Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 838: Section 557: North (Part 3)

Chapter 838: Section 557: North (Part 3)

However, Malin was still a bit curious about stockpiling other items, so Ails invited Malin to take a look at his new home.

Through the portal, Malin saw a forest. Ah... It’s really too good to be in a living world instead of a desolate one, otherwise Malin felt that the World Tree Sapling on his arm would have taken action on its own.

"Are you saying the other stuff you mentioned stockpiling is this forest? Your new home?" Malin asked.

Ails patted his palm bone, and without needing any Spiritual Energy fluctuations or anything else, a Goblin ran out from the forest.

It sprinted across the clearing, then knelt before Ails, lifting his white bony foot and planting a kiss on it.

·Enough, forget all that red tape you learned in the human world. How’s the stuff I had you plant coming along?

Ails lifted a foot and kicked the Goblin to the ground, and the latter quickly bowed and apologized, then turned around and hollered some Goblin language back into the forest.

Malin didn’t understand at all—these weren’t the Goblins from his world. They looked different, but the only similarity was that they both had green skin and were short.

But Malin recognized the things his companions were pushing out—those hand-pushed carts full of potatoes of various sizes seemed genuine.

The quantity was quite significant. In the area visible to Malin, there were at least a dozen tons.

·I feel these little things are too useless, turning them into Skeletons would still be garbage, might as well have them farm food for me. After all, in many worlds food is far more useful than Soul Coins.

While pulling out a few potatoes and presenting them to Malin, Ails went on and on explaining how much effort he had spent teaching these Goblins how to grow them.

"I’ll take all the potatoes." Malin said without hesitation, wrapping up the deal. As for how farmer Ails deals with these little bastards, Malin had zero interest—he protects humanity and civilization, and has no good feelings for such inherently plundering races. Malin didn’t want to know how Ails trained them to be like this, nor did he wish to understand.

What, you talk about justice?

Sorry, my justice is human justice. Whether those four-legged creatures live or die, what’s it got to do with me, Malin Gaiate?

·There are about forty tons of these potatoes, I have to leave some for these guys to eat, but luckily the temperature here is a few degrees even in winter, so we can grow this all year round. So, thirty tons for delivery, leaving the rest as their food and seeds. They won’t starve since there’s also food in the forest.

In terms of payment, Ails said that he had made a fortune recently on the Northern front, so these potatoes were on the house. Next harvest, he could be paid with the souls of Chaos champions.

Malin likes this about Ails. Although he seems like a miserly, heartless farm owner, he never focuses only on small profits when doing business.

Plus, this guy said he plans to capture more Goblins in this world and try to contact the natives through Mark City, offering them more Goblins—he wants to build his agricultural empire on the tropical islands of this region.

To which Malin could only offer congratulations—well, as Ails said, what Liches seek in the end is wealth, and how that wealth is amassed is the most critical process.

Ails used to get beaten up as soon as he stepped outside. Now, when he steps out in the North, the fellows nearby might even ask him.

·May I help you, sir.

With a clear Northern accent.

After returning to the Northern front through the portal, Ails said he would send the potatoes to Malin’s Semi-Plane. Malin promised the next time he met a champion, he would definitely invite them over for the celebration. Both sides laughed, and that was farewell.

...

Malin planned to take the potatoes obtained from Ails to his canning factory for processing, and then add some to the cans he was trading to the Eastern Kingdom. Adding starch to meat cans might sound rather malicious, but the Eastern Kingdom was just too poor. Malin was doing this to lower costs and sell to them at cheaper prices.

Of course, if they thought the idea of adding some meat to their starch was good too, Malin could also manage that.

At least it’s better than the Northern Kingdom adding black bread to the sawdust.

Maybe take the opportunity to visit the Eastern Kingdom? Malin had this idea but ultimately decided to go through the Church, such as sending a few Observation Groups on behalf of the Goddess of Harvest Church under the pretense of observing the spring planting. This way, Malin could feel good about pulling food from the Outer Domain—after all, countries like Farole and Sydney haven’t fallen into the quagmire of war yet, and the free peasant families still depend on selling grain to survive. If they imported too much grain and really crashed the grain prices, those poor people would suffer the most.

A patrol passed by the trench, and Malin accepted their salute, then watched as the spirited soldiers continued on.

Hmm... Ah, right, I almost forgot about something.

"Stein Mansonheim is over there," Malin returned to the command center and asked Svenson’s brother. Jon, who was busy with the paperwork, answered without looking up: "After General Stein Mansonheim executed his other-timeline self at dawn, he returned to his defensive position."

"I almost forgot about that. Did we get any intelligence on it yet?" Malin felt a bit lackluster and plopped down into a chair, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight as he asked.

"Yes, the Church will send it over after they’ve sorted it out," Jon said, raising his head to look at Malin: "Your Excellency, you have no schedule today. High-altitude reconnaissance hasn’t spotted any enemy troops nearby. If you have personal matters to attend to, you may leave, but it’s best not to kill another person’s entire family. These are His Majesty’s words for me to pass on to you."

"Ah, that’s great, I can slack off again," Malin yawned upon hearing this: "You see, I’m such a person with nothing to do... Oh right, I forgot, I’ll go check out the Frost Giant camp to see what good stuff they’ve hunted this time."

"Then I’ll have to hope they’re in luck," Jon said with a smile as he saw Malin off.

The Frost Giant camp is to the north of the defenses. Initially, the military intended to use these Frost Giants as a reserve force, wherever the line was breached, they would counter-attack with the human troops.

Later, when the military discovered their firepower was excessive, the Frost Giants were no longer used for combat—they’re too tall, they could stick out of the trenches with half their bodies. Malin and the military figured it out and simply let them return to their old profession—hunting.

As a result, the silly roe deer, elks, and bears in the nearby forests had bad luck. The throwing spears of the Frost Giants could break the sound barrier, and within a hundred meters, they could hit whatever they aimed at, basically without dispersion.

Even though Spirits exist, grown Frost Giants aren’t afraid; their large size, strong physique, and teamwork make them the most terrifying bipedal primates on this planet. Ordinary Spirits are merely prey, and only Legendary Spirits can escape their hunts.

For example, the King. Malin’s backup food source number two has records of escaping from the Frost Giant Hunter teams three times. Malin wondered how this wild boar was able to dodge his lethal World Tree Sapling strike by rolling; it turns out it had been through quite the beating and already had some experience.

When he arrived at the Frost Giant camp, the person in charge proudly told Malin that they had just hunted a group of elks yesterday, and after releasing the strongest hinds, stags, and fawns, they had a rich harvest.

"The human brothers at the front will have meat to eat today." This burly man said, while also showing Malin around the camp’s dried meat grounds.

At the same time, he introduced Malin to a Snow Leopard cub, which had been abandoned due to the Frost Giants invading its territory, forcing the mother to flee with another cub. This cub sneaked into the dried meat grounds, aiming to get a free meal but ended up being captured with nets and tridents by the Frost Giant children, resulting in a collar and chain around its neck.

When Malin saw it, the little thing was huddled in the cold wind, with blood on its chain, suggesting it had struggled, but unfortunately not successfully.

Oh, the cruel Fate.

Because it was so small, this little one was lucky not to be skinned and deboned, and the Frost Giants planned to hand it over to their Hunters to train as an animal companion.

Seeing this little unfortunate, Malin spent some money to buy it—no helping it, this fluffy little miscreant really brought him too much joy. Malin, naturally fond of feline creatures, felt he truly couldn’t escape the title of a poop-scooper.

Checking its teeth, it should be able to eat meat, so Malin took some scrap meat from the silly roe deer to feed the cub, then started training with Spiritual Energy in a force-feeding manner.

When Malin left, the little thing had already learned to follow him.

"You’re the most impressive trainer I’ve ever seen," the person in charge clearly didn’t understand Malin’s methods, and his flattery made Malin feel somewhat undeserving.

After laughing it off, Malin took the Snow Leopard cub, now named Spotty, back to the defenses. After instructing the logistics department to collect meat from the Frost Giant camp, Malin returned to the command center with Spotty. Since there were no battles to be fought, no one was around, except for Lulu basking in the sun.

Seeing Spotty, the girl’s heart melted, and she picked up the little one.

In the mental communication, Spotty expressed that the terrifying bipedal primate was some sort of monster and begged its owner to save it quickly.

Malin indicated that this was its new owner and that she would be in charge of lunch.

Spotty paused, then turned its head to lick Lulu’s hands, exposed its belly, flashed a mysteriously content smile, and made a noise similar to that of a cat.

Delighted, Lulu took out some dried meat as a reward.

Spotty excitedly grabbed the jerky and began to chew.

Seeing this, Malin could only say that Spotty the little foodie, was indeed very ’cheetah’ (smiling) for its lunch.

But on the other hand, if even animal cubs struggle to survive, humans have no reason to stop progressing.

Keep it up, Malin.