Chapter 113 - Laura Returns
For the next three days, Zhao had been staying in Stony Mountain. In that time, he had harvested his radishes eleven times, plus he gained another two magic peaches and two more batches of oil fruits. Now Zhao didn't have to worry about not having enough radishes. The space had given him ten times the amount that was needed for his transaction with Laura.
In addition, he now had three hundred mature rabbits, with one thousand rabbit cubs, as well as ten adult scaled wildebeests and six hundred of their foal.
Most importantly, Zhao was also able to raise thirty thousand fire fish.
In the entire Ark Continent, thirty thousand fire fish was undoubtedly, not a drop in the bucket. If he really did sell thirty thousand fire fish at one moment, this would cause a huge sensation, because it would take a year to yield thirty thousand fire fishes.
Zhao could imagine what would happen if thirty thousand fire fishes flooded the market. It would compel all the great nobles to try to find out where they came from. If that were to happen, then the Buda clan wouldn't even know how they died.
As for the blue-eyed rabbits, Zhao didn't intend to sell them. He wanted to keep them for their meat so they would provide a good meal for the slaves.
Ah, meat. For the slaves, it was a rare thing. It could be said that their fathers, and even their grandfathers, have never eaten meat before. Of course, this only had to do with those who were born as a slave, because that would usually mean that their family had been slaves for generations. That wasn't the same as Daisy or Ann, who were once free commoners, but then were forced to become slaves. They had eaten meat before, like from blue-eyed rabbits or long-haired pigs.
Within these three days, Zhao used a lot of feed, but for him, that was nothing. He was able to cope with that huge amount with his radish leaves.
This was worth it because not only did the blue-eyed rabbit taste good, the space had also made them useful for those who practiced magic or martial arts. Although the meat didn't have the same effect of magic as his vegetables, they were quite adequate. Especially the fire fish. They tasted great and provided many benefits as well, with effects even more amazing than the meat from the blue-eyed rabbit. Eating the flesh of a fire fish was like drinking a magic potion.
The scaled wildebeests had also been changed. Now they had amazing endurance and their running speed was faster. Previously, they were like pack mules, but now they were almost like horses.
All of these changes was related to the space. It had modified the animals to compensate for their shortcomings. This was definitely good news for Zhao, because this would help him establish a strong army.
In this three day period, Zhao had been keeping tabs on the situation of Casa city. The city had been suffering because now they didn't have an intelligence network, leaving them deaf and blind. That was because they didn't have the manpower since their assassins had become undead and no longer working for them.
At this time, Green had arranged for some assassins to hide outside of Casa city. They were there to prevent anyone from coming to attack Stony Mountain, and they were waiting for Laura.
Right now the most important thing to Zhao was the deal with Laura, so he wanted to know the moment she came back.
Of course, this was also a test for Laura. If she comes back, and then takes the initiative to go see them, this would show her gratitude and will convince Zhao to form a deeper cooperation with her. However, if she doesn't come to see them when she returns, Zhao would still cooperate with Laura, but it would just be casual.
Since they will be working together, Zhao had to come up with a way to explain how he was able to raise so much fire fish so Laura wouldn't suspect anything. In the estate, there were already hot springs with some small fire fish, but now he was planning to put some of the red plants into the ditch in the manor's yard. As for where these red plants came from, Zhao wasn't going to tell Laura, and he believed that she wouldn't ask. After all, everyone has their own secrets.
Three days quickly passed, and they had been busy. Everyday, he had been improving the land in the canyon on Iron Mountain. Also, he arranged for Meirin to help him with a test. If nothing was growing in the Black Waste because of the toxins from the carrion swamp spirit beasts, then would the water from the moat help the corn seeds germinate and grow? The space had improved the water around the castle, giving it a detoxification effect. However, this water was more diluted than the spatial water, so the effect might not be as good, but Zhao wanted to try and see if it could solve the problem of fixing the black soil.
Since this was outside the space, he would have to wait a few days to see the results of whether or not the corn would grow.
Also during this three day period, Zhao would often get in contact with Drunk and the other black mages to check on their progress in the carrion swamp. They had managed to go in fifty yards, and they also encountered a number of undead spirit beasts. Unfortunately, the levels of these undead spirit beasts were too low. There was no use for them, so they didn't catch them.
There were also some plants in the swamp, but they were nothing special, so they weren't collected. Anyway, Zhao didn't hurry them. No one knew anything about the carrion swamp, so Drunk's job was just to explore and understand it.
As for Green, over these three days, he had been searching for plants in the forests. Unfortunately, the plants that he found were mostly the same as the ones he previously discovered. None of them allowed the space to level up.
The forests around Casa city had been trampled over, so there simply wasn't a lot of spirit beasts. There were only a few low level spirit beasts, and they weren't of much use for the space. When Green brought any of these spirit beasts back, hoping that they would level up the spatial ranch, the space would say that they had no merit, and would obliterate them.
Zhao knew that leveling up the spatial ranch would be difficult, but he didn't worry. Right now he could already keep one thousand animals in the ranch. This number was certainly not low. Even if the ranch doesn't level up, it was enough for him to use.
He wanted to focus on raising blue-eyed rabbits rather than scaled wildebeests. In addition to their meat, he could also use the rabbit's fur to make winter clothes. If he could go into business with Laura with these blue-eyed rabbits, then he was ready to breed them in large quantities.
As for raising these rabbits in the mines of Iron Mountain, he wasn't in a hurry to do so. He was prepared to wait until he could buy some tools, like a bellows or an oil press machine. It wasn't just radish leaves, he could also feed the blue-eyed rabbits with any number of things, like the excess parts of oil fruits after he used the machine to press out the oil. But since he couldn't do that now, he was prepared to wait.
Three days later, at night, outside of Casa city, the waiting assassins had just sent news to Zhao that Laura had returned!
Translator Notes: This chapter is to make up for the one I missed on Thursday, 5/19
Translator Notes #2: Sorry for being gone for what might have felt like a year to you guys. My cat had died and suddenly I just didn't feel like translating anymore. But now I'm back and I'm going to make up for lost time.
Translator Notes #3: This chapter was confusing. The ranch can only hold one thousand animals, yet it was mentioned that there was now over one thousand animals. It's probably my fault. I'm only eighty two percent sure I translated the numbers right.