Chapter 400 - 323: Snake-Slaying Operation

Chapter 400: Chapter 323: Snake-Slaying Operation

After settling the old man, Shire and Little John immediately left the small warehouse. The surrounding workshop buildings were nearly complete, and Mary was already planning to hire people. He believed it wouldn’t be long before the Clothing Workshop could open. When that happened, providing for the old man’s daily meals would also become simple.

Besides, the people coming and going from the workshop would just be ordinary village women, so no one would notice that a highly skilled Magic Artisan was hiding there.

As Shire was leaving, he explained some of his ideas to the old man. He currently needed items that would allow ordinary people to interact with the Magic Field, mainly for Lame Leg and a few others. The old man replied that he could make them, but he needed materials—especially Magic Crystal Stones.

Magic Crystal Ore Mines were rare on the continent. As far as Shire knew, the entire Fran Kingdom had only two veins. Supposedly, these mines formed when a Magic Field influenced natural crystals, transforming them over a vast period of time.

These stones also varied in Quality. The highest Quality ones were typically in the hands of the Great Nobles and the Royal Family, who used them to trade with High Tier Great Mages for magical assistance. Medium-Quality stones could be found in major Magic Shops, and the Adventurer Association also offered them as rewards to Silver Level Adventurers and above. The lowest Quality Magic Crystal Stones were the standard for ordinary Adventurers and Mage Apprentices. Not only were these stones small and full of impurities, but their ability to augment Magic was also limited. Still, they were better than nothing.

Shire didn’t have enough Magic Crystal Stones on hand. At most, he had just a few, scavenged from the belongings of fallen Mage Adventurers. If the old man told him that crafting the Magic Bone Staves required a large number of Magic Crystal Stones, he would have no choice but to go to Uncle Musa and see if he could purchase some from Torch City.

However, he considered it both necessary and worthwhile. Agatha had told him that a Mage with a suitable Magic Staff could increase their combat effectiveness by at least a third. She had even shown Shire her own Magic Staff, though it was now snapped in two, its Magic Crystal Stone shattered and useless.

"Can’t be helped. Anything can happen when you’re fleeing for your life," Agatha had said at the time, shrugging helplessly.

Little John had already returned to Torch City. He planned to immediately hire the hungry children there to help him empty old Marshall’s basement. Once all the odds and ends were transported to the small warehouse outside Yangjiao Town, the Magic Tool Workshop could officially get started.

’I wonder what will change once Nine-finger and the others get their Bone Staves,’ Shire thought, standing off to the side and watching his subordinates train. ’Will three Firebirds become four? Or one Fire Boar become two?’

The tribe had finished absorbing the goblins from the Feathered Serpent Kingdom. Many of them were now following One-Eyed into the forest for site preparation. The process was simple: Shire would select a location, and One-Eyed’s team would pick out the tallest trees in the area. Then, they would build platforms on top, clear away the surrounding weeds and bushes, and mark out a perimeter in preparation for digging.

Once these preparations were complete, they would hollow out the center of the trees, creating a vertical tunnel leading down to an underground passage. That way, if an observer on the treetop platform spotted anything, they could immediately drop down through the hollow trunk to the passage below and use a Teleportation Gate to send word to the Fortress.

Shire had adapted this design from a map of southern defenses he had seen before. Judging by the underground brickwork he’d found, the original watchtowers on that map had likely been made of stone. Thousands of years later, only the subterranean sections remained. Shire chose not to build stone watchtowers for two main reasons. First, it was far too time-consuming. A single stone tower would take at least a year to complete, and the logistics of transporting materials and organizing labor would be a massive project in itself. It was much better to use the forest’s existing resources, turning the massive trees—trunks so thick it would take several people to encircle them—into watchtowers. Second, this method was safer. The entire point of the watchtowers was to defend against sudden incursions by human Adventurers or mutated Magical Beasts. Starting a conspicuous, large-scale construction project in the forest would inevitably attract the very attention they were trying to avoid.

’We’ll also need to build a few watchtowers along the Darren River,’ Shire thought as he planned on his map. He had heard that when humans went to the Goblin Kingdom to purchase leaves, they traveled up the Darren River by boat, then switched to horses on the shores of Darren Lake. ’This shows that humans are already using water transportation to venture deep into the Nightmare Forest. Compared to trekking through the dense woods, traveling by boat is definitely much easier.’

Fortunately, very few people did so. But if they wanted to bring the Feathered Serpent Kingdom into the fold, they would need to be careful with this human merchant company. If they mishandled the situation, they could very well attract more Adventurers, or even a Knight Order.

’So, monitoring the Darren River is an absolute must.’

"Chief, Broken Tooth is back." Nine-finger’s voice came from behind. Shire immediately stopped inspecting the combat training and strode back into the Fortress.

......

Unlike the last time they returned, these members of Broken Tooth bore no signs of battle. They must not have gone near the Feathered Serpent Evil God’s lair.

"Those Dongtou we let go... they haven’t made it back to the Goblin Kingdom yet, have they?" Shire said, pushing a cup of tea toward his subordinate and motioning for him to catch his breath first.