The tribal woman approached Damien carefully. She didn't immediately assume that he was captured because he'd been caught in her trap.
Her arms and legs moved in tandem like those of a beast rather than those of a civilized human, which allowed her to maneuver the jungle with much more proficiency than she otherwise would be able to.
It was an obvious adaptation made by the human body for survival, but Damien appreciated it well.
He had reached a point in his life where beauty didn't mean anything to him.
Damien had four wives. When he looked at women other than them, let alone attraction, he hardly even recognized them as women.
His eyes were too indifferent.
Therefore, despite the foreign beauty of this woman, Damien didn't have any such thoughts.
He was focused on her body, though.
The way her muscles flexed and moved, the way they protruded in places where they usually wouldn't, and the way they'd evolved due to her way of life; Damien was extremely interested in it.
He was even more interested in how she developed her power, but he couldn't see that without alerting her to his security, which was the opposite of what he wanted.
The woman already approached him. She was staring at him from atop the tree branch from which he hung, clicking her tongue in that strange way.
Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik!
At first, Damien assumed it was some sort of echolocation or something similar, but he soon found his views changed.
Every time she clicked her tongue, a wave of energy subtly spread into the atmosphere. It registered his heartbeat, his breathing, and even his micro-expressions as he pretended to be prey.
'She's testing the waters.'
The fauna of this jungle likely had similar systems of their own. If Damien responded to her clicking, she would register him as a threat and take measures to neutralize him.
If she sensed anything wrong with his breathing or heartbeat, she would do the same.
It was an interesting method, quite animalistic just like everything else about her, but it was absolutely effective.
Even Damien was forced to control himself, regulating his heartbeat and breathing to make it seem like he was unconscious.
'When is she going to…?'
He didn't get to ask his whole question before he got the answer.
The woman started pulling on the rope he was attached to, pulling him up the tree. The strength she used to do so was far beyond what her smaller frame seemed able to handle, but the lean muscles that were present throughout her frame allowed her to do it with ease.
Damien's body was slung over her shoulder like it was nothing.
Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik!
She turned in another direction and clicked her tongue again. After assuring her surroundings, she leapt to the next tree.
Swoosh!
'Woah!'
Damien almost opened his eyes in that moment.
The second they reached the next tree, they had reached the one beyond it.
The winds rushed by as the woman moved. Her speed was impeccable, especially considering the extra weight she was carrying.
The environment turned into a blur. If an ordinary mortal was moved at this speed, their body would be torn apart by the sheer pressure of the wind.
To truly understand how powerful the woman was, Damien's weight had to be mentioned.
Damien didn't weigh the same as an average man.
At his weight, if he was still a mortal, he'd be somewhere around 200 pounds, give or take.
However, he was nothing close to a mortal.
Damien's body had undergone several transformations, and on top of that, his physical strength was immense. It was impossible for his body to maintain a normal weight with such power hidden inside of it.
Damien weighed several thousand tons at the very least.
He could easily control this weight in normal cases. It never hindered him, nor would others feel it.
This was a special case where he had to stop regulating it.
Yet, the woman was carrying him with ease.
'If she's a picture of the average hunter of their civilization, then I really can't underestimate them.'
Strength was normal.
Thousands of tons meant nothing to a Demigod. Even if Damien never regulated his weight, whether it was his wives or others, nobody would have a problem lifting him or pulling him around.
This woman wasn't a powerful practitioner, though.
She didn't have any signs of mana training in her body.
This obviously didn't stem from her origins, since the Nox and members of the Foreign Race vanguard had clear signs of mana training in their bodies.
The system of practice this tribal society used was different from the norm, another interesting fact Damien was able to realize before he even met them.
The woman rushed through the jungle with extreme familiarity.
She didn't move in a linear path, taking extra precautions so that on the off chance that Damien wasn't as neutralized as she thought, he wouldn't be able to trace the location of her home.
It wasn't just Damien, but all the beasts in the vicinity that she was wary of.
But she still eventually made it to the village.
Her steps became heavier and her pace slowed.
Soon enough, Damien once again heard her voice.
"Umak tara-ha! Ton Kurung-ha di pethol reveen."
"Pertak nikten. Kurang-ha ni di pon."
"Sen."
The woman had a short conversation with a man, evidently another member of her village, before seemingly reaching a conclusion.
'I can't understand them at all. Their language bears no similarity to ours, but I think I can roughly assume what they're saying.'
The word "Kurang-ha" was one Damien had heard more than others. It was obviously being used to refer to him.
As for the rest, Damien had no idea, but they were probably discussing what to do with him.
They were tribal people, but they weren't stupid. They could clearly tell that Damien wasn't some beast that resided in the forest.
They were probably confused by his presence.
The question was how they would respond to that confusion.
Damien couldn't spread his awareness or open his eyes, so he could only perceive the village with his natural spatial connection.
It was ingrained in the trees. He couldn't tell the exact details of the residences and facilities around him, but they were made out of a material different from the ones he'd seen before and had a structural integrity that made it somewhat difficult to teleport between them.
The village society was in the sky, not the ground.
The woman took Damien up several layers of canopy before reaching her final destination.
At that point, she took him into a building and threw him on the floor.
'Damn. Not enough time.'
Damien was in a cell. He was certain of that.
Unfortunately, he didn't have much of a chance to scope out the village while she was bringing him here.
She was just too fast.
'From what I can tell, they're more advanced than I originally thought. It's as if they're a budding civilization with the knowledge of an old one, but for some reason, they're only developing in certain aspects while ignoring the rest.'
It was probably a product of their environment. The jungle didn't give them room for many amenities.
But they still chose to live here, which meant there was something here that was worth staying for.
Damien waited a bit before he opened his eyes.
And the first thing he saw…?
He had no choice but to smile wryly.
"You guys…?"
In front of him were two very familiar people with two very embarrassed expressions on their faces.
It seemed Damien wasn't the only one who was captured.
But, judging from their expressions, it seemed he was the only one who did it on purpose.
"Haha…"
Damien laughed in astonishment.
"This is…quite an interesting situation."
