Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 62 [The Oath in the Embers]

Balin the dwarf recovered from his shock and lay in ambush behind the bushes on the hillside for two whole days.

For an experienced prospector, patience is his most valuable tool.

Looking at the newly emerged tribe in the valley, I initially thought they were a group of uncivilized savages, but two days of observation overturned my initial judgment.

I saw the organization.

After the bloody battle with the wolves the previous night, the people gathered their dead companions together, mourned them with a primitive ritual, and then buried them.

Wild animals wouldn't do that.

I also saw the tools.

The man called Mason, with a few others, was around a campfire, banging something with stones.

Bahrain recognized it; it was the piece of iron he had discarded.

Their movements were clumsy, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't leave a decent mark on the piece of scrap metal.

The dwarf prospector's lips involuntarily twitched slightly.

I saw even more longing.

Bahrain was all too familiar with the glint in the eyes of every man who looked at that piece of metal.

That's the light that shines in the eyes of every dwarf apprentice when they first see a furnace.

What surprised him even more was that he witnessed a miracle.

A dying baby was brought back to life after its mother's desperate cries.

Bahrain's breath caught in his throat for a moment.

"Shamans? Or... divine grace?" His opinion of this tribe rose again.

They possess organizational structures, crave tools, and... may possess extraordinary powers.

Bahrain has decided to continue monitoring the situation.

Inside the human village, the joy of survival has long been replaced by new arguments.

At the center of the argument was a young man named Kahn.

He was physically strong and the most courageous in battles against wolves. In his hand, he held a long spear.

At the tip of the spear was a piece of iron that Mason had painstakingly chipped off from the original piece and then painstakingly sharpened with a stone.

This is the tribe's first and only piece of truly meaningful ironware.

"Three of us are dead! Seven wounded!" Kahn shouted, raising his iron spear. "If we had more weapons like these, if all our weapons were like the one that dwarf had, our brothers wouldn't be dead!"

His words ignited fear and resentment among the crowd.

"We saw him, he's all alone!" Kahn's gaze swept over the crowd.

"We have dozens of men! Charge in, kill him, and all his stuff is ours! Even those stones that can easily ignite!"

"Use his weapons to hunt down all the wild beasts in the forest! We will never have to go hungry again! We will never have to fear the night again!" Kahn rallied the crowd.

Plunder is the most primal and direct desire.

"No!" Terra stepped forward, his face showing a cautious opposition.

"We don't know if he's really alone! That mountain forest is his territory; if we attack rashly, many more of us will die!"

"More people die? Or just wait to die like this?" Kahn raised his iron spear, pointing it directly at Terra.

"Our stone axes can't even cut through animal hides! Mason, tell everyone, how long will it take you to chip off another spearhead like this?"

All eyes were on Mason.

Mason remained silent, looked down at his hands, which were covered in wounds and blisters, and shook his head.

That piece of iron was too hard; it was a miracle that we were able to chip off even this small piece.

"Did you hear that?" Kahn laughed. "We don't have time to wait! It's either take it or die!"

"We can learn," Mason finally spoke, his voice hoarse, whether from excitement or an unspeakable thirst. "We have fire, we have ore, we can learn to make it ourselves."

"Learn? By the time we learn, the wolves will have already eaten us all!" Kahn retorted without any politeness.

Anya, protecting the children, stood beside Terra: "Kahn, don't let hatred blind you. What we need is food and peace, not war."

The tribe split into two factions: the radical expansionists and the conservative infrastructure builders. They faced off fiercely in the center of the village, neither able to convince the other.

An accident happened.

Two toddlers, who had just learned to walk, chased after a brightly colored butterfly, laughing and running out of the village and towards a nearby hillside.

They walked through a thicket of bushes and then came across a strange stone pier.

The stone pillar had a full beard and was wearing strange leather armor.

It was Balin, a dwarf who was lying in wait and observing.

Eyes facing each other.

Bahrain was stunned.

"Ah—!" A sharp cry pierced the tranquility of the valley.

"Something's wrong!" Kahn, who was in the middle of the argument, was the first to react. He grabbed his iron spear and rushed out following the sound of crying.

Behind him, a dozen or so equally radical young men followed closely with crude weapons.

They rushed down the hillside and immediately saw the bewildered dwarf and the two children who had fallen to the ground in fright.

"It's him!" Kahn's eyes instantly turned red, a mixture of greed and murderous intent.

With a wave of his hand, his men immediately dispersed and surrounded Bahrain.

The child's screams alerted Terra and Mason.

When they arrived with another group of people, they were met with a standoff that seemed imminent.

"Quick! Bring the child back!" Anya shouted anxiously.

Terra and several others rushed forward, protected the two children, and dragged them back into the crowd.

Mason, along with the rest of his men, stood between Kahn and Balin.

"Kahn! Stop!"

"Get out of the way, Mason! This is the best chance!" Kahn breathed heavily, his eyes fixed on the iron axe at Balin's waist. "Kill him, and we'll have everything!"

Facing dozens of humans wielding primitive weapons and whose eyes gleamed with madness, Bahrain felt a chill run down his spine.

But he didn't panic; as an experienced prospector, he had seen far more dangerous situations.

Standing up, his imposing figure exerted a tremendous sense of pressure on the person opposite him.

He untied the battle axe from his waist and held it in his hand.

It was a true masterpiece crafted by a master dwarf artisan.

The axe was forged from fine iron and gleamed with a deep, dark light.

On the axe blade, the energy runes inscribed by the rune master sensed their master's fighting spirit and faintly flickered with blue light.

This extraordinary aura instilled an instinctive fear in the humans who had gathered around, causing their offensive to falter.

Kahn was also intimidated by the battle axe, but his greed overcame his fear.

"What are you afraid of! He's just one person! There are so many of us, we can overwhelm him! Charge!"

Then, Mason stepped out from behind the crowd.

Under the bewildered gaze of everyone, including the dwarf Balin, he walked back to the village, and a moment later, he returned carrying something in his hands.

It was an axe.

A primitive, even ridiculous, axe consisting of a rough wooden handle and a piece of iron that has been forcibly bent and fixed to the top.

The axe blade was twisted, and the axe body was uneven, bearing the crude marks of being hammered with a stone.

This is the first "work" created by their race, using all their wisdom and effort.

Mason's eyes were fixed on the dwarf Balin and the fine iron battle axe in Balin's hand.

He walked to the center of the standoff between the two armies, and under everyone's gaze, raised the crude iron axe high with both hands, displaying it to the dwarf.

His eyes held only a complex expression of awe, confusion, and longing.

His expression was like that of a child standing at the feet of a giant, offering up his first doll made of clay.

With this action, he engaged in... a dialogue between iron and iron.