Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

"We should still be a day away," Layn muttered under his nose as the rest of the group busied themselves with setting up the camp. As much as he wanted to reach the camp already, with just four mounts for the entire group, there was no way to speed up their march any further.

"What are you thinking about?" Sitra asked as she approached the archmage. Layn looked back, only to see her impressive figure with her already prepared tent serving as the background to her march.

'To think that not only Al but Irea would also be slower than her,' he thought, taking note of this small detail of the girl.

"Nothing much." Layn shrugged the question away. "Just some early planning for what we should do once we get back," he said, looking down at the ground.

In just the last few moments, the lazy and monotone moves of his hand-carved out quite a complex picture directly in the ground.

"Yeah, yeah, tell me more," Sitra chuckled at Layn's explanation before brushing away a stray strand of hair that got on her eyes. She then leaned over Layn's arm, curious about the drawings of his making. "Is this some sort… of an irrigation system?" she asked, moving her eyes – filled with surprise – on Layn's face.

"More or less," he admitted his doings before pulling the stick he was using to draw away. Layn then took a long look at the complicated net of lines and rows that spread away from a circle that served as a base of the entire picture. "I'm not sure if I'm right with this, but I'm quite puzzled by the difference between the energy the Overlord I defeated had and the one I'm receiving right now," he revealed his little secret without the slightest care in the world.

'Or rather, that's what I would love for her to think I just did,' Layn thought as he scanned the self-made picture below his feet.

"And what kind of great conclusions did you came up with?" Sitra pushed, uncaring for the potential trouble she was causing to the archmage.

At first, Layn simply sent the girl a long, meaningful glance before shaking his head and ultimately averting his eyes. 'Well, she is kind of a deputy of Slavians, so I need to feed her some information,' he realized before raising his eyes at the girl again. "If it's not going to me, it has to go somewhere," Layn shook his shoulders. "And what's the better place for the energy to gather than in soil? Although only slight, its crystalic structure makes it easy for mana to store up," Layn explained the very basics of the magicmateriology, one of the founding subjects every student at his academy had to pass.

"So you think that those arid lands can actually be a bomb of fertility?" Sitra asked before blinking her eyes a few times as if she wanted to make sure the sight in front of her eyes wasn't just an illusion.

But no matter how much she blinked, Layn's body still remained on top of a small hill he picked to waste his time away while everyone was busy setting the camp. As such, his words couldn't be an illusion either.

"Even if that's the case, we will need to iron that energy out of the ground for it to be truly fertile," Layn corrected Sitra's slight misconception with just a passing notion. "As for the irrigation system itself," he started.

"What are you guys talking about?" Irea approached the two of them as soon as she finished her own tent. With no surprise, Al followed closely behind Layn's girlfriend, proving that he wasn't slow at work either.

"The irrigation system. Suppose a single guess of mine is right. In that case, this might be the most important project for us for the nearest future," Layn answered honestly before pointing his small stick at the picture below his feet.

"System of canals?" Al asked, unsure about the meaning of the word.

"That's right," Layn nodded, pointing his stick at one of the three points starting in the founding circle. One of the three points symbolized the opening of one of the three main waterways Layn planned. "We will frame the entire project on those three canals," he pointed at the widest ditches in the picture.

"Two of them will by the border of the current housing district," Layn pointed at a small box and two lines that run parallel to it. "The first one will end up spilling through the smaller canals to the south. We will use those canals to water the fields we will prepare there," Layn continued his explanation as he pointed his stick at various parts of the picture.

"If we are already bringing up a single line there, what's the point for making another canal right beside?" Al asked, looking all puzzled. "Wouldn't it be easier to just make a single canal… but wider?" he asked, proving that he at least had the basic idea of what the construction of canals was all about.

"While the southern line will be used to water the fields, we will use the norther one to create the reservoir past the fields," Layn continued his lecture, explaining every piece of his carving to the people despite it being just a makeshift picture he drew to help himself formulate the plan in the first place. "As for the line going east right off the bat, we will use it to create another massive field, boxing the camp between those two crops-focused areas," Layn said before lowering his head and spitting. An unwise action with how dry his throat already became.

"Wouldn't that make it hard to fortify this position?" Al asked, looking up at Layn with concern in his eyes.

"We are out in the desert. To a point, this camp is at the very heartland of both deserts, be it the sandy or the grassy one," Layn pointed out before yawning. "If someone is determined and skilled enough to pass through either of the deserts, no matter the fortifications, they won't pose any challenge to them," Layn countered without as much as a second thought.

Those came later.

"Wait, you might actually be right," Layn suddenly admitted, as if it was the most natural thing for him to do. "Now that we can't know for sure whether the monsters will continue to roam the land, we cannot take our detachment-born safety for granted," he said in a harsh voice. 'How could I fail to notice it?' Layn asked himself, feeling as if all the memories from his journey back to the camp flooded his mind at once.

Ever since he was blown away by that Overlord of Origin in its dying moments, Layn didn't encounter a single monster. His first time to see a single monster again only happened when he went into the sphere of influence of another monster.

'Did the monsters migrate? Did they change their patterns? Or maybe they all disappeared along with the Overlord's death?' Layn posed yet another series of questions before tightening his fists. The aura of powerlessness spilled all over his soul.

In a single instant, his joyous mood turned sour.

'If the lack of monsters is something really triggered by the demise of the Overlord, some sort of fortifications will be of utmost importance,' Layn thought, noticing his single flawed detail about his plans.

All of them included the presence of the monsters roaming the desert as a deterrent factor. Be it for the opponents or candidates to Layn's academy, a march through hell accompanied by those demonic creatures would be a fitting trial to anyone wishing to challenge the gates of Layn's academy.

Be it to graduate or to claim its riches and knowledge for one's own.

"Now that I thought about it, you are fully right," Layn once again admitted to his mistake before scrapping the entire picture with a few swift strokes of his stick. "Let's do it all over again, but this time with defenses in mind," Layn muttered to the public all over him while, in fact, using those words to encourage himself.

Layn simply sat down on a small hill and carved out doodles directly in the ground in the next few moments. But what could look like a random set of lines and dots for a stranger was actually a detailed plan on what would become the foundation of Layn's academy and, later, maybe even a city.

"We will start from three points. First two arteries, we will cross to enclose the area as big as ten of our current camps," Layn said, once again pointing his stick down at the carving he made. "Between two massive canals and the lake itself, we will be surrounded with water. Once we add some ramparts, ditches, and traps, the camp will become virtually unsiegable. The problem is…." Layn suddenly stopped his lecture as if a sudden question appeared in his mind.

But what Layn decided to keep silent about, Al voiced out without any fucks given, "Unsiegable? And who would wish to siege it in the first place?"