The Defeated Dragon

Against one low-ranked magic beast, Marcus could handle it and even look for opportunities to kill it.

But against three, blindly stepping forward would only result in a dismembered body.

Without thinking about how Liszt knew that there were three magic beasts, Marcus at once puled the reins and retreated. At the same time, with extreme agility, he inserted the spear back into the lance rack on the mount's back, took out bow and arrow, nocked arrows and pulled the bowstring. He shot four arrows in succession ant the underbrush 50 meters away.

The arrows. .h.i.t thin air, yet they had clearly achieved their purpose.

Suddenly, a Windblade Wolf had jumped out from the underbrush before staring coldly at Marcus. It didn't attack lightly and instead continued to stare coldly as it observed the logging team's serfs drawing closer towards a bonfire.

Karl and the other retainer knights took out the dried smoke gra.s.s leaves given to them, ready to throw them into the bonfire at any time. The magic beast would be scared away once the smoke gra.s.s leaves were ignited and the fierce fumes were released.

Liszt urged on Blackdragon to join with Marcus, confronting the gray Windblade Wolf.

“Sir, are you certain there are three magic beasts?”

“I am.” Clenching the Redblood Sword, Liszt kept the Magic Eyes released. “There is one in the underbrush to the left and one behind the underbrush to the right of this Windblade Wolf. It obviously wants to attract our attention, letting the other two to mount a sneak attack.”

Marcus once again nocked arrows and pulled the bowstring: “Wolves are naturally sly and prudent! I will force them out first!”

Two arrows were shot at the still underbrush.

In the tense situation, Liszt suddenly wanted to laugh. The three Windblade Wolves wanted to play a trick on him, thinking that they would not be discovered by hiding in the shrubs. However, under the scrutiny of the Magic Eyes, they had basically nowhere to hide.

“For the one on the left, shift one meter to the left below the underbrush. For the one on the right, shift one and a half meters to the right.”

After hearing the instructions.

Marcus took out one arrow instead of two this time and shot it at the underbrush to the left.

Sqwelp!

Awhoo!

The sound of flesh being pierced followed by the howl from a Windblade Wolf came from the underbrush. Next, the bushes swayed and a Windblade Wolf with an arrow stuck in its shoulder ran away with its tail between its legs, very quickly fleeing deep into the woods.

On the other hand, the Windblade Wolf that had the purpose of attracting their attention also turned around and ran away.

Now only the Windblade Wolf to the right was still concealed, probably still awaiting its chance for a surprise attack.

But the next moment.

A sharp arrow brushed past its back, scaring it out of the bushes, before turning around and fleeing.

Only a few arrows were used in the short confrontation before the three Windblade Wolves turned tail and disappeared without a trace. All the while, the smoke gra.s.s was still to be used.

The Magic Eyes could no longer perceive traces of magic power, Liszt summoned the smoke mission. When he saw the updated content, he waved his hand with regret: “Stand down, the Windblade Wolves had already escaped. Proceed with the cutting down of trees.” Not a single magic beast stayed behind, nor could he display his elegant demeanor.

However, the mission was completed, which was good enough.

Mission completed. Reward: an extremely-small saltpeter mine."

“A saltpeter mine?”

Metals and gems came from dragons. As for the other minerals, they were supplied by the dry land. Some time ago, Liszt was still complaining that ice could not be produced without saltpeter, that cold beer could not be drunk in the height of summer. Unexpectedly, the current reward was a saltpeter mine, how considerate.

“However, is it not too wasteful to use saltpeter to make ice? I remember saltpeter being one of the ingredients for producing gunpowder. He recalled learning in middle school, in the physics cla.s.s, the formula for gunpowder – sulfur, charcoal, and pota.s.sium nitrate (saltpeter).

Only sulfur was missing now that saltpeter was settled.

“It is better to first produce ice as it is getting hotter and hotter. Without ice to lower the temperature, there is no cold beer, making it difficult to go through the day.”

The smoke Serpentines changed just as thoughts welled up in his mind.

“Mission: the danger of the magic beast attack was lifted. It is about time to make an all out effort to chop down trees, to broaden the road through the Thorns Ridge, to reintegrate the Flower Town into the Coral Island's trade network, and to gain development opportunities. Reward: a new type of mushrooms.”

“A new type of mushrooms?”

Liszt immediately thought of the shiitake settlement [1]: “Alike the Black Tulip, is a magic ingredient going to sprout in the shiitake settlement's shiitake shed ?”

Shiitake were a very important kind of ingredient in the aristocrats' diet.

Shiitake were categorized as a specie of mushroom. In this world, mushrooms were called spriteless, meaning that they were plants abandoned by sprites.

Because they could not give birth to sprite worms.

In this world, even weeds had a chance at giving birth to sprite worms, with mushrooms being the exceptions. Therefore, people were quite doubtful whether they were plants. However, there were a lot of magic ingredients among mushrooms. Only plants could give birth to magic ingredients. Therefore, looking at things from this side, they were plants.

In the end, it was inconclusive.

According to what Liszt knew, mushrooms were of the Fungi kingdom. However, in this world, it was meaningless to know whether they were of the Fungi or the Plantae kingdom as this was not a world of science.

“Although mushrooms don't give birth to sprite worms, that is, there is no way to use to raise their yield through supernatural powers, but they would grow very quickly by themselves so long as the conditions were right. If I really get a new variety of magic ingredient mushrooms, that would definitely be great news, it would be equal to the Flower Town getting a specialty product.”

The Black Tulips originally could be regarded as a specialty product. However, because he only had a tulip sprite worm, he could not expand the scope of cultivation.

Yet magic ingredient mushrooms were different as they did not require the help of sprites and could expand the scope of cultivation by themselves. They were definitely the perfect choice for specialty products.

Just a type of magic ingredient mushrooms was capable of attracting an endless stream of caravans.

Or at the very least, Levis and Lvera would definitely not miss a new magic ingredient. In order to fulfill their dream of becoming Sky Knights, they aimed to become medicinal pots.

“Then chopping down trees I shall! During this period, I have to supervise the cutting down of trees every day. I must open the road through the Thorns Ridge as soon as possible!” Liszt was excited as he made the decision.

The heat emitted by the scorching summer sun was unbearable; he was ready to return to the castle ahead of time.

Yet now, he was all fired up. He sent Thomas to the castle to pack the food and bring it back to have a picnic at the logging site as well as to guard against the Windblade Wolves.

Just the picnic ended.

Suddenly, not far from the logging site, came ‘tabdak' sounds from hoofs as several knights spurred their mounts ahead. The knights seemed to have seen the logging team as they made a beeline for the logging site.

Karl and the other three retainer knights immediately went to welcome them, before shortly after coming before Liszt together with them.

“Sir Baron.” Liszt was acquainted with the leading knight. Chevalier Lähden, the Tulip Castle's knight captain, saluted according to the knight etiquette, “I, Lähden, give you my regards.”

Last time Levis and company had come to conduct the a.s.similation trade, Chevalier Lähden was the one escorting them.

Liszt returned the salute: “Chevalier Lähden, we meet again. What has brought you here this time?”

“Five days from now, on June 26th, is the Going-out-to-the-sea Festival. Sir Count had sent me to deliver a message – all members of the Tulip Family shall go to the Flower Town to celebrate the Going-out-to-the-sea Festival together with you.”