Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 14 [The Adventurer Ecosystem]

The slanting, dim sunlight shone on the streets of Fallenthorn City, the soft orange light carrying a few specks of dust from decaying earth.

Old Wooden Street, Barracks No. 3, a double room on the third floor.

Talia sat alone on the bed, lost in thought.

The window was half-open, and the dim sunlight, mixed with the evening breeze, shone in through the window, casting her dark shadow heavily on the wall opposite the window.

She stretched out her dark, claw-like hand towards the shadow on the wall, trying to grasp something, but there was nothing in front of her. The shadow reached out, but could not touch anything.

She remained silent, then slowly and deeply sighed.

Samael insisted on following the two young fans to take the unconscious Rost to Barracks Number Five. Talia was quite unhappy about this and returned to her double room in Barracks Number Three by herself.

But two hours had passed since the two parted ways at the entrance of Laomutou Street.

Samael has not returned yet.

Why is it taking so long? Is he angry? Talia wondered, her mind in turmoil. For the past five days since they met, they hadn't been apart for a single moment. She suddenly realized she'd grown somewhat accustomed to having this clattering tin can by her side—a chatterbox, sharp-tongued but also reliable and dependable man when he was serious, someone who made her feel at ease.

She stood up and looked down from the window. She gazed at the diverse array of adventurers and merchants, carriages and handcarts coming and going in a bustling crowd, but she couldn't find that familiar figure in armor anywhere.

She watched as the last orange twilight faded between the jagged redwood rooftops, the bronze and pale moons already half-hidden, carrying a lonely chill of impending night. Lost in thought, she realized she had rarely seen such a scene before. No rooftops graced the horizon of this desolate land, and the northern city of Rondoran, built within a hollow gnawed by demonic insects in the cold mountains, offered no glimpse of the sun or the bronze moon.

She thought she had gotten used to being alone for the past three years since her parents passed away. But... suddenly she felt a little uncomfortable again... She stood by the window, lost in thought.

Was he angry? Did he... did he leave alone? Had his identity as a necromancer, the undead knight, been exposed, and was he attacked by the adventurers? Talia pondered these questions, pacing heavily back and forth in the room, her hands behind her back, round and round.

Finally, she picked up her hammer and spear, put on her helmet, and took two steps across the room, preparing to go out and find Samael.

The moment her hand grasped the doorknob, a soft clanging sound came from outside the door; metallic knuckles gently knocked on the door.

Talia flung open the door, pulled the familiar figure in the cloak and bronze armor into the room, and slammed the door shut behind her. For some reason, she felt a sense of relief.

"Hey...why are you in such a hurry?" Samael asked, stumbling and confused, as he was being pulled along. "What's wrong?"

The two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. The room was quiet.

“You…” Talia realized her voice was a little hoarse, so she coughed to cover it up, slowly threw the hammer and spear back onto the floor, took off her helmet, and sat heavily back down on the edge of the bed.

"I'm glad you're alright," she said sullenly.

"What's wrong? Why are you so down again?" Samael took off the gray hood of his cloak and shamelessly brought his helmet closer.

“…It’s alright,” Talia whispered.

"Really? I don't believe it." The bronze-helmeted man leaned closer with a sly grin. "Luckily, I guessed it on my way back—look, guess what this is!"

He picked up what he was holding and proudly showed it off—it was a large wooden box with a wooden handle.

Samael placed the wooden box on the table, lifted the lid, and the aroma of food wafted out. It was a large lunchbox, filled with layers of food, simple and plain, but with a generous amount.

Muffins drizzled with coarse syrup, porridge with large chunks of meat, smoked ham, sausages and hard black bread, and a mixed vegetable soup simmered with onions, bacon and unidentified plants.

Adventurers are physically demanding. The food provided in Fallenthorn City isn't exactly refined, but it's plentiful, hearty, and heavy on sugar, oil, and salt.

“I knew it, you must be hungry again! — How can you not eat?” Samael opened the lunchbox and laid out the food on the table. “Although I don’t need to eat, you do — we have to try to avoid eating out. So I bargained with the tavern owner and bought a lunchbox from the kitchen for an extra 8 silver coins and brought it back.”

“I ran into an old snake catcher in the lobby on the first floor of the barracks. He was carrying a harpoon gun and had a dead python draped over his shoulder. He tripped and fell after hitting the doorframe with the harpoon shaft. I helped him up as I was passing by and asked him where in the city he could find cheap and good food. The old man recommended this tavern, saying he’d been eating there for five or six years. It’s an old establishment, opened when Fallenthorn City was first built. It’s great value for money, with large, hearty portions and delicious food,” Samael gestured.

"I don't have a sense of taste or smell... so the only way to find out where the food is good is to ask for directions... The uncle was very kind and even took me there himself. He also recommended a minced meat and barley porridge, saying it was a hidden menu item, so I had to come and try it!"

This guy isn't angry at all! Talia covered her face. It was a little funny, and a little choked up.

"What's wrong?" Samael asked. "Let's eat first."

Talia coughed dryly.

“About… what happened this afternoon, I… I have to…” Talia said softly, “I’m sorry, Samael.”

Samael gazed at her silently.

Talia sighed.

“Shall we chat for a bit?” she asked.

“Of course—haven’t we been talking all along?” Samael asked, bewildered.

"Most demons take pleasure in sadism and conquest; cruelty, indifference, and ferocity are almost in their nature. This is why intelligent races such as humans, elves, and dwarves regard demons as their most terrifying enemy, to the point that they are willing to put aside their disputes and join forces to fight against them."

“You once said that you were not a… noble prince or a member of the royal family in your previous life,” she said. “But you have a… noble and compassionate heroic quality, as if you were born into the court of a wise human king.”

"Whether it's your poetic art, your courageous and optimistic attitude, your bold strategic mind, or your noble virtues, they all make me very suspicious—perhaps you were a wise young prince from a foreign land in your previous life, or from a noble human knight family, who died because of the machinations of treacherous officials, and your soul turned into stars, but was summoned here by an ancient magic circle."

“Uh…no. I’m just a college student who died from overwork while playing video games,” Samael interjected. “Isn’t that a bit…exaggerated?” “Although I’m just a half-demon, I inevitably have some demonic habits. Perhaps you…won’t approve of many of my actions,” she continued.

"Anyway... if indiscriminately killing innocent humans makes you unhappy, I won't do it again," Talia said softly. "I'm sorry."

“Uh, okay… actually… there’s no need to be so serious.” Samael hesitated. “My God, can you believe it? That idiot Rost, after I took him to his barracks, he woke up and complained about me! He angrily accused me of meddling and deliberately using inferior potions to embarrass him in front of his little fanboy! I—for a moment I thought you did the right thing, that bastard deserved to suffer a bit.”

Talia couldn't help but smile.

"Let's eat first, the food's getting cold." Samael pulled out a chair.

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

“The chubby swordsman and the bespectacled mage in Rost’s party said I saved their captain, so they gave me half a Crackclaw Bird as a thank you,” Samael said. “I took the Crackclaw Bird to the market—Randall mentioned it when he gave me directions. There, a merchant was willing to pay 7 gold coins for freshly dead Crackclaw Birds.”

"The purchase price is relatively high... Why is that? The Cracked Claw Bird's level of demonization is very low, and it doesn't have many high-quality demonization materials on it." Talia frowned, looking at Samael.

“Yes, I was curious too, so I asked the merchant what he was going to do with the fresh Cracked Claw bird carcasses,” Samael said. “The merchant said that Cracked Claw birds have low magic content and are not poisonous, so they are perfect for human consumption. After buying Cracked Claw birds in bulk, he would resell them to restaurants and taverns in Fallenthorn City. Those dry, hard chicken-like chunks of meat in adventurers' diets are all Cracked Claw bird meat.”

"Ah..." Talia grabbed a spoon, scooped up a chicken-like piece from the porridge, and squinted to examine it. "I see..."

"In other words, adventurers like Rost who only hunt Crackclaw Birds, while unable to afford expensive supplies like healing potions outside of food and lodging, and unable to participate in higher-level missions or improve themselves to become stronger, are still unlikely to suffer serious injuries while hunting Crackclaw Birds under normal circumstances. Moreover, the price of the spoils is not low, so they can live quite well by specializing in hunting Crackclaw Birds." Samael stroked his chin under his helmet.

"Although he wasn't as clear-headed as Rondar, he still had his own survival strategies for surviving in the wasteland for so long—even if these strategies were just accidental path dependence."

"The harpoon gun uncle I met in the lobby today is in a similar situation. He specializes in catching snake monsters. Merchants buy snake oil and snake skin at high prices, while snake gallbladders, fangs, and venom glands are sold to mages and potion makers as spellcasting catalysts or potion ingredients. The snake catcher has been doing this business for seven or eight years and is a pretty good level five adventurer."

"Today, while I was doing my internship with the team, I was lost in thought, pondering these questions. You once mentioned that adventurers are the livestock of the Demon Lord, and their corpses are used to feed the dungeon's ecosystem. This means that adventurers are also part of the Demon Realm's ecosystem built by the Demon Lord."

"If we consider adventurers' strongholds as an ecosystem, then each adventurer has their own niche. There are powerful, high-level adventurers at the top of the food chain, adventurers who specialize in preying on specific species to reduce competition, and adventurers like hyenas who are both scavengers and predators, pragmatic yet ambitious—"

“This is all very interesting, isn’t it?” Samael looked at Talia.

“You’re really good at all of this… both in life and in death. You were a truly remarkable person, Samael.” Talia scooped a spoonful of the half-cold porridge into her mouth. “It tastes good.”

“I was an engineering student when I was alive—to build a great underground city, we need to understand the working principles and mechanisms of each component of the underground city,” Samael said smugly. “Let’s eat first, then we’ll talk.”

It was completely dark outside, but the bright, coppery-white double moons watched over the window from the eaves, illuminating the room and keeping the interior clear.

Talia sat by the window, dipping her vegetable soup in it, chewing on hard bread and ham, gazing at the double moons on the eaves, and then couldn't help but turn to look at Samael behind her.

Samael sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the tattered cloth bag he had picked up earlier that day from the weeds where the Cracked Claw Birds lived, staring blankly at the moonlight.

The cloth bag was half-full of wheat grains. Moonlight illuminated the incomplete writing on the bag:

[The grain was transported to Kanas... (torn and mutilated by bird claws)... the city].

"What are you thinking about?" Talia asked.

"The barren land cannot grow human crops or raise human poultry, right?" Samael asked.

“Yes,” Talia replied. “That’s why magical beasts like the Cracked Claw Bird, which humans can also eat, are relatively more expensive.”

"In other words, the grains like wheat in the city of Fallenthorn in the Kanas Plain were all transported from human settlements," Samael said, looking at the words on the bag.

"Yes."

"Then why would this bag appear in the wilderness some distance from the city of Fallenthorn? Was the grain caravan robbed by the Crackclaw Birds?" Samael pondered.

“Impossible. The Cuckoo Chicken doesn’t have the ability or the guts.” Talia rejected the idea. “Long-distance transport caravans are usually equipped with strong bodyguards or small mercenary groups. Some caravans also issue escort missions, with adventurers who accept the commission accompanying the caravan along the way.”

"So who attacked the food convoy delivering supplies to [Thorn City in the Kana Plain] in the wilderness?" Samael looked at Talia. "What creature would be interested in human food?"

"Bandits!" they both said at the same time.

“Perhaps the giant tree near the city gate covered with bandit corpses was because the bandits robbed the grain transport caravan of Fallenthorn City, which angered the Alliance guards.” Talia scooped up a spoonful of wheat porridge. “Even outlaws can’t live entirely on demonic creatures; human crops and food are still necessities for bandits.”

“But that doesn’t make sense either,” Samael hesitated. “They robbed the grain, so why would they let the Cracked Claw Bird steal an entire sack of wheat? The Cracked Claw Bird is a weak and cowardly creature. Even Rost could beat it, so surely the bandits couldn’t have lost?”

He lifted the cloth bag containing the wheat grains and measured its length and width with his arm.

“The bag is very large. If it’s a whole bag of wheat grains, it’s enough for ten people to eat for a month.” Samael unfolded the bag. “If bandits wanted to rob the grain for themselves, they wouldn’t leave such a large bag of wheat grains to feed the Clawed Birds.”

“That is a point of doubt…” Talia took a sip of the mixed vegetable soup, “but…maybe the bandits had already obtained enough food from the robbery, so much that they wouldn’t care if one or two bags were lost.”

"But—if the bandits have enough food, why would they risk angering the Alliance guards by robbing the grain convoy again?" Samael stared at the tattered writing on the cloth bag:

[The grain was transported to Kanas... (torn and mutilated by bird claws)... the city].

What is the incomplete text?
"【The city of Luoji, where grain was transported to the Kanas Plain】?"
Or something else?
Samael put down the bag and shook his head.

It won't affect us for now; we'll see later. He thought.

(End of this chapter)