Chapter 28: New Uses for Earth Magic!
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After finishing the upgrade ceremony, Kaiden wasted no time. He stood in the open area and immediately activated the daily summon opportunity. The bright white flash appeared, then faded to reveal twenty new residents lining up before him. He cast a quick glance over the results: 13 villagers, 4 militia soldiers, and 3 elite soldiers.
"Today luck seems to be smiling on me," Kaiden murmured, a satisfied smile settling on his face. Three elite soldiers at once — and they were, in order: an archer, a swordsman, and a user of a massive war hammer.
Kaiden immediately divided the villagers, following the same strategy as the day before. He sent one villager to each of the territory's workshops as an assistant. The two remaining villagers he dispatched to the newly built siege weapon workshop.
After that, Kaiden gathered most of his elite soldiers and divided them into two teams of five members each.
Both teams had the same mission: scout within a five-kilometer radius outside the territory's borders, each team setting off from a different direction, with the specific aim of locating the territories of Lords in his nearby surroundings.
Kaiden handed them Speed, Stamina, and Common Health Potions that had been freshly brewed. They placed the potions in their pouches, bowed to him, then set off at a brisk pace.
With both teams gone, the only elite soldier remaining inside the territory was Rob. Kaiden had appointed him to oversee internal patrols and guard the territory's borders.
"Hmm… time to build the poultry coop," Kaiden murmured, wiping the sweat from his brow. The sun had begun to climb, and its heat was intensifying.
He selected a suitable plot of land — relatively close to the planted fields, to make transporting feed and water to the chickens easier in the future. He took the poultry coop blueprint from his inventory and selected "Confirm Construction."
The coop appeared in the blink of an eye. It was long, with a triangular wooden roof and numerous ventilation windows along each side — entirely wooden, which reminded Kaiden of the countryside. A wide wooden gate opened on both sides. From inside, a slim young woman emerged wearing a rural dress with shoulder straps and a straw hat covering her head. There were faint freckles on her cheeks that gave her a pleasant country look. She knelt before Kaiden on one knee and spoke in a soft voice: "Julia greets the Lord."
Kaiden returned the greeting with a smile. He took the ten fertilized eggs from his inventory and handed them to her. Julia received them with both hands and extreme care, her eyes gleaming with focus. She headed quickly back inside the coop without another word.
"It seems she's more concerned with the safety of the eggs than with chatting with the Lord," Kaiden murmured in amusement, shrugging his shoulders. He didn't think much more of it. He looked in his inventory for any remaining residential blueprints, then built them all beside the existing huts, expanding the residential district.
As he walked around, Kaiden thought over the day's quests. The first quest, "Age of Poultry," would complete passively when the eggs hatched. The exploration quest was now in the hands of his forces outside, and he simply had to wait for their return.
He had two quests remaining: the fourth and the fifth.
He was still puzzled by the fourth quest: "Optimal Use of Earth Magic." How was he to use magic to do something beneficial for the territory? As for the fifth quest, "Leader of Humanity," it was straightforward — simply send a message on the World Chat. But the time was now approaching midday, and at this hour the majority of human Lords were still working hard. It would be safer for completing the quest to send it at night, when everyone would be free. In the end, he only had the opportunity to send one message per day.
So in truth, only the fourth quest remained for him to work on.
Kaiden sat in the shade of one of the residential huts, escaping the blazing sun. He took out a water flask from his inventory and drank, then opened his status board with curiosity:
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[Lord's Status Board]
Name: Kaiden
Class: Nascent Mage (Earth Affinity: 85%)
Level: 5 (465/500)
Race: Human
Traits:
- Health: 190
- Strength: 180
- Speed: 190
- Endurance: 170
- Intelligence: 580 (MP)
Skills:
- Mana Sense (Passive)
- Earth Manipulation — Epic (Active, 20 mana/second)
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Seeing that he was nearly at Level Six, he smiled with satisfaction. The territory's residents were working hard to earn experience for him, and he was simply sitting in place. He calculated in his mind the last 100-experience batch he had received a while ago, factoring in the new residents now working. He found that before long he would receive a new batch and reach Level Six.
He continued studying his traits. He noticed they had undergone dramatic changes, especially his mana. He now had a considerable reserve — but thinking about the Epic skill's enormous consumption, he was still far from being able to use it without concern. 580 mana points gave him roughly only half a minute of continuous use.
After checking his status, Kaiden began thinking seriously about what the quest was actually asking. Based on his experience reading novels and playing video games, magic was used for killing monsters and self-defense — and Earth magic was no exception to that rule. But the quest's demand wasn't killing monsters. It was using magic to do something beneficial for the territory. He needed to break free from the conventional way of thinking about magic.
That's right… I can use my Epic skill to do almost anything with earth, Kaiden thought as he rose to his feet. He felt for a moment as though he had grasped the end of a thread — but not quite. He began walking slowly through his territory without a specific destination, observing and thinking.
While walking, a notification suddenly appeared before his eyes:
[System Notification: Territory residents' cumulative experience has reached 1,000 points. You have gained 100 experience points.]
Immediately followed by:
[System Notification: Your level in the Nascent Mage class has been upgraded to Level Six. You have gained +10 Intelligence points, +5 free trait points.]
The familiar wave of mental clarity washed over him. Kaiden smiled. Just as he had expected — it hadn't taken long. He distributed the free trait points quickly in his mind, then continued his walk.
He had no particular destination. He wandered and watched his land, observing the territory's residents working energetically. He looked at the rows of residential huts, then at the planted fields where small green shoots had begun to emerge.
Without realizing it, he reached the workshop district, which was buzzing with activity. He walked along the row of workshops: the blacksmith, the carpenter, the alchemist, the leatherworker… and finally the tailor — the last production workshop he had built.
He looked ahead at the small hill that sat directly beyond the tailor's workshop. He still remembered when he had built the workshop. That irregular hill was in the exact same row as the workshops, taking up roughly the space of one. He had felt mildly annoyed at the time — the hill had disrupted the neat alignment of the workshop row. But it was only mild annoyance. After all, he now had a vast amount of space, and only the visual appearance would be slightly off. So he hadn't thought much about it then, and had forgotten it.
But now, looking at it again…
A bolt of lightning suddenly lit up his mind.
Kaiden froze in place. He looked at the hill. He looked at his hands. He looked at the ground beneath his feet. Then he exclaimed with intense enthusiasm, slapping his forehead with his palm:
"I'm an idiot! How did I not think of this?!"
He pointed at the small hill standing in his way like a stubborn mass.
"With my Earth Manipulation skill… can't I simply remove it and complete the quest? Just like that?!"
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— End of Chapter Twenty-Eight —