The first official day of work on my new lands began even before the bioluminescent light of the capital reached its full intensity on the aquatic horizon. I was standing at the edge of the main plantation, feeling the slight pressure of the warm current against my legs while holding a cutting tool made from whale bone, specifically designed not to damage the delicate fibers of the marine vegetation.
Around me, the group divided themselves to cover the perimeter of the cultivation trench. Elara walked a little farther ahead, talking with two local farmers and recording the growth cycles of the imperial algae on her waterproof parchment. Scarlett and Vespera patrolled the boundaries of the property mounted on local creatures, ensuring that no predator from the neighboring trenches would interrupt our initial learning.
"The secret to a perfect harvest isn't in the strength of the cut, Takumi, but in the angle at which you separate the leaf from the central stem," Liriel explained, approaching with a light, floating movement and pointing toward the base of a large emerald algae that swayed before us.
Liriel showed genuine curiosity about that biological science, so different from what she was accustomed to in the laboratories on the surface. Her assistant followed right behind, floating with difficulty while holding three sediment flasks and trying not to lose her balance in the current, which made me smile slightly at her technical persistence.
"If we cut too close to the root, the plant dies because of the excess salinity that enters through the exposed tissues," Liriel continued, using the tip of her staff to channel a small current of mana that cleaned the microscopic parasites from the leaf. "Agriculture here is almost a dance of symbiosis."
I picked up one of the cultivable coral seedlings that Taran had given us earlier and began the process of anchoring it into the muddy seabed. Lyannis crouched down right beside me, helping secure the containment nets with limestone rock pins so that the plantation would not be swept away by the nighttime tides.
"Who would have thought that the great hero of the surface would be burying his hands in underwater mud to grow fish food," Lyannis joked, wiping a strand of wet hair from her forehead as she gave me an amused look. "But I admit that seeing you this focused gives me a strange feeling of peace."
"The war on the surface will require food and shelter, Lyannis," I replied, firmly securing the last pin before standing up. "Every coral that flourishes here is one more guarantee that we will have resources when everything explodes up there. We cannot fail in this logistics."
Rai'kanna, who was inspecting the sea fruits growing attached to the walls of the artificial reefs, plucked one and analyzed its hard, phosphorescent skin before walking toward us. "The texture is dense, and the concentration of nutrients is three times higher than the fruits from our forests, Takumi. If we can expand this cultivation to the northern quadrants, we could sustain an entire army without depending on land convoys."
The complexity of the ecosystem continued to reveal itself with every hour of practice. I learned that the algae cultivation fields needed exact spacing so that the local herbivorous fish could move freely between them, as they were responsible for cleaning the impurities that suffocated the magical healing plants. It was a living and interdependent production cycle.
In the middle of the afternoon, Elara joined us at the control base, bringing the first consolidated soil data. "We managed to map three different types of magical plants that react extremely well to your mana, Takumi. If you channel small pulses into the water during the night, their maturation time will be cut in half."
I looked at my hands and then at the vastness of the submerged plain, where the local workers continued their daily work with renewed dedication because of our presence. The physical exhaustion was different from that caused by battles, but it brought a mental satisfaction that I had not experienced in a long time.
I cleaned the mud from the work tool and looked at Liriel, Lyannis, Rai'kanna, Elara, Scarlett, and Vespera, who approached to end the daily shift beneath the soft light of the ocean dusk. Progress was happening, but the immensity of the territory constantly reminded me of the size of the task.
As I watched the calm swaying of those underwater forests, I realized that no matter how well we were progressing, I still had much to learn and master if I wanted to transform that kingdom into a true safe haven before the inevitable return of the war.