Green Monster Epic

Chapter 247: Matters in Green Lake Village (Seeking Votes!!!)

While Allen was busy outside, Green Lake Village hadn't stopped its forward momentum.

According to Allen's plan, A'Xiu led the clansmen and a group of slaves to start building a mine near the pyrite ore area discovered in the Auro Hills. As the most knowledgeable person after Allen's departure, Phillip was forcibly brought out of the village by A'Xiu to specifically advise him and draw up mine blueprints.

Three months passed, and a mine covering more than 3,000 square meters had already taken shape.

A'Xiu was fighting for a point, a point about why Allen chose Hua She as the acting village leader instead of him. Logically speaking, he, A'Xiu, had always been at Allen's beck and call, never causing Allen the slightest displeasure. As long as Allen gave the word, even dragon meat with unknown origins and a high probability of side effects, he could swallow it down without hesitation. But in the end, in Allen's eyes, he was still inferior to Hua She, which made A'Xiu feel unbalanced.

Therefore, when Allen asked him to be in charge of the mine, he secretly made up his mind to do this job beautifully and give Allen a satisfactory answer when he returned.

"Mine Manager, look, what did we find??"

The gray dwarf Man Duli's face was full of joy, his short legs moved quickly, and he held a lump of dark stuff in his hands, shouting towards A'Xiu from afar.

"You old boy, what good thing did you pick up again?? Look how happy you are!!"

After taking sole charge, A'Xiu, on Phillip's advice, gave himself the title of Mine Manager and took pride in it. Of course, Phillip was also regarded differently by A'Xiu because of this suggestion, no longer finding fault with him as before.

This was also related to Phillip's flattering of A'Xiu, preparing various things to please him, and after figuring out A'Xiu's inner thoughts, focusing on advising A'Xiu and speeding up the mine's progress, which made A'Xiu feel that this human was really talented and had to be reused.

On the other hand, the gray dwarf Man Duli, who had lived under the high-pressure policies of the Drow since childhood, was very familiar with the art of bootlicking and was equally respectful to A'Xiu. Not to mention how Man Duli and Shali Hua cheated and played tricks in private, but in front of A'Xiu, they were always models of honesty, diligence, and hard work. Compared to the shrewd and suspicious Drow elves, A'Xiu was really a very easy-to-fool big fool in the eyes of these guys, and he didn't even know it.

Of course, it was not enough to just fool A'Xiu. Everyone still had to produce their own results. If the boss was happy, their lives would be more comfortable, right?

So, when Phillip was working hard to help A'Xiu build the mine, Shali Hua led people to open mountains and split rocks to obtain materials for building the mine on the spot, while Man Duli kept wandering around the Auro Hills to see if there were any other mineral traces.

To be honest, the Auro Hills were only a hundred square miles in area, but Man Duli had spent 2-3 months without completing the survey, which shows how lazy he had been these days.

However, Man Duli was really lucky. Although the Auro Hills were not large, the wealth hidden underground was really not small. For example, the thing that Man Duli was holding in his hand with joy now was even more valuable than the newly built pyrite mine.

"Mine Manager, we found black coal!!! With this black coal, our village can start smelting iron ore!!!"

Man Duli couldn't help but be happy. Although he was also very lazy, the dwarf's innate interest in forging made him always hope that one day he could create a world-renowned artifact. Naturally, the dream of an artifact was still a bit far away, but after finding pyrite, Man Duli had been unable to practice his casting skills as he wished due to the lack of fuel, and he felt that his skills were a bit rusty.

When they were in the underground world, how could they have worried about fuel? The underground volcanoes and lava rivers that provided light to the underground world were the best source of fuel, and they were inexhaustible. But on the ground, this simple matter of fuel made Man Duli worry and run around.

"Really???"

Not only was Man Duli happy, but A'Xiu was naturally also very happy. Finding another mineral, and a very important black coal, just this one thing could make A'Xiu gain face and win the first credit when Allen came back.

"Good, very good!!"

"Where is the black coal mine located? Is it far from our mine??"

"Not far, not far, just a dozen miles west of our mine!!"

Man Duli's mouth cracked open with a smile. When Phillip, who was originally supervising the work in the mine, heard the noise and rushed over, he proudly raised the dark coal stone in his hand and showed it to Phillip.

"Phillip, you came at the right time. Think of a way, let's take care of the black coal mine while Allen hasn't come back yet!!"

Seeing Phillip's uninvited arrival, A'Xiu didn't care, but instead, full of fighting spirit and ideas, he made a request to Phillip.

"Mine Manager, I'm afraid this matter…"

Phillip was a little embarrassed. The master in front of him was a person who liked to take credit for everything. In order to rush the construction period of the mine, he squeezed the group of slaves to death, starting work every day before dawn and continuing until late at night. No matter how good the slaves' physical fitness was, they couldn't stand working day and night like this. Allen had said before that the slaves should be given time to rest, but after arriving at the Auro Hills, A'Xiu had thrown this matter to the back of his mind, completely not giving the slaves a way out.

Over time, the ogre and lizardmen slaves would naturally resist and struggle, but their resistance ultimately resulted in A'Xiu's more severe punishment and heavier tasks. In just 3 months, the slave team of only 30 people had lost 10 people in A'Xiu's hands, and most of the remaining ones were thin and weak, with their physical strength reduced by more than half.

It wasn't that Phillip didn't want to advise him, but every time his words were on the tip of his tongue, he saw the two gray dwarves beside him, in order to gain favor, saying all kinds of flattering and reckless words, and he could only shut up. If Phillip wanted to maintain his position in front of A'Xiu, he couldn't go against A'Xiu, otherwise he might be compared to the two shameless gray dwarves at any time.

"What? Such a simple thing, you can't handle it?"

A'Xiu's eyes were a little unhappy, and his happy expression gradually turned gloomy.

"No, it's just that we have too few people now. It will still take time to complete this one iron mine. If we build a coal mine and delay the time, I'm afraid that when the clan leader returns, you won't have either side settled, which would be inappropriate."

There was no way, Phillip could only pull the matter to Allen's side. He knew that what A'Xiu cared about most was Allen's importance and attitude.

"…Well, that is indeed a problem. Let's do this, you do your current work first, and I'll go back to the village."

After mentioning Allen, A'Xiu's attitude really wavered. After pondering for a moment, he looked at the two people beside him and said.

"Man Duli, don't worry, mining is a matter of time sooner or later."

"Yes, sir."

After pacifying the few overseers in the mine, A-Xiao excitedly rushed back to Green Lake Village. The first thing he did was to find Hua She, the current village administrator, to discuss a major matter with him.

This was A-Xiao's homecoming after a month-long absence. Although, based on his pace and ability, a round trip in a day was entirely possible, for some reason, he just didn't like staying in the village while Hua She was managing it. He preferred to hide in the desolate Auro Hills and endure hardship.

The village hadn't changed much. After a large number of people were drawn to the mining area, the village's repair work became very slow. However, A-Xiao could still see a few unfamiliar faces, all of whom were clansmen recently recruited and taken in by Hua She.

Allen's emphasis on increasing the population had influenced Hua She's style of managing the village. Goblin tribes were scattered throughout the wilderness, especially among the disliked wanderers, where they were most commonly seen. In the past, the Greenfield Tribe would either drive away or cruelly kill most of the old, weak, sick, and disabled wandering goblins, treating them as a food source. But now it was different. After the Greenfield Tribe started growing its own food, they no longer had to worry about food sources. With a surplus, they no longer exterminated these wanderers.

Hua She was even more radical than Allen. Allen would assess whether these goblins were worth taking in before accepting them, rejecting those who were too old or disabled… To be honest, if those wandering goblins weren't of little value, it was unlikely that no tribe would have accepted them. They all had problems to some extent. Therefore, when Allen was in charge, he rarely took in those wanderers.

However, after Hua She took power, he accepted almost all goblins who entered the tribe's territory, regardless of whether they were old, weak, sick, or disabled, as long as they were slightly useful. Over time, in just three months, he had taken in over twenty goblins of various heights, mostly short goblins. It was still rare for earth goblins and bear goblins to become wanderers.

In addition, Hua She also actively approached Boban, the leader of the neighboring Ivan gnoll tribe, and agreed to exchange goblin populations for food. One short goblin could be exchanged for twice its weight in food, while one earth goblin or bear goblin could be exchanged for three times its weight in food. This deal was struck very quickly. Boban's position as leader was not yet secure, and he needed food to buy the hearts of his clansmen while also strengthening the relationship with the Greenfield Tribe to protect his tribe from its prying eyes.

The Ivan Tribe had already learned about the Greenfield Tribe's large-scale extermination of several surrounding tribes. Even in remote and ignorant places, the vigilance towards powerful neighboring tribes was no less than that of the tribes in the central wilderness.

Hua She was secretly pleased with this idea that he had suddenly come up with, letting the Ivan Tribe be his hitmen. Whether it succeeded or not, it would be no loss to the Greenfield Tribe. Why not?

There were, of course, gains. To exchange for food and maintain the existing relationship, Boban put a lot of effort into exploring the surrounding tribes. In the end, he actually found a family of earth goblins hiding in a valley. Finally, Boban exchanged the entire family of four earth goblins for over a thousand pounds of food from Hua She, and then brought it back to distribute among his clansmen, much to everyone's delight.

"Hua She, let me tell you, this time you have to give me some manpower. I need to go out and catch some more slaves, otherwise my mine will be shut down!"

A-Xiao didn't want to see Hua She, but for the sake of his great cause, he had no choice but to turn to him. Since Philip said that there weren't enough people at the mine, wouldn't it be solved if he found a way to get more people back?

There wasn't much else in the wilderness, but tribes and populations were everywhere. As long as you were strong enough and could afford to feed people, you could gather as many people as you needed, it was just a matter of time.

Hua She had long heard about A-Xiao not treating slaves as human beings in the mine. He naturally wouldn't care about the deaths of slaves, but he looked down on A-Xiao's approach of only caring about short-term gains without considering long-term interests.

In just three months, a group of slaves who had been well-trained in the village had become what they were now after being taken out by him. The slightly old and weak ones had basically been worked to death. And among the remaining less than twenty slaves, children who did relatively light work accounted for five or six, and the physical strength of the remaining ten or so adult laborers was far from what it used to be. Their enthusiasm and actual workload had completely changed.

"This matter is temporarily impossible!"

Hua She didn't directly refuse, but instead subtly stated his reasons: "The village's emergency food supply is almost exhausted. The new season of oats will take at least another month to mature. If you bring back another batch of slaves from outside, what will we feed them?"

"The manpower I have on hand has all been sent out to help with hunting, fishing, and gathering berries to fill the village's food shortage. Where would I get extra manpower for you to attack other villages?"

"And another thing, have you calculated how much manpower your mine needs to replenish? Which tribes do you plan to attack to capture the needed manpower, have you thought about that?"

"…"

The more Hua She said, the uglier A-Xiao's face became. Until he couldn't bear it any longer, he interrupted Hua She's words.

"So you're just saying you don't want to support me? Don't forget, Chief Allen said when he left that you should cooperate with my mine work. Is this how you're cooperating?"

A-Xiao gritted his teeth and looked at Hua She with a very agitated expression.

Hua She remained unmoved and still appeared very calm: "It's not that I don't support you, it's just that the current situation in the village is not enough for us to add another group of mouths to feed!"

"I also admit that I underestimated the village's food reserves before, and spent too much food on large-scale projects, which caused the current predicament. I also have problems myself."

"Wait another two months, and when the oats on the lakeshore mature and are harvested, I will immediately allocate manpower to you, how about that?"

Hua She sat in the position of leader and presided over the village's affairs, although the power in his hands was fascinating, it also made him realize Allen's difficulty. In these days, Hua She had to carefully consider whether each step he took was wrong, and whether it could bring changes or impacts to the tribe.

A strong desire to win also drove Hua She to want to achieve something in order to prove that he was no worse than Allen, his rival in his heart. Therefore, Hua She's actions in Allen's position these days were inevitably a bit too big. Although the gains were not small, it did cause the predicament he himself had mentioned.

"Two months? Allen will be back in two months! If he sees that the task he gave me hasn't been completed, how am I going to explain it to him!!!"

A-Xiao flew into a rage. The huge noise even attracted Camellia and Dasha, who went to Allen's stone fort to see what had happened.

After listening for a while, Camellia and Dasha finally managed to understand what was causing the two leaders of the village to argue so much.

It was also because A-Xiao's temper was too violent. He kept shouting and making trouble, and the things he said were incoherent, making it difficult to understand. It was also thanks to Hua She, who was able to retell the whole story under A-Xiao's loud voice, that Camellia and the others knew the reason.

“Ah, A-Xiao, this matter of yours is indeed sudden. Just half a month ago, we exchanged a few hobgoblins with the Ivan tribe, giving them over 1300 pounds of oats. Now, the village's granaries are all empty. Chief Allen promised to distribute food to us every month, but I'm afraid we won't be able to get any this month, let alone you wanting to bring another batch of people back from outside. What will we feed them with?!!”

Tea Blossom doesn't have a broad perspective and has some complaints about Flower Snake's recent actions. The grain she was in charge of has been flowing out continuously these past ten days, and she's about to run out of food. How could she be happy?

The large-scale reduction of grain, what did it get in return? A group of old, weak, and disabled folks, who, besides eating, are completely useless when it comes to work. They're simply good-for-nothings.

Now things are great, A-Xiao suddenly ran back, saying he wants to find people to enslave more laborers to help him build mines!!!!! In these three months, the expenses of their Aurora Mine have been the greatest, with various fresh fruits, vegetables, and oats being transported there cart after cart, but no real results have been seen. Compared to Flower Snake using grain to take in hobgoblins and replenish the population, A-Xiao's affairs are even more disliked by Tea Blossom.

Therefore, Tea Blossom naturally wouldn't stand on A-Xiao's side.

“Hmph!!”

Facing the single Tea Blossom, A-Xiao still has some fantasies. Although his mind is heated at this time, he doesn't intend to vent his anger on Tea Blossom because of it, just hums and looks up at the ceiling in the stone fortress, not even glancing at Flower Snake.

“I say, everyone is a brother of the same tribe, shouldn't we sit down and talk things over properly, right?”

“None of your business!!”

“Don't interfere in this matter!!”

Big Mountain is becoming more and more marginalized. Although his strength as an level 8 warrior still makes him a backbone of the tribe's hunting team, his lazy nature also gives Flower Snake a headache. Now, as soon as he opens his mouth, wanting to mediate between Flower Snake and A-Xiao, the two of them speak in unison, pushing Big Mountain's words back, causing Big Mountain's face to change color, making him look very embarrassed!!

“Damn, who the hell wants to meddle in your business!!”

In a fit of anger, Big Mountain left a sentence and turned to leave. He really couldn't stay in the stone fortress any longer.

Walking towards his stone house on the mountainside, the more Big Mountain thought about it, the angrier he became. Once upon a time, he was also second only to Allen in the tribe. Back when he accompanied Allen out of the Greenwild Plains for the first time, Flower Snake and A-Xiao were just his followers!! But look at them now, their attitude towards him is so bad, they don't take this old大哥 seriously at all, and scolding and punishing him happen from time to time, making him lose face in front of the tribesmen and his family.

“No, I can't let them bully me like this anymore!!”

Returning home, Big Mountain was still unable to calm down. He sat on a wooden stool, sulking alone, which startled the hobgoblin Vera, who was taking care of two babies, and she took the children away from Big Mountain. Big Mountain is lazy and temperamental. If he's slightly unhappy, he'll come back and vent his anger on her, sometimes even hitting people. Therefore, Vera, having learned from experience, knows to stay away from him when she sees Big Mountain like this.

Vera could tell that Big Mountain was sulking, but her eldest son, Klee, didn't know how to read adults' faces. Seeing his father, who usually liked to play with him, enter the house, he struggled to escape his mother's arms, yelling to go to Big Mountain. Klee can now crawl everywhere on the ground. He is at his most curious and lively, and Vera can't control him. Finally, she couldn't resist her son's struggle, and after putting him on the ground, the little guy crawled towards Big Mountain.

“Well, my good son!!”

Just as Vera was about to stop Klee's movements, she turned her face and saw her eldest son Klee crawling towards her. Big Mountain's gloomy face finally had a few smiles. He picked him up and kissed the little guy's face covered with fine fluff, making the little guy giggle.

“Vera, do you think I should change my personality?”

Suddenly, Big Mountain turned his head and asked Vera a senseless question.

“Ah?”

Vera was at a loss and didn't know how to answer this question.

“Sigh, asking you is like asking nothing!!”

Seeing Vera's hesitant and hesitant look, Big Mountain became angry and turned his head away, ignoring this stupid woman.

In fact, Big Mountain had already made a decision in his heart, but at this time he needed someone to help him strengthen his determination. However, it was clear that in the end, he still had to rely on himself!

After kissing Klee's tender cheeks, Big Mountain muttered to himself: “Even for the sake of you little guy, I have to fight for some dignity and not live like a laughing stock like I am now!!”

After making up his mind, Big Mountain seemed to have undergone a slight change, but it was always impossible to say what the specific change was. Vera, who was most familiar with Big Mountain, felt a trace of Big Mountain's change at this time, opened her eyes and looked for a long time, but couldn't find the difference, and finally forgot about it while breastfeeding her daughter in a panic amidst her cries.

“Bang!!”

“I am the village chief now, and if I say no, then it's no!!”

Flower Snake slapped the wooden table, causing the two wooden cups on the table to tremble, and his majestic aura directly forced A-Xiao back, rejecting A-Xiao's unreasonable entanglement with a strong attitude.

“Hmph, when Allen comes back, I'll see how you explain it to him!!”

A-Xiao's eyes flickered a little. His strength was still inferior to the other party. At this time, facing Flower Snake's tyrannical posture, he was still a little weak. In the end, he left a harsh word.

A-Xiao, who came with a heart full of joy and excitement, could only go down the mountain with a face full of anger and displeasure. He didn't even go home to stay for a night and accompany his wife and children. He just went down the mountain and out of the village entrance, striding towards the Aurora Hills.

“Actually, you didn't need to reject A-Xiao so strongly. As long as you talk to him properly, he will eventually listen.”

After A-Xiao left, Tea Blossom looked at A-Xiao's departing back with some worry and said to Flower Snake.

“Now that I'm sitting in the position of chief, I have to be responsible for all the tribesmen. I can't let everyone go hungry because of his willfulness!!”

Flower Snake has been the temporary chief for some time, and he has gradually gained some of the prestige and aura of a chief. In Flower Snake's view, A-Xiao's plan is completely wrong. He has explained it to him several times in a good manner, but he doesn't listen. Does he really think that he has to follow his every word??

Tea Blossom sighed secretly. A matter that was not very big in the first place is now somewhat stuck because of the stubborn tempers of the two people, which makes her feel that it is not very good after all. However, since the matter has already happened and the two parties are fine, it is not appropriate for her to continue staying here. She still has a lot of things to do.

Thinking about being able to enter the second volume soon and exploding with more updates, this can be considered accelerating the pace!