Peanut Bug and Fire Dragon Assault

After sending off the weary Marcus, Liszt withdrew his thoughts from the past. While a major responsibility of the nobility was to expand one's network—and the Long-Yam Family was an important resource in that regard—he himself lacked a diplomatic temperament. He preferred staying on his own fief, amusing himself and living a self-sufficient life.

"Better to practice my battle qi manual first and complete the Smoke mission."

He opened Flame Wave first. Through a wealth of illustrations and descriptions, it explained how to strengthen fire-attribute battle qi and circulate it to execute powerful combat techniques. Flame Wave leaned toward broad, sweeping movements; most of its techniques spread out in the form of waves, making it a manual for crowd control.

Crowd control, huh? Suitable for charging on the battlefield. But shouldn't my knight order be doing the charging while I command from the back?

Liszt mused, then opened Fire Dragon Drill.

This manual was for dueling; its powerful techniques were all single-target and possessed immense lethality, though they were slightly lacking for battlefield charges. However, Liszt quickly decided to practice Fire Dragon Drill. Compared to the battlefield, he was more worried about assassins; the single-target Fire Dragon Drill was better suited for his needs than the crowd-control Flame Wave.

"It's settled then... I can always study Flame Wave once I have more energy to spare."

In this world, there were no legendary divine manuals. When it came to cultivating battle qi, there were no particularly terrible manuals, nor were there any exceptionally powerful ones; everything depended on an individual's talent and comprehension.

Commoners could rise to become peerless experts, while the descendants of the strong could just as easily sink into mediocrity.

In the time that followed, Liszt practiced Fire Dragon Drill while awaiting the arrival of the merchant caravan.

Time flew by, and three days passed.

The rain had stopped.

Good news arrived in succession.

The Peanut Bug at Peanut Hamlet was nearing maturity. The squire Karl Hammer reported excitedly, "My Lord, the large peanut husk has cracked open. A pink Peanut Bug inside is about to wake up; it has already begun to tremble."

"Is that so? I'll head over there at once!"

By the time Liszt arrived on horseback, the husk had fully bloomed. A chubby, pink Elf Bug, its entire body possessing a jade-like, crystalline luster, crawled about on the peanut vine, filled with infinite curiosity toward the world.

The farmers of Peanut Hamlet stood around, watching the Elf Bug with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness.

Liszt took out the jade powder he carried with him and sprinkled it before the Peanut Bug. The bug sniffed it, then quickly began to nibble on the powder. In a short while, the powder on the leaf was gone, and the Peanut Bug followed the scent, crawling onto Liszt's extended finger to eat the powder smeared there.

Then, with a slight sting, the Peanut Bug bit through Liszt's finger.

At that moment, a telepathic connection formed between Liszt and the Peanut Bug. This was the establishment of a master-servant contract—Elf Bugs, possessing magic, were born with the ability to form such bonds.

"Come with me, little one."

Liszt cradled the Elf Bug and placed it into a jade box, intending to take it back to the castle to feed it, leaving the vine at Peanut Hamlet.

"The fifth Elf Bug, secured. With the Peanut Bug, a bumper harvest at Peanut Hamlet is imminent." Liszt was in high spirits and couldn't help but instruct Old George, "Old George, take good care of the peanut vine. Don't forget to water and fertilize it. The more fertilizer you spread, the higher the yield will be."

"Please rest assured, My Lord. We will certainly follow your instructions and water, weed, and fertilize the peanuts regularly!"

Having collected the Peanut Bug, another piece of good news arrived. The Violent Earth Dog cub raised in the castle finally opened its eyes on the seventh day of Liszt's feeding. Its first sight was Liszt, and it yipped and pounced toward him, rubbing affectionately against his pant leg.

"Dousen, from now on, you will move outside the castle to live."

Holding the rope around Dousen's neck, Liszt called for Thomas.

"Master."

"Thomas, I have a task for you: take over feeding Dousen. By the way, has the doghouse for Dousen been built?"

"It has been built, Master." Thomas took the rope, preparing to lead Dousen to the doghouse.

Dousen had acknowledged Liszt as its master, but that didn't mean it accepted others. When Thomas pulled on the rope, the Violent Earth Dog cub—not even a month old—immediately bared its teeth, let out a "woof" of a growl, and lunged fiercely to bite Thomas's shoes, showing a strong wild streak.

However, Dousen, still possessing only tiny milk teeth, couldn't even put a dent in Thomas's shoes.

"Take good care of it."

"Please rest assured, Master. I have experience raising hunting dogs."

"Violent Earth Dogs are much more dangerous than hunting dogs; it has the bloodline of a Magic Beast. But it doesn't matter; it shouldn't go berserk. Once it's a bit older, I will train it every day until it is exhausted."

Having arranged for Dousen's caretaker, Liszt climbed to the top of the castle spire to overlook the wasteland for several miles around. He had always overlooked the fact that there was actually land around the castle that could be reclaimed, but in reality, only a few acres near the castle had been turned into a small garden, leaving the rest to grow wild with weeds.

"Peanut Hamlet, Tomato Hamlet, Mushroom Hamlet, Barley Hamlet, Wheat Hamlet, the Dairy Farm, the Flower Farm, plus the town and the castle... In fact, Flower Town has nine hamlets, and each one must be utilized. But without mechanization, Flower Town has fewer than two thousand people; it seems they really can't farm this much land, can they?"

Machines could reclaim land endlessly, but human labor was extremely slow.

With fewer than two thousand people, farming tens of thousands of acres was indeed daunting. Many fields were simply sown with seeds and left to fend for themselves.

"Is this what African-style agriculture is like? Population, population—only population is the most precious resource! But where am I supposed to get enough people?"

"This is a bit difficult."

Despite the difficulty, Liszt remained confident that Flower Town could grow and prosper. As a transmigrator with a cheat code, if he couldn't even manage this, he might as well jump off a building and stop embarrassing all transmigrators.

"Fire Dragon Assault!"

In the small garden in front of the castle, Liszt held a one-handed sword and executed a move from Fire Dragon Drill. A flame suddenly ignited on the blade, roaring and spreading out to a meter in size like a fan of fire, sparks flying everywhere accompanied by a faint crackling sound.

The flame was not real; it was merely the effect of battle qi adhering to the one-handed sword.

Liszt's fire-attribute battle qi possessed an explosive nature.

Even for the same type of battle qi, there are different focuses in its properties. Just like fire-attribute battle qi, his might focus on explosive power, while someone else's might focus on high temperatures, spreading flames, or condensation, among others.

"Finally mastered Fire Dragon Assault. Now, only the last move remains—Heart of the Fire Dragon Drill. Once I finish practicing it, I can claim the reward!"

He felt quite smug inside.

His talent was truly formidable. The Fire Dragon Drill was divided into two sets of techniques: one for refining the circulation method of battle qi, and the other consisting of sixteen offensive moves. Liszt had learned the battle qi circulation method with ease and was now in the midst of learning the sixteen offensive moves.

"Others would need at least half a month to learn a secret manual, but here I am, finishing it in less than a week."

"It's hard to imagine how my predecessor failed to break through to Earth Knight before coming of age. Could it be that his comprehension was just that poor?"

Since his physical talent wasn't lacking, the only explanation was a problem with his comprehension. The Liszt from before adulthood probably just hadn't had his mind opened yet; the current Liszt wouldn't claim to be a genius, but he was certainly not dull-witted.

"Back to practicing. I'll strive to master the Heart of the Fire Dragon Drill today."