The group of aberrant humans before them were, clearly, also human.
Humans living on the Dark Continent.
Morrow had initially been inclined to make contact with them for several reasons.
One possibility was that these aberrant humans might worship the massive black hand as a deity, which could lead them to harbor hatred or hostility toward Morrow and his group.
In that case, Morrow could take the opportunity to use them to test the experience acquisition range of 'Etude of Love.'
Conversely, if this group showed no malice, he could try to make contact and see if he could obtain any useful information.
Now, seeing them offer tributes and prostrate themselves in worship, it was clearly the latter case.
However... Why are they worshiping me? Is it because I took down the massive black hand?
A flicker of doubt crossed Morrow's eyes as he met the strange gazes of his companions.
Kalluto covered his mouth with his fan, the corners of his eyes curving slightly as he chuckled softly, "Morrow, could it be they've mistaken you for a god?"
Gel glanced at these completely defenseless aberrant humans, who had even exposed their vital points, then at the crystalline, grape-like fruits neatly arranged on the ground.
"That's most likely it. Their reaction is probably because Morrow dealt with that massive black hand."
As she spoke, her gaze shifted to the corpse of the massive black hand, which lay on the land in the distance like a mountain range.
Morrow nodded. "That's the only possibility. They seem to have been after those fruits. Judging by the unnaturally quiet ecosystem around us, they probably had to face the threat of that black hand to pick them."
A place with abundant water should normally be a gathering spot for countless creatures.
Yet, this vast marshland was devoid of any signs of life.
It was obvious that this was the result of the massive black hand's presence.
But there was another possibility: all the water sources visible here were undrinkable.
That would explain why no creatures gathered here.
It would also explain why this group of aberrant humans didn't draw water from the edge of the marsh, but instead risked going to the central lake to pick these fruits that could release a large amount of clean water.
"Those fruits..."
Biscuit looked at the fruit that had been cut open by one of the aberrant humans. Clean water was still gushing from the cut, its water content truly extraordinary.
If this water was safe, then as long as they carried these fruits, they would no longer have to worry about drinking water for the rest of their journey.
"I understand."
Morrow nodded at Biscuit.
These fruits were indeed very important. Moreover, they were small before being soaked, making them easy to carry.
At that moment.
The familiar spirit Youpi, controlled by Kalluto, walked over to the group of aberrant humans.
Although it made no further moves, standing so close was in itself a potential threat. Yet, faced with Youpi's approach, the aberrant humans remained prostrated, not wavering in the slightest.
Their ability to disregard their own safety spoke volumes.
Morrow's gaze swept over them. After a moment of thought, he strode forward.
As if 'hearing' Morrow's footsteps, the bowed postures of the aberrant humans became even more agitated.
Morrow stopped a short distance in front of them.
They immediately raised their heads respectfully and pointed with both hands at the crystalline fruits on the ground.
"Gurgle... gloo..."
A series of bubble-like sounds came from their mouths.
Although Morrow couldn't understand their language, he could grasp their meaning from their body language.
He glanced at the fruits, thinking to himself, Even if these aberrant humans have no hostile intent, if we can't solve the language barrier, it will probably be difficult to get any truly useful information from them. If we want to make further contact, to be on the safe side...
With a thought, Morrow paid little attention to the fruits on the ground. Instead, he raised his right hand toward the group of aberrant humans, channeling aura to surge in his palm.
Then, he pointed to the aura in his right hand with his other finger.
After confirming that all the aberrant humans were looking, he closed the aura nodes in his right hand, causing the previously released aura to abruptly retract inward.
With this action, he was trying to signal for these aberrant humans to withdraw the aura lingering on their bodies.
He just wasn't sure if they could understand and comply.
Seeing Morrow's demonstration, the aberrant humans clearly understood his intention.
Their intelligence was not low. They immediately and respectfully retracted all their aura. The speed at which they switched from Ren to Zetsu was extremely fast, their technique flawless and natural.
The Zetsu of these aberrant humans... is quite impressive.
Morrow subconsciously glanced at Menchi, the most skilled Zetsu user on the team.
A hint of gravity appeared in Menchi's eyes. When her gaze met Morrow's, a wry smile tugged at her lips.
Every single one of these aberrant humans was better at using Zetsu than she was.
However, this wasn't particularly surprising.
Living in an environment like the Dark Continent, the pressure to survive was far greater than on the six continents.
It could be said that the aberrant humans' proficiency in Zetsu was entirely forced by their living environment.
Morrow gave Menchi a look to tell her not to mind, then activated his 'Starlight Convergence' ability.
In an instant, shattered starlight flowed like water, enveloping every aberrant human.
To be on the safe side, Morrow planned to implant Star Marks on them first.
With a turn of his thoughts, golden chains appeared out of thin air, tightly binding the aberrant humans who had entered a state of Zetsu.
Faced with this sudden restraint, the aberrant humans instantly panicked and began to struggle instinctively.
But it was useless.
About two seconds later, the golden chains shattered into points of light and vanished without a trace.
Freed from their bonds, the aberrant humans looked at Morrow with bewilderment and uncertainty.
But soon, they discovered the existence of the Star Marks on each other's exposed skin.
"Gloo...!"
They exchanged a few hurried words, believing the Star Marks to be a sign of revelation bestowed by their 'god.' They instantly grew excited, jumping on the spot, before once again prostrating themselves respectfully to express their piety to Morrow.
"..."
The expressions on the other team members' faces grew even more complicated.
Morrow had been prepared to deal with the aberrant humans' questions and resistance, but he hadn't expected them to accept the situation so easily.
This saved him a lot of trouble.
He turned back to his companions and said, "They shouldn't be a threat. The problem now is how to communicate..."
"Indeed," Biscuit sighed, propping her chin on her hand. "But none of us specialize in language."
There was a Pro Hunter among the Zodiac Twelve who was fluent in languages.
But Morrow had no dealings with her, so it would have been difficult to invite her to join.
Besides, if their goal was simply to head straight for the Nitro Rice, the importance and priority of a linguist weren't that high.
In the exploration of the Dark Continent, dealing with unknown risks was far more important than deciphering ruins or communicating with other races.
But right now, faced with this group of aberrant humans, the lack of a means of communication had indeed become a thorny issue.
"Let's take it one step at a time," Morrow said, turning to look at Kalluto.
"Kalluto, have Youpi collect these fruits."
"Okay."
Kalluto responded and immediately directed Youpi to pack the seven bunches of fruit on the ground into its backpack.
Seeing Morrow accept the fruits, the aberrant humans showed expressions of joy.
Morrow watched their reaction, hesitated for a moment, then tentatively made a 'not enough' gesture with his hands.
The aberrant humans saw it and immediately understood his meaning. They all turned and ran toward the lake again.
Morrow took this opportunity to once again carefully observe their lower limbs.
Their legs were long and slender like bows, yet they moved like springs. Each contraction and extension could unleash astonishing leaping power.
And when moving on the water's surface, they drastically increased the frequency of their springing motion, which enabled them to walk on water.
This is likely the result of evolving for speed, Morrow thought.
But looking at their unremarkable hands, this evolution in speed was probably not mainly for hunting, but for... Fleeing!
Their eyes and ears also supported this point.
They had similarly evolved to see wider and hear farther.
All of this was clearly for the purpose of better detecting and avoiding danger.
The very fact that they had survived in such a harsh environment to this day showed that their evolutionary path was the correct one.
Otherwise, over the long years, if their evolution couldn't adapt to the environment, they would have been completely eliminated by this ecosystem long ago.
—--
A long time later.
The aberrant humans returned with a large pile of fruit, their faces beaming with the joy of a bountiful harvest.
They were the Lakeside Tribe. For as long as they could remember, to pick the fruit called 'Water Droplet' from this lake, they had to face the threat of seemingly endless small black hands.
Every expedition came at the cost of lives, and sometimes their entire party would be wiped out.
But their home was built in another area called the 'Land of the Drained Marsh,' a barren and desolate place with almost no dangerous creatures.
For them, who were at the bottom of the food chain, it was a rare sanctuary.
However, the climate in the Land of the Drained Marsh was extremely dry. Creatures living there were affected by this 'climatic power,' continuously losing large amounts of body water.
To survive there, they had to find a way to obtain a large supply of clean water.
This was the fundamental reason why they were willing to travel long distances to pick 'Water Droplets' here.
For survival and the continuation of their tribe, they had to bear this risk.
Now, the massive black hand had been dealt with by their 'god.'
For a long time, at least, they would no longer have to make sacrifices to obtain a stable water source.
If not for the limited number of 'Water Droplet' fruits, which required waiting for a new round of fruiting after each harvest, they would have really wanted to pick all the fruits at once.
However, this bountiful harvest would at least ensure that the entire tribe wouldn't have to worry about water for the next three months.
In fact, in a much more distant era, the Lakeside Tribe had also thrived in a place with abundant water.
However, the ecosystem of the Dark Continent was like a giant, rapidly spinning wheel.
It was too fast.
So fast that any living being that wanted to avoid being crushed into dust had to evolve at an even faster rate to adapt to this cruel land.
The Lakeside Tribe couldn't keep up with this speed and was powerless to compete with other creatures for a place to live. Thus, a long time ago, they embarked on a path of migration.
If they hadn't been lucky enough to find such a method of survival, their tribe would have likely perished completely during the long migration.
However, the extinction of a species was a daily occurrence on the Dark Continent, nothing strange at all.
At the same time, in the torrent of life's great explosion, new species were also born every day.
The Lakeside Tribe, which once lived by the water, was now rooted in the waterless Land of the Drained Marsh.
This was perhaps a form of natural selection in the survival of the fittest.
—--
By the time Morrow's group learned about the origins of the Lakeside Tribe, a week had passed.
They had followed the Lakeside people to their home, the place called the Land of the Drained Marsh.
This place was indeed a barren wasteland.
Besides the skeletal remains of creatures scattered everywhere, there was almost nothing else.
Underfoot was an unusually hard rock layer. Such an environment, no matter how one looked at it, was not suitable for survival.
The ubiquitous skeletons likely belonged to creatures that had wandered into this place by mistake.
Because once one stepped into the Land of the Drained Marsh, the water in one's body would inexplicably and rapidly be lost through the sweat glands.
Without an object of hope like the 'Water Droplet,' even a human would turn into a desiccated corpse in less than an hour.
The settlement of the Lakeside people was inside the giant skull of an unknown creature.
According to them, flying creatures would occasionally stray into this area and end up dying from rapid water loss, falling from the sky.
The giant skull of the unknown creature they used as a dwelling was incredibly hard and showed no signs of weathering despite the passage of time, serving as their natural shelter.
With the protection of this sturdy bone shell, they didn't have to worry about being crushed to death by creatures falling from the sky.
"So what you are seeking... is Nitro Rice."
Inside a wooden hut within the skull dwelling, an elderly Lakeside man with deep-set eyes and drooping ears showed a complex expression upon learning of Morrow's group's objective.
A tentacle was pressed against the top of his head.
The tentacle originated from a shriveled, jellyfish-like corpse, only the size of a baby.
Its other tentacles were respectively attached to the foreheads of Morrow and his companions.
According to the elderly Lakeside man, this dried corpse belonged to the Bru Tribe, which had gone extinct long ago.
This tribe had fragile bodies but possessed the innate talent for 'conscious communication' across species, usually surviving by attaching themselves to other races.
Even after their death, as long as the corpse was well-preserved, this ability would remain.
It was with the help of this relic that Morrow and his group were able to communicate with the elderly Lakeside man before them, and thus learn the history of the Lakeside Tribe.
"You know about Nitro Rice?"
Morrow was somewhat surprised.
The elderly Lakeside man suddenly stood up and retrieved an object about the size of a fist, wrapped in layers of withered leaves, from a storage cabinet.
The moment Morrow and the others saw the tooth-like veins on the withered leaves, they instantly recognized their origin and couldn't help but be startled.
These withered leaves were from the same unknown creature they had encountered before, the one that could devour a giant Shooting Star creature!
"It seems you have seen this thing."
The elderly Lakeside man noticed their reaction and gently explained in their minds, "Actually, as long as you don't let it get wet, you can use it to wrap things tightly and isolate them from the influence of 'time.'"
After briefly explaining the use of the withered leaves, he deftly unwrapped the package, revealing a dead, withered insect husk inside.
"This is Nitro Rice, or rather, an immature specimen still in its 'insect phase,'" the old man said slowly.
Hearing this, Morrow and his group all fixed their gazes on the insect husk.
They never would have imagined that this Lakeside Tribe elder would have an immature Nitro Rice in his possession.
—--
Information:
Toothed Leaf (Calamity · Metamorphic Organism)
Ferocity: C (Can be fatal to humans under specific conditions)
Quantity: A (Population numbers in the tens of thousands, difficult to estimate)
Reproductive Ability: A
Destructive Power: C (Easy to avoid under non-specific conditions)
Overall: B (Must be annihilated as soon as possible, but carries certain risks)
Weakness: Requires specific conditions to become a threat. Easy to avoid once information is known.