Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

“The area ahead is our main activity zone, I will go and have a look.” Rogge pointed at a cave in front of him and said.

Dark City is enormous, encompassing a Red Earth Region with a diameter of more than a hundred kilometers. Additionally, the caves crisscross intricately.

However, the city only officially houses more than eighteen thousand people, of whom over three thousand are undead, who have been led away by Rogge. Now, the majority of the city’s population is made up of living people.

Since they are alive, economic activities such as farming, production, excavation, and trading are necessary.

Economic activities require social centers, so there would be residential areas or marketplaces. Once the security conditions improve, various people of Dark City will quickly gather for exchanges or purchases for living necessities.

The Red Earth Region’s caves produce several specialties, the most common of which is Fine Iron Sand. This sand is comparable to iron, and it is found throughout the Red Earth Region. By carefully sieving for it, one could collect a little bit. Once enough is collected, it could be traded for food supplies.

This is the primary economic source for the residents of Dark City.

Fine Iron Sand, when added to iron ores, will improve the hardness and ductility of iron products. It’s amazing because hardness and ductility are usually opposed to each other: higher hardness means lower ductility. Yet Fine Iron Sand can enhance both simultaneously.

As a result, Fine Iron Sand is expensive, even comparable to the price of gold in terms of volume. Of course, this refers to prices outside of Dark City. Inside the city, a day’s worth of sieved Fine Iron Sand might only be enough to trade for a day’s rations, because here, food is even more expensive than gold.

Aside from Fine Iron Sand, there is also a type of mud mushroom. These are fungi that grow underground and can reach the size of a person’s thigh. With experience, a resident can feel the ground of the Red Earth Region and know whether there are any mud mushrooms beneath.

One of these mud mushrooms, mixed with an equal amount of white mud, can be made into a Mud Mushroom Pie to stave off hunger. It also prevents the stomach from becoming distended due to eating nothing but white mud, ensuring no one dies from overeating.

Although some food is grown in Dark City, most of it is imported. The city is extensive, with intricately crisscrossing caves. The Silver Knights can’t possibly blockade everywhere. There are always ways to bring food in if you put your mind to it.

As long as the price of food is high enough, even if it were transported with Space Artifacts, it could still be profitable.

Of course, apart from smuggling goods with Space Artifacts, the more substantial quantity is carried by merchant caravans. They all fly the “invisible” flag, which even Marcus would pretend not to see when he’s flying above.

The Silver Knights also need to eat. Fine Iron Ore sells for a high price outside the city. Buying a few bags here with food and selling it outside for one Demon Crystal per catty is extremely profitable, especially when the food was distributed by the curia and is going stale from not being eaten.

With Rogge leading the way, Ange’s group unobstructed reached a bustling group of caves. You couldn’t see the sky from here, but sunlight was refracted in, providing good lighting.

There were many people placing their goods on the ground by the rock walls for others to purchase. The place that drew the most people was a horse-drawn cart. Sturdy guards stood by the cart while a merchant on top loudly called out, “Three catties of food for a catty of Fine Iron Ore, three to one, three to one, come if you have goods.”

Some of the residents around the cart lamented loudly, some cursed, “You swindler! Yesterday it was five to one, why is it three to one today? Are you arbitrarily raising prices to starve us to death?!”

The merchant on the cart also wore a distressed expression and sighed, “It wasn’t my idea. Two days ago, the Silver Knights’ camp was blown up by their own people. They are in chaos now, and who knows what will happen in the future. The price may increase even more in a few days. If you want to exchange, do it now, if you can’t bear to, then wait.”

Negris and Rogge were both stunned, sharing a confused look. How could them blowing up the Silver Knights’ camp cause the price of food in Dark City to increase?

This damn merchant, I’ll chop him down! I’ve strictly forbid the price of food in Dark City to be manipulated. The Silver Knights’ camp was bombed two days ago, yet he raised his prices today. Even if the buying price increases, it wouldn’t affect the retail price that quickly,” Rogge, very agitated, drew his sword and was about to stride over.

Negris hurriedly held him back. “There’s no need, no need. This merchant is a good person. Under such circumstances, he’s still willing to sell grain. A real swindler would probably be hoarding grain, waiting for the price to rise.”

Rogge furrowed his eyebrows, looking around and angrily stated, “Indeed. There were originally three frequent food sellers, but the other two are gone. I just asked, and they were still here yesterday.”

“Alas, the situation in your Dark City is too tragic. Many people don’t even have enough food for the night – they buy and eat at the same time. If the other two aren’t selling grain and nor is this one, people might starve to death,” Negris sighed.

Rogge frowned. “So are you saying the ones selling food at a high price now are actually the good guys?”

“Perhaps maybe, you should call him over and ask,” Negris suggested.

From the moment they arrived in this area, people would continually glance over at them covertly, considering the distinctive appearance of their group.

A glossy white Broken Horn Beast, a bronze Juvenile Dragon, a pink Little Angel – if it weren’t for Rogge leading them, the people in the marketplace likely would have been scared away.

Everyone watched from afar, not daring to come closer because Rogge was never known to fraternize with the common folk.