The battlefield was quickly cleaned up. In addition to some bone weapons found in the merfolk's warehouse, three to four thousand kilograms of dried fish were also found.
It was piled up to the brim.
However, to Lear's surprise, the bone altar used for sacrifices did not have any additional attributes.
This left him somewhat disappointed.
This thing isn't a divine artifact?
How come you, a dignified deity, don't have a hundred or eighty divine artifacts to protect you?
How tragic, how tragic!
I despise a god like you.
Although the remnant soul of the half-fish god was destroyed, his divinity remained.
But Lear still had a strange feeling that the other party might not be dead. If these beings were so easy to kill, they wouldn't be called gods.
But having just woken up, he was bound to be severely injured.
He remained calm, as time passed and the date of his revelation drew ever closer.
As long as one can control the power, a long-fallen half-fish god in the swamp is nothing.
At this time, the lizardman warriors also gathered up the bodies of their companions, and after counting them, the number of casualties was also tallied.
Not to mention the wounded, a total of six squads of soldiers were killed in action.
Of the 15 teams that were brought out, only 9 remain.
This was a devastating blow to Lear.
The already limited troop strength is now even more stretched thin.
But trading six squads of wetland lizardmen for a divine being is a damn good deal.
Death has long been regarded as the final destination by the wetland lizardmen, and dying on the battlefield is an honor!
No one was discouraged; they calmly awaited Lear's orders.
While Lil pondered, he instructed the wetland lizardmen to carry the bodies of the fallen soldiers.
They were not left to rot in the wilderness, nor were they dissolved to extract the essence of life.
People's hearts are built up step by step, and the most direct manifestation of this is respect for one's own soldiers.
The fallen warriors are no longer warriors, but heroes!
The atmosphere wasn't good along the way.
The wetland lizardman warrior looked at the corpse of his comrade, his emotions calm but still somewhat moved.
Lear said nothing, only instructing the two Delsa men leading the way to speed up their journey.
Without encountering any further incidents, we walked for over an hour, passing through a muddy area, when news came from ahead—we had arrived at the settlement of the Delsa people!
Lear led his army forward, and a large, dry area covered by towering grass came into view.
The leaves of the grass were bent and woven by the Delsa people into bird nest-like structures.
The giant bird's nest is built on its side, so rainwater doesn't seep into the nest.
It looks quite eye-catching.
At this moment, hundreds of Delsa people are busy doing something back and forth.
Upon seeing the arrival of the wetland lizardmen, the Delsa people, who were the first to discover them, let out a terrified scream.
The crowd immediately turned around, and upon seeing them, they scattered in panic and fled.
Like a rabbit being chased by a wolf, it quickly hid in the bushes, not daring to look back even a few times.
In the blink of an eye, this land became empty.
Although Lear was mentally prepared, he still felt somewhat amused and exasperated at this moment.
They ran away so decisively.
He waved his hand, signaling the two captured Delsa men to enter the bushes and summon their chief.
Upon receiving Lear's order, the two men immediately straightened their backs and raised their heads, just like grand dukes receiving the king's command.
"Chief, the lord asked me to pass on a message to you."
He strode into the bushes.
A moment later, a white-haired Delsa man followed behind the two, approaching cautiously with a forced smile.
"My lord, I, Bart, greet you. I am the chief of the Delsa people, and I am at your service."
Lear looked at the elderly Delsa chieftain and spoke slowly.
"The city of Weilu still needs manpower, Bart. I am now requisitioning all the people in your tribe."
"From this moment on, you are members of the City of Slight Dew."
The white-haired Delsa chieftain was taken aback, then looked deeply at Lear before lowering his head without hesitation.
"Yes, sir! The Delsa people obey your command!"
He understood this principle at a young age: the weak have no power to determine their own destiny.
The existence of the Delsa people has never been earned through their own efforts; they have survived by attaching themselves to the strong.
Before submitting to the merfolk, they had allied themselves with more than a dozen other factions, including but not limited to orcs, lizardmen, and crocodile men.
Anyway, every time a group comes from the surrounding area, it gets wiped out. Their principle is to submit to whoever is stronger.
Dragons have their own way of surviving, and the Delsa people also have their own rules for survival.
Spineless coward? What are those things? Can you eat them?
Integrity is worthless compared to survival.
Lear gave the other person a deep look. Given the other person's strength, it was indeed true that this kind of personality was more likely to allow them to survive better in the perilous wilderness.
Without further ado, he made a thought.
An endless divine pressure surged forth.
With absolute dominance, it etched a soul imprint into the mind of the Delsa man before it.
From this day forward, I will never betray you again!
"Immediately gather all Delsa people and move them back to the city of Weilu."
"Yes, Master!"
The white-haired Delsa chieftain, Bat, took a deep breath and loudly agreed.
However, the way he looked at Lear became much more respectful and affectionate, no longer as worried as before.
After Lear finished speaking, he asked the other party about the ancient ruins and the fish-man god, but Bart didn't know much about these two things either.
The other party finally confirmed the information about the Dark Naga with him.
The Delsa people live about fifteen kilometers away from the Dark Naga, and those evil beings have always been reluctant to step out of that valley shrouded in darkness.
They seemed to be protecting something, but the dark naga were too powerful, and they didn't dare to get close.
Lear opened the magic map again and confirmed the location with the Delsa chieftain.
Without saying much more, he told the Delsa people to pack their things and move back to the city of Weilu immediately.
As the territory expanded, the labor shortage also widened.
The more than one hundred people in the swamp are completely overwhelmed.
The influx of over five hundred Delsa people will undoubtedly greatly alleviate the labor shortage problem.
Bart, the chieftain of the Delsa people, did not hesitate and turned to enter the bushes.
I don't know how I told the others, but after a while, one by one, the feathered Delsa people cautiously emerged from the bushes.
They began tidying up the items in their nest.
Looking at the busy crowd, Lear suddenly thought of another crucial issue—food.
Increasing the population is not a simple matter; a whole host of problems will arise as a result.
Food is a typical example.
His reserves could only sustain three hundred people for six months; with these five hundred more, the supply would be drastically reduced.
The farmland hasn't been cultivated yet, and the first season of swamp wheat won't be ready for harvest for at least three months.
Taking advantage of a lull, he waved to summon the elderly Delsa chieftain.
"Bart, what do you usually eat?"
The other person paused for a moment, then subconsciously looked at the bushes behind them.
"Sir, the roots of these wild grasses have sweet-tasting rhizomes that can fill you up."
rhizome?
Do these guys survive by eating grass roots?
Lear became interested and asked Bart to fetch some.
The Delsa chieftain himself took action, and right in front of him, used a dull stone shovel to roughly dig into the soil.
From the base of the slender leaves of the wild grass, a black lump the size of a fist was dug out.
After picking it, a gentle rub will cause the skin to peel off.
The yellowish flesh inside was exposed.
Bart opened his mouth and took a big bite, like eating sugarcane, tearing apart a lot of coarse fibers.
The Delsa man chewed and swallowed without a care, taking a few bites.
After swallowing it, he looked completely satisfied.
Lear's eyelids twitched as he read it.
Even eating grass roots can be this beautiful?
I picked up a good one, examined it, rubbed off the skin, and tried biting it.
It was dry at first bite, like chewing on grass roots. After chewing for a while, I finally realized that this was indeed grass roots.
Pshaw~
Seeing Lear vomit, the Delsa chieftain was still somewhat puzzled, seemingly not understanding why he would throw up something so delicious.
Lear glared at the guy with annoyance.
Staring at the tree root in his hand, its properties came to mind.
Longleaf grass roots
[Level]: None
[Characteristics]: It contains abundant energy, which can sustain life, but it has a dry taste and is difficult to swallow and is very difficult to digest. Eating too much can easily cause bloating.
Does it contain abundant energy?
Although it doesn't have a ranking system, it's still something.
You can keep an eye out for this; it might be useful in case of food shortages in the future.
"Bate, make sure all the Delsa people have enough food for a month before returning to their territory."
"yes!"
The Delsa chief immediately agreed and, without further ado, ordered his people to dig up the grass roots.
Despite their low rank and timid nature, the Delsa people are quite strong.
Moreover, he is very skilled at digging up grass roots and can dig out the roots and stems in no time.
Each long-leaved grass had a large cluster of rhizomes underneath, with the largest one weighing thirty or forty pounds.
The output was nothing short of extraordinary.
A month's worth of food was prepared in just two hours.
Finally, each Delsa man had large bundles of long-leaved grass roots hanging from his body.
It looks somewhat comical.
Lear didn't mind. After making sure they had everything they needed, he waved for them to follow and return to the city of Weilu.
It was already afternoon; if we delayed any longer, we would have to travel in the dark.
These few hundred Delsa people, who brought their own food, can at least alleviate the increasingly serious pressure on manpower.