Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

"Hands up. All of you."

The group of humble farmers couldn’t help but curse inwardly when they heard the gruff voice come from their side.

They knew what was going on instantly.

A robbery.

The huge tree was probably purposely placed in the middle of the road to block them, so that they could then come out and ambush them like this while they were away from the carriages that carried their several dozen tonnes of produce.

Food wasn’t that expensive in the primordial Expanse.

But 20 tonnes of it was.

Especially in a place as lush as the evergreen rainforest they were currently passing through.

While it may seem like fertile land, which it definitely was, it was also extremely hard to farm.

Due to the simple fact that it was so damn dense!

The trees were huge, even the average ones could grow over 200 metres tall, not to mention their width and weight.

Take the tree blocking the road for example.

It was only an average tree in this rainforest, but it was more than enough to put a complete halt to the farmer’s passage, even the D+ ranked lead driver was unable to do anything about the blockage.

Now try to imagine felling enough trees and completely rooting them entirely from the ground to create enough space for farmland.

The problem would become clear just from this.

The vast majority of farmers weren’t strong enough to do this, and it was extremely expensive to do so.

This group of 5 farmers had inherited their farmland from their family, it had been in the family for many generations before them.

For these 20 tonnes of various different types of food produce, they could easily earn enough beast cores to push their strongest, the D+ rank lead driver to C- rank.

He had already fulfilled his requirements, so all he needed was his progress to reach 100%!

You see, the natives of the Primordial Expanse actually had the opposite problem to the outsiders from the outside universe.

While the outsiders like Alex had to struggle more with fulfilling their requirements, the natives struggled more to procure the beast cores needed to reach 100% progress.

This was because the vast majority of natives chose to stay at Ordinary class.

They didn’t have the same drive for power as the outsiders did, and hence not many of them chose to form parties to go out and hunt beasts above their own class.

Only those with ambition did.

And since they chose to stay at Ordinary class, the requirements for ranking up were much lower than they would be for someone of Mutant or Variant class like Alex and Mira.

It was quite ironic really.

They lived in the Primordial Expanse, the source of all beasts in existence, with the realm practically teeming with them at every corner, and yet they struggled more with procuring beast cores than fulfilling their requirements…

Of course, they still met the same roadblocks when they came up to the barrier that was becoming a higher life form.

It was just as hard for the natives as it was for the outsiders.

"Check the carriages."

The lead bandit spoke to three of his subordinates, his sword still drawn and aiming at the five farmers the whole time.

The other eight bandits also stood in their place, unmoving.

Their eyes were trained on the farmers the whole time.

If even one of them tried to lift a muscle, they wouldn’t hesitate to strike.

They were already doing the farmers a mercy by not killing them right off the bat and just making off with the goods themselves.

It would be quicker and more efficient in the short term, but they had learned from their past mistakes.

If they killed these farmers now, who would be left to farm their land so that they could rob them again during the next harvest?

"Boss Kang, we hit the jackpot! All three of these carriages are filled to the brim with food, probably over 20 tonnes of it!"

The three subordinates couldn’t control their nerves when they opened up the covers over the top of the food produce, all sorts of exotic vegetables and fruits were piled on top of each other by the thousands, food that one wouldn’t be able to find in the outside universe.

They understood instantly, just as much as the farmers did, how much this haul was worth.

"Hmm. Let me come and take a look."

Boss Kang, the leader of this misfit group of bandits, seemed keen to verify the details himself.

***

"I hope this place leads to a huge city!"

Alex shouted to Mira as the two of them sped their way down the long and winding road through the rainforest.

Although he would be fine with a town or village, Alex would much prefer to find a city on the other side.

A city would offer much higher quality services, but most importantly the quality of their information on the beasts in the area would also be much better since the higher population would account for more adventurers to bring back said information.

But oh well, Alex would take whatever he could get at this point.

It had been nearly three weeks since he had entered the Primordial Expanse now, even longer for Mira, and this was the first time they had come across signs of human civilisation.

They couldn’t not be overjoyed!

"By the way, you said you-"

Alex was about to ask about Mira’s encounter with her first beast in the Primordial Expanse when she arrived on the floating island, which sounded eerily similar to his own, but he was forced to stop speaking mid way…

… because he crashed into a tree mid sentence…

"Who the fuck left this on the road!?"

Mira was beside herself with laughter.

How could she not be!

Alex had just slammed right into a tree because he was too focused on talking to her rather than looking at the road ahead.

But she would keep silent about the fact that she also didn’t notice the tree…

She was lucky Alex slammed into it first, or she would be the one in his situation…

"Haha, I can’t believe you just did-"

"..."

"..."

But after Mira opened her eyes, she noticed the confused and wary looks she was getting.

There were other people there…