Author notes:

Elos, Link here with chapter 3, and I hope you guys will be enjoying it! :D

Anyway, when Lizardmen speak Human, it will sound normal, thank you for your votes. :D

So once again, enjoy!

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Chapter 3: Why do the Survival Rates Suck so Badly?

After finishing checking my stats out, mother spoke up again.

Li’Hiet: ”Well, in my haste, I forgot to mention what the ancient Lizardman tongue is and the beings called monsters.”

Well, that was true, I still had no idea of what both of those things were, so I just nodded in response.

Li’Hiet: “The ancient Lizardman tongue was the first real language that we, the Lizardmen, developed, and it was developed in the middle of the First Great War, when we became sentient beings. Before that we communicated with hisses, growls, and other sounds, just like beasts and animals. However, even if it was a language, it was far from the Human and other races languages. So after the war, the Lizardmen slowly started to make it sound more like other languages, and making it more detailed, and that’s where we have our language from. But the Ancient tongue is more like a traditional language than anything else, thus our names are based on it.”

I see, so we made a language for emergency, and then developed a new one, but kept the old one for traditional purposes.

Li’Hiet: “Now, onto monsters. It can sometimes be hard to see the difference between beasts and monsters, and the reason is simple. A monster is, usually, a beast that has been exposed to mana for too long, ending up becoming mutated. Unlike beasts, they don’t hunt just to survive, but also hunts for the fun of it. Monsters are stronger and more vicious than beasts, so there often comes adventures to clear them out. We could do it ourselves, but there’s usually casualties when dealing with high level monsters, so that’s why we hire adventurers to do it for us.”

Li’Hiet: “Any more questions, little one?”

Me: “You mentioned adventures, mom, what do they do?”

Li’Hiet: “To make it simple, they do requests, like hunting monsters or scouting ruins and such. Usually the dirty work no one else want to risk their life doing. There’s no adventurer guild in our tribe, but a few hours travel, on foot, away, there’s an elven town, which has one, so we sent our requests there. More you’d like to know about? And no, I won’t explain the surrounding areas, you will get a map of it when you turn one.”

She had pretty much explained everything that she could, about this world and our tribe, the rest I would have to find out myself, or ask someone else. However, I still had two questions left unanswered, and I’m sure she could answer those.

Me: “Mom, how long is a Lizardman’s lifespan?”

Li’Hiet: “The normal is 250 years, if you manage to survive that long. But those extremely talented and hardworking when it comes to mana and ki cultivation and strengthening, can even manage to live to become 1000 years old. Many of our elders are more than 500 years old, while the oldest is 937 right now.”

Wow, that’s a long time. But that just makes me want to ask more questions.

Me: “Mom, then why are we seen as adults when only a year old, and why does our bodies grow so fast?”

Li’Hiet: “It’s simple, little one, it’s because so few of us survives long enough to get a fully-grown body. Let’s say if our bodies grew the same speed as Humans, in that case even fewer of us would survive, and we might even have gone extinct. Therefore, in order to survive, we grow up quickly. More questions?”

Well, that answered my question about our explosive growth rate. Let’s ask her the last question.

Me: “I have one, am I allowed to leave the house now?”

Li’Hiet: “Yes, of course, little one, but on one condition. You can’t leave town. I know it might be exciting, but you can’t go hunting yet, so stay in town, and be back at nightfall.”

I nodded and sprang up from the makeshift couch I was sitting on, and ran out the door. What greeted me there was what I had expected. A town made filled with run-down buildings, in the middle of a swamp.

Starting walking among the houses, I noticed that there were even some shops, selling things from weapons to food. I also came by a building, bigger than the rest, from what I could gather, this would be the tribe-manor, that I heard about from my parents. Apparently, it was the building where the elder council and tribe leader had their meeting, and also where announcements and such were carried out, the 1st birthday of newborn being one of them.

It was already afternoon when I left home, and as I walked around, I met several other Lizardmen, but no one my age, everyone were adults, so I had no one to play with. I had seen the whole village now, it was around a hundred houses big.

When I finally returned home, it was already dark outside, but I could still easily see, due to my night vision.

Li’Hiet: “Welcome back, little one, are you hungry?”

Me: “Yes I am. Mom, could I ask why there aren’t any other newborn like me?”

Mother gave me my usual slab of meat. From what I’ve gathered, Lizardmen only eat fruit and vegetables to taste new things. We are carnivores, so if we don’t eat meat, we can’t live. And honestly, after a while, you get used to the raw meat and blood taste, and the idea of eating it.

Li’Hiet: “About the other newborns, they’re rare, surviving the first month, at least. Usually a couple has five children before one survives the first month, and only half of those survive the first year. This is due to diseases, monsters killing them, and the parents dying. Even after that, most Lizardmen die before turning 100. I’m 23, while your dad is 35. 10 years isn’t much for those Lizardmen who survives to become a hundred, but just surviving to become 10 means that you’re strong, making those who become a hundred or more elites.”

I see. But I guess it’s my luck that I’ve been blessed by Dreqz, my guess is that he wouldn’t like for any of us to die before even being able to fight.

…Wait, she just said something that might be really cruel… I really don’t want to, but I have no choice but to ask…

Me: “Mom… You just said something about that when the parents die, their child dies as well, why is that?”

Li’Hiet: “Oh, that. That’s because it’s taboo to take care of someone else’s child, so after the parents die, the child is just left for dead, unless he can get food or money by himself.”

I KNEW IT!!! That’s too cruel, my god. No wonder that there’s no other newborn right now…

…

…

Ok, I’m over it now, can’t do anything about it anyway. Guess Lizardmen really do go by the jungle rules, ‘Survival of the Fittest’, I guess.

But she mentioned money, she didn’t mention that before, how does this worlds currency work? Better ask.

Me: “Mom, you mentioned money and I forgot to ask earlier, but how does currency work in this world?”

At this, she thought for a bit, then went out of the room, and returned with three coins, the size of a grown man’s thumbnail. One was bronze coloured, another one was silver, and the last was gold. I’m 99% sure they’re bronze, silver, and gold, like their colours.

Li’Hiet: “The currency we use is coins like these. The once I have here are Bronze, Silver, and Gold Coins, but there’s also Platinum, Mithril, and Adamantine. You need 100 Bronze coins to have the value of 1 Silver coin, and so on. To put it in more perspective to their values, with 1:

Bronze coin you can buy a piece of bread.

Silver coin you can buy an iron bar.

Gold coin you can buy an above average sword.

Platinum coin you can buy a well-made house.

Mithril coin you can buy a castle.

Adamantine coin you can buy a kingdom.

These coins are used in the entire world, and this happened after the First Great War, where soldiers on their way home only had their own currency, and died from starvation. Simply, it’s to allow anyone to survive anywhere, as long as they have money.”

How convenient, one currency being used all over the world. No reason to exchange or anything like that.

After that mother and I went to sleep.

Next morning I once again went out exploring, but this time I looked into the shops. Walking around a bit, I found a general store and entered it.

We might be a tribe in the middle of a swamp, but as my mother mentioned, sometimes adventurers come here. Because of this, there are all kind of stores.

…

Or so I would like to say, but there really is only a general supply store, run by the elder council. Of course, this store has almost every kind of ware. Weapons, books, food, armour, you name it. Most of the weapons and armour were made out of bone, carapace, or hide. Only a few iron weapons and armours were present, and they were in bad condition as well. It was clear that this tribe had nothing to do with blacksmithing, all tools, weapons, armours, and so on, are made from whatever you could collect from the beasts in the surrounding area.

Finishing browsing the store, I found a few interesting things, one of them being a thin iron long sword. It was slight rusted and had many deep scratches. However, if you looked closely, then you’d notice they weren’t scratches, but that the sword wasn’t whole, but pieces stuck together.

I picked it up for closer inspection, and noticed that on one side of the handle was a small button. I tried pressing it, but nothing happened. Putting it back on the desk, I decided to try to convince mother to buy me it. It’s clearly hiding something, and I feel like I want it. Is this my instincts taking over again? Who knows? All I know is that I want that sword.

Arriving home again, I was about to call out mother to ask her, when I noticed my father being awake. He’s part of the night team, so usually he’s asleep at this time of the day. My mother used to be in the night team as well, until I was born.

Anyways, I walked up to them, making it known that I was here.

Li’Sle: “Oh, here you are, we were just discussing you.”

Li’Hiet: “As I said, I’m against it, he’s still too young.”

Li’Sle: “Calm down, we’re both going to be there, so it’s only if something goes wrong that he will be in any danger.”

Li’Hiet: “That’s exactly what I’m worried about, if something goes wrong.”

As they were ‘discussing’, I was wondering what it was that made them have this argument. Well, only one way to find out.

Me: “Mom, dad, what are you talking about?”

Hearing me, they both stopped and looked at me. After a while, mother sighed, and father had a triumphant smile on his face.

Li’Hiet: “Dad wants to take you hunting with us tomorrow, little one, but I’m against it. For obvious reasons.”

Her saying that made my brain work at top speed. This was clearly may chance. If we went hunting I would need a weapon, which would make it easier for me to get that sword. Putting on my cute child face, if I a Lizardman could have such a thing, and started trying to convince her.

Me: “Mom, I would really like to go hunting with you, or at least just watch you hunting.”

Li’Sle: “See, I told you he would want to watch us hunt.”

Mother switched between watching father and I. After a few moments, she heaved a sigh. Victory!

Li’Hiet: “Fine, but you have to stay back and just watch, and flee if something happens. But we need to get you a weapon, just in case you get cornered.”

Me: “Mom, in that case, there’s actually something I wanted to ask…”

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Author notes:

Hope you enjoyed chapter 3! :3

Will try to keep up with making at least 1 chapter every 2nd day, and I will (try to) notify you guys if delays pop up.

Please leave a comment if you have anything to say, and beware lurkers, I know where you guys live, trust me. -.-

Pss. This chapter was written to this song on repeat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9DKoMSiDc4 xD