“As ingenious as people could be, nature itself is often far more ingenious and creative than what most expects. Problems that people face and trouble themselves over might not even be problems at all if one just lets nature take its course.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“”What are they doing there, Aunt?” asked Áine as the group walked through a countryside region between Meergant and the Central region where the royal capital lay. The countryside region in question happened to have many rivers flowing through it, rendering much of the region into marshlands and wetlands, so the types of crops grown there also differed.

The dwarves cultivated rice – also used primarily to make alcohol with – in that region, and rice paddies could be seen around most villages. Aideen and her group happened to be walking past one such village with rice paddies surrounding it from all sides when they saw a group of local dwarves herding a massive flock of what must be hundreds of ducks towards the rice paddies in question.

Said flock moved to and fro in the paddies, their bills pecking at things every now and then, and their handlers guided them all the way around the paddies by the village. Aideen’s group watched with curiosity as the flock of ducks ran rampant amongst the neatly arrayed stalks of rice, the younger ones particularly curious about what was happening.

“They’re using the ducks to deal with pests,” explained Aideen to the youngsters in the group. Most of the land suitable for growing rice in Ur-Teros were in the Lichdom – where they used other means to deal with pests – or in the more fertile regions of the north where ducks weren’t an endemic species, so they had never seen such a thing in the south. “The ducks feed on weeds and pests like snails and other bugs, so they help the farmers deal with a lot of problems. Their droppings also double as fertilizer for the field.”

“At the same time, those who rear the ducks also save themselves expenses for feeding them. It’s a win-win situation where both the farmers and the ranchers benefit from the situation,” she added as she pointed out towards where the local farmers were treating the duck handlers with some food and beverages while the ducks did their thing. “It’s a clever way to get things done in a mutually profitable manner. Those people likely drive their flock around to other villages too.”

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“I guess it makes sense. They don’t have anywhere as many pest exterminators as we do back home, after all,” noted Áine with a nod.

Every person was born with mana in their bodies, but whether they could gain proper control over that mana and manifest it as magic, or the amount of mana they had, all of those were up to chance. People who became mages were those who had both the skill to control their mana and an abundance of it to use as fuel for their magic.

Those who had neither the skill nor the amount typically only master some convenient tricks to make use of their limited mana, and no more, but there remained another segment of society, people who either had an abundance of mana but no skill to control it properly, or those who could control mana well but lacked enough mana to perform great workings.

Such people typically used their blessings in other ways, and often found jobs where they could make use of their control or mana. In the Lichdom, a death-affinity person with plenty of mana but not enough control to make much use of it often worked as a recharger. They would recharge the various undead constructs used in the lichdom with mana whenever necessary, making use of their abundant mana in the simplest way. It was a lucrative line of work, if not one with much potential to go higher.

Other death affinity people – which was the most common affinity in the Lichdom and the surrounding vicinity – who had skill to control their mana but lacked mana to do much with it often worked as pest exterminators like Áine mentioned. While they did not possess much mana, what they had was plenty for dealing with small creatures like bugs or other pests.

A skilled pest exterminator could simply wipe out all life in a field other than the crops themselves given some time, and like a recharger, it was also a lucrative line of work, and a rather important one as they formed an indispensable part of the Lichdom’s agricultural workforce. The dead pests would also turn to fertilizer with time, which was a pleasant side effect.

In contrast, the northern region typically used certain potions and drugs that kept such pests away from their fields. While effective in its own way, that method led to less fertilizers being incorporated to the fields, and it was known that the northerners often had to “rest” a field after several harvests to allow the land to regain its fertility.

The dwarves of the northern continent had clearly found their own solution to the problem. After all, if one pursued agriculture, dealing with weeds and pests came as a package with it. Any society that farmed for their food would develop methods to deal with issues that hindered said process, often coming up with their own solutions.

It definitely also explained why duck meat was even more popular than chicken meat in Knallzog. Chickens were typically raised for their eggs and meat, and while ducks could also be raised the same way for the same purpose, they gave less yield compared to chickens as they laid eggs far less frequently. Since the dwarves used the ducks to deal with weeds and pests, though, they had more reason to raise more of them, and as such had a greater supply of duck meat and eggs as a result.

All that just showcased an example of how life differed between peoples, much less between nations and continents.