Chapter 77: The Exchange Array (2/2)

I gently rubbed the puppy lying in my arms, signalling her not to speak up. The little fellow was sensible enough to know that she wasn’t a match for her and so buried her head unhappily in my arms, having decided to swallow this humiliation.

The average werewolf was about 2m to 2.5m tall and so they required a shield that was 2m tall in order to barely cover their body.

According to my calculations, crafting such a shield would take well over two times the amount of mana required to craft a heavy bone shield. Which means, I could’ve crafted three heavy bone shields with the amount I set aside for this task.

As for materials, that didn’t matter much considering this entire world is made of bones. The limiting factor is still my mana.

“Crafting these shields shouldn’t be a problem but I require an enormous amount of mana. A shield like this would require me to use all my mana. Without any replenishment, the most I can make per day is one shield.” I voiced out the issue without giving it much thought. After all, since they wanted me to craft something, the cost would naturally have to be borne by them.

Habona truly fit my mental image of a demonic werewolf. Without giving it much thought, she immediately blurted out the question on her mind: “Then what do you need to replenish your mana faster?”

“Souls, if you want me to speed up production, I require a large amount of souls.”

“Souls…” Habona hesitated as she said that.

“Don’t tell me you guys feed on souls as well.”

The ability to feed on souls was something I had only noticed in the undead and creatures from Purgatory. As for the various species I encountered from Abaddon, none of them fed on souls as we did. Naturally, this included the werewolves. Since that’s the case, they should just hand them all over to me and we can both benefit from it.

“There’s no way we can hand over all our souls. While we do not feed on souls, they have other uses here.” Her answer surprised me. I didn’t expect the Prison of the Dead to have a currency system in place where they could exchange souls for food.

It sounded pretty absurd at the start but once I thought about it, it seemed surprisingly acceptable. To be exact, it answered a question that I had been unable to solve for a while.

Based on the hunting grounds of the Abaddon rats, it should be really hard for them to gather meat. Since they didn’t have the ability to consume souls, exactly how did they feed their thousand over clansman? By chewing on bones? No way. There must’ve been some other method.

This was an issue that affected me as well. My half-orcs had the same problem as those rats in that they weren’t able to feed on souls as well. This applied to the vast majority of Abaddon creatures.

Then another problem arises, once I form a grand army, exactly where am I going to find the meat to feed them…as they say, before the three forces can move, the food must first be moved. Food was an important matter that must be solved as soon as possible otherwise, we would be plagued with problems down the road.

(TL: In the past, the phrase used was “before the cavalry and infantry could move…”. However, in modern times, it’s common to see the phrase “the three armies/ forces…” which refer to the air force, the navy and the army. Either way, it means that rations must be prepared before sortieing.)

No matter what, hoping that they could fight on an empty stomach was ludicrous. Putting aside the possibility of rebellion, it was definitely possible for them to kill each other for food.

The method to exchange souls for meat was simple: create a six-point star out of blood, bones or corpses and then place the gathered souls within it. A while later, the souls would automatically disappear and the array would create the corresponding amount of meat.

Meat can’t just be created out of thin air…that’s not scientific…well I guess science didn’t make much sense either in a world of magic and demons.

But still, this strange system simply didn’t make sense! Don’t tell me that at the opposite end of this array was another bunch of fellows who had an unlimited supply of meat and needed souls. And don’t tell me that this array is merely a channel for them to conduct this trade.

That’s practically an eBay for this world!

With this array, I would definitely be able to feed my men. Furthermore, judging from the fact that all the meat created was the red meat of an imp. The other party was probably situated in Purgatory.

This is just so unfair. We are both devils so why are they able to prosper just by sitting in front of a exchange array whereas I have to risk my life just to guarantee my freedom? No wonder the ancients said “The same species of human but different lives, the same type of umbrella but different handles”…they weren’t kidding me at all.

“Either way, if you wish to speed up the production, you need to give me souls.” I quietly sighed to myself. Initially, I had intended to fleece them of their souls seeing as they didn’t need it. However, now that I found out that they needed the souls as well, I couldn’t be too harsh with my terms and thus I had to lower my earnings.

I didn’t know if she noticed my bit of profiteering but she ended accepting my offer. After all, performing this sort of task required mana and she knew of this as well. She nodded her head and generously accepted my offer. “Alright then, how much do you need?”

“I won’t know the specifics before I craft the shield. Also, how many do you need? I paused for a second before asking: “And how big?”

She did a round of calculations before stating her requirements: a shield that was 2.5 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide.

…can the average werewolf even see with a shield this large?

The reason why my heavy shields were so large was because I didn’t need them to charge, I only needed them to hold the line. These werewolves on the other hand needed to do so. If you can’t even see in front of you…wouldn’t the result be tragic?

“Don’t you guys need to look in front of you when you fight?”

“It’s fine, just create a few holes in the front of the shield.” She didn’t seem to think much of my question and instead dismissed it with a casual wave of her hand.

“Even if we aren’t able to see, we can still use our noses to smell and our ears to listen. Besides, this maze isn’t that wide,the werewolves wielding the shields can lead the charge in a line formation with a person commanding them from the back. They should be fine with just that.”

“In that case, how many do you need?”

“Let’s start with ten.”