Chapter 397: Chapter 389: New Captives in the Mushroom Garden

A week after the two dwarves stumbled into the Mushroom Garden.

The aroma was irresistible.

Gleam now only had to easily follow over twenty Pukis, directing them to transport the stone materials to designated locations.

Compared to the days when he had to carry everything himself, it’s now much more relaxed and efficient, allowing him to earn about ten Contribution Points a day without much effort.

The only downside was the visible mycelium marks on his body, which always made him feel a bit uneasy, but there was nothing to be done about it.

They had already personally verified that escape was impossible in this frozen wasteland.

The hope for rescue from their kin was even slimmer, not even knowing if the space rift still existed.

They could only follow the rules here and accumulate Contribution Points to exchange for their freedom.

For this, they repeatedly confirmed the authenticity of the “freedom redemption” system with Jeff.

Jeff gave many examples of nearby tribespeople.

Before the rules were changed, in order to gain the ability to resist cold and the power to command the Pukis, some tribe members would intentionally come from afar to trespass illegally. After receiving free mycelium symbiosis, they would usually regain freedom after half a month of labor.

Upon hearing this, the two dwarves couldn’t help but regret silently. If they hadn’t done those reckless things back then, would they have only needed a few hundred Contribution Points to regain their freedom?

After verifying the authenticity of “redeeming freedom,” the two dwarves gritted their teeth and chose mycelium symbiosis.

Only after symbiosis did they discover that the unremarkable Jeff was actually an elite among the captives, his command limit was twice that of ordinary people, no wonder he was rated B Level.

And after truly completing the symbiosis, Gleam realized that Jeff hadn’t fully disclosed all the benefits initially.

Besides being able to command Pukis, Gleam, now without his thick animal hide clothing, could use a ability similar to “Telepathy,” enabling seamless communication with the Demon Race or humans who didn’t speak the Universal Language, which made things much more convenient!

What annoyed Gleam was that during symbiosis, it was said Tolin had the talent for driving Jida, and his rating was upgraded to B Level.

B Level captives received an extra delicious mushroom with every meal, which made Gleam quite envious.

The normal rations for regular captives in the Mushroom Garden did not include delicious mushrooms, which cost quite a lot of Contribution Points.

Even so, Gleam still found it a bit unbelievable. In the Mountains, he had tasted “delicious” food a few times only because he had benefited from Tolin’s favor.

But in this barren, desolate icy wasteland, captives, as long as they were willing to spend their Contribution Points, could actually eat delicious mushrooms every day?!

The enormous disparity gave him a surreal feeling.

By now, the two dwarves had figured out they weren’t in the Demon Race Empire, but in a force called the Mushroom Garden in the Northern Territory.

Logically, they should have realized this wasn’t the Empire just by seeing the weather here, but the Northern Territory was completely blocked by the Empire’s domain, with very little information trickling out. Ordinary dwarves like Tolin and Gleam hadn’t specifically learned about it and genuinely didn’t know.

And now they finally understood what Jeff meant when he said he was “traded here.”

…

Gleam was concentrating on directing a team of Pukis to transport stone materials when Tolin patted him on the shoulder.

Tolin signaled for him to follow, and the two of them walked one after another out of the unfinished city walls.

Outside the city wall, there came a Demon Race team.

Although said to be the Demon Race, judging by their animal hide clothing, they were probably the tribal people Jeff mentioned nearby, rather than the Empire’s Demon Race.

This team of ten or so brought five empty wooden carts, each drawn by two slaves.

The reason it was instantly recognizable as slaves was not only because there were half-demons among them but also because there were humans in the team.

On this land, there couldn’t be free humans.

Xing Huo, accompanied by a few Mushroom Race members, approached and briefly conversed with the team leader.

Then he instructed a group of Fat Otaku Pukis to come forward; these mushroom giants pulled out a large number of mushrooms from their round bodies, filling up the carts.

After loading, Xing Huo handed an extra bag of delicious mushrooms to the leader.

With the transaction complete, the tribesmen themselves pulled the fully loaded carts to begin their return journey, while the slaves were left behind, arranged to be taken away by Xing Huo.

“Slave trade…” Gleam muttered as he watched everything unfold.

On the Continent, both humans and the Demon Race engaged in slave trading.

On this Continent, both humans and the Demon Race engaged in slave trading. Due to church constraints and threats from the Demon Race, the human slave system was somewhat limited, but the Demon Race was utterly unscrupulous about it.

Even though this wasn’t the Empire, and even the Empire engaged in slavery, let alone these Northern Territory tribes.

Within the tribes, criminals, prisoners of war, even passing travelers could all become slaves.

Elves and Dwarves looked down upon slavery.

Putting aside moral stances, purely from a practical benefits perspective.

For the resource-rich Elves, the security risks and management costs associated with slaves far exceed any value they might create.

The Dwarves were the same; their greatest outputs were mining and forging, which foreign slaves could not compete with dwarves in performing.

Witnessing this transaction representing barbarity and primitiveness, Gleam couldn’t help but show a contemptuous expression.

Before he knew it, Jeff was beside the two dwarves, looking at the slaves being taken away, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Another batch of lucky ones!”

“Lucky ones?” To Gleam, linking the word “slave” with “lucky” was unthinkable.

Jeff understood the dwarves’ mindset and gave a small laugh: “Do you know that among those humans, most of them might not even speak the Universal Language well?”

Seeing the confused expression on the two dwarves, he continued, “Many of the humans appearing here have been slaves since several generations ago! For them, the Demon Language is the daily language of their ’masters’! And now, these people who were supposed to be slaves for life only need to work here for two relatively easy years to gain freedom and protection. Compared to other slaves, don’t you think they’re lucky?”

As he spoke, Jeff pointed to himself.

Jeff was also a slave traded here. Compared to his previous life, even though he hadn’t yet redeemed his freedom, he already felt very content.

Before this, he never tasted “delicious mushrooms” like he could now!

Not to mention, in the Mushroom Garden under the rule of the tower leader, even slaves wouldn’t be oppressed without reason, and various conflicts were handled justly as he saw it. This was something he never dared to dream of before.

“Praise the tower leader!” Jeff made a devout bow towards the city center, to a tower already built, where a Puki wearing a conspicuous bright red cloak stood, then turned and went back to work.

The two dwarves, left in a bit of a daze, silently pondered the words they had just heard. (There’s still another Chapter before midnight)

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