Rural Cooperative's Next Step

As late autumn approached, the temperature grew colder.

During this time, Orange Fruit Village's orchards welcomed a second wave of harvesting, bringing wide smiles to the villagers' faces.

Amidst the grass, Aiven was training his squad of Walking Grass.

As the temperature continued to drop, the Spirits on Sky Crown Mountain would surely begin migrating towards the foothills.

Once those Spirits reached the Black Forest at the foot of Sky Crown Mountain, it would inevitably cause ecological chaos within the forest.

With food becoming scarce, the Spirits would leave the Black Forest and enter human territory.

That would be the true test of the Walking Grass squad's combat capabilities, and whether they could defend the orchards would have a significant impact on Aiven's future farming plans.

For these Walking Grass, who already considered the farm their home, winter battles were equally crucial. They didn't want to lose the home they had finally found, and this filled them with strength.

"Walking Grass, just like that, use Absorb Technique!"

As Aiven's voice fell, the Walking Grass on the field began to emit green light.

Due to the simultaneous use of Absorb Technique, the green light from these Walking Grass merged into one, causing the grass beneath their feet to turn yellow at a visible rate.

This was because the Walking Grass had directly absorbed the energy contained within the soil through Absorb Technique.

However, Aiven wasn't worried at all. Tomorrow, he would have an Ironclad Rhinoceros use Digging Move, and the withered pasture would quickly grow back.

"Hmm, the training for Absorb Technique went well."

"Absorb Technique combined with Digging Move can completely cover the Walking Grass's daily consumption."

Aiven let out a sigh of relief. After this period of development, the number of Walking Grass had reached 200. As the team grew, resource consumption began to increase exponentially.

This was just the consumption of the Walking Grass squad. It was hard to imagine how the Lord could support the consumption of such a massive Ironclad Rhinoceros cavalry, even just 100 Ironclad Rhinoceros would have a consumption unimaginable to ordinary people.

While the Walking Grass on the field were recovering their stamina with Absorb Technique, Aiven went to the fruit orchard.

In the orchard, several wooden barrels were placed, containing Rotten Tree Fruit that was fermenting. It wouldn't be long before he obtained a certain amount of Growth Fertilizer.

But even so, it was unrealistic for the Walking Grass to rely entirely on Growth Fertilizer to supplement their usual consumption. It could only be used occasionally, like watering fruit trees.

This also significantly slowed down the Walking Grass's training progress, so he had been trying to find a way to obtain a stable source of large quantities of Rotten Tree Fruit. Using fresh fruit to make Growth Fertilizer was too wasteful.

"Aiven, you plan to buy those unripe fruits?"

In the farm, Uncle Darby looked at Aiven with surprise and hesitation.

Just now, Aiven had found him and proposed using the gold earned from the Lord to buy a large quantity of unripe fruits from nearby villages.

Of course, that wasn't what surprised him. It was the excessively high purchase price Aiven offered, which was essentially giving money away to the fruit farmers in other villages.

"Winter is coming too early this year. At this rate, most of the fruit farmers' fruits won't be harvested before it arrives."

Upon hearing Aiven's words, Uncle Darby fell silent. He was very sympathetic to the plight of those fruit farmers.

He wasn't opposing Aiven buying unripe fruits now, and Aiven had explained that unripe fruits could be used to make fertilizer.

It was just that the price Aiven offered was too high, about 5 copper coins per unripe fruit, while a basket of Rotten Tree Fruit could be bought for 5 copper coins.

If they bought at this price, they might lose all the money they earned this year, or even more.

"It's fine, just do as I say."

Aiven smiled nonchalantly. Seeing this, Darby could only swallow his doubts and sigh before going out to prepare.

"We must protect these fruit farmers. To a certain extent, population is more important for regional development," Aiven thought as he looked at the Healing Potion in front of him.

After enduring this winter, he planned to gradually incorporate these fruit farmers into his Rural Cooperative plan.

Accumulating a large amount of Growth Fertilizer now would serve as the initial resources for that time.

With this transaction, the other party would also trust him more, forming a good basis for cooperation.

Furthermore, he truly needed a large amount of fertilizer now to help the Walking Grass squad grow faster and defend the orchards for him during the winter.

Raul, the village chief of Persimmon Seed Village, was in a heavy mood.

This year's early winter had been disastrous for fruit farmers like them.

In previous years, although they couldn't harvest all the fruits before winter arrived, they could generally harvest the first wave.

But now, according to their estimates, they might not even be able to harvest the first wave of fruits before facing attacks from Magical Beasts.

Those damned Magical Beasts would eat all the fruits in the orchards, leaving only bare branches.

Thinking of this, the old village chief felt his breathing become heavy. This meant that a year's worth of effort would yield nothing.

Now, the villagers were discussing how to defend against the invading Magical Beasts.

They planned to protect the fruits as much as possible when facing the Magical Beasts. According to their understanding, the Magical Beasts invading human territory at the beginning wouldn't be too numerous.

But they were still Magical Beasts. Their village only had one Stoutland, how could they possibly resist those Magical Beasts?

Even the weakest Rattata's teeth could kill an adult wielding a sharp weapon, let alone other stronger Magical Beasts.

Just as the old village chief was lost in despair, someone suddenly came to inform him that Village Chief Darby from the neighboring Orange Fruit Village had come to see him.

Orange Fruit Village... The old village chief's heart stirred. He was aware of the news of Orange Fruit Village's great harvest this year. While envious, he was also somewhat jealous. How had they managed it?

The young people in their village had gone to Orange Fruit Village to inquire about the reason for the abundant harvest, but those villagers were tight-lipped, and they hadn't obtained any information.

Now, he wondered why the village chief of Orange Fruit Village had come to see him. Would he be willing to share the secret of Orange Fruit Village's bountiful harvest?