Renovating the swamp wasn't easy. Even when the best gnomes and hobgoblins were gathered at the magic cypress tree, they could not make quick progress.

After scouting the terrain, the gnomes and Rino agreed that levelling the entire swamp was too difficult and counter useful. Filling the swamp with artificial platforms would hinder the ecosystem too much, and the least they could do was make bridges and docks for boats to arrive at the stations they needed.

There was a lovely spot for chopping trees that Rino marked out as a tree farm. He wanted to build the sawmill a little further from that plot of land, extended towards the water because it was easier to create a section for wood treatment tanks in the pond than on land.

The gnomes said they would prepare some new wood using the cypress trees in the swamp, and Rino told them to proceed while he figured out how to plant his hundred Water Bell Flowers in the pond within the cypress tree radius.

The fairies accompanying Rino were the three newly promoted farm manager sisters. Rino had no clue about planting these flowers and handed them the bag of seeds while manually testing if the water in this stale swamp could be purified and transformed into mana imbued water for tree planting.

The short answer after two hours of rigorous testing was yes. The long answer after his trial and errors was that it would be a very long project that required the help of elemental sylphs and the magic cypress tree.

Rino needed another mana web array in the swamp territory to support the design he had in mind. The sawmill, docks, lights, reed farm, paper factory and even mana water producing flowers relied heavily on mana production. Not to mention, Rino wanted to feed those starved wisps in the area into becoming capable helpers. One could never have too many free slaves.

The Water Bell Flowers bloomed quickly with the nature magic boost, and soon, the entire swamp was covered with those flowers. Rino bought two more seed packets to thoroughly cover the area, watching the flowers do their work, filling the area with mana imbued water.

He called Mutt over to help distribute corpses to the three hundred flowers. It would be too gory to dump whole carcasses at every flower's planting spot. Hence, Rino ordered the hunters to help the distributors by cutting the zombie corpses into smaller pieces no bigger than a rock he found by the murky waters as a gauge. The rock was the size of Rino's palm, and Mutt took it upon himself to inspect every chunk of rotting flesh before giving the hobgoblin deliverers the green light to distribute the flesh.

At least the flower issue was resolved for now. They had spare corpses lying around, and Rino refused to deliberately kill more living creatures every three days to sacrifice them to the Water Bell Flowers. Thankfully, there was another alternative, but that would include the mana web array. Rino tested it with one flower that absorbed dark magic like a hungry infant. The output of this particular flower was faster than its peers, giving Rino the idea of borrowing a similar magic circle that he used for the World Tree on the cypress tree.

Only this time, he wasn't creating a new magic tree. He simply used the existing magic tree with its own connection of faes and wisps to power the mana conversion circle to power the Water Bell Flowers after the zombie corpse bank was depleted.

Rino checked on the reeds in the area, and the fairies working on a small patch were starting to witness miraculous results using Fronzo's premade fertiliser.

"My king, where should we plant the reeds?" the fairies asked.

Rino looked around the swamp and stroked his jawline in thought. There were reeds everywhere, but reeds do not grow well in clusters. The best place to row it would be near a paper factory, but Rino was having a hard time deciding on a good paper factory spot. It should not be too far from the magic tree but not too close that it would disrupt the tree farm or his teacher's cottage.

"Leave it for now," he told them. "Help the gnomes process the wood. We need to start making the docks for the sawmill and alighting platform near the magic cypress."

Fluttering away to get things done, the fairies coordinated the job segregation among themselves as Rino scouted for a good location within the radius of his three hundred flowers.

These mana water producing flowers were absolutely everywhere, and Rino looked up. If only he could build something up in the trees like how birds build their nests.

Then, the lich paused. Who said that a house must be built on land? Rino looked at the cypress tree and made his decision. This was where his teacher's house was going to be. It was a prime location with a great view of the entire swamp territory. Not to mention, it was easy to connect the mana web array to the cypress tree with a magician monitoring it. He needed a reliable manager in the swamp, and there really wasn't anyone more capable than the long-time resident of these swamps. Kragami should have nothing to complain about, and Rino decided that the necromancer should build his own house without any assistance from Rino's shadow army if he hated it.

"Alright," he grinned. It was finally time to decide on a good spot for the reed farm and paper factory.

All around the magic cypress tree were murky water. The fastest way to grow plants was using man imbued water, nature magic and Fronzo's fertiliser. In that case, Rino decided that the reeds should be planted near the Water Bell Flowers. He would commission a reed collection boat to be built when he returned in the morning so that the hobgoblins or farmers could collect large batches of ready reeds for the paper factory to process.

Speaking of a paper factory, Rino liked the sight of that slightly raised isle on the opposite end of the sawmill and tree farm. Making paper was easy, and with the fairies' magic, Rino expected hundreds of sheets to be made in a day.

With his plans moving forward, Rino checked on the gnomes' progress and helped out wherever possible so that the hobgoblins could start with the manual labour work, building the dock and building foundation.