At first, Vera hadn't thought that far ahead... It was only while discussing the task with Young Master that she realized building the Great Wall would require her to pay the Undead a huge sum. William had always kept construction rewards high so the Undead would be willing to work. In gold alone, they could earn considerably more from a day of building houses than from completing a region quest.
Region quests mainly rewarded merit points, which could be exchanged for equipment and tools. The hundreds of millions of Undead had different priorities, and some were naturally willing to earn more gold through hard work. So they split into different camps.
But that left Vera with a terrible problem. The poor Flower Fairy queen counted the gold in her purse. She had enough to build the Great Wall, but if she spent it all so quickly, what would she do afterward?
Vera sank into gloom at the prospect of impending poverty. She couldn't go back to Hill for help only days after arriving in Calimshan, could she?
Moved by how highly Vera regarded him, Young Master had lately almost begun to think of himself as one of the Fairies. After spending most of his time matching wits with Xue Yunfeng, the head of his allied guild, who came up with a new wild idea every day and seemed to live on the same wavelength as the Fairies—much to the delight of everyone outside their Alliance, especially their former enemies—Young Master finally gave Vera a good suggestion: ask Vifapa Pasha in the fortress whether he wanted to take over the Great Wall afterward.
The Undead would certainly build the wall, but Vera could also choose to have them tear it down before they left. For millions of earth-element mages, that would