Chapter 5: It's Soul Transmigration!

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During the entire migration process, of course, there were setbacks, conflicts, injuries, and deaths.

But the final result was that whether it was the villagers who left halfway or the three hundred elderly and infirm who reached the destination, at least most of them survived.

In this era, achieving such a feat with the power of commoners could definitely be considered a miracle.

The original owner, Leo, was naturally one of the firm supporters of Uncle Ulyan. This wild and unruly little rascal only obeyed Uncle Ulyan.

Seeing Leo enter the tent, a hint of a smile appeared on Ulyan's bearded face, but then he glared and shouted, "Are you healed yet? Wandering around all day long. I've put up with you for a long time!"

Leo instinctively shrank his head and effortlessly covered his chest, pretending to be uncomfortable, but still asked, "What are you guys discussing? We've already got here. Why are there still so many things to deal with?"

"You don't know shit. With three hundred people, everything from eating, drinking, shitting, and pissing is a problem."

Ulyan didn't even want to explain anything to a brainless battle maniac. He waved his hand as if shooing away mosquitoes.

"Go and recover quickly. Once you're healed, take some people out for reconnaissance and figure out the surrounding environment. Drive away those who should be driven away and beat up those who should be beaten up. This will be our home from now on. We can't be sneak-attacked all the time."

With that, he looked at the person beside Leo. "Valery, take some people to dismantle the useless wagons and set up the fences first. Just randomly set up a few rows in three directions. A basic cover will do. We'll build houses after we settle down."

The strong and burly man named Valery obviously had a lot of experience in this. He nodded in response and then went out to do the work.

"Rashka, take a few people and burn the grassland in the north clean. Take people to reclaim the land tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Rusev, follow the militia and sweep around the surroundings twice to see if there's anything that can be sold for money. Our savings are running low."

The fifty-year-old man named Rusev nodded upon hearing this and didn't say a word.

Rusev was the owner of the village grocery store and was almost the only person in the village who regularly traveled back and forth between the village and the market town. The villagers' material exchanges with the outside world were all completed through his hands.

Compared to the villagers who made a living by farming the land, he was undoubtedly more knowledgeable and knew better what was valuable.

Both of his sons had died in the attack by the orc squad, leaving only a young grandson.

Like Valery and Rashka, he was one of those capable people who didn't leave halfway in the convoy.

Looking at the rough map on the table, Ulyan scratched his chin and confidently encouraged everyone, "I've been to this place. It has everything we need. Everyone, work together. If we can get through the first half of the year, the second half will be easier."

"When we have some spare money, I'll hire a survey team to come and take a look. What if we discover some mineral deposits? Then we'll get rich, hehe!"

However, his words didn't have much effect. The people sitting in a circle in the tent were the core of the entire exploration team and knew much more than the villagers outside who were just struggling to survive like marionettes.

The exploration team had reached a dead end here, running out of ammunition and food.

In comparison, the hardships during the migration were just an appetizer.

If it were the former Leo, he would definitely be infected by Ulyan's optimism and attracted by the beautiful future he described, becoming excited and full of fighting spirit.

He would temporarily forget the current predicament of not knowing where the next meal would come from.

But he was no longer the person he used to be, so he didn't get overly excited blindly. Instead, he stared at the map, lost in thought.

Uncle Ulyan intentionally chose to migrate at the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It wasn't just to avoid the large-scale plundering by the scout teams from the Beast Race after spring arrived. It was also to make use of the thawing in spring to reclaim enough wasteland at the river bend and catch the rye sowing season in April.

With the fertile land at the river bend and a much warmer climate compared with the banks of the North Ice River, as long as the pioneering team had enough labor force, they could almost achieve self-sufficiency in food in the first year.

The problem was that now there were fewer than three hundred people left in the convoy. Most of them were the elderly, the infirm, women, and children. Moreover, most of these families had insufficient survival abilities and no savings left. They chose to stay because they hoped for Uncle Ulyan's protection.

Those families with savings and sufficient labor force couldn't endure the hardships of migrating in the Northern Region's winter and chose to stop in the prosperous villages and towns along the way.

So, even in the most ideal situation where all three hundred elderly and infirm people pitched in and achieved food self-sufficiency in the first year, they still had to face the problem of food sources for the better part of a year before the rye was harvested.

It was impossible to rely solely on fishing and hunting. Although the small village where Leo lived was a naturally formed settlement, it was one of the few farming villages along the North Ice River.

A hundred years ago, the village was granted by Lord Frolov to a knightly family as a fief. In theory, apart from their own houses and allocated land, everything on the rest of the land belonged to the knight lord.

The villagers made a living entirely by farming. Not to mention that the local lord prohibited hunting and logging, even if they were allowed to fish and hunt, most of the villagers were too poor to even have fishing and hunting tools.

Apart from Uncle Ulyan, the best hunter in the village was Leo, this self-taught little wild lad.

Moreover, the self-made bows, arrows, and bone arrowheads of the villagers could only be used for hunting small animals like hares and foxes. They couldn't even kill an adult elk.

If that weren't the case, when the kobolds attacked, a volley of arrows would have been enough to repel them.

Not to mention that in the wilderness of this world, there were numerous alien tribes, beast lairs, and even magical beasts.

Asking a group of villagers with weak combat capabilities to hunt in an unfamiliar wilderness was simply seeking death.

"Ore? What kind of ore do you want?" Leo pondered the way out while staring at the map.

Uncle Ulyan waved his hand grandly. "It doesn't matter if it's gold ore or silver ore. Even copper ore would be acceptable."

"You're daydreaming. Copper ore?" Leo sneered. "There's no copper ore. How about iron ore?"

"Iron ore? What iron ore?" Uncle Ulyan and the others in the tent immediately widened their eyes. They looked at each other in disbelief. Where did the iron ore come from?

Leo took out a javelin head from a box in the corner of the tent and threw it on the round table, saying proudly, "Here it is."

Except for the blade tip, the surface of this javelin head had a thick layer of rust. Even so, the dense pores on it were still visible.

This was a javelin left by the kobolds a few days ago and was collected by Uncle Ulyan.

The intact javelins were distributed to the villagers as weapons for self-defense. The damaged ones had their javelin heads removed. After they settled down, the heads would be processed into farming tools for reclaiming wasteland.

The grand dukes of the empire were constantly fighting among themselves. What was filled on the battlefield wasn't just human lives but also a vast amount of war supplies such as weapons and armors.

The frigid Northern Region is inherently much more desolate compared to other areas of the empire. The scarce iron resources are monopolized by the nobles and forged into weapons and armors and continuously dispatched to the battlefield.

Consequently, the price of iron in the civilian market has soared, and many villagers can't even afford a hoe.

Noticing that everyone was still perplexed, Leo patiently led them, "Where did the kobolds get their ironware? It can't be bought, right?"

Ulyan slapped his thigh and asked excitedly, "Are you saying that the kobolds dug out an iron mine?"

Leo pointed to the javelin head on the table, and the answer was obvious.

For this kind of thing, one just needs to use their brain a little to make the connection. Especially for a homebody like him who has been steeped in novels and games with a magical setting, words like "kobold" and "mine cave" are naturally associated in his mind.

What Leo has been constantly pondering is the extraction and transportation of the iron ore.

The quality of the iron ore vein dug by the kobolds, whether it is suitable for mining, where to obtain the labor force for the extraction work, and how to transport and monetize it after mining, these are the key points.

But the others didn't have this kind of thinking. Their attention was focused on something else.

Ulyan stared at Leo in utter disbelief and shrieked, "Oh my! Have you finally got a brain, Leo???"

This question instantly set the whole place abuzz, and everyone began chattering away.

 "Impossible. My pig is smarter than him!"

 "I suspect he's been possessed by the kobold he killed!"

 "It could also be that the soul of a demon has transmigrated into his body."

 "Yes, yes, it's Soul Transmigration! It's Soul Transmigration!"

Leo looked at everyone speechlessly. How come you can figure out the truth in just a few words, yet can't come up with a way to fill your bellies?