None of us were interested in any of these plants though since there was nothing for us to gain from collecting them.
The resources that we could have gathered from these plants were nothing more than normal things in our eyes.
After all, I was a king of a nation that was now one of the four empires of the human race. At the same time, these were the royal guards that guarded me, which meant that the resources that they received to train themselves wasnât normal.
The resources that we had access to were far beyond these things here.
So it really didnât attract us at all when we saw them.
At the same time, we knew that there was no doubt that there would be someone attracted if we were to make a commotion.
Being found in a place like this wasnât a good idea.
That was why we continued moving in the end.
Though we didnât head out right away as I let Klein and the royal guards search the area first for more tracks. Since they wanted to find more tracks, I didnât mind since it would mean learning more about this place.
It didnât take them long to find another set of tracks for us to follow.
This was a different group that passed near this place, but they headed deeper into this Death Valley.
After following these tracks for a bit, the scenery around us started to change. The green that had been there around us seemed to fade away and it was replaced with this yellow sand.
This was just like the other spot that the other mercenaries told me about.
Instead of being a place that was filled with life, this was a place that was completely filled with death.
This place seemed devoid of anything that would be able to sustain life like water or plants. Though when one looked closely, they would be able to see that there were still traces of life in this place.
After all, it was impossible for life to be completely erased from a place.
Life always had a way of finding a way to exist, that was just how much living beings could adapt to change in this world.
Though it seemed like they really had to work hard to adapt to this place.
It really didnât seem like there was anything here that had any real value that people would come to this place.
That was until Klein and the others found something.
It was different from the oasis where they picked the vegetation that had mana in it.
This was a place where only the fiercest or the craftiest creatures would be able to survive. But that meant that these creatures would have things that no other creatures would have.
It made them much more valuable than other creatures that were here.
So the real money maker in this place was capturing these creatures and selling them off.
If they couldnât capture the creatures, then what they would do was catch them and gather the parts that were valuable to sell off.
This was made quite obvious by the traps that were laid out all over the place.
These traps didnât discriminate at all between beasts and humans, these were traps that were designed to kill whatever found their way into them.
Not to mention that they were quite ruthless as they were hidden deep under the sand.
Unless someone was as skilled in tracking as Klein and the royal guards, they wouldnât have been able to find these traps hidden under the sand.
These mercenaries really didnât seem to care who they hurt as long as they were able to make their money...
"Leave them be. This is just how it is in this place."
Klein and the others were asking me if we should get rid of these traps, but I chose not to deal with them.
If we were to deal with them, it would just mean creating more enemies that we would have to deal with.
We had no idea how long we would be here, so it wasnât as if creating enemies now was a good choice. It was better to lay low for now and see if we could find anything.
If we wanted to deal with them, it wouldnât be too late to do so after this.
Though I could tell that Klein and the others didnât have any good feelings towards those mercenaries.
I canât say that I had good feelings towards them either since I could see the different bones that were at the bottom of these traps.
These traps really werenât built with care, they were built to take care of anything that wandered into them. That was why there were even human bones that were at the bottom of the traps.
The things that belonged to these humans had long been taken by whoever created these traps and they had only left the bones here.
It was clear that these werenât good people.
Mercenaries could sometimes be bandits as long as the money was good enough for them.
But right now, this wasnât the time to deal with them.
As we were leaving, I said to Klein, "Take note of what you saw and weâll deal with it later. We already have a good idea of who they are, so it wonât be hard for us to arrest them later."
Klein gave a slow nod to show he understood, though he still looked like he wanted to do something about this himself.
I didnât say anything, but I didnât mind letting him take charge later.
The town that was near this Death Valley belonged to one of the small kingdoms of the racial alliance.
As long as we revealed our identity, it wouldnât be hard to get them to move against those mercenaries.
It also wouldnât be hard for us to take part in the mission of taking care of those mercenaries.
Though it certainly wouldnât be that easy.
After all, the only way that those mercenaries could act this way was if they had some kind of backing.
This usually meant that there was a noble behind them.