The surrendered cave monsters live in the caves under the mountain to the west, and their leader is a LV13 [Cave Wizard] named Morimi. Morimi held a bone staff and had some intelligence.
Other than him, the other cave monsters were almost all at levels like LV1 and LV2, stronger on an individual level than the tribal villain, but not by much.
The caveman sorcerer was very humble in front of Isabelle, and he briefly and succinctly recounted the origins of the caveman monsters.
“Lord Apostle, in fact, cave monsters are another branch of humans.”
“Due to living underground for a long time, their bodies slowly changed, and from generation to generation, they became what they are now, not as intelligent as humans on the ground.”
The whole thing, it started from the last Era.
That was the era when the Forest God still held this land.
Cave monsters weren’t cave monsters back then, but a group of followers of the God of the Forest. They believed in the Forest God and lived in the forest, keeping company with birds and beasts.
On weekdays, they planted all kinds of mushrooms and relied on them and the berries in the forest for food. Thanks to the blessing of the Forest God, the vast and continuous forest was always full of food, and they lived a stable and natural life.
A great change came quietly.
With the fall of the Forest God, large swaths of forest withered and shrank, turning some places into deserts and others into bare mountains.
Everywhere there were corrupters and moulting monsters, fanatics and soldiers of the two heretical gods [Whistler] and [Flayer].
The Corruptor captures and hangs believers of the Forest God to make new Corruptors. The Molting Monster even skinned people alive, leaving them to die in excruciating pain.
To escape the slaughter, the people of the forest burrowed into caves and fled underground. In order to be far away from the pursuit of those horrible killers, they kept moving deeper and deeper into the dark and cold underground caves.
In the darkness of the caves, they relied on growing mushrooms and catching underground bugs.
It was so cold and hard to see that many could not adapt to this life and died of hunger, cold and disease.
But there was a small group of people who stubbornly survived.
They survived the hardest days and gradually found a way to survive.
As time passed, their bodies changed: thick body hair grew on their surfaces, their hair grew longer, and their limbs became strong and wide. They moved swiftly underground on all fours like lizards.
They changed from humans to cave-dwelling monsters, using stone-polished masks to protect their features and intimidate their enemies. They used stones to make spears and axes, and would make strange noises and gestures to embolden and frighten their prey.
Some of the cave-dwellers still haven’t forgotten where they came from. They tell their descendants, by word of mouth, not to forget that they came from the ground.
By patiently waiting for the gods to rest their wrath, they would be able to return to the ground, stand in the sunlight again, and be able to walk straight without having to eat worms.
The cave monster family [Mori] led by Morimi has never forgotten the past. The family name Mori was also used to warn future generations to remember that they came from the forest.
They waited in silence.
Not long ago, the mountain suddenly collapsed on a large scale.
Morimi was keenly aware that this might be a revelation from the gods. So it began to carefully step out of the cave, and found that the outside had indeed changed, and there were no longer hunters everywhere.
However, just at this juncture, another family of cave monsters was exterminated.
Morimi’s ability was called [Wind Hearer], and he could hear sounds that dissipated into the air through the wind. This was extremely useful underground and helped the family avoid many dangers and conflicts.
In the wind, he hears about the Yao God, the Apostles, and the Garlic Tribe.
The killing of the [Whistle Blower] and the [Flayers] had ended.
The god here now was the benevolent and majestic Yao God.
Morimi brought his family members down the mountain, hoping to join the Garlic Tribe. So as soon as he met the forest wolves, he surrendered to the wolves and expressed his attitude of becoming a vassal.
……
Lu Yao was in a bit of a marvellous mood.
The collapse of the mountain happened to be caused by an earthquake that he himself had caused. In that case, he was more or less related to this family of cave-dwelling monsters.
Since he had a city of ghosts, it wouldn’t be a big deal to take in another group of cave monsters.
Before that, Lu Yao had to make sure that the caveman sorcerer was lying or not.
Isabelle stated, “My lord, I’ve asked the nearby dead souls with my mass prayers, and what they said is basically the same as what they said about Sen See.”
It was fine then.
The 40 cave monsters, led by their leader Moromi, left the mountains all the way to the Garlic Tribe.
There was also some disagreement within the Garlic Tribe on admitting the cave monsters.
Initially, most of the tribesmen were against it.
“Cave monsters are enemies, enemies!”
“They are underground monsters that can kill at any time!”
“They killed the Heroic Headhunter!”
“Fishing Walk Leader, have you forgotten the blood feud in the past!”
In response to these criticisms and questions, Fishwalk faced them openly.
The white-haired leader said, “Everyone listen to me. Headhunter’s death is to show us that the tribe must not stop.”
“If we were as powerful as the Salt Pond Tribe, would the cave monsters have dared to attack us then? They wouldn’t dare.”
“Even if we attacked them, they wouldn’t dare to resist.”
“Now, the cave monsters that once attacked us originally intended to join the Garlic Tribe of their own accord, why is that?”
He concluded, “It’s not because they’ve become timid, but because we’ve become powerful.”
“The Yao God sent out Apostle-sama, and she showed everyone how powerful the gods are. The Salt Pond Tribe is being punished by the gods, this is the power of the gods!”
Fishwalk continued, “In the earliest days, the Forest Tribe was our enemy, then the Barbarian Tribe was our enemy, and then the East River Tribe also served as our enemy, but now, we labour and live together.”
“Why can’t cave monsters?”
Fishwalker finally capped it off, “This is also the will of the Yao God! Which one of you wants to object?”
After moving out of the god’s majesty, there were finally no other voices this time.
Lu Yao was satisfied with his vigour, this was the right thing to do, a bit of a leader.
Fishing Away was something he had watched grow up.
At one time, he was the unreliable link in the Pigfish Brothers.
Later, he became one of the earliest heroes of the tribe, and successively experienced the war death of the head hunter, the various changes in the tribe, and the passing of the first generation of tribal leaders Nong Lai and Hunting Barn …… before he became the present calm and mature leader.
After joining the Garlic Tribe, the Cave Monster family obtained several houses.
They lived in the direction closest to the mountains to the west.
Moromi took the cave monsters and brought camels and copper hammers to dig in the mountains every day, and the cave monsters turned into professional miners and stonemasons in the tribe.
The labour allowed them to integrate into the Garlic Tribe.
Although the cavemen still wore stone masks, had strange forms, and sometimes used to crawl on all fours, the rest of the tribe had grown accustomed to them.
Because of the wisdom and experience he had acquired, [Cave Shaman] Morimi quickly became the leader of the Garlic Tribe, deciding the direction of the tribe along with Fishwalk and Shahan.
At that moment, a prompt surfaced on the screen.
[Morimi has offered you an offering.]
Lu Yao moved his wrist.
The long-lost offering has finally arrived.
Let me see what props I can draw this time.
