Chapter 632: Maze-Lock Technology in Hand!
"Water's coming out!!"
The cries rose and spread rapidly in all directions.
The adventurers watched the gurgling stream joyfully flow along the petrified ditches, suddenly feeling a bit mind-blown.
They never imagined that water would actually spring up in the Dead Desert.
Before they could even wonder about the source of the water, the flow increased rapidly, spreading around the town through the dug-out channels at an astonishing speed.
The water at the very front was rather murky, yet brought an indescribable coolness to many adventurers.
Quite a few even found their eyes brimming with tears, mumbling continuously:
"Finally, water has arrived—otherwise I'd really feel like an idiot."
"Woohoo, there's actually water in this damned place? Can we finally take a hot bath?"
"Isn't Cleanse spell convenient enough? Why do you want to be so extravagant with water?"
"Now that we have water, we can hold out here."
"Just how much water is there? Did they hit an underground river or something?"
"Heh, bet you'd never guess—Bay Territory summoned the water with a magic array!"
"What the—? That's so extravagant?"
"That's not water, that's practically flowing gold!"
"I really underestimated Bay Territory—I thought at best they'd dig a canal from the coast, but this is way beyond what I imagined."
"Haha, with Bay Territory, we really struck gold this time."
"According to rumors, Bay Territory earned over a hundred million gold through the Dragon Warrior transformation deals."
"Even if they did, this is still way too extravagant."
"Don't think too much, hurry up and finish the task!"
"..."
With the arrival of surging water, the whole desert town was suddenly bustling with joy.
The adventurers got back to work, all while curious about Bay Territory's next moves.
Soon, the water followed the prepared ditches, reaching the fields beside the town.
The previously dry clay, after soaking up water, instantly became rich and fertile.
Next, a large batch of fertilizer was dumped into these fields and mixed with the clay.
Hundreds of agricultural golems kept working non-stop, and the surrounding fields rapidly underwent a dramatic transformation.
What interested the adventurers even more was Bay Territory's special "protection" measures for these fields.
To prevent wind from blowing in sand and dust, every hundred meters or so, they'd build walls four or five meters high.
The walls weakened the wind and blocked drifting sand.
Though this required a lot of manpower, it was indeed effective in keeping the wind and sand at bay.
What also piqued the adventurers' curiosity was that more and more golems were being brought into the area.
Bay Territory was clearly preparing for a large-scale development here.
Town center.
Inside the newly-built druid greenhouse.
With a calm face, Old Li watched the slender poplar saplings grow at a remarkable speed.
Their trunks and leaves didn't grow fast, but had a hardened keratin layer on the surface, which could effectively prevent water loss.
The key was in the roots—their root systems were extremely developed, slowly growing over ten meters long.
These fine roots could accurately find the special water channels dug below and draw up water.
Poplars were extremely tenacious, neither heat nor cold could take their lives.
Just a little water let them survive in the arid desert.
Break off a branch and you had a new sapling—a trait that let them multiply rapidly.
Of course, these traits only gave poplars basic adaptation for surviving in the Dead Desert.
The real key was whether they could withstand the hidden destructive power lurking in the Dead Desert—only then could they truly thrive here.
Old Li felt the vitality of tens of thousands of seedlings gradually fading, silently calculating how much longer they could last.
These tenacious seedlings were experiencing a hellish survival environment.
Drought, scorching heat, the dangers of the Dead Desert.
As their vitality fell by half and their life signals grew weaker, Old Li decisively waved his hand.
Splat!
Dense, fine rain mist sprayed down from above the greenhouse, moistening every poplar sapling.
This diluted life-essence nutrient solution was quickly absorbed by the thirsty saplings.
Many saplings immediately regained their vitality and kept growing tenaciously.
But some still couldn't hold on, gradually withering under the desert's destructive power.
The life-essence mist only lasted a minute before it stopped.
About half of the poplar saplings survived, continuing to take root and sprout, drawing nutrients from the soil.
The watching druids could clearly sense—
The harder the poplars tried, the more nutrients they absorbed from the soil, the more destruction they suffered.
Unconsciously, the destructive force they drew into their bodies would keep damaging them.
Saplings that couldn't withstand this destruction would slowly weaken again.
It was a painful process—a process leading toward death.
Watching sapling after sapling die, the druids felt deeply distressed.
But they had already mentally prepared, viewing this as a great undertaking.
The poplar saplings sacrificed for this cause would be respected and cherished.
This experimental process had lasted a full month.
At first, the saplings couldn't survive even a few minutes—they all quickly withered and died.
But now, they could slowly grow over a meter high, enduring the destructive power of the Dead Desert much longer—a huge improvement.
This batch of poplar saplings, now sprouting tender leaves, had won the druids' admiration and affection.
They silently recorded data and held "funerals" for the withered saplings.
When the surviving saplings reached two meters high, unable to endure the erosion and destruction any longer and nearing the end—
The druids would activate the greenhouse's time-stop device, cutting branches from those which had survived to the very last second.
These were placed in a pre-prepared nursery, letting them start anew as fresh saplings.
The new saplings would soon grow up.
They would be even stronger and last even longer under the Dead Desert's destructive power.
Watching the whole process from afar, Matthew could naturally "see" exactly what was happening.
The destructive force hidden in the desert sands was a very special kind of life-radiation.
It didn't affect most living things, but was extremely dangerous for plants.
It was as if it had been created specifically to target plants.
Through rounds of selection and strengthening, the poplar saplings grew tougher with every "trial."
In essence, it was like Matthew putting extra pressure or a special environment on something to get a stronger Extraordinary Feat or trait.
If he used the power of fate, Matthew could quickly obtain a plant species that could survive and propagate in the Dead Desert.
But Matthew did not interfere.
This was a task for Bay Territory's druids, and the first big obstacle they needed to tackle.
Matthew was happy to train their abilities, hoping they could overcome the Dead Desert's life-forbidding zone through methodical, step-by-step effort.
The difficulties and setbacks they faced would help these passionate young druids grow quickly.
They would have heavy responsibilities in the future—right now, the Dead Desert was only an appetizer.
January 22nd.
Northern Dead Desert.
Bay Territory desert town.
Clear weather.
As usual, adventurers operating agricultural golems to transform the desert sand suddenly discovered something amazing.
On the newly built walls, beautiful spots of green suddenly appeared.
Taking a closer look, the adventurers saw that those green shapes were upright poplar trees.
They stared in disbelief at the poplars swaying in the wind.
Seeing them thriving in the sunlight, someone couldn't help but exclaim:
"What happened? How are these poplars alive?"
"Hurry, let's go check—can you really grow plants in the Dead Desert now?"
"I don't know, these poplars don't look like the ones we planted!"
"Dummy, look at the wall—those are goblins planting them."
"Of course I know the goblins are planting them, but why are these poplars able to survive?"
"Good point. We tried planting every kind of seed, but almost none could even sprout…"
"We obviously don't know—go ask the druids by the goblins."
"Is it because of the Bay Territory druids? Did they cast some spell to protect the poplars?"
"Idiot, what kind of spell lasts that long? They must have modified these poplars!"
"It's not like druids haven't come here before—and surely lots of modified plants have been tried—so why did these succeed?"
"How would I know? Why not just ask the druids…"
"I wouldn't dare. Bay Territory's spellcasters are scary…"
"Coward!"
"..."
The adventurers' heated discussion made everyone strangely more motivated.
Their daily work might have been dull, but seeing the changing landscape brought a different feeling to their hearts.
The dug-out ditches and fields felt like their children, about to be reborn.
Everyone was especially happy, and their attitudes toward Bay Territory began to shift.
When Bay Territory said they would do something, they really got it done!
Gradually, the adventurers wanted to see what Bay Territory could actually turn this Dead Desert into.
Some even got so used to working agricultural or engineering golems every day that they temporarily gave up on ruins-exploring quests.
"It's all earning money anyway, and this job is way more stable, with good pay and merits—so why not stick with it for now?"
There were quite a few such adventurers.
What kept them moving forward was the new policies offered by Bay Territory.
"Once an adventurer's merits surpass 100 points, they can enjoy benefits for learning and training specialties and skills."
With lots of guidance from Bay Territory's own adventurers, those gathered soon saw the value of these perks.
Especially when they realized that much of the training provided this time—
—was to teach them how to excavate ruins in the Dead Desert, survive better, and discover more opportunities.
Naturally, more and more adventurers paused to train properly.
Even many of Bay Territory's own adventurers were obediently attending academy training.
They were strong, had great gear, and their team setups made others envious.
When even these locals followed the rules, others didn't dare act recklessly.
But although the pace of exploring the Dead Desert's ruins slowed, it didn't mean Bay Territory was doing less.
Especially in the eyes of Cole Elf scout teams, Bay Territory's actions to transform the Dead Desert carried special meaning.
"Those poplars really survived—unbelievable…"
"Obviously. Even the poplar branches we planted have survived, so theirs must be even hardier."
"Bay Territory moves so fast. We didn't even leave a trace before they sniffed us out…"
"Teams 42 and 31 are wiped out. Those idiots always acted tough just because they were strong—I'm not even going to retrieve the bodies."
"I'm not going near them. Bay Territory's methods are getting harsher. From today, we need to pull our observation perimeter back another thousand meters."
"Is that really necessary? We need to figure out why they're planting these poplars, right?"
"If you want to die, stay here. Just make sure you report any intel before you go…"
"Heh…"
"..."
The Cole Elves couldn't figure out Bay Territory's purpose, but didn't really care about personnel losses.
Hess, hiding in a secret base, was carefully reviewing the transformation technology acquired from Bay Territory.
He noticed the Cole Elf Archmages had specially marked the activation and generation difficulty of the second heart, making him twitch his lips as he muttered to himself:
"Even with Archmages personally handling it, the success rate is only 65%?"