In the pure white, empty space, a thin layer of soil spanning ten square meters floated in midair.
The soil was neatly arranged into a 2-by-5 rectangle.
"This is starting to look more and more like some kind of farm..." Ron floated in the air, looking down at the soil and clicking his tongue.
He took the Golden Red Chrysanthemum seeds from his Inventory and began trying to plant them.
From the Golden Red Chrysanthemum's cultivation method he had absorbed, Ron learned that it bloomed in autumn, producing three to five fruits each time, before withering in winter.
The following year, the Golden Red Chrysanthemum would grow and bloom again, bear fruit, and then wither. It wouldn't die naturally.
It needed moist, loose soil to grow, and enough Warm Sun Liquid during its growth period to cultivate flowers with special effects.
The Cultivation Space could handle all of that. Ron just needed to configure it according to the cultivation method.
Since this was his first time growing Golden Red Chrysanthemums, even with the Cultivation Space's time-acceleration function, it took him the remaining three hours of the morning to grow a single plant.
A bright smile of satisfaction appeared on Ron's face as he looked at the orange-red flower blooming in the square meter of soil before him.
The Golden Red Chrysanthemum's leaves were oval with wavy edges. Its flower rose above them, a dense cluster of long, slender, orange-red petals forming a sphere.
The fragrance spread through the air. Ron took a few gentle sniffs and immediately felt his body grow more energetic.
[Upgrade Quest]—[Successfully grow one Golden Red Chrysanthemum]:
"Congratulations, Host. The quest is complete. Your reward has been placed in your [Inventory]."
"The Golden Red Chrysanthemum can be transplanted to your shop. Would you like to transplant it?"
Ron didn't choose to transplant it. Instead, he continued to control the flow of time until the Golden Red Chrysanthemum bore fruit, then harvested the fruits and the seeds inside.
Next, he spent another half an hour using the four seeds he had just harvested, along with the original plant, to grow five Golden Red Chrysanthemums.
System: "The Golden Red Chrysanthemum can be transplanted to your shop. Would you like to transplant it?"
Ron still didn't rush to transplant the flowers. He reached out and cut through the stems just below the leaves, snipping off each entire flower before choosing to transplant them.
The severed Golden Red Chrysanthemums were transplanted into flowerpots in the shop, leaving only their lonely roots behind in the Cultivation Space.
Golden Red Chrysanthemums could bloom and wither repeatedly, and their petals could be harvested once a year.
If he transplanted them directly and sold them, the buyers would essentially get plants that could continuously produce leaves and petals with special effects.
But once the roots and stems were severed, the Golden Red Chrysanthemums could only stay somewhat alive in their flowerpots. They wouldn't wither and die right away, but they also wouldn't bloom again after withering.
Ron went on to snip off four more Golden Red Chrysanthemums and transplant them into the shop. Then he spent some time growing and blooming the five root-only plants again.
This time, Ron harvested a batch of petals and leaves. He set the time flow so the flowers would be ready to bloom just as he came in tomorrow morning, then left the Dimensional Plane.
It was nearly one in the afternoon. Ron ate some bread, pulled open the shop door, and opened for business.
In addition to the dozen or so Nether Orchids, five castrated Golden Red Chrysanthemums now sat on the square shelves on the first floor.
The price list on the wall had also been updated—
[Nether Orchid]: 20 gold coins per plant.
[Golden Red Chrysanthemum]: 30 gold coins per plant.
Ron sat down in his recliner and opened the System Panel for a look.
System Level: 3
Then he received a notification from the system.
System: "Please choose one of the following three patterns."
Ron narrowed his eyes, at a loss for words. He couldn't help feeling that the system's upgrades were pretty useless.
He casually chose one, then opened his [Inventory] and absorbed his quest reward, [Plant Growth Technique].
As expected, Plant Growth Technique, like the other Wood Magic, required two prerequisite spells. The system also updated its shop at the same time—
[Shop]
[Rainfall Technique]: 1,000 Wealth Points
[Earth Wave Technique]: 1,000 Wealth Points
"Tch!" Ron closed the System Panel with a look of disdain and didn't bother checking the shop again.
Did the system think it could trick him out of his Wealth Points again?
He could only say it was giving itself too much credit.
As one of the top Magic Academies on the continent, Disode Magic Academy was sure to teach spells of this level. He didn't need to waste Wealth Points exchanging for them.
He'd better save up and put them toward the Cultivation Space and the Miracle of the Goddess of Harvest.
Ron calculated his Wealth Points, then took a copy of Gnome Prophecy from the counter and started flipping through it.
At the same time, he received a quest notification from the system—
[Main Quest]—[Sell five hundred Golden Red Chrysanthemums]:
"Requirements: As stated above. No time limit; simply reach the required quantity."
"Quest reward: Scale Vine seeds and cultivation method."
Ron raised an eyebrow and gazed thoughtfully at the words "Scale Vine."
Since he hadn't completed the quest, he didn't know what the plant was like or what it could do.
But its name reminded him of "vine armor," which in turn brought to mind the tabletop game that had been popular for ages in his original world.
Maybe I can make a copy and play sometime... Ron thought.
The afternoon passed slowly.
During that time, several more students and teaching assistants from the Magic Academy came to buy Nether Orchids.
Although the Magic Academy had just taken a hundred from Ron, most would be used as laboratory materials. Some would be given to the Academy's professors or sent to the Magic Tower, where separate meditation rooms would be set up for them.
The students and teaching assistants could only use the Magic Tower for short periods. If their families could afford the twenty gold coins, buying a Nether Orchid of their own was much more practical.
So even though Ron had reached an agreement with the Magic Academy, it didn't reduce the number of people from the Academy who came to buy flowers from him.
Ron's Wealth Points gradually climbed back up to 5,821.
But the person he was waiting for still hadn't shown up.
"Strange..." Ron rubbed his chin, stood, and stepped outside to look down the alley beside the shop.
The recruitment notice was still posted on the wall beside the trash can, just as it had been before. No one had maliciously torn it down.
"Maybe she didn't come yesterday?" Ron muttered, then returned to the shop.
He'd thought the homeless child would come to apply after seeing the recruitment notice.
After all, he'd set the requirements very low. Basically, anyone old enough could apply.
Surely the little one wasn't under fourteen!?
She didn't look that young...
Ron couldn't possibly have guessed that Nora hadn't come to apply because she couldn't read.
It was a blind spot in his common sense.
This wasn't the world he'd come from, and the literacy rate was generally low. Most commoners could only learn from what their parents taught them.
The illiterate made up the vast majority of the continent's population.
But because Ron had inherited the Seventh Prince's memories, he'd subconsciously assumed that reading was a basic skill.
In the end, he waited all afternoon without seeing Nora. Instead, people from the Magic Academy and the Glorious Mercenary Group arrived.
The former brought a finely crafted badge about the size of a person's head and, as Ron had requested, hung it beside the shop sign at the entrance.
The latter was Jasper.
He stepped down from the carriage just in time to see the Magic Academy people hanging the badge for Ron.
The sight made him pause, his expression turning slightly grave.
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