Chapter 39 Making Baal a Paradise Again Bonus

— Vane opened his inventory, pulled out a Ring of the Flying Squid, and slipped it onto his left hand.

This modded accessory granted the wearer unhindered, creative-mode flight and projected a passive, invisible kinetic shield that deflected physical projectiles and environmental hazards.

Under the awestruck gazes of the crowd, Vane lifted off the ground, floating effortlessly into the air.

He surveyed the settlement from above, looking for the optimal location to construct his infinite water fountain.

Seeing the ramshackle hab-blocks completely smothered by the suffocating red dust, his brow furrowed in annoyance.

“This red fog is incredibly obnoxious.

Let’s clear the air first.” Vane pulled a High-Tier Spell Scroll from his inventory.

This was a consumable item from a magic modpack that stored a single, pre-cast high-level spell.

The scroll he held was inscribed with the spell Howling Gale.

It was designed to summon a massive, localized cyclone, making it absolutely perfect for dispersing the planetary dust storm.

He casually tossed the scroll into the air.

A colossal, hyper-complex magical array instantly flared to life, suspended above the settlement.

Countless intricate, glowing runes materialized, interlocking like ethereal chains to form a breathtaking, reality-warping geometric pattern.

As the colossal array slowly rotated, a deafening, localized hurricane roared to life..

The suffocating red fog was violently swept up and aggressively dispersed by the gale.

In a matter of seconds, the eternal, choking dust storm that had plagued the settlement for millennia was completely blown away.

The blistering sun broke through the clouds, bathing Angel’s Fall in brilliant, unfiltered sunlight for the first time in recorded history.

“The red fog…

it’s gone?!” Ugi stared up at the clear sky, his jaw practically hitting the dirt in sheer shock.

His first instinctual thought was completely pragmatic: Without the red fog keeping everyone indoors, business should pick up, right?!

He owed a massive debt to the market overseer.

If he didn’t make his payment today, they were going to mutilate him.

The last time he was late, they cut off his left pinky finger.

The rest of the crowd was equally dumbfounded, staring at Vane as if he were a literal god.

They marveled at Vane’s incomprehensible, reality-bending power, their hearts swelling with desperate hope that he could truly solve their water crisis.

Standing on the periphery, First Captain Karlaen silently recorded the entire event via his helmet pict-captures.

Having personally witnessed the absolute, physics-breaking absurdity Vane had unleashed in the Cryptus System, a localized weather-control spell barely even registered on Karlaen’s emotional radar.

“Alright, time to build the fountain.” Having selected a sufficiently large, central plaza, Vane landed and pulled out an enchanted Diamond Pickaxe.

In a blur of motion, he perfectly leveled the ground and rapidly excavated a massive, symmetrical basin, lining the interior with smooth stone bricks.

He then planted several blocks of Seagrass at the bottom.

Next, right in the center of the artificial lake, he began rapidly placing blocks, constructing a massive, hundred-meter-tall statue of himself.

The statue gazed heroically into the distance, holding a colossal, tipped bucket in its hands.

Once the statue was complete, Vane pulled out a Water Bucket and casually emptied it into the statue’s oversized bucket.

Normally, in vanilla Minecraft, as long as you had a sufficient drop height, a single source block could create a flowing waterfall.

But to prevent some idiot from accidentally (or intentionally) breaking the source block and ruining the fountain, Vane placed exactly twenty Water Source Blocks inside the statue’s bucket and surrounded them with Kelp.

This specific configuration exploited Minecraft’s fluid mechanics: unless someone physically destroyed every single source block simultaneously, the water would infinitely regenerate.

The water cascaded down from the statue’s bucket, splashing into the massive basin below.

Aided by the Seagrass mechanics, the flowing water instantly converted into stable source blocks upon hitting the bottom, permanently filling the lake and guaranteeing an absolutely infinite water supply.

To finish the build, Vane placed several heavily enchanted Glowstone lamps around the perimeter.

These lamps emitted a passive, localized warding aura that actively repelled minor Warp entities and Daemons.

Finally, he aggressively spammed Bone Meal around the edges of the lake, instantly force-growing a vibrant, lush ring of flowers, grass, and towering oak trees.

The crystal-clear water cascaded smoothly from the statue, the resulting mist catching the newly revealed sunlight to form a breathtaking, picture-perfect rainbow.

“Alright, it’s done.

With this lake here, this settlement will literally never run out of water again.” Vane opened his arms, presenting his masterpiece to the stunned locals.

A single, ragged local cautiously approached the edge of the lake.

Moving with the absolute, trembling reverence of a pilgrim approaching a holy relic, he cupped his hands and scooped up the crystal-clear water.

He handled the water as if it were liquid gold.

He took a tiny, hesitant sip.

It was freezing cold, incredibly pure, and possessed a faint, natural sweetness.

The man instantly burst into tears.

In his entire miserable life on this blasted planet, he had never tasted water this pure.

“Is it…

is it truly infinite?!” Countless locals frantically scrambled for buckets, pots, and whatever containers they could find, desperately scooping water from the basin.

But no matter how frantically they bailed, no matter how much water they hauled away, the lake’s water level did not drop by a single, microscopic millimeter.

“It really is infinite!” “With this…

we never have to worry about dying of thirst ever again!” “Praise the Forefather!” “Thank you, Forefather, for this divine miracle!” “…” Listening to the locals’ frantic, ecstatic cheering, Karlaen’s lips twitched upward into a faint smile beneath his helmet.

The Forefather’s abilities are simply too overpowered.

Problems that are fundamentally unsolvable for baseline humanity are completely trivialized in his hands.

While the entire settlement of Angel’s Fall rejoiced over the infinite water source, Ugi was the only person having a complete mental breakdown.

His water-selling business was completely, permanently ruined.

He could already vividly picture Anton, the brutal market overseer, screaming in rage, violently chopping him into pieces, and selling Teils into indentured slavery to recoup the debt.

As Vane was basking in the crowd’s fanatical worship, he caught sight of Ugi standing by his rickety cart, looking absolutely paralyzed with despair.

Intrigued, Vane walked past the cheering crowd and approached the cart.

“Ugi the water-seller.

Everyone else is celebrating because they have infinite water.

Why do you look like your entire world just ended?” Hearing Vane’s question, Ugi’s face twisted in bitter agony.

“Selling water is my only livelihood.

It is my only source of income, and it is the only reason my creditor hasn’t killed me yet.” “Now that water is free and infinite, no one will ever buy from me again.

Without income, I cannot feed my family, and the overseers will murder us all to collect my debt.

Thinking about it…

I cannot help but despair.” “Who exactly is your creditor?” Vane asked.

I might as well finish the quest chain while I’m here.

“It’s Anton, the Market Overseer!

He forces everyone in the market to pay exorbitant protection fees, and he traps people in impossible loans!

He’s driven dozens of families to suicide!” Before Ugi could frantically silence him, Teils blurted out the entire truth.

“It’s true, Forefather!

I can testify!

Everything Teils said is the absolute truth!” “I can testify as well!” Several nearby stall owners immediately stepped forward, loudly backing up Teils’s accusation.

In seconds, the crowd erupted in furious agreement.

Clearly, the entire settlement had been violently oppressed by Anton for years, and they were finally seizing the opportunity to strike back.

Vane turned to Karlaen.

“Doesn’t Angel’s Fall fall directly under the jurisdiction of the Blood Angels?” Karlaen shifted uncomfortably, feeling a deep, sudden stab of guilt under Vane’s gaze.

“Forefather…

we generally do not interfere in mortal affairs.

We only maintain baseline order to facilitate the Aspirant Trials.” “Everything else is left to mortal self-governance.” Karlaen didn’t dare voice the deeper, much darker truth: the High Command of the Blood Angels had explicitly, intentionally chosen to maintain the horrific, apocalyptic living conditions on Baal and its moons for ten thousand years.

It was a foundational Chapter philosophy.

They firmly believed that only the most brutal, nightmarish environments could forge mortals tough enough to survive the Ascension process and become Space Marines.

They feared that terraforming Baal into a paradise would make the population soft and weak, fundamentally destroying the Chapter’s martial culture.

“This stops today,” Vane shook his head, his tone flat and uncompromising.

“If the rest of the galaxy discovers that the citizens living on the sacred homeworld of the Blood Angels are subjected to this kind of abject tyranny and suffering, how can you ever expect them to believe that the Adeptus Astartes fight for a better future?” “Brutal worlds breed brutal warriors.

And those brutal warriors inevitably become tyrannical warlords who spread their cruelty across the galaxy, making everyone suffer.” “If the citizens’ sacrifice isn’t to protect the beauty of their home, but simply to preserve a suffocating hellscape that wants to kill them…

why should they ever fight for you?” Karlaen couldn’t find a single logical counterargument.

He simply bowed his head, humbly accepting the Forefather’s reprimand.

Once Vane finished speaking, Karlaen immediately swore to rectify the situation personally.

Minutes later, Anton the Market Overseer was violently dragged before Vane by a squad of Blood Angels.

The notoriously brutal thug was trembling so violently he could barely stand.

The moment he was thrown to the ground, he began frantically sobbing and begging for mercy.

Unfortunately for him, with hundreds of locals eagerly providing irrefutable testimony against his extortion, murder, and racketeering, his frantic excuses meant absolutely nothing.

Faced with a mountain of undeniable evidence, Anton was summarily judged and executed on the spot.

Every single extortionate debt he held over Ugi and the other merchants was instantly, permanently voided.

As the verdict was announced, the crowd erupted into deafening, earth-shattering cheers.

Vane ignored the adulation.

He stood on the raised plaza, rubbing his chin as he stared out into the endless, radiation-blasted desert wasteland beyond the settlement, his eyes narrowed in deep thought.

“Is something wrong, Forefather?” Karlaen approached, asking respectfully.

“I was just thinking about something,” Vane muttered, a massive, highly motivated grin spreading across his face.

“About what, Forefather?” Karlaen asked, genuinely curious.

Vane turned to look at the First Captain, his tone dead serious.

“I was just thinking…

if I completely terraformed the Baal System, physically transforming these apocalyptic, radioactive hellscapes into breathtakingly beautiful, universally envied Garden Worlds…

that would feel incredibly satisfying, wouldn’t it?” — Next bonus at 500 Powerstones.