Shepherding Humanity

Chapter 26: The Age of Decline

More than two hundred years have passed since the Great Flood, enough time for several generations to rise and fall.

The Babylonians wore clothes and animal skins and no longer needed their natural body hair to keep them warm. Their dense black fur diminished as their bodies stood straighter, gradually revealing white skin.

They went from hairy apes to early humans with sparse hair, with the brawny muscular physique of Westerners.

Their once glorious civilization has yet to recover. They were still stuck in primitive farming tribes, unable to rebuild their city-states.

Their glory was all thanks to their great Hero King, Gilgamesh.

The great Hero King was the strongest being in the world, and could suppress all the races of the world by himself. He single-handedly suppressed the great beasts, and made the Sumerian race occupy the top of the food chain.

Without the Hero King, they had nothing.

They could not progress to the Copper and Iron Ages, and with crude stone spears and clubs alone, how could they fight against gigantic beasts?

The one and only metal weapon, civilizations holy sword, the Sword of Damocles, had been lost in the Great Flood along with the Hero King Gilgamesh, sinking into the oceans endless depths.

Furthermore, they didn't even have the ability to rebuild their city walls.

The royal city of Uruk had been single-handedly built by Gilgamesh. He had personally moved the giant boulders that were the citys building blocks to its construction site, and it only took him a month.

For ordinary people, the amount of work required to build the great city was comparable to the difficulty of building the pyramids in ancient Egypt. Theyd need dozens of years.

Since this world did not have minerals, they would not be able to develop metal tools and follow the same path of civilization as Earth. They had no choice but to forge their own path.

At this moment.

Medea, daughter of the Babylonian chieftain, was sighing in awe.

"What glory! That mythical era belonged to only one man, the great Hero King Gilgamesh. No wonder the people of that age wrote grand epics to sing his praise and record his glory."

A mythical and glorious civilization.

Merchants, shops, colosseums, and slaves.

The magnificent royal palace of Uruk, the great Hero King sitting on his throne, sword of Damocles in hand, looking down on his subjects with his fathomless dark eyes.

What a great and powerful man he must have been!

"Our civilization is on the decline and we face extinction. If the sword of civilization that God granted us hadn't been lost, we might not have had such a hard time even if we didn't have the great strength granted by the Blood of the Conqueror."

"God, is the tribe of Babylon doomed?"

"Civilization is the power granted to intelligent species to protect themselves I, Medea, want to know the way forward for our civilization! Tell me, how are we supposed to survive!!!"

Medeas face was calm. She was the bravest and wisest member of the tribe. Though she was not as strong as the men, she could triumph over most of the tribes warriors thanks to her superior technique.

She looked at the hunters in animal skins before her and returned to reality, "Hows our progress in exploring this area?"

They were surrounded by a fetid swamp, thick with decay. A man answered: "This vast swamp must have formed through the accumulation of water after the Great Flood. Many species flourish within, and there are many delicious fruits."

This was a fertile swamp that Xu Zhi had treated with manure. Within it, plants naturally flourished.

"The Great Flood?"

Medea took a deep breath as she looked at the vast black swamp before her.

It was hard to imagine the catastrophe of over two hundred years ago, the Great Flood that had submerged the entire world. God had power that was unimaginable to mortals, and could destroy the world on a whim.

"Then there must be plenty of food here, it'll be the next gathering spot for our tribe " She looked around for a moment, and suddenly noticed that something was wrong. "Wait, wheres Garkai and Bolonias?"

The hunters looked at one another, they hadnt noticed that two people had disappeared.

This had never happened before.

The savage creatures of this land werent very intelligent, and wouldn't bother to sneak up on weak humans in the first place. With only crude stone spears and axes, humans were unable to break their scaly armor and could only be slaughtered.

"Something's wrong, this seemingly quiet and peaceful swampland contains hidden danger. There may be terrifying creatures we don't know about." Medea frowned. "Giant beasts cannot get into the swamp. Theyd only sink. There are no signs of them here, we must have been ambushed by some swamp creature."

"Retreat!"

Medea acted decisively. The group of more than twenty people started to leave.

But at that moment, a disgusting monster with grayish black tentacles suddenly appeared in the swamp. Its body was covered with tentacles that looked similar to gray seaweed. At the center was a huge bloodshot eye with a scarlet pupil.

Its body was truly disproportionate.

Its bloodshot eyeball actually took up two-thirds of the creatures body.

"So beautiful."

"How could there be such a beautiful girl in this world!"

Hardy men in animal skin looked into the Evil Eyes bloodshot orb and couldn't help but walk over in a trance, as if they had seen a stunning beauty. They were so excited that no one could pull them back.

"What are you doing!?"

"Don't go over there!"

Their companions were terrified.

This bizarre scene made them question all that they knew.

Medea was the most intelligent person in her tribe and instantly realized what was happening. "What kind of terrifying creature is this? That strange and sinister giant eye can charm prey into voluntarily heading over. The missing Garkai and Bolonias must have voluntarily walked to their death!"

"Run!"

She quickly made her decision and hurriedly retreated with her people, abandoning the few who were charmed and slowly walking past them to their doom.

But then, she suddenly stopped. Her eyes turned fiery.

"These are such wondrous creatures. They are weaker than humans, with soft, powerless tentacles, and stupidly large eyes. Physically, theyre the weakest creatures weve ever met, and yet, they have the astonishing power to destroy creatures that are stronger than themselves."

"Even though were similarly weak, why is it that only they have a unique power?" Medeas eyes burned with a nameless flame, as a terribly bold and daring thought took root within her:

I will claim its power and revive the tribe!

"We'll escape after killing it!" Medea suddenly shouted.

"What?"

The tribe's warriors were taken aback.

Medea turned and raised her white spear high.

A ray of light fell on her cold and beautiful face, wreathing her in a divine halo, like a mythical valkyrie from Norse mythology. "Follow me! I will kill it and bring its corpse back to the tribe!"