Chapter 196 - 191: Rebirth in Newly Town
When the first wave of immigrants arrived at the border of the Grey Marsh Territory, all they saw was an endless expanse of wasteland.
Kane held his wife’s hand. Their two older children trailed behind them, and his wife, Mara, carried their youngest on her back.
A cold wind swept by, stirring up the withered grass. Everyone instinctively pulled their thin clothes tighter.
"This... is the Grey Marsh Territory?" a man from his hometown asked hoarsely, his voice thick with undisguised disappointment.
"What about the city in the brochures? Where is it?"
No one answered.
The soldier leading them was a man of few words. After a quick headcount, he simply waved for them to follow.
The group trudged forward in silence. The children, however, found everything novel, their playful laughter only deepening the adults’ gloom.
Kane’s heart sank. He recalled the beautiful brochure.
’Could this really be a scam?’
’Were they tricked into paying a year’s salary just to become slaves in this godforsaken wasteland?’
He didn’t dare let his thoughts stray any further. He just squeezed his wife’s hand tighter.
Just when almost everyone in the group was convinced they had been deceived, the scene ahead began to change.
Vast stretches of orderly farmland came into view.
The rows of crops were straight, the irrigation ditches well-defined. A lush green blanketed the fields—clearly well-tended winter wheat.
The vibrant green chased away the gloom that had settled in their hearts.
With renewed hope, the journey suddenly seemed less arduous.
After walking for about another half hour, the silhouette of a town finally appeared on the horizon.
Everyone’s eyes widened, and their pace slowed.
Instead of muddy dirt roads, they were greeted by smooth, white stone-paved streets, so clean they could see the white grout in the seams.
The streets were lined with orderly houses. Incredibly, the buildings seemed seamless, constructed from some unknown material.
The air lacked the ever-present sour stench of a town; instead, the aroma of roasting meat and the sweet smell of fermenting wheat drifted by.
A chubby child ran across the street, chasing sparrows. He wore thick, clean cotton clothes, and his little leather boots tapped against the stone pavers.
"This... This place is..." Kane stammered.
"Newly Town," the soldier leading them replied, his tone filled with pride.
When they were led to the town’s central square, many were so stunned they stopped in their tracks.
A wooden sign engraved with "Points Guild" hung at the entrance of the largest building bordering the square.
Through the open doors, Kane saw people bustling in and out. The shelves lining the walls were piled high with goods they couldn’t have dared to dream of.
Sacks of white flour, neatly stacked cured meats, brightly colored bolts of cloth, gleaming oiled farm tools, and even glass jars filled with colorful candies.
A man walking out had a small sack of rye slung over his shoulder and a piece of cured meat wrapped in oil paper tucked under his arm.
He walked with his chest held high, his face free of the numb misery Kane knew so well from the common folk.
Kane saw the thick calluses on the man’s hands—the kind usually found on a farmer.
’A farmer? Earning enough for meat? All on his own?’
Kane’s worldview was rocked.
He looked at the people traveling with him, each face holding the same expression as his: doubt, shock, and a newly kindled hope.
"Everyone, welcome to the Grey Marsh Territory," a young man in a clerk’s attire announced as he approached. "For the next two days, you are free to explore Newly Town and get acquainted with the area."
"Food and lodging will be provided by the Lord’s Mansion. Here are your temporary meal vouchers."
He handed out a stack of stiff cards.
"In two days, the Lord himself will meet with you all."
Velin was not in a hurry to send them to Sharp Teeth Gorge to start work.
He understood that for people who had struggled in despair for so long, a bowl of hearty meat soup was far more tangible than the most beautiful of promises.
Kane didn’t sleep well the entire night.
He and his family were assigned a clean room with dry, soft straw mattresses.
Dinner was rye bread and meat soup, and to their astonishment, the soup even contained a chunk of fatty meat.
The next day, he left his three children with a neighbor from their journey, letting them play in the dormitory-style building while he and Mara strolled through town.
He saw townsfolk gathered before a notice board, discussing how many "points" they could earn by working at the farm or logging in the forest.
In front of one dormitory building after another, he saw small groups of people excitedly discussing how much they had managed to save up after a year of hard work.
He saw children in a schoolhouse, following a teacher and loudly reciting letters he didn’t recognize.
Everything here was a world away from the life they had known.
The people here had something in their faces he had never seen before.
"Kane, do you think... is all of this real?" Mara’s voice trembled.
Kane didn’t answer.
He led his wife into a tavern, and copying others, handed yesterday’s meal voucher to the owner, exchanging it for two servings of ale and mashed potatoes drizzled with meat gravy.
As the savory flavor, rich with crispy bits of rendered pork, melted in his mouth, the mountain of doubt he had carried with him on the journey finally crumbled.
On the morning of the third day, the one-thousand-plus immigrants were summoned to the square.
The look in their eyes had completely changed.
The numbness and wariness from two days ago had vanished without a trace, replaced by longing and anticipation.
Velin stood on a high platform, looking down at the faces full of hope below.
He didn’t like to give long-winded speeches; he believed that actions spoke louder than words.
"From this day forward, you are probationary citizens of the Grey Marsh Territory. Together, we will build a new port city, a city that belongs to all of us. Now, move out!"
The procession set out once more, but this time, every step was filled with power.
However, when they reached their destination, Sharp Teeth Gorge, their newfound enthusiasm was chilled to the bone by the biting sea wind.
This place was even more desolate than the border where they had first arrived.
Steep cliffs like the fangs of a great beast plunged straight into the sea. Underfoot was bare rocky ground, and the fierce wind made it hard to stand.
"Build a city... here?"
"Boats can’t even dock. How are we supposed to build a port?"
The immigrants’ hearts were in their throats once again.
Velin ignored the crowd’s murmuring and walked straight to the edge of the cliff.
The area had already been cleared. Complex lines and markings were drawn on the ground with white powder. And within the foundations outlined by these lines, saplings had been carefully planted, arranged neatly on the rocky ground.
"What... are those?" Kane asked, pointing at the saplings to a long-time resident beside him.
"Stone Skin Soft Vine," the long-time resident replied proudly. "A wondrous artifact of the Lord’s."
The immigrants had no idea what Stone Skin Soft Vine was; they only knew that the very idea of planting anything in this rocky expanse was beyond comprehension.
As over a thousand people watched in a mixture of confusion, awe, and a hint of fear, Velin walked alone to the center of the cleared ground.
He stretched out his hands and pressed them against the cold, rocky ground.
The next moment, the ground began to tremble slightly.
A vast power surged from Velin’s body, flowing through his palms and into the earth beneath him.
RUMBLE—
To everyone’s astonishment, the vines began to grow at a frenzied pace, visible to the naked eye.
They burst from the rock, rapidly spreading along the white lines marked on the ground, weaving and winding and knitting together.
In just a few short minutes, they had outlined the magnificent silhouette of a city gate.
Then, something even more incredible happened.
The emerald-green surface of the vines rapidly faded, their soft, plant-like texture hardening. The resulting wall was covered in particles that glittered like obsidian, and countless razor-sharp leaves jutted out from the crevices.
Ten minutes.
It took only ten short minutes.
And just like that, the main structure of a majestic, ten-meter-high city gate rose from the ground before their very eyes.
Directly above the city gate, the Klein Clan’s emblem of intertwined thorns and new shoots clearly appeared.
Everyone stared dumbly at the gate, which seemed impossible for human hands to have crafted, their minds gone completely blank.
THUD.
Someone in the crowd was the first to drop to their knees.
Then, the immigrants fell to their knees like a tidal wave, prostrating themselves before the figure of the young lord in the center of the field.
"Heavens above! What kind of Extraordinary power is this!"
"Our Lord... he’s a Caster who can create city walls!"
Cheers like a tsunami echoed through the canyon, washing away all doubt and unease.
Their lord could create city walls out of thin air.
What could be a more reliable guarantee than that?
Velin stood up, looking at the faces flushed red with excitement before him.
Soon, guided by the veteran residents, the new immigrants began learning how to guide the growth of the Stone Skin Soft Vine. They learned how to wear the peculiar insects known as "Hive Terminals" to command incredibly strong black beetles in excavating the mountainside and moving earth and rock.
Word of this "city created from nothing" spread like wildfire throughout Gray Bay, carried by the few merchant caravans that had witnessed it.
But Velin knew he had new, more complex problems to solve.
Soon, thousands upon thousands of people would gather at this construction site.
Food, drink, and waste disposal; task assignments; resource allocation... a management challenge a hundred times more complex than Newly Town was about to emerge.
’Could his existing Points Guild system handle a true ’city’?’