67. The First Piece of a Fallen World

The shield troops had no proper digging tools, so they used the flat sides of their shields to push loose soil out of the channel. It was slow and looked ridiculous but it still worked.

Carlos joined them whenever the system didn't require him near the regulator. Cosmic did the same, although he complained that merchants were not supposed to shovel dirt with their hands.

The second obstruction had roots inside it. Carlos made everyone stop before touching them.

--

[Regulator Roots detected]

[Remove dead growth only]

--

None of them knew which roots were dead.

Nessa examined the colors but refused to guess. Carlos used Inspect on each exposed section until the system identified three pieces as dead growth.

Only those were removed.

The work was slower than Cedric expected. His group complained twice but stopped when Carlos reminded them that damaging the district could remove the claim and every promised benefit with it.