Grain Seeds

[Do you confirm that this candidate is qualified to become one of your subjects? After confirmation, you may increase their privileges or revoke their subject status.]

"Confirm."

[Your subjects have increased to 37.]

[You successfully defended your fortress, repelled the gathering Black Tide in the darkness, eliminated 45 dark creatures, Sunlight +300, main class experience +800.]

[You successfully cultivated a special plant from the ashes—Purifying Fire Sunlight Sunflower. Secondary class experience +300.]

[Longwind Fortress Guardian has reached level 8.]

[Plant Cultivator has reached level 8.]

[Strength: 60—Agility: 57—Spirit: 66—Charm: 18—Reputation: 2012]

[Remaining Sunlight: 571] ```

At that moment, a new subject list appeared beneath Lincon's personal panel.

By opening the list, he could see the candidates he had confirmed as subjects.

Zhang Rui's family was prominently listed at the top, and Zhang Rui's loyalty had reached 88.

Besides Zhang Rui's family, the remaining thirty-four people, including Li Zhouhai, had all developed loyalty above 80 after surviving the long night, qualifying them to become his subjects.

Through the panel, Lincon could also inspect his subjects' personal talents.

For instance, Zhang Rui, ranked first among the subjects, possessed the talent "Leadership Presence."

[Leadership Presence: Born with powerful personal charisma and persuasiveness. People will unconsciously trust what he says.]

As expected of a rich second-generation heir who had become a corporate CEO. His talent perfectly matched his status before the disaster.

Of course, the formation of this talent was likely closely related to the family education he had received since childhood.

Then Lincon turned to another person who interested him—Li Zhouhai.

[Tenacious Physique (Awakened): Possesses an extraordinary physique. Recovery speed and resistance to disease and toxins are increased.]

The moment he saw the words "Awakened," Lincon immediately connected them to Li Zhouhai's identity as an ability user.

In other words, ability users had advanced once more upon the foundation of their innate talents, reaching a level beyond ordinary humans.

As Lincon pondered this, he briefly scanned the talents of the other subjects.

Most of their talents were ordinary, some even overlapping. There were no special traits or growth potential to speak of.

But on further thought, perhaps that was simply the normal state of most ordinary people.

Closing the panel, Lincon returned his gaze to the people before him.

By now, all the refugees led by Li Zhouhai had been registered. Their information was recorded in a booklet Zhang Rui held and carefully safeguarded.

But a major problem had emerged.

Longwind Fortress simply did not have enough housing to accommodate more than eight hundred people.

After three years, the fortress's buildings had long been eroded by darkness into ruins. Few were fit to live in, and even if they wanted to rebuild, they first had to clear the rubble. It would be a massive undertaking.

At this point, Zhang Rui fully displayed his talent as a manager. Without needing Lincon to say anything, he had already begun arranging people to clear the ruins.

Though the refugees who had endured a night of desperate flight from death were exhausted, they still gritted their teeth, climbed to their feet, and began clearing the rubble however they could.

After all, if they wanted to settle down in Longwind Fortress, the ruins had to be cleared sooner or later. It was an unavoidable step.

Yet before long, Zhang Rui came to Lincon with a grave expression.

"My lord, I have two issues to report to you."

"The first is still the housing problem. According to my estimates, clearing the ruins inside the city will take at least two days. Building houses afterward may take even longer.

"The workload is too great. With the amount of daylight we currently have, I'm afraid we won't be able to complete it.

"The second issue is food. These people who escaped from Shangmai City didn't bring much food with them. Some haven't eaten anything proper for days.

"Our fortress currently has very low food reserves. We can't provide enough to feed so many people."

Well, he was asking him to come up with a solution.

Lincon couldn't help frowning slightly.

In a moment of impulsiveness yesterday, he had brought these people back and overlooked the circumstances within his own fortress.

The current Longwind Fortress could not produce enough rations to feed so many people. Even yesterday, he had been worrying over this very problem.

So it was only natural that Zhang Rui could not think of a solution.

People could not survive without food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. In the current Dark Age, food and shelter were the utmost priorities.

If they did not resolve the matter quickly and simply allowed everyone to crowd together, Longwind Fortress would likely face another Black Tide before long.

But... how could they solve it?

For the first time, Lincon felt the crushing weight of responsibility settle onto his shoulders. The fates and lives of hundreds rested entirely on his decisions.

"Bring Li Zhouhai over," Lincon said after thinking for a moment.

Zhang Rui nodded and pulled Li Zhouhai from the crowd clearing the rubble.

Li Zhouhai was nearly seventy, yet his bulging muscles and vigorous vitality made him seem far less aged than he was.

"My lord, you sent for me!"

Lincon sat quietly there, with the massive Ancient Maple Guardian behind him, imposing tremendous pressure on Li Zhouhai.

Li Zhouhai had known since last night that Lincon was a powerful ability user, but he still could not tell what level Lincon had reached.

"I have only one question. Do you have any grain seeds?" Lincon stared intently at Li Zhouhai.

Grain seeds were currently the only way to solve the food problem.

As long as he had grain seeds, he could rapidly mature plants and obtain large amounts of food in a short time.

Lincon had previously asked Zhang Rui whether he had any grain seeds. The answer had been no.

The soil of this era was no longer suitable for growing edible crops, so aside from certain researchers, almost no ordinary people deliberately kept seeds.

Li Zhouhai shook his head, but after thinking carefully for a moment, he said, "Shangmai City's experimental base might have some. There was an expert team formed by the former city lord there, attempting to solve the problem of soil contamination."

"Shangmai City? That's too far!" Zhang Rui frowned. "And it was just attacked by the Black Tide. There may still be high-level dark creatures inside."

Hearing Li Zhouhai's answer, Lincon could not help feeling surprised. "If you can't grow crops, what do you usually eat?"

Li Zhouhai pulled out a bag of powdery material from his pocket.

"This is grain flour. It's flour ground from rice mixed with some husk. It can be eaten directly, or mixed with water, formed into cakes, and roasted.

"Of course, this is what the lowest-class civilians eat. People with more power can obtain vacuum-packed vegetables and refined rice through various channels.

"Their lives aren't much different from before the disaster. Only the people enjoying them have changed."

Li Zhouhai spoke without the slightest concealment. As a D-rank ability user, he had naturally eaten such refined food himself.

Moreover, they had brought that food back only after taking enormous risks and venturing into the city ruins deep within the darkness.

Zhang Rui also added from the side, "My lord, Li Zhouhai is basically right. Most people in cities today survive on this mixed coarse food.

"Before the soil contamination problem is solved, a city that can maintain a normal supply of such coarse food is already doing quite well."

Lincon nodded. He did not think there was anything wrong with that. A new order would inevitably create a new privileged class.

But without grain seeds, what would the people in the fortress eat?

Beautiful Abalone Mushroom was edible, but before so many people, it was merely a drop in the bucket. It could not sustain them for long.

Yesterday's problem had once again been laid before him, only now the situation was even more dire.

Just then, a timid voice came from beside them.

"I... I might... have some..."

It was a little girl covered in grime. She was extremely thin, with hollow cheeks, dry yellow hair, and limbs scarcely thicker than bamboo poles.

Yet her eyes were bright, like obsidian gleaming beneath a brilliant sun, clear and dazzling.

She spoke so softly that if Lincon's main class had not greatly enhanced his physical attributes, he would not have heard her whisper.

Lincon looked up, and Li Zhouhai and Zhang Rui turned their gazes toward her as well.

The little girl seemed startled and shrank back.

At that moment, her father appeared to notice what was happening. He hurried over, hugged the little girl, and began scolding her without even asking what had happened.

"Yingying! The adults are discussing important matters. What are you doing over here?!"

As he spoke, the man repeatedly bent at the waist to apologize to Lincon and the others.

Though the Dark Age had only descended a few years ago, the rapid collapse of social order and the rise of ability users to power had thoroughly erased the old world's notion that everyone was equal.

Class divisions had become even more distinct.

This was the inevitability of the era, and also the rule that allowed humanity to continue surviving in the Dark Age.

Perhaps some would think that only a few years had passed, and that even with order collapsing, certain beliefs should not have crumbled so quickly.

But in the face of disaster, death, and hunger, people's beliefs were reshaped at an unprecedented speed.

However, Lincon was not used to this.

"Enough!" He stopped the man from repeatedly bowing, then crouched down to look at the girl called Yingying.

After being shouted at by her father, Yingying's small body had begun trembling nonstop.

Yet when Lincon gently took her little hand, her trembling strangely began to subside.

"You're not afraid of me?" Lincon asked with a smile.

The girl looked curiously at the person who made her feel warm, then slowly shook her head.

"Not afraid!"

She still remembered that last night, this person had driven away the dark creatures around them and brought them to this fortress.

She would never forget that holy, resplendent sea of fire.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, she took out an object wrapped in black cloth from a tattered little red pouch at her waist.

She carefully unfolded the black cloth, revealing a small piece of blackened potato inside.

"If we plant this little potato, can it grow into big potatoes?"

A trace of sorrow flashed through the man's eyes. "Yingying, why are you still keeping that thing?"

"Mom couldn't bear to eat it back then. She left it for me." Liu Ying's eyes gradually reddened as her distinct-knuckled fingers tightly clutched the small half of a potato.

"So much time has passed. A half-cooked potato like this can't grow anything." The man sighed.

This small piece of potato came from shortly after the disaster began. After the family had eaten all their food and gone hungry for several days, Liu Ying's mother had luckily found a potato sealed in a jar in some forgotten corner.

Although the potato had already begun to sprout slightly at the time, Liu Ying's mother still roasted it for Liu Ying to eat.

Yet Liu Ying had only eaten half when her mother died.

So she had kept the remaining half of the potato until now.

Ignoring the man's words, Lincon held out his open palm, signaling for Liu Ying to place the half potato in it.

Liu Ying obediently did so.

In Lincon's eyes, a message immediately flashed across the panel.

[Potato (Debuff)]

[A potato roasted to a half-cooked state. After prolonged exposure to Dark Matter in the air, it has suffered minor contamination and its essence has decayed. However, faint nutrients still remain within the surviving tuber.]

It was not completely hopeless!

A glimmer of light flashed in Lincon's eyes.

He took Yingying's hand and led her all the way to the Sunlight Sunflower field that had turned to ash.

Li Zhouhai had no idea what Lincon intended to do. Only Zhang Rui seemed to have thought of something, and his expression gradually grew excited.

Could it really work?

Zhang Rui could not help anticipating it. If this half potato could truly be cultivated into seeds, it would solve the fortress's greatest current problem.

Lincon mixed the half potato with ashes and buried it in the soil.

Zhang Rui promptly took the water flask from his back and handed it to Lincon.

As a former messenger, Zhang Rui had always been accustomed to carrying water and food with him. Even now, he had not broken the habit.

But it happened to come in handy at this moment.

Lincon accepted the flask and sprinkled water over the soil.

He slowly raised his palm, and before their eyes, a faint glow appeared.

After a night of Purifying Fire burning, the Sunlight Sunflower field had become the best planting ground in Longwind Fortress.

The Purifying Fire had driven away the Dark Matter hidden in the soil, while the ashes of the Sunlight Sunflowers would become the finest nourishment for plant growth.

Lincon poured his immense mental power into the half potato beneath the soil and activated Accelerated Growth.

At first, nothing happened. Time slowly passed, and just as Lincon thought he had failed, a faint consciousness suddenly emerged from within his mental power.

Delight appeared on Lincon's face as his mental power poured in without end.

A moment later, beneath everyone's astonished gazes, a tender green sprout broke through the soil and emerged into the air.

Seeing this, Li Zhouhai's pupils constricted sharply, and his gaze toward Lincon became horrified.

"This is...?!"

Zhang Rui patted Li Zhouhai on the shoulder and said calmly, "My lord's ability is to control plants. Of course... it isn't limited to controlling plants."

Li Zhouhai held his breath and stared at the sprout before him, scarcely daring to breathe.

There was no need to explain what this meant.

As Liu Ying watched the thing her mother had left her gradually grow into a seedling in the hands of the adult beside her, an emotion she could not tell was joy or sorrow filled her reddened eyes.

Liu Ying's father, who had initially said nothing could be grown from it, looked dazed.

His wife had starved to death.

[Potato]

[Advancement Route 1: Sunlight Potato]

[Required Sunlight: 20]

[Advancement Route 2: Potato Mine]

[Required Sunlight: 30]

[Unlock Condition: Gunpowder, Potato]