Veylin watched the expressions on their faces shift from despair to bewilderment, then from bewilderment to hope. He understood.
When the old pillar was destroyed, new authority had fertile ground in which to grow.
He knew that fewer than ten fighters could not keep nearly two hundred people subdued for long.
What he needed to do was offer the only solution to this desperate situation, transforming himself from oppressor to savior.
"Starting tomorrow," Veylin said, his calm voice carrying a reassuring strength, "choose three sharp-witted people to come into the marsh with me and search for a new water source."
"Into the marsh?" one local villager asked. "My lord, the water in the marsh is salty and bitter. You can't drink it at all."
"A stable ecosystem must have a freshwater cycle." Seeing that they still looked bewildered, Veylin explained further.
"As long as there are living things in the marsh, there will be fresh water that humans can drink."
He paused, then issued his final order for the day.
"Barrett, organize people to build at least ten simple rainwater collectors. Also, register everyone, including their names, ages, and previous occupations."
"Only now does our pioneering truly begin."
With that, he paid no further attention to the crowd in the square and their conflicted expressions. He turned toward the endless gray marsh.
A plan gradually took shape in his mind.
Abandon Graymist Village.
It was the sensible choice.
A suitable settlement site needed to meet at least two basic requirements: defensible terrain and a clean water source.
Graymist Village had neither.
This low-lying stretch of flat ground had virtually no defensive value. Veylin believed that any reasonably sizable band of brigands or group of magical beasts could easily overrun it.
Perhaps the villagers had lived here before because of that well, but now even that reason was gone.
Rather than waste time trying to purge the toxins from a deep well, he might as well seize this opportunity to find another place to build the village.
At first light the next morning, an expedition assembled outside Graymist Village.
Veylin led the party himself.
The Gray Wolf Squad's two most capable mercenaries formed the fighting core of the party.
One was Hark, a burly, taciturn bald man with an enormous battle-axe strapped to his back that matched his build. The other was Roy, a lean man carrying a shortbow, his belt quiver filled with feathered arrows. He was the party's scout.
There were also three young men selected from the local villagers.
Veylin had chosen them personally.
During registration, he had scanned every villager with his "Inspect" ability. These three young men had the mildest cases of the "Chronic Toxin Damage" condition, and all were experienced hunters.
"My lord, do we really need to go so deep?"
Before they set out, Barrett, who would remain behind to guard the village, asked one last time.
"There's more than mud pits and poisonous insects in the marsh."
"I know." Veylin checked his equipment: a dark hunting outfit that allowed him to move freely, with a waterskin, dried meat, and a dagger hanging from his belt. "But we have to choose between dying in comfort and risking danger to survive. Barrett, you need to understand. We aren't going on an outing. We're searching for a way to keep more than a hundred people alive."
Barrett fell silent. He tightened his grip on his sword hilt and nodded solemnly.
He watched the party plunge into the gray mist.
The farther the expedition ventured, the more complicated the terrain became.
Tangled roots lay hidden beneath the murky water, ready to trip anyone who let their guard down.
Unidentified insects buzzed through the air, adding to everyone's irritation.
Roy walked at the front, constantly probing the ground ahead with a long pole and occasionally pushing aside plants that blocked their path.
The three local villagers followed behind the mercenaries. Their experience proved particularly valuable here, allowing them to spot hidden dangers in advance.
Veylin walked in the middle of the party, his eyes barely resting for a moment.
Translucent information panels continually appeared and vanished across his vision.
[Salt Marsh Podbean], [Devil Cypress], [Black-spotted Water Snake], [Ironback Crocodile]
This was indeed an ecosystem brimming with danger, yet full of primal vitality.
After walking for most of the day, the party found a patch of elevated rocky ground where they could rest.
Everyone was exhausted, their clothes soaked with sweat.
A villager named Neil pulled over several rather thick-looking vines from nearby and deftly tied up a few bundles of spare firewood.
Neil worked the vines like wire; even where he bent them, they did not spring back.
It was an utterly ordinary act. The marsh's inhabitants had used these vines to tie things together for generations.
Yet that casual glimpse made Veylin raise an eyebrow.
He strode over.
"What is that?" he asked, pointing at the grayish-brown vines in Neil's hands.
"Huh? My lord, these are marsh vines, a local specialty of Graysea Marsh." Flattered by the attention, Neil hurried to answer. "They aren't much use, except for tying things up."
Veylin said nothing more. He crouched and picked up a discarded length of vine.
Its texture was rough, its surface covered in tiny bumps. When he bent it hard, it did not seem particularly tough either; it snapped easily.
But in his eyes, this unremarkable length of vine revealed entirely different information.
His fingers lightly touched the vine's rough skin, and a translucent panel unfolded before him.
[Swamp Vine] [Level: Unranked] [Bloodline: flexible steel toughness (Gold rank) 5%, mixed bloodlines 95%] [Abilities: None] [Overall assessment: Somewhat moldable, but fragile. Suitable only for binding. Can evolve under specific conditions.]
A Gold-rank bloodline! Though its proportion was rather low, this was the plant with the greatest cultivation potential Veylin had seen in the month or so since he had crossed into this world!
Then several smaller lines of golden text slowly appeared beneath the panel.
[Possible evolution: Stone-Skinned Soft Vine] [Evolution method: 1. Plant in specially prepared nutrient soil. 2. Cultivate in a low-concentration aether environment for ten days.] [Nutrient soil (1 portion): earth-vein rock powder 20%, obsidian powder 15%, basilisk blood 10%, humus 55%]
He opened the detailed description.
[Stone-Skinned Vine: Soft and highly moldable during its growth period. After some time, its outer skin gradually hardens, approaching the hardness of stone.]
Veylin's heart began pounding uncontrollably.
Soft and moldable while growing, then hard as stone... wasn't this the self-molding biological polymer material I'd dreamed of in my previous life?
With this, I wouldn't need to develop concrete from scratch!
As long as I accelerated its growth with "springlaw messenger," the Stone-Skinned Vine would work like a printer, directly "printing" houses, city walls, and even all kinds of complex structures!
Forget building a village-the magnificent seven tiers of white walls of Minas Tirith had already appeared in Veylin's mind.
He forced down his excitement and slipped the length of vine into his sample bag without betraying anything.
An "aether environment," then? Veylin pondered.
This world was filled with aether energy, and all living beings absorbed ambient aether to some degree. Those who had awakened their bloodlines, like Veylin, could train their mental strength through breathing techniques, converting aether into energy they could control and then using it to cast spells or unleash combat techniques.
A naturally aether-rich environment was like a power bank that never ran dry, greatly accelerating the growth and evolution of bloodline-bearing organisms.
The concentration, meanwhile, determined its power output.
Veylin needed to adjust his objective.
Finding a water source remained important, but now he had a second objective that was equally important-even more crucial strategically: finding an aether-rich area!