When they finally reached the homestead, they found a massive cottage-like structure created from uprooted trees in the center of a cleared-out patch of earth.
Right in front of the cottage, was a massive fence made from even more trees, these however looked like they had been planted that way initially instead of being placed there. These trees in particular were hardwood trees, similar to the ones that used to grow in the green forest before the decay had caused them all to rot.
~Though it doesn't seem like it made much of a difference,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing a portion of the fence had been knocked over.
Using animals that large as livestock was bound to be a chore, though he supposed that there wasn't any other animal that'd be able to feed their family adequately.
"Are there many others like you?" Lucius asked as the group walked towards the massive front door of the cottage.
"No, Geyron's family is the only one," Geyron replied stubbornly, before dropping the cart he had been pushing. He then mumbled something to Triden, who gave him the mana stone before storming into the house.
"Don't worry about Geyron. He'll forget about this after a while," Triden commented as they watched Geyron shut the door.
Though it wasn't as if Lucius really minded much, they probably wouldn't see each other after this transaction anyway.
"So does that mean you guys only recently started this practice?" he asked after a moment of silence had passed, pointing towards the fence.
"No, Geyron's family has been doing this since our kind settled in the forest," Triden replied, before dropping the handles of the cart she had been pushing as well. Though the golems were powerful, it seemed they didn't have nearly as much stamina as Lucius had. Which proved to be a valuable piece of information.
"How come his family is the only one then? Surely the others have seen what you guys are doing as well," he commented, as Triden invited them to take a closer look at the fence.
"Geyron's family was blessed with unique magic. They are the only ones who could possibly build boundaries strong enough to contain a group of Gargans," Triden replied, before using her brute strength to fix the part of the fence that had fallen over.
"It's just that yesterday one of our sons was responsible for strengthening the fence. Though he's still young and his magic isn't as good as Geyron's," she continued. Once the fence was fixed, a red glow began emanating from it.
Curious about this strange aura, Lucius reached out his hand to touch it.
~Incredible,~ he thought to himself in awe. Although these trees were clearly made of wood, it felt like he was pushing against steel. Even after he had put in a considerable amount of strength, he wasn't able to move them an inch.
~If this is the work of someone who hasn't mastered the art, then I wonder how strong Geyron makes them,~ he thought to himself, suddenly regretting the fact that he and Geyron were on bad terms.
This was clearly a form of augmentation, a powerful one at that. With magic like this, he could make even a mushroom settlement into a nigh impenetrable fortress, which was part of the reason Lucius couldn't understand why they had settled to be farmers.
~No, I have to win these golems over,~ he decided.
Forget turning mushroom settlements into impenetrable fortresses, armor enchanted with this magic would turn even the frailest of soldiers into walking tanks. Add swords, spears, and all sorts of other war gear and the conception of a god-like army was not out of the question.
In fact, Lucius even pondered if this effect could be increased if they had solar cruxs to power the enchantment. But perhaps he was getting ahead of himself.
The fact was, these guys were going to be a good part of the answer to magic weapons, though one question still remained unanswered.
"Has Grenovarish ever asked Geyron's family for their services?" he asked.
Triden looked at him with a confused expression for a moment.
"Services? What use would the king have for this sort of magic? I doubt there's anything this side of the forest that could ever warrant Grenovarish needing this," she answered.
It was a little disappointing that the king hadn't been using this gift to his advantage, though Lucius could see his reasoning. Perhaps asking for help would make him look weak in front of his people, or maybe the king was just too ignorant to see the world of possibilities it opened.
Whatever the case was, it created a market gap. One Lucius looked to exploit.
~Though their primary currency, mana stones, is something I'm lacking. And I doubt anything I can collect in the forest would be a worthwhile trade to these guys,~ he thought to himself.
However, this made him realize something. If the tenth-tiers wanted the mana cores so badly -for reasons that Lucius hoped to find out through experimentation- how did the lower-tier creatures come to get them?
The only viable reason for this is that they were a resource found somewhere in close vicinity to the lower-tier areas, otherwise, the tenth tiers wouldn't bother trading with the lower tiers at all.
"Triden, do you know where mana stones are found?" Lucius asked after some thought. Perhaps asking someone where the equivalent of 'do you know where I can mine gold?' wasn't the smartest question, however even an answer as vague as 'mostly in gold veins' would do the trick.
At this point, Geyron was coming out of the cottage, with three small mana stones in hand.
"Magic beasts of course," Triden replied briefly, before walking towards her husband.
"Take these and leave," Geyron said roughly, before placing the mana stones on top of the cart filled with other resources.
Lucius had gotten enough time to recover, so he was more than well enough to push the carts back to the Zeldrave den, however, he couldn't leave things as they were.
