"Deal!"

Achi and Iron Shark shook each other's hand as they finally concluded their deal. On the side, a huge pile of food items and materials were placed on some animal furs after having been weighed.

"Please accompany these gentlemen to the storage tents and give them what we agreed on," said Achi to one of the barbarians.

The latter nodded and soon, most of the players have left the center of the village. At the same time, most of the barbarians left at the village started to move and carried the food to the storage tents.

"Brother Achi, is there anything else you would like to trade? We still have a lot of items in reserve, it would be best for us to exchange everything," innocently said Iron Shark. He quietly smiled, seemingly unaware that the barbarians might be hiding other items.

"Unfortunately, this is all we have to exchange this time. You came back earlier than expected. Maybe we will have time to make some more interesting equipment for the next trade. You should save your resources, didn't you make a deal with the other tribes not too far from here too? They came here a few days ago looking for you, they thought we caused you some trouble," answered Achi.

"Oh... Could it be that they are your enemies? It was not my intention to cause some tension between the tribes. We are here just to do some business, we can benefit from each other. But you know, I like this place and it is the first tribe I ever visited. I understand that we recently started our collaboration, but it would be ideal if we can have a closer relationship in the future."

Seeing the sincere display of Iron Shark, Achi warmly smiled, "Of course! I also hope so but there is no need to rush. We should just go with the flow and see what happens."

"Naturally, I understand. If there is nothing else, I will go back to check on my men. We need to leave soon as we also need to visit the other tribes..."

...

"Elder, the townsmen have just left. The exchange went well!"

In the Shaman's dark tent, Achi was quietly watching and only spoke as the Shaman finished his concoction.

"That is good, we already expected them to go to other tribes. Just be careful with those townsmen. You need to know where to draw the line. Remember that we are barbarians, the blood of our ancestors’ flow into our veins. We are different from the townsmen and we must not be assimilated! It is alright to get some benefits from them, but we must never fall into their traps and develop their lazy and sedentary lifestyle."

"I know, their leader mentioned making a closer collaboration several times but I declined. I will wait for a bit before accepting. Also, I think that he knows about that strange liquid you gave me; he kept asking if we have any new items to sell," answered Achi.

"Haha, I told you it was a precious liquid. We just need to wait for today's expedition to come back. Everything should be fine since nobody came back yet. Let's wait and see. If everything is alright, I'll also go out tonight with Mira to see the situation."

Achi quietly nodded, he looked calm, but his eyes betrayed his nervousness. "Just protect Mira properly. That Angela does not seem to be an enemy, but I know your character. Please don't antagonize them..."

...

The next morning, Achi once again went to the Shaman's tent.

"Mira, are you alright? It is time for you to go to sleep," said Achi as he saw his daughter meditating under the watch of the Shaman.

"Ah? Oh yeah, I'll go home now," answered Mira. Having spent the entire night wandering in the forest, Mira was already tired and was struggling to even stay awake. It was pure torture to practice, especially since the last exercise was a short meditation.

After Mira left the tent, Achi turned his attention toward the Shaman, "How did it go?"

"Don't ask me... We went to the same place they've met but the winged woman never appeared. It was all for nothing..." sadly said the Shaman with a tired voice.

"It is fine, the forest is vast. She might have gone to another part of the forest. Why don't you just wait near the entrance of the dungeon? Wouldn't that be easier?" asked Achi.

"True. I only went near the Forest Tigers' territory because we are not sure if she comes from the dungeon. It is just my suspicion, but you are right, I'll try that tonight!"

...

That night, at the bottom of the waterfall, Mira was silently sitting just in front of the pond, trying to meditate. The young girl was quietly shivering from the cold wind and the occasional splashes of water. It has already been several minutes since she tried to 'feel the elements' like the Shaman instructed her to but she had yet to succeed.

Instead, she was just hoping that the Shaman would return quickly so that she could return to the warmth of her house. 'I must focus... It should not be too hard, maybe I should focus on the wind instead of the water! It is so windy tonight," said Mira to herself.

The young child ignored the loud waterfall and resumed focusing on her task. After 30 minutes, Mira's shivering became as intense as ever; there was no doubt that tomorrow, she would fall sick. She tried her best, but success was still far from reach. If it was that easy, anyone could become a shaman.

At that moment, Mira heard a familiar soft voice coming from above, "It's you Mira? What are you doing here alone? You are going to catch a cold."

The voice was familiar, Mira has heard it before but something did not feel right. She quickly opened her eyes and looked upward. A bright smile immediately blossomed on her face, "Angela? Why are you here? I can understand you?"

Angela swiftly landed next to Mira, "I asked my master for something and now, I can speak the Human Language. Now, we can understand each other." Angela was warmly smiling but at the same time, she was feeling some pity for the young child in front of her who was shivering in the cold. She immediately used her power to stop the wind from directly hitting Mira.

"Angela, is she your human friend?

"Wow, she is quite cute! Now I know why you save her. Let me play with her!"

As she heard the voices, Mira looked upward only to see 2 other winged women slowly landing next to her. She did not understand what they were saying but judging from Angela's expression, they were not enemies. Mira looked at the 3 harpies with envy, more specifically, she was looking at their wings. 'How great is it to be able to fly in the sky?'

"Yes, this is Mira! Mira, they are my two sisters, Alice and Ariel." Angela quickly made the presentation and said that she would translate for her sisters if needed.

"What are you doing alone here? More training?" asked Angela.

Mira nodded, "Yes, tonight, my teacher told me to stay here and to try to feel the elements! Do you know how to do that?"

Feel the elements? The 3 harpies were puzzled. They were naturally born with their wind affinity and could instinctively feel the flow of wind around them. They never had to actively try to feel anything and so, they did not really know how to explain.

"Shall we inform master that Mira is here?" asked Ariel.

"Oh yeah... He did say so," answered Angela before turning toward Mira. "Mira, my master would like to meet you. You don't have to worry, he is a very nice person and he said has met you before..."

"Your master?" asked Mira with a confused expression but before she could ask more questions, Alice suddenly deployed her wings and flew upward.

"Who is there!? Whoever you are, come out of the bush or I will consider you as an enemy!" shouted Alice. Her expression became serious as she took a fighting stance. She slowly levitated toward a particular bush while angrily staring at it. Without any warning, a wild gust started blowing all over the place.

A few seconds went by without anything happening. Following her sister, Ariel also quickly took off and prepared herself for combat while Angela pushed Mira behind her to protect her.

Seeing no reaction, Alice shouted once again, "You should come out now! I am not very patient!"

After a few more seconds of awkward silence, the bush that Alice pointed at suddenly started to move. From it, an old man holding a long staff came out. The old man looked feeble, but the harpies did not let their guard down especially as they saw a vivid light in the old man's eyes.

"Teacher??" asked Mira as she immediately recognized the silhouette of the old man.

The Shaman briefly smiled to his young apprentice before turning his attention to the harpies. "So you could detect me through the foliage? I know that you understand me well but unfortunately, I don't understand when you speak. I will have to ask this woman to please translate for me."

The Shaman was suppressing that feeling of unease. He thought that there would be only one winged woman but already, three were flying there in front of him. There were no more doubts in his mind that they came from the dungeon. Just how strong was that place?

"What should we do?" asked Alice. She knew that Angela was not very comfortable speaking with strangers. It seemed that she was fine with Mira since she was a child but asking her to communicate with the Shaman was probably asking for too much.

"Stay here. I will go and call Master. Angela, can you ask that man to wait a little bit?" asked Ariel with concern.

"En" Angela nodded and without saying anything else, Ariel quickly flew back toward the dungeon.

The Shaman tensed up as he saw the purple-haired harpy suddenly fly up but at the same time, he heard Angela speak, "Can you please wait a moment... She went to look for our master... We think that you two should have a chat..."

"Your master?" The Shaman squinted his eyes. He thought that the harpies were the strongest monsters of the dungeon and yet, a master was supposed to appear? Just how strong was that master? Maybe it was a bad idea to try to find the origin of these winged women. However, as much as he was reluctant, he had to swim along the flow. Mira was already in their hands; if he left now, who knows what would happen to his granddaughter.