Chapter 437: The Warehouse is Full of Pearls of All Sizes

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The ship from Flower Town, laden with heavy giant clams and conches, returned to Flower Town Port.

The time had come to count the spoils. As dockworkers unloaded massive seashells one by one, Liszt couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions.

He had long dreamed of managing the ring reef and Black Pearl Lake, but a shortage of workers meant he couldn't even fully develop Black Horse Island, let alone Black Pearl Lake. However, with the help of the mermaid Acheronides, a single voyage could yield so many shells, including those from sea monsters that produced black and pink pearls.

"A couple of trips each year should do the trick!"

Giant clams and conches grow slowly, making overharvesting impractical. Moreover, the larger specimens seem to hide in the waters around Black Pearl Lake. It's rare to witness their fierce territorial battles in the lake, allowing Acheronides to reap the benefits.

"My lord, what should we do with these sea products?" asked a knight serving as a dock official, who was Liszt's former classmate and the second son of a minor noble.

Liszt replied directly, "The conches will be processed by the castle... The black pearls from the giant clams will be collected and handed over to the castle. As for the meat, it will be sent to the seafood market—half to be sold through the Thorn Merchant Caravan, and the other half sold cheaply for consumption in Flower Town and Port Town."

In both Flower Town and Port Town, aside from wheat and other grains that need to be purchased, the prices of seafood and similar items are very low.

Even the serfs can afford daily seafood feasts.

Simply put, the seas haven't been overfished, and the fish are plentiful. Sadly, this approach isn't very sophisticated, and the lords of seaside towns on Coral Island are privately fishing for seafood. They either consume it within their own territories or secretly sell it to neighboring towns.

This situation has hit Flower Town's seafood business hard, and the seafood available on the beaches can no longer fetch any price.

That's why he's now urging Oyster Village residents to fish in the near seas, diving to catch other seafood, replacing beach seafood with shallow-water seafood.

Ultimately, he aims to balance deep-sea, shallow-water, and beach fishing.

"My lord, there's too much conch meat to consume or store easily," Mrs. Abi worriedly remarked as another large batch of conches was brought back to the castle.

"Just cook them up and give them to me. I'll distribute them to the knights of the territory so they can all enjoy the nourishing benefits of the sea monsters," Liszt said casually.

He'd already eaten all the meat from the six-headed sea serpent, turned its skin into serpent armor, and handed over its bones and other parts to Cris Truth for processing into magical materials. Right now, the gem space holds few items—Liszt, with his vast estate, no longer stores low-value items like steel armor in the gem space.

Currently, the gem space only holds the Red Blood Sword, a message in a bottle, and a soul jar, a set of spare mithril armor, two telescopes, a sapphire magic ring, a ram's head banner, a sapphire dragon figurehead, soul-sinking wood, and a batch of poisoned thornwood arrows.

There are five books as well: "Philip: Diary of the Sun's Descendants" for learning Sun language; "To Prince Anut—Curtis Truth," which records how to create liches and ghost ships; a sword saint's manual gifted by Marquis Merlin; an unnamed dragon-raising manual; and an advanced mana manual titled "Red Sun Rising, Fire Burning."

Mithril ore, jade, crystal, and black pearls are all locked away in the castle's storeroom.

Thus.

He's cleared plenty of space in the gem space for blizzard beast meat, sea monster meat, dragon milk, and magical potions, ensuring he can enjoy the same nutrition wherever he goes. The meat from these conches can be stored in the gem space and enjoyed slowly.

Of course, he isn't so stingy as to hoard all the sea monster meat for himself.

The Earth Knight and officials each get a share—this is what's known as sharing the wealth.

...

After the tally.

The number of pink pearls isn't large; including the one Cris is currently studying, there are a total of seven.

Two pink pearls the size of a regular bowl, taken from the three bathtub-sized conches, one of which had no pink pearls; two pink pearls the size of goose eggs, and three the size of chicken eggs. All seven pink pearls are irregularly oval, marked with flame-like patterns.

There are a lot of black pearls, with a total of one hundred and thirty-six obtained. The largest giant clam alone contributed twenty-nine black pearls.

Adding the black pearls from Liszt's inventory.

Altogether, there are three black pearls the size of basketballs, eleven black pearls the size of sea bowls, forty-eight fist-sized black pearls, and many smaller ones.

There are also two black pearls as big as washbasins, one from the inventory and one from the largest giant clam caught today.

There’s also an even bigger black pearl, nearly the size of a bathtub. Undoubtedly, it also comes from the largest giant clam.

"Wow, with this many pearls, I’m hitting the jackpot again!" Liszt smiled as he looked at the pile of black pearls, already envisioning a future of dominating the seas.

Previously, two washbasin-sized black pearls were crafted into Pearls of Calm Seas, installed on the Flower Ship and the Thorn Ship.

Although there are no strong storms between Black Horse Island and Coral Island, when severe storms occasionally hit, activating the Pearls of Calm Seas can significantly reduce the ship's shaking, allowing for a safe passage through the storm.

"This bathtub-sized pearl is definitely going on my future flagship. Once I acquire shipbuilding technology, figure out fore-and-aft sail technology, and the keel-setting technology, using rubber and thorn wood, I can surely build a super luxurious multi-masted sailing ship... Hey, maybe I can even look into magic propulsion!"

Black pearls can neutralize wind-based magic, even ordinary wind. So, if I reverse-engineer it, could I create a magic array that generates wind?

Even further, design a magic array that can control wind-based magic, making storms a driving force for ships.

Just thinking about it gets me pumped.

However, achieving all this requires a lot of financial, material, and human resources: "I’ll have to keep laying low on Black Horse Island, slowly building up the territory... Who knows? Maybe I’ll master dragon riding and become a sky-soaring dragon knight before the territory even takes off."

By then, perhaps there's no need to research any magic-powered ships.

Regardless, the bathtub-sized black pearl was immediately stored in the gem space; it’s worth a fortune, no doubt.

The other black pearls were just stored in the warehouse.

As he looked at each shiny black pearl, he suddenly had an inspiration: "I originally planned to give Levis a pink gem as a wedding gift, but now it seems unnecessary. The pink gem can be given to Acheronides or Cris, as they, being magicians, need mental enhancement."

Not giving Levis the pink gem.

What to give as a gift became obvious: "Give a black pearl, a basketball-sized black pearl. Just judging by its appearance, it would definitely be more impressive than a gem."

Back then, a fist-sized black pearl was sold to Levis for hundreds of gold coins. Now, giving a basketball-sized black pearl, Levis would be absolutely thrilled.

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