The Martial Unity

The Beggar's Sect was kind enough to also include scientific literature on the Great Forest of Hypnonarak, including confidential internal evaluations and reports of the Panamic Ecological and Environmental Association. 

The fundamental mechanism and principle of mental energy consumption were entirely unknown to researchers and scholars who had looked into the matter. 

'That's because they don't understand the phenomena of thought from a perspective of physics or chemistry.' Rui mused.

However, they had nonetheless done a lot of due diligence when it came to the scientific method of inquiring into the Great Forest of Hypnonarak. They conducted many experiments examining the correlation between the neurological parameters of a subject and the effects of the forest on it.

They found that both quantity and quality mattered. Larger brains experienced proportionally high suppression due to the consumption of energy while greater intelligence and cognition also corresponded with greater suppression.

'That does explain why it has a greater effect on Squires and Seniors.' Rui mused. 'Higher Realm does correspond with more powerful bioelectric activity. After all, stronger Martial Artists tend to have much greater senses which requires a correspondingly greater mind to process.'

The result was such that mind-consuming flora weeded out a lot of fauna. Life was rather unviable for them as the very nature of the flora was hostile to their state of being.

The greatest threat of the Great Forest of Hypnonarak was not giant beasts like phoenixes or dragons that could tear one apart. The greatest was actually the silent plants, shrubs, and trees that silently fed on thought.

The Hypnomaster had apparently taken his time selecting a wide variety of various plant lifeforms from across the Beast Domain that had such predatory traits and then decided to shove them all in one place. 

'Man, I don't know how much I'm looking forward to meeting him.' Rui sighed. 

The mind-consuming traits of the Great Forest of Hypnonarak were not its only threats. The forest was apparently infested with Noremin, Clacomel, and Dresatone.

These were esoteric flora species that produced and released substances that had a hallucinogenic and stimulant effect on the nervous system and the brain, causing the victim to enter an intoxicated state of mind.

In other words, there were plants that naturally produced narcotics to cause the victim to lower their guard, eventually causing them to die, turning them into nutrients for the flora over time.

While Rui found the scientific insight into that interesting, what he was more interested in was the effect that the Great Forest of Hypnonarak had on human civilization in its geographic vicinity.

It turned out that a substantial proportion of the drug trafficking industries in the broader geographic vicinity of the continent were actually sustained by the supply of narcotics harvested from the Great Forest of Hypnonarak.

Rui tutted when he reread the reports on the flow of narcotics from the Great Forest of Hypnonarak to many places around the continent, including the Kandrian Empire.

Humans were going to human regardless of which world it was. The drugs that could artificially generate the experience of blissful happiness and joy were naturally clamored for by countless people, desperate for the alleviation from the horrors of reality that these narcotic substances provided them.

And, of course, there were countless people willing to take advantage of that. If one could gather an abysmal amount of wealth by harvesting some plants, processing them a bit, and then selling them for substantial profit margins over enormous scales, then why wouldn't they?

Unfortunately, Rui couldn't even blame them even if he disapproved of the entire business. At the end of the day, the market for these products not only existed but was quite large.

People wanted these drugs and voluntarily went out of their way to purchase them despite knowing the long-term effects that they had. 

It would be one thing if drug dealers and trafficking rings forcefully shoved it down their throats, but such a thing did not happen. Those that never sought it, would never be affected by the drugs or those that sold them.

Rui was a believer in personal responsibility. If an adult voluntarily and actively went down a self-destructive knowing the consequences of their actions full well, then the responsibility on any third party that facilitated that path was drastically lessened.

Regardless, of his views on it, there wasn't much he could do about it in the first place. He was under no illusion that he could cripple the narcotics industry, that was a force that he was not strong enough to confront. It was a whole other beast compared to a local assassination industry like the Shadow Isles of the Derschek Region.

Regardless, because of how profitable the narcotics industry was, gathering the various plants needed to produce the narcotics products was also an extremely profitable endeavor.

Naturally, a market formed around the harvest of Noremin, Clacomel, and Dresatone plants. Martial Artists and even humans were commissioned by various organizations and patrons to gather large amounts of the drugs. There were even broker associations formed that allowed clientele to easily commission raiders to harvest narcotic plants.

Yet, the reason the raiding profession was profitable wasn't just because of the demand, it was also because the supply was fraught with risk and danger. The Great Forest of Hypnonarak was a forest that hampered the mind in many ways. Entering it immediately compromised the greatest and most important survival asset that a raider had, their mind. 

Furthermore, the forest was extraordinarily large, exceeding even countries in its total area. It was said to contain many especially esoteric and exotic phenomena within its murky depths.

Strange and bizarre creatures that had adapted to the circumstances.

Fantastical phenomena that beggared the imagination.

Sights that were said to be otherworldly.

Many people swarmed the forest, be it Martial Artists looking for the Hypnomaster, or even the Martial Artists looking to generate wealth as forest raiders. Many a raider set foot into the forest, seeking.

Yet regardless of what they sought, many perished within the forest nonetheless. Regardless of strange quirks, a danger zone was a danger zone.