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Before dawn the next day, the serfs from each hamlet were busy scooping up fermented manure from the cesspits. The serfs carried this manure toward the dairy farms.

The disbanded Lumberjack Team also regrouped and arrived early at the Thorn Cordyceps Shrubbery, escorted by the Knight Squad. Marcus, carrying a quiver of Falcon Feather Arrows, scoured the shrubbery to ensure no Magical Beasts lurked nearby, before turning to nod at Goltai.

“Sir, the area is secure,” he said.

“Good,” Goltai turned around and shouted at the serfs, “Focus and get to work! You’ve taken the Lord Landlord’s copper coins, and anyone caught slacking off will be whipped to death by me! Remember, do not touch the Thorns; all other trees, without exception, must be cut down.”

The serfs responded in unison.

Then they began to cut down trees.

They did not know why they were there to cut trees, but they followed the town officials’ orders and also received a reward of two copper coins for a day’s work.

Before long, the manure-carrying team arrived, and Goltai hastily directed the serfs to fertilize the Thorn bushes.

Finance Officer Isaiah followed, tasked with calculating each serf’s pay. After tallying the number of workers, he recorded the data on thick parchment. Stretching leisurely, he conversed with Goltai, “What do you think the Baron is planning with such care for the Thorn Bugs?”

“I don’t know, but there must be a purpose to what he does,” Goltai replied.

“Goltai, you’ve become more and more invested in Fresh Flower Town,” Isaiah noted.

“Why not? With its booming development, I’ll probably spend the rest of my life here. It’s good to see it prosper. A barren countryside is unbearable, but in a prosperous one, there’s plenty to discover,” Goltai said.

“Of course, nobody likes poverty.”

“For the Lord, and for ourselves, we must strive forward, Isaiah,” Goltai said, glancing at his old friend, who had recently become enamored with the idea of following Liszt.

“I think… yes.”

The town officers, Goltai, Blair, Karl, and Marcus, had all become followers of Liszt. As the only official who hadn’t yet pledged allegiance, Isaiah naturally felt the pressure.

Goltai didn’t say much more; it was ultimately Isaiah’s own decision. “Isaiah, let’s check the Thorn Cordyceps Shrubbery to see if there are any unusual Thorns. The Lord mentioned that the Thorn Bugs have been restless lately, perhaps due to changes in the shrubbery.”

“What are we waiting for? I’ll have to search carefully. If I find a Magic Medicine Thorn… well then. By the way, have the ingredients for cultivating Flame Mushrooms in Mushroom Hamlet been researched?”

Goltai spread his hands helplessly, “It’s not so easy. Various ingredients have been tested to cultivate Flame Mushrooms, all to no avail. If it weren’t for Crooked-neck Bob’s mushroom shed still growing Flame Mushrooms, we might have botched it entirely. The Lord places high importance on Flame Mushrooms; I don’t even know how to report on this,” Goltai said.

The cultivation of Flame was in a predicament.

Goltai had mobilized all Mushroom Hamlet cultivators, distributing Flame Mushroom seeds for them to grow.

Unfortunately, all attempts ended in failure—allegedly, Crooked-neck Bob had become obsessed, staying in his shed day and night, watching the Flame Mushrooms grow, but unable to fathom why, after replanting with new ingredients, they failed to thrive and the seeds died.

“Perhaps I should tell the Baron. He might have some good suggestions,” Isaiah suggested.

“Why do you say that?”

“Goltai, don’t you think the Baron is knowledgeable? He knows a lot. His vision is broader than all of ours; he can see the vast world that we cannot,” Isaiah said.

“Is that how you see the Lord?”

“Actually, it was Marcus who said that. This Retainer Knight, who aspires to become a Noble, holds the Baron in high regard,” Isaiah conveyed.

After contemplating for a moment, Goltai replied, “Perhaps I really should report to the Lord. The matter of the Flame Mushrooms isn’t something with which I can afford to be complacent.”

He wanted to prove himself to earn an advisory position.

But he was even more aware that if he screwed up with the Flame Mushrooms, Liszt might well kill him—the importance of Magic Potions to a Landlord was something anyone could comprehend.

At noon, Liszt went for a round in the Thorn Cordyceps Shrubbery to inspect the progress and casually inquired about any unusual varieties of Thorn that might have been discovered.

The officials had not made any progress, and even when Liszt used his Eye of Magic, he did not see any aberrant Thorns.

He had now confirmed that the Smoke Mission could not create reward items out of thin air, the rewards were things that truly existed in this world, and as long as one was willing to dig, they could obtain the reward items even without going through the mission.

This gave him great choice.

He could choose to complete the mission, allowing the Smoke Mission to deliver the reward items to him effortlessly and comfortably.

He could also choose to bypass the mission, directly obtaining the reward items, to “refresh” new tasks.

He even thought that perhaps the mission could fail, but he didn’t know what kind of “punishment” would follow a failure, whether it would be the reward items being kept from him or some other additional punishment. Or, he wondered if new tasks would be available after a mission failure?

“Perhaps one day, I could try to see the consequences of mission failure, but if it’s possible to complete, I should still try to do so to avoid creating adverse outcomes,” he mused.

He shook his head.

Liszt was no longer troubled. Since there were no anomalies with the Thorns to be discovered, he could only wait to complete the mission to acquire new varieties of Thorns.

Goltai approached, “Lord, there seems to be a problem with the cultivation of the Flame Mushrooms.”

“What problem?” Liszt immediately became anxious.

“We have assigned Flame Mushroom seeds to all the serfs who plant regular mushrooms, but not a single one has successfully cultivated a living Flame Mushroom. It seems that Flame Mushrooms can only grow in Crooked-neck Bob’s mushroom shed. However, we can’t find any differences between his mushroom shed and the others.”

Almost a month had passed.

The Flame Mushrooms still hadn’t been successfully cultivated.

Liszt felt there must be a significant issue at hand. In fact, he had been monitoring the situation all along but wanted to give the serfs time to solve it—the Lord couldn’t be expected to toil every day.

To his surprise, a month had gone by.

None of the distributed Flame Mushroom seeds showed any signs of life.

Logically, the cultivation of mushrooms is quite rapid; once the spores germinate, they can usually grow from mycelium to fruiting bodies in just a few days, ready for harvesting in less than two months. However, the Flame Mushroom seeds (the mycelium) simply couldn’t survive, no matter the variety of substrates and environments the serfs tried.

Without specialized researchers, Liszt could only ask Goltai to lead the way to Mushroom Hamlet for an on-site investigation.

To see if he could deduce some reasons with his knowledge.

Arriving at Mushroom Hamlet.

He saw Crooked-neck Bob, with bloodshot eyes and an exhausted appearance beyond recognition, kneeling on the ground, trembling all over, “Lord Landlord, Bob is a waste, unable to cultivate the Flame Mushrooms alive in a month.”

Liszt did not blame Bob.

He merely asked Bob in detail about the process of cultivating the Flame Mushrooms.

After listening, he cast his gaze over the Flame Mushrooms and used the Eye of Magic, wanting to identify the root of the problem. He looked at the few Flame Mushrooms growing in the mushroom substrate and then at the Flame Mushroom seeds prepared in the new substrate. He noticed something puzzling.

Normally, the Magic Power in a Flame Mushroom is a process of congealing.

This included the Flame Mushroom seeds produced by it, which also continually condensed Magic Power.

But after inoculation, the Flame Mushroom seeds in the new substrate could not condense Magic Power and instead slowly dispelled Magic Power.

“What could be the reason for this?”