Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Orum stared blankly as he returned to the edge of the wasteland, sizing up the row of houses standing before him. They were about two meters tall, seemingly made by molding sandstone into one seamless structure, with no obvious point of connection.

Sandstone was a gritty rock. Scraping its surface with a hard object would cause it to peel off into granular fragments, making it barely passable for construction, though not for high-rise buildings. But the problem was, where did the sandstone come from in a place scattered with sand particles?

Apart from the two-meter floor, the room also had a depth of over one meter. The indoor ceiling hit roughly three point three meters, making it extra spacious. Yet, there were no windows, making it quite gloomy.

The insides were entirely bare, save for the sandstone flooring and walls and a staircase leading to the door.

However, in Orum’s eyes, this simplicity was an extravagant luxury. Apart from the Dragon Temple and several noble residences, where in the Oasis could one find such a structure with such an impressive height, built with such sturdy materials.

For families like his, living in sheepskin tents was already a sign of opulence. The majority lived in crude shacks.

The distance from Hope Oasis to the nearest human settlement, the town of Klun, was a twelve-day journey. A journey by a trading caravan, where a few silver coins’ worth of tea leaves could be sold for the astronomical price of a golden coin, would not waste its precious cargo space on building materials. Even if the materials were brought here, no citizen could afford them.

The Dragon Temple was built with materials all transported by Lord Naeli.

Such extravagant architectures, lined up, four in total, each spanning around eighty to ninety square meters, just appeared out of thin air.

A flabbergasted Orum found his two warriors and asked them, “how…how did these, show up here, how were they conjured up?”

With wide-eyed astonishment, the two spearman pointed towards Ange, standing in the middle of the uncultivated land, and stuttered, “Tha…That Mage made them grow out of the ground.”

Grow out of the ground? By heaven’s mercy, Orum had never even seen the most conventional construction methods, so he couldn’t possibly imagine how these houses could grow out from the ground. It was like a farmer, who lived in a brick and tile house his whole life, trying to picture what a cave dwelling dug out of the earth looked like.

Once the four houses were built, Ange couldn’t be bothered with them any longer and ran into the wasted farmland, having Little Zombie dig some trenches.

He originally wanted to water the land first, but when building the houses, he discovered something interesting. It was not a lack of water here. As long as you dug about one meter deep, the sand and soil were moist. If the crops were planted one meter underground, wouldn’t they sprout?

It wasn’t feasible to bury ordinary seeds that deep; they would rot before the sprout could break the surface. But that was not a problem for Ange. He had a halo that accelerated growth. As long as the sprout broke through the surface before it rotted, it was all that mattered.

What should he plant? Grain? No, planting too deep would affect their yield. Beetroot? Even worse, they needed to be planted shallow. What else could he plant?

After rummaging for a while, Ange unearthed a plant as thick as an arm.

On the way to Klun Town from Mara Town, the Paladins, eager to please the Ascetic monk, gifted Ange with this plant. They called it an Axe Potato.

Negris had explained that the Axe Potato was a crop high in starch that could withstand drought, cold, heat, and preferred sunlight, making it the Dwarves’ favorite crop. Apart from being used as food, it could also be brewed into alcohol.

Ange looked up at the increasingly scorching sun and decided to plant the Axe Potato.

However, the desert sunlight was too strong, and the temperature too high. Cultivating the Axe Potato alone might not work too well. Ange felt he should intercrop the field with some shade-producing trees.

Ange found Orum and pointed to the Oasis in the distance, which was thickly dotted with three-meter-tall trees, and asked, “What are those?”

These trees were everywhere in the Oasis, many lined up as if someone deliberately planted them.

Orum’s attitude became even more respectful. If his enthusiasm and respect shown earlier were because of the Bronze Dragon, his current reverence was genuinely out of regard for Ange’s strength. “Sir, those are Green Date trees. They taste quite good. Go, fetch some dates for our benefactor,” Orum said.

Orum kicked the dim-witted spearman serving him and then took out a Demon Crystal and the land registration document: “The crystal is of no use to us, and the registration is free. Please take these back.”

Ange only took the document back; he had loads of crystals: “Also for you.”

Orum’s heart pounded in his chest. A day’s work earned him a Demon Crystal? Mages sure knew how to splurge!

The spearman returned with a handful of Green Dates. Ange, by habit, was ready to pay but was stopped by Orum, “Sir, enough, enough. Thank you for your generous reward.”

It wasn’t because he wasn’t greedy, it was just that Ange’s generosity made him tremble in fear. He never imagined a day when he’d be too afraid to accept more money.

“Oh,” Ange replied, not knowing how much to pay. When others say it’s enough, that’s when he knew. Now he knew that a barren plot of land and a handful of Green Dates were definitely not worth a Demon Crystal. Ange headed back to the center of the barren land, leaving Orum staring blankly at the Demon Crystal in his hands.

The two spearmen approached him, elbowed him gently, and gestured at the Demon Crystal: implying that they too should have a share of the reward.

“Three gold for each person. We’ll split it when we get back.” Orum tucked the crystal into his bosom and vowed: “Mages are way too rich. I’ll become a Mage’s follower!”

Ange probably never thought that a single Demon Crystal could incentivize a high-level swordsman to strive for greatness. Having returned to the barren land, Ange let out a loud “Woah”..