10. Humans (1)
10. Humans (1)
There are two main reasons why I am trying to farm humans.
First, humans are the best food for us Creatures. They possess various nutrients, and their brains, which hold high intelligence, are the tastiest part.
And the last reason is precisely that intelligence.
Humans are raising countless livestock.
Last time, while looking around the city with Amber, I saw plenty of meat firsthand.
Pigs, chickens, cows, sheep—there was so much meat, and they were selling it in bulk. In other words, this means that farming exists and is being practiced in this world too.
No matter how smart Creatures are, except for a few individuals, they don't possess high intelligence.
Very special individuals like Dagos possess intelligence similar to or even surpassing humans, but the decent ones only have the intelligence of a dog.
And most Creatures have the intelligence of a bug. You can't even call it intelligence to begin with.
It's just a level where they can only grasp things fragmentarily when given orders.
So, it's impossible for me alone to control everything. I give orders to guys like Dagos, Dagos gives them to the Creatures below him, and those Creatures finally give them to the bug-level ones.
Even if Creatures are physically superior to humans, they are vastly lacking in intelligence.
Running a farm with such Creatures is a very difficult task.
It's not something that can be solved simply by feeding and caring for them. That's why my ultimate goal is to farm and raise humans, and then make those humans raise other animals.
The Queen who rules the Creatures that farm the humans who farm the animals.
Perfect.
To do that, I need to re-establish the command system.
This won't be a big problem when things are normal like now, but I need to prepare for when my Hive Mind wavers or when I can't control the entire Hive Mind in a tense situation.
First, let's call the guys with intelligence similar to humans, like Dagos and Evolute, [Overlords].
I, the Queen, give orders to the [Overlords], the Overlords give orders to the dog-like [Generals] below them. And those [Generals] give orders to the final [Creatures].
[Queen] - [Overlord] - [General] - [Creature]
I'm establishing this kind of system clearly to prepare for any unexpected events.
Then, first of all, I need to know about the 50,000 Creatures for sure.
I need to identify the [Overlord]-class Creatures clearly.
The [Overlord]-class Creatures I know of right now are two.
Dagos, who manages the Ners in charge of combat troops in our legion.
Evolute, who is in charge of the strengthening, mutation, and evolution of our Creatures in the Breeding Ground.
These two.
But there are a few more [Overlord]-class creatures in our legion.
I just haven't had time to meet them since I haven't been awake as the Queen for long.
So, I'm going to divide the legion according to each role this time.
==
First, the spider creature Ners, who are in charge of our legion's combat.
[ Shall I call them all together? ]
"No, no, it's fine. It's absolutely fine."
I urgently stopped Dagos, who was trying to gather all the Ners as soon as he heard I was going to subdivide the legion.
There are about 5,000 Ners in the legion. Gather all 5,000 of them here?
Even if I am the Queen now, that's a bit much.
Honestly, 5,000 of them swarming and filling the cave to look at me is still burdensome.
The Ners have different sizes. There are small ones and huge ones like Dagos.
The big ones easily exceed 3m, and the small ones are palm-sized.
The reason for the size difference isn't determined from birth. It's about how well they ate and grew after being born.
Of course, the big ones will be better at fighting because of their strength. But I think these small ones are much scarier.
The Ners aren't scary just because they fight without caring about their bodies.
They have Acidic Blood and also have poison. It's a bit of a shame that I don't know how strong that poison is—
Wait.
No.
Can't I just experiment to see how bad the poison is?
There are 3 adventurers in the makeshift prison.
The leader, who was part of the adventurer party, had his throat slashed by Dagos and died; his body went to the Creatures as food and for my Pipe Tobacco ingredients, and his head went to Evolute.
The remaining adventurers were almost killed after being pierced in the abdomen, but I ordered them to be saved, so they were kept alive.
To use them when making the Human Farm.
I should go experiment right now.
==
Erina, who was in charge of the party's Healer, touched her abdomen.
'It's healed.'
The abdominal part of the equipment she was wearing was blown open. But her abdomen was smooth.
'I was definitely...'
She slowly recalled what happened before she lost consciousness.
She had bitten her lips and ran away with her companions. But she didn't get far before the Archer, who was running in front, was hit.
A Monster suddenly fell from the sky and pierced the Archer's body.
It happened in an instant, so she couldn't even react.
Next was the Mage and herself.
The Healer and Mage, who were already in a state of exhaustion with all their Mana depleted, were the most useless in battle.
Like that, the Mage and herself were pierced in the abdomen by the spider Monster's legs and lost consciousness.
And when she came to, she was here.
A dark, pitch-black cave. A cave that looked like a small room that you couldn't even think of as a prison.
There are no iron bars. But she can't think of escaping.
Because.
Sagak. Sagak. Sagak. Sagak. Sagak.
Ttak. Ttak. Ttak. Ttak.
She can see that spider Monster wandering around the entrance without rest.
'Who on earth healed me? Was it a person who healed me in the first place? Did those spiders heal me? Is that even possible?'
It's scary.
She had prepared herself for death while working as an adventurer, but now that death was truly in front of her, it was too scary.
Her body won't calm down.
Is Amin alive? Is Prom alive? Is Yui alive?
Anxious thoughts keep growing.
Can she even survive in the first place...?
Sagak. Sagak. Sagak. Sagak. Sagak.
Ttak. Ttak. Ttak. Ttak.
In the cave where only the sound of spiders' footsteps and teeth could be heard, another sound is heard.
Ttogak. Ttogak. Ttogak.
An exotic sound echoing because it's a cave.
A sound completely different from the sound of only spider Monsters—the sound of high heels walking.
In other words.
It's the sound of a human walking.
'A human here? And high heels? And the sound of walking without a care?'
Erina doubted her ears.
That she just misheard it out of fear.
But that doubt turned into certainty.
The appearance of a woman walking in while stroking a small spider Monster as if it were a puppy.
It's an exotic sight.
A pretty woman is biting on a pipe and looking down at her, and her whole body froze.
"Nice to meet you. What's your name?"
Lea is quite interested in Erina, who is an adventurer and a Healer.
Because a Healer, that is, a healer, is a very valuable resource in any place.
Especially when running a Human Farm, if there is a Healer who can treat them if the humans are sick, one can run the farm very conveniently.
"...."
"Hmm... Can't you hear? Or can't you speak?"
Lea started to get annoyed at Erina, who kept saying nothing, but she calmed her annoyance by smoking her pipe.
If it were up to her heart, she would want to throw her to Dagos, who is struggling, to eat, but she held back for the sole reason that she is a Healer.
Lea calmly examined Erina.
A nun-like outfit that seems to prove she is a healer to anyone who sees it. Shaking hands that she is trying to hide as much as possible but has no intention of stopping.
Lea decided to understand.
'Yeah. I was kidnapped by a Monster suddenly, so let me, who used to be a human, understand.'
But it's troublesome if this state continues.
She came out for a moment while organizing the 50,000+ Creatures into units according to the legion.
She had to finish it quickly and continue the organization, but since she wouldn't cooperate, Lea also felt frustrated.
"Dagos."
[ Understood. ]
After smoking the pipe made by drying human flesh and turning it into powder, Lea's control over the Hive Mind became stronger and more detailed, so she didn't need to say many words when giving orders.
She just had to convey her consciousness, and the Creatures could grasp all of the Queen's orders.
Dagos dragged in the Mage who still hadn't come to her senses.
"Yu, Yui!"
Lea stroked the small Ners on the back of her hand with her finger and brought her hand to the neck of the Mage named Yui.
The small Ners walked from the back of Lea's hand and bit the neck of Yui, who had lost consciousness.
The purple poison could be seen flowing along Yui's blood vessels with the naked eye.
"Cough."
Not long after being bitten by the Ners, blood began to flow from Yui's eyes, nose, and mouth.
'Huh? Uh? The poison is this strong?'
Lea was flustered by the toxicity, which was stronger than she thought.
She just injected the poison because she wondered how strong it would be, but she was greatly flustered by the sight of Yui having a seizure on the verge of death immediately.
She thought it would just be paralyzed if it were strong. But the toxicity was too strong compared to what she thought.
The most important thing in farming humans is the number of females.
It doesn't matter if there's only one male, but the more females there are, the faster the farm can grow.
Lea was greatly flustered, but since Dagos was right next to her, she opened her mouth, pretending to be as nonchalant as possible.
"H, heal her quickly, or your companion will die."