After inspecting the new feature for a while, making sure that he exhausted every aspect of it, he came to hypothesize a few things.
For one, he noticed that although the full alphabet was here that alone wasn't enough explain why the system referred to it as a Language Base. He could only assume that there would be more to come as he continued using it. Which would explain why there was a meter.
Though he still wondered what counted as progress. Was continuously using the language all that was required of him?
"Havon? Is something the matter?" Sherlin asked, now growing a little concerned due to Lucius's long silence.
Lucius stared at Sherlin for a while, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"There's a saying where I'm from," he began, before scribbling something on one side of the piece of leather.
"And what do they say?" Sherlin asked in response.
"Nothing in this world is ever truly free," Lucius replied, before handing the piece of leather over to Sherlin.
Sherlin inspected the writings for a few moments, before looking at Lucius in defeat. "What is this?" he asked.
"An alphabet, interesting isn't it?" Lucius replied, before briefly explaining the most basic of basics. This language in particular was completely phonetic, which meant that explaining how to sound letters would more or less give a grasp of reading the language.
Now by no means did this imply that Sherlin immediately understood how to read. Although he caught on rather quickly to the concept as a whole, remembering the sounds certain characters made would require more time. In fact, it would take even more time for him to be able to claim literacy.
Though from the short time that Lucius tried to teach him, he could tell that the elderly Chame was very passionate about learning this. He would even mumble about how useful it would be, and how his name would go down in the history of Chame pundits.
Of course, Lucius could understand the excitement, even if he wasn't a scholar himself. As anti-climactic as this was, it would go down in history as the first version of written language for this den, and perhaps later even his commune.
"So then does this have something to do with your earlier saying?" Sherlin asked, a satisfied expression on his face. He held the piece of leather as if his life depended on it and Lucius was nearly certain that he wasn't going to be getting it back.
"You pundits are supposed to be the greatest sources of knowledge in this den right?" Lucius asked, before leaning back, using his tail as a sort of stool.
"Th-that is correct," Sherlin replied hesitantly.
"Then tell me what you know about the Pris- I mean Immaculate Forest," Lucius asked.
A short silence ensued, indicating to Lucius that this exchange of information was not something that the council allowed.
After all, even with their low level of advancement, every civilization held information to a high degree. Even cavemen wouldn't share their hunting spots without getting something in return.
Lucius could tell by Sherlin's expressions that it was an intense internal battle. But a few glances at the Alphabet was all it took for him to eventually cave in.
"Hmm, where do I begin?" Sherlin began.
"The Immaculate Forest is a region controlled by the Forest Council. A council created by the most powerful mid-tiers in the forest," he explained, his eyes looking at the wall as if searching for the information.
"You see, there was a time when the First descendants of the Fae, the tenth tiers, slaughtered and consumed the rest of us until there were nearly none of us left. Young as you are, I'm sure you understand that Power means everything in this forest," he said, a pitying look on his face.
"The strongest of us, the ninth tiers, led a rebellion against them. You'd think that the sheer number of our forces should've been enough to overwhelm them," he said with a sarcastic smile on his face.
"But they didn't. According to the Pundits before me, those of us that survived the war came here. The more powerful creatures founded the Immaculate Forest, shaping the landscape with magic," he explained, his eyes staring so dreamily at the wall that it seemed like he was really staring at the Immaculate Forest.
"And the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves, denied both a place and representative in the council. They claim that Tier 6 is a minimum requirement, but they won't even allow Shavak a place in the council till this day," Sherlin spat, disdain clear in his voice.
Lucius took a moment to digest this information. It was a little different from what he was expecting.
For one, he hadn't expected infighting between the creatures of the forest. He knew that relations wouldn't really be that good what with some creatures hunting each other, but at worst, he had expected a few skirmishes, not a full-out war.
~Besides, where do humans fit in this equation? If they wiped out the Fae shouldn't they be defacto leaders?~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Then the huma- I mean the owners of the forest. Where do they stand in all of this?" he asked.
"The owners of the forest do not interfere with us forest creatures. I remember during my last visit to the Immaculate Forest there was talk of trade with the owners. However it has been long since, and there are no other tales of them," Sherlin replied, straining as he tried to remember.
Lucius found it odd that the humans of this world were satisfied with such a small portion of the forest. Especially since the place was so abundant in natural resources.
~Are the humans of this world just not that greedy?~ he thought to himself. Because if it were the same humans he was familiar with, the entire forest would've become real estate by now.
~Or is it because the tier 10 creatures pose too much of a threat?~
It was hard to determine who was more powerful.
The humans had wiped out the fae, who were more powerful than the tier 10s, but then again the humans had clearly employed some form of foul play to achieve this.
Whatever the case, both of them were potential antagonists to the growth of his commune. With time his commune would evolve to be entirely tier 10 - if the system allowed- but he doubted the tier 10's would welcome them with open arms.
Especially since he was claiming to be Havon, the savior of the low tiers. As he was still deep in thought, he heard shouting coming from one of the corridors outside.
Confused, he and Sherlin slowly made their way to where the shouting was coming from and found all the guards running toward the main tunnel.
"What's going on?" Lucius called out to one of the guards that were running ahead of them.
"The warrior chief and the others have returned," the guard shouted back, before running on.
