532 Food Supplies
After the bellow by the farmer, more groups began running in their direction. The farm houses were fairly well spaced, but each family could only farm a few hundred acres at the most. Even with Rae and Cara on the loose out in the dark somewhere, there were still hundreds of Giant Boars nearby, terrorizing the other farm houses.
The pair had been prioritizing clearing the area around this farm so that they would have as much left as possible. But there were just so many creatures spawned this time that they couldn't eliminate them all.
[Is it just me, or does this not follow the pattern?] Remi asked.
[What pattern?] Thor asked, as he hadn't been paying attention the first time.
[It was supposed to get weaker and lower density as we moved away from the dungeon, right? Well, we're a long way from the dungeon now, and this is the strongest one so far, with the most monsters.] She explained.
Hawk considered reasons, then came upon a good one. [What if it's a present? We haven't had a good food influx for a while, so maybe we're being rewarded with thousands of boars? They appeared centred around us, that has to mean that they're ours.]
That was a somewhat horrifying thought. What if a thousand square kilometres of land had been overrun by giant boars and Cyclops because Hawk was feeling peckish and the Gods wanted him to have a new flavour of snack?
As much as Karl wanted to say that was ridiculous and impossible, he had a sneaking suspicion that it might actually be a plausible answer.
But the fact that this one appeared to be centred on them, while the last was only a few kilometres away, did make it seem like they were somehow involved in the generation of these anomalies.
If they were, wouldn't it be a disaster if they went home and brought the spawns with them?
Karl had plenty of time to think, as it was only farmers headed their way at the moment. For a moment, he wondered where Prince Corbin and his Spellblade clan were. They should be well west of this incident, and hopefully out of danger. But they were faster moving than the wagon, and had a day's head start going in the same direction, so they might have already been close to the Fortress.
"I don't think that they will. Uncle Lu is a Colonel in the army and a Royal. They plan to hold the yard and keep the house safe so we can return in the morning."
"And they sent you away anyhow?" Karl asked.
The Minotaur girl nodded. "Yeah. They said that it's safer to be with a whole herd. We heard the bellow indicating a safe spot, so they sent the children."
"Good luck, I will make their lives easier for a few minutes."
The kids started running, and Karl headed for their house to clear the area. If there was a Royal Rank soldier there with someone to watch his back, they should be fine.
There were still three boars in the area, not attacking the house. The Minotaurs were teamed up to deal with a Cyclops, and Karl could see that they both had proper weapons and armour.
So, a few minutes to clear the boars should be enough to give them a rest.
[Rae, when you guys make your next loop this way, clear around the farmyards that still have someone fighting in them. We can start expanding our radius if the battle slows down.]
[Got it. We're getting pretty well stocked already. These boars take up more space than expected. I don't know what we're going to do with a hundred tonnes of bacon, but it's going to smell wonderful when we smoke it.]
Karl laughed as he finished the boars near where the Minotaurs were still dealing with the Cyclops. That didn't seem right. There were two of them, and the Cyclops was only using skills on the lower side of Royal Rank.
Karl turned to help them out. There might have been a reason other than safety in numbers that they had sent the children away while they defended the farm.