The mother in law gifts me a mountain for a new beginning - Chapter 59

Chapter 59. Iris Flower Potions! The Second Crop With Magic Power!

Lynn arranged for the evolved half beast warriors to live in the mountains for a few days in order to help mine the iron. The efficiency of the mountainous smelting stronghold was not bad as a total of sixty epees had been produced. Hammer and the apprentices had gradually become more proficient and continued to improve. Yet, there were not enough people. There was a bottleneck in the smelting forces as the mining forces produced more iron than they could handle.

Since the efficiency was greatly affected, the warriors could be used as additional manpower to temporarily solve this problem. To solve the problem of food and water, the horses would take the necessities up the mountain from the village which also needed manpower. Lynn’s final thought on the matters would be to continue to expand the population of the village.

Lynn’s territory was exuberantly rich in resources, but as of now there were fewer than six hundred people. So, the lack of manpower lowered the efficiency of mining. Lynn arranged the work of the half beasts to work around the territory. Walking two steps, he saw a villager in the distance clearing the wasteland. The land near Fenglin had good fertility and was worth cultivating but since there was not enough hands for work before and the villagers had their own crops to grow, the reclamation of the land had temporarily stopped.

Now that winter was coming and the wheat had been harvested and no new crops were planted, the amount of work that the beasts had to do had decreased. The villagers had sufficient food, so in the long winter the only thing they could do was to help Lynn cultivate the land when they were not discussing his wife.

Lynn had not ordered the villagers to do this work. They did it out of their own volition since they wanted to help their Lord clear the land. They did not even ask for a payment. The civilians of Fenglin were that grateful to Lynn as the people of the village would freeze or starve to death during the past winters. This year, however, they had enough food for their daily meals and charcoal for heating. The diligent women and children had saved up their money from the grape harvests and were able to buy some quilts to help stave off the harsh cold. All of these changes were only possible because Lynn brought it to them.

The villagers could not do much for Lynn, but they had strength. They found something to do for him, and worked hard to repay Lynn’s kindness. He followed the villagers who were hard at work and looked around in surprise. The villagers were impressively hardworking and skilled in their work. Lynn estimated that they had cultivated more than five acres of wasteland already. Lynn should be able to produce more than ten thousand pounds of food from this.

What was more was that the workers continued to cultivate at a fast pace. By the end of winter, Lynn would have about thirty acres of arable land. Lynn would be able to produce 120,000 pounds of food with at least the two harvestable seasons. The extra food alone would be enough for one thousand half beasts to eat a month. Lynn called Bark over to give some rewards, but he resolutely rejected him.

“You have given us a full life,” Bark said gratefully. “We only have the strength to give you our weak power. This is not enough to repay your kindness, so we cannot ask for a reward.”

Bark’s voice was firm, so Lynn gave up. The villagers of Fenglin were an honest bunch, and they just refused to ask for any payment. Lynn would reward them through other means. Lynn would always help out the people who were loyal to him.

Lynn went around the territory and looked at the condition of the land, and then took Lucy once more to see the potions. The flame mushrooms had already matured and they could now begin collecting the spores. Yet, this batch was a bit troublesome as there were so many of them. By now, the number of flame mushrooms had reached two thousand. Buno and the attendants must be too busy now, so Lynn thought for a while.

“Let the women in the village come to work here. Get fifty of them so that you can collect all of the spores in one day. Give them a silver coin as payment.”

The seeds of the mushrooms were not a secret, so it was alright for the villagers to do the work. This also allowed Lynn to pay them as one silver coin was a lot of money for an ordinary person. It would allow them to buy clothes for the children. Buno agreed with Lynn’s order and went to inform the villagers.

Soon, the women gathered and began to help with collecting the spores. The women in the territory were very straightforward so when Lynn said he wanted to give them money, they took it. They were not polite in that sense, however once then got the money they were willing to work hard. Lucy thought it was interesting to take out the spores, so she had a good time playing while doing so. Then, Lynn took her to see how the iris flowers were doing next to her.

“They are flowering!” Lucy said in surprise.

Lynn recorded that they would mature once every eighteen days during the winters. The flowers would then bloom. Once he finished taking note, Lynn was a little happy. The yield of the flowers seemed a little low, but a flower was worth seventy silvers. Since a flower matured every eighteen days, the income would be even higher than the amount a flame mushroom brought in.

However, the number of flowers was still too little. Lynn took the flowers off of the stem and gave them to Lucy to put away. Lynn then carefully examined the iris. He found that the rhizomes had been growing stronger and there were more leaf stems. The leaves grew in the middle of the plant, making a boundary. With this characteristic, it should be easy to split them.

Lynn was still a little nervous and dug out the plant carefuly. With the obvious definition in the middle of the plant, Lynn used a little force and tore it into two. He then planted them into different pots. He had no idea whether he had just successfully planted them or not. He would have to wait for a few days to see the results. Once the arrangements were made for the plants, Lynn and Lucy returned to the castle in order to meditate.

“Let us measure our mana!” Lucy suddenly suggested. “I feel pretty good about it, and I can feel the power increasing rapidly recently.”

“I am afraid you will be blown away,” Lynn said with a smile.

“I will not be able to compare to you again. Okay, let us test ourselves together.”

There were four test stones left, so Lynn wrote a letter asking Rau to buy a hundred of them. Lynn would save them and use them slowly. Transmitting the message would be much more convenient with a carrier pigeon. He even felt like waiting for someone to deliver the order even though he just placed it.

Once he had written the letter, Lucy started the test. She let her mana flow through the stone and a purple light emerged and condensed into a number. It was 42.

“You are growing up fast!” Lynn exclaimed.

“You laugh at me!” Lucy said with a fierce face.

“No, it really is improving fast. You seem to have a gift for magic.”

“Really?” Lucy gave a cute smile. “Can I help you fight?”

“Take your time and do not worry. I will test mine first.”

“Okay! Let me see!”

Lynn picked up a test stone and poured his mana into it. A fiery red light appeared from the stone and a number emerged: 3,500.

“Why did it rise so fast?!” Lucy said in shock.

Lynn was also a little surprised. In just a few days, it rose by more than three hundred points. But then Lynn recalled a single moment in the past.

“It may be because of the fights I was in that increased my growth rate.”

Lucy felt a little pained from his words, so she stood up and patted Lynn’s head.

“Thank you for your hard work,” Lucy said.

Lynn hugged her and then the two of them began to meditate as they usually did. In the evening after eating, Lynn felt a little tired and laid down in his bed earlier than usual. Once he was settled, he instinctively used the territory search skill. Lynn originally thought that there were resources deep in the mountains, however the place that was displayed by the System was not too far from the plantation that Lynn wanted to cultivate.

Right then, the System found a corn plant that had weak mana and had a yield of fifteen hundred pounds per acre. Lynn sat up with excitement all over his face. Although the yield of the corn was not higher than the wheat, he would not be able to plant the same plant continuously.

The magic wheat could increase their yield through the nourishment of magic and did not need fertilizer. It was also resistant to temperatures and took up the same amount of space compared to regular wheat, but its resistance to disease was not that great. Continuously planting the same crops would make them prone to diseases.

This was also why Lynn had not ordered any more sowing of wheat for the time being, as he was waiting for a new crop to be planted. Soybeans and alfalfa were fine as long as the crop was changed. Corn was also a good alternative. This would greatly reduce the occurrence of diseases. When he acquired corn, Lynn would not have to worry about diseases anymore.

Additionally, the speed at which the magic crop matured meant that he could plant them three to four times a year. The cultivated land in Fenglin was still underway, so if Lynn could obtain this magic corn the grain output in the village would be amazing. With a sufficient amount of food, the population would be allowed to grow. The increase in food production would also reduce the pressure from having to feed his legion.

Lynn could not wait, but the mountains and forests would become significantly more dangerous at night. This caused Lynn to wait until the next morning out of caution. When morning came, 2,600 points were rewarded plus the leftover 80 points from yesterday. Lynn evolved another 28 warriors to rank three.

As the half beasts who went up the mountain to assist with smelting had yet to descend, Lynn figured that 28 fighters would be enough to deal with any monsters that were attracted to the magic crop. Lynn was ready and told Lucy that he would be leaving. Full of excitement, he took the warriors and headed directly to obtain the corn.

(The free chapters have ended.)