“And what’s wrong with that?” Lucius shot back.

At this point, a few more of the deer humanoids were beginning to crowd around the argument. And even though the other creatures clearly couldn’t understand what the argument was about, they too began to gather around, perhaps expecting a fight to break out.

“Come on, don’t make me laugh. What are you anyway, you speak our language but you don’t look like us,” the creature replied, looking Lucius up and down as if searching for the marking that showed his tier.

~It’s a good thing I tied these tools to my back,~ he thought to himself. If any of these creatures had realized he was actually a low tier, they probably would’ve tried something. And now was not the time for him to be committing mass murder.

“Spending all your mana stones on stupid objects instead of buying something to cover yourself. I’m not surprised you have such backward views,” the creature said finally. Apparently noticing the tools on Lucius’s back.

After a few insults, that the encyclopedia couldn’t seem to translate for him, the humanoid deers all left. As they were leaving, one of the creatures’ cloaks flapped to the side with the wind, and Lucius noticed the six white marks on the back of its right arm.

~Sixth tiers, huh?~ he thought to himself as he walked away as well. Having drawn too much attention from the surrounding creatures, he hoped to find another group to squeeze into.

Still, the conversation he had just had, had been well worth the attention. It had confirmed certain things for him.

Although the council claimed that lower-tier creatures were not allowed past the wall, from what he could see, there were quite a number of them all around. Now this didn’t mean that the council was all accepting, however.

From the way those 6th-tier creatures spoke, it seemed the council was governing the area in such a way that it benefitted those of considerable tier, and Lucius himself having once been a part of a government that favoured certain groups, knew that this could not be accomplished without the other groups suffering the consequences.

It wouldn’t be a stretch for him to believe that the lower-tier groups were being mistreated. In fact, he believed the only reason they were still allowed here was to act as a food source.

~After all, why do they all look so terrified?~ he wondered, noticing how most of them were grouping at the fringes of the lake. And even as they drank, they did so hesitantly with their eyes scanning the area all around them.

~Maybe that’s why the Arsonist group keeps terrorizing the region,~ he thought to himself. Which strengthened the theory that Hannibal and the others were the ones behind the attacks.

It was very unlikely that a high-tier group of terrorists would sympathize with lower tiers, unless of course he was mistaken about their cause, and they were just terrorizing the region for some other reason, say… resources.

~Though that isn’t a bad idea actually,~ he thought to himself, as he slowly approached a group of what seemed like lower-tier creatures -made apparent by their lack of clothing.

~I mean, those guards had pretty good-looking armour. And I think they’d fit me more or less,~ Lucius thought to himself. He didn’t like the idea of stealing, but if everyone here seemed to have resources to spare, he was certain they wouldn’t mind if he borrowed a few of their garments.

As he got closer to the group of lower tiers, they began backing away. And since Lucius hadn’t heard them speak yet, he couldn’t add their language to the encyclopedia, and hence couldn’t talk to them.

So he decided to act like he was going to drink water instead.

[Catalyst absorbed.]

[Growth efficiency increased by 30%]

[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 40%]

[Stats increased by 3%]

[Slight increase in rate of energy replenishment.]

[Quest complete.]

[+200 exp]

~Huh?~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise. Sure he remembered this water being some sort of catalyst, however, he was certain it hadn’t granted him all these benefits the last time he had been here. Still, he quickly wiped the surprised expression off his face, worried that it might scare the creatures away.

After the creatures saw what his ‘apparent’ intent was, they moved a small distance away and continued drinking their fill from there.

The creatures looked like overgrown moles, with a semi-humanoid build. Semi humanoid, because they retained a lot of beast-like features. For instance, they were standing fully erect like everyone else and instead walked on all fours. They also seemed to have way more fur than most of the anthropological creatures here, which meant they still heavily relied on natural means of protection, making Lucius doubt they had made any considerable advancements- equipment wise.

Once they had finished drinking, they began preparing to leave, the whole time they had been there, having not said a single word.

~Should I look for another group?~ Lucius thought, now fake drinking from the lake.

Just then, one of them said something. Their language sounded like a string of high-pitched squeals, but as his encyclopedia processed it, and added it to its language base, the squeals quickly turned into comprehensible words.

“Hello there, if you don’t mind I wanted to ask you guys something,” Lucius called out.

The creatures lurched back at this, all of them staring at him like he were some kind of apparition.

Now that he had a better look at them, he could tell they were a nuclear family of sorts. There was an adult male, an adult female, and six juveniles.

“It won’t take a lot of time,” he added after a moment of awkward silence had passed.

The father of the group looked around suspiciously, before whispering something to the others, prompting them to move behind him.

“Weren’t you just talking to those Venari? Are you a council speaker?” the father asked. Even though Lucius had just learned the language, he could tell that the words being used here were put in such a way that they were showing unnecessary respect.

~Council speaker?~ Lucius thought to himself, before realizing what that might mean.

After all, when you were governing a group of species who couldn’t communicate with each other, you’d need a few people to act as interpreters. Though that posed the question of how the interpreters themselves had learned the other race’s languages.