Puffer whales laid eggs once every ten years. Each time, they migrated to a safe beach deep inside a maze-like cave on the coast near this city to spawn.
The maze-like cave reached far underground, and it was filled with all kinds of terrifying monsters. For puffer whales, it was an exceptionally safe place to lay their eggs.
But after humans—creatures at the top of the food chain—appeared, their spawning grounds didn't seem quite so safe anymore.
Fortunately, the terrifying monsters in the cave still protected the delicious puffer whales. They weren't easy to catch.
They said that during the puffer whale hunt held once every ten years, only one in ten gourmet hunters who entered the cave made it out alive. Only one in a hundred ever saw the beach where the puffer whales spawned, and only one in a thousand managed to complete the hunt and bring back one of those incredibly delicious puffer whales safely.
That showed just how difficult it was to hunt puffer whales!
Even so, the hunt held once every ten years attracted countless companies, conglomerates, and individuals, all coming under various pretexts. Teams of gourmet hunters also flocked there, charging into the cave as if they didn't care whether they lived or died.
It wasn't that they weren't afraid of dying. Hunting puffer whales wasn't just a chance to prove their abilities and make a name for themselves; it also gave them the opportunity to obtain a legendary, incredibly delicious ingredient—and to make a fortune in the process!
Bringing back even one puffer whale, processed or not, could make any gourmet hunter or team rich overnight. That one-in-a-thousand chance, and the honest-to-goodness wealth it promised, was far more alluring than some vague lottery ticket.
After all, gourmet hunters already risked their lives fighting