Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 40 no longer requires fighting.

The biting north wind forged the indomitable character of the people of the ice plains and also gave them strong and powerful bodies.

After all, those that are not strong enough or powerful enough simply cannot survive on the permafrost.

This also made many Ignis people realize for the first time what it means to be backward and vulnerable to attack.

This can't even be considered as the Ignis being backward. After all, most of the Ignis captured alive are civilians who have fled into the mountains. They don't have the agility of warriors and hunters, nor the ability of mages to start a fire with a clap of their hands. Their best skills are herding or planting fruits and vegetables in the ground, but these are not things they can use for fighting.

Facing a group of proper Icefield warriors, being beaten was practically inevitable.

Being beaten teaches them a lesson, and being captured alive is an unbearable humiliation. Regardless of whether they can win the fight, at least they have learned their lesson.

"I must become stronger... I absolutely must become stronger!"

These captured Ignis people thought to themselves, the humiliation of being powerless was deeply etched into their bones.

Only by mastering power, becoming stronger, and acquiring true combat strength can one avoid falling to such a state.

"I must become stronger!"

This is the cry from the depths of the hearts of the surviving Ignis.

Then, the whip lashed out at them.

It wasn't the Ice People who were whipping them, but the mages who had sided with them. These former royalty, after being massacred by the Ice People, had joined their side, just like their king.

They were responsible for supervising the work of the Ignis, which was the only thing they were useful to the North Wind God.

After all, they had been doing this before they became Ice People, when they were still Ignis.

Of course, nowadays they no longer distinguish between the Icefield People and the Ignis People.

"The Icefield people and the Ignis people are all human! We humans must unite!"

The former high-ranking mage, Sardok, who is now the foreman, said this to the Ignis people who were working.

To refine his theory, the overseer Sardok even created a hierarchy among the human races. In Sardok's theory, when humans conquered the beasts, they themselves replaced those beasts, creating different levels of the food chain. The Ice People were like saber-toothed tigers, the former royal family was like dire wolves, and the Ignis, skilled in labor, were like hardworking cattle and sheep.

The saber-toothed tiger defeats the dire wolf, and cattle and sheep are devoured by the saber-toothed tiger. These are all natural occurrences and manifestations of the principles of the world. Only by maintaining this cycle can nature be stable, and only then can the human race develop steadily.

The Ignis people naturally didn't believe in such slogans, since they were the ones who got beaten up, but the Icefield people liked them very much, seeing them as a symbol of these mages working hard.

Yes, they don't even need to put in any extra effort to manage these Ignis; the Ignis manage themselves.

Having won the war, they only needed to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

At this moment, the people of the Ice Plains seemed to have everything. "It's going too smoothly, it's just too smooth."

Not only the king of the Icefields, Casaloron, felt this, but at this moment, all the Icefield warriors felt an unprecedented sense of success.

This is unimaginable for them, who are native to the ice plains. After all, they were born into the ice plains and have to face the biting cold winds from birth.

But compared to the rest of their lives, the biting cold wind seemed almost kind, because as they grew up, they faced hunger day after day—finding food on the frozen ground was no easy task, and none of the wild beasts that could survive the biting cold wind were easy to kill.

Moreover, compared to their prey, they also had to face equally hungry competitors. The most dangerous thing on the frozen ground was not those beasts, but other fellow ice people.

Fighting wild beasts, fighting with one's own kind, nothing but fighting, and such days seem to have no end.

But is there really no end?

It seems they've reached the end. They don't seem to need to fight anymore. Having conquered the south, they don't even need to use force to get everything they want—they don't even need to wield their whips, since the Ignis, or the dwarves they call themselves, can manage themselves.

They were no longer hungry.

Hunger was a constant companion on the frozen ground. Despite their towering stature, they rarely had a proper meal. The resource-scarce frozen ground couldn't possibly fill the stomachs of every ice-dwelling person. Their very survival was a luxury.

That's why they wanted to go south. For hundreds of years, they had wanted to go south. The land occupied by the dwarves was their dream paradise. As long as they went to that place rich in resources, they could fill their stomachs.

And now, they have finally gotten what they had always dreamed of.

Although the Ice People thought that the so-called serpent god worshipped by these dwarves was too weak and incompetent, even choosing to flee in the face of the Ice People's offensive, they had to admit that this so-called serpent god seemed to have some merit.

That fertile land, where crops can grow in just ten days and nights, is something the people of the Ice Plains wouldn't even dare to dream of.

Fruits and vegetables are extremely rare in the permafrost, but right now, these people on the ice plains can eat their fill without restraint. As for meat, the livestock in the south are noticeably different from those on the permafrost. The tender, juicy texture and rich, fatty aroma make these animals seem as if they were born to be eaten.

And there's none of that biting cold wind here.

The warm climate means these people living on the ice plains no longer have to worry about never waking up after falling asleep. They can sleep anywhere without fear of freezing into a cold corpse.

They can eat and drink their fill every day, even at every meal, and no longer have to worry about the biting cold wind.

They have already gotten everything they wanted.

They no longer need to fight, or even do anything, to enjoy everything they've ever dreamed of.

If I absolutely have to point out any problems...

That is, they never thought about what they would do after they had obtained all of this.

(End of this chapter)