novelODS Chapter 1148 - 464: Stonehoof Tribe (Part 3)
Chapter 1148 - 464: Stonehoof Tribe (Part 3)
"We are not flesh-and-blood beings, so we cannot entertain you all properly. Please forgive us."After all, they might not even eat.
"It’s no problem, no problem."
Alka quickly replied.
After a few exchanges, the elder left.
And Alka and his group wandered and observed the entire stone forest with Pororo. The stone forest was extremely quiet because all communication between the half-elemental beings was not through vocalization.
In Alka’s eyes, he could see waves akin to mental links being used for communication.
The entire gathering place appeared unusually silent.
Furthermore, the stone forest was much smaller than what Alka and his group had previously imagined. These sharp stone pillars seemed to be equivalent to their living quarters.
They were entirely solid stone pillars, merely gathering more earth elements, and were like a dormancy chamber. Alka provided a rather vivid comparison.
Besides the small size of the settlement, the population of the Stonehoof Race was extremely sparse.
A simple tally came to just over 300.
This was about the size of a small village, far too few.
These half-elemental beings could generally be distinguished by their size, with the weakest in the Second Stage and the strongest being the elder in the Seventh Stage, while most were around the Third Stage.
"How do you reproduce?" Lucilia, sitting on Alka’s shoulder, finally couldn’t help but ask, although it was somewhat impolite.
After all, these half-elemental beings had been here for over 800 years, but there were only a little over 300 of them, an alarming scarcity.
Upon hearing Lucilia’s question, Pororo replied in a somewhat stumbling voice: "We cannot reproduce... This is no longer our original home. We are of the Stonehoof Race but merely a branch left here; our people consist only of these."
Although the voice was calm, Alka and his group could sense the solitude and desolation within it.
Simply put, their designation as half-elemental beings meant it was clearly unlikely for them to reproduce like normal humans.
The process of procreation might be more akin to the birth of elemental beings.
And here, how could it possess the concentrated elemental concentration like that of their former homeland’s Elemental Interface?
Without external conditions, they naturally have no space for further reproduction.
As time goes by, various accidents will cause them to lose more clan members, leading to the extinction of the entire race—this is their foreseeable future.
Because they have no hope for the future.
If their thinking leans toward that of humans.
Perhaps elemental beings do not have such worries, though that is uncertain.
Alka couldn’t help but ponder idly.
As he wandered and understood, Alka also discovered more problems through his eyes. Despite the high elemental concentration here, it seemed too chaotic for these elemental beings.
Moreover, there were water elements here that seemed unsuitable for them.
Previously, Alka thought the cracks on their bodies were some sort of decorations, since every tribe member seemed to have them.
But evidently, he had overthought it.
These cracks were proof of their malnutrition.
General elemental beings obviously do not consume food; they survive by absorbing elemental energy.
In this Endless Sea, the concentration of water elements is far too high, even though they have gathered so many earth elements here, it’s still not enough compared to their former world.
This remaining tribe of just a few hundred is even more bleak and miserable than Alka had imagined.
He couldn’t help but let out a silent sigh.
"What’s wrong?" Lucilia asked, sitting on Alka’s shoulder.
"Nothing, I just noticed some problems."
After wandering around, there wasn’t much reason to stay here.
They directly passed through the stone wall, exiting the stone forest on the other side, and headed into the mountains under Pororo’s gaze.
"Their future looks grim, don’t you think?" Lucilia asked.
Having refrained from saying it earlier, Alka nodded solemnly now that they were alone and spoke up.
"Indeed, it truly is..." Pororo was momentarily at a loss for words.
But the words ’miserable’ indeed applied to them.
After chatting briefly, they didn’t advance quickly, as this place wasn’t very safe.
Alka looked at the map in his hand.
Gazing at the blue spots on it.
The map covers an enormous area, encompassing the entire mountain range and its surroundings.
However, it was not meticulously explored, which caused the mountains to be depicted somewhat vaguely, yet it was still an accurate map.
This meant that even though the area of interest wasn’t large, it was on such an expansive map.
If they zoomed out, it would occupy a substantial region.
This meant the position was very vague.
When they reach the vicinity of the target, they will undoubtedly need to survey it, and Chadite will have to draw a more detailed map.
Thinking this, Alka touched one of the blue points on the map.
There were over a dozen blue points here.
So only a few of them should be their target, assuming that the core of a deceased half-elemental race counts as a magic item.
After clicking on a few points, most of them showed empty information panels.
Finally, Alka found a panel displaying information.
[Stonehoof Elemental Life Crystal]
[Difficulty: Elemental Senser (Second Stage)]
[Fame: 325]
[Treasure Information: The elemental crystal is left behind by deceased earth half-elemental beings from the Stonehoof Tribe.
For them, such an elemental crystal is akin to the body’s core, a very precious and rare elemental material. It seems very important to half-elemental beings.
Normally, it can only be obtained in areas with extremely high concentrations of a single element or through the Elemental Interface.]
Alka looked at the information above and realized that this was probably the item the elder had requested them to find.