I Transmigrated Into A Fantasy World To Farm And Build Houses!-Chapter 256: Land Clearing
The sky was a deep, endless blue without a single ripple of cloud, though the early spring weather still carried a biting chill.
On the yellow-brown loam that had not yet sprouted tender green grass, only a pack of large silvery-white wolves and ash-gray goats were straining to pull plows, clearing land on the vast plain.
This was not the first time Eric had seen the beast form of the Horned Goat tribe, but he was still amazed by their gigantic curved horns.
This Fantasy Dream land was truly a nightmare for those faint of heart when it came to giant objects; whether it was the beast form of beastmen or the size of magic beasts, everything was terrifyingly huge.
The Horned Goat tribe was even more suitable for farm work than the Snow Wolf tribe. The speed of the Horned Goat people was not equal to the Snow Wolves, but their stamina and endurance were superior.
The sharp claws that the Snow Wolf tribe had always been proud of could not compare to the Horned Goat tribe in deep plowing and cultivation. Take Sam for instance; telling him to use his claws to dig a few holes in the ground was fine, but asking him to slowly and carefully pull a plow to clear land was truly a test of his patience.
In contrast, the cubs seemed extremely delighted with this activity. They acted like adults, pulling the Dwarves’ plows used for tilling the soil on the plain, picking up stones and dug-up roots, then tossing them aside.
Eric and the others had marked the locations of the workshops. The plains outside the workshops and roads could all be cleared into fields.
Although this land was fertile, unfortunately, it had never been cultivated, so clearing it was an arduous task.
Before plowing the soil, the tribesmen had cleared away trees and large rocks on the plain.
Dwarves had robust bodies in the human world, but placed next to beastmen, they were insignificant. Whether it was the Snow Wolf tribe or the Horned Goat tribe, just a few people could do more work than several hundred of their Dwarves.
Eric decisively arranged for the Dwarves to be in charge of cooking. This was not a light task either; nearly three hundred Dwarves cooking for over a hundred beastmen left them exhausted.
The task of land clearing was heavy, so the Snow Wolves who originally worked in the cafeteria were also transferred by Eric to clear land. Moreover, beastmen doing manual labor ate much more; originally, one quintal of food per meal was enough, but these days each beastman had to eat double that amount per meal.
If not for the fear of working the Dwarves to death, the beastmen working in beast form would have wanted to eat in their original beast forms, and their appetite would have doubled again...
The plains within the tribe’s territory used for farming were more than enough. Eric estimated that after the land was cleared, it could reach several hundred thousand acres, comparable to large modern farms.
With such a large area, even the Snow Wolf people and the Horned Goat people were exhausted from working.
The Snow Wolves, who usually had inexhaustible energy, were also worn out. Every day, they worked until it was pitch dark before stopping. Everyone tacitly lay down on the ridges of the newly cleared fields, waiting to be fed; they didn’t even have the strength to go to the cafeteria to eat.
The condition of the Horned Goat people was slightly better; they could still help bring the Dwarves carrying rice and bowls back to the tribe. The Snow Wolves fell asleep right on the field ridges after eating; anyway, the early spring weather wouldn’t freeze them to death.
Only the warriors on patrol got half a day of rest. Before, they never thought there would be a day they would look forward to their turn to patrol like this.
Sam complained with a miserable face every day, saying things like if he had known earlier, he would rather be beaten during training than go clear land...
Eric originally wanted to go clear land too; as the patriarch, naturally, he had to set an example.
But he couldn’t pull the large plow, and furthermore, as soon as he intended to work, he was discovered and chased away by others. In the end, he could only use the specialized plow of the Dwarves alongside the wolf cubs and goat kids.
But despite the complaints, this group of beastmen was truly hardworking. Even the children did not stop working; every tiny wolf cub and goat kid was there pulling plows. They couldn’t be chased away; it seemed they all knew in their hearts that this was very important work, so they insisted on gathering around to lend a hand.
The more Eric looked, the more guilty he felt, feeling like an exploitative landlord who didn’t even spare child labor.
He forgot that he was also a cub; in the eyes of others, he was exactly the same.
The Dwarf children also wanted to help. They held small shovels and hoes, digging in the ground for a while, but the effect was no different from playing house. After all, they weren’t like the cubs; despite the cubs’ beast forms being just small wolves and calves, their strength was equivalent to an adult Dwarf.
Several hundred thousand acres of plains were very arduous even for beastmen to work on. After persisting for over a month, the weather completely warmed up, yet only half had been cleared.
Clearing wasteland was not like plowing fields; there were countless stones and intertwined roots underground that needed to be picked out, otherwise, nothing could be planted.
The turned soil also needed base fertilizer. The tribe only had manure from a few dozen rabbits, chickens, and ducks in the breeding area, which was a drop in the bucket compared to so much land.
However, in the endless forest a few dozen miles to the other side of the Hadu tribe, there were all kinds of magic beast manure, only collecting it was very troublesome.
The tribesmen were already exhausted just from clearing the land.
Eric also wanted to try to save effort. He racked his brain searching his memories for anything that could be used as fertilizer, and after thinking for a long time, he came up with one thing: bone ash.
The remaining bones of the magic beasts that the Snow Wolf tribe had eaten over the years were all thrown into a valley. Apart from the pieces gnawed by small animals, the remainder was still plentiful. Eric and Max led a few beastmen to use ox carts to pull out several carts of bones.
Eric vaguely remembered that straw ash and bone ash could both fertilize fields, so he collected a lot of dry grass and branches, mixed them with the bones, and burned them.
Such burning temperature could not completely burn the bones. Eric mobilized all his magic power to release a wall of fire. The two types of flames merged, the fire blazed fiercely, and the tips of the flames even tended to turn blue.
The bones of high-level magic beasts were not so easily burned to ash, at least Eric’s magic had not reached that level.
Basically, the things he had people collect were bones of low and mid-level magic beasts. Compared to the bones of normal animals, bone ash burned from magic beast bones was definitely more beneficial.
The remaining high-level magic beast bones were all selected by the Snow Wolf tribe; those that could be used for exchange had already been traded to human merchant caravans.
Unfortunately, when Eric went along to pull the bones, he also coveted them quite a bit, but there was no way to melt them. Telling the Dwarves to use the blast furnace to burn them was possible, but too troublesome, so he decisively gave up on the high-level magic beast bones.
Eric burned the bone ash in an open space. The tribesmen were either clearing land or cooking; even Evan helped use nature magic to plow the soil. Only Arthur, thinking Eric was making something delicious, followed him closely without leaving a step.
"This is not edible, put it down for me!" Eric couldn’t bear it anymore and knocked on Arthur’s forehead.
Arthur stealthily fished out a charred magic beast bone taller than a person from the fire. He was just about to gnaw on it when he was hit, so he stopped and dejectedly threw the bone back into the fire.
"Thought you were roasting meat, bones are edible too..." Arthur muttered.
Eric didn’t know what weird things this fool had put in his stomach when he was wandering, to eat anything and everything. Remembering Arthur’s appearance when they first met, with a wild chicken dangling from his butt, Eric was speechless at this fool, both angry and amused.
If you said he wasn’t picky, this guy was very cunning and knew who cooked better. If you said he was picky, he could stuff anything into his mouth when hungry.
...
Author’s note: The biggest mistake was chugging a size M red milk tea full of ice and pearls right after recovering from a stomachache (T.T)
