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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 396 Part 2

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 396: Side Story 12 – Blood Clot of Defeat – Part 2

「If you don’t mind us asking, up until now, how did you exactly manage to……?」

「Believe it or not, but this forest is actually filled with life if you are willing to delve into it and look for it…… So up until now we were hunting for the small creatures that were not yet polluted with the Dragon Curse or simply……」

Dragon Blood Demon People of the Forest…… One of them, a woman apparently called Meltinale pointed her finger towards a small paddock not far from where rust and Mold were standing. The paddock was filled with monsters that looked like wild board, who had their fangs broken and the hair around their stomachs was mostly shaved. Underneath the fur, you could see that their stomachs were full of scars and scratches, most probably because their bodies were torn open many times for the sake of transfusing their blood. But the animals were surprisingly docile, eating moss in peace and quiet.

「Throttle Boars possess the ability to heal their wounds, even mortal ones, as long as you give them enough food…… However, these are now polluted by the Dragon Curse, and those that are not are extremely rare and precious. Not that many of them left there in the forest. They are extremely valuable.」

After learning that the living conditions of the Vampires were a whole lot harsher than they initially expected, Mold’s cheeks cramped naturally. Unlike the players, for NPCs the steady food supply is a matter of life and death, and this sentence rung even truer for Vampires and blood. So it goes without saying that they would probably go to many lengths just so that they could acquire that steady supply of blood, ensuring their own survival.

And thinking about it now, that pale and ill complexion of theirs was probably not only due to the characteristics of being a Vampire.

「Was everyone in here cursed by Noirlind……?」

「No, the one to curse me was actually Broken Toledo.」

「I was cursed by the Red Howl.」

「The one to change me was Bryleinego…… Now that I think about it, what was I even thinking? Challenging myself by going against a Dragon like that……?」

Perhaps the declaration of the Vampire woman served as the detonator in here, because throughout the whole village the voices started to raise up, each and every single one blaming different dragon for their turning and the misfortune that have befallen them as a result of that. In just a short moment, you could feel that the atmosphere in the village grew increasingly more depressing and foul.

「…… Even the graveyard has a more cheerful atmosphere than this place right here.」

「……!? Rust! Don’t say that! Read the mood in here for once!」

It was fortunate that the wind was blowing in here at the time, because of which the other Vampires were unable to hear Rust’s words, even though she said them pretty much out loud and without intending to hid them.

Even though Rust and Mold’s main home base was in Nephilim Hollow, it’s not like they are unaware of other games and the different settings they provide.

Both of them have seen the NPCs in unfortunate circumstances before, and the sight they have seen here in ShanFro made them feel especially worked up and annoyed for some reason.

「…… Say, guys? You are the players, right? So does that mean that you are going to resist the Dragon Blood Curse?」

It was hard to imagine, but the people around here were actually feeling sympathy towards the players unaffected with the curse.

「…… But even without any resistance in the first place, I cannot be mad about needing to suck blood from others until the day I die, right?」

「Tottori the Simane managed to lead the People of the Forest towards the frontline base. Think we can do the same as well here?」

「Eh? Umm, this is……?」

Hearing that Mold starts to sweat intensly, sensing that this proposal would not work out so well for all the members of the Wolfgang Guild.

“Siegwurm the Heavenly Emperor’s Subjugation Strategy” proposed by Akitsu Akane means more or less that they would become the enemies of the general population of this game.

As a matter of fact, the most of the players were still on the fence on which side of the conflict they should be standing. So what would happen if they were to take the victims of the Colored Dragon to the frontline base, a place where people hating the Black Dragon converged?

Indeed, your everyday player would surely become hostile and aggressive towards the Colored Dragon if they were harmed by them.

「…… Reckless behavior like that can be dangerous. I have heard that Tottori the Simane led the People of the Forest towards the frontline base after much careful investigation and deliberation. But impulsive behavior is our enemy, it is what the Dragon Blood wants. It might even lead to Vampires getting completely decimated.」

Rust has only touched on the name and achievements of Tottori. In other words, although careful investigation is a proper thing to do here, it was in their best interest to convince Vigilance and other Vampires to stay put and not get on the move.

「I see…… Certainly, it is just as you say. I knew that the day would come when I would start to regret not having bought all of the available map items……」

「That’s because you said that there is no need for such things, right? Yeah. It would have been a completely different story if we were to…… Ouch!」

「…… At least right now this creates a need for us to improve our inventories with certain items. Maybe we should make a save here, just in case? It might take some time, but best to be prepared just in case something was about to happen.」

「Yeah, sure, we can do that if that is what you really want…… But is that really okay with you? It’s mostly due to my own selfishness, and you are still going to play along with it like that……」

「…… We don’t really mind it all that much, but we do have one condition here. Please, if you could not spread about the information about the Deagon Blood Demons just yet…… We would like to have a monopoly on that information for a while.」

「Rather than that, I feel that the external cooperation is essential here, but…… Like I would know how that feels in the first place.」

Rust and Mold silently agree with one another and share a quick nod, and then they turned towards Vigilance hoping for more possible explanation regarding the Dragon Blood Demons.

「Wolfgang’s Guild Group Chat」

Mold: And, it is precisely because of that that we are here right now……

Mold: I wonder…… What should we do here……?

Pencil Warrior: How about you murder the entire village? It’s fast, efficient, and you’ll find out that more often than not murder actually solves most of your problems!

Katsu: However, isn’t murder something you would like to do in secret, to avoid unnecessary attention? I think he would like another solution here, just in case.

Sanraku: If it’s a murder you want, why not just make somebody else do the heavy lifting for you? “Scarlet” is still in the area, so find it and get it on board to help! You won’t be disappointed!

Rust: Why did we even come here for advice? It was a mistake coming here. Now I can only feel that I’m getting a headache here……