What's wrong with me, a mage, loving to farm?

Chapter 237. First Arrival in Gray Sand City

Jamie and his group quickly arrived at the Gray Desert, located in the westernmost part of the Kingdom of Norland, using the ultra-long-distance teleportation magic array provided by the Holy Spring Merchant Guild.

As soon as they left the teleportation array, they sensed the change in their surroundings—the temperature on Hanjiao Island was like spring all year round, and the humid sea breeze brought cool air, making it a very suitable place for people to live.

But the wind here is filled with a scorching smell.

This intense heat wasn't the dry kind, but rather a humid heat. Just a few seconds after leaving the spatial magic circle, they felt themselves covered in sweat.

Anyone who has experienced heat knows that dry heat is bearable, but damp heat is truly unbearable all over the body.

The dampness even dripped from between the strands of hair.

The surrounding area was all golden sand, and further away was darkness, making it impossible to see the true size of the building.

Just as they were hesitating about whether to activate the small air-purifying magic devices on their bodies, a voice came from afar—

"Welcome to Sand City."

The voice was young, but it only took a moment to approach from afar.

A young man, wearing only shoulder armor on his upper body, with strange paint on his well-proportioned abdomen, and wearing only a battle skirt on his lower body, came before them.

At first glance, it seems to be some kind of combatant.

However, if one were to perceive it carefully, one could discover the almost inexhaustible magical power emanating from him—a level of magical power they had only ever sensed from their own lord.

Clearly, this is...

"The Sand Lord!"

Jamie bowed to him on behalf of everyone: "Our teacher often mentions you; this is a little gift he gave you."

The former farm boy remained composed and respectful in the face of a level 10 God-giver, handing over the box that Kroya had prepared.

The Gray Sand Lord casually opened the box, glanced at it, and a slight smile appeared on his lips: "A very good gift."

His smile didn't seem like a polite pretense.

Then, he put the box away and waved.

The surrounding golden sand began to swirl, forming chairs like miniature whirlwinds. He pointed to the chairs and said, "Sit down and let's talk."

Hui Sha himself was lounging on a soft couch, half-supported, looking at them with a somewhat tired expression.

"thank you."

Jamie led his apprentices to sit down, and as soon as they were seated, he took the initiative to speak: "Lord Gray Sand, as per the agreement between you and our teacher, we will first build shops in the city."

Construct a magic circle centered on the shop, then use it to transport materials. First, build a sufficient number of houses inside the city of Grey Sand, and then gradually expand the roads outward.

All materials were supplied by our own Hanjiao Island, along with minerals, magical beasts, and magical plants along the way…”

He had certainly seen the map, so he spoke fluently and spent ten minutes conveying his general ideas and plans to the Gray Sand Lord.

During this time, the Gray Sand Lord listened quietly without saying a word.

After he finished speaking, the Gray Sand Lord said, "It's a brilliant idea, but... I hope you can conduct on-site investigations before formulating a new plan."

The level 10 chosen one, who looked even younger than the apprentices, said with a weary voice, "The desert will bury everyone."

"The simulated environment is fundamentally different from the real gray desert."

"You can tour the area first. Our first goal is to build a road between Grey Sand City and the oasis ten kilometers away."

"Only if you can successfully build it will you have a basic understanding of the desert."

Upon hearing this, Jamie and the others' expressions changed slightly.

They had already considered the potential problems while they were working in that desert, so they weren't too surprised at this moment.

After exchanging a glance, Jamie, as usual, spoke up: "Could you please arrange for someone to show us around?"

"We will collect data, conduct on-site investigations, and then contact the teacher to ask him to provide remote guidance."

It definitely won't delay anything.

"Of course, that's why I invited you here." The Gray Sand Lord smiled. "You don't need to worry about your safety here. I promised the Desert Reef that I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

He's told me this so many times, saying you're all his treasures~

The last syllable of "Huisha" rose slightly, seemingly carrying a hint of teasing.

This story wasn't made up. The forty apprentices who have come here are mages and knights who are most skilled in civil engineering and infrastructure.

Each one is a precious treasure that Chloe has placed her hopes on.

Kroya even obtained some protective items from the angels so that they could safely finish their work and return home.

Jamie and the others smiled in unison, looking a little shy like children.

Well, most of them are orphans, and hearing these words suddenly felt like the earnest advice from their parents and elders. The feeling of being cared for and protected brought warmth to their hearts.

"Haha, it seems that Kroya really values ​​you. Don't let him down."

Looking at them, Gray Sand seemed to feel a little better, and he waved his hand:

"Alright, Nilant, take them outside for a look around."

"Here it comes!"

No sooner had the lord finished speaking than a woman dressed in leopard skin and with a rather fit figure leaped out of the surrounding darkness.

She seemed to have hopped over, landing directly in front of everyone after a few leaps, leaving a deep sand pit in her wake.

She grinned at Jamie and the others, revealing her white teeth. "Come with me, I'll show you the land the lord has allocated to you!"

This woman named Nilant really seemed to be at ease, grabbing Jamie's hand and practically dragging him away.

"Hey hey hey!"

"Calm down!"

Jamie was a level three mage, and he worked hard every day, so his physical strength wasn't bad either. Yet, he was actually dragged away.

Seeing this, the others bowed to the Gray Sand Lord and then quickly followed suit.

The Gray Sand Lord looked in the direction Nilant had left and shook his head: "That little leopard... well, she's the only one who can use her."

……

Once they left the massive building and stepped outdoors, the children, who had grown up on Hanjiao Island and had never truly seen the outside world, were immediately stunned.

They stared blankly at the sky—

It was a gray-blue starry sky, so clear it looked like a giant blue gemstone. The stars were scattered across the night sky, seemingly within reach, as if you could touch them if you jumped a little higher.

This is similar to, but not the same as, the starry sky over Hanjiao Island, and is full of a rugged and primitive beauty.

The sand beneath my feet was entirely covered in golden grains, stretching to the horizon, with a few oddly shaped triangular houses scattered across it.

This is Grey Sand City, a city that the Grey Sand Lord brought all the surviving people to and forcibly built using powerful magic.

The city planning seems to be quite good; the residential areas formed by those houses are neat and orderly, as if they were built with a ruler, and they are perfectly straight.

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder will be very happy to see this.

The only problem was that the entire city looked very empty, with not many people walking around, which was in stark contrast to the huge city.

At a glance, there are at most a few hundred or a thousand people, which is completely inconsistent with the huge scale and area of ​​the city.

"People have all gone out to gather food."

Nilant explained, "Only at night can the Lord of the Night's power suppress the raging magic in the desert, allowing us to move as freely as possible within it."

As she spoke, she reached into her leopard-skin coat and rummaged around for a while, quickly pulling out a pendant and shaking it.

The pendants made of pale white bones collided with each other, producing a crisp "ding-dong" sound like wind chimes.

The pendant is shaped like a balance scale, with a wolf's head on one of the trays and the other empty.

Strangely, the empty tray seemed to weigh heavily, far heavier than the tray with the wolf's head, and some scarlet bloodstains could be faintly seen in the silver bone seams.

Jamie initially wanted to refuse the pendant, which clearly had some religious connotations.

But Nilant said, "Without the Jackal's Scales, you cannot leave the city."

Only those carrying the balance scale pendant can enter the desert.

She stared at the crowd, her pupils slightly contracting like those of some large feline.

Judging from her expression, the pendant is clearly very important, and may even involve local religious issues.

Faced with this situation, Jamie did not refuse—faith is the most troublesome thing, and it's best not to provoke it if possible.

"Then thank you for your kindness, Ms. Nilant."

He took the pendant and pinned it to his chest, next to the seven-colored sun emblem representing Hanjiao Island.

A faint glimmer seemed to flash within the emblem, but it vanished in an instant and went unnoticed by anyone.

After the others had finished hanging their pendants, Nilante smiled and waved her hand, "I'll take you there!"

She quickly led everyone to the place where Lord Xu Nuo Kroya had built his shop, located on the central street of Gray Sand City, an area officially managed by Gray Sand City.

There are already several different shops here, including a magic materials shop and even a building like the Mercenary Guild, which is the most common type of building on the continent.

However, the buildings all look very low – there aren’t enough building materials in the desert, and if it’s just mages building the city… who can have a mage construction team like Kroya?

"It seems like that's always the case."

On their way here, they observed the people around them and found that everyone was indeed wearing a balance scale pendant, which made them feel a little more at ease.

The Gray Sand Lord was quite generous, allocating them an area the size of an acre, which was larger than the surrounding mercenary guilds.

After discussion, the apprentices decided to build a shop for magical beasts, magical plants, and magical pets on one half of the land, and a shop for magical food on the other half.

This time, Kroya didn't need to buy a magic house from the Holy Spring Merchant Guild. Half of the team, twenty people, simply took out materials from their personal spatial magic devices and began building with a clanging sound.

They excel at building houses, and I estimate they can cover the entire one-acre area in just one night.

The other half was led by Jamie, who accompanied Nilant on her field research trip.

They left the city of gray sand and officially entered the desert.

On their way out of the city, they had mentally prepared themselves, expecting to see a desolate and lifeless desert, but what appeared before them was not like that at all.

—The gray sand sea was indeed boundless, but it was not lifeless. In the hazy mist, you could see many people sliding across the sand on magical creatures that looked like rays.

Further away, packs of jackals followed the people as they dug things in the sand.

If I had to describe the feeling it evoked...

It's like those children catching seafood in the sand on the beach of Hanjiao Island, the only difference being that the children are mostly playing, while the people here are very serious.

Not far from them was a burly, white-haired man with a bare upper body, digging in the damp sand with a shovel, and soon unearthed a gray tuber.

"The blessing of the night god!"

The burly man who dug up the tuber held it high and then took a bite, gnawing on it frantically. The tuber immediately spurted out milky white juice and made a sharp sound like a baby crying.

It was as if they were eating the fetus of some kind of monster alive.

Even more terrifying, as others dug up the roots one after another, the cries of these babies could even be heard in unison, echoing through the silent, empty desert.

Jamie stared at the man for a while, then asked, "What is that he's eating?"

"It's gray sand root," explained a soldier who followed them out.

His face seemed to show disdain: "They can't eat the food given by Lord Ash in the city, so they can only dig up these things to eat at night."

The noise is absolutely unbearable.

"..."

The apprentices sensed her disgust and contempt, and exchanged glances—such a situation would never happen on Hanjiao Island.

Lord Cloa once said that it was not the farmers' fault that they could not afford to eat.

Nilant crossed her arms and looked into the distance, it was unclear whether she hadn't heard or also thought what was said was true.

Seeing this, the apprentices didn't say a word, but silently took out the surveying tools one by one from their backpacks.

The first thing to be taken out was a small golem that looked no different from a mouse. After it came out, the golem immediately burrowed into the gray sand.

They will conduct underground surveys and collect magic power to allow the seeds of the Evil Sea Purple Demon Water Lily to adapt to this magic power in advance, so that a large number of them will die after being planted.

After the rat golem burrowed underground, they took out several birds with translucent feathers, like those made of crystal.

"Please, fly!"

One of the apprentices stroked each of them, fed them birdseed, and then waved his hand, causing the birds to flap their wings and fly into the sky.

Meanwhile, someone had already set up a Warcraft vision transmission device nearby, and the view seen by the birds was immediately displayed on the huge screen.

These birds weren't flying aimlessly; they were surveying the area around Gray Sand City, recording not only the scenery but also the magical changes they sensed high in the sky.

In just a few minutes, a bunch of magical devices were set up here, and some people even took out seedlings of the Evil Sea Purple Demon Grass to try it out.

However, the exploration process did not go smoothly.

First, the underground golems were attacked by some unknown creatures that were hiding in the gray, damp sand, and even though the golems had cameras installed, they couldn't record it.

Secondly, there are the crystal-eyed birds flying in the sky, whose observations of the terrain constantly undulate and change with the hot night winds.

Within minutes, a towering sand dune was flattened, and inexplicably, a series of sand dunes rose up in the distance where the once open and spacious sandy land was now desert.

Even worse was the planting of the Evil Sea Purple Demon Water Lily. These magical plants, which had been modified by Kroya and should theoretically be able to adapt to the environment, died seven or eight times in just one minute...

This means that the magical composition within the sand is more complex than imagined, so much so that even the Purple Demoness of the Evil Sea cannot adapt to it, and can only go through cycles of death and rebirth.

Specifically, this manifests as the continuous reports from the apprentices who are taking measurements—

"Boss Jamie, the magic readings here cannot be quantified."

"Boss Jamie, there are alien monsters about three meters away, and they are attacking the golem."

"Boss, the Purple Demon Water Lily of the Evil Sea can't grow and take root..."

Jamie was a little confused, and even Nilant muttered, "So the environment here is this harsh..."

Jamie took a deep breath.

The complexity here was beyond his imagination, far more complicated than what he had seen on Hanjiao Island. It seemed that many plans would have to be changed at the last minute.

He wasn't in a hurry, and simply had his apprentices continue with data collection and geological exploration.

He firmly believed that with enough data to understand the magical composition, it would be possible to adapt and modify the Floating Moon Alloy.

Time passed second by second.

Finally, the sky gradually brightened.

The original reconnaissance base has expanded from a few dozen meters to a full acre, with a huge crystal pillar standing on the ground, surrounded by sensing and conduction devices made of spider silk.

The apprentices, who had been busy all night, stretched and looked up—

From the distant horizon, at the edge of the desert and the sky, a red sun slowly rises.

They all wore serious expressions.

When the sun rises, some strange things happen here.

After a busy night, their task was to set up a device to record changes in magical power before sunrise, and see if it could survive the anomaly.

"Oh no, come quick!"

Nilant cried out in alarm and immediately planted a scepter in the ground.

After the scepter landed, it formed a powerful magical shield that protected all the apprentices. Through the shield, one could also see people fleeing into the city in panic.

Then... the wind stopped.

Coming from afar was a vast, tsunami-like flood, within which lurked countless magical beasts, as if it were an apocalyptic flood from ancient mythology.

It is estimated to be hundreds of meters tall just by looking at it.

Wherever the flood passed, everything was swept away.

It was like a monster that devoured everything, letting out a terrifying roar, and soon swept towards the vicinity of Gray Sand City.

At first glance, these floods seemed capable of sweeping directly into Gray Sand City, but in reality, they couldn't even penetrate the city walls. A terrifying force formed a shield of light, preventing them from entering the city.

The apprentices, sheltered within the scepter's protective range, had sweaty palms. Looking at the crystal pillars that still stood stubbornly in the flood, they felt a little more at ease.

Only Nilant said softly, "You've all seen it, haven't you? The flood comes every day during the day."

Don't worry.

Jamie, however, was full of confidence: "We will build the bridges and roads."

Upon witnessing the flood, he had an idea, but it still needed to be proven and tested in practice.

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(End of this chapter)