Forty years later.
Ever since Stormworld had been renamed Oasis World, merchants whose wealth had once rivaled that of royal nobles had now become commonplace. Every oasis was filled with merchants engaged in trade, and as the oases continued to expand, several of them gradually began to join together.
After several decades of favorable weather and timely rains, the farmland of every oasis had expanded, harvests were abundant, water was plentiful, and the population had increased dramatically. Trade in rare resources had risen sharply as well. The lifestyles once enjoyed only by royalty and nobles could now be sampled even by some well-off families.
Without question, this was the happiest era for the common people.
Pitiful and tragic—the sandworms that had terrified people only decades ago, regarded as the apex rulers of this world's food chain, had now become endangered creatures. There were only occasional reports of them in the deepest, most remote parts of the desert, even drawing some expedition teams to search for them of their own accord.
More than a decade ago, the wizards had gradually vanished from the public eye. Only a very few still moved among the great royal houses, taking away vast quantities of crystal resources while leaving behind things of extreme wonder—miracles beyond people's imagination!
The wizards had been right. So long as one possessed enough Wizard Coins, any wish could be fulfilled. The great royal houses were willing to pay any price for Wizard Coins, and what the wizards desired most were energy crystals.
Oasis World appeared to be developing toward prosperity, yet beneath the surface, undercurrents surged.
As oases joined into one, the empty stretches between them could not only be used as farmland, but also held abundant sand crystal veins deep underground, since they had once been desert. These were