Chapter 37: Step 37 to Greatness: One Must Trust Intel Over Prophecies, What Could Go Wrong?

Sera had just finished shaping her latest batch of clay vessels, but there wasn’t any joy on her face. Back on her Earth, she had modern tools, and even then her work was mediocre.

Now that she didn’t have the tools and was out of practice, the vessels she made were crooked and uneven. However, she didn’t dwell on it for long.

After all, she wasn’t doing it for grades but to meet a survival requirement. Just like that, she wiped her hands and immediately started working on more clay, shaping another pot with what little water she had brought over from the stream in plastic bottles.

Adrian noticed her working non-stop and was impressed. Even his servant was pushing herself like the rest of the tribe, and yet he was slacking off.

"My slacking off isn’t the issue, the issue is I’m the only one doing it," Adrian sighed, once again going through his mind to find something to do.

Meanwhile, Freki and Huginn both appeared by his side, seemingly inspired by his ’laid-back’ attitude to life.

In the end, he remembered about the armors he hadn’t combined. So, went inside and combined his crafted cards into seven epic-grade armors. He planned on distributing them later when the girls got done with their tasks.

Still, he made a note to give which armor to whom based on their combat proficiency.

Naturally, Mika would get the best, exquisite armor since she was the best fighter in the group.

He would take the refined armor, as he didn’t want to shortchange his developing skills. Amika would get the fine one, Nixa would use the rough one since one is his mate and the other rules the tribe.

As for Amiya and Rixxa, they would get the basic and crude armors, and finally, Sera would get the poor-quality armor.

However, just because it was of poor quality didn’t mean it wasn’t decent. After all, each armor was of epic-grade.

He looked at Mika, and it seemed she was still going hard on their training.

"Just how long are you planning to teach them?"

With nothing better to do, Adrian opened the global chat window to pass some time while he waited for the women to finish their tasks.

The chat was as chaotic as always. He scrolled through the messages lazily until one big recruitment post caught his eye.

<Unity Is Da Wae>: [Aid Alliance] recruitment notice! Surviving in the wilderness alone is like a death sentence, but we’re here to save you!

<Unity Is Da Wae>: Join the [Aid Alliance] because we share food, shelter, and protection. We even organize hunting and protection squads regularly.

<Unity Is Da Wae>: Reply "I WANT UNITY" or DM me if you’re ready to survive together!

Adrian read the texts and immediately remembered why he didn’t use the chat function. First, they were either begging for help without being sincere about it. Second, they kept sending cringe messages just because no one could see their faces.

"As for this... unity, it is indeed strange."

The message was full of overly sweet words and emojis. He had zero interest in joining any alliance. He already had his own tribe and didn’t need some random group pretending to be a big happy family.

However, others would inevitably fall for it. If they were true to their goal, then it was fine. But if they weren’t... then it could be just some scheme to get unpaid labor.

"With the existence of slave contracts, you can never trust another player."

Adrian closed the chat with a smirk. Call him a narcissist, but he was happy that the tribe was faring better than others.

"Guess I’m doing alright," he said to himself while retrieving an intel card from inventory. "I guess this is the only thing left to get rid of my boredom."

[Random Intel Card activated!]

Another message appeared in front of him following the activation notice.

[A family of rabbits has dumped a week’s worth of poop under the big fallen tree 40 meters northeast of your position.]

"Animal poop... I was joking about my luck being bad, but I guess I wasn’t that far off," he mumbled. "...Completely useless."

Without any delay, he combined the cards into an uncommon-grade card and tried again.

[Last night, someone from your camp watched you plowing your mate through the window for several minutes.]

"What the fuck!?" Adrian exclaimed, shooting to his feet and looking at the women in the distance.

His cheeks turned red at the thought of someone seeing him doing... strange things to Amika. The boldness he had shown last night was gone at that moment.

"In hindsight, it’s not a bad thing per se. Since I did a good job satisfying Amika, the girls should be itching for some action too if they saw it, right?"

Adrian shook that thought out of his head and combined the cards again.

[Rare-grade Intel Card activated!]

[A strange species of wild potato grows abundantly in a small clearing approximately three kilometers west of your current position.]

"This is more like it!"

This time, the information was much more valuable than receiving information about rabbit poop and a peeping Tom.

He remembered reading about them on a torn page from the wilderness survival book.

Even if he hadn’t, he would have jumped at the opportunity to get his hands on potatoes of any kind. After all, they were called the ultimate survival food for a reason.

Potatoes were hardy, filling, easy to cook in many ways, and their tubers could be planted directly into the soil. Moreover, the nutrition of a potato complements that of any meat. It was the best food for the tribe right now.

"I can’t waste time. Let’s go get it."

Just as he had taken a step, he received a text from Sera.

<Sera>: Master, I need more clay to make more pots before firing them. Can you send someone with me to carry it back? It is a bit far.

<Adrian>: No need. I’ll go with you myself. I’m heading west anyway.

"Ah!"

Just as Adrian and Sera were about to leave the settlement, a sudden cry came from the area where the women were training. Both of them rushed there to see Rixxa on her knees, clutching her head.

Mika and Amika were kneeling beside her while the others surrounded them. But Rixxa didn’t pay attention to anyone other than Adrian.

"Male..." she said, grabbing his hand. "I saw... a bloody river. Red water flowing through the forest. Danger... too much blood. We must not leave the settlement today."

The women’s eyes went wide at her words. Her divinations were rare, but they had never been wrong. However, Adrian didn’t know that.

As far as he was concerned, Rixxa did not have an official class. Hence, her ’visions’ weren’t something he would be concerned about.

He thought about the intel cards he had just used. If there was any real danger nearby, surely one of them would have revealed it. His trust in system information outweighed Rixxa’s vague visions.

"Don’t be afraid," he smiled, patting Rixxa’s hand. "We aren’t going far. Besides, I have Huginn and weapons with me. What could happen to me?"

Just like that, despite the women’s worried looks, Adrian turned and started walking west with Sera. The women stood in silence for a few moments before Mika picked up her spear and followed them.

"Mika—" Rixxa tried to stop him, but Mika cut her off.

"I do not feel at ease," she said. "Training can wait. Male’s life matters more."

"Yes. We must watch over the Male," Amika immediately agreed.

Nixa thought about it for a moment and nodded.

They couldn’t let anything happen to the male. As for his lack of belief in Rixxa’s divination, he would believe her once he had seen the blood river himself.