Making some friends

I woke up to the sound of far too many birds to many birds to stay asleep. Groaning I sat up and looked around as I slowly remembered everything that had happened, after a few minutes of accepting that this is my existence and yes everything that had happened, happened, I stood up and went to get some water.

Reaching the stream, having drunk my full and not being hungry I decided to check where my mana was at. Turning inwards I felt my mana to be about half full, meaning it would take about a day to fully recharge my mana pool which was enough to cast a few dozen elemental bullets.

I hummed to myself trying to decide what to do. After some thinking I decided to check my own stats so looking at my hand I used god's eye.

Name: N/A

Core: Arcane

Family: Spirit

Species: Minor sprite of life and ****

Looking it over I really could see everything, my stats were pretty balanced with my magic stat sitting at about 1 and a half times higher.Looking through my entire spreadsheet I didn't see anything I didn't already know so I let the info dissipate. I spent another few minutes deciding on today's goals and eventually settled on exploring along the creek and seeing how far my pure lands extended so I started downstream.

After an hour or so the stream merged with another stream into what I’d call a small river, not long after I came around a sharp bend and saw a handful of figures, before they spotted me I ducked into the trees next to the riverbanks then used God's eye on one of them.

Core: powerful

Family: therionic

Species: lesser wolfmen (tier 1)

Checking a few others they were all the same with some of them seeming to be children, their base stats were a bit lower than my own probably due to my size as they were only half my height, after accounting for our bonuses though I was 5 times stronger than them and that was before my magic was factored in. As I watched these wolfmen work they were seemingly just doing chores probably for their tribe, I was guessing they were tribal because of their clothes but it was still a guess.

Deciding to give diplomacy a try I stepped out from the treeline and called out “Wolfmen!”

(A wolfman's pov)

I was scanning the riverbanks waiting for threats, either strong beasts or raiders though neither were likely, we were deep in our territory not far from the main camp and after those monster hunters came through a few months ago none of the other tribes had the strength to mount a raid while the beasts had plenty of easier prey than them.

Letting out a sigh my eyes wandered to the girls washing and cleaning along the river, it was a warm summer day so the girls were only wearing skirts giving me a good view from where I was sitting. They were all petite with toned bodies which was expected for the unevolved, their coats were mostly browns and reds with smaller patches of white or black, like all wolfmen their hands were clawed while their feet were digitigrade with as the name would suggest, wolf-like heads.

“Wolfmen!” I was torn from my staring by a yell like the splintering of softwood, I threw myself to my feet and turned to the source. It was obviously female and stood at least 10 feet tall, her body was chimeric with the lower body of a deer and while her upper body was like a human woman but her forearms were covered in feathers with talons for fingers. Then was her face, the only word was unsettling. It's been a few years since the tribe had captured a human but he knew she was wrong, face too sharp, smile too big with teeth too sharp and her eyes, there was no white, just rings of green on black orbs. Lastly, the horns or branches on her head were covered in purple flowers and leaves and though he couldn't see them well she seemed to have vines draping down her back.

As she walked closer I caught her scent, some mix of pine sap, flowers, and rot that somehow didn't clash but blended into some strange balance. Beyond just her looks and smell I could feel her aura, she was strong, at least stronger than I am, probably stronger than most of the actual hunters but there's something to her, I think she's stronger than she looks.

She stopped maybe 40 feet from the edge of the group, I glanced towards my tribemates seeing them either moving back to the banks or backing towards me as I was the only trained fighter here.

I have to pull myself together, it's my job to protect them. Gulping down my spit I stepped forward to be between my clanmates and whatever she was.

“Who are you and what do you want?” I tried to sound confident and authoritative but I doubt she bought it.

“Who am I? Good question, for now call me Belladonna. As for why I'm here? That depends on who you are but I'd like to be friendly, as long as you don't make me your enemy.”

Those words felt like a trap, or a lie, I don't like it at all but if I'm going to protect my group I have to play nice

“Alright, belladonna, sorry to say but I'm pretty low rank wise, if you want I can take you back to our camp, our war chief should still be there.”

“Hmm, yes, that'll be fine, please lead the way.”

I glanced back at his tribesman, “Get everything together, we're heading back.”

After a few minutes they packed up the things they brought and the group started down a well traveled path with Belladonna walking beside the young warrior.

(Back to belladonna)

The walk was quiet and after some minutes I could hear the sound of people under the sounds of the forest, not long after that I noticed who appeared to be a watchman who then ran off, presumingly to let the village know I was here.

Reaching the actual village it was a collection of a few dozen mostly thatch buildings probably housing a hundred or so. As we actually entered the village I could hear the wolfmen around me quiet as more and more of them noticed me, I also noticed that around half the wolfmen I saw were noticeably larger and heavier built than the other half so using gods I saw they were tier 2’s. I couldn't think more on this however as my attention was quickly drawn to a group of even larger wolfmen approaching us.

Checking over the group of 8, 6 of them were tier 3, the other 2 I took a closer look at.

Name: Carnos of clan IronFang

Core: Powerful

Family: Therionic

Species: Alpha great wolfman: Tier 4

Opinion: strange, kinda hot, definitely dangerous

He was towering even compared to the tier 3’s coming almost up to my shoulder with a thick heavily muscled frame that was covered by a mixed black and brown coat, his stats matched his looks as he was a decent bit stronger than me strength wise, but was lacking magic wise. Beyond his body and stats he was only wearing a pair of thick pants and was carrying a large high quality warhammer which I guessed he took as a spoil of battle.

Name: Mira of clan IronFang

Core: Powerful

Family: Therionic

Species: Wolfman druid: Tier 3

Opinion: Concerning, possibly dangerous

Appearance wise she sat between the tier 1’s and 2’s, with a still slightly petite but very toned body with a rich red coat, her looks were not the interesting thing though, rather it was her being a druid which I presumed was a magic focused evolution. Her stats agreed with that guess as while her physical abilities were only comparable to a tier 2 wolfman her magic stats surpassed my own though lacking my bonuses it actually equaled less than a quarter my own power, lastly she wore a seemingly ceremonial dress with many bone and metal trinkets hanging from the loose black fabric that made up her knee length dress.

Beyond those 2 the other 6 tier 3’s were pretty similar to each other with physical stats that were pretty similar to my own but lacked magic meaning I was still at a distinct advantage against them individually.

In a one on one I could beat any of them but of course if this turned into a fight they wouldn't be nice enough fight me one after the other though I could probably still win if I used final form and enoch but I didn't want to have to use my trump cards so carelessly so diplomacy was still my best choice.

In the last moments before the groups met I thought over how I would get them to play nice. I decided that keeping them on edge over my capabilities would be my best bet.

As the young warrior who had escorted moved to speak to the presumed leaders I interrupted “Carnos and Mira of clan IronFang, it's an honor to meet you.” The reaction was immediate as Mira's eyes noticeably widened while Carnos’s grip tightened on his warhammer, they both sent looks to the young warrior probably guessing he told me their names while the young warrior himself was shocked.

“Marken.” His voice was deep and rough as he glared at the young warrior whose name was apparently Marken, probably should've checked that earlier. “I didn't tell her anything! I don't know how she knows your names!”

Mira raised an eyebrow before looking behind us to the other wolfmen who were at the river. “Are his claims true?” One of them stepped forward, her age was apparent with heavy crows feet and many grey hairs. “The boy is telling the truth, he hardly even spoke a word to her before we arrived.”

The others nodded at her words causing the 2 to look at me warily before Carnos spoke “Well you know our names, while don't you tell us yours.”

I smiled “You may call me Belladonna, I'm a spirit that's new to these lands, I was hoping your tribe would become my allies in this region.”