Chapter 92: The Insane Transport Plan!

"Thank you for your words, my lord. I feel better." Patrick smiled weakly and responded with humility and respect.

Kaiden nodded. Accepting a loss was never easy for anyone — time would heal it. With the enslavement mark in place, taking care of a group of just over eighty people wasn't difficult at all, despite their low morale.

Kaiden couldn't view their information panels while outside his own territory's borders, but from the crowd's expressions, he was fairly certain their loyalty points were negative. He'd expected something similar, which was why he hadn't resorted to direct force to control them and hadn't killed anyone — instead, he'd taken on the trouble of persuading the other party.

*With the fat guy on my side, and my own methods, it should be relatively easy to bring loyalty points up to healthy levels,* he mused, glancing at Patrick beside him. His plan was to let the chubby man calm down first, then use him to calm the rest. That way, something like an invasion would gradually turn into a rescue instead.

Ever since arriving in this world, Kaiden had always preferred relying on high loyalty over force or enslavement, which was why he'd taken on the trouble of planning it out this way.

After the demolition show ended, Kaiden sent half the crowd and his forces, under Patrick's guidance, to loot the remaining resources. Even though Kaiden knew the chubby young man was dirt poor, even a mosquito had some meat on it.

Compared to raw resources, the twelve ordinary workshop equipment sets Patrick owned — a good portion of which they managed to salvage from beneath the rubble — were far more valuable in Kaiden's eyes. This would make it much easier to build branch workshops off his existing main ones.

About an hour later, everything worth transporting had been taken, leaving nothing behind but broken walls and ruined buildings that had once been someone's territory. This was the fate of most who arrived in the world of Orandra, a world that favored the strong. At Kaiden's signal, the mixed formation set off without a single look back.

But before the journey home, there was one last thing they needed to take care of. Guided by Asra, who had a sharp memory, the trip wasn't long. Half an hour later, Kaiden arrived at his destination.

Kaiden broke into a wide grin as the familiar scent hit his nose. This wasn't a foul smell — this was the smell of money! Before him lay a pool roughly ten meters in diameter, filled with dark, crude oil.

Patrick was caught off guard. He recognized oil, and knew full well the enormous potential of the black liquid before him. He hadn't expected such a treasure to exist so close to his own lands. He sighed regretfully and shook his head. None of that mattered to think about now — it was all in the past. He was just like anyone else who arrived through the daily summon now — no, compared to free summoned residents, he was just a poor, cast-off man. Patrick sighed regretfully once more.

...

Kaiden had no idea what was going through the chubby man's mind, and wouldn't have cared even if he did. His full attention was fixed on the oil field before him. He climbed down off Ibla's back, stepped forward, crouched down, dipped his finger into the dark liquid, and gazed at it with pure adoration. Compared to a beautiful girl, he'd take this untouched pool any day!

[System Alert: Congratulations, you have discovered a medium-reserve oil field.]

Kaiden hadn't expected that the small-looking pool of oil before him sat atop such a massive quantity of oil underneath. He was genuinely surprised — he already had some idea, from his earlier conversation with the geology expert, of the difference between small and medium reserves. At that moment, another system notification appeared.

[System Alert: Please note that ore veins and natural treasures discovered outside the host's territory borders do not belong to whoever finds them first, but to whoever can maintain control over them until the end.]

Reading this second notification, Kaiden smiled coldly. He didn't need the system to remind him of this — he already understood this simple fact, and had already worked through a set of plans on the way here.

He wiped his oil-stained finger on the dirt without much care, then activated Earth Sight to trace the oil's source. About two minutes later, Kaiden dismissed the skill.

Even though he hadn't managed to find the oil's root, since it seemed to stretch on endlessly, he'd gained a solid understanding of the boundaries of the spring feeding upward, which was what had formed this small pool in the first place. If left alone for a few more days, this pool would grow large enough to resemble a small lake, and it would become far harder to trace the source of the oil flow the way he'd easily managed to do just now.

Either way, now that he had a grasp of the flow measurements, Kaiden closed his eyes and walked roughly ten meters away from the pool. He activated Earth Sight once more to confirm, then nodded, satisfied.

Behind Kaiden, over a hundred people and two pet beasts watched the Lord's mysterious actions, and not a single one dared say a word.

"Ibla, come here." In the end, it was Kaiden who broke the silence, having finally settled on his decision.

Ibla stepped forward obediently, and Kaiden began explaining patiently. In truth, his plan was somewhat insane. Instead of extracting the oil the conventional way from the source, he wanted to build a giant artificial pipeline to redirect the oil's flow straight to his own lands!

Crazy as the plan was, it wasn't impossible. Under Kaiden's direction, at a depth of 50 meters underground and ten meters away from the oil flow's source, a section was left in place as a temporary barrier. Ibla began working — her task was simple: carve a straight tunnel downward from the oil source all the way into the boundaries of Kaiden's territory.

According to the plan, by the time Ibla reached the territory's border, the depth would reach roughly a hundred meters.

But it wouldn't be quite that simple. Before breaking through the temporary barrier, Kaiden needed to use his high affinity and precise mana control to harden the entire tunnel, turning it into something like solid floor tiling, to ensure no oil would leak out. Only then, as the final step, would he break the barrier. In other words, he was building a giant pipeline made of hardened tiling, carrying the oil's flow from its original source straight to Kaiden's own lands.

An engineering project spanning dozens of kilometers like this would be impossible for anyone else to pull off, at least at this stage. But what was impossible for others wasn't impossible for Kaiden.

Difficult as the task was, the benefits were enormous. There would be no more transport difficulties for the oil — it would simply flow directly onto his lands in massive quantities.

This wasn't just about smelting metal and boosting blacksmithing output. Kaiden had bigger plans in mind, and with oil now available, he'd come up with a plan for dealing with the spiders too.

"Now that I think about it, I remember spiders are afraid of fire, aren't they?" Kaiden murmured, a cold smile spreading across his face. He had a feeling those cunning spiders were plotting something sinister against him, and waiting around patiently wasn't in his nature. Now, all the pieces were nearly falling into place.

End of Chapter 92.

For more chapters, please subscribe to Patreon and support the author... Guys, I’m nothing without your support!