Chapter 21: The Establishment of the Farm

Tall wooden fences divided the farm into a livestock grazing area and a farmland area. There were also two sturdy houses connected together, both in the style of European farmhouses with stone foundations and wooden beams and columns. One served as a residence, while the other was a grain storage. Further away were sheds for livestock and poultry.

Apart from the lack of any animals or crops, this was already a perfectly complete farm.

Next, Donald walked to the barren land on the left side of the estate and, with another wave of his hand, another human farm covering twenty acres appeared out of thin air. Adjacent to the first farm built, Donald continued to construct three more farms before stopping.

Although there was still enough space to build two more farms behind, the wood and stone materials had been almost exhausted. So, Donald had to complete the foundations in the front area first, with the rest to be built later.

If anyone had witnessed this scene, they would surely declare it a miracle. But Donald was now lamenting the high cost of building this farm.

Although the basic materials reduced energy consumption by 80%, the large size of the farms still consumed a significant amount of the remaining reserve crystal stones.

“These are all diamond-like elemental crystal stones! And this is only for the smallest building units. What about larger structures like barracks and towns? They’ll surely drain my hard-earned wealth!”

A large amount of crystal stones was spent like water. Yet, seeing the farms appear instantly before his eyes, Donald felt it was worth it.

Of course, materials could be used to replace some of the elemental crystal stones, or one could bring their own materials and summon enough human laborers to build the farms. But in that case, although he could afford the cost of lower-grade magical beast cores, the speed would be far slower than now.

Real farmers building farms and other structures weren’t as quick and convenient as in games; everything had to follow the basic laws of this world.

After building four farms around the center of the estate, Donald also constructed four watchtowers at the four corners of the estate’s perimeter.

These stone-built reconnaissance watchtowers, 15 meters tall with a diameter of 8 meters at their thickest part, were the cheapest building units among the four magical beast races. With an adequate supply of stone, each such tall tower only required about five units of lower-grade elemental crystal stones—cheaper even than Donald’s small guardian ring!

“With these four watchtowers in place, the security of the estate will be greatly enhanced.”

“Although basic sentinels have no offensive capabilities in either games or reality, and can only be used as reconnaissance units if not upgraded, in this real world, most situations can be adapted. By placing a few archers on them, sentinels can be turned into temporary arrow towers. When energy reserves are low, there’s no need to spend resources on upgrades or modifications.” Of course, such makeshift arrow towers can hardly compare in defensive strength to those equipped with crossbow machines. But given that Donald currently only has this small, remote estate, he doesn’t think any powerful enemies will come to attack it. So, it’s sufficient to build a few sentinels that require the least amount of resources for reconnaissance purposes. “It’s a shame the estate isn’t large enough to accommodate more than six farms; the land in the middle needs to be reserved for building a villa. Fortunately, once the estate develops, we can plan for that much larger estate!” After finishing these tasks, Donald returned to his home in Red Maple Town and instructed his butler to reduce orders for building materials. “The farms on the estate are already built. Continue purchasing wood and stone, but put off other materials for now until we find an architect to design and build the villa!” “Really, young master?” Cord was pleasantly surprised at the affirmative reply. “The power of mages is truly amazing. Now we should hire a few farmers to manage the estate, and we also need to acquire livestock, poultry, and crop seeds!” Donald nodded and said, “Exactly. While spring is still going on, we must develop this estate vigorously to achieve our first harvest before autumn.” Although Cord had been idle for over a decade, he was undoubtedly a competent butler. He first contacted an architect from a guild and hired enough workers. Then he recruited three farming families from among the local civilians, bringing the total to eleven working adults. This included Donald’s coachman’s family, who now also belonged to the Merlin family’s estate. The reason these three families gave up their original livelihoods to work at the Merlin family’s estate was that Donald offered them twice the wages of other nobles. He had his butler promise that, in addition to fixed expenses for food and lodging, each farming family would receive ten percent of the produce they grew or raised—this was at least twice their original wages. With such incentives, the farmers were highly motivated to work hard!

Watching the excitement of those three families, the butler Kord asked from the side, “Young master! Are the conditions you’ve set too high?”
“Of course not. You must understand that only if they feel they’re working for themselves will they be willing to work hard and have high expectations for their rewards. That’s how the estate can develop quickly!”
From his past experiences, Donald knew that expecting a horse to run fast without it eating grass was a greedy and foolish mindset!
After explaining this to the butler, Kord was deeply impressed by his master’s kindness and wisdom. With such generous conditions, the farmers would work hard for their own benefit, ensuring the estate’s output far exceeded that of other nobles.
Three days later, Donald returned to the estate with the butler, servants, and several farmers hired by the Merlin family. The butler Kord was stunned by the completely transformed estate before him!
The sturdy and exquisite fences, the well-organized and magnificent farms, and the houses all seemed to have been built overnight. There hadn’t been so many buildings when he last visited!
“What a fertile estate! These farms are truly a gift from the gods!”
“Thank the goddess! Thank the mage lord!”
The others, except for the coachman, had never been to the estate before, so they weren’t surprised. They were all amazed by the fertility, beauty, and prosperity of the estate where they would soon work.
As for the coachman, having followed Donald, he had learned to remain calm in any situation. His employer was a mysterious and powerful mage—what couldn’t he do? In the eyes of ordinary people, mages were either evil beings akin to demons or powerful entities second only to the gods!
Seeing that the coachman hadn’t said anything reckless, Donald was satisfied. His butler would surely not betray him, but the coachman, being an outsider, might not be reliable. Still, for now, he seemed trustworthy.
Donald turned to the group and said, “Before spring ends, I plan to plant all the crops on the farms and take good care of the livestock. By harvest time in autumn, we should be able to earn at least a thousand gold sols. The initial investment will be recouped quickly, and we’ll achieve balance!”
“Yes, my lord!” “We will work hard!”

A dozen farmers, full of enthusiasm, led by the steward, brought several carts of livestock and crop seeds to the farm and settled them there. Since only three families were employed at the moment, the steward assigned them to a large house on the farm. The house was spacious enough to accommodate those three families with some extra space left over.

There were still rooms available in three other farms, but Donald had no immediate plans for them. Eleven workers were sufficient for this newly developed estate.

With the farm houses available and the villa not yet built, Donald chose one of them as his and the steward’s temporary residence on the estate.

Upon entering the room he had created, he found that aside from the lack of furniture, all the basic facilities were present.

“This farm house is much larger than the houses in town. Starting today, we’ll live here temporarily, which will also make it easier to manage the estate and the farm!” Donald instructed the steward.

“As for the residence in Red Maple Town, I don’t plan to stay there anymore. After all, it’s the territory of other nobles. It’s good to keep it as a liaison point! Codd, you’ll need to work hard these next couple of days to move all our belongings here! Once the villa is built in a few months, this place will truly become a noble estate!”

Receiving the order, steward Codd eagerly went to organize people to move the belongings.

Two days passed, and the estate was mostly settled. Once the farmers got busy, Donald took the hired architect to survey the terrain. Arriving at the site designated for the villa, he pointed at the empty space and said, “The construction of the estate villa can take its time, but it must be sturdy and durable. No mistakes are allowed. I hope Mr. Donald will pay close attention to this!”

“Please rest assured, Master Mage. This villa is quite large, but still small compared to the entire estate. Once the design plans are finalized, the construction should be largely completed within three months!”

Steward Codd had hired an architect from a merchant guild’s branch in Giant Stone City. This architect was a scholar appearing to be in his fifties. Generally, professions like architects and accountants were held by knowledgeable scholars.

The reason for the different professions was that scholars focused on different areas of knowledge.

Most scholars came from noble families but were not heirs. They had to possess a special skill to survive in this world and continue living a noble life.

The scholar from Dona wasn’t impressed by Donald’s status as a minor noble—after all, having come from the royal capital, he had seen countless nobles. But Donald’s status as a full-fledged mage at the age of seventeen forced Dona to lower his pride. In this world, it was widely believed that if there were anyone more learned than scholars, it was the mages, those spellcasters.

Unlike scholars who were merely administrative talents, even research-oriented mages who weren’t good at fighting possessed unimaginable power. Such mysterious strength inspired awe in ordinary people.

Faced with such powerful individuals, Dona decided to do his best job. After surveying the terrain, he decided to stay at the farm temporarily to facilitate the design and construction of the villa.

After a night of hard work, the scholar from Dona completed a preliminary draft of the villa’s design.

Upon seeing the plans, Donald was quite satisfied with the villa’s exterior. The scholar had adopted the architectural style of Solon, the commercial alliance nation in the southern part of the continent, known for its advanced commerce.

Solon was a beautiful kingdom famous not only for its economic strength but also for its numerous tropical resorts, sunny beaches, and many delicious fruits rare in the north.

Over the years, the buildings in Solon’s resorts had combined the best features of architectural styles from various countries on the continent, resulting in what was now recognized as the most beautiful style for noble villas.

Although the cost was at least 30% higher than that of ordinary northern styles, Donald thought it was worth it given the final result. After all, he wasn’t short of money—if he was going to build something, it had to be the best.

In Donald’s view, this architectural style resembled the seaside villas in tropical regions from his past life, with a focus on ventilation and moisture resistance. He offered his own suggestions, asking the scholar to make some changes to the draft—removing some extravagant and unnecessary decorations, strengthening the overall structure, and adding elements in the European style from his past life.

Donald also asked the scholar to expand and deepen the villa’s foundation by at least five times. Extra expenses didn’t matter; it was all for the stability of the building and to leave enough space for a basement and his future alchemy laboratory.

Since he was building a villa, he wanted it to be perfect. Although the houses in this world looked very classical on the outside, they weren’t as comfortable as the simple houses in the rural areas of his past life. So, Donald couldn’t help but bring elements from his past life to this world.

Next, Donald put forward his own requirements regarding the internal structure, mainly to reserve space for a water supply system, indoor bathrooms, and facilities essential for a villa from his past life, such as a swimming pool, garage, freezer, and basement. As for some designs that were far too advanced for this world, Donald didn’t intend to make them public to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Therefore, he didn’t specify what those reserved areas were meant for in the design plans. He also planned to hire workers from different guilds to construct these facilities, so as to prevent details of the villa from leaking out. With such design plans full of blanks, Donald had already signed contracts with the guilds and architects, which were notarized at the temple and the nobility council, stipulating that certain design concepts of his villa could not be spread by the hired parties to other buildings. This could be considered a form of patent rights in this alternate world! That scholar, Dona, was fascinated by Donald’s ideas from another world, but at the thought of that contract, he felt furious. A few days passed quickly; the three farming families took charge of managing their respective farms, handling everything well. Crops were sown, and the livestock population grew. The design plan for the main villa was finalized after Donald pointed out a few flaws and areas he wasn’t satisfied with, after which he ordered the workers brought by Dona to begin construction.