On March 15, north of the Salt Mine, Landen walked through the tunnels of the former Coal Mine, admiring the tiny mushrooms that had just sprouted from the rock walls. Viewed through the Magic Web, traces of mycelium magic could be seen spreading across the entire rectangular growing medium.
The growing medium was less than half a meter long, with a cross-section twenty centimeters wide and deep. The substrate was wrapped in paper and placed inside a specially made long Magic Pattern box.
Landen picked up the box and asked Lannia with a smile, "Based on your previous experience, how long do you think it'll take for mushrooms to grow on these wood shavings?"
Before Landen occupied the Salt Mine, Lannia had been trying to grow mushrooms there and had made some progress. Those mushrooms could keep people fed, but they had no medicinal properties.
But Landen was now working on genuine Magic Mushroom cultivation. Over the fifteen days from the end of February to the present, he had led Wendy, Lannia, and the others in making specialized Magic Pattern boxes, selecting twenty strains from the underground fungal beds in the Elf Garden, and renovating the old Coal Mine to install a Magic Furnace.
What Landen hadn't expected was that after evolving for over a thousand years, the strains from the Elf Garden had become exceptionally well adapted to a high-magic environment. In the right growing medium, they could produce tiny mushrooms in just five or six days.
"Sir, not to contradict you," Lannia said with a smile, "but I don't have your or your ancestor's abilities. I can't see through the soil to tell what's happening inside. Still, based on my experience, these tunnels really are well suited to growing mushrooms."
As she spoke, Lannia picked up one of