The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Chapter 797: Chapter 0794: Major Harvest for Elves (First Update)
 

“Mission: May is the season of vigorous plant growth, and the crops on Black Horse Island are continually growing. As the Landlord, you have not fulfilled your duty of inspecting the territory for quite some time. Why not take a tour of the territory’s crops to check their growth? Reward: A large batch of Elf Bugs.”

As soon as Nami’s evolution mission had ended, a new mission brought Liszt a large number of Elves.

After several years of cultivation and fertilization, the crops on Black Horse Island far surpassed those of other islands in their lush growth, which in turn started increasing the birth rate of Elf Bugs.

This time, Liszt and Ach together activated the Eye of Magic and the Eye of Magic Power, meticulously surveying every part of the island’s land and ocean.

They found three Little Wheat Bugs, one Barley Bug, one Thorn Bug, one Pea Bug, one Rubber Bug, one Peanut Bug, one Mangrove Beetle, one Corn Bug, one Millet Bug, one Fragrant Coconut Bug, as well as two Giant Algae Bugs and two unknown Algae Elf Bugs.

He named them the Black Algae Beetle and Brown Algae Beetle and let Ach contract them all, as he himself no longer wanted to sign contracts with Elf Bugs, finding it bothersome.

A total of sixteen Elf Bugs represented the rewards for Black Horse Island’s persistent three-plus years of scientific farming under Liszt’s leadership—building lavatories, accumulating manure, constructing ditches, irrigating, cultivating quality breeds, meticulous farming, weeding, pruning, and ensuring adequate sunlight.

The Magic Guild has a special research team studying the relationship between scientific farming and the breeding of Elf Bugs, and they’ve reached preliminary conclusions with the help of big data.

The breeding of Elf Bugs is a probabilistic event, meaning it’s related to genetic mutations.

It doesn’t matter whether the plants grow well or poorly, but maintaining their vigor and health greatly protects the breeding of Elf Bugs. Perhaps a malnourished plant might miscarry an Elf Bug just after a mutation, but the healthy crops of Black Horse Island rarely suffer such a fate.

Therefore, scientific farming can indeed significantly increase the number of Elf Bugs—it’s a powerful method.

At present, without having deciphered the secrets of Elf Bugs, this is the only method to promote their growth.

Source: , updated on ƝονǤο.ƈօ

“Mission accomplished, reward: a large batch of Elf Bugs.”

This batch of sixteen Elf Bugs, mostly in the breeding stage, was followed by another influx of Elves to Black Horse Island. Knights who had surrendered to Liszt brought their families to migrate here; two Sky Knights who did not wish to surrender paid a ransom and left Black Horse Island.

The ransom amounted to three Minor Elves, one Oat Minor Elf, one Peanut Minor Elf, and one Sword Minor Elf.

As for the eleven followers’ Elves, they paid a total of twelve Minor Elves, of which Earl Durt Red Apricot contributed two—altogether there were two Millet Minor Elves, three Barley Minor Elves, one Orange Minor Elf, one Mango Minor Elf, one Magic Potion type Licorice Minor Elf, one Glutinous Rice Minor Elf, and one Apple Minor Elf.

They also unexpectedly acquired one Dragon Hollyhock Minor Elf and one Thorn Minor Elf.

Originally, two Sky Knights were to trade grain type Minor Elves, but Liszt’s investigation revealed that they had contracted Dragon Hollyhock and Thorn Minor Elves. Without a doubt, he promptly obtained these two Minor Elves as ransom.

These Sky Knights were pitifully poor, not owning even a single Greater Elf.

Their remaining Minor Elves were put to work on Black Horse Island to help Liszt with farming, but Liszt would compensate them for their contributions according to the Elves’ effort—in any case, during the transition period, it was arranged as such. With the dream of founding a kingdom to uphold, nobody would raise significant objections.

…

“Now the number of elves in my territory has suddenly surged, it’s war that makes it easiest to acquire wealth. My trade businesses, in comparison to war gains, still fall short by a large margin. The key difference is that trade profits trickle in steadily over time, whereas the benefits of war come all at once.”

After tallying up his spoils from the Great Sea Battle, Liszt felt content and looked at the new Smoke Mission.

“Mission: After the war, the Sky Knights have nothing to do. Instead of sitting idle and consuming resources in the territory, why not find them something to do? The arrival of a large number of shipbuilders has spurred the development of shipbuilding on Black Horse Island. Please produce a standard three-masted sailing ship. Reward: The anomaly on Mind Island.”

Building three-masted sailing ships, giving the knights something to do—this is not difficult.

Liszt had already planned to do this. He had ordered ten Court Fast Sailing Ships from the Sapphire Family and was ready to organize another six Court Fast Sailing Ships, forming two Adventure Fleets to join the search for islands in the southern seas. He wasn’t very satisfied with the progress of Yevich’s Adventure Fleet.

He equipped the Adventure Fleets with the Calming Wind Pearl and the Water Calming Pearl, allowing them to roam the nearby seas at will, but the results of their explorations were quite limited.

Indeed, it wasn’t fair to blame Yevich for his lack of effort. Given the limited speed of the fleet and the vast expanse of the sea, discovering islands was indeed very difficult.

“By adding two more Adventure Fleets to make a total of three fleets with nine Court Fast Sailing Ships, we should be able to greatly expand the extent of our sea explorations… If we can discover islands, we should do so quickly and start developing them as soon as possible. If we can’t find anything, we must quickly move to a new region and explore the waters of the Steel Ridge Kingdom.”

Having finished his thoughts,

his gaze settled on the phrase “the anomaly on Mind Island.”

“It seems there still is an issue with Mind Island. The Light Green Gemstone Mine appears to be ready for extraction. It’s time to start mining and uncover the real secrets inside Mind Island.” Liszt was a man of action and immediately decided to take action to investigate, prompted by the Smoke Mission.

The investigation team would be limited to just him and Ach.

The Flame Number whooshed across the sea’s surface, arriving at Mind Island within a few hours. The island, stripped of all its Crystal Firmiana and washed over by Ach with seawater, was barren, with nothing on it. There were also no new saplings where the Mind Fruit Trees once grew.

“Ach, check for any anomalies on Mind Island.” After landing on the island, Liszt began his investigation immediately, but he wasn’t really expecting to find anything unusual—the Smoke Mission wasn’t completed yet, and it was likely that the anomaly on Mind Island had not occurred, so this was just a precaution.

Or perhaps they could detect an anomaly early, directly altering the mission and starting a new one.

Unfortunately, after a thorough inspection, no anomalies were found on Mind Island. However, a faint green layer of crystal had formed beneath the soil. Liszt excavated a section of the Crystal Mine and found a couple of fist-sized Light Green Gems sparsely distributed.

“So these are the Light Green Gems produced by the Light Green Gem Dragon Ethan, huh? It doesn’t seem to be very abundant; even if the entire island has become a Light Green Gemstone Mine, the gem reserves won’t be much… A pity for the essence blood leaked by the Light Green Gem Dragon at that time, but it’s hard to say, perhaps it’s because that Mind Fruit Tree absorbed too much.”

But soon, he discovered that the Magic Power within the Crystal Mine was still slowly flowing, as if it were nurturing new Light Green Gems.

“Does this mean that this Light Green Gemstone Mine hasn’t fully developed yet?”

“Never mind, let’s wait. No rush!”