These weak aliens suddenly seemed to bring about a Martial Artist out of nowhere. Furthermore, A Martial Squire, not a Martial Apprentice.
That caught the attention of the Martial tribes of Vilun Island.
Power was all that mattered to them, which meant that those that had power definitely were much bigger in their eyes.
The Martial Squire offered to trade them the techniques of his 'union' for the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Yet that was not what had angered the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"Our techniques are much superior to your primitive techniques, so you have every reason to accept our offer." The alien Martial Artist told them with a contemptuous expression.
The Martial Squires of the G'ak'arkan Tribe felt boundless rage boiling from deep within their being as they exerted superhuman willpower to control themselves from attacking and tearing the fool apart!
If not for the fact that they were too close to the ordinary tribe-folk of their village that would die from just the minutest fraction of their power, they would have killed him on the spot.
What followed was even more bewildering to them.
The ordinary humans that had accompanied the Martial Squire chastised the Martial Squire in their native tongue!
They dared to adopt a strong tone with the Martial Squire despite being ordinary humans.
This was unheard of to the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
What dumbfounded them, even more, was that the Martial Squire heeded their words and apologized for the insult. Later that day, they sent even more gifts as a token of apology.
Truly incomprehensible behavior.
Yet what was even more shocking was that much later after several more attempts, they returned with a Martial Senior!
Now, this was a jolting event even to the highest leaders of the Martial tribes of Vilun island. The birth of a new Martial Senior was always a defining and significant event on Vilun island and one that could influence the power dynamics of the many Martial Tribes.
Every Martial tribe paid close attention as the Martial Senior specifically headed towards the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
The offer was the same as before; their techniques for the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
This time, there was more gravitas to the offer.
Yet the problem was the phrasing. The previous Martial Squire was bad enough, but this one was far worse.
"Your primitive techniques are much weaker than ours, the only reason we want them is that you have certain novelties that we are interested in. Don't be stupid and accept our offer." Senior Ceeran had conveyed to them, despite his pleasant smile.
Hostilities had nearly broken out then and there, frankly, it was a miracle that they hadn't. If not for the fact that N'Kulu, the leader of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, had more maturity in him than his clansmen, it may very well have turned into a war then and there.
At this point, the G'ak'arkan Tribe was very confused.
Its lack of understanding of the aliens which stemmed from having dismissed them for many years after their initial underwhelming appearance was starting to get in the way of how they ought to deal with them.
At the very least, they never showed any overt hostility to the Martial tribes of the island. They maintained a peaceful relationship and continuously made offers to trade Martial techniques.
Alas, the G'ak'arkan Tribe, at least, was not interested in sharing their techniques to obtain the techniques of people whose Martial Artists were disrespected by normal humans. How could such Martial Artists have worthy techniques?
They may have reached higher Realms, but their conduct with lessers gave the Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe very little confidence that they had any merit in them.
Then came the latest Martial Artist in the long line of ambassadors.
A Martial Squire with pitch-black hair and eyes. He blazed with more power in a Martial Squire than any Martial Artist on the island had ever seen. It was a wonder to them how he was still in the Squire Realm.
For the first time, the G'ak'arkan Tribe had a serious discussion with the ambassador of the 'union' that managed to actually end on a peaceful note. The G'ak'arkan Tribe skeptically listened to his tale of offering techniques that covered some of the shortcomings of the G'ak'arkan Tribe in exchange for some techniques that covered their shortcomings.
There was only one problem.
What shortcomings?
The G'ak'arkan Tribe did not see any of the so-called shortcomings that the ambassador had suggested that their techniques had; their range and power, among other things.
This made no sense to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Their long-range techniques had more range and more power at range than any other long-range techniques on the entire island!
This was naturally true since they were the only Martial tribe that developed an affinity for long-range techniques that other Martial tribes did not, due to their environment.
Long-range techniques were particularly useful at elevated heights and distances.
Regardless, the G'ak'arkan Tribe simply failed to make heads or tails of the mentality and thoughts of the relatively friendly but strange aliens that continuously had been pestering the G'ak'arkan Tribe to obtain their techniques for quite some time now.
At the very least, their talks had made more progress than in the past, but it had become very clear that both sides were nowhere near each other on the same page. This was the fundamental barricade between a fruitful negotiation session.
Soon after, the alien outsiders seemed to receive reinforcements that brought over more people to the island. This was an alarming development. If not for the fact that the outsiders had spent many years slowly building up goodwill with the Martial tribes of Vilun Island, they would have long kicked them all to the curb as they did many years ago the first time they stumbled upon the island.
The vigilance of the G'ak'arkan Tribe grew stronger as they closely observed what the outsiders were up to on the island, whatever it was, it was not insignificant.
