After remembering the important issue that he had to deal with, Mason felt his body became harder to move. It meant that soon he would fall asleep again. He already experienced this a dozen times and it looked like each time he regained his consciousness, some time had passed.

'Is the body still adapting to the consciousness of a living being that at least aware of its surroundings and in its growing phase?' Mason asked in his mind. He found this case to be rather amazing in his perspective. Humans had a growing phase and this was something that Mason was truly aware of. Of course, he did not know the details or the phycological aspect that qualify him to be at a certain age but at least he knew by seeing it on his neighbors and his friends.

Thus, the ever thinking Mason lost consciousness, fell asleep, and deep into his own mind.

 

-

 

The strange thing that Mason encountered this time was actually when he slept this time. He was in a white space, with no form of any human building as far as his eyes could see and no one was there either. This was not normal as usually, Mason would just feel enveloped in nothingness before he woke up.

 

And just as he fell into contemplation, he felt a presence. Small as it was, he still had to know what it was. Mason turned around and what greeted him was actually something smaller than his own height.

 

'A small toddler?' Mason thought at the first sight his eyes caught. But then he felt a bit strange that his body in this place...was that of his usual body, to be exact, it was his original body. The toddler in front of him however was someone Mason rather knew...

"Who are you?" Mason asked. Any action the toddler took would indicate something to Mason at least. And as expected, the toddler crawled slowly to under his feet. It was a rather adorable sight to behold and then the small toddler raised both of his hands and Mason vaguely knew what it wanted him to do.

Mason picked the toddler up, cuddling him in his embrace when a small but clear voice could be heard.

 

"Mister...are you here to do something?"

 

Mason was surprised to hear that and looked around. But he did not see anyone else...other than the one in his arms. Then he looked at the toddler and knew that the voice came from this tiny thing.

"I do not know exactly how I can get here. You can understand it as someone that is stranded far from his home and the destination of his journey." Mason replied softly.

"Is that really true? Are you really not here for my matter?" the 'miraculous toddler teared up when he heard Mason's reply and this intrigued Mason.

"What matter is it? Can you tell me?" Mason might as well ask. Perhaps this was because Mason thought everything in his sight now was just his imagination, delusion, just name it. He purely wanted to have an objective of some sort, he actually found one but that was temporary.

"Fine." the toddler said before both of them raised their head and noticed the white space around them changed drastically.

 

-

 

Around them, several pictures were moving in a limited space like how one could view outside from a window. In one of the moving pictures, Mason saw clearly an animal with huge tusks. It rampaged through the snowy fields, as several men tried to stop it but failed miserably.

He swept his glance to another picture and saw a snake whose size was a bit unbelievable. Its height was as tall as the Cypnis tree, the tallest tree the tribe was aware of. Its length however could rival the distance of the twelve tribes combined.

He just glanced at the pictures, trying to get the main theme out of them but it was not easy. Then he saw a meteorite fell from the sky in another moving picture.

'What is the meaning of this? I don't get it at all.' Mason was not able to draw any conclusive thing as far as his knowledge allowed him to.

 

"This is the fragment of the possible future...that I see." the toddler said softly, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Future?" Mason was confused. How could someone see the future? How did they do it? But then he wanted to ask something that related to his strange feeling ever since he saw the toddler.

 

"Someone like you...just who are you?" Mason asked this first before he dealt with the matter of this 'picture' of the future.

"Don't you know my name?" the toddler tilted its small head.

"What does that mean!?" Mason was jolted, he...he actually did not want to think in that direction but he had to confirm it. So he said, "Are you...actually...the original owner of this body?"

The toddler's eyes then lit up, hearing Mason's question made him quite interested. The toddler then nodded and Mason was stunned, rooted to his place for a few minutes. His expression was so dark, sour, and full of denial. Just when he thought that he could experience another life that he did not know about, he found out that the borrowed body actually already had an owner.

 

"Kumba...you are the one who saw this 'picture' of possible future?" Mason did not know how to continue the conversation anymore. His drive to do it suddenly vanished after seeing the toddler agree with his question.

"Yes. And I cannot do much since the action of getting this 'picture' basically courting death, and that is what I got." the toddler Kumba told Mason before he continued, "And when you appear here one day, I feel like there is still one final hope that can change things. I beg of you Mister, please help me."

Just as Kumba said this, the toddler's body started to fade away slowly. Mason was terrified and just said what he felt at the moment.

 

"What...is your last will?" Mason realized the meaning of this toddler's words. He was going to die and since Mason was coming to this place before his death, Kumba had to relay this information to Mason.

"Please help our people, no, our race from this calamity! Especially our parents, take care of them properly. Just one thing before I will give everything I know, what is your name, Mister?" Kumba saw his own body disappeared from this space but his chubby face smiled instead. And Mason could feel that smile was pure and genuine so he could only answer truthfully to respect it.

"I am Mason, nice to meet you Kumba. If there is really an opportunity of the afterlife, I really want to meet you again."

"Mister is so nice. Even at this moment, I can feel your sincerity. Since your attitude to me is like this, I can rest assured." the toddler Kumba then closed his eyes slowly before a small light was formed between him and Mason. Mason opened his eyes wide due to the sudden information influx that almost overwhelmed his consciousness.

Kumba's small body then faded faster from his tiny feet until his upper body also undergone the same situation.

'Please do your best!' this was the last thought of the one who had to die to save the people he cared for.

 

-

 

When Mason opened his eyes once again, the thing that he received was the ceiling of his own tent. He was wide awake but he did not cry, for he already did. A tinge of sadness remained in his heart but he had to accept that.

He only found out now that his arrival here was almost like a coincidence. Because when he was transmigrated here, Kumba was half a step to the grave already. If he was not coming, the toddler would probably die and the parents would not know the exact cause.

 

'Consciousness, Kumba mentioned a thing or two about this and the system also gave me some related information... So that is Conscape.' Mason digested new information he received. Conscape, the space where consciousness harnesses its power the most that only rare people had it. And when it was said rare according to the system, which meant that it was likely the existence at the top had it while bottom-feeder like him would not be able to get one.

What Mason had experienced actually happened inside Kumba's Conscape. As for himself, he did not have the capability to do that.

Along with Kumba's consciousness truly disappeared from the body, Mason truly got full control of his 'borrowed' body, along with the information Kumba had transmitted to him. This kind of information transmission was actually much better than common methods such as seeing, hearing, or sensing because it directly transferred the information to the brain and skipped the contemplative process.

 

'This is amazing. Will I be able to do that someday?' Mason pondered before he had to speak...no, to cry out loud since he felt hungry now.

His body's mother then came at the first sign as she looked at him before knowing what to do. She then went to the storage to take some ingredients, utensils, etc. After some time, she came back with a small stone bowl with a wooden spoon.

 

'Steria...no, from now on I should call her Mother.' Mason understood most of the things Kumba wanted him to do and the crucial point to take note of regarding that. He did not know but he felt calmer and secure when he was embraced by her.

'Is this...parental love?' Mason then smiled knowing this while the food that he had to eat was actually the softest kind the tribe had for their baby. After the baby was of sufficient age, they would not be given breast milk every single consumption of nutrient but given this soft food in one of their meals. Then they would increase the intensity over time until the kids could eat food the tribe's people usually eat.

This care was maintained for generations and he also had to experience this. With this kind of care, three more years passed by.

 

"Father, can I learn some cool things from you?" Mason now was able to properly do what most people could and was a four-year-old boy. He asked his father to teach him some hunting knowledge. But for those three years, he had to be satisfied with his slingshot and that was what he did.

'The sooner I can learn hunting, the better chances for me to do what Kumba wanted me to.' Mason thought to himself.

 

His father smiled before he picked a wooden spear that was placed beside his own equipment.

"Then this is your first melee weapon." he gave Mason the wooden spear while continued and rubbed Mason's head, "It is long and easy to use. Even in some cases, we will throw it at our prey or to our desired target with it. Please use this for the time being, okay."

"Thank you, Father!" Mason said. He was truly excited not only because his father let him train with this spear but also knew that this decision did not come as easy as he had sounded it to be. As a father, he wanted his child to become stronger and better but for Mason to directly asked to do it at his current age, caused his father to be in a dilemma.

"Don't go too far from our tent. Your mother will be worried otherwise!"

 

Mason then saw a small tree sapling just behind his tent. He decided to train his ability here from now on. The wooden spear was half a head longer than his entire height but the weight was just fit for Mason to lift albeit with some difficulties.

His father saw him started to swing his wooden spear awkwardly that he decided to come over.

"Kumba, look carefully at what your father is going to do!"

 

Then Mason stopped his session of familiarizing himself with his weapon and saw his father gripped the wooden shaft of the spear tightly. Before long, Mason could see the trajectory of the spear's body, his father's hand, as well as the blade when his father performed a horizontal slash.

It continued with a fast diagonal slash, crossing the horizontal slash trajectory fast enough as if the two strikes were superimposed together.

Then his father finished the move by moving his waist and arms when performing a stab with his entire strength behind it. Mason did not say anything and kept replaying that scene. He had never seen a person using a spear after all so he savored every single moment of it.

 

Then Mason started to imitate it. Only after he thought about this that he found out that it did not seem so easy, it was difficult. A simple movement of swinging, slashing, stabbing could be done easily but when he wanted to improve in this aspect, Mason could not do it and needed more time.

His little body had difficulties in the aspect of stamina so after a dozen of simple movements, he had already panting. Mason contemplated every aspect of his movement and compared it to his father, he found several things that could be improved.

'I need to stop now. This body cannot take any more training.' Mason decided to stop for now. He did not know whether this was good or bad but he really had to rest. If not, then his body growth would be affected and it would be detrimental.

"Kumba is my child, indeed." Mason felt a warm and big hand ruffled his head that had short hair. His father then carried Mason on his shoulder as they entered the tent. His mother Steria was cleaning the innards of the beasts that were stored in the storage as they would decay if left for too long.

"You're back!? Come, let you have a taste of these delicacies." Steria said while she smiled at both of them. What she had done was for the innards of those beasts to be cooked inside the pot that was made from the clay. Mason knew that this kind of clay was a bit different from what he knew but it was indeed useful for cooking as it could withstand high temperatures.

She threw those innards inside and the smell from the pot spread around the tent and even Mason could roughly guess how delicious that would be. And his digestive system was able to take it now that he was three years old, this was the moment Mason had waited because even in his world, he rarely had meat as his diet.

 

When the dishes were ready, Mason grabbed the large leaf that had already been prepared as a plate for his food. After getting everyone's shares, they thanked for the food, the animals that died and would not waste their life.

'This prayer...is not bad.' Mason thought as he also prayed. Also, he agreed that they had to be grateful and not doing anything unnecessary. Wasting resources like food was also something the tribes strictly forbid, taboo if Mason had to put it into words.

Then he golfed the meat. As expected, it was not strong in taste but the texture and the natural nature of the meat meant it had its unique taste when cooked inside a pot with some ingredients. For Mason, this was far better than any regular food he ate in his everyday life before coming here. So much so that his parents could not hold back their laughter.

 

"Kumba likes meat that Mother prepared. Maybe I should learn more variant recipes for meat..." Steria murmured while thinking seriously about the issue before she said, "Dogma, please be more lenient! Don't think I don't know what you are going to do."

"I wish I could too but he really has to be ready as soon as possible. Anything can happen and I don't want him to suffer so much because of inability." Dogma replied. His father was strict but he truly knew what was important.

Mason listened to the conversation while eating and also agreed with his father.

"The situation at the Icy Plains is not as good. Most of our scouts reported the same thing, that is the Megamammoth is moving from there to the location near Grey Swamp. We do not know why but most of the beasts are also going in that direction. And the wolf pack from the Mossy Mountain now is going on mass migration." Dogma said about the situation outside the tribe.

"Will that affect our annual operation?" Steria asked, worried about something. Mason naturally knew what she had been worried about. Icy Plains and Grey Swamp were adjacent to each other but that territory was also next to Greenwater Lake. This lake was one place where the Twelve Tribes could find some plants, useful plants for humans either for medicine, ingredients, or support items that could help with the hunt.

Each summer, the twelve tribes would gather together to forage the place but now that most of the beasts migrated near the area, it became far more dangerous for them to go. As of the moment, the twelve tribes were planning cooperation to be able to get that place despite the condition. Mason could hear everything his parents were saying and nodded.

 

'So the memories are also a kind of possible future. Just what abilities does the original Kumba have?'