We had decided to move on into the two Dungeons of the Winter Lotus Sect, which were said to be being terrorized by a strange dark evil that is devouring all he monsters inside and also not letting any mana gather around it, even less naturally grown resources within its internal biome, such as wood and the like.
I had wondered what it could probably be, and I ended bringing out the random soul of one of the Dark Shadow Sect Members that were killed by us. I had grabbed one of them and found out they were being very submissive now that Benladann had tamed them- I mean, charmed them.
Now that they were being so submissive, it was easy to extract all the info I needed from them. We first began with some basic stuff, such as asking what kind of monster or thing they used in the Dungeons to fuck them over so much.
The soul of this guy I had grabbed quickly responded with an obedient demeanor.
"From what I remember the Dark Shadow Sect Master gave us a strange black egg, which he said we were to leave deep underground inside the Dungeons… we did that in between the chaos of the first invasion using Shadow Beast… We don't know the details in depth, but it was supposed to be some kind of creature capable of devouring things and growing bigger, seeping its aura everywhere and absorbing the mana of a dungeon… This was created by the master as a way to stop dungeons from producing resources and exhaust enemy sects, leaving them without a stable production of food and material from these places, which are essential to sustain Sects in these lands…" said the soul.
Indeed, Dungeons are a big deal, although many say they're a curse of the world or that they're only here to bring suffering, most of the sects have completely domesticated these low-ranked Dungeons easily and use them as their major pillars to continue sustaining themselves by going to hunt the easy to kill monsters there.
Usually, even the weakest Rank 1 Dungeons are valuable due to how easy it is to hunt the monsters there and get meat and magic resources such as mana cores in large quantities. Although the items that the might drop could be trash, they can always be synthetized through alchemy into raw magic alloys, which can be used to make better stuff.
In fact, when the dungeon is too hard, around Rank 3, and the Rank 3 members are too lazy or weak to completely clean it by themselves, Rank 1 or 2 are usually more valuable than their higher ranked cousins due to this, because its easier! In this world, or at least in this society of sects, nations, or whatever there is more around this continent, what they must procure the most is a constant source of food and materials to generate a stable market and sustain themselves.
If the sects were to not have any dungeons nearby, they would have to sustain solely of cattle animals, which won't grow in enough time to sustain the big appetite of ice giants in enough time, even less through crops. The crops that grow here are extra valuable due to this, although there are many plants that can grow even in the snow, as this is where these magical plants adapted to live, they grow slowly over a long period of time. Because of this, it is very hard for them to feed an entire city of giants. And they would need to make massive farms, which is not good due to the wild monsters outside threatening the lives of the farmers if they expand too much outside the boundaries of the sect…
This is why sects usually expand at a very slow pace and usually just stay in the same size as they were firstly made, they desire more stability than constant growth, and dungeons offer that stability that actually maintaining such a big amount of population requires… which is big.
Hunting and gathering alone can't feed so many thousands of people within the sect, there are even some fruits, vegetables, and grains which are harvested from the dungeon itself, as there are special floors that Mikohime had mentioned named "Farming Floors" which were often kept clear from monsters with some guards, and in which places they planted all sorts of plants.
Actually planting stuff inside dungeons is good because the dungeons themselves possess large quantities of concentrated mana everywhere, the plants will grow incredibly fast there and will net a quick amount of crops per week, this is why dungeons are even more essential. Plants grow faster because the time inside dungeons usually also goes faster than outside… its all a combination of many factors.
Due to this, as much as these puritans that hate Unique Skill users would say, Dungeons brought by the Ancient Great Demon of Dungeons were actually a big help for all the people overall, and instead of lowering chances of survival, it increased them! As long as they are low-ranked dungeons that can be easily "domesticated".
The dungeons are always kept guarded as well, so monster outbreaks are incredibly rare… or well, that's how it is usually, but as of now, these two dungeons were completely empty of guards, and there was nobody around here because this used to be a commoner/mortal residence area of people that were not sect disciples, the farmers that give the sect crops and more.
Because a large majority of them died, this entire place became a ghost town… both of these dungeons are incidentally next to one another. It is said that this is seen as common in this world. Apparently, this is caused due to Dungeon's multiplying, as if they were reproducing.
Where there is a high-rank dungeon, there are always usually one or two other low-ranked dungeons very close, it is really as if Dungeons were living beings that spawned around and multiplied, although this takes eons…
I've heard that there are certain places in the world with dozens of dungeons next to one another… in such cases, they begin to become very dangerous.
