Chapter 327: Land From Sea

Care the land and fill it until your heart is content, is what he said. However, this land provided was something he did not expect when returning to Arel’s farm. With the giant golem dragging a drowning island from the bottom of the ocean.

He was tasked with an enormous responsibility and new land to make do with. The winds were buffeting him from all sides. He wore his work clothes and started cleaning up the seagrasses and weeds alongside the molds that gathered. His hands easily lifted the boulders and the few rocks scattered among the field. Strange flowers that lived under the seas started to wilt due to the meeting with the sun. He had deduced that they were plants that somehow lived under the sea without the need of much sunlight.

Not far from where he was, standing was a wooden frame of a building. He was not much of a carpenter, but even he could build a cabin. He remembered that there was a time where he and his pa worked on a cabin next to a lough. Green pastures that stretch as far as the eye could see. Their sheep were making a ruckus along with their sleepy shepherd.

He does not remember their faces. The name of his country was lost to him. The memories of old were gone and blurred. It was lost in time and space. The film reels aged in his head. All he recalled were memories of the various him who suffered the burnt woman. There are sweet memories and happy ones, but the despairing ones outdid the sweetness.

He did not think much of it. His legs plodded the fields. His arms lifted the rocks and the sharp coral reefs that were on his way. His strength allowed him to work until the afternoon where the seagulls from the sea rested on the beams of the cabin he was building.

A shadow blocked the field, and he saw the giant of the island resting. The giant sat on the ocean with its head pointed to the sky. The growling mold on the arms and the back of the titan could be seen from where he standing. He continued to do his work until the giant walked again. With most of the field cleared up, he started to move away by following the dirt path. He saw the inn run by the sisters and the two-storied house of Arel.

“Yo,” Arel waved.

Nolan neared him. “Done with you?”

“I am,” his hands were on his lap. “I don’t do much considering that I only water my plans. I got to say that you are fast to take care of the land and you even have the time to build a cabin frame.”

Nolan rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t know what I’d even do on that farm. Maybe I can grow some fruits?”

“Apples can grow here.”

“Oh, I’ll do that. The thing is that I have no money right now.”

“Sorry, I’m on the red as well until I ship this.”

“Monster clearing it is then.”

“Will you be okay, Nolan?”

Nolan massaged the back of his neck. His eyes pointed to the ceiling. There was a leaf stuck on the crossbeams of the building. He noticed.

“I think I will be. I do not think I will lose so easily.”

Nolan bid him farewell. He entered the stone-paved road and saw the shop where the blacksmith rang. He was a bearded old man who swung a hammer to a heated metal. His little girl played with a doll and craned her neck to him. The bearded old man turned to him. “Dar-Son is my name, human. Are you the newcomer? Have we met?”

“I don’t think so. Can you fix this weapon?”

“Hmm,” he took the weapon he got from Arel. “This thing’s broken. This is his blade. Arel must be serious about giving up the sword, not as the boy would be helpless without it. You are new so I can reforge this into a new sword. However, it will have to be a backsword since the materials are lacking. I can make it new. Do you agree?”

Nolan did not need the weapon. At best, he could construct a weapon and bring forth the sword Zachariah out. The old man stared at him. Nolan gave up thinking about it and said.

“Please do.”

“Got it,” the Dar-Son started working on the steel. He first melted the sword and made a mold of the saber. His arm was brutish yet precise. Each strike caused the blade to form; alongside it was lines that gathered on the blade itself.

“Is this the magic that caused them to return to their world?”

“Yes, even without it the earth itself will help in returning it. Nevertheless, alas we must be better than that.”

A runic power gathered on his hammer. When the hammer strikes the blade, the runes started to disperse into tiny bits of pieces that then formed around the blade. The hiltless sword burned with heat. Dar-Son did not cool the sword but instead cast something that blackened the sword. He stood up. His hand fished through a chest and he took out a scabbard.

“This is my welcoming gift; I hope that you would be good for us.”

Nolan took the gift. “I will be good. Thank you, Dar-Son, and little girl.”

“She’s called Lena. I hope you can get along with her.”

Nolan bid the two farewell and left the shop. His legs carried to Bach whom he asked to ferry him to another island. He traveled on the boat and arrived on an island where the bull monsters were destroying the natural resources of the island. Bach did not leave his boat and stayed maroon near the water.

Drawing the sword from his scabbard, Nolan focused his eyes on the bull-monsters. His perception of time slowed to a crawl and with a step, he phased through a bull and turned the bull’s body into dots of light.

“Still got it,” he nodded. His face was still. But there was a strange elated look on his face as he rid of the bull-monsters.