Our Family Has Fallen

Chapter 437: Chapter 286: Developing the Wilderness_2

The existing professional standards were no longer sufficient. The security team couldn’t afford to hinder the Lord; they had to intensify their training and delve deeper into fulfilling their duties.

But for now, this particular trouble had to be dealt with first.

After sending his subordinates away, William reentered, looking at Amanda with a burgeoning headache.

He had no positive feelings for assassins, especially those with a criminal past. If it were up to him, he would definitely lock them up and await the Lord’s return to handle them.

But Hamlet wasn’t like those other places; she hadn’t committed any crime here, so he couldn’t detain her without just cause.

Thus, all he could do was hand over Hamlet’s rules and regulations, stressing, ”You must abide by these rules in Hamlet.”

Amanda left the sheriff’s residence feeling somewhat bewildered.

She had wanted to find someone to learn more about the town. If ordinary people wouldn’t speak to her, she reasoned, then she would talk to the sheriff. But before she could say much, she had been escorted out.

Although she was somewhat baffled by these individuals, all the sheriffs were strictly rule-abiding and didn’t cause her any trouble. Ironically, this made things more difficult for her.

Amanda had never been a good person. Her view of bureaucracy wasn’t so much prejudice as an immutable law.

If those sheriffs had made things difficult for her just now, it would have given her an excuse, she thought. You’re always emphasizing rules, aren’t you? Now it would be your people breaking the rules first.

This would have been her bargaining chip in negotiations with Lance; Amanda certainly hadn’t forgotten about Tamara.

Since Tamara is using the rules to hide here, all I have to do is break those rules, find a loophole, and that’s that, she mused.

Unfortunately for her plans, the sheriffs were impeccably professional. They neither solicited bribes, attempted to frame her, nor made any inappropriate advances. They simply questioned her, explained the rules, and let her go.

This left her somewhat at a loss as to where to begin.

Amanda knew Tamara wouldn’t just abandon this hard-won sanctuary.

Am I really going to get bogged down here in a stalemate with her?

With that in mind, she could only return to her vehicle. It was a carriage crafted by the Romani, possessing special Supernatural Power that only allowed entry with the ”key”; otherwise, it would trigger an alarm or a trap.

I haven’t noticed any signs of forced entry, Amanda noted. Could it be that man really didn’t touch it at all?

But at the moment, she couldn’t be bothered with such details. Upon returning, the first thing she did was take out the black Crystal Ball with a golden base and light some incense. Aided by the residual ritualistic setup in the carriage, Amanda quickly contacted her organization.

She had disappeared for seven days, her mission was incomplete, and the events she’d encountered were too bizarre. She needed to request instructions from her superiors on whether to continue.

She also needed to find out what had transpired in the outside world during her detention.

The Romani people wander the globe. To ensure their safety, they intentionally gather diverse information, a practice that also grants them the ability to transmit messages over long distances.

This tendency, developed over many years, gradually integrated into a vast information network. The Seekers of Omens, in essence, are ”people who seek information.”

Essentially, they were information brokers, a world-renowned intelligence organization. The fact that Tamara, even after defecting, still possessed so much global intelligence attested to their formidable strength.

Clearly, information about Hamlet Town and Lance had also become a valuable intelligence asset.

It was precisely because this information was valuable that Amanda was willing to temporarily abide by the rules. She didn’t want to offend Lance outright, and besides, Tamara couldn’t escape anyway.

Of course, this was all predicated on the strength Lance had demonstrated. If Lance hadn’t been able to defeat her back then, Amanda wouldn’t have cared a whit about a small town.

「Information is being transmitted...」

After a night’s rest, Lance led his team to continue their journey toward Hamlet.

The expected harassment from the previous night did not materialize; the Ascension Cultists seemed to have vanished completely into the dense wilderness.

With the rest they got, everyone in the team’s condition had recovered. It’s impressive how resilient a Witcher’s physique is. Geralt only needed four hours of sleep to be fully energized, and his wounds healed quickly. No wonder he could recover overnight from injuries sustained in a fight with a Wizard.

Such a terrifying recovery ability, Lance thought.

Aside from strength, where Geralt is slightly inferior, in all other aspects, he is my equal, Lance felt. Besides, Geralt has mastered Dharma Seals and is a Witcher experienced in combat and skilled in killing; being called a Master is justified.

But I’m not bad either, Lance mused. My ’cheat’ allows me to heal wounds, grants me inexhaustible stamina for combat, and immunity to psychic attacks.

Yes, that’s right, he thought with a hint of smugness. It was entirely due to my own efforts that I could reach the Master rank.

”Back then,” Lance explained to the group, ”the Ascension Sect collaborated with the Cannibal Witch hiding deep in the wilderness to spread a plague in Hamlet Town. Many townsfolk contracted the withering disease. To save them, I led a team into the wilderness, killed the Witch, and thus found the means to cure them...”

On their return journey, they inevitably passed through the corrupted area of the wilderness.

Development hadn’t yet reached this far. The horrific sight of land devoured by fungi, with grotesque, man-sized mushrooms, left a profound impression on Geralt and the others.

Even after the Witch’s control was gone, the corruption continued its steady outward creep. It was uncertain when the spore cloud blanketing the area would finally dissipate.

This was one of the primary objectives Lance was striving for: to reach the old settlement, they had to forge a path through the wilderness.

He chose this path not as a shortcut, but to investigate the route from Hamlet Town to the entrance of the Beast Lair.

Although he had no plans to provoke the monsters in the Beast Lair at the moment, as the development of the wilderness expanded, confrontation would be inevitable.

Conducting reconnaissance now ensures that when the time comes to lead troops for a clearing operation, I won’t be caught completely unprepared, Lance knew. I know I don’t have any special abilities or talents, but I’m aware that as long as I prepare in advance, victory will lean my way.

The Beast Lair lay to the northwest of the wilderness, and the ruins to the north. Reaching them would only require refurbishing the old northern road. Later, a westward path could be branched off, eliminating the need to construct an entirely new one.

During this reconnaissance, Lance and his party finally returned to the bustling frontier development camp.

Trees were being felled, shrubs and weeds harvested, and those huge mushrooms were being collected. To one side, several metal barrels were set atop fires.

These were specially made iron barrels, fastened with a multitude of rivets and supported by an iron stand. They had attached conduit-like devices, giving them a somewhat post-apocalyptic metal aesthetic—in short, they were quite ugly.

The wood from the corrupted area couldn’t be used for other purposes but was suitable for making charcoal, as the high heat would eradicate all corruption.

People chopped the wood, packed it into the iron barrels, and sealed them with clay to completely cut off the air. Then, fires were lit underneath.

Only a small amount of firewood was needed for ignition. The iron pipes atop the barrels extended outwards; wood gas produced internally would be recirculated and then expelled as fuel, while from another outlet, a black, turbid, viscous liquid—wood tar—would drip.

Using the self-generated wood gas to complete the charcoal-making process saved most of the firewood and simultaneously prevented polluting emissions.

When the time was nearly up, people would break the clay seal. The wood inside would have transformed into black charcoal, and any residual fungi would have long been reduced to ash by the intense heat.

Once the nearby vegetation was cleared, the large iron furnace would be moved to the next location. Then, another area would be designated, and the dried shrubs and weeds set ablaze, allowing the flames to purify everything.

The scorched earth would then be tilled, and fermented organic fertilizers mixed in to create rectangular plots of farmland.

A portion of this land was specially designated for cultivating medicinal herbs, requiring more meticulous farming in preparation for transplanting the herbs and precious plants discovered during the extensive wilderness development.