Out of 5 villages, 3 had been destroyed due to the conflicts. Villages 4 and 5 had the battle spirits in them. They protected those villages. It was easy for them. They were granted one of them to repopulate it with their women. It had been largely a success with the second generation of spirit-human hybrids. The dragon and his women and children took one over after the gold was discovered. That left another village abandoned. Sometimes bandits and adventurers would use it as a forward base for looking into the other villages. The natives of 4 and 5 lived there and were very vigilant toward outsiders or attacks. They really wanted their boys to be warriors. If attacked, they needed to hold the enemy off long enough for the Blade Spirits to arrive and protect them. Once their numbers were low enough, they would leave. The females and older men would be doing the farming and other chores. It was needed for the village to survive. I went to that village every so often and saw there were some big holes in the ground. Nothing was in it. They must not have found much gold there.
Either that, or they had already took all of the gold that they found back with them. The majority of the gold was in the village the dragon was in. They took piles and piles of it to Villages 4 and 5 and there were still lots of gold to go. The black dragon's interest was not in human wealth. It was in battle and human adulation. Being granted their women was a sign that the humans of the valley saw him as a really big deal. He was a Blade Spirit. As long as he could use his spear to kill, he was fine. While the other Blade Spirits were doing this as an adventure. None of them were actually evil in their nature. The black dragon was an evil conqueror. It made living in the area a bit dangerous. As long as the dragon was contained to his village, it would be better for everyone. If he tried to conquer some other village, all of the other Blade Spirits would band together to kill him. I was able to beat up Shank using Ace and Deuce. If I used Shank and Krit, I definitely would be able to take him on. Even though they all were rivals to me, we could team up for this. It would not even be close at all.
Bandits, mercenaries and adventurers still came regularly. I did not like how easy it was, but that was what we signed up for. We were village guardians. Either we stayed with our chosen champions for life, or they were killed by stronger warriors that would take us out of the valley. But that was not how it had to be. There were 5 villages, but there was a lot of strength and wealth there. It could be entertaining to upgrade the villages into towns. Even if they combined into one small town, that would be very good for the people too. It would certainly be something to do. Saying that to the warriors got them excited. So much so that they went back to their original villages to tell them about it. Villages 4 and 5 were on board, but they were pretty shrewd as well. They did not want the Blade Spirits part of their towns. They used their gold and resources for themselves. The few artisans and builders built up the spaces away from the other villages. They were making 2 small towns and the villages would be left as they were. But then they made an agreement. They would split the spare.
