The Defeated Dragon

Fortunately, after more than 500 symbols of reminiscing, Griff finally returned to the main plot of the dragon battle.

“I want to stress that at the time, I have sincerely vowed to quit smoking. But later, because I was so shocked by the invisible dragon's actions, I forgot all about it. Heavens, it actually s.n.a.t.c.hed the smoke gra.s.s in my hand and ate it. I think that it should not have bathed in many years, giving rise to a misconception in its senses of smell and taste.”

“Sorry, I said bad things about the invisible dragon, but in fact, we later became friends. Because it ate my smoke gra.s.s, it did not kill me. I succeeded in using a bundle of smoke gra.s.s and two cows to exchange for the invisible dragon's friendship. Honestly, the invisible dragon was not big, just a little bigger than a house.”

“I have seen the Maple Leaf Grand Duke's bronze dragon, a beautiful 30 meters long metal dragon. The invisible dragon looked to be a cub. Oh, dragons have no offsprings.”

“We spent a pleasant afternoon together. In the evening, it came before me and shook its body, following which, a gem fell onto my hand. It then flew away. But the gem it left me, which was the seize of a fingernail, was later worn on my finger.”

“Haha, now you know where my s.p.a.ce ring came from. There have been countless n.o.ble sirs and madams willing to pay anything in exchange for my ring, but I would not agree as it is an attest of our friendship!”

The part with the invisible dragon ended here.

Griff quickly moved on to the next tale about outwitting a headless knight.

Liszt very quickly flipped through this novel of only 50,000 odd symbols. There was no more information about the invisible dragon and the s.p.a.ce ring was only mentioned once.

It was as if Griff had forgotten about the invisible dragon after finishing writing about it.

“It seems that the reward is the knowledge written down in the novel [Earth Knight-Errant Griff's Travel Notes]… Only courageous and righteous can see the invisible dragon? Then I guess it is impossible for me, since I am neither courageous nor righteous.” He was quite self-aware.

However, he seriously doubted the veracity of this information. How could one rely on indistinct and unclear moral qualities such as courage and righteousness to see the invisible dragon?

“This story feels like another take on ‘pure maiden can see the unicorn'.”

Many female leads of knight novels were aristocratic women riding on unicorns. Liszt had read a few books, all stating that only pure, beautiful, innocent, and kind-hearted women could be approved by unicorns. As for whether the legendary creature unicorn existed, Liszt was skeptical about it.

He was equally skeptical about the existence of the invisible dragon.

Particularly because of the fantastical setting of only courageous and righteous knights being capable of seeing the invisible dragon.

Nevertheless, he quickly grasped the usable information: “Griff used the smoke gra.s.s to avoid being killing by the invisible dragon. Later, he still mentioned that he used a bundle of smoke gra.s.s and two cows to exchange for the invisible dragon's gem… My current smoke mission reward is smoke gra.s.s. Apparently, this is still part of the chain mission.”

The first reward was information about the invisible dragon.

The following reward was  new information about the invisible dragon.

The current reward was smoke gra.s.s, which the invisible dragon loved to eat.

The contents of those rewards were linked, resembling the unlocking of a large chain mission. Then, the goal of the missions was quite easy to infer – there may be an invisible dragon coming to invade the Flower Town.

“Cows?” Liszt thought of another link, “It seems like the dairy farm has two old cows that can no longer produce milk, just that the castle has plenty of food and they are still to be used to entertain guests. Perhaps these two old cows are the dinner I have to prepare for the invisible dragon?”

The information was still not clear enough and the preparation was still not adequate.

Liszt felt that it was imperative to continue to complete the missions and get more details regarding the invisible dragon chain mission so to facilitate the formulation of the coping strategy.

Knock-knock.

The door was knocked.

“Please come in.”

The old butler, Carter, walked in with an oil lamp: “Master, it is already late, you should rest early.”

“I am about to go to bed.” Liszt closed the book and put it back on the bookshelf. He frowned slightly because his hands smelt bad. “Mr. Carter, by the way, apply more freshener in the study. I really cannot stand the strange odor of the thick bast paper.”

The carriage full of books the count had gifted him carried a strong fishy stench. Although Liszt had already applied a bit of freshener, but it still was not able to conceal the stench.

There was no such thing as white paper

Here, there was only the hard, yellow thick bast paper carrying a long-lasting stench.

This kind of paper was made by peeling off the inner layer of animals' leather and tan it. Its manufacturing cost was quite high. However, it was not easy to preserve and it was not convenient to write on. Liszt really wanted to quickly manufacture the white paper to replace the thick bast paper, but he was aware that it was not the right time.

Firstly, the white paper was not an urgent requirement.

Secondly, there was no copyright law. The greater aristocrats could steal the papermaking technology at any time.

Similarly to how he had not studied anything about horseshoes, saddles, or cement but still had a general structure in his mind, he also had a general structure of schooner sailboats in his mind. Once invented, they would definitely promote the development of the age of discoveries.

In fact, the most pressing matter was the lack in manpower.

The entire fief had population of 1990, no, 1991. Recently, two old people had died and four babies were born, among which one died.

Among the 1991 people, apart from the not fit to work old and young, it was quite hard to come up with 1,500 fit to work people. They had to farm, build roads, and now still had to establish the oyster settlement. A batch of people had also to be allocated to sew glows, cast hammers and shovels, and produce fishing equipment for the fishermen.

As for Liszt, he was also very busy, constantly cultivating.

He had already grasped the [Fire Dragon Drill] and the [Fire Surge Fluctuations] secret manuals, but it took time to master them. After obtaining the Redblood Sword, he was all the more diligent in practicing cultivation. He hoped to break through the fetters of earth and leap into the sky.

Carter applied the freshener.

He blew out the lamp and said: “Master, should the castle hire a few more servants?”

“Is there not enough manpower?” Liszt was a little surprised. Ten servants serving him alone, that should be enough, right?

Carter replied seriously: “The wheat sprite worm, peanut sprite worm, tulip sprite worm, and alfalfa sprite worm are precious, but their worm stalks require a servingman to inspect and tend to everyday. This work was given to Jesse. Now maize had also started to be planted, while the thorns sprite worm still needs to find a place to settle down, but Jesse has his hands full already.”

He continued after a pause: “Tremblingwoods, Blackdragon, Firedragon, and the other few horses need to be taken care of. Before the establishment of the oyster settlement, the seafood in the castle is gathered by the servants. There is also the kitchen. Mrs. Abby has already complained that she is up to her ears in work with the increase in variety of dishes.”

Castles, cities, and towns had quite a lot of overlapping functions.

However, castles were more inclined to self-sustenance, while cities and town's were inclined to govern the entire fief and collected taxes. Liszt was not satisfied with this system, feeling that castles – twisted monsters that firmly bound productivity by controlling all sprites – were the biggest obstacles to the development of productivity.

After all, the purpose of a castle was to provide the aristocrats with luxurious lives and not to liberate productivity.

He understood this point, yet had no intentions of changing much since he himself was an aristocrat!

“Since there is not enough manpower, then, Mr. Carter, you will be in charge of recruiting new servants.”

“Very well, Master!”