Agriculture

Jose strolled through the jungle. A light rain had just passed, leaving sparkling droplets hanging from the tips of the primeval forest's green leaves. The ground was wet as well, and dead leaves always stuck to his feet when he stepped on them.

He walked while observing his surroundings.

The trees of the Gloomy Forest were all broadleaf species, while the Karakoram Mountains were dominated by coniferous forests. The Bloodtooth Kobold Tribe's territory lay at the junction of the two, containing both conifers and broadleaf trees.

"Hmm..."

Species Name: Cedar

Height: 34 m

Distance: 1054.64 m

...

Species Name: White Egret Grass

Length: 20 cm

Distance: 5.34 m

...

After experimenting for an hour, Jose gained a much deeper understanding of his new ability. Data Vision was exactly what its name implied: it could convert visual information into data, accurate down to the centimeter. As for storage, deduction, simulation, and the like, it had none of those functions.

Maintaining Data Vision also consumed mental power. Although the drain was minor, keeping it active continuously was still a considerable expense.

"Let's try it at high speed."

He acted immediately, sprinting through the primeval jungle and steadily accelerating while consciously observing the scenery along the way.

The more places he passed through, the more information his vision received, and the faster the waterfall of data in his eyes refreshed. Eventually, his head began to swell.

"Data Vision hasn't reached its limit yet, but my brain can't keep up with the speed of processing information. I'll have to keep that in mind during combat..."

The deeper Jose's research into his new ability went, the more confused he became. What puzzled him was the statue's ranking system.

Phoenix Heart was S-rank, while Data Vision was F-rank. Phoenix Heart was clearly stronger, but it had not truly pulled ahead of an F-rank ability.

"Maybe I haven't fully developed Phoenix Heart's abilities yet," he muttered. "Could I really be reborn from flames?"

It felt as though a cat were scratching at his heart. He wanted to prove it, but reason told him this was no joke.

What if he failed to revive and went straight to report to the God of the Underworld? Wouldn't that disgrace him as a transmigrator?

Crack!

A dead branch had snapped beneath someone's foot. Jose abruptly came to his senses, releasing Dragon Might as he looked toward the source of the sound.

"Who's there?!"

"Wuwuwu~" Thirty meters away, a bipedal canine creature tucked its tail between its legs and fled in a rolling scramble, even abandoning the rabbit in its hands.

"A Gnoll?" Jose frowned and looked around. He had been so absorbed in studying his new ability that he had unknowingly reached the edge of the Bloodtooth Tribe's territory.

He rapidly chanted a spell.

Immolation Spell!

Immolation Spell was a beginner fire spell that could only be used on targets far weaker than the caster. Its effect was to summon flames from within and burn the target to death.

The fleeing Gnoll stiffened. Orange-red flames burst from its seven orifices, and it fell to the ground. In moments, flames consumed it from the inside out, reducing it to charred bones.

"Unlucky kid."

Jose erased any traces of his presence and turned back toward the cave, solving his followers' food problem as he walked.

Just as he had thought before, the primeval forest was not lacking in food. The Kobolds simply did not know what could be eaten. There were vast pine forests in the mountains, and the pine nuts alone could feed the entire tribe.

He also found three crops in the forest: peanuts, konjac, and asparagus. Since it had just rained, mushrooms had sprouted across the forest floor. Edible black fungus had grown on fallen dead trees as well. Having absorbed the rainwater, the black fungus was large, plump, tender, and incredibly tempting.

Jose returned to the lair with food samples.

"Sorda! Ergou! Come here!"

The two Kobolds scampered over eagerly. "What are your orders, Master?"

"Listen carefully. I'll only say this once. This is a pinecone." Jose crushed the pinecone in his hand, revealing the pine nuts hidden inside. "The kernels inside are called pine nuts, and they're edible. There are plenty of these in the forests on the mountain. Your task is to climb the trees and pick them..."

"This black thing is called konjac. It's poisonous, but it can be eaten after processing. First wash it clean, then peel it and grind it into powder. Add water and stir it evenly... It beautifies and nourishes the skin..."

"Mushrooms and black fungus can both be cultivated artificially. Cut down some trees... pour water over them..."

When he finished, the two Kobolds looked at Jose with worship in their eyes. "Master! You are the Bloodtooth Tribe's lucky star! A savior descended from the heavens! The great dragon sage..."

"I like hearing that. Keep it up." After receiving that round of flattery, Jose felt thoroughly pleased with himself as he drifted toward the lair on light feet.

Before he had gone far, he heard the Kobold tribe cheering. The tide of cheers gradually faded into the distance, and an involuntary smile curled his lips.

It was not bad to occasionally do something beneficial for his underlings.

While the Kobolds turned out in full force to scour the forest, Jose returned to the lair. He lifted a stone slab from the ground, revealing the passage hidden beneath it.

He looked down at the crimson lava below, folded his wings against his sides, and leaped without hesitation.

After descending roughly three or four hundred meters, he finally passed through the rocky tunnel and entered the underground lava cavern.

He descended another hundred meters. Bubbling crimson magma lay before him, and he closed his eyes before plunging headfirst into the scorching lava.

Splash!

Using the momentum of his fall, Jose dived deeper into the magma. However, magma was far denser than water, and after sinking for a while, he began floating back up uncontrollably.

As he rose, he kept a close eye on the solid objects around him.

Even though the magma's temperature exceeded a thousand degrees, there were still materials it could not melt, such as metals represented by iron and gemstones represented by diamonds.

In the vast underground Lava Lake, a tiny Red Dragon head emerged, like a grain of rice on a chessboard.

"I didn't find anything, but whatever. I didn't come here to salvage ore anyway," he muttered to comfort himself as he swam toward the shore of the Lava Lake, where an island jutted into the molten lake.

The narrow island extended deep into the Lava Lake like a lollipop, so he named it Molten Core.

Molten Core was about the size of a standard football field, covering seven or eight thousand square meters. The handle and candy portion of the "lollipop" each took up half of it, with the candy portion serving as Jose's private space.

After reaching shore, he shook the lava from his body and walked toward the center of the island. There was a small patch of flat ground there, piled with a small collection of items: some metals and a handful of uncut diamonds.

He had found those during his first trip into the Lava Lake. It was precisely because he had tasted success scavenging the lava lake that he had used the momentum of his fall to dive into the magma, hoping to find treasures deeper within.

The items salvaged from the magma were extremely valuable. Diamonds were hard currency worth more than gold coins and could easily be sold even on other planes. The metals were no ordinary metals either. They had soaked in lava for who knew how many years, and even the most ordinary iron had absorbed some Fire Elemental energy, allowing it to be forged into fire-attributed magical equipment.

After taking stock of his treasures, Jose got down to business.

Anyone could tell that Phoenix Heart was related to fire. There was no better testing ground than a Lava Lake.

Thanks to Yayla for the 1,000-coin donation, and DND Le for the 1,000-coin donation.