The Friendship of Smoked Grass and Cattle Harvest

Fortunately, after five hundred words of rambling, Griff finally returned to the main plot of dragon slaying.

"I must insist that I truly swore to quit smoking back then; I only forgot later because I was so shocked by the Invisible Dragon's actions. Heavens, it actually snatched the Smoke-Cured Grass right out of my hand and ate it! I suspect it hadn't bathed in years and had developed a distorted sense of taste."

"My apologies, I spoke ill of the Invisible Dragon. In fact, we became friends later on. Because it ate my Smoke-Cured Grass and didn't kill me, I successfully traded a bundle of the grass and two cows for its friendship. To be honest, the Invisible Dragon wasn't large—only slightly bigger than a house."

"I have seen the Grand Duke of Maple Leaf's Bronze Dragon; that is a magnificent metal dragon nearly thirty meters long. The Invisible Dragon was like its child—oh, wait, dragons don't have children."

"We spent a pleasant afternoon together. At dusk, it walked up to me, shook its body, and a gemstone fell right into my hand. It flew away, but it left behind that gem—a stone the size of a fingernail, which I have worn on my finger ever since."

"Haha, now you know where my space ring came from. Countless noble lords have been willing to pay anything to trade for this ring, but I would never part with it, for it is the witness to the bond of friendship between the Invisible Dragon and myself!"

With that, the chapter on the Invisible Dragon concluded.

Griff quickly pushed on to the next story—outsmarting the Headless Knight.

By the time Liszt finished flipping through the roughly fifty-thousand-word novel, no further information about the Invisible Dragon appeared, and even the space ring was never mentioned again.

It was as if Griff had simply remembered the Invisible Dragon on a whim and forgotten all about it the moment he finished writing.

"It seems the reward this time is merely the bit of knowledge about the Invisible Dragon recorded in Travels of Earth Ranger Griff... Only the brave and righteous can see an Invisible Dragon? Well, I suppose there isn't a chance for me, as I am neither brave nor righteous." He was quite self-aware.

However, he deeply doubted the veracity of this information. How could the ability to see an Invisible Dragon depend on intangible, invisible, and indefinable traits like courage and righteousness?

"This story feels like a knock-off of 'only a pure maiden can see a unicorn.'"

Many heroines in knightly novels were noblewomen who rode unicorns. Liszt had read a few, and they all swore that only a pure, beautiful, innocent, and kind virgin could be accepted by a unicorn. As for whether such legendary creatures as unicorns even existed, Liszt remained skeptical.

He was skeptical of unicorns, and he was equally skeptical of the Invisible Dragon.

Especially that bizarre requirement that only a brave and righteous knight could see it.

Still, he quickly captured the information that could be put to use: "Griff used Smoke-Cured Grass to fend off the Invisible Dragon's slaughter, and later claimed he traded a bundle of grass and two cows for its gem... My current Smoke task rewards me with Smoke-Cured Grass. It seems this is still part of a chain quest."

First, it rewarded information about the Invisible Dragon.

Then, it rewarded new information about the Invisible Dragon.

Now, it was going to reward the Smoke-Cured Grass that the Invisible Dragon loved.

All these rewards were interconnected, as if unlocking a large-scale chain quest. The goal of the quest became easy to infer—perhaps an Invisible Dragon was truly coming to invade Flower Town.

"Cows?" Liszt thought of another detail. "The Dairy Farm seems to have two old cows that can no longer produce milk. Since the castle has plenty of food, I haven't used them to entertain guests yet. Perhaps these two old cows are the dinner I need to prepare for the Invisible Dragon?"

The information was still not clear enough, and his preparations were far from sufficient.

Liszt felt that the most urgent task was to continue completing the quest to obtain more details about the Invisible Dragon chain, which would help him formulate a strategy.

Knock, knock.

A knock at the door.

"Come in."

The butler, old Carter, walked in carrying an oil lamp. "My Lord, the night is deep. You should rest early."

"I was just about to sleep." Liszt closed the book and placed it back on the shelf, frowning slightly because the smell on his hands was unpleasant. "Mr. Carter, please light another box of Fragrance Agent in the study. I truly cannot stand the strange odor of this parchment."

The carriage of books gifted by the Count had brought with it a heavy, fishy stench. Even though Liszt had already lit the Fragrance Agent, it still couldn't mask the smell.

There was no such thing as snow-white, clean paper here.

There was only yellowed, stiff parchment that carried a lingering, foul odor.

This paper was made by stripping the inner layer of animal hide and tanning it with a special process. It was expensive to produce, yet difficult to preserve and inconvenient to write on. Liszt genuinely wanted to produce white paper soon to replace this parchment, but he understood that now was not the right time.

For one, white paper was not an urgent necessity.

For another, there were no copyright laws; the great nobles would seize the papermaking technology at any moment.

Just as he hadn't started researching horseshoes, saddles, or cement, he also held the rough design for a schooner in his mind. Once invented, it would absolutely accelerate the development of the Age of Discovery.

Actually, the most important thing was—there were no people.

The entire town had 1,990 people—no, 1,991. Two elderly residents had passed away recently, and four newborns had arrived, though one had died in infancy.

Excluding the elderly and children who couldn't work, it would be a miracle to have 1,500 people left to labor. They had to farm, build roads, and now they had to build Oyster Hamlet. Soon, he would have to divert a group of people to sew gloves and forge hammers and shovels to produce fishing gear for the fishermen.

As for Liszt himself, he was also very busy; he had to cultivate constantly.

He had already mastered Fire Dragon Drill and Flame Wave, but they required time to refine. After obtaining the Red Blood Sword, he practiced even more diligently, hoping that he, too, could break through the shackles of the earth and soar into the sky.

Carter lit the Fragrance Agent.

He blew out a candle and said, "My Lord, should the castle recruit a few more servants?"

"Are we short-handed?" Liszt was a bit surprised. Ten servants should be enough to attend to him alone.

Carter said solemnly, "The Wheat Bug, Peanut Bug, Tulip Bug, and Alfalfa Bug are all well-behaved, but their insect grass requires a manservant to patrol and tend to them daily; these tasks were assigned to Jesse. Now the millet is being planted, and soon the Thorn Bug will need to be settled as well. Jesse is overwhelmed."

He paused, then continued, "Dousen, the Li Dragon Horse, the Fire Dragon Horse, and the other horses all require manpower to care for. The seafood in the castle must also be gathered by servants until Oyster Hamlet is built. And the kitchen—as the variety of dishes increases, Mrs. Abby has already complained that she cannot be in two places at once."

Castles, cities, and towns overlapped in many functions.

However, castles tended toward self-sufficiency, while towns governed the entire territory and collected taxes. Liszt was dissatisfied with this system, feeling it hindered the development of productivity. The biggest obstacle was the castle itself—a twisted monster that held all the elves and kept the greatest productive forces firmly shackled.

After all, the primary purpose of a castle was to provide a luxurious life for the nobility, not to liberate productivity.

He understood this, yet he had few thoughts of changing it—he was a noble himself, after all!

"Since we are short-handed, Mr. Carter, you are in charge of recruiting new servants."

"Very well, My Lord."