hunting mission in advance?” asked Ge.
Old Ke remained silence.
“Humph, you can keep your little secret all to yourself anyway.” Ge walked inside and carefully lifted the straw curtain a bit. He quietly stared at Shao Xuan inside, trying to see what was different now, that made the old-fashioned stubborn Mai change his style.
After a while observing, Ge walked back with one hand cupping his jaw with mouth wide open. He was totally stunned, as if he had seen a carnivorous animal suddenly become a herbivore.
“He, he, he…” Before Ge had the chance to describe what he saw, he noticed that old Ke was polishing a tooth-white sabre. All his words were swallowed back into his stomach, and after some time, Ge pointed at the sabre being polished and jabbered, “You, you, you…”
There were a lot of marks on the sabre’s body, and plenty of dense small gaps were spread out over the blade. Seen from afar, they looked like serrations, but in fact, these marks were caused by constant use. The original hilt was broken long time ago, so old Ke tore it down and the handle part now was exposed with an extending part of the sabre, the base the original hilt was installed on.
Ge’s sight was fixed on that sabre and it took him a really long time to come back to his senses. He had guessed what old Ke was about to do, which surprised him, that was even more shocking to him than seeing Shao Xuan’s totemic patterns.
When Shao Xuan came out of the room, as he had finished today’s stone cores, old Ke was installing the hilt to that well-polished sabre. The thing he used for the hilt was a special kind of resin. After it had been mixed and heated up, it was then shaped into the shape of a hilt and covered the extending part of the sabre, until it cooled down and then became a new hilt. Shao Xuan also normally uses the same process, as those kinds of hilts felt much better than wooden ones or those made from straw ropes.
“Wait a second, take this sabre with you after I finish with the hilt.” Old Ke said to Shao Xuan, who was just about to leave.
Shao Xuan looked up at that sabre. It was relatively wide, and the blade was nearly half a meter long. The back of the sabre was as thick as a thumb, which was much thicker than most of Shao Xuan’s work.
Judging from Ge’s expression, Shao Xuan knew that the sabre was something significant. He had not yet touched the sabre, so he couldn’t say anything certain, but as he stared at the sabre, he sensed that a heavy icy feeling was permeating in the air, as if it was trying to push people down to the ground.
“That is…?” Shao Xuan was confused.
“That is a sabre made from the tooth of a ground komodo.” Ge glared at the sabre with all the reluctance in the world. He wanted to grab it into his own arms. Ever since old Ke had his leg broken, no one had ever seen that sabre. In the past, he had begged old Ke for a thousand times, but old Ke still refused to take it out and let him have a look. However, now, old Ke was giving the sabre that represented his glorious days to Shao Xuan!
Ge envied Shao Xuan in his heart, but he knew his own situation and he knew that he could only admire it, and lose all other thoughts.
“Ground komodo?!”
It was a ground komodo!
Although Shao Xuan had never seen one in real life, Shao Xuan had heard from Lang Ga and the others, that a ground komodo was a giant beast living under the ground. When facing a ground komodo during a hunting mission, no warrior should think about tossing any stone spearhead at him, and the only thing one could do was to run for their lives. No one wanted to challenge a ground komodo, because a human could never win.
After listening to so many hunting stories from Lang Ga, Shao Xuan had never heard which hunting team had encountered a ground komodo.
After old Ke passed the sabre to Shao Xuan and pushed him out the door, Ge was still staring at Shao Xuan’s back but his sight was fixed on the sabre.
The sabre did not look showy but it was pretty heavy, at least a hundred kilograms. Shao Xuan held the tooth sabre in front of his chest, and his mind was totally blank for a long time as he stood outside the house.