Lo, Karin, Thomas, and Queen were all patriarchs.
When they were young and didn’t know how to be good patriarchs, the tribes were close to each other, closer than other tribes. Naturally, they often gathered to complain and give each other advice. In winter, whichever tribe had more food would share with the others.
But their stable life was shattered when the Golden Lion tribe wanted to unite with other beastmen to establish a beastman nation.
Because they gullibly believed the lies of the Golden Lion tribe and were betrayed by the Black Wolf tribe, almost all the warriors who participated in that battle sacrificed themselves. Only a few lucky ones survived, but due to severe injuries, their lifespans were greatly shortened, and they passed away one after another not long after.
Lo also sacrificed herself in that battle.
She and Queen were originally in love and even had Galvin. The two discussed merging the two tribes to live together, but unexpectedly, disaster struck. Queen lost her partner, and Galvin lost his other mother.
From then on, Queen’s personality became harder.
Thomas was originally supposed to go to battle with the warriors, but Eric’s mother stopped him and insisted on going with her partner.
At that time, she was already pregnant with Eric, only she and the others didn’t know.
One could imagine Thomas’s guilt towards Eric.
For all these years, he regretted it constantly. He was the reason a child who had come with such difficulty lost both parents and had a weak body. The boundless tolerance for Eric stemmed from this.
He and Luci, out of guilt and pity, had treated Eric as more important than their own son for years. Whether it was Eric’s difficult personality before or his intelligent and capable appearance now, their hearts regarding him as their own had never changed.
No matter the cost, Thomas would not give up on Eric.
Luci pulled at his sleeve, slowly shaking her head at him, telling him to calm down.
She stood in front of Thomas:
"I apologize for bringing up your sad memories, but Thomas’s words are also what is in my heart. The two of us will absolutely not give up on Eric. As for how to conduct the transaction, that still needs to be discussed. If we really must send warriors to the human world..."
Luci took a few deep breaths and gave a smile that was uglier than crying:
"Thomas and I will clearly ask for the warriors’ opinions; we will absolutely not force anyone. Thomas and Max will both go."
Michael nodded, glancing at Grass, Kevin, and Sam: "We are all willing to go. Even if there really is a trap, we won’t let the humans have peace."
A crack appeared on Queen’s cold face, her voice slightly hoarse:
"Suit yourselves, but I will definitely not agree. Thomas, with Eric gone, you are the patriarch; you must think of the other tribe members."
Suppressing his agitated emotions for the moment, Thomas said:
"I know. Now that you, Karin, and Joseph are here, you are all intelligent people. If something unfortunate really happens in the end, the Hadu tribe is entrusted to you."
He made a gesture of invitation and led Henry away first.
Since the beastmen had shown sincerity, Henry wouldn’t act haughtily.
This matter was nothing short of a pleasant surprise for him. Such an opportunity was truly rare. To receive help from beastmen was unprecedented among human nations.
...
In the darkness, Eric felt as if he was lying in a pitch-black space, unable to sense the existence of his body.
Wandering in chaos, suddenly, a sharp, piercing pain came from his head. Eric couldn’t help but cry out in pain.
He had never overused magic power like this. The most serious case before was just using it up, leaving his body feeling tired.
Eric recalled his magic power and spiritual power being overdrawn. He felt that besides the headache, even his soul seemed to be torn apart.
[The higher the rank, the less one can easily deplete magic and spiritual power. Aside from Elves who have the ability to self-heal, whether human or beastman, one must be careful. There have been many grand mages who became invalids unable to care for themselves after confronting enemies.]
Suddenly, Eric remembered the words Evan said when teaching him magic. He could still clearly recall Evan’s serious and solemn expression at that time.
Back then, Eric didn’t think much of it. After all, he only used magic for farming; surely he wouldn’t deplete his magic and spiritual power just by farming.
Especially spiritual power, which was energy produced directly from the soul. Eric had once suspected that it was because he had swapped souls that he could use a beastman’s body to learn magic.
When Evan left, he said that Eric had now reached the level of a high-level mage, so the sequelae of depleting spiritual power would also be more severe.
It hurt so much. Even though he was deep in darkness and his body couldn’t move, his forehead was covered in sweat, his face pale with pain.
Arthur searched around his cave, dragged out a piece of magic beast skin from a corner, spread it over his bed of gold coins, and only then gently placed Eric on it.
He crouched down, seeing Eric’s uncomfortable appearance. He scratched his ears and head in confusion, thinking anxiously for a long time before finally finding the quickest solution in the inherited memories in his head.
Without hesitation, a red-gold scale appeared on his forehead. Arthur used force with his hand, slowly peeling the scale off bit by bit. The scale was hard; even for him, it was very difficult.
Gritting his teeth tightly, he focused all the source power of his body into his hand. Only then did the root of the scale finally detach from his body.
Golden blood slowly trickled down. Arthur didn’t care to wipe it off. He placed the scale on the center of Eric’s forehead and whispered a mysterious ancient incantation.
Eric, deep in the dark space, felt a wave of coolness throughout his body. The violent headache also slowly subsided. The space he was in began to brighten up bit by bit, like the sun rising in the east.
As the incomprehensible language continuously reached his ears, sounding like a drowsy literature class, Eric, who originally had no physical form, also condensed into a semi-transparent body.
In the space that gradually turned milky white, Eric looked curiously at his semi-transparent hand, then lowered his head to look at his body, through which light could pass. Only when a drowsiness as heavy as a collapsing mountain hit him did he lie down in the comfortable space and slowly fall asleep.
Arthur withdrew his hand with satisfaction. The little beastman’s face in front of him finally didn’t look so terrible anymore; some color had returned to his pale face.
And the red-gold scale he placed there slowly merged with the little beastman, leaving only a scale-shaped mark on the smooth skin between his eyebrows, which instantly sank in and vanished.
Arthur stood up and looked around the cave he had lived in for hundreds of years. No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t look right.
Glittering gold coins were everywhere, scattered deep in the cave. Before, he liked to roll around on them in his dragon form the most, listening to the clinking sound of gold coins.
Further away, chests of jewelry were piled up, with gems of various colors scattered everywhere. Any random one taken out would fetch a sky-high price.
There were also pearls from the Richard beastmen - ivory white, pale gold, and black pearls that seemed to absorb all light - thrown carelessly aside as if they were worthless.
Various heavenly treasures and earthly riches that he treated as snacks were also scattered everywhere. Some, because he had taken a bite and disliked the taste, were thrown on the ground, the spiritual energy inside almost completely dissipated, lying there like a pile of dry grass.
He couldn’t help but secretly rejoice that Eric had fainted when he arrived at his cave. If Eric had seen a scene like this, he would definitely have been disgusted.
He was a bachelor dragon before, so he actually hadn’t cleaned the cave for a very long time...
When his memory hadn’t fully recovered, Arthur often ran to Eric’s house, so he could be said to understand Eric’s preferences very well.
Like the bed piled with gold coins that he loved - Eric would definitely not like it. He preferred a soft bed to sleep comfortably. Gold coins were both hard and cold; they weren’t worthy for Eric to sleep on.
Right, he remembered Eric’s heated bed was placed right against the glass window. Several times when he went to see Eric, Arthur had coincidentally caught him lazily rolling around while sunbathing.