The Cornflower Witch Chapter 196

Border town “Mammoth Town,” a team was preparing to set off.

This was the closest outpost to the Dark Mist Mountains that had a teleportation array. If they continued west, closer to the Dark Mist Mountains, there would be no convenient teleportation arrays to use.

“So, from now on, you can only rely on pack animals to move forward,” an experienced knight stood on a simple wooden platform, addressing the members below.

“I am your guide for this team, and also the transport officer shuttling between the various outposts in the Dark Mist Mountains. You can call me Reginson.”

“This time I will lead you through the Black Lion Wilds and then to the foot of the Dark Mist Mountains, where we have specially surveyed a suitable place to establish an outpost.”

“In the future, you will build a new supply outpost there. I hope you can successfully achieve your goal.” He then scanned the young students below again.

“Now, mount your horses, watch your supplies closely, and follow me!”

Soon, a chime of bronze bells rang out at the front of the team, and the long procession began its journey.

The entire team consisted of over 200 people, with more than fifty carriages carrying various supplies, some urgently needed for building the new outpost, and others provisions for the front lines of the border.

In the middle of the procession, Hylial rode her horse, occasionally listening to her companions’ introductions.

“Senior Hylial, we have a total of 63 students as the first batch of outpost developers. Besides the 52 conscripted from the Glittering Gold Plain, there are 11 scholars and craftsmen from the Candlefort School.”

“They will assist us in building the outpost in the early stages, but after the first phase is completed, they will leave.”

“Who will do the subsequent maintenance?” Hylial glanced at the white-robed members behind her. They mostly wore white scholar robes, similar in style to those of Scholar Hyde she remembered.

“One to two people will remain to oversee things. If new buildings need to be constructed, an application must be submitted to the association, and then manpower will be dispatched.”

“They can’t be permanent residents?” The girl was slightly puzzled.

“Permanent residency would be very costly, and besides, they are not very useful when not building new structures.” It was evident that within the Woodland Association, organizations like the Candlefort School did not hold a high status.

“I see…”

The team gradually left Mammoth Town and advanced towards the Black Lion Wilds. Here, the clouds overhead slowly descended and thickened, and under the dim sky, everything began to feel oppressive.

It felt like an endlessly long descent. After leaving Mammoth Town, Hylial felt the entire team slowly moving towards a deeper, darker, and lightless region.

Days later, when she looked back in the direction of Mammoth Town, she could only see the intersection of dark golden clouds and the horizon; the rest was barren, with no trace of the town.

Looking forward, the sky was also dim, blurring with the horizon in the distance, like a fissure plummeting into an abyss.

No wonder the association offered such generous terms for people to be willing to come here to develop. Such a place indeed exerted immense psychological pressure, as if there was a constant fear of never being able to leave.

A week later, the team arrived at the foot of a dark mountain range. The terrain here resembled a horizontal ‘V’, with mountain ranges on both sides and a small triangular open space in the middle.

Taking advantage of the mountainous terrain, this area was protected from the erosive winds. At the foot of the mountain, there was a relatively safe and easily defensible piece of land.

“This is it, Hylial,” Reginson rode his horse to stand before the young girl.

“Your new outpost will be located here. If successful, this place will become a transit station between the Dark Mist Mountains and the Woodland border.”

“I and others will be stationed here for three days to assist and guide you in building the outpost. After that, we will depart to continue transporting supplies to the outposts deeper in the Dark Mist Mountains.”

“Thank you, I understand.” The girl nodded, then raised her hand, signaling her companions behind her to dismount and begin scouting the surroundings.

In the evening, the members who had completed preliminary scouting gathered around a bonfire to rest and cook dinner.

“Has the water source been confirmed?” Hylial asked the accompanying scholars and craftsmen.

“The water source is fine. In fact, it was confirmed during the site selection, otherwise the association wouldn’t have chosen this place for an outpost.”

“However, the water source here is close to the depths of the Sea of Twilight and is heavily polluted. It must be drawn out, poured into a pool, and left to settle and purify before it can be drunk.”

“Later, we will specifically build a temple near the well to purify the water and provide isolation and protection.”

“Okay.” After dinner, everyone slept soundly in their tents.

Over the next two days, after much discussion and planning, the construction plan for the new outpost was finalized.

“First, we need to build walls to enclose the entire outpost,” a bespectacled scholar tapped the blueprint.

“Because manpower and resources are limited in the early stage, we only need to enclose this line.” He pointed to a drawn solid line.

“Later, if the outpost expands, it can gradually extend along these three dashed lines.”

Once the wall’s location was determined, the first phase of construction began. The students first quarried stones from the mountains, then cut them into suitable bricks, and built walls along the mountain range.

“The arrangement, stacking order, and patterns of these stone bricks are strictly controlled by the scholars of the Candlefort School, because this is how we can build special magic arrays that can dispel and resist ‘distortion’ erosion.”

On the other side, Hylial and several scholars began discussing the cultivation of crop fields.

“The light intensity here is less than 30% of that in the Glittering Gold Plain. It’s probably impossible to grow wheat,” a scholar reminded the young girl.

“I understand, so I prepared seeds for other crops in advance,” Hylial nodded.

She had done her research. The light in the Dark Mist Mountains was weak, and many crops couldn’t adapt, so she had to choose shade-loving plants. For staples, she chose potatoes and taro, and for vegetables, water spinach, lettuce, spinach, carrots, and broad beans.

“However, the environment here is indeed worse than I imagined,” Hylial looked up at the sky with concern.

Not only was the soil severely polluted, but even the wind was corrosive. Ordinary plants exposed to this environment would quickly die, no wonder there were no plants along the way.

“We need to build glass greenhouses to isolate the airflow and erosion of the wind. I wonder how large a glass greenhouse you can build.”

“This…” The scholars shook their heads with some difficulty.

“It’s not that we don’t want to, but to build a greenhouse that meets your requirements, it would probably require special glass.”

“Ordinary glass can block the wind, but under erosion, it will become brittle in about three months. If we use stones, stacked up, it will certainly block the wind and not be easily damaged, but then sunlight won’t be able to get in.”

“What kind of special glass were you referring to?” The silver-haired girl turned and asked.

“It requires ‘Tier 2 – Excellent’ quality reinforced glass to resist the endless corrosive winds of the Dark Mist Mountains,” a scholar replied after a moment of thought.

“Reinforced glass is made by embedding special metal wires during the glass manufacturing process. This increases strength and also allows the embedded wires to form special runic imprints for additional effects.”

“If it’s for resisting erosion, we recommend using the inscriptions from the ‘Swan Arc Window’ or the ‘Snowmila Gate’ routes of the Castle.”

“How much does a piece of such glass cost?” Hylial had a premonition that it would be a huge expense.

“A square meter of glass, about 40 gold coins. If we order in large quantities, we might be able to reduce the price to 30 gold coins per piece.”

“Only the ‘Six-Point Glazed School’ can provide this type of glass in large quantities. Many of the identification lenses used by the association are also produced by them.” This reminded Hylial of the appraiser who verified the quality of her perfect-grade wheat before; that person used a special lens to distinguish the wheat’s quality.

“What if we make it ourselves?” She recalled that Seraphie’s lesson plan included knowledge from the ‘Six-Point Glazed School.’

“If we have suitable alchemists and craftsmen, the cost could be around 10 gold coins.” After all, raw glass materials and special metal wires also needed to be procured.

“I understand.” Hylial nodded.

“Let’s use ordinary glass for now. When we’re more prosperous, we can replace it with specialized ‘reinforced glass.'”

Afterward, the first phase of the outpost project began, starting with the city walls, residential stone houses, and watchtowers, followed by tall greenhouses for planting crops.

As for the ‘Association Hall,’ ‘Bar,’ and ‘Inn,’ these would be part of the second phase of construction, with the primary goal being survival.