"Since the undead are the main ’pests’ in your farm, you’d like us to kill them for you while gathering their cores at the same time."

It wasn’t a bad deal, especially if the manpower was local. Since he was producing the flowers, doing things this way was nearly free labor.

"Have you always hired mercenaries from the outside?" she couldn’t help but ask. Hiring from mercenary hall would’ve shot up the costs.

"No, I only started hiring mercenaries a few months ago," Josef said as he shook his head. "Prolonged exposure to the Undead isn’t very good."

Althea and Garan already knew this and they even had their own protection against the radiation, but Josef didn’t know that. This showed that Josef was at least fortright and had a conscience, not hiding such a thing from them.

"Prolonged exposure to the undead made people very sick. So after some time, people would only take the job once every month or so. The output is not enough for the quantity I need. At least mercenaries are transient laborers. Even if they get exposed now, they wouldn’t in the long-term."

"You can repeat missions indefinitely, so this trip would be more worth it," he said. "The last thing this region lacks is the undead.

"Besides, my stuff aren’t just useful in the desert, y’know."

Althea nodded, agreeing to it. These would be good to stock up during extreme heat disasters, as well as when her people were traveling in the desert as well. She had already calculated the value of the rewards, and it was a pretty good deal if they could deal with the undead efficiently.

"Sure, but can you tell us more about the undead? As you can see, we’re not from here. We have heard of the creatures, but it would be great to know more things from an expert."

Josef chuckled. "I’m no expert. If I were, I would kill those damned things myself instead of hiring people."

"Just focus on either beheading them or destroying their spine," he said. "Their body structure is humanoid and very similar to humans, just that their race was a bit taller, so it shouldn’t be difficult for mercenaries to handle if their levels are enough."

He looked at the two and gauged their levels. He couldn’t clearly see it, but his first impression of them was ’beautiful couple’ rather than ’imposing people’.

"Don’t get bitten or scratched. Otherwise, you’d likely get sick. We have quite a number of cases of deaths because of them."

"What if we don’t want to kill the Undead in your farm but look for them elsewhere?"

Josef paused. "It’s not that you can’t, but the desert is vast and they could be sparse. My farm attracts them so it’s more efficient."

"To be honest, we’re hoping to go deeper into the desert, to the Undead Land."

"What? Why?"

"A territory mission," she just said, sounding vague. Josef was curious, but he knew that each territory had its own secrets. Unexpectedly, she actually told him about it.

"One of our allies reported that the number of undead sightings has been increasing. They’re asking us to look at the barrier."

His back straightened, heart tightening. "Really?" Undead are increasing?

It wasn’t that he didn’t notice it. He just attributed it to bad luck because the differences weren’t that much. However, in retrospect, it must be the reason why the hunters outside got sick more often. They must’ve encountered more undead than they usually did.

And they were already kilometers away from the desert perimeter. It must’ve been much more obvious in the desert, where the Undead thrived.

"You mean...there could be a leak in the Wall?"

The Wall blocked the majority of the Undead from the rest of the region. They were so troublesome now. Imagine if there were steady streams of them.

"It is a possibility."

Althea and the others had been hearing from Dune Town that the Undead sightings had been increasing. It was as if there had been a leak on the blockage. However, it was too far into the desert and possibly too big that no one town wanted to be troubled with it.

Imagining it happening made Josef’s blood turn cold.

He wondered if the farms he and his father had built their whole lives be flattened by the damned things?

...

Josef showed him his farm first. It was about half an hour walk from the walls, and into the perimeter of the desert. It was hidden by some rock formations, making it easy to defend.

Technically speaking...it wasn’t ’his’ farm. It was, after all, not even close to the territory wall. It was more like a harvest location his father had found back then.

Anyone who worked for him was simply asked to take simple oaths not to spread where it was, nor could they show its location to others. Althea and Garan, of course, were no exceptions.

Fortunately, the resource was important but not too unique, and those who’d treat the plant as ’gold source’ were too weak to head out to the desert, and those who were strong enough generally didn’t care for it.

The so-called farm wasn’t small. It was nearly an acre with several clusters of cacti. The needles were sharp as knives though, so if any average joe were to be pushed down there, they’d become perforated joes.

Althea saw a few offset succulents she could take, so she really did. She had a large number of plants and troughs in her space, most of which were new in preparation for a long adventure.

Since she found out she could plant in her space, she naturally had to take advantage. She looked at her growing collection with satisfaction.

"Anyway, if you decide to just do my mission instead of the others," he said, "You can stay here and kill the undead coming in."

Going all the way to the Wall, frankly, felt like a suicide mission. He showed them the place so they could keep their options open.

The couple nodded and Josef breathed a sigh of relief.

Before he could truly relax, however, an undead appeared from between the cacti!

ROAARRR!

Swoosh!

Before it could move a meter towards Josef, the spikes of the surrounding cacti suddenly grew, puncturing the undead deeply in several areas so that it couldn’t move anymore, helplessly twitching in place.

K-K-kkkh!

Josef blinked and gaped, then turned to the woman, realizing that the attack was hers. She didn’t even look like someone who made a move.

Josef shook his head. He realized that he worried for nothing.