The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Chapter 364 : 0361: The New Ethnic Group of Mangrove Island (Second Update)

He pulled out the Soul Storage Vessel and tilted the spout of the teapot to pour, but no smoke came out, indicating that Virginia Truth had not yet awakened.

Without giving it much thought, he continued to sleep.

The next day.

The entire day was busy with preparations for logistical support to the battlefield. Besides the Knight Squad, Liszt would also bring Paris, Douson, and eight Retainer Knights to serve him on the battlefield. When going out to fight, laundry and cooking were unavoidable, and these tasks could not possibly be done by himself, so they had to be entrusted to the Retainer Knights.

Additionally, he had to bring along a few town officials for a special mission—relocating serfs.

Once the siege of Iron Hoof Island began, they would certainly conquer castles one by one, and the serfs belonging to those castles would become spoils of war. Liszt would never allow these serfs to flee and end up in the pockets of the Sapphire Duke to be redistributed to other Nobles.

He had discussed with the Earl and his brother a long time ago about renting the family's sea ships for the transportation of serfs.

If there ever was a chance to take serfs to the seaport to board a ship, he would absolutely not be polite. Black Horse Island had a vast expanse of wasteland, even Fresh Flower Town still had plenty of fallow land not fully cultivated.

Serfs were truly scarce.

These serfs were different from those in the Eagle Kingdom, as they spoke the same language; after being captured, they could be directly put to work without the need for an adjustment period or acclimatization.

"Remember to bring enough provisions, especially flatbreads, breadsticks, and jerky," Liszt checked the supplies on the carriage.

When a Landlord called upon smaller landlords to join the fight, they would not prepare supplies for these little landlords, only for their own Retainer Knights—Marcus, Charles, and others were nominally followers, but in fact, before they received Noble titles and domains, they were only Retainer Knights under Liszt.

"My lord, we've brought 1,500 flatbreads, 1,000 breadsticks, and 800 pieces of jerky, enough for everyone to eat for a month," replied Marcus.

Flatbread was a creation Mrs. Abbie made at the direction of Liszt, easy to carry and store, suitable for the needs of marching and warfare. Flatbread saved more space than traditional breadsticks carried during war marches in this world. Flatbread, breadsticks, and jerky would constitute the main food during war.

Of course.

The Knights would not only eat these items; once they conquered the next Castle, they could eat whatever they wanted. These flatbreads, breadsticks, and jerky served more as emergency rations, just in case.

To fight a war supported by the spoils of war was the essence of Knightly combat.

After meticulously checking the supplies to ensure nothing was overlooked, Liszt reorganized his Gemstone Space once again—he took out some items that he wouldn't need and stored them in the Castle's warehouse, such as Mithril, Jade, and Crystals.

And refilled it with food.

Together with the earlier chunks of Six-Headed King Serpent meat, this food would be enough for him to eat for a year; he would definitely not starve to death.

Afterward, he went to the Magic Workshop located in Mushroom Hamlet—originally called the Flame Mushroom Processing Workshop, a place Elkerson used for making Magic Potions. Now his work had been replaced by Chris, and the workshop's name had also been changed to Magic Workshop—all the Magic Potions produced in Fresh Flower Town were processed here.

"Chris, are my Magic Potions ready?" he asked.

Chris moved out a prepared box: "Baron, I finally managed to finish making these Magic Potions before you set off to war... However, I must say, the Mr. Elkeson you previously cooperated with, his method of making Magic Potions was really rudimentary and wasted too much Magic Power."

"His potion-making skills are poor?"

"Not to say too poor, but relatively inferior. It's possible he had little experience in making Magic Potions, wasting at least 20% of the Magic Power," Chris said. She was quite a talented Magician, advancing to the next level at the age of seventeen, while people like Elkerson did not advance until they were in their twenties.

Moreover, what Chris was most proficient in was Magic Potion production, so it was quite normal for her to increase the efficiency of Magic Potion use by 20%.

Liszt smiled and said, "Thankfully I have you to help me now, otherwise the thought of my large batches of magic potions being lost in the production process, and perhaps even being embezzled, would not be a happy one."

"If I could break through to become a Grand Magician one day, the efficiency of magic potion production could continue to improve. For now, it has basically reached the saturated utilization rate that a magician can master."

"Do your best. During my absence, feel free to make any requests to the castle."

"I understand, Baron."

All the magic potions were packed into the gemstone space.

Even though he was headed out to war, he still did not want to interrupt his potion consumption routine. The practice of Dou Qi was like sailing against the current; if you don't advance, you will fall back. Now, with the Dou Qi Secret Technique "Breath Decay" to augment the effects of the magic potions, breaking Merlin Taro's record of becoming a Sky Knight at twenty-two should not be difficult.

"Who knows, I might become a Sky Knight at eighteen and ride a dragon at twenty!" Liszt ambitiously thought.

By evening.

He made another trip to the Sea View Villa to bid farewell to Ach.

However, he unexpectedly received news about the Green Caterpillar and the Green-headed Duck from Ach, "Brother, a bunch of ducks and caterpillars have come to Nami's house."

"Ducks and caterpillars? What do they look like?"

"The caterpillars are a bit like Elf Bug babies, about as long as a finger, and their bodies are covered with fluffy fur, not like insect fur but more like animal fur; the ducks have gray bodies, green heads, and are as big as swans. They can also spit water jets, and are low-level magical beasts that love eating caterpillars the most."

Clearly.

The reward for the Smoke Mission had landed on Mangrove Island.

The Green Caterpillars bred on Mangrove Island, hence attracting the low-level magical beasts, the Green-headed Ducks, that prey on them. The use of the Green Caterpillars was not very clear—it's possible that their green fur could be used to make clothing like animal fur—but the meat of the magical Green-headed Ducks was definitely an excellent food source.

Liszt's eyes lit up. With his current archery skills, hunting low-level magical beasts would be an easy catch.

At that moment, Ach added, "Brother, those ducks love to lay eggs everywhere, and they have already laid a lot of eggs on the island. They seem to never incubate the eggs, as I haven't seen any ducklings."

"Duck eggs?"

Magical Green-headed Ducks were laying eggs on the island.

This meant that if he picked them up, he could directly hatch Green-headed Ducks and then artificially rear them. Much like Tulip Castle's method of raising low-level magical Fire Rabbits for food, satisfying the castle's great demand for magical beast meat—even if he couldn't incubate the eggs, they would definitely be a delicious delicacy.

After thinking for a bit, he said, "Ach, could you and Nami collect these duck eggs and put them inside the Sea View Villa...never mind, don't bother collecting them. Let's talk when I get back."

It was summer now, and he estimated that these duck eggs probably couldn't be stored for long. By the time he returned from Iron Hoof Island, they would likely be spoiled.

It would be better to let the Green-headed Ducks proliferate on the island by themselves—if these duck eggs didn't require incubation and the ducklings could hatch on their own, it would only serve to increase the population of Green-headed Ducks.

Leaving the Sea View Villa, Liszt was in high spirits.

Now that his territory had Blizzard Beasts, Green-headed Ducks, and the Black Pearl Tridacna, which was not a Sea Monster, it was as if he had gained control of three special magical beast resources.

He felt full of high ambition, "I hope to distinguish myself quickly in this war and be soon granted the title of Viscount of Black Horse Island!"