Chapter 406: Hidden Tribe of Weak Locals

"Huff... huff..."

Fang Raon hid behind a snow hill and rubbed his hands together—even though he was wearing mittens, he could still feel the freezing cold seeping through.

He hadn’t been attacked by arrows for a while now.

It was because he had been moving very carefully—hiding in the winter forest—but he still could feel like there was always somebody watching.

’The trees are dangerous.’

Fang Raon thought as he looked around the trees—they were thick with snow, so there could be someone hiding there, and he wouldn’t know.

Annoyingly, his Read wasn’t working.

In times like these, he realized just how much he was relying on Read, which honestly was not a good thing.

’Rock especially told me not to blindly trust in the Pillars of Power, as there are times when they don’t work.’

Swoosh~!

Out of nowhere, a blue-feathered arrow flew towards him, but he quickly moved his head, and thus, the arrow only got lodged into the tree.

"Shit!"

Fang Raon jumped to his feet and started running through the forest, and the arrows just kept coming for him.

He ran zig-zags, used the trees as cover, and dodged the arrows as best he could—as if he got hit even once, he might turn into ice.

And he would be as good as dead!

"Faster!"

Fang Raon used Godspeed and ran across the forest with amazing speed—only leaving behind quick footprints on the ground.

Sometimes he stepped on the ground so fast that he didn’t even leave behind a footprint, only the sound of a slight breeze.

A while later, Fang Raon stopped running, caught his breath, and felt like those gazes were gone again.

However.

It was clear that whoever attacked him knew these forests better than their back pockets, so it was only a matter of time before he was discovered.

"I need to find the boss."

Fang Raon thought out loud and, without looking ahead, stepped forward, but his foot just went through the snow.

It was like there was no ground below.

"?!"

Fang Raon suddenly dropped into the snow hole, falling down into a dark abyss that seemed to go on forever.

"Ahhh!"

It was like one of those slides in a water park.

In that moment, he exited the ’slide,’ rolled down the ground for a while, and then came to a stop at a rock wall.

Hurting.

’Damn... What was that?’

Fang Raon rubbed the back of his ehad, and as he opened his eyes, he saw that he was surrounded by a group of people.

They were looking at him with hostile gazes—holding makeshift spears—pointing them at him.

"Who are you?!"

"H-he isn’t one of them..."

"A player?"

Fang Raon’s eyes widened when he heard them talk, as they were definitely locals—but that was strange.

There shouldn’t be any locals living inside towers where bosses lived—but obviously this tower was quite different from the rest.

It was like another world, so it actually wasn’t all that strange that there were locals also living there.

"Bind him. Let’s ask some questions from him!"

One of them said.

Fang Raon thought about just fighting back, but he was curious, so he just let them bind his arms with rope.

Once he was back on his feet, he got a better look at the locals—they looked malnourished, cold, and honestly, sick.

They seemed weakened, and Fang Raon was certain that he didn’t even need a weapon to escape this place.

"Sit down!"

One of them tried pushing him down, but Fang Raon didn’t even budge, shocking the locals.

Fang Raon sighed and sat down on his own will.

In that moment, one of the locals brought a tree stump, dragged it over, and then sat down on it as if it were a chair.

He looked like a leader.

Unlike others, he seemed strong enough, as if he had eaten all food to keep himself strong, and he was dressed in warm fur.

Others had clothes made of leaves and sticks.

"My name is Ra’Gah. I am the leader of this tribe. Who are you, and are you working with the Ice Elves?"

Ra’Gah asked with a frown.

"I am Fang Raon, and... I am a player. I came here to clear this tower, nothing else."

Fang Raon said.

"Nobody can clear this tower. It’s too difficult and dangerous. Ice Elf King can destroy you in one hit."

Ra’Gah said.

It sounded like he was really scared about Ice Elf King, and honestly, so was everybody else with him.

"Then why don’t you just let me go, and I can go die or whatever?"

Fang Raon asked.

"...You’ve found our tribe’s location. We’ve been staying alive all these years because Ice Elves haven’t found us yet.

"Once they capture you, they will torture you, and you will give them our location in exchange for your freedom.

"That’s why we can’t let you go."

Ra’Gah said.

He then pressed the makeshift spear against his throat.

"We can’t let you live either. We don’t have room for another food to feed. We got children and women here."

He said.

Fang Raon looked towards the back of the cave, and there was an opening there that led to some kind of underground village.

There were some local children peeking over the corner, curious about the outside, from the look of it.

"You probably don’t have enough food to feed everyone since you’ve eaten all. Everybody else looks weak and sick, like they’ve gone many days without food.

"And they have barely good enough clothes to handle this cold—except you, who is wearing very fancy-looking fur.

"You’re a terrible leader, aren’t you?"

Fang Raon said with a smile.

It brought strange expressions to the local faces, as he wasn’t wrong, but Ra’Gah was easily strongest, and he had been keeping them all alive.

So they were grateful... even though they wished that he would occasionally share some of his food with them.

He had whole storages, filled with food, that would be enough to feed the entire tribe for one whole year.

"That’s enough!"

Ra’Gah thrust the spear towards him, but then Fang Raon released a wave of oppressive aura—he used Reach!

His aura attacked Ra’Gah, and he started foaming from the mouth, and then he collapsed to the ground.

Unconscious!