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Chapter 5: Skill! Its Name is “Sma-Ho!”

Chapter 5: Skill! Its Name is “Sma-Ho!”

Uncle Athos and I spent several days visiting all of the Blumund tribe’s villages.

We needed to pay our respects to the fallen and make it known that I had succeeded the chief.

「Oy, Athos! Why don’t you become the chief?」

A villager voiced their opinion to Uncle Athos.

How many times have we heard this now?

But Uncle Athos’s reply never changed.

「No, I’m better suited as a supporter. The chief should be Gaia, the son of our previous leader. My role is to raise Gaia into a fine chief.」

「I see… Well, if you’re backing him, I suppose it’s fine…」

The villager backed off easily. Probably just said whatever came to mind, he didn’t mean any harm.

It had been ten days since we returned to the main village of the Blumund tribe.

Ever since we got back, things had been hectic. There was a mountain of work to do.

First, we confirmed the deaths from the war and held funerals.

Many of our people died in the fighting, but within a few days, everyone was back to their daily lives.

It seemed that in this world, death wasn’t as rare or shocking as it was in mine. Everyone was used to it.

Next, I formally succeeded my father and became the chief of the Blumund tribe.

There was no strong opposition, though voices like the villager earlier, those wanting Uncle Athos as chief, were still common.

Can’t blame them. From the tribe’s perspective, I’m just a kid.

「It’s not like he can’t do it, but… is Gaia really okay?」

「I’m not against it, but wouldn’t Athos be better?」

「Well, maybe once Gaia grows up more, he’ll be a good chief…」

I heard honest thoughts like that here and there.

Thankfully, Uncle Athos constantly supported me, so the villagers grudgingly accepted me as their new chief, for now.

(I’ve got to prove myself!)

To do that, I decided the first step was understanding our current situation. I started visiting the villages of the Blumund tribe.

I looked around each village and spoke with the people, gathering information.

The Blumund tribe I now led numbered about five hundred. We lived spread out across several villages.

The main village, where I lived, was the largest, with about two hundred people.

Our level of civilization was… very low.

Medieval? No, maybe even more ancient.

The Blumund people looked similar to Europeans, but their hair colors were wildly varied, blue, green, all kinds.

I checked my reflection in the river, my hair and eyes were red.

My face still had a youthful look.

According to Uncle Athos, I was thirteen years old.

Back before I reincarnated, I was forty-two, so when I saw that reflection, it was half exciting, half confusing.

「Well then, Gaia. Time to head home.」

Uncle Athos called out to me with a warm voice.

「Yes. This was the last village, right?」

「That’s right. We’ve finished visiting them all.」

We left the village behind and walked a narrow path through the forest. As we walked, Uncle Athos started talking about the recent war.

「But I’m glad your injuries weren’t serious!」

「They felt plenty serious at the time.」

「Really? But you seem completely recovered now.」

「Yes. I healed quickly. I’m young, after all!」

I gave him a sly grin, and Uncle Athos chuckled, giving me a light thump on the head.

I hadn’t told him about the special body I got from the god, which I’m just calling『Regeneration』.

It was clearly an inhuman ability, so I’d decided to keep it secret.

And now, it was time to test the other skill I had.

「Sma-ho!」

I whispered, and a tablet-like screen appeared in front of me.

Another power the god had granted me, my second skill: 『Sma-ho』

According to the god’s message, he’d created it after hearing the angel’s explanation and kind of winged it.

He was an old grandpa-type god, so he probably couldn’t pronounce『smartphone』 properly…

Hence, the skill ended up being called 『Sma-ho』

The screen’s size and features went beyond any smartphone, though.

「Hm? Did you say something, Gaia?」

「Nope. Nothing at all.」

Apparently Uncle Athos heard my mumbling.

He looked my way, but he couldn’t see the screen.

This skill was great in that only I could see it.

The 『Sma-ho』 screen in front of me looked like a map from a video game.

A blinking dot in the center marked my position.

On the right side of the screen were several buttons:

 【People】
 【Resources】
 【Monsters】

Let’s try the 【People】 button first.

Next to me, a blue dot appeared.

A speech bubble popped from the dot with a brief description:

『Athos – Uncle – A smart man』

It was a combo of location tracking and basic appraisal.

At the bottom of the screen were 【−】 and 【＋】 buttons, for zooming in and out.

I tapped 【−】 a few times to zoom out the map.

The villages we’d visited and their surrounding areas were displayed, but any place I hadn’t been to was shown in grey.

It was familiar, just like in games.

Next, I tapped the 【Resources】 button.

Icons appeared, squares containing images of logs.

I checked the speech bubble on one of them:

『Oak tree – Becomes sturdy lumber』

So, pressing 【Resources】 showed resource-gathering materials as icons.

Most of the screen was filled with log icons, looks like the villages we visited only had wood as a resource.

Then, I pressed the 【Monsters】 button.

Just like with resources, square icons appeared with little illustrations, wolves, rabbits, something like a spider…

One bubble said:

『Horn Rabbit – Very weak. Edible meat. Horn can be used in medicine』

If I could use this skill well, I might be able to help develop the villages.

The Blumund tribe might be able to grow stronger…

Over the past few days, as I visited the villages, that idea had been on my mind.

Now, about the villages themselves, each one was nestled within the forest.

They had only small patches of farmland, so their food production was low.

Even when I used the 【Map】 skill to search for resources, it was always just wood.

However, just a little ways from our main village, I noticed an icon marked 『Rock Salt』.

『Rock Salt – Edible. High-quality salt with mineral content』

If we could mine this, it might become a proper industry.

It might help rebuild the Blumund tribe after our defeat in the war.

I decided to consult Uncle Athos.

「Uncle Athos. There’s rock salt to the east, do you think we could dig it up?」

「What! Rock salt!? Where!?」

「This way.」

I guided him into the forest toward the spot with the salt icon.

But suddenly, Uncle Athos grabbed my arm.

「Wait! That area’s part of the Bloody Bear’s territory!」

「What!?」

Panicking, I hit the 【Monsters】 button.

The screen shifted, revealing tons of bear icons moving around.

『Bloody Bear – Weak. Yields durable fur』

According to the description, they were 「weak」 but…

「Uncle Athos. Can’t we defeat the Bloody Bears?」

「No chance! They’re so tough that swords won’t even pierce them!」

So they were tanky monsters.

Which meant we couldn’t safely reach the rock salt.

Uncle Athos and I gave up and headed back to the main village.

But on the way, I couldn’t let it go. I kept pestering him.

「Hey, Uncle Athos. If we had access to rock salt, it could become a proper village industry. We could earn money, live better!」

「That’s true… but if we get killed by Bloody Bears, then what’s the point?」

Uncle Athos absolutely wouldn’t budge.

There must be a huge gap in combat strength.

「Hmm… I guess we’ll have to think up another industry…」

「Gaia! The village already has an industry!」

Hearing that, I perked up instantly.

Even our tiny village had an industry? That’s amazing!

「That’s great! Uncle Athos, what is it!?」

「Mercenaries!」