Chapter 1009: A base and Shokuhou Misaki“s plan
The Giant Beast Forest is a treasure trove of resources.
This is something even those without cultivation talent knew about. Every Silvarian citizen can attest to this.
As the heaven for demonic beast, it"s a never-ending source of demonic beasts. The forest is also huge so it can serve as the habitat for a variety of demonic beasts. It also helped that the demonic beasts have fast breeding cycles.
Humans hunt demonic beasts for their fur, skin, bones, and other parts to make Armament, potions, and other items crucial for Silvaria"s development and maintenance. This has been going on since time immemorial. When humans developed sentience and achieved cultivation they started hunting till now.
Even so, the demonic beasts never went extinct. There is no record of any demonic species going extinct ever. Over-hunting only led to said species becoming rarer. Given enough time, the population usually recovered.
That is just how good the demonic beasts are at propagating their genes. It also attested to the sheer population of demonic beasts in the forest.
There are also other resources in the forest. These resources can be used for other purposes. Treasures inside the forest also led to wars among strong cultivators. Historically, wars were fought over certain items and materials.
It"s not hyperbole when people say the Giant Beast Forest is critical to Silvaria.
Silvaria had four G.o.d-tier beings once. They used the Power of G.o.d to achieve said apotheosis, breaking through their mortal limit and transformed themselves into lifeforms that stood at the true pinnacle.
With the disappearance of the Power of G.o.d, there will never be another G.o.d-tier cultivator.
If the disappearance of Power of G.o.d means no more G.o.d-tier beings then the disappearance of Giant Beast Forest would cripple Silvaria"s martial level. If the situation became permanent, even tier 9 and demi-G.o.ds would be the stuff of fairy tales.
This isn"t an exaggeration. Not everyone is born with the talent to cultivate. DemiG.o.ds might be powerful but every single one probably used a potion to boost their cultivation speed or used an item to break their tier limits. Without these resources, they would have never made it to the demiG.o.d-tier.
Losing access to the Giant Beast Forest would mean losing access to treasures like that. Breaking through one"s tier limit would become incredibly hard, even impossible in some cases.
Armament and items that can boost one"s power were also made from or excavated from the Giant Beast Forest"s materials and magical locations. With no materials, these items and equipment cannot be made.
Of course, there are humans who had grand ambitions. What if someone monopolized the entire forest? They can reap a ton of benefits by monopolizing the Giant Beast Forest. But, every one of them either failed miserably or died trying. No one has ever succeeded in doing so. Sure, humans went into the forest to hunt but this place isn"t hospitable for humans.
The Giant Beast Forest is the demonic beasts" home turf. People can hunt here but building a base to take over the entire place is impossible.
At least, it was impossible until now...
Between the outer region and the inner region, on a vacant plot somewhere here...
The ground is relatively flat and there are only trees growing on the rocky plain here.
There are multiple humans standing around here, they were surveying and discussing something.
It"s Wu Yan & co.
Wu Yan looked around the rather large area and he furrowed his brow.
"Do you want to build a base here?"
Wu Yan couldn"t help but voice his concern regarding this plan.
"I don"t think I need to remind you that we are in the Giant Beast Forest..."
"Precisely because of that reason we"re building one here!"
Shokuhou Misaki grinned, she had a serious look despite her smile.
"The sisters are commuting between the base and this region to hunt anyway. Might as well build a base here to harvest resources and earn EXP points. This beats relocating to another forward operating base and then running back and forth between this region and the forward operating base."
"Isn"t this dangerous?!"
Mikoto gasped.
"It"s the home for demonic beasts, what if they get surrounded by demonic beasts? What if a particularly strong demonic beast appears? What about food and water? Also, the Beast King might be lurking somewhere near here..."
"Misaka-san, please rest a.s.sured..."
Shokuhou Misaki bitterly laughed as she paused Mikoto who still had doubts regarding this plan.
"I seriously doubt any demonic beast siege can break past a defensive line formed by twenty thousand sisters. High-tier demonic beasts also don"t go anywhere close to this place since it"s between the inner and outer regions. As for the rations, it might be a headache for Silvaria"s residents. But, with Wu Yan as the procurement, I am sure he can find a tool or two that can continuously produce food and water, right?"
"What about accidents?!"
Mikoto insisted.
"You said the sisters would be fine the last time and then the Beast King attacked and demonic beast came in hordes that trapped the sisters. How can we be sure there won"t be a repeat of this?"
Like a doting sister, n.o.body can talk Mikoto out of her worries. Shokuhou Misaki helplessly shook her head while asking for help from Wu Yan with her eyes.
"That"s enough, Mikoto..."
Wu Yan grabbed her hands.
"You made great points but Misaki-chan"s right, rather than let the sisters roam the outside world, we might as well station them here. It"s better this way, isn"t it?"
"But..."
Mikoto is still worried. The sisters were like real sisters to her, she didn"t want to see them get hurt or anything like that. She feels like she owes it to the sister to make sure they stay safe and happy. Shokuhou Misaki might like b.u.t.ting head with Mikoto on other occasions but she compromised and did her best to safeguard the sisters" best interest.
"It"s fine..."
Wu Yan chuckled.
"When the base is done, I am going to lay down a high-level barrier formation. I am going to set counter-attack arrays. Fortunately, I got my hands on a bunch of ancient weapons during my last trip to another world. Even the Beast King will be delayed by these machines."
"We can also set a waypoint in the newly built base. If anything happened, we can rush back here in an instant. Also, we aren"t going to live permanently outside the forest. In a way, this base is not just the sisters" base, it"s also our home..."
Mikoto went silent. The other girls also waited for Mikoto to come up with an answer. If she insists otherwise, they will put this plan on the shelf again.
Her eyes wavered for a moment, she knew what answer the other girls wanted and she nodded.
The others all sighed in relief. She"s weaker than other girls when it came to things like this, she"s also dangerously stubborn. If she throws a tantrum then not even Wu Yan can do anything against her. Granted, throwing a tantrum won"t stop a certain wolf from getting his hotdog stuffed between meat buns.
"Okay, how are we doing this? The base, I mean..."
The others looked at Wu Yan. He frowned while scratching his cheek.
"If we are just planning on building a base, there are multiple options in the System. But, given the sisters" safety concerns and high defense requirement, the base must be relatively high-level and the base must be able to accommodate defensive and offensive spells. I am not sure if I have enough points..."
"I think I can help with that."
Shokuhou Misaki took out a s.p.a.ce ring and she placed it in Wu Yan"s hand.
"The sisters" effort didn"t go to waste. There are demonic beast corpses, cores, and eggs in here. I think you can get a ton of Item Points, Ability Points, and Summoning Points. Can"t help you on the Equipment Points though..."
"I wouldn"t worry too much about equipment. We won"t need that many anyway!"
Wu Yan chortled.
"Let"s go back and buy the stuff we need from System. After that, we can mobilize the sisters to start the base"s construction."
The girls nodded.