Red came out of the storage room with a spear in his hand. The spear was lying at the corner of the storage, covered by the rusty blades. If not for his desperation looking for a decent weapon, he would not have been able to find it.
The shaft cracked, but it was decent compared to the other weapons. The spearhead was actually in good condition, no rust, not chipped, still firmly attached to the shaft. He figured out why the other kids didn't pick this up, even if they found it.
The spear was too long for those shorties. Even for him, the spear was still one and a half head taller, but that was not a problem for someone of his height.
The spear was not his first choice, but it was actually his second choice. His first choice was a shield. He wanted to play it safe by having a shield. It was not effective as a weapon, but it still worked as a weapon. He could just bash the shield into his prey, and if he encountered some beast with nasty speed, he could protect himself.
However, the shield's condition was not good; it looked like it might break in one bash. That was why he didn't pick it up, and the spear was actually not a bad choice when he thought about it again. It offered him a longer range, and the best part was that he could throw the spear, turning it into a ranged weapon.
Of course, Red was not going to throw it all the time. First, he needed to train his throw before actually doing it in a hunt. If he failed to hit his prey, he would have no weapon to continue the fight.
He was satisfied with his weapon and came out of the storage room. The two warriors seemed to be annoyed that he could pick something decent among the piles of trash.
Red tried his best not to make any expression, afraid that they might take the spear from him. He kept his head low and left quietly. He was relieved that they didn't stop him, and he didn't wait any longer as he immediately headed out of the tribe.
Four more warriors stood on guard at the entrance of the settlement. He was relieved that these four didn't pay any attention to him. He was out of his tribe, the place where he grew up.
This was the first time that he was outside the tribe as far as he had been in his entire life. He was excited at first, but when he got outside, he was quite intimidated by what he saw.
The tribe was set up right below a cliff, against the natural wall. He did the labor job for the tribe and never stepped outside once. He never even saw what kind of place was outside, even from afar.
The reason he never got close to the entrance was that he didn't like the attention he would get. He spent most of his time doing labor work for the tribe, or he sneakily took a look at the warrior's training ground, watching them brawl there.
Ahead of him, around twenty meters from where he stood, was a tall forest. The trees were taller than any building they had in the tribe. The dense, dark green leaves made the atmosphere gloomy, and the sun hardly pierced those leaves, which made the area below the forest darker.
He looked around, and it was the same. The tribe was surrounded by these trees. The tree's roots burst out from the ground, and those roots were bigger than the other kids of his generation, about his size.
Red spotted a dirt path, a path that his tribe used when they ventured outside. Three paths led to different directions: right, left, and middle.
His plan was to hunt by himself, avoiding the other kids. After his fight against the ten kids, a fight was prohibited inside the tribe unless they joined the warrior. After that fight, when he instilled fear in his peers, they rarely had any interaction aside from their mockery and laughter at him.
However, he knew those kids had a deep resentment after that fight. Now they were outside, where there was no one to stop them. A place with no rules and leaders. They might try to kill him.
He came on top when they fought with bare hands, but it would be different now since they each had a weapon. He was not going to fall by a few punches, but he would go down if he was shot by an arrow or stabbed by a sword.
'Why is my life so complicated?'
Red let out a sigh. If not for how intimidating those trees were, and this was his first experience outside, he would have entered the forest without following that dirt path.
After a short deliberation, he picked the left path. He was about to go to the right, but he suddenly turned left. He didn't know, but he felt bad about the right path.
He trudged the dark path, and as he was expected. The sunlight hardly pierced those thick leaves. It was damp and colder once he entered the forest. He didn't like it as it reminded him of when it rained, as he had to evacuate to the cave. Inside the cave, it was damp and cold, which he didn't like.
After a while, Red left the dirt path and walked alongside the path, trudging between the big roots that came out of the ground. He didn't make himself harder with this path, but he didn't want to be on that path, afraid of getting ambushed by those kids.
As he walked aimlessly, he tried to recall what kind of beast he could hunt in the area. He tried to recall the prey they brought back to the tribe. That was when a realization struck him. He halted his steps, blinking his eyes as he realized the Shaman truly wanted to torture him to his death.
A group of five warriors went out to hunt for hours, and they only brought one or two prey. The most they brought back was three. It was a group of five trained and experienced warriors. Meanwhile, he must hunt ten prey to stop the curse from getting triggered.
This was his first experience, and even the trees were quite intimidating for him. Yet he must hunt ten prey. He realized the Shaman put the Curse of Hunter for a reason. The Shaman knew he would not be able to fulfill that condition.