"As expected of Beastman Barbarians, you've got a bit of strength!" Levi laughed heartily, feeling his body start to heat up. Growing excited, he beckoned to the dumbfounded Beastmen surrounding him with a hooked finger. "Why don't you all come at me at once!"
The Gladiatorial Arena manager: "?"
Although they didn't understand how their leader had been floored by this human, his act of contempt thoroughly enraged the onlooking Beastmen.
Bodies like iron towers charged at Levi, vowing to teach this human a lesson.
"He's insane! Insane!" The manager trembled like a leaf. He didn't dare to open his eyes, certain the scene to follow would be a bloody, gruesome tragedy.
He admitted he'd been shocked when the noble flipped Muto, but there were over fifty Beastman Barbarians here!
If each of them just spat on him, they could drown him in saliva!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A series of muffled thuds, the sound of flesh hitting the floor, echoed through the Gladiatorial Arena. Even the ground trembled slightly. The onlookers were so frightened by the scene that they stood frozen like a collection of lifelike statues.
The violent commotion made the Gladiatorial Arena manager unable to resist peeking through one eye. He then froze.
A long line of Green-skinned Barbarians lay on the floor, howling in pain. One couldn't help but wonder what kind of inhuman treatment they had just suffered.
"Heavens, it's like seeing an Undead in broad daylight!" the Gladiatorial Arena manager muttered, staring blankly at the scene.
No one knew better than him just how ferocious this group of Beastmen was. They could treat a brown bear like a toy, hugging it and wrestling with it for fun. But what was he seeing now?
These valiant Beastmen were now like rag pillows, tossed about casually. They were like the deaf-mute girls of the slums—weak, pitiful, and helpless.
"A good fight. So satisfying!"
Levi stretched, feeling refreshed and invigorated. His body let out a series of cracks and pops, like roasting soybeans.
After that bit of action, the lethargy he'd felt for the past month had completely vanished, replaced by a surge of motivation.
"So, have you had enough?"
Levi walked over to the Barbarians on the ground, who were clutching their sides in agony.
'These guys cost me a fortune. I couldn't bear to injure them seriously, so I just gave them a good thrashing.'
"Don't... don't come any closer!"
Seeing this absolute monster walk toward them, the Beastman Barbarians cried out in terror:
"We submit! From now on, you're our new boss!"
...
Levi left the Screaming Arena with the Beastman Barbarians, sent off by the awestruck gazes of Little Moustache and his attendants, who looked at him as if he were a monster.
The armed forces for his future territory were beginning to take shape, but they were still missing many things.
For instance, these muscle-bound Barbarians were currently naked—in the most literal sense.
They didn't even have weapons; their torsos were bare, clad only in large loincloths. Their broad feet were also in shameful, negative-distance contact with the ground.
"So poor he's only got his shorts left" was no longer a metaphor; it was their daily reality.
Pioneering wasn't as romantic as it was in Knightly Novels, where you could just take a few guards, build a castle, collect Beast-eared Maidens, Elves, and maids to decorate the place, and then live the shameless, debauched life of a noble lord.
On the contrary, it was a deadly serious military operation that required a massive upfront investment.
Besides the two thousand Gold Coins Levi had "transferred" from Fulina—more like moving money from his left pocket to his right—he had just over one thousand left on him.
This was money he had scraped together, coin by coin, over the past three years as a Mercenary, a traveling merchant, and a Fighter in the Gladiatorial Arena.
Of that, at least six hundred had to be set aside for provisions—food, building materials, clothing, and so on.
That left only four hundred for weapons and equipment.
This was actually a lot of money, enough to purchase an estate, hire a few maids and servants, and live out the rest of one's life in comfort.
But when thrown into military spending, it wouldn't even make a ripple. Used to equip these fifty Beastman Barbarians, it would only be enough for a three-piece starter set for each.
'Levi even considered whether he should sell his body. With his "King of Gigolos" looks and a body with the stamina of a perpetual motion machine, he'd be an absolute godsend to the Noble Ladies.'
'But how could he, a noble, sell his body to support a bunch of muscle-bound Barbarians? Isn't that a complete reversal of the natural order?'
'It should be this pack of Beastman Barbarians selling their bodies to support him!'
A troop of muscle-bound Barbarians walked through the streets of Bailiu City. Their ferocious aura washed over everyone, and no one dared to stand in the way of these Giant Beasts. People scrambled to clear a path, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
Only after the figures had vanished from sight did the crowd break into hushed discussions about which noble lord had taken charge of that pack of Barbarians.
Leading his troop, Levi arrived at the northwest corner of Bailiu City. Unlike the dilapidated state one might expect of a remote district, this area was extremely prosperous.
The Northern Territory was the northern border region of the Debei Kingdom. Further north lay the uninhabited Unclaimed Land.
This Wilderness was filled with all sorts of Races, like Goblins, Jackal Wolfmen, and Northern Barbarians, and it was rife with danger.
A century ago, after most of the land in Debei had been enfeoffed, a policy of land-grabbing began. Most were granted the title of Pioneer Lord.
Any territory carved out of the Unclaimed Land would belong to the one who claimed it, which sparked a frenzy of activity.
For wealth and land, wave after wave of Pioneers surged into the Wilderness, one group falling only for the next to take its place. But faced with the endless dangers of the Wilderness, success was little more than an illusory dream of fortune.
Countless gamblers spent their last copper coin on this land, racked up enormous debts, and finally had to sell their asses in brothels for a lifetime to pay it all back.
And in this illusory dream of fortune, the merchants were the real winners, their coffers overflowing.
The pioneering effort was an industry in itself. The shops that serviced it were ridiculously prosperous, even forming an incredibly bustling commercial street in Bailiu City.
Armor, grain, building materials, Slave Warriors... you could buy anything you needed for your pioneering venture here.
They even had various types of female Half-Beastmen. These Half-Beastmen usually had human bodies with some bestial features.
For example, one female Half-Beastman had a tiger's tail and a pair of fluffy tiger ears, while her body was entirely human.
As for why you would see such slaves in a serious pioneering operation, one must refer to a grim joke widely circulated in the Wilderness.
"In the Wilderness, you can only find three holes on a Harpy."
The saying, "After two or three years of pioneering, a sow looks like a goddess," shows that the life of a Pioneer isn't as wonderful as one might imagine.
However, there are always more solutions than problems. These Half-Beastmen inherited the physical constitution of Beastmen while also having human appearances. They were, without a doubt, better suited for survival in the Wilderness than frail human girls.
Normally, they could be used for labor, but they could also be used for...
It could be said their cost-performance ratio was maxed out, making them a favorite among most Pioneer Lords.