Chapter 563: Abandoned Insect Mushroom and the Magic Net

The so-called inspection was more of a quick glance over the territory, and it was impossible to conduct a detailed examination of the territory's production and population.

"Is that the mage tower?" Count Jonas pointed to a cylindrical building in the distance and asked.

"Yes, that was built for the great magician Cris Truth. She prefers her research over noble banquets and didn’t attend last night’s event," explained Advisor Gort, the guide for the inspection team.

Count Lee William and Viscount Liszt obviously wouldn’t lower themselves to act as commentators; Gort was the most suitable person for the role.

The mage tower's shape somewhat resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa, with a total of five floors.

The ground floor is the tallest, standing at nine meters high, and is the location of the Magic Academy; the second to fourth floors are standard at five meters high, with the second floor housing the rooms for students and teachers of the Magic Academy; the third floor is the magic potion research and production workshop; the fourth floor is the magic equipment research and production workshop; the fifth floor, six meters high, is Cris Truth's private space, including a bedroom, study, and laboratory.

So, the mage tower stands thirty meters tall in total.

In addition to the five floors, there is a basement level for storage.

Count Jonas looked puzzled: "Liszt, did you build a mage tower for the magician without even constructing a castle first?"

This isn’t the usual noble way of doing things; while it is indeed important to patronize magicians, compared to the castles where nobles reside, its importance is limited. In the social system, nobles are always the most esteemed group, and any enjoyment should first be available to nobles before other classes.

Liszt couldn’t admit he was giving the architects practice, nor could he say that he was trying to win over magicians because of the poor reputation of magicians among the domestic nobility due to the Duke Bull's dragon-slaying incident.

He just smiled and replied, "My castle has many structural differences from standard castles, so the design is not yet complete, and the mage tower was built first. In fact, I quite enjoy the small castle in Flower Town and am in no hurry to move into a large, famous castle."

His excuse felt a bit weak; normally, a noble would definitely build a castle first, as a castle is both offensive and defensive, the foundation of a noble's livelihood.

However, Jonas didn’t press further and quickly moved on to the next inspection site.

This inspection site was the mushroom greenhouses of Mushroom Town, where a thousand acres of greenhouses had been completed and were still expanding, now basically reaching a scale of two thousand acres. With the cessation of Snow and Ice Flame Mushroom production, these greenhouses were now mostly planted with Flame Mushrooms.

Liszt kept pushing the serfs to expand the cultivation area.

He was already negotiating with Levis and his wife to have them send serfs to learn the Flame Mushroom cultivation technology, to promote it on Coral Island in the future, with the profits from each acre of Flame Mushroom to be shared with Liszt, though the specific sharing ratio was still under negotiation.

"This is our specialty, the Flame Mushroom, a magical mushroom grown from the Abandoned Insect Mushroom, a fire-attribute herb," explained Gort. The formula was well-protected, so visitors couldn’t steal it.

Count Jonas stared at the endless greenhouses, surprised. "How many acres of Flame Mushroom are you planting?"

"About two thousand acres, and we’re still expanding."

"Two thousand acres? All planted with Flame Mushroom?"

Noticing something off in Jonas’s tone, Liszt frowned and asked, "What’s the matter, Count Jonas? Is something wrong?"

"How’s the Flame Mushroom harvest, and how well do the magic potions work?"

"We’ve just expanded, and the first batch isn’t ready yet."

Jonas nodded, turning to Lee William. "Lee William, didn’t you remind Liszt?"

Lee William looked puzzled. "Remind him of what?"

Liszt echoed the confusion. "Is something wrong with my Flame Mushroom?"

"If nothing goes wrong, these two thousand acres of Flame Mushroom will be of very poor quality, and the efficacy of the extracted magic potion will be greatly reduced."

"Why?"

"It seems you don’t really get the Abandoned Insect Mushroom," Jonas said regretfully. "Although the Abandoned Insect Mushroom isn’t limited by spirit bugs, there is still a limit to the scale of cultivation. Within a million square kilometers, growing over a thousand acres causes serious degradation. And some types start degrading after just six hundred acres."

"Is there such a saying?" Liszt was baffled, "Why is that?"

"As far as I know, the magical properties of the Abandoned Insect Mushroom are related to the Magic Web."

"The Magic Web?" It was not Liszt who was surprised, but Count Lee William, "Count Jonas, are you talking about the Magic Web that only Archmages can touch?"

"Yes, according to those magicians, the world is surrounded by the Magic Web, and whoever can touch it can advance to become an Archmage."

Jonas shook his head: "Unfortunately, I can't tell you more information, because even the great magician of the court doesn't understand the Magic Web. In short, the Abandoned Insect Mushroom is likely limited by the Magic Web, resulting in the restriction that only 600 to 1000 acres can be cultivated within a radius of one million square kilometers."

The limitation of the Abandoned Insect Mushroom.

The existence of the Magic Web.

This was undoubtedly a devastating blow to Liszt's ambitious plan for the Flame Mushrooms. The total land area of the Sapphire Duchy is about two million square kilometers, and even including the sea territory, it is only six to seven million square kilometers. Even if the entire island nation were planted, it would likely yield just over six thousand acres.

As for Black Horse Island and Coral Island, they obviously do not reach an area of one million square kilometers, which means that if Black Horse Island plants one thousand acres, Coral Island would have none to plant.

"There is actually such a limitation." Liszt was at a loss, as he had planned to rely on continuously expanding the Flame Mushrooms to meet the increasing demand for magic potions in the future.

Jonas then said: "This is truly unfortunate, you need to remove the excess Flame Mushrooms to ensure only one thousand acres... but the exact amount needs to be explored by you, because different planting densities and varieties of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms will lead to different limitations by the Magic Web."

"It seems that's the only way." Liszt did not doubt that the other party was deceiving him, as a new batch of Flame Mushrooms would soon mature, and then he would know if the quality had degraded.

Lee William suddenly asked: "Count Jonas, do you also have Abandoned Insect Mushrooms in your industry?"

"Of course, my Moonlight City grows 'Blue Pine Mushrooms', a water-aligned variant of the Abandoned Insect Mushroom. If Liszt is willing, I can exchange the cultivation techniques of Blue Pine Mushrooms for the cultivation techniques of Flame Mushrooms. Blue Dragon Island is far from Black Horse Island, so there is no conflict between us."

Liszt quickly regained his composure.

Responded: "Blue Pine Mushrooms, I believe this cooperation can move forward."

Jonas added: "The trade of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms can maximize benefits, I can help you contact nobles who meet the planting conditions and have Abandoned Insect Mushrooms to participate in multilateral exchange of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms."

The limitation of the Magic Web.

This limits the cultivation area of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, so each noble's Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, if they want to sell, will trade with nobles far from themselves, and attach some terms, the most important of which is to limit the spread of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, to prevent them from eventually flowing back to their own region, causing strain degradation.

But the Sapphire Duchy is so large, there will always be potential buyers for Flame Mushrooms.

With Jonas spearheading the effort, Flame Mushrooms can be traded more effectively with other nobles for Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, exchanging for more varieties of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, which is a means to mitigate the restriction.