Death... and me

"This one has quite a contrast compared to the other walls. Is it still part of the story?" Rean couldn't help but ask. On that enormous wall, only two Loporrits were depicted—one big Loporrit holding a single Loporrit baby. At first, it didn't seem anything strange, but Bunbun's expression was the worst at that moment. "Are you okay, senior Bunbun?" Rean asked as everyone looked at the Loporrit on Roan's shoulder.

Bunbun then looked at the walls ahead and could see they still continued to tell the story, so there was no point in keeping the silence here. Rean's group would understand the rest if they looked at the next normal-sized walls forward. "This could be said to be the moment our Loporrit Race became the 'Divine Lineage' I mentioned before. But at the same time, you could say this was the moment our fall started." Bunbun then patted Roan, pointing forward. "Let's keep going."

Roan narrowed his eyes. He didn't quite like the horse treatment. Nonetheless, he moved while carrying the Loporrit.

Bunbun pointed to the next images, showing more Loportis holding babies. Rean, Kentucky, and Celis couldn't see much of a difference, but Roan noticed. "Only single babies?"

Bunbun nodded. "That's was the problem."

With those words, Rean would need to be an idiot not to notice the issue. "I see... The Loporrits had a huge reproduction rate. If I'm not wrong, each female was probably capable of giving birth to many more Loporrits than that, right?" Rean asked, thinking about the bunnies back on earth. "Some probably could even surpass ten."

Bunbun sighed as he nodded. "Exactly. We were capable of such a thing... but as we got stronger, our bloodline evolved with it, and our reproduction rate drastically dropped." he pointed at the Loporrits holding single babies, with quite a few holding nothing. "Stil, at this point, it wasn't too much. By trying several times, a single female Loporrits still could get pregnant several times during her life. Nonetheless, compared to before, it was truly a huge drop."

"The huge jump in bloodline power should have been quite remarkable," Roan cited. "The stronger the bloodline, the harder it is to reproduce. For a race capable of having more than ten descendants at once to drop to one or less shows how ridiculous your evolution was. I'm quite impressed. How long did it take to reach this point? Hundreds of thousands of years, I presume?" Novel Fire - novelfire.net

"Three thousand years," Bunbun answered.

"What?!" Even Roan was shocked by that revelation. "Evolution doesn't work that quick! Are you sure your bloodline evolved? If it took only three thousand years for your Loporrit reproduction to fall this drastically, I'm more inclined to believe you were all sick instead."

Bunbun didn't find it strange. "I don't blame you. But by that time, we were already quite a powerhouse. In this world, no one could oppose us anymore. I can guarantee our bloodline truly did this ridiculous jump. It wasn't a sickness. Well, depending on how you look at it, perhaps you could consider it a sickness. We were evolving too fast, and as a result..."

They continued to walk, and the truth became obvious. The birth rate... simply continued to drop drastically. But, at the same time, the Loporrits that were born had unbelievable potential. "It is as if all the power of reproduction was transformed into bloodline power instead," Rean commented.

"Many thought it could be the reason," Bunbun said as he thought about the past. They then reached a wall carving where the Palace was at its most majestic form. Yet, there were truly very feel Loporrits around. The Palace seemed to have more members of other races than Loporrits. "This is the time I was born. Among the Loporrits alive today, I'm the fifth oldest."

The twins' group then thought about that old Loporrit they found on the way to the Loporrits' burrow. They could only wonder how old that one was.

Bunbun continued. "Our birth rate at this point was already so low that we would be lucky if a hundred of us were born within a year, and that's after trying a lot! Keep in mind that at our best, you would have tens of thousands of us in a single month! And that's because we limited the number of births, imposing strict rules to not get overpopulated."

It made sense. With such a huge birth rate and a single world to live in, that rate of birth would eventually become a plague instead. The Loporrits understood it, so they acted so that everyone else wouldn't see them as the public enemy. The Loporrits were a strong but also friendly race to get along with. That decision to restrict the birth rate truly helped them consolidate their power. If you can't beat them, join them, so the Loporrits had no small number of allies.

Roan was still trying to wrap his mind around this ridiculous bloodline evolution speed. "Are you sure you weren't actively trying to change your own bloodlines? I can't see such a huge change happening if there was no external intervention."

"If it happened, then it was far down the line," Bunbun explained. "When we became a proper power and noticed the drop in birth rate, we went after answer in our own bodies, but we got nothing in the end. If it was a result of someone's actions in the past, we will never know."

Kentucky then mentioned. "I'm part of the Minokawa race, which is a Divine Demon Beast. Our birth rate is even lower than a hundred per year. I doubt we get a hundred in a hundred years, to be honest."

"That's different," It was Roan who answered Kentucky. "Your birth rate is low but steady. Unless your race suddenly gets wiped out, you will still give birth to more Minokawas now and then. Each one of you has huge potential and can live a very long life, so a few tens of you every hundred years is more than enough."

Bunbun agreed with Roan. "Indeed. As for us, Loporrits, our birth rate wasn't stable. We dropped at a fast pace... until we reached our point today. Have you met Lola?"

Everyone nodded and waited for Bunbun to continue. "Lola was the last Loporrit to be born in our race... in several millions of years," Bunbun commented