Extreme

"Slimes? That was certainly a rather subtle answer."

Unlike the tense, thrilling solo legends and one-man massacres most people imagined when they thought of otherworld expeditions, real Otherworld Exploration had never been something an individual could handle alone from the very beginning.

The abilities an individual could master were limited, as was the scope they could reach. In the large-scale development of otherworlds, even someone as powerful as Law Decree Peak was, at best, still just a powerful fighter.

Of course, one could ignore the rules and use strength to smash, loot, and plunder. But in a society governed by law, that was equivalent to cutting off one's own future. Worse still, in many relatively primitive societies, one would not even know what to rob or how to rob it, and even after taking it, would have no way to make use of it.

Reality was not a game. Killing monsters did not make equipment drop. Even with raw materials, specialized skills were needed to identify them. The accumulated knowledge required to recognize treasure was the highest threshold of all. It was normal for ordinary combat professionals to enter a treasure mountain and leave empty-handed.

Doing native NPC quests and asking others for help? Just look at the lawless era, when outsiders were cheated, swindled, and exploited by local residents. Being deceived was the norm. If one worked hard only to barely bring one's life back, that already counted as impressive. Professional negotiators, intelligence specialists, political experts, and social scientists could sometimes be more valuable than high-level researchers.

"If you don't have the right specialists here, could you hand these slimes over to us for research? My team has professional Beast Tamers, and we've already tamed a large number of local beast herds."

Within a team, those with strength had