Chapter 33 - 14: [Adventurer Ecology]

Chapter 33: Chapter 14: [Adventurer Ecology]

Samael looked at her quietly.

Talia sighed.

"Shall we chat for a bit?" she asked.

"Of course—haven’t we been chatting this whole time?" Samael stared blankly.

"The majority of the Demon Race take pleasure in sadism and conquest; cruelty, apathy, and brutality are practically their nature. Because of this, Intelligent Races such as humans, Elves, and Dwarves all view the Demon Race as their most terrifying enemy. They are even willing to put aside their disputes to join forces against them.

"You once said that in your past life, you weren’t some... noble young master or member of royalty," she said. "But you possess a... noble and compassionate heroic aura, as if you came from the court of a human Wise Monarch.

"Whether it is your knowledge of poetic arts, your brave and optimistic mindset, your bold strategic mind, or your noble virtues, they all make me suspect—perhaps in your past life, you were a wise young Foreign Prince, or hailed from a noble human Knight Clan, who died from the framing of treacherous sycophants. Your departed soul turned into stars, only to be summoned here by an ancient Magic Array."

"Uh... no. I’m just a college student who died suddenly while playing video games," Samael interrupted. "Isn’t that... a bit too exaggerated?"

"Although I am only of the Mixed-blood Demon Race, it is inevitable that I have some habits of the Demon Race. Perhaps you... won’t be able to stand a lot of what I do," she continued. "In short... if wantonly killing innocent humans makes you unhappy, I won’t do it anymore. I’m sorry."

"Uh, alright... Actually... there’s no need to be so serious." Samael hesitated. "My god, can you believe it? That dumbass Roster, after I took him back to his barracks room, he actually blamed me when he woke up! He angrily accused me of meddling, deliberately using inferior Magic Potions to make him look like a fool in front of his little fanboy! I—for a moment, I thought you were completely right. That prick deserved to suffer a bit."

Talia couldn’t help but smile.

"Let’s eat first. The food is getting cold," Samael said, pulling out a chair.

"Mhm... By the way, where did you get the money?" Talia asked, looking at the table full of food.

"The Little Fatty Swordsman and the bespectacled Mage in Roster’s team said I saved their captain, so they gave me half a Split Claw Bird as a thank-you," Samael said. "I took the Split Claw Bird and strolled around the market—Randall mentioned it earlier when he was giving directions. There, a merchant was willing to pay to buy freshly dead Split Claw Birds at seven Gold Coins each."

"The purchasing price is quite high... Why is that? The Demonization level of the Split Claw Bird is very low, and they don’t have many high-quality Demonized materials on them," Talia said, frowning as she looked at Samael.

"Yeah, I found it strange too, so I asked the merchant what he was doing buying fresh Split Claw Bird corpses," Samael said. "The merchant said that Split Claw Birds have a low demon-matter content and aren’t poisonous, so they’re perfectly suitable for human consumption. After buying Split Claw Birds in bulk, he resells them to restaurants and taverns in Luojie City. Those chunks of meat in an adventurer’s diet that resemble dry, tough chicken are actually Split Claw Bird meat."

"Ah..." Talia grabbed a spoon, scooped up a chicken-like piece from the wheat porridge, and squinted at it. "So that’s how it is..."

Samael stroked the chin of his helmet. "In other words, adventurers like Roster, who only hunt Split Claw Birds, basically can’t afford expensive supplies like Healing Potions outside of room and board. They can’t participate in higher-level quests, nor can they improve themselves to become stronger. But under normal circumstances, hunting Split Claw Birds rarely results in serious injuries, and the purchasing price for the loot isn’t too low. Specializing in hunting Split Claw Birds can still provide a decent living.

"Although he doesn’t have a clear mind like Randall, to have survived in the Barren Land for so long, he must have his own set of survival strategies—even if this survival strategy is just a path dependency born out of sheer luck.

"The uncle with the Fish Spear Gun I ran into in the lobby today is in a similar situation. He specializes in catching snake-type monsters. Merchants pay a very high purchasing price for snake oil and snakeskin, while Snake Gallbladders, fangs, and venom glands are sold to Mages and Alchemists as spellcasting Catalysts or Magic Potion materials. The Snake-Catching Uncle has been in this trade for seven or eight years and is a Level 5 Adventurer making quite a good living.

"When I spaced out while shadowing the team today, I was thinking about these issues. You once mentioned that adventurers are the livestock of the Demon Race Monarchs, and their corpses are used to feed the Underground City ecosystem. This means that adventurers are also a link in the Demon Realm ecosystem built by the Demon Race Monarchs.

"If we consider the adventurers’ stronghold as an ecosystem too, then every adventurer has their own ecological niche. There are powerful Advanced Adventurers at the top of the food chain, adventurers who exclusively prey on specific species to reduce competition, and pragmatic, fiercely ambitious adventurers who act like hyenas—half-scavengers, half-predators—

"All of this is very interesting, right?" Samael asked, looking at Talia.

"You really are good at this... all of this. Whether in life or after death, you are an outstanding person, Samael." Talia scooped a spoonful of the half-cold porridge into her mouth. "It tastes good."

"In my past life, I was a college student majoring in engineering—in order to build an excellent Underground City project, we need to understand the working principles and methods of every part that makes up the Underground City." Samael beamed with pride. "Let’s eat first. We can talk more after we finish."

Outside the window, it had grown completely dark, but the bright, coppery-white twin moons watched the window from above the eaves. The moonlight illuminated the room, keeping the interior clearly visible.

Talia sat by the window, dipping hard bread and ham into her mixed vegetable soup. As she chewed, she gazed at the twin moons above the eaves, then couldn’t help but turn her head to look at Samael behind her.

Samael sat on the edge of the bed, gripping the torn cloth sack he had picked up earlier today from the weed-filled field where the flock of Split Claw Birds had been, staring blankly into the moonlight. The sack contained half a bag of wheat grains. The moonlight illuminated the incomplete text on the sack:

[Transporting grain to Kana... (Torn and incomplete from bird claws) ...City].

"What are you thinking about?" Talia asked.

"The Barren Land cannot grow human crops, nor can it raise human poultry, right?" Samael asked.

"Yes," Talia replied. "That is also why Magical Beasts like the Split Claw Bird, which can be eaten by humans, appear relatively more expensive."

"In other words, for ’Luojie City of the Kana Plain’, grains like these wheat seeds are all transported from human settlements." Samael looked at the words on the cloth sack.

"Exactly."

"Then why would this sack appear in the wilderness, quite a distance away from Luojie City? Was the grain transport convoy robbed by Split Claw Birds?" Samael pondered.

"Impossible. Gugu Chickens neither have the ability nor the guts," Talia rejected the idea. "Long-distance transport convoys are usually equipped with powerful bodyguards or a small-scale Mercenary Corps. Some convoys also post escort quests, guarded along the way by adventurers who accept the commission."

"Then who attacked the convoy transporting grain to ’Luojie City of the Kana Plain’ in the wilderness?" Samael looked at Talia. "What kind of creatures would be interested in human grain?"

"Bandits!" the two said in unison.

"Perhaps the reason that giant tree near the city gates is hung with bandits’ corpses is because the bandits robbed Luojie City’s grain transport convoy and angered the Alliance Guards." Talia scooped up a spoonful of wheat porridge. "Even desperadoes can’t survive purely on eating Demonized Creatures. Human crops and grains are still necessities for bandits."

"But that doesn’t make sense either." Samael hesitated. "If they robbed this grain, how could they just let the Split Claw Birds snatch a whole bag of wheat grains? Split Claw Birds are weak, cowardly creatures. Even Roster can beat a Split Claw Bird. Surely the bandits couldn’t possibly lose to them, right?"

He held up the cloth sack containing the wheat grains, using his arms to measure its length and width. "The sack has a large capacity. If it were a complete, full bag of wheat grains, it would be enough to feed ten people for a month," Samael said, spreading the sack open. "If the bandits wanted to rob the grain to eat it themselves, it’s impossible that they would leave such a large sack of wheat grains behind to feed the Split Claw Birds."

"That is indeed a suspicious point..." Talia took a sip of the mixed vegetable soup. "However... perhaps the grain the bandits obtained from the robbery was already enough, so much that they didn’t care even if one or two bags were lost."

"But—if the bandits had plenty of grain, why would they risk angering the Alliance Guards to rob a grain transport convoy again?" Samael stared at the incomplete text on the cloth sack:

[Transporting grain to Kana... (Torn and incomplete from bird claws) ...City].

What was the missing text?

[Transporting grain to Luojie City of the Kana Plain]?

Or something else?

Samael put down the cloth sack and shook his head.

"It doesn’t affect us for now. I’ll worry about it later," he thought.