Fantasy Starting from the Stone Age - Chapter 53



Only Noblemtl

Episode 53. If We Could Be Your Family

Since the appearance of Hanjutamal, the demon itself, the area south of Datang has been an inaccessible area.

Originally, it was different. Originally, pioneers went to the southern jungle as well. Just like they went to the desert in the west and the mountain range in the east.

The problem is that the Hanjutamals were brought in from those southern jungle pioneers.

Since then, in order to prevent Hanjutamal, the south has become an absolutely off-limits area. Even the biggest punishment in Datang, exile, is not sent to the west, east, or north, but to the south. That is the same as telling them to get caught in Hanjutamal and die.

Isn’t that a bit too much? Of course, there was no Daton who had the same terrible concerns as the one who came to Datang after being caught in a one-week battle. But even so, since he was exiled rather than killed, he couldn’t be sent south.

And now, for the first time in eight thousand years since the outbreak of the Hanjutamal, an expedition is being organized to head south. This time, it is not a pioneering expedition, but an expedition to find a cure for this terrible disease.

“All right. What do you think?”

The question is whether to allow it or not. All Chaun kept his mouth shut, but eventually he admitted it.

“I don’t want my people to suffer, but I don’t want them to suffer after this. Let’s form an expedition. An expedition that will never bring back any more diseases.”

The problem is how to organize that expedition.

“I have to go no matter what! Even a leopard won’t be caught in a single shot, and since it’s the story I brought up.”

“I, I won’t be affected by Hanjutamal anyway and I’m strong, so I’ll go no matter what.”

“Okay, Brother Marechi. I’ll teach you some martial arts too, so the two of us will be the main force.

There is no one who disagrees with Echacado’s words. Then Echacado and Marechi will go unconditionally.

“Minenirun without fail. Or Quako tribe that is not affected by Hanjutamal. Or high-ranking spirits of ‘Chowun’ class. These are the minimum requirements.”

Then the question becomes who will go down, and this is where everyone hesitates.

“The south has low magical power. Even for our Mine Nirun, it is impossible to survive unless it is a high magical power area.”

“Then I have to take the moon spirit no matter what. Then I’ll go too.”

“If you do that, can’t the Quako tribe go regardless of the magic pressure? What about going to Paldin Koa?”

“Then who will take care of the ranch? I like the north.”

“Why don’t scholars go? If scholars don’t go, they won’t know about the income they’ll get from the expedition, so what’s the use?”

“Wait a minute, Castle Laurent. It’s impossible to run the country without you. You absolutely can’t.”

Manum Lapang will definitely go. But since three people won’t do, I’ll take a few braver ones from the Tatunon who won’t be caught in the Hanjutamal and go down, and I’ll take the strong ones from the Quako tribe and go down. And······.

“The scholars are the problem.”

“Scholar······. Even if it’s not me, it would be good if someone smart goes.”

“What about taking Tatunon, who was formerly a scholar?”

“That’s a good idea, but it’s a little lacking. I heard that if you take a suppressant from Hanjutamal, your intelligence level will drop a little.”

“I say it again, Castel Laurent. You can never leave. You want me to do all the politics of Datang by myself???”

And among those who were pondering, a new person at the table suddenly stood up.

“What if we go?”

He was the one who was not taken into consideration. He was Deata, the representative of the Borin tribe.

It’s not that they aren’t given a voice. In fact, they are given an equal voice.

The only problem is that they are limited to one week.

“Deata. That······.”

“We can do the work of the ‘scholars’ you speak of. We can also abandon those among our own kind who die, and if the expedition takes a long time, our number will eventually decrease. In that case, it would be better for our Borin tribe, who can increase in number along the way, to go down.”

What a ridiculous idea. This is what it means to be of different races. The Borin tribe did not care about the death of their own kind or their own death.

The same goes for the population growth. They were a unique group of people who combined great intelligence with a savage temperament.

“Instead, there is something I would like to receive.”

“What do you want to receive?”

“Land. If there is an empty land in the south, could you give us some land for Borin? A land with moderately high magical pressure and good living conditions for the Borin tribe······.”

The worry didn’t last long.

“It would be good if there were no natives there and we could coexist with them.”

“Then I will choose one of the Borin tribe and send him. Castle Loran. Teach us the knowledge. I will definitely accomplish the expedition.”

As you all know, it will take another 10,000 years for anything resembling a cure to come out.

So, does that mean the expedition will end up fighting without any results? Are they engaging in meaningless acts?

No, it’s not just a mentality, there are times in the world when it makes more sense to stand up and fight than to win.

And perhaps in the process of fighting back, we may gain more important benefits.

The jungle is a very dangerous place, even on Earth.

There is a concept of a jungle in Datang. The great forest in the north is also a jungle. However, if that place is a fake jungle where plants are forcibly planted in a place that should be a desert, the southern jungle is a little different.

“The further south you go from Dator, the more rain there is. The days are longer and the sunlight is stronger. It seems like good conditions for plants to grow, but the rain washes away the nutrients, so the plants in the jungle are said to be generally tasteless. This is a Kwako saying, so I don’t know much about Daton.”

“But even in such an environment, plants grow densely. There are large herbivores to eat such plants, small herbivores, and medium-sized carnivores to eat such herbivores. There are various things. I think hunters can handle this.”

“There is something called the ‘Hanjutamal Line.’ Below this line, there are Hanjutamals. Above this line, Hanjutamals that cannot find a host die out. South of here, there are only Hanjutamals.”

“The key is to check whether this one-week-old line is a one-week-old ‘plane’. In other words, are there any creatures that can adapt to and survive in the one-week-old? It’s not like there aren’t any. Then how can a one-week-old survive without a host?”

“So this is my goal this time. How on earth do creatures that adapt to the one-week-long battle survive? How do they······, when there’s a demon that sucks out all their magic power and erodes them to death?”

“Perhaps all creatures possess Marechi’s constitution. In that case, unfortunately, there is no way. However, if there is even a slight possibility that people like us possess a better resistance that does not have the effect of a one-shot cure or sterilization······.”

The expedition’s goal was clear: not to exterminate the Hanjutamal, but simply to find a better resistance.

So the expedition sets out. Echacado, Marech, Lapang, thirty Quakos, fifty Borin, and twenty Daton Osi (metalsmiths).

The so-called Hanjutamal Line was reached quickly. It took less than three months. They built a stronghold by cutting down trees and carving stones with their strong oxen and brute force.

And after three months, I found Hanjutamal.

“There it is.”

To be exact, they found a soft, two-horned creature. They very carefully, without using the power of the spirit, stepped on it with a heavy stone.

Here scholars’ opinions are divided.

“Is it possible that only soft things live in the south? A country made of soft things, or a land without a country and only soft things.”

“No. Maybe there is a soft ‘Hanjutamal Line’. It must be the boundary that prevents people in the south from coming up north because they cannot cross it.”

“I think I should go down a bit more······.”

And they didn’t know it, but they had reached the site of the first outbreak of the Hanjutamal. And they repaired that broken altar and went further south.

As they went south, something became clearer. In this dense forest, all they could see were hairy creatures that were not caught in the Hanjutamal, and also soft ones. They approached without being caught in the Hanjutamal with thorough preparation and vigilance, but······. Soon, they reached their limit.

“I never would have guessed there’s a valley beyond here······.”

It’s a huge valley. It’s almost 3 kilometers wide. And the ‘river’ flowing underneath it is so strong that not even people or fish can cross it.

“Is this why we can’t go any further south?”

“If you look at the length of this, it seems to cut across the southern region······.”

“Then how far back do I have to go?”

“Well, any valley gets narrower upstream.”

The first expedition ended with checking out this vast valley. A valley that never ends. If you go all the way east, you will reach the sea. And Daton cannot cross the sea. (I can tell you about this later.)

And if you go all the way west, there are mountains. It looks like it would be difficult to jump over the rugged mountain range.

“But we can go around this mountain range.”

“It’s going to take a long time.”

A second expedition was formed. It was a task that had been quietly carried out for over 30 years, with the Hanjutamals sometimes accidentally transmitted.

Among those who were accompanied, the generational change of those who were not Minnirun was frequent. They slowly and very carefully bypassed Hanjutamal by establishing villages along the way.

And when we reached the mountain range, we finally saw that it narrowed to a point of about 30 meters.

Further upstream, there is only a strange mountain with a large lake at its summit, like a sharp mountain cut in half with the inside hollowed out like a bowl.

“Let’s get past this place.”

“Umm.”

The construction work was easy with the help of the metalworkers and the Quako people. They brought the strongest metals, wood, and stone and decided to build a sturdy bridge about 30 meters long and 20 meters wide.

And after about 30 days, when they were about halfway done, they encountered something unexpected.

“I feel something.”

“yes?”

“be careful!”

Echakado hurriedly pushes the Borin tribe next to him. The moment he pushes, arrows made of wood and stone fly in that direction.

“What kind of guy is this!”

But they seem more surprised. They have never seen cows, dwarfs, and strangely shaped people walking around the world, or people building bridges across rivers.

“~~~~~~~~~!”

“Da, Daton? Is that Daton from the southern region?”

It actually seemed that way. The appearance was a bit more curly and the hair was braided in a strange way.

The face has a distinct shape, with very large eyes, a large nose, a large mouth, and large ears. The skin is dark, but these are completely black, almost reminiscent of graphite.

And in terms of height, the Datonians are taller than the Erins, but they are muscular and about 10 to 20 centimeters taller than them.

The expedition finally achieved its first success: it discovered that there were people living in the southern region.

They are the descendants of the primitive apes who did not leave for the plains and stayed in the jungles a long time ago. Their biological similarities with the Datons are very clear, and their hybridization is even better than that of the Bark tribe, so their descendants have the ability to reproduce regardless of gender.

However, they have a very big difference from Daton.

“There, Black Daton! We are your friends······.”

Swish!

The arrows are flying again. Those ‘black datons’ don’t seem to be in the mood for friendly conversation.

“Pwwwwww!”

One of them blows a horn, and then a being comes out from behind and waves its hands in front of them.

And the blue-black flames shooting out.

“Me, a spirit master?!”

No. They are sorcerers. Unlike those who were in Daton in the past, they are real sorcerers.

Long ago, the Datons, who fled to the northern grasslands because they hated fighting, became friends with fire, created a country, and during that long period of time built a great nation, those ‘black Datons’ lived in the south for tens of thousands of years, fighting only wars with other tribes, and so they had extreme aggressiveness and exclusivity.

The third opponent of the struggle period. The jungle south of Datang.

Will Daton ever be able to become family with those close relatives?

And what on earth have they been fighting for 20,000 years?

Will Daton be able to find a cure for Hanjutamal?

Will the Borin tribe ever get their land back?

And can Daton extend further and wider?

Let’s check it out for yourself now.