Chapter 18: Caring About Grain and Vegetables

In the northwest corner of the camp, a makeshift cage was quickly erected.

The convoy originally had quite a few vehicles for transporting livestock. Although most of the animals had scattered and been lost during yesterday’s zombie horde attack, the livestock wagons themselves remained largely intact. Under the Lord’s instructions, several blacksmiths filed off the iron bars from the wagon cages one by one. They then reassembled the bars to construct a large cage capable of holding four or five adults.

It was during this process that Xiahou Yan was pleased to see Chief Mage Mr. Victor Laurie finally serve a proper purpose. Since the camp lacked a furnace and anvil for forging and welding metal, the blacksmiths had originally planned to use iron wire to connect and secure the iron bars. However, some questioned the reliability of this method.

As a result, Master Laurie easily solved this problem using Magic. He muttered a Spell, and a bright, scorching Flame Technique instantly sprouted from the tip of his index finger. The Master had the blacksmiths bring the iron bars that needed joining close together. He then extended his finger and gently swiped it across the joint. The intense heat of the flame instantly welded the bars together. By the time the blacksmiths splashed cold water onto the metal—with a loud HISS as white smoke billowed and dissipated—the welded iron bars were incredibly sturdy, rivaling the products of any proper blacksmith shop.

The blacksmiths praised the Master’s Magic Power in unison. Only Xiahou Yan watched from the sidelines with envy.

The Flame Technique the Master used was merely the most basic apprentice-level Magic. From a first-tier Magic Apprentice to a ninth-tier Saint Mage, practically everyone knew it. Even the Lord, whose own Magic Power was subpar, could use it.

However, condensing the flame generated by the Flame Technique to a temperature high enough to melt metal was a true reflection of Master Laurie’s strength as a fifth-tier Junior Mage. As a second-tier Junior Mage, the flame Xiahou Yan summoned from his fingertips was, at best, hot enough to burn a piece of paper or provide a little light. The gap between him and the Master was monumental.

Although the sole criterion the Magic Association used to distinguish Mage tiers was the amount of Magic Power within a Mage’s body, the finesse with which Mages of different tiers controlled and utilized Magic was obviously leagues apart.

Nevertheless, the Lord was pleased to see that his craftsmen still demonstrated exceptional efficiency in such difficult circumstances. With Master Laurie’s assistance, this giant iron cage, over two meters tall, was built from scratch in just two or three hours, standing majestically in a clearing in the northwest corner of the camp.

The brilliant midday sun shone straight down on the iron cage, the finger-thick iron bars gleaming with a cold metallic luster before everyone’s eyes. The blacksmiths had even specially installed wheels and brake locks on the bottom of the cage, allowing it to be easily moved if needed.

Zombie Dave was shoved into the cage by a flurry of Guards. When untying it, the Undead Creature had briefly attempted a desperate struggle. But after taking another strike from the Lord’s crowbar, Dave completely lost its will to resist. Dizzy and disoriented, it was locked in the cage and was still slumped at the bottom, twitching intermittently.

It happened to be lunchtime, and Master Laurie waved his hand, shooing away all the nearby onlookers to eat. Thus, only Xiahou Yan, Master Laurie, Captain Alice, and a few other key figures in the convoy remained by the cage.

Ms. Anjie Rendall, the maid, thoughtfully brought the Lord his lunch. Xiahou Yan opened the wooden lunchbox and took a look: a round loaf of bread, two slices of beef, and four or five olives lay dejectedly inside, exuding an aura of destitution, desperation, and defeatism.

"What is everyone else eating?" he asked.

"About the same as you," a small old man, around fifty or sixty but still bright-eyed and vigorous, answered respectfully. "Much of the food the convoy was carrying was lost during the zombie horde’s attack. This afternoon, I’ll send a few lads into the forest to see if they can find anything edible."

This rotund, slightly plump old man was named Johnsen Joel. He was originally the mayor of the Eagle’s Rest Castle township and had spent most of his life managing this fiefdom capital on behalf of the Igor Family. Given his profound seniority, he had naturally become the captain of the migration convoy, having been responsible for managing supplies and personnel throughout this journey. Out of habit, however, people still preferred to call him "Mayor Joel."

At the mention of supplies, Xiahou Yan exchanged glances with Master Laurie and Alice. All of them felt a bit of a headache coming on.

With five hundred living people, the daily food consumption was no small figure. Especially for this territorial migration, the convoy’s original plan had been to stop at towns along the way to continuously restock supplies. The food and provisions they carried were inherently insufficient. Now, having accidentally entered the infected zone and suffered a zombie attack, their remaining supplies were stretched incredibly thin.

Although Mayor Joel hadn’t reported the situation to the Lord in the worst possible terms, judging from the faint worry between his brows and his decision to send men into the forest to forage, the convoy’s current food situation was likely far from ideal. Mayor Joel was merely acting out of his sense of responsibility, not wanting the Lord to worry too much about it.

As for how much food could actually be found in the nearby forest, Xiahou Yan also felt the chances were slim. This infected zone was located in the southern part of the empire, where the natural biome offered very few wild plants that could be eaten directly; it was more populated with lethal, poisonous mushrooms and weeds. If they were lucky, they might be able to hunt a few uninfected wild beasts in the forest. However, relying solely on that to feed five hundred hungry mouths was undoubtedly a pipe dream. In other words, as long as they remained trapped in the center of the infected zone, the day would inevitably come when they ran out of ammunition and food.

Frowning deeply, Xiahou Yan posed a question that made the others pale instantly.

"Say... do you think zombie meat is edible?"

"I suggest... unless we are completely out of options, you shouldn’t entertain that idea..." Master Laurie hastily intervened, curbing the Lord’s whimsical thought. "These zombies have been rotting for eight hundred years. Who knows what toxins might be in their flesh..."

Xiahou Yan looked at Zombie Dave in the cage and nodded solemnly. He thought he would rather die than eat the meat of this thing.

"Never mind, we’ll talk about the food situation later," Xiahou Yan mumbled unclearly. Displaying zero aristocratic bearing, he reached into the lunchbox, grabbed the bread, and took a bite. "Now, let’s begin the Magic experiment first."

Master Laurie glanced at Zombie Dave in the cage.

Earlier, the Lord had explained his experimental plan to "control wild zombies" to the Master. The Master could begrudgingly agree that since wild zombies were also driven by Netherworld Magic Power, it was theoretically possible to control them using Necromancy. However, the Master felt that the likelihood of the Lord succeeding was about the same as his own chances of advancing from a fifth-tier Junior Mage to an eighth-tier Grand Mage in this lifetime—essentially practically zero.

After all, Magic followed strict laws and principles. It wasn’t as if the Lord had resurrected Zombie Dave himself; the Netherworld Magic Power within it was completely out of tune with the Lord’s. If the Lord could still successfully command the zombie under these circumstances, the Academy City’s "Principles of Magical Mechanics" textbook might as well be rewritten from scratch!

Standing to the side with his arms crossed, Master Laurie cast a disdainful look at the eager Lord.