The old village headman's explanation ended swiftly. It had to be said, he truly lived up to his position. He was born for this kind of leadership work.
Unlike the corrupt Master of Lake-town, who had risen to power through manipulation and populist tactics, he was someone legitimately chosen by the majority of his villagers for his proven leadership abilities.
Although Garrett said little, he took the initiative to assume responsibility for overseeing everything, simply to prevent the settlers from making any foolish mistakes.
But truth be told, even without his supervision, the villagers wouldn't engage in any questionable behavior.
That was simply because their lord's reputation was too formidable, so legendary, in fact, that even when they had pitched tents outside the stronghold walls in the wilderness, neither orcs nor bandits had dared approach.
This reputation alone was enough to suppress any rebellious thoughts. On top of that, people now understood that their lord possessed some form of magic that allowed him to perceive exactly how much each person had contributed to the territory. That made the citizens even more motivated to maintain order voluntarily.
What Garrett didn't yet realize, however, was that the citizens' enthusiasm for this visible progress would far exceed his expectations.
Once the villagers had received their tools in orderly fashion and begun basic production work, he found a vacant plot within the stronghold. He poured lava around the perimeter and placed a fire dragon egg at the center.
As soon as the egg sensed the heat, it immediately entered an incubation state.
To be honest, Garrett couldn't tell which mod this egg came from from. When it had suddenly appeared in his inventory, the crafting recipes had unlocked content from two different mod, "Ice and Fire" and "Dragon Mounts."
He suspected that this dragon egg, and the creature within, was likely a hybrid compatible with both mods, possessing features that functioned across each system.
The egg occasionally gave off a flicker, a sign of vitality, but even after a long observation, there was no indication it was about to hatch.
It seemed it wouldn't be hatching anytime soon.
Shaking his head, he retrieved some sturdy fireproof building materials from storage and constructed a secure enclosure around the egg.
That way, even if it hatched during his absence, nothing unexpected would happen.
Clang, clang, clang!
Without lingering long, his first stop after leaving the incubation chamber was the enchanting area, where he added the Knockback enchantment to his ancient elven blade.
After consideration, he also decided to give the weapon a proper name.
In fact, ever since he had earned the title [Bane of the Orcs] from his slaughter across Ravenhill, he had already settled on the name: Bane.
Its meaning: Anyone who opposes Garrett and this sword will feel as though they've met their personal doom.
He drew the sword and studied the newly inscribed runes marking its name.
From this day forward, it was a named blade of legend.
It had already slain thousands of orcs and wargs, including two orc chieftains.
In the future, even if he weren't present, simply displaying the sword among a crowd of orcs might be enough to terrify them into chaos, too frightened to advance.
To the orcs, this was a weapon with an aura of dread. Seeing it would be like the Free Peoples laying eyes upon Grond, the great mace of Morgoth, true terror emanating from the soul.
After enchanting the sword and bestowing its name, he turned his attention to materials in his inventory: Dragon Scales.
Armor crafted from this material provided six additional defense points compared to Netherite gear. However, it came with a drawback, it offered no Knockback Resistance.
In other words, if he replaced his Netherite equipment solely for those six armor points, he could easily be knocked backward or even sent flying when struck by powerful blows.
Like Azog's war-mace, or the massive strikes from cave trolls and siege-beasts, the sheer impact wasn't something an ordinary person could withstand. If not for the knockback resistance provided by his Netherite armor, Garrett would have been hurled from Ravenhill several times during the battle.
After careful consideration, he decided to retain his Netherite armor for now. For the current level of combat, it was more than adequate.
If he really wanted to upgrade his armor, he could wait until the fire dragon hatched and forge Dragonsteel equipment.
Armor crafted from that material offered 34 full defense points. Once he put on Dragonsteel armor, even the Dark Lord himself might not be able to break through it.
It would probably require Sauron wielding the One Ring at full power to even have a chance of breaking through such protection.
Shaking his head, he approached the Nether portal and suddenly recalled something important. He immediately opened the map and began calculating.
The straight-line distance between his stronghold and Dale was... approximately 1,100 kilometers.
A truly long distance.
Even making one round trip between the two territories, traveling through the Nether, would still require covering about 140 kilometers.
If he wanted maximum efficiency and planned to construct a Nether highway between Wayfort and Dale, even a single-lane path would require at least 140,000 blocks of blue ice.
Nine regular ice blocks created one packed ice; nine packed ice blocks created one blue ice.
That meant 81 regular ice blocks were needed for one blue ice block. In total, building the entire highway would require 11.34 million blocks of regular ice, enough to fill over 3,000 large storage chests.
He recalled how much blue ice he had stockpiled during the previous winter.
Not much, nowhere near enough to construct even a tenth of the highway.
After all, he had been occupied with other matters that winter and hadn't dedicated all his time to ice harvesting.
Hoo.
Taking a deep breath as he left the storage area, he realized this project would require considerable long-term planning.
That said, the current climate was already quite cold, approaching freezing temperatures. Clearly, all it lacked to become full winter was a single snowfall.
Soon, he could resume harvesting ice blocks.
The highway didn't necessarily have to be constructed from blue ice, packed ice would work too, just somewhat slower.
Boat travel over blue ice achieved a top speed of 72 meters per second, while packed ice allowed for 40 meters per second, still swift, and definitely faster than riding a horse.
Compared to blue ice, packed ice was slower but required nine times fewer resources. With some hard work, he could totally gather enough materials in a single winter.
As he pondered these logistics while walking toward the castle, he suddenly noticed someone waiting at the main entrance.
It was the old village headman.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"Well... my lord, there is a minor issue..."
The old chief seemed somewhat uncomfortable as he continued, "I didn't wish to disturb you, but there are several matters the people genuinely want to understand, so they asked me to inquire on their behalf."
"No problem," Garrett replied with a smile. "If there's a question, just ask. No need to be nervous, I'm not a troll."
Hearing this, the old chief relaxed slightly and began relaying the villagers' concerns one by one.
However, what he said next made Garrett want to chuckle.
"Someone wishes to know if they might take some additional enchanted seeds and plant them in the gardens of their own homes."
Then he added, somewhat embarrassed, "If that's an inappropriate request, I humbly ask your forgiveness. Most of us are farmers by trade and have known hunger and displacement. When we observed crops we could actually cultivate, we couldn't help but desire to grow some ourselves at home. We absolutely have no ulterior motives..."
"It's fine," Garrett replied. "Feel free to take as many seeds as you like. The stems mature in a few days, and once they do, they can grow several pumpkins a day if you keep harvesting. Plant as much as you want, go for it. But even though there's plenty of food, I must still remind you, avoid waste."
"F-Few days?"
The old chief's eyes widened in astonishment.
Garrett hadn't mentioned this detail before, and now that he had, the chief was stunned.
He had assumed the enchanted crops were simply cold-resistant and hardy, able to grow through winter. He hadn't expected them to grow so fast.
"I-I understand. We certainly won't waste any food. Thank you for your generosity, my lord."
Hearing Garrett's response, the old chief became quite emotional.
Garrett paused, then asked on impulse, "What's your name?"
"My name is Wade, my lord."
"Alright, Wade. I can see you're respected by the citizens and were their original village leader. From today on, you'll serve as the community representative. As a representative, your job is to gather feedback and concerns from the citizens and pass it on to me. But remember what the word representative means. You speak for them, you have the right to relay feedback, that's it."
"I understand. I'll do my utmost, my lord."
Wade offered a formal bow, visibly moved.
He had heard of such positions before, serving as a liaison to collect the people's concerns. He could comprehend it. In fact, he had already been performing something similar as village headman.
A leader's duty, after all, was to address the villagers' problems.
Seeing how emotional Wade had become, Garrett was reminded of another matter.
The villagers, like Wade, had all lived ordinary lives before arriving. They understood how extraordinary this territory was. But their children might not.
This raised questions about education and daily awareness.
He didn't want future citizens assuming that all crops beyond the territory also matured in a few days.
Children raised on such abundance might suffer significant hardships if they ever left. Therefore, basic education in common knowledge was essential.
He discussed this with Wade, and after hearing the concern, the old headman immediately understood. He promised to work with the other adults to educate the children properly, ensuring they comprehended the difference between life inside and outside the territory, preventing future misunderstandings.
After addressing the education issue, Wade continued presenting more citizen concerns, though most were minor matters similar to the seed question.
Some even asked if they could work throughout the entire day, clearly eager to advance.
Garrett's response: doing so would accelerate their promotion to full resident status.
Wade departed with Garrett's answers to relay.
As for Garrett, he returned to the castle, took a brief rest, observed the sky, then surveyed his domain.
By now, he no longer needed to personally gather basic resources, citizens were steadily performing the work, depositing their collected materials into hoppers and gradually building up supplies.
All these foundational materials would eventually become the components for large-scale construction projects.