Green Monster Epic

Chapter 646: A Long Transition

Spring departs and autumn arrives; time, in the eyes of some, is so long, but in the eyes of others, it is so fleeting.

"Hahaha!! This year, we can finally celebrate a joyful harvest festival!!"

"Yes!!! Finally, we don't have to worry about the wheat getting damp or being destroyed by floods!!"

"… …"

Outside Green Lake Town, a golden expanse of wheat fields undulates in the wind, the air filled with the rich fragrance of ripe ears, and the radiant laughter of farmers echoing from their throats.

For decades, the climate of the Greenwild Plains has never been stable. No matter how the experienced farmers of the Greenwild Tribe adjusted their planting times or changed their crops, the crops in the fields were always devastated by the sometimes violent, sometimes gloomy weather, leading to reduced yields or even complete crop failure.

Fortunately, the Greenwild Tribe's upper echelons reduced the taxes for the farming peasants, allowing them to at least survive and get through these years of constant natural disasters.

Finally, in recent years, the climate of the Greenwild Plains has gradually become more regular. The farmers, having rediscovered the planting seasons, have reaped a long-awaited bumper harvest this year, rewarding their years of perseverance.

"Thank you, great 'God of Food'!"

Standing in the waist-high wheat, Phoebe, a middle-aged earth spirit farmer who has been farming for over twenty years, murmured a word of praise.

Beside him was his partner, Tina, holding a sickle, eager to try and harvest the dozen or so acres of golden, heavy wheat into their own granary while the weather was good.

"… … Speaking of which, shouldn't we hold a proper harvest festival this year??"

A faint voice drifted from afar. It was Sammy, a bear spirit whose farmland was adjacent to Phoebe's, taking advantage of a break from the back-breaking harvesting to get up and catch his breath, chatting loudly with Phoebe.

"Who knows!!"

Phoebe wasn't sure either. These past few years, farming harvests had finally returned to normal. In order to reduce the burden on them, the farmers, the tribe was saving as much as it could on its own office expenses. The tribe hadn't held any major festivals for many years.

"I do hope they can hold a celebration so everyone can be happy together!!"

"Hahaha ~ ~ ~"

Another burst of cheerful laughter came from the edge of the farmland. A group of lively and active young goblins were constantly splashing around in the man-made canals, and occasionally catching a crab or a small fish, which always attracted the envy and cheers of other goblin children.

The canals constantly turned through the neat fields. Although the wheat in the fields was entering the harvest season and didn't need watering, the newly introduced rice on the more easterly farmland needed these abundant streams to nourish it.

Thanks to these canals built by the tribe, everyone's farming was much more convenient, and their ability to resist disasters such as floods and droughts was greatly enhanced.

Next to the fields, horses were pulling wide flatbed carts, waiting quietly by the wide roads, chewing on the turf by the roadside and occasionally snorting. Ordinary horses, retired from the Mustang Slope Ranch, had become valuable labor in the farmers' homes. Times like these, when the harvested wheat needed to be transported, were when these draft horses showed their worth.

Occasionally, passing merchants would stop by the roadside, looking enviously at the golden harvest scene, and couldn't help but chat with the farmers working in the fields.

Of course, more travelers and merchants were hurrying westward, soon to reach their destination, Green Lake Town.

Green Lake Town doesn't have city gates in the strict sense, because the town expanded relatively quickly before. In addition to the inner city walls built more than a hundred years ago, several outer city areas have now been expanded along the town's inner city, and there are actually not many defensive works.

Although there are no city defense works, it doesn't prevent the tax officials of Green Lake Town from collecting taxes from the merchants passing through. Few outsiders can trade in the town without registering, which makes it basically impossible for them to evade taxes.

Various exotic spices and magical ingredients from the two continents are constantly being sent here. Anyone who takes a turn in the food and spice trading areas of the outer city will feel their eyes widen. Many ingredients and spices that everyone has never seen before can be found here.

As the culinary capital, Green Lake Town, the sky is always filled with a complex aroma of mixed spices, as well as the tempting scent of various delicacies being cooked.

Just walk around the town's streets and you will find several small, exquisite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and of course, there are also splendidly decorated restaurants and hotels. Gourmets from all over the world constantly shuttle through the restaurants of Green Lake Town, always making new discoveries and new delicacies, forcing them to linger again and again.

In addition to food and excellent cooking chefs, Green Lake Town also has other specialties, such as the forging of armor and tools that are second to none in the Northern Territory, and the occasional release of a batch of castrated excellent warhorses from Mustang Slope, as well as the bulk grain from Torrent Bay, and of course, the various magical medicinal plants collected from the depths of the Kator Mountains.

The dark elves of Corima Town have begun to integrate into the Greenwild's life. Originating from the elves' superior magical talent, orderly inheritance of alchemy and artistic level, the various jewelry and lifestyle magical items they create can always sell for a good price.

Thanks to the sparks of collision brought about by the dark elves' alchemy, the skills of the goblin craftsmen in Greenwild's Ouro Town, who specialize in forging, have greatly improved, and the equipment they forge has become more and more refined. At least in this northern region, the equipment and metal tools produced in Greenwild are always in short supply.

The scale of the Mustang Slope Ranch has now been greatly improved, because of the abundant water resources and the excellent alfalfa seeds, the tribe's pastoral business, which was originally limited by the size of the ranch, has suddenly opened up a new world.

The entire Mustang Slope, within a radius of twenty miles, has now been transformed into pasture. Canals diverted from the Murky Water Creek are distributed throughout this pasture like a spider web, exchanging for a vibrant grassland.

With enough forage, the constraints on breeding horses, cattle, and sheep no longer exist. Now, in addition to the excellent warhorses delivered to the cavalry every year, Mustang Slope also has a large surplus of retired horses that are released into the market, becoming draft horses for farmers, riding beasts for merchants, and so on.

As for Torrent Bay, life has indeed been difficult these years, so let's not mention it.

The traveling merchants no longer worried that their long and arduous journeys would be in vain, leaving them empty-handed without goods to sell upon their return, which made trade in Green Lake Town increasingly frequent. The large amount of trade naturally brought in a large amount of tax revenue. In addition, the influx of people stimulated the local gnomes' businesses and production. Green Lake Town finally caught its breath in these years, and the tribe's public treasury was also filled with a lot of resources.

"Chieftain, these are the supplies you asked us to prepare."

It was rare to have the opportunity to meet Allen, but Tris felt particularly uncomfortable because he was about to send out a large amount of hard-earned resources and equipment.

In recent years, Chieftain Allen had asked him and City Lord Oliver of Na'Muer City to transfer supplies several times. The amount of supplies was increasing each time, but they had no idea where they went. It seemed that Chieftain Allen had established a new, unknown power system outside of the two of them.

This feeling made Tris very uncomfortable, at least feeling that he was not trusted by Allen. However, Allen was still the real power holder of the tribe, so even if Tris had many complaints in his heart, he could only obey orders.

"Yes, well done."

As the climate change gradually stabilized, Allen spent less time in the town, and more often stayed temporarily in the depths of the West Mansha Mountains or the nearby Kartohr Mountains.

After taking the account book handed over by Tris, Allen glanced at it casually and nodded with satisfaction. The seemingly thin dozen or so pages contained the records of half of the surplus supplies from the two major towns of the Green Field Tribe in a year.

Now, the prosperous Green Field Tribe's income is increasing every year. Even if a portion of the profits from the Na'Muer Fortress was distributed to win over the hearts of the trolls and gnolls, the amount of funds that could be saved after expenses in a year was comparable to the wealth accumulated by a medium-sized tribe for several generations.

"Chieftain... I..."

Tris hesitated, still somewhat unwilling.

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask. It's for your own good that you don't know."

Allen's piercing gaze went straight to the depths of the middle-aged bear gnome's heart, seeing through his thoughts at a glance, and abruptly interrupted Tris's unfinished words.

"Understood."

Tris was dejected and slowly walked out of Allen's simple castle.

Outside the castle, convoys of vehicles slowly drove in from the side door. They were the supplies sent from Green Lake Town and Na'Muer Fortress, which were the things recorded in the account book Tris submitted earlier. Allen looked at the resources full of cargo being sent into the castle through the window, and his mood was actually very depressed.

The promotion of the 'Food God' image in Green Lake Town had already shown signs of improvement, but because the experimental stage had always been cautious and strengthened secrecy, it had not spread. Even so, among the more than 100,000 gnomes in Green Lake Town and the surrounding satellite villages, there were now a few thousand gnomes who devoutly believed in the 'Food God'.

After all, the 'Food God' himself was the incarnation of Allen, the tribe's leader. Most of the gnomes in the tribe loved and admired him, so it was not difficult to make them believe in the power of the 'Food God'.

Now, a major problem facing Allen was that the power of faith formed by these gnomes who sincerely believed in him left Allen clueless and completely unable to sense it.

When he asked Figglas, the guy who had been instigating him, he also knew nothing. Later, when Allen pushed him too hard, he simply plunged into the depths of the Kartohr Mountains, leaving only one sentence for Allen to scratch his head in frustration.

"...Or, why don't you advance to demigod first and then try again??"

If he could advance to demigod, wouldn't Allen be willing?

The problem now was that he was still one critical step away from advancing to demigod.

The learning and mastery of the extraordinary and holy legendary feat did bring some inspiration and help to the energy meridianization of Allen's blood vessel walls and muscles. After decades of continuous research, Allen felt that he would soon break through completely and officially enter the world of demigods.

It was just this step that Allen himself was not sure how long it would take.

The gradual improvement of his physical strength had reached a point where even Allen himself felt a little surprised. Even without any protective blessing, Allen could now withstand the attack of a low-level magic weapon used by an advanced combat professional in a short period of time without leaving too much of a wound.

The improvement of his physical body brought about the improvement of Allen's explosive carrying capacity. As the anger in his body liquefied, Allen rarely activated the Fury skill anymore, just because the heavy physical burden brought about by activating Fury was extremely great.

In order to advance to demigod as soon as possible, Allen was also willing to live a boring and lonely life, running to the remote depths of the mountains to retreat, while pondering how to sense the power of faith, and at the same time working hard to temper his body.

Of course, there was still one thing that needed Allen's attention, and that was the secret organization that spread the 'Food God' faith. Every once in a while, Allen would take the time to personally inquire, listen to the reports of the members he had personally selected, and arrange tasks.

It was not easy to maintain complete secrecy in spreading the faith. This required the preaching members to screen out gnomes who were truly sincere as much as possible, and then test and guide them step by step.

This meant that the pace of attracting believers was relatively slow, and at the same time, the resources invested would be considerable.

However, Allen didn't care about these problems. The slow progress could buy him more time for his experiments, allowing him to be more calm; no matter how many resources were invested, it would benefit his tribe's cubs anyway, and they were still gnomes loyal to him, so there was nothing wrong with that.

The 'Food God Praise Association' and the 'Food God Exchange Meeting' were now not only preaching, but also shouldering the responsibility of taking care of those families in the town who were poor and had difficulties in life, using practical actions to show the 'Food God's' love for believers.

Without divine grace and without miracles, they could only rely on actions that moved people's hearts to maintain the piety of the believers.

The resources that had just been sent into the castle's secret vault had not even had time to warm up before they were sent out of the secret passage of the castle by two groups of warriors wearing bronze masks and wearing uniform rice-white cotton cloth shirts, silently and orderly, not long after the idlers left.

As for how these resources would be distributed in the end, that was a matter for the core members of the two secret organizations to handle. Allen believed that they could handle it properly and did not interfere in it. It was indeed a disguised way of cultivating talents for the ruling class, which was not much different from what Tris guessed.