After a proper rest, Asher went to the wheat fields, which were now inside the walls. The wheat fields were vast and looking at the wheat, Asher sighed. They couldn’t compare to the maize on the other side; in fact, the difference was so great that the wheat farmers and the maize farmers were like the rich and the poor.
One side looked fatter and the other looked thinner. Working in the wheat fields was like hell compared to farming in the maize fields. The maize always produced a bountiful harvest and it was harvested monthly!
The wheat had a much longer duration and its produce wasn’t anything special.
For this reason, only a few farmers worked on the wheat fields and because of this, wheat had to be imported or it couldn’t meet the wants of the people. At this point, they imported salt, sugar, oil, spices, and much more, but Asher was about to eliminate oil from the list.
Oil was pretty expensive and was sought after in every nation. Because of this, the Intis Kingdom was super rich and was able to maintain their elite air cavalry. The Intis dominion was rich in olive trees and had dominated the market like Nightfire dominated the glass market.
The Intis olive oil was more pure than the oil produced by others, making Intis oil the most sought-after oil, but Asher was sure he would take that title soon enough.
However, before that, he must build an outpost to make the nobles think that was his domain, averting their eyes from his rapidly expanding territory.
When the farmers saw him approaching with his BloodBlades, they gathered outside their fields and fell on one knee.
“Your Lordship!”
“Arise. I came to see how the wheat is doing.”
Asher was focused on the old woman who was in charge of the farming department and when she noticed Asher’s gaze was fixed on her, she nervously chuckled and cleared her throat.
She could see her granddaughter, Cynthia, eyeing her. This was probably a sign that she should not dare say what would provoke the Lord, especially since she did not know how to control her mouth.
“Well, we should be harvesting them next month and what you see is what we’ll have.”
Asher frowned.
“This can barely feed half of Nimrim.”
He remarked solemnly.
“I heard Baron Flameheart brought about 60,000 catties of wheat. Bring them out.”
Heeding to his order, male farmers went out and brought out large brown sack bags. They brought out hundreds of them and Asher asked them to step away.
[Ding! Do you want to upgrade your wheat through fusion and produce Fragrant Jade Wheat? Yes or No?]
‘Do it.’
Swoosh!
The several hundred bags became 20 bags. Seeing this, the old woman wanted to erupt. Now that the wheat was gone, how were they supposed to feed the people?
[Fragrant Jade Wheat: This is a unique wheat that can yield several folds more than the ordinary wheat and it can cleanse the internal system of any growing or hiding illness. Products produced from this wheat will naturally be better tasting. Finally, this wheat’s germination to harvest has been reduced to one month!]
Asher grinned from ear to ear as he grabbed a handful of jade wheat. The wheat was smaller than usual but was like pure jade! One would mistake them for treasures!
One of these could produce several folds of what the ones that would soon be harvested could and not only that but it could be harvested in a month while the normal wheat would take over three months.
This meant he would gain more than a double increase.
Some farmers’ mouths watered as they stared at the gleaming jade wheat in the palm of their hands. The old woman stared at the wheat with a frown.
“Although these wheat look special, it would have been better if we had several hundred bags of normal wheat than just 20 of these.”
“Just give them a month.”
Hearing that, the old woman recalled what Asher said concerning the Golden Fragrant Maize and her eyebrows knit together.
“How special is this one?”
“One of them can produce what ten of these normal ones can and it takes just one month before it’s ripe for harvest.”
Hiss!!
The farmers gasped heavily.
Cynthia looked at her lord and back at the wheat.
Asher simply smiled. “Go ahead and plant them.”
…..
By the end of the first week of the new month, Asher visited the building site and saw thousands of workers, mostly barbarians, working under the jurisdiction of captains in building the outpost.
Asher stood on a hill with the architect sent from the Flameheart barony. From here, he could view the project, which was still in its skeletal phase.
There were hundreds of white tents pitched away from the project site and soldiers could be seen around. They were equipped to handle any surprise attacks from any southern wasteland lord but luckily no lord attacked.
Asher looked at the piles of resources, which were rocks being cut into proper sizes, beams from fallen trees, ropes imported through Baron Flameheart, and much more.
There was even the famous green clay!
Asher wasn’t planning to make this outpost wretched-looking because he wanted to look weak. He wasn’t planning on showing himself as weak but he didn’t want to reveal his true might either. It was better that he kept his powerful cards hidden for a short time.
At least until his eventual clash against Count William Tigris!
“Your Lordship, winter will slow down our progress,” the architect said.
“We won’t be building this outpost during winter because we would be welcoming guests.”
The architect raised an eyebrow.
“But my lord, there’s no way you can—-!”
His lips parted as beams of light engulfed the building materials and they were hurtled toward the skeletal foundation of the outpost. When the materials came together, a much brighter light manifested, causing them to shut their eyes.
Swoosh!
The light died down.