The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

"Task completed, reward: one Thorn Bug."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

As Liszt was riding the Landwalker bird Loki, which had learned the Levitation Spell, they were flying midair when a changing smoke appeared before his eyes, signaling that his task had been completed.

The orphanage had been temporarily established.

The requirements for the Smoke Mission were not strict; much of its content resembled reminders. Once he noticed them and began working on them, the tasks were considered complete.

"Another Thorn Bug?" Liszt's eyes sparkled. He had just contracted the Thorn Bug that was a reward from a previous task the day before yesterday and had moved the Cordyceps to the Thorn Garden that was planned for the yet-to-be-built Thorn Town, "The cultivation of two consecutive Thorn Bugs will greatly increase my production of Thorn Magic Potion, excellent!"

Patting Loki's elongated neck, Liszt called out loudly, "Loki, to the Thorn Garden!"

This Thorn Garden was the Thorn Garden of Fresh Flower Town.

"Clatter!"

Loki responded cheerfully, flapping its wings, turning its body, and flying toward the Thorn Garden next to the dairy farm at an unhurried speed. A light Wind Attribute Magic Power was supporting Loki's body, making it as light as a feather, allowing it to fulfill its dream of flying by flapping its wings.

The Levitation Spell is an Advanced Wind System Magic and is a more advanced form of the Light Body Skill.

The Light Body Skill is Magic that every Magician will research when studying Wind System Magic. It gathers Wind Attribute Magic Power to lift oneself or other objects to reduce weight. It is very practical Magic, and Magicians like to use the Light Body Skill to climb mountains or move heavy objects.

But the Light Body Skill is after all just Common Magic, and it can't make one fly.

Its advanced form, the Levitation Spell, however, has standard flying capability and can gather a mass of Wind Attribute Magic Power, lifting oneself or other objects into midair, as if floating. This Magic is challenging; even Grand Magicians find it difficult to master, almost as hard as the Invisibility Technique in the Light System Magic.

However, Loki had refined Magic Array information in its bloodline, allowing it to easily grasp this Magic and truly fly in the blue sky.

Unfortunately, the Levitation Spell allowed Loki to fly but caused it to lose its speed while running on the ground.

No matter how Loki flapped its wings, its speed was only comparable to that of a sparrow. The Levitation Spell also had a time limit; it would collapse every fifteen minutes, requiring re-gathering of Magic. Fifteen minutes was not enough to cross the sea, let alone travel the sea area between Black Horse Island and Fresh Flower Town.

But it was possible to fly from the port town to Mangrove Island.

It could also fly from Nameless Castle straight to the Thorn Garden. After landing, Liszt immediately used the Eye of Magic to look for the new Cordyceps that would nurture the Thorn Bug. Since basically all of the Thorn Garden consisted of Magic Medicine with magic feedback, it was somewhat difficult to search, but he still found it after half an hour.

"Carefully protect my Cordyceps, and notify me immediately when the Thorn Bug is nurtured and emerges!" he instructed the Bug Guard Members.

The Bug Guard Members replied loudly, "Yes, Lord Landlord!"

Satisfied, Liszt left. With that, he now had three Little Minor Elves, twenty-nine Elf Bugs, as well as Ach and the five Elf Bugs she had contracted. This foundation already far surpassed that of an ordinary Viscount, with huge potential for development. While he still lacked a bit compared to the foundation of an Earl, he believed he would soon catch up.

"Whether it's my strength or my Elves, I will soon surpass the Earl."

Thinking of that exciting scene in the future, he couldn't help but let out a laugh: "Hehe."

On the way back.

He summoned the Smoke Mission again: "Mission: You have already studied the Blue Steel, Cast Aluminum, and unreadable books left behind by the Sky Ship, along with those magic-infused seeds. Why not continue researching that pile of strange wood? Perhaps it can provide you with new inspiration. Reward: a follower with extraordinary talent."

The strange wood mentioned in the mission content was the pieces of wood salvaged from the Sky Ship.

The wood seemed to have sprouted at one point and was very hard, not of lesser quality than Thorn Ironwood. However, Liszt had studied it for a few days before and had not discovered much information. He even planned to use it to build a castle if there were no leads—the branches of its kin had already been used to build the Sky Ship.

Now it seemed, these strange pieces of wood were hiding a secret.

"However, what does 'a follower with an astonishing talent' mean? Does it require me to recruit another follower from among the new serfs? What kind of talent qualifies as astonishing, could it be even more astonishing than mine?"

Liszt was somewhat conflicted in his heart.

Of course, he hoped to have a follower with great strength, yet he preferred the title of "astonishing talent" for himself.

"First complete the mission, then pay attention to this follower over time." Enjoy exclusive content from empire

Upon returning to the castle, he immediately set out to study the strange wood, which clearly belonged to building materials. Its most unique feature was the naturally formed dragon bone shape within the Sky Ship, which demonstrated the high malleability of the wood.

However, Liszt felt that it was shaped by magic.

According to the clues at hand, the Child of the Sun lived in the forest, with trees as companions. They also possessed a profound mastery of magic, not only able to transform into bears, eagles, leopards but also into trees. It was not surprising they mastered a magic that allowed trees to grow in a fixed shape.

This kind of magic was even recorded among that batch of Sun Scripture.

Regrettably, Liszt's knowledge of the Sun Script vocabulary was too limited to understand the content of the books: "I speculate that among the Magic Medicine Seeds I've harvested, there are seeds that grow into this kind of tree... But what does the Smoke Mission mean by asking me to study the wood again? What other secrets do the wood conceal waiting to be unearthed?"

In the castle, he subjected the wood to soaking in water, burning with fire, and chopping with a knife; besides proving it reached the quality of ironwood, he still did not discover much useful information.

Shaking his head, he temporarily set aside his research on the wood.

He went to the glasshouse and patiently tended to the Magic Medicine Seeds, which one third had sprouted. The first to sprout, a fava bean seed, had grown into a seedling, its tender leaves looking no different from those of any common plant.

While he was loosening the soil, a seed was accidentally turned over.

He was just about to rebury it when he suddenly noticed that the seed had sprouted, but the sprout had died at some point.

"The seed died?"

He was surprised for a moment, then thought of something and quickly dug up another spot with a seed that hadn't sprouted. A seed was unearthed, and just like the previous one, it had sprouted but died. Several more seeds were dug up in succession; except for one that had not sprouted, the others had all sprouted but died.

"Why would they die after sprouting, is it because they were stored for too long and lack vitality?" Since the dead seeds involved many varieties, and there were corresponding varieties growing robustly, environmental issues could be ruled out.

He pondered deeply, feeling it was likely due to the seeds being too ancient and thus lacking vitality.

Despite some regrets over the nearly two-thirds of dead seeds, the one third that had sprouted still somewhat lessened his disappointment.

It was at this moment that a flash of insight struck him.

He associated the seeds with the wood, "The seeds sprouted but died, and the batch of wood I salvaged had also sprouted once but the sprouts quickly died... Does this imply that the batch of wood cut into segments was originally intended as a 'seed' for cultivating plants?"

Not all plants rely on seeds to sprout; there are numerous plants that can sprout directly from the trunk.

Therefore.

He hastily took out a few pieces of wood and buried them in the soil of the glasshouse, watching for any changes.