Overall, this could hardly be considered a fight. The leaders of this offensive had avoided a confrontation and the weaklings that remained were the weakest among the group barely matching up to a rank 2 archmage. Considering that all of them were out of their natural environment they stood little chance.
Red seemed a little miffed at how many of them got away but keeping them here would have probably cost us the lives of most of the inhabitants in the oasis.
For now, we returned to the oasis with the bunny people that had been fighting the sand storm. As we returned to the room the muscular bunny-kin was still kneeling there. We took our seats at the table and Red addressed the kneeling man.
"Kesh, you can stand up. Go get Puri too, I'd like to make introductions."
Kesh hurried out to get whoever puri was and we were alone again. Red looked serious, this attack must have been unexpected for him.
"As you see those gods are quite aggressive. I hadn't anticipated them making their move so early. Anyway, from what you said it seems that your merchant guild is growing slowly but stably. I'd like for one of you to stay here and help us deal with those gods and whatever they try next. In return, we do have something you might be able to sell."
Aurelia immediately grew interested. Her eyes held that glint of anticipation that merchants were often known for.
"What's that product you are talking about?"
Red gave her a mysterious smile.
"The one thing this world has in absurd quantities are bones that are saturated with magic. If those bones are ground down they become a very effective fertilizer but in this realm, no soil needs fertilizer. All the plants here rely on life energy provided by the oases. Using the fertilizer here would only produce a negligible increase in production."
Aurelia was nearly drooling at the thought of this fertilizer. For Red to describe it as very effective meant it would definitely sell well. If this was introduced to a kingdom like Saital that had a lot of fields it would be bought in droves. However, before anything, Aurelia wanted clarification on how effective it was.
"So, how good is that fertilizer really?"
Red didn't give an answer. He liked to do agriculture for physical training and cared little for the effects of fertilizer. Rose was the leading specialist when it came to this so despite her usual muteness during meetings she spoke with enthusiasm.
"I've never had the opportunity to use it in an environment without distorting influences so I can't be sure and it also depends on the strength of the undead the bone comes from. If we take the bones of a normal undead skeleton we get what I've coined as grade one fertilizer. This fertilizer can increase the harvest by about five percent.
"The highest grade we've ever produced here is grade six fertilizer made from the bones of a lich. It increases the harvest by around 200 percent and decreases the growth time by about fifty percent. For ordinary plants that is. For magical plants, the effects are weaker but nevertheless impressive."
Five percent may sound like a small amount but if applied to many the harvest of an entire kingdom the increase in crops would be staggering. And this was just the effect of grade one fertilizer. If the grade six fertilizer Rose had mentioned was released it would be a sensation. Tripling the crops while halting the time they needed to grow meant that with two portions of this fertilizer six times the usual harvest could be produced in the same period of time.
Aurelia looked to really have taken a liking to the fertilizer.
"How much do you have in stock, I want all of it! If I can get my hands on some other goods as well we can actually go into full operation in the merchant guild in Saitala. I guess Abel can stay here and help you out while I run things over there. Anything else you need?"
"Yes, since the oasis is limited in size we can't produce enough food to increase our population. If we had enough food we could get more people and expand our influence. Also, since you're very proficient in water magic we wanted to ask you to set up an artificial water source."
Red quickly listed the things Aurelia could help him with. In the meantime, Kesh had returned with another bunny-kin. Like Kesh, she had fluffy white hair, dark skin, and a more muscular stature than the average human woman.
"Lord Rem, I have brought Puri."
Both of them kneeled before Red.
"Both of you may rise. These are lord Abel and lady Aurelia. They are friends of mine and have come to visit. Abel will be staying here for a while and Aurelia will be establishing a merchant guild here."
At the mention of a merchant guild, Puri's ears shot up and she looked excited. Kesh looked at us with reverence and wanted to kneel again but Red stopped him. Then he turned to us.
"These are Kesh and Puri. They are the ones handling the oasis in our stead. Kesh is a high mage that specializes in fire magic and Puri is a rare high mage that can use water magic."
The way he was saying this made me question something.
"Do you not have any archmages here?"
Red smiled and shook his head.
"Resources in the desert are sparse so gaining a high level is difficult. Especially the conversion from magic power to magic essence is a barrier that prohibits many of them from advancing. However, in return, there is an insane amount of mages around here. Only the best survived over many generations and their average warriors here are all mages."
"What do you mean by average warriors?"
"Of the 300 people living here, 250 are bunny kin. Take away 50 to take out the children and of the remaining 200 you will find that 150 of them are mages."