80 – Starting to Learn Archery
Crookedneck Bob was so excited that he didn"t sleep that night.
Not only did the sir lord not rebuke him, but he still rewarded him with ten silver coins!
It was like manna from heaven. Besides, the sir lord had still told him to look for ways to expand the cultivation area of the red mushrooms, which the sir lord named Flame Mushrooms. It would be best to replace all the shiitake with the Flame Mushrooms; the more he cultivated, the more rewards would he get in the future.
“Be quiet! John from the tomato settlement was rewarded a gold coin (=100 silver coins) by Sir Lord!” Bob"s wife hated seeing Bob that excited, so she couldn"t help but to pour cold water on his excitement.
Yet Bob paid her no mind: “What do you know? The ten silver coins reward is just the beginning. Sir Lord wants me to figure out the recipe for cultivating the Flame Mushrooms. I, Bob, am the best at cultivating shiitake in the shiitake settlement. According to Sir Lord, I will get even more rewards so long as I figure out the recipe!”
With an expression of longing, he continued: “It will definitely be more than John"s gold coin! Maybe… even two gold coins? Heavens, how wonderful would it be to have two gold coins!”
“But you have to figure out the recipe first. If you don"t figure it out, then Sir Lord might take back the ten silver coins and even whip you!”
“Of course I will figure it out, I am going to figure it out!”
To figure out the Flame Mushrooms cultivation recipe, Liszt, of course, didn"t just bet on Bob. After talking it through with Gort, who had hurried over, he convened all of the shiitake settlement"s shiitake cultivation experts, giving them the same a.s.signment. The one one to figure out the recipe would be the one to be rewarded.
Although Liszt was currently short on money, but he would not be stingy with his rewards.
He wanted to use the magic power of money to arouse an enthusiasm for exploring new things in his subjects, rather than just continue to repeat the stale old cultivation methods.
“Teacher Gort, the Flame Mushrooms" cultivation recipe is cla.s.sified as the Flower Town"s first-rate secret, it must not be disclosed to anyone. Hence forth, all places where the Flame Mushrooms are cultivated must be listed as restricted areas that can only be accessed with the castle"s authorization.” Said Liszt solemnly.
Ordinary plant magic ingredients had to be matched with sprite worms. Therefore, they were very difficult to duplicate.
For example, tulip magic ingredients could basically be only cultivated by the Tulip Family. Even if outsiders were to steal their seeds, without the help from tulip sprites, the tulip magic ingredients would inevitably degenerate into ordinary tulips a generation later.
Mushroom secret ingredients were different, they could multiply without end. Once their spores and recipe were stolen by outsiders, with a bit of research, they could be cultivated at a large scale.
Gort understood the importance of this matter: “Sir, please rest a.s.sured. I will discuss it with Isaiah and come up with a set of confidentiality measures in order to guaranty that there won"t be the slightest chance of the Flame Mushroom"s cultivation method leaking.”
“The more careful the better. This is a mushroom magic ingredient were are talking about, it"s of paramount importance.”
“Understood.” Nodded Gort before sighing, “In a short period of time, the Flower Town has changed greatly, giving birth to two sprite worms and two types of magic ingredients. This is definitely a land beloved by the glory of knights! Sir, you must be the successor of the glory of knights!”
The glory of knights was the slogan that aristocrats liked to repeat the most.
This world was very similar to Europe"s Middle Ages. However, it lacked a religion that ruled nearly everything. This was probably because humans could practice cultivation and reach the realm of unparalleled strength, not fearing disease or disasters. Therefore, they disdained the notion of ‘G.o.d" and even thought of themselves as ‘G.o.d".
Aristocrats only believed in the glory of knights!
Cultivating qi, getting stronger and stronger, everything was for their taking!
Of course, there were exceptions. Wizards certainly didn"t believe in the glory of knights. Reportedly, they believed in ‘knowledge".
Liszt"s gaze was as tranquil as the clear moonlight.
If there truly was such a thing as the glory of knights, then he believed himself to be indeed beloved by it – it gave him a wonderful life.
“I hope to ride a dragon one day.”
……
Marcus came to the castle early in the morning. Starting today, he would teach Liszt archery.
“The archery I practice is called [Multiple Arrows], which is an advanced extension of [Fundamental Archery] that focuses on the control of multiple arrows instead of the power of the arrows. Sir, as you haven"t learned the fundamentals of archery, you cannot learn [Multiple Arrows] for the time being. You have to first start with [Fundamental Archery].”
Said Gort before handing Liszt some arrows.
“This is?” Liszt already had the bow and arrows – a firm bow that was suitable to be used by Earth Knights and one hundred white birch arrows – purchased from the Tulip Castle.
“Those are falcon feather arrows I made myself from the Wind Peregrine Falcon"s feathers and oak from the Thorns Ridge. There are twenty four arrows altogether. Among them, six are falcon tail arrows made from the Wind Peregrine Falcon"s tail feathers. I drew a red circle on the arrow shaft to differentiate them. The falcon tail arrows have a better balance than the falcon feather arrows.”
Marcus said a bit regretfully: “Unfortunately, most of the feathers of the Wind Peregrine Falcon were ruined by the monkeys. Otherwise, I could have made many more falcon feather arrows. They are much better than the feather arrows made from ordinary bird feather sold on the market. The trace of magic power inside the feathers makes the arrows fly faster and steadier.”
Many of the Wind Peregrine Falcon"s feathers were torn off in the fight with the monkeys before being burnt by the special move released by Liszt.
It was not easy to come up with that many feathers, to make the twenty four falcon feather arrows.
However, Liszt didn"t accept the falcon feather arrows: “I have yet to learn archery. Therefore, I cannot use the falcon feather arrows for the time being. Teacher Marcus, keep them. When the time comes to deal with the Thorns Ridge"s magic beasts, I will have to rely on Teacher Marcus" accurate archery.”
Marcus didn"t decline: “Yes, Sir!”
Next, it was time to teach archery.
As a divine archer, Marcus had a deep understanding regarding archery and was also clear on how to teach it to others. Liszt was quickly engrossed in learning archery.
As an Earth Knight, his physical const.i.tution was outstanding.
As such, he could shoot arrows without stop, which made it easier for him to learn archery.
“The smoke mission requires me to learn Marcus" full set of archery, that is to say, just learning [Fundamental Archery] won"t cut it, I will also have to lean [Multiple Arrows]… I have to speed up the learning pace. Otherwise, this mission will take too long to complete.”
For this reason, Liszt had even suspended his cultivation of qi.
Wholeheartedly engrossing himself in archery.
As a result, on the horse field outside the castle, there were numerous shadows constantly speeding ahead, which were the arrows Liszt constantly shot at the various targets from atop his mount.
He learned very fast. One day later, he could already hit the bullseyes of still targets, hitting the seven or eight point rigs nine times out of ten. An Earth Knight"s control over their body could faster improve their muscle memory, allowing him to quickly improve his accuracy.
Two days later, he could already hit the bullseyes of targets five times out of ten from atop his mount.
On the fourth day.
Liszt came to the horse field, ready to practice mounted archery (previously, the mount was still), yet what met him was the shameful act of Blackdragon mounting Firedragon. After more than four minutes, it came down from atop Firedragon, feigned leisure, and lowered its head to graze.
“Oh, the season of pa.s.sion is upon the horse field. I should let the caravan reduce the number of trips it makes. The mares should be brought to Blackdragon, to let it mate with them… Although the quality of these horses is bad, but by mixing their blood with blood containing a trace of dragon blood, the future generations of horses are bound to be much more formidable.”