97 – Continuous Failure in Cultivating the Flame Mushrooms
The next day. Before it was bright, there were already serfs busy drawing manure from the settlements" manure deposits and carrying it in the direction of the fairy farm.
Early in the morning, under the protection of the knight squad, the once disbanded logging team regrouped and went to the shrubs where the thorns sprite worm"s worm stalk was located. With falcon feather arrows at the ready, Marcus went to scout the underbrush to make sure that there were no magic beasts hiding before turning around and nodding at Gort: “Chevalier, the surroundings are safe.”
“That"s good.” Gort turned and shouted at the serfs. “Liven up and get to work! Sir Lord treats you well and pays you copper coins! Who ever dares to laze about will have some sense whipped into them! Remember to leave the thorns alone. Cut down all the trees; not a single one is to be left behind.”
Thus, the serfs started to cut down the trees.
They didn"t know why they had to cut down the trees here, but since they were ordered to do so by the fief"s official, they had to do it. Besides, they would still get rewarded two copper coins a day.
A short while later, the manure carrying team arrived. Gort was busy instructing the serfs to fertilize the thorns.
The treasurer Isaiah followed. He had to calculate the remuneration of each serf as well as check the number of people that went to work, recording the data on a sheet of thick bast paper. He stretched himself and chatted with Gort: “What do you think Sir Baron wants to accomplish by taking such care of the thorns sprite worm?”
“I don"t know, but Sir has always a reason for anything he does.”
“Gort, you are getting more and more invested in the Flower Town.”
“Why wouldn"t I? I will probably spend the the later part of my life here. Therefore, if this place is thriving, then that would be good, wouldn"t it? A barren country side, I cannot get used to that, but a prosperous countryside, that still has many interesting things to look forward to.”
“That"s only natural as no one likes poverty.”
“For Sir"s sake as well as for our own sake, we have to work hard, Isaiah.” Gort looked at his old friend. The other had recently gone through some changes, wanting to follow Liszt.
“I think… so too.”
Several of the fief"s officials – Gort, Blair, Carl, and Marcus – had become Liszt"s followers. As the only official who had yet to become a follower, Isaiah of course felt the pressure.
Gort didn"t continue on this matter as the final decision could only be made by Isaiah himself: “Isaiah, let"s go check on the thorns shrubs to see whether there are any unusual thorns among them. As Sir had explained, the thorns sprite worm had been a little restless recently and there might be some changes in the thorns shrubs.”
“Then what are we waiting for? I have to look carefully. If I were to find a magic ingredient thorns by chance, tsk… That"s right, haven"t the bed ingredients of the shiitake settlement"s Flame Mushrooms been figured out yet?”
Gort spread his hands: “How would it be that easy. All kinds of beds have failed to grow the Flame Mushrooms. If it were not for the Flame Mushrooms still growing in Crookedneck Bob household"s shiitake shed, then the Flame Mushrooms might have already been botched. Sir thinks highly of the Flame Mushrooms, which is why I don"t know how to report this to him.”
The work regarding the cultivation of the Flame Mushrooms was at an impa.s.se.
Gort had already mobilized all of the shiitake settlement"s cultivation households and distributed the Flame Mushroom seedlings to let them have a try.
Unfortunately, nothing came to fruition. Reportedly, Crookedneck Bob had been obsessing over this issue, always staying in the shack and watching the Flame Mushrooms grow without stopping for rest or sleep. He just couldn"t understand why his household"s shack could grow the Flame Mushrooms, yet when his cultivation bed was replicated, it would not work and the Flame Mushroom seedlings would dry out and die.
“Perhaps you should just tell Sir Baron, he might have a good advice for you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Gort, don"t you think that Sir Baron is extremely knowledgeable? He knows a lot and his field view is broader than ours.”
“Oh, you have such a high opinion of Sir?”
“In fact, Marcus, the retainer knight that wants to become an aristocrat, said that he greatly admires Sir Baron.”
Gort pondered for a moment: “Perhaps I should really report to Sir Lord. The matter with the Flame Mushroom is too important for me to try to show off.”
He wanted to use the matter with the Flame Mushrooms to win the position of adviser.
However, if he botched the Flame Mushrooms, Liszt would probably kill him. Thus, the importance of a magic ingredient for a lord could be imagined.
……
At noon, Liszt arrived at the thorns woods to inspect the shrubs surrounding the thorns sprite worm"s worm stalk as well as to inquire whether any unusual types of thorns were discovered.
The officials had no gains and Liszt himself also didn"t see any unusual thorns while releasing Magic Eyes.
He had confirmed that the smoke missions couldn"t create reward items out of thin air, that rewards were things that already existed in the world. Therefore, so long as he was willing to unearth them by himself, then even if it was not through the missions, he could still get the reward items.
This gave him a choice.
He could choose to complete the smoke missions and let the send him the rewards, which was quite comfortable. Or, he could choose not to complete the missions and directly get the rewards, which would ‘refresh" the missions.
The second choice, however, could lead to a failure of the missions. He didn"t know what the ‘penalty" for failing missions would be; whether the penalty would be to keep the rewards from him or some other kind penalty. There was also the possibility that the missions would be discontinued once he failed one of them.
“Perhaps one day I can see the outcome of failing a mission. However, if I can help it, I should try to complete the missions to the best of my capability and potentially avoid creating an unfavorable outcome.
After shaking his head, Liszt stopped over-thinking it. Since he couldn"t find any unusual thorns himself, then that meant that he could only get the new type of thorns once he completed the mission.
Gort came over: “Sir, there is a problem with the cultivation of the Flame Mushrooms.”
“What is the problem?” Liszt immediately tensed up.
“We mobilized all the serfs that cultivated shiitake and gave them the Flame Mushroom seedlings, yet none of them managed to succeeded in cultivating them. Apparently, the Flame Mushrooms can only grow in Crookedneck Bob household"s shiitake shack. However, we cannot discover what made his household"s shiitake shack different from other household"s shiitake shacks.”
It had nearly been a month, yet the Flame Mushrooms still could not be cultivated.
Liszt thought that it was indeed a big problem. In fact, he had been paying attention all along, but he was willing to give the serfs time to solve it themselves; the lord could not be always taking care of everything himself.
However, he didn"t think that after a moth, the distributed Flame Mushroom seedlings would show no signs of survival.
By right, the cultivation of mushrooms was very fast. After germination, the spores could grow into fruiting bodies from mycelium in a few days" time and be harvester in less than two month"s time. However, the Flame Mushroom seedlings (mycelium) could not survive at all. The serfs had tried a variety of bed ingredients, including making changes in the environment, yet it still wouldn"t do.
Without professional scientific research personnel, Liszt could only let Gort lead the way to the shiitake settlement to do an on-site investigation.
He wanted to see whether he could deduce the cause with his knowledge.
Once he arrived at the shiitake settlement, Liszt saw Crookedneck Bob with blood-shot eyes and a haggard figure. The other knelt immediately, trembling all over: “Sir Lord, I"m trash, I didn"t manage to cultivate the Flame Mushrooms with a month"s time.”
Liszt didn"t blame Bob. He just asked the other about the process of cultivating the Flame Mushrooms.
After he finished listening, he looked at the Flame Mushrooms and released Magic Eyes to look for the root of the problem. He looked at the interspersed Flame Mushrooms growing on the shiitake bed and then looked at the Flame Mushroom seedlings on the other beds. He discovered something suspicious.
The Flame Mushrooms as well as their seedlings constantly condensed magic power.
However, once the Flame Mushroom seedlings were moved to another bed, they could no longer condense magic power and in fact, would slowly loose magic power.
“What is the cause of this?”