Chapter 246 - In Dire Straits!
Soran stood on the deck of the leading warship and watched the others. Some people from the Chamber of Commerce drove the slaves out and had them carry things down from the ship. The slave trade was not so simple—It was not simply just catching people to be sold as slaves. The capture of slaves was limited to the indigenous people. If you dared to capture slaves on the mainland, people would cut you down with knives. Even the evil lords and nobles would never allow those slave traders to do things at will. That would warrant for one to be hung at the crossroads.
Within Soran’s slaves, indigenous people comprised of one half, then the mainlanders another half.
Slaves developed because of many things: war, crime, bankruptcy and so on. Selling themselves as slaves was also very common in this world. It was not surprising that after bankruptcy, those bankrupts become debt commodities themselves. Among them, the slaves from the mainland were better off, whereas the slaves from the indigenous tribes would have a lot more trouble. They must have a process of taming the slaves after catching them. The price of a docile slave could be increased by more than 50%, while a disobedient slave could only be thrown into an arena.
There were many ways to domesticate slaves, some of which even involving forbidden methods. Most of them were domesticated slaves on the market.
The price of slaves from the mainland was higher than that of the indigenous people.
Soran did not have enough money to use it all on the slaves from the mainland, so the proportion of the indigenous slaves was still very high in comparison. Based on Soran’s current experience, he was able to see many of the indigenous slaves’ eyes light up as they got off the ship because this was the Overseas Islands they were familiar with. This gave Soran a little headache, but there were no other ways. After all, this was the place where they had lived. The indigenous slaves were prone to think of other ideas in their heads.
“Watch over them!”
Soran turned to look at Adele-Isabella at the side. The red-haired female pirate seemed to be thinking about something. She stood on the deck and was in a daze for a while. Then she recovered and saw Soran telling her: “Pay attention to these slaves from the indigenous tribes. They must not be allowed to escape!”
Adele-Isabella having heard him, immediately nodded and said: “Yes, your Excellency.”
On the other side.
There were already pirate leaders preparing the camp. These pirates were not a group of incompetent individuals nor did they only know how to fight. It was much more difficult to live on the sea than on the land. Although many pirates were illiterate, they still had some knowledge. For example, the guy who had two fingers missing and a scar on his forehead could not even write his name, but he knew astrology and could sail in the sea without losing his way.
Even if there were no stars, he could still judge the general direction of the route based on the current temperature and wind direction.
He was a capable man!
Although he didn’t have high combat power, he was still promoted to be a pirate leader by Soran.
Pirates respected those with abilities.
While the first criteria was power in combat, they also respect other abilities. Otherwise, the position of the navigator would not be higher than that of many pirates.
A large group of subordinates was preparing the encampment.
Soran had already brought over a lot of resources—enough for them to use for more than three months, including various tools. Therefore, much of the resources of the Chamber of Commerce in Port Tylon had been mobilized. The others must have had roughly guessed Soran’s intentions but were not so optimistic. It was mainly because there was too much danger in the Overseas Islands, and the land was not that suitable for farming. There were all kinds of strange creatures and very exclusive indigenous people. If there were indigenous people nearby and they knew that they were camping here, the possibility of indigenous people launching attacks was quite high!
Time went by bit by bit.
Soran satisfyingly saw the encampment being set up, the pirates were chopping down the trees and a simple encampment was already a third done.
At the front, the half-elven first mate was commanding the others to erect the tent. On the other side, a Cyclops and a baldy were commanding the slaves to transport the resources. It looked like it was going to rain today. It was better to move everything into the tent. Weather change was also a very troublesome thing. It couldn’t be sunny forever. Storms were common here, and much of the resources would be destroyed as soon as they got wet. The tools had been moved, and the rest of them at Soran’s command was going to build a simple fence out of wood.
Originally, Soran thought that his first day on the overseas enclosure would pass by peacefully.
But he was wrong!
—- “Ahhhhhh!!!!”
A shrill scream suddenly came from a distance, and then Soran’s figure turned into a shadow and dashed past. With Soran moving, the other pirate leaders also quickly drew out their weapons and rushed over. At the same time, they also ordered their men to prepare for the battle. After all, the overseas islands were the territory of the indigenous people. It was normal for fights to happen. But as soon as Soran rushed over, he found that this was not an attack by the indigenous people, but something else that would cause another headache.
“Your.... Your Excellency!!!....”
The pirate standing in front of Soran even had his trembling. He held a thigh in his hand, but only half of it was bloody. He stammered: “Frog... Green Frog was eaten!.... There’s only... There’s only this much left! ”
Green Frog?
It seemed to be the nickname of a subordinate. Among pirates, there were often some very random nicknames.
Soran frowned and took a look at the thigh of the subordinate named “Green Frog” in his hand. He noticed that there were some irregular teeth marks on the thigh and said in a serious tone, “What happened? What did you just see?”
“I!.... I saw!..... Saw it!.....”
This guy was terrified, he was stammering his words. After a while, he gradually calmed down and said: “I followed Green Frog to chop down trees and collect firewood to start fires at the same time, but we... We didn’t expect... Just passing by, suddenly, a big mouth opened from a strange plant!... Then Green Frog... Green Frog was swallowed whole!... I wanted to pull him out!... But only this much had been pulled out!.... ”
At present, the pirate who was so terrified and confused, raised the bloody half thigh for a while and then threw it away as if he was still mentally crazed.
At this time, other pirates have also arrived.
Soran turned to look at them and said, “It’s not the indigenous people! The rest of you, go back and prepare. Adele, you come with me and have a look. ”
It would be easier to deal with if it wasn’t the indigenous people.
Soran did not want a fight to break out and deplete his manpower because there would likely be a big battle against the indigenous people if they met at this time.
“Your Excellency?!”
Adele’s expression was unpleasant as she saw the half thigh on the ground, and puzzledly said: “What monster caused this? If it was able to swallow a person whole, leaving only half a thigh, it does not seem like a monster that would be easily dealt with!...”
Soran looked at her and said, “I don’t know either.”
“But I can roughly guess what it is. It seems that we are in trouble. There are mutation areas near this island!”
“The plants inside had mutated.”
There were traces of felling in the forest. To build the camp, it was natural to cut down wood. Although Soran had the idea of burning bricks, there were still not enough resources and manpower. Cutting wood was the fastest way to build the camp.
Adele Isabella followed. She looked at Soran and whispered, “Your Excellency! I suggest we burn the mountain once if not, there would be too many poisonous insects and snakes here. Today, two or three people have already been bitten by poisonous insects and snakes. Although it was not fatal, there was still a guy whose wound has deteriorated. At this rate, we will use up a lot of manpower just dealing with poisonous insects!”
Yes.
Poisonous bugs and snakes were troublesome.
People who had never been to these types of primitive areas could not imagine how many poisonous insects there were. If someone smoked a house that no one had lived in for a long time or some burrows in the wild, they would find all sorts of insects that could make their scalp numb would crawl out. It was not so easy to expand into the wilderness, let alone expand into the overseas islands which were more dangerous than the wilderness.
After getting closer to where the incident happened!
Soran suddenly reached out his hands and stopped the red-haired female pirate beside him. Then he said in a deep voice, “Be careful! There’s something wrong with this jungle!”
It was too quiet.
The jungle in front of them was too peaceful. It was so quiet that even the sounds of insects could not be heard.
Adele-Isabella reached for both her swords, then she bent slightly and looked around. She also realized that the environment in front of her was very suspicious. It was as if the plants and trees nearby looked a little strange.
Their colors were too bright, and they grew so well! [The other trees nearby all had withered leaves and branches, but the forest in front of them was quite gloomy.]
There were traces of blood dripping.
Soran stretched out his hand and swiped a little blood to look at it. Then he could see a strange plant like a trumpet flower. The blood trail was coming from there. His face turned unpleasant as he murmured, “Rip Flower?”
“Damn it!”
“This place is a mutated area!”
“Rip Flower [Mutated Plant] [Man-eating Flower] (Grade 4).”
“Challenge Rating Level 8, Creature Level 16, possess Spell-like Abilities.”
“Highest Attribute 22 points, Lowest Attribute 10 points, Overall Attributes 90-100 points.”
“Unique Skills: Swallow, Tentacle Vines, Mutated Plant, Man-eating Flower.”
“Challenge Difficulty: C+.”