Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12: The Wall of Despair and the Potato of Hope
A sleepless night.
When the first faint rays of morning light pierced the overcast sky, a massive vertical shaft nearly a hundred meters deep had appeared at the center of the basin.
The clear spring gushing from the well's mouth was the most moving melody on this desolate land.
Everyone was utterly exhausted, but their eyes no longer held yesterday's numbness.
It was a complex light mingling extreme fatigue, awe, and burning hope.
With water, they had the foundation to survive.
Caesar didn't give them much time to rest.
After distributing enough clear water for everyone to drink their fill and double portions of black bread, he summoned Roland, Barrett, and Finn Stonefist to his tent.
On a smoothed stone slab, Caesar used charcoal to sketch a crude but clear diagram.
It was a concentric circle structure centered on the well opening.
“This is our future home, our fortress.”
Caesar's voice carried a trace of weariness, but even more so an unshakable resolve.
“My lord, you mean… we're to build a wall on the surface?”
Barrett stared at the enormous ring on the diagram, his single eye full of shock.
“Exactly.”
Caesar's finger tapped the well opening at the diagram's center.
“With the Well of Life as the center, expanding outward three hundred meters, we'll construct a circular perimeter wall.”
“I want it three meters wide at the base and five meters high!”
“Five meters high?!”
Barrett sucked in a sharp breath.
“My lord, the scale of this project… we have less than two hundred people, and only these tools… when in the world will this be finished?”
“Then we start today.”
Caesar's expression brooked no argument.
“Barrett, you'll lead a hundred and fifty people and handle the surface construction.”
“Use the excavated earth and stone, mix it with grass fibers and water, make mud bricks, and build this Wall of Despair!”
“I want any enemy approaching from the surface to first face a barrier that fills them with despair!”
“Yes, my lord!”
Though Barrett thought it madness, his lord's command was everything.
He would no longer question—only think about how to accomplish it.
“Roland.”
Caesar turned to his chief Knight.
“You'll lead thirty of the strongest soldiers and handle the underground construction.”
“Using a hundred-meter radius around the shaft as the foundation, excavate downward and in all directions.”
“I need an emergency shelter capable of holding three hundred people, a large storage room, and a future workshop district.”
“Safety is the first priority.”
“As you command, my lord!”
Roland answered in a deep voice.
The underground space would not only serve as a final refuge but could also provide shelter during the brutal winter, and hide their greatest secrets.
“Finn.”
Caesar finally looked at the bear-like, burly man.
“My lord!”
Finn Stonefist immediately straightened his back.
Caesar withdrew from his Dimensional Warehouse a small bag of fist-sized objects with earth-yellow skin and a few inconspicuous sprout eyes—blocky tubers.
“What are these…”
Barrett curiously leaned forward and sniffed. There was only an earthy smell.
“This is our future food supply.”
Caesar picked one up and displayed it before the three men.
“I call it the Earth Potato.”
He didn't explain the item's origins, only drew his dagger and demonstrated in person.
He precisely cut one tuber into four pieces, ensuring each piece bore a complete sprout eye.
Then he grabbed a handful of fine wood ash from beside the campfire and evenly coated the cut surfaces of the potato pieces.
“Wood ash prevents the cuts from rotting and provides nutrients.”
Caesar explained.
“Roland, at the wall's perimeter, clear an isolated field using the best soil. Sift out the stones.”
“Finn, you'll lead the remaining nineteen people. From today forward, you are the territory's first farmers.”
“You'll be solely responsible for tending this field.”
“Its importance is equal to the water source and the wall.”
“Yes, my lord!”
Finn nodded solemnly. He carefully received a prepared seed piece, his gaze as if he were holding a sacred offering.
That afternoon, the first batch of meticulously prepared Earth Potato seed pieces was carefully buried in the newly cultivated field at the wall's edge.
Caesar ordered everyone to withdraw.
He stood alone beside the field, extending his right hand, palm down, suspended above the furrows.
He closed his eyes and drew out a thread finer than a hair from that precious trace of black-gold Battle Energy within him, slowly channeling it into the earth beneath his feet.
That thread of Battle Energy, as if carrying the rhythm of life itself, silently merged into the soil and vanished.
Caesar's complexion visibly paled by a degree.
This type of energy infused with draconic vitality consumed far more than simply unleashing explosive power.
Yet in those deep purple eyes, an infinite starry sky seemed to reflect.
He could “see” that the buried seed pieces, the moment they touched his Battle Energy, those originally dormant sprout eyes actually trembled faintly, bursting forth with a primal longing for life.