Lich for Hire

Ambrose had shut himself in his laboratory, utterly absorbed in his research on spirit golems.

Meanwhile, the land reclamation was ongoing, if awkwardly. Raul had plenty of muscle to keep people in line, but neither he nor Isabel had much talent for actual management.

Then again, that wasn't much of a problem. Most lords on this continent didn't know the first thing about governance either. As long as they had enough soldiers to keep order, things somehow worked out.

The hundred-odd freemen knew full well that if they didn't want to starve, they had to work.

Normally, clearing new land demanded enormous effort. A single family needed at least three healthy workers laboring for half a year just to free up one acre of farmland.

The three eternal enemies of new land were weeds, stones, and pests.

You had to pull weeds up by the roots or they'd grow back within days. Burning them was another option, but the lush green grass wouldn't catch on fire easily. You could use a few bottles of Flamebrew, but the expense…

Then there were the rocks scattered all over, in every size imaginable. Digging them out was exhausting enough, and if you ran into one too big to move, you had to heat it until it glowed before dousing it in water to crack it apart. The process ate up time and firewood both.

And the bugs—always the bugs—devouring crops and patience alike.