50 – Dragon Invasion Reward
The oyster settlement still didn"t had its wooden houses built, but the fishermen"s work of catching seafood progressed smoothly.
The speed of the construction of the roads in the settlements and the town was not fast, but there was some progress each day.
The low-yielding and low-nutritious two-leaf clover of the dairy farm was already completely exchanged for the high-yielding alfalfa. The ten cows were very fond of the new pasture, with their milk output increasing greatly.
The alfalfa in the horse field surrounding the castle had also started to grow vigorously, just that there were no pregnant mares and Blackdragon had yet to enter its breeding season.
The peanut settlement"s peanuts were growing well, while the peanuts near the peanut sprite worm"s worm stalk were nearly ripe. Presumably, getting a harvest twice a year would not be an issue.
The flower farm"s Black Tulip had already began to bear small capsules, which had yet to crack open. Once they cracked open, there would be many flaky seeds. With the effect from the tulip sprite worm"s worm stalk, the Black Tulip would bear upwards of thirty capsules.
According to the estimations, a few mu of farmland could be cultivated with those seeds. Not until half a year after delivering the seeds to the Tulip Castle for the greater sprite, Little Fragrance, to cultivate, could the large scale cultivation begin.
If an ordinary farming method was applied, then large scale cultivation might not even be possible several years later. This ill.u.s.trated the sprites" ability.
However, although sprites were a great help, but they were also a kind of limitation, restricting the perspective of humans regarding the cultivation of plants and research on fertilizers. To this date, they still adopted the primitive fire-fallow cultivation.
Liszt was changing the way of farming in the Flower Town, with the fertilizer made of manure, ash, and pond mud starting to become popular in the settlements.
The wheat settlement"s wheat was still in the process of growing. With the help of the wheat sprite worm, it was possible to raise the yield of wheat by 20% to 30%. At the same time, the three stalks of maize gra.s.s were given a specialized care. However, there was still much more maize gra.s.s in the barley settlement. The barley settlement"s serfs cultivated the maize gra.s.s, collecting fodder and seeds.
Previously, the barley settlement mainly cultivated barley and outs. But recently, uncultivated land was cleared in the barley settlement for a maize field to cultivate maize gra.s.s. The settlement"s serfs seriously lacked in numbers.
The mushroom and tomato settlements were still at their original scopes. There were not many changes.
The biggest change in the town was the lack of feces. Also, on Liszt"s order, no one dared to litter the streets with trash. There were patrols patrolling the town everyday. Anyone who dared to litter in the town, would be punished with severe whipping. Liszt selectively preserved the various torture methods meant for aristocracy to punish the commoners.
At the beginning, Liszt felt like adopting the police detention method, but after thinking some more, he came to the conclusion that imprisonment without physical punishment would be a blessing for the serfs.
Not working, yet still being capable of eating and drinking every day.
Therefore, physical punishment was inevitable.
“I have part.i.tioned 50 mu of uncultivated land for the cultivation of maize, which is the maximum surface area the maize sprite worm is capable of influencing. Currently, the barley settlement"s manpower is already unable to meet the cultivation requirement. Also, it is quite difficult to transfer serfs over from other settlements. A batch had already been transferred to the oyster settlement. Therefore, temporarily, the maize field only has 10 mu.”
Gort explained to Liszt.
Today, they were going to settle down the maize sprite worm. The maize had sprouted. There was a layer of green covering 10 mu of the newly cleared uncultivated land.
“So be it 10 mu. Lets wait until oats and barley are harvest, and then switch to sowing maize. Anyway, cultivating barley and oats without sprite worms is not worthwhile.” Nodded Liszt.
Following which, he proceeded with settling down the maize sprite worm"s worm stalk.
The maize sprite worm"s worm stalk was that of maize. Therefore, the sprite worm itself was of a bright yellow color. It was very beautiful and blinding to the eye.
“Little fellow, come on, take a breath of fresh air.”
The maize sprite worm was indeed a brave little fellow. It crawled out of the jade box, opened its mouth, and spat out its worm stalk, planting it in the center of the field. Very quickly, the worm stalk grew into a stalk of maize covered in grains.
Thus, the mission was completed.
Five of the six sprite worms were settled down, leaving only the thorns sprite worm.
Liszt was in a good mood. While riding on horseback, he started to focus his mind. Shortly after, smoke Serpentines twisted in front of his eyes: “Mission completed. Reward: forgotten qi secret skill, [Magic Eyes] secret skill.”
Immediately after, the content changed, issuing a new mission: “Mission: nearly all sprite worms have been properly settled down, only leaving the thorns sprite worm without a new home. As the lord, you cannot waste the production capability of any sprite worms. Please settle down the thorns sprite worm"s worm stalk. Reward: invasion of the invisible dragon.”
After skimming over the contents of the new mission, the complacent mood from just a moment was quickly shattered.
If it was not for his entourage of retainer knights and servants, he would have already started cursing: “Smoke mission, are you toying with me? Can the invasion of the invisible dragon also be regarded as a reward?”
According to the previously obtained information, there was a chance that the invisible dragon would leave a priceless s.p.a.ce ring.
However, one had to risk their life to get it!
A dragon could easily destroy a city or a town. Liszt did not want to test whether he could use the two old cows and a bunch of smoke gra.s.s to send the invisible dragon on its way. In his view, how good one had depended on how capable one was. If he was the lord of the Coral Island, then even if he had to sacrifice a city, he would still want to give it a go with the invisible dragon.
Bus sadly, he only had the Flower Town.
Presumably, the dragon could destroy the town by just rolling about. Liszt would loose his home, let alone the luxurious aristocratic life.
For a split second, he even entertained the idea of giving up on the thorns sprite worm, never to complete the mission, so that the invasion of the invisible dragon reward was not triggered.
However, after calming down, he became unwilling.
The smoke missions seemed to just go with the flow, pushing things that should exist towards him. But if there was not this ‘going with the flow", it was unknown how much more difficult it would be for him to develop the town. Besides, he already could not do without the quick benefits brought by the smoke missions. Getting a reward with each completed mission was just wonderful.
He felt tangled inside right until he reached the castle, and then made up his mind.
“f.u.c.k it, isn"t it an invisible dragon?!”
“The smoke gra.s.s was already obtained and the cows are also ready. If worse comes to worst and the Flower Town gets destroyed, then I"ll just shamelessly go to the Tulip Castle and request another fief.”
“The count is unlikely to sit idly while his son is starving!”
For the s.p.a.ce ring, and even more for the smoke missions, Liszt went for broke.
The next course of action after making up his mind was to make ample preparations.
For this reason.
He spent the night in the castle"s study designing plans. He didn"t let anyone partake. It was better for only him being privy of the secret regarding the invisible dragon. Otherwise, if other people were involved, and in case he obtained a s.p.a.ce ring, there would be the danger of information leakage as well as the divine armament being taken away by others.
s.p.a.ce rings deserved to be called divine armaments.
“a.s.suming defeat, survival is the most crucial thing.” This was the core idea behind Liszt"s plans. No matter the outcome, he wanted to first ensure his safety.
He looked at the sketch of the Flowers Town he drew as he contemplated for a long time. He circled the dairy farm: “The invisible dragon shall invade here. The cows shall be left as bait. All the smoke gra.s.s shall be cut down and piled up on the dairy farm to attract the attention of the invisible dragon.”
“It is impossible to fight it. No one can beat a dragon, let alone slay the invisible dragon.”
“Reportedly, dragons possess Dragon Breath, which is a special magic substance – fire, acid, poison, and so on – they belch. Half of a dragon"s battle strength relies on Dragon Breath. Therefore, above ground is very dangerous. Only by digging bellow the ground could one escape from in front of the invisible dragon at the first indication of danger.”
“Dragons are unlikely to dig in the soil just to catch a few bug-like humans, right?”
“I probably am not capable of seeing the invisible dragon. There should be no one in the Flower Town capable of seeing the invisible dragon. In order to make sure of its position, I should scatter flour in the dairy farm. Like this, the invisible dragon will leave footprints behind wherever it pa.s.ses… But do dragons even need to walk? Can they not just fly?”
Liszt grabbed at his hair, thinking about ways to discover the position of the invisible dragon, After much thought, he could not come up with anything that would allow him to see a dragon that was invisible.
From irritation, he hit the desk with his fist.
Thud.
The lamp was knocked over from him hitting the desk, spilling the oil. The oil flowed to a knight novel lying on a corner of the desk. Flames swallowed the knight novel in a flash.