I have Nine Lives

Chapter 30: Some truths

Felix reached the biggest tent in the camp accompanied by Catro and Landers. They didn't have to wait for a long before a kind voice came out of the tent and said:

"You can enter now."

Felix's eyes narrowed, what was with the kind tone now?

As Felix and Landers entered they saw the shaman's son getting treatment, the shaman was healing him using his palms, a type of red energy was gathering in them as they extracted foreign Hex energy that was inside the man's injuries and helped him heal at a faster rate.

The middle-aged shaman chuckled looking at Landers's and Catro's expressions then said:

"I was just finishing healing the generals, just wait a little bit more and I should be done, I have some things to talk with the two of you and young Felix down there."

His palms stopped giving out the red energy as his son got up from the bloody blanket he stood on and stretched for a bit before he gave a bow to the shaman and left the tent.

The shaman then sat on the throne that was a few meters behind him and motioned with his hand for them to get closer, he first pointed at Landers and said:

"I have seen your strength in battle and I can say that even though you haven't reached the general level you are not as weak as a captain either, I shall grant you the rank of marshall and give you a new bigger unit from the future trainees with high potential."

Landers bowed and then backed away as Catro was next:

"Your skills are quite important to our tribe and I saw your battles as well, you aren't as strong as landers but your smart thinking and crucial war capabilities make you an important person in the army, I cannot grant you the rank of marshall but I shall give you the rank of superior captain and logistics master."

Catro bowed as well, keeping a neutral expression on his face, the shaman smiled at him and the least among them was Felix.

Felix walked forward as the shaman looked at him and narrowed his eyes as he said:

"It seems you have benefitted from me cutting that tie to you."

The souls that he absorbed back into himself that made a light string couldn't be cute anymore, however, they could still be destroyed by the shaman making him lose a life, the light strings around him that only shamans could see were still tied to his soul, 4 of them were lightly tied while the other one that the shaman cut was now inscribed into Felix's soul as if it was runes, however, those runes could be broken and removed by an opponent with high enough Hex knowledge and ability. This was still an improvement considering when he lost his life he wouldn't become unconscious.

Seeing the shaman's eyes which were analyzing him as if he was an experiment made Felix feel quite bad, it wasn't a feeling that he could explain but all he could think about was that he didn't want to be in the same room as the man across of him.

Seeing how he scared him, the shaman shook his head as he stopped using his Hex-infused eyes to look at his soul, this, in turn, made Felix not feel as threatened as before, but he still didn't let his guard down.

Seeing how tense Felix was in front of him made the shaman chuckled to himself as he shook his head again and told him:

"Don't be so tense, while you are interesting I don't want to hurt you, why would I hurt someone who was blessed by God?"

Blessed by god? Felix didn't know what to say by this, his face scrunched up trying to think what he meant by that, the shaman chuckled as he saw Felix's strange look and told him:

"This isn't common knowledge but gods sometimes bless people with more lives, I'm actually quite envying your ability, those type of people are known as half-immortals and their bodies regain their peak ability after they are slain, meaning that if you are injured or old you can regain your prime youth and solve all injuries."

He sighed as he looked at his hand and muttered:

"If only I had this type of ability I wouldn't have to rely on those guys up there."

He continued to explain:

"On our continent... I'm not sure if there are any blessed people, you might be unique, but they weren't relatively rare when all of the continents were one whole."

The lion shaman was a learned individual as it seemed this wasn't the first time he had done such a ritual of youth recovery.

The shaman waved his hand indicating for Landers and Catro to leave as there was some information that he wanted to tell only to Felix.

Landers and Catro decided to comply, they were both quite shocked Felix was someone chosen by the gods but they didn't understand what kind of ability he had as they couldn't see the threads of his soul.

Seeing them leave made the shaman give out a small sigh as his eyes directly pierced into Felix's:

"You are quite a special thing, I think I have heard about people with 1 or 2 extra lives, but you have 5! I'm sure you can also recover them as well, Am I right?"

Felix felt his heartbeat so fast that it wanted to leave his chest, was his ability so easily seen through by someone at a shaman's level? Seemingly as if he heard his thoughts the now middle-aged shaman shook his head and said:

"No, not all shamans can see through your ability, actually I'm quite special even among shamans, guess how old am I."

Felix didn't know what to say, how many times did this man do such a thing? 10 times? 20 times? How old could he get before he needed to do the ritual?

Seeing that Felix had no answer for him made the man pretty disappointed as he said:

"I'm around 2,500 years old, do you know the average lifespan of a Hex blessed being?"

Felix could know less about that as well, he wasn't a learned scholar, all he knew was fighting and eating, he only knew very few things.

Seeing that Felix had the average knowledge of a soldier in the army made him shake his head continuously as he muttered:

"I thought you needed to be special or blessed somehow to be chosen by a god, he just seems like your average cat tribesman..."

"Well you see the average lifespan of a normal hex infused being is around 250 years old, I have basically lived 10 lifetimes."

Felix's eyes widened at the reveal as he backed a few steps, seeing that he got scared made the shaman feel quite wrong, I let you live alright, why are you still scared? Even though he envied Felix he really wanted to keep him loyal to the tribe as well, having someone blessed by the gods besides him made him feel that the tribe's fortunes would increase and they would be able to live well even if he had to leave.

He made a gesture towards Felix that sent a bit of his hex energy into him, the hex energy started to calm Felix down a bit, Felix didn't back away anymore as the shaman sighed for the umpteenth time and told him:

"Ok, just to make sure you understand me, I won't do anything to harm you, you are actually quite precious."

This didn't make Felix better but at least he knew that he wouldn't be dissected or something similar to the man's tone.

The shaman decided to introduce himself properly this time:

"My name is Siracha Enoch the first, anyways, enough with that scared and suspicious look from you, I know that what I have done is not considered to be good or anything but if I was gone the tribe would suffer and lose more than what we lost today, it was a necessary sacrifice."

Seeing that Enoch was rather honest with his words and expression made Felix relax a bit, then he decided to ask him:

"So is this the sole reason why you wanted me to come?"

Enoch shook his head as he said:

"I have seen your battle capabilities as well and I'm impressed a little bit, I will give you an honorary lieutenant rank for now and I hope you will be able to gain the battle power of a lieutenant quite soon, I also have a special job for you."

Felix decided to listen on, his goal in life was not dying or something among those lines at the moment, he just hated the feeling of death so much as it marked him very negatively, dying multiple times made him fear death more than anything else, as long as he could live he would do anything he had to.

Seeing that Felix was ready to accept orders made the man give a small smile on his lips as he laid out the order:

"You and a few others will be the main force to move the tigers from the mountains, you will also have to make sure they are obedient and learn how to behave themselves in our territory afterward, you are basically their caretaker for a while until I find someone better suited to this job, do you understand?"

Felix nodded at him and seeing that he was told everything that he needed to know he decided it was time to leave, but before he left the shaman told him one more thing:

"I'm not sure what will happen when you lose all your lives, but it's better to not even try to find out, anyways the team will soon come to the battlefield and you all have to do is wait for them, they already know you will lead them, one of them even said that he knows you and that he is your friend. You can go now."

He waved his hand at Felix. Felix shook his head to clear his mind after he left the tent, he still needed to digest all of the information that was given to him. What were the gods? And why has one of them blessed him?

Since he left the shaman, rushing without having his questions answered, he felt quite awkward to come to him again so he decided to find Landers, he still had enough time till the others from the squad came to him so he could do the mission with them.

It didn't take him much time to find Landers who was currently eating with a rather somber air around him.

Felix decided to sit near him and wait for him to finish before asking the questions that plagued his mind.