The Wildlands.
At a frontier settlement.
This settlement had developed quite well and was already the size of a small town. Half its residents were former clan half-orcs.
The other half were foreign races from underground.
For the clan half-orcs, coming to the Wildlands meant genuinely enduring hardship.
But for those native underground races—kobolds, goblins, other beastfolk, and so on—
it was an undeniably good thing.
What could they eat in the underground world?
Nothing but mushrooms growing from rocks. Meat was something only professionals could enjoy.
And even when they could eat meat, it did not taste good.
Yet after these underground races were relocated to the surface and came to these Wildlands, although they could not adapt to the sunlight at first, once they did, they realized just how happy life on the surface was.
Many of the underground races relocated to the surface had once been ruling families of the underground cities, along with some impoverished underground races.
After Huo Ling conquered the underground world, the former ruling families of the underground cities had all been moved to Iwa City.
Huo Ling practiced the policy of strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches underground. Iwa City was now nearly bursting at the seams, which was why he had moved them up here.
After all, opening up the Wildlands could not rely solely on impoverished underground races. It also required a certain number of professionals.
In such a frontier town,
half were half-orcs, and half were underground races.
In these Wildlands, which could hardly be called safe, the two groups supported one another, and their lives were passable enough.
When the morning sunlight shone down,
those heading out to work were surprised to find a magic crystal on the town's notice board, displaying an image.
No one in