The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

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The rain came faster than expected.

The climate on the island is like this, with clear skies in the morning possibly turning into a storm in the afternoon. The collapsed sinkhole had barely been filled with a layer of rocks and sea sand at the bottom when the sudden downpour came pouring down.

The time was around three o'clock in the afternoon.

Meanwhile.

Liszt was in his room in the port town, feasting on his meal. The roasted magical beast meat sprinkled with seasoning, no need for drink accompaniments, was still delicious.

This was already his fourth meal of the day.

One in the morning, one mid-morning, one at noon, and one in the afternoon. And he would still need one in the evening, another at night, and yet another in the middle of the night.

Seven meals a day, each more than he used to eat.

He also had to visit the bathroom twice, to expel the residues of the digested food.

"So now, am I sharing a mouth with a dragon just to eat?" Liszt pondered after finishing the roasted meat and taking out a cup of dragon breed milk, drinking it down in one gulp.

A complex look of worry appeared between his brows.

Despite eating seven meals a day, not only did he show no signs of obesity, he even felt a bit leaner day by day: "The magic fire seed's need for nutrient absorption compels me to shoulder the burden of more magical beast meat and dragon breed milk, rich in nutrients… The amount I'm spending on eating now probably rivals Douson's."

Douson and other blizzard beasts are intermediate magical beasts that consume a massive amount of food every day.

Liszt had caught up and even showed signs of surpassing them, and judging by the value of the food, what he consumed was more costly—since he couldn't go without magical beast meat or dragon breed milk. Skipping one meal of magical beast meat or not drinking dragon breed milk for one meal made him feel weak.

"This magic fire seed, I don't know how long I'll need to nourish it, but if this goes on, I will eventually be eaten out of house and home. The only consolation is that the magic fire seed doesn't require expending magic power; otherwise, I really couldn't even afford to take potions."

He had been eating ravenously for the past two days.

Yet, he did not feel the slightest change at the location of his heart, where the magic fire seed occasionally emitted a warm sensation but showed no other signs of activity.

No matter how Liszt operated his Dou Qi, he couldn't draw it out or stimulate it.

He couldn't even utilize the magic power of the magic fire seed itself—his guess was that the magic power constituting the magic fire seed was highly concentrated dragon magic power; otherwise, he couldn't explain where all the fire dragon magic power went after being transformed through the dragon bone magic array. Continue reading stories on empire

Now the territory continued to mine volcanic glass.

About ten or so more tons of volcanic glass could be mined from the surface. Shallow volcanic glass was very easy to mine as the soil was quite loose. But when it comes to the deep volcanic glass, it becomes hard to mine. Due to the lack of serfs at the moment, they were only choosing to mine shallow deposits.

Based on the size of Black Horse Island, the total reserve of volcanic glass is estimated to exceed fifty tons.

He used about twenty tons of volcanic glass's fire dragon magic power to condense into the tiny magic fire seed he now possessed: "With such a compression ratio, able to compress gas into liquid, why did the transformation of fire dragon magic power only condense into a flame slightly bigger than a candle flame?"

The transformation of magic power is hard to guess.

Liszt did not know how much resources it took to raise a dragon, but nurturing a magic fire seed was already accelerating the financial strain on his hands.

"I must speed up the cultivation of 'Breath Decay'. At present, utilizing this Dou Qi secret technique only slows down one-third of my body's Dou Qi loss rate. According to Steve Vulture's introduction to Dou Qi secret techniques, at the Elite Earth Knight level, it can slow down three-quarters of the Dou Qi loss rate."

Slowing down the Dou Qi loss rate means increasing the efficiency of nutrient utilization, which means less food intake.

When 'Breath Decay' is mastered, the three-quarters rate of deceleration will at least allow me to save two meals, and eating only five meals a day will probably be enough.

Moreover.

After mastering 'Breath Decay', the consumption when taking potions will also decrease, undoubtedly a very cost-effective Dou Qi secret technique: "I must master it as quickly as possible."

Just after eating, he entered a state of cultivation, striving to operate Dou Qi in the way taught by 'Breath Decay'. With the pressure provided by the magic fire seed, he cultivated with utmost focus, fully concentrating on the details of the Dou Qi secret technique. Hoping to master it soon and save some money on food.

Suddenly.

His heart skipped a beat, and he felt a connection to the rubber elf bug, receiving a blur of restless sensations.

Immediately his eyebrows raised, understanding dawned, and he called forth the Smoke Mission: "Mission completed, reward is the restlessness of the rubber bug."

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Task completed, which meant the collapsed sinkhole had been filled with rain, turning into a lake and five tunnel openings. With water to support the pressure on the surface, the rocks around the sinkhole should not collapse easily. However, fences would need to be set up around it in the future to prevent falling in.

That was a nearly thirty-meter deep lake in the sinkhole.

He stood up, ready to take the Rubber Elf Bug to plant new Cordyceps—without saying much, he already sensed the restless Rubber Elf Bug, knowing what it wanted to do—just like the previous Rubber Elf Bug, it wanted to spit out the new Cordyceps it had nurtured inside its body.

By the way.

Pay attention to the new Smoke Mission.

"Mission: The new season of autumn harvest is about to begin. Fresh Flower Town and Black Horse Island have opened up many farms, yet the food grown is still hard to meet the consumption of the territory's population, and there is also a need to support even more people in the future. Please store enough food for ten thousand people to survive the winter. Reward: One Little Minor Elf."

"Hmm?"

Seeing the reward, Liszt suddenly froze, "Another Little Minor Elf?"

The surprise came so unexpectedly that he did not know how to express his emotions for a moment, finding it hard to think clearly, probably because of the recent troubles with the Fire Dragon, causing his brain to be somewhat overloaded.

It took a while for his thoughts to start moving again: "Is it a wild Little Minor Elf similar to Nami, or is it a breakthrough of a domesticated Elf Bug like Jela? If it's a domestic Elf Bug breakthrough, which one could it be, the Corn Grass Elf Bug, or the Rubber Elf Bug triplets? It probably isn't the Rubber Elf Bug triplets; their evolution should yield three Little Minor Elves."

Therefore.

His thoughts shifted to the Corn Grass Bug, which he did not carry with him, still in the castle of Fresh Flower Town. As for whether it was quietly accumulating power, Liszt was not sure, and he also couldn't be certain that the Corn Grass Bug was about to evolve into a Little Minor Elf.

However, during this period, the only Elf Bug that had been active, apart from the Rubber Elf Bug triplets, was the Corn Grass Bug.

He shook his head.

He pressed down the pointless guesswork.

Instead, he started thinking about the content of the mission: "Storing enough food for ten thousand people to survive the winter, according to the traditional winter, is from November to February of the following year. However, in Fresh Flower Town, the so-called 'surviving the winter' usually refers to the snowy season from mid-December to mid-February."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Fresh Flower Town was located at the northeastern corner of Coral Island, with Black Horse Island to the northeast of Fresh Flower Town.

Every year, starting in mid-December, they would be covered by a long ice snow season, during which time the serfs would usually stay at home and try to move as little as possible, to reduce heat consumption and decrease the number of meals required.

"Food for over ten thousand people for two months is no small sum. Relying on grains alone is definitely not enough. Seafood and meats must be stockpiled in large quantities, and it would be best to have a lot of salted meat and pickled vegetables... However, the Smoke Mission's requirement to store winter food for ten thousand people is very interesting."

The Smoke Mission was closely related to his own thoughts.

Sometimes Liszt would think that many of the missions are driven by his own "imagination."

For example, the bizarre mission to help Meioubao and Angela improve their marital relationship might have come about because he often deliberately thought about Angela Sapphire's promiscuous lifestyle and projected it through the Smoke Mission.

And recently, he had always been concerned about how to buy serfs when executing the Pioneer Mandate and transport them back to the territory.

Therefore.

The Smoke Mission had issued the task of winter food storage for ten thousand people.

"Perhaps I can attempt in future Smoke Missions to proactively guide the Smoke Mission by continually suggesting to myself," he mused.

"It feels a bit unreliable, probably affecting only the content of the mission, and it seems not to influence the reward."

"But trying it out isn't a bad thing."

He had always relied on the rewards of the Smoke Mission to achieve leapfrog development for both his territory and himself. But deep down, he also had a strong desire for control, hoping to firmly grasp the Smoke Mission in his hands, rather than triggering it passively. Moreover, this might relate to the existence of a Sacred Dragon.

The Smoke Dragon!

So he never stopped pondering over the Smoke Mission.

...

Having mentally prepared to guide the Smoke Mission, he took the Rubber Elf Bug triplets. Mounting the Landwalker Bird, which was reluctant to leave its nest, he set out in the heavy rain towards the rubber plantation.