Chapter 574: Druid’s Essential Magic Bean Cultivation

This chapter is an additional update for the "Little Rui's Kitchen" patronage reward.

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The development of tofu has been completed.

After savoring a delightful tofu feast, he plans to dedicate his spare time in the near future to another important research project.

White paper is the next goal!

He has had enough of the expensive, poor-quality, smelly, and overly thick thick paper that doesn't allow much writing. A thick book might only contain a few tens of thousands of words, and even a large tome can't hold more than a couple of hundred thousand words. So, while his study shelves appear to be filled with books, they actually contain very little content.

"Although the territory already has a thick paper workshop, white paper is the most suitable writing material," Liszt heads to the port town to inspect the thick paper workshop.

The thick paper workshop has three papermakers. The earliest papermaker is Lavagne, a craftsman recruited from Mane City on Iron Hoof Island. The other two papermakers were recruited from the Kingdom of the Eagle.

In the workshop.

Lavagne explains the production of thick paper to Liszt in detail—thick paper, as the name implies, is made from animal hides. After crushing animal leather, it is specially stirred and mixed with an additive called "gray pig glue," which solidifies into paper.

Gray pig glue is derived from the subcutaneous fat of a creature called the gray pig beast. These creatures are plentiful on the mainland, but in the Sapphire Duchy, they are only found on Blue Dragon Island and Iron Hoof Island. These small beasts prefer open plains and cannot be domesticated.

As a result, gray pig glue is very expensive.

This makes thick paper equally costly, and only nobles can afford it.

"I now fully grasp the production of thick paper. Today, I intend to teach you a new papermaking technique," Liszt dismisses the others, leaving only the three papermakers. "This paper is called white paper, and it is completely different from thick paper. It uses plant-based materials, including hemp, bark, straw, and the like."

The three papermakers all look surprised: "Lord, can plants really be used to make paper?"

"I'm not entirely certain, but it's worth a try," Liszt doesn't commit fully. "I can't recall the exact manufacturing process, so you'll need to experiment... The general process is as follows: first, select the materials. I suggest starting with flax as the papermaking material."

He has some recollection of the traditional method of making white paper.

First, prepare the materials—hemp, bark, straw, bamboo, and the like—and soak them for ten to fifteen days. After softening, mash them into a pulp, add water, and stir to remove coarse materials, creating paper pulp. It's best to add a bit of thickening agent to make the pulp easier to form.

Next, use a bamboo screen to scoop the paper. Dip the bamboo screen into the pulp, evenly spread a layer of pulp, lift it to drain the water, and then flip it to remove the wet paper. Stack the wet sheets together, press them with a heavy object to remove water, and finally spread them out to dry, resulting in white paper.

"It seems there is no bamboo in this world," Liszt suddenly realizes while teaching the technique.

So, he can only roughly describe the bamboo screen used for scooping paper, leaving the papermakers to find appropriate tools for the scooping process.

"In summary, this is the general process, but the paper produced this way will likely be rather rough. I need smooth white paper for writing, so you'll need to keep experimenting and refining the process to produce true white paper."

After hearing this.

The papermakers can't guarantee they can produce white paper but vow to do their best. However, being personally taught by the Lord is an immense honor for the three papermakers, not to mention the importance of the craft's legacy to artisans.

Of course.

The white paper technique must be kept secret, as it is far more important than making tofu.

If he hadn't become a dragon knight, Liszt wouldn't even consider revealing this secret now, fearing it couldn't be protected. So, he immediately arranges for Gort to set up the white paper workshop in a remote location away from the town and instructs Parris to prioritize guarding and patrolling the workshop.

If white paper production succeeds and the process matures, it will undoubtedly be a highly profitable business.

Moreover, it is a unique technology that can be passed down through generations.

...

Over the next few weeks.

Liszt's life began to regain its regularity. He visited Dodo Island every five days to train and build a relationship with the Fire Drake Leo. The remaining four days were spent with Acheronides studying Sun Script, teaching Pyke to speak, and focusing on personal cultivation. He also trained the Blizzard Beast, inspected the territory, and monitored progress.

As well as writing the book "Theories on the Correlation between Magic Network Nodes, Spirit Bugs, and Dragons," which he had already written about twenty thousand words, mostly consisting of speculative content.

Drawing inspiration from the internet, he imagined a magic network.

As time passed, batches of Flame Mushrooms matured, but their quality dropped sharply. After several harvests, when only a thousand acres remained, the quality improved noticeably. Based on their calculations, Liszt and Cris agreed that Flame Mushrooms grew best on one thousand acres at the current density.

"Now we just wait until June 10th for other nobles to come and trade Abandoned Insect Mushrooms," Liszt thought to himself.

However, the Abandoned Insect Mushrooms from the previous task had not yet arrived.

But there was good news from the Sun Script project.

In the beach villa, Acheronides excitedly told Liszt: "Brother, I've deciphered this book 'Druid Essentials - Magic Bean Cultivation' and learned a new spell from it!"

"What?"

"Brother, these Sun Script books are primarily magic books, but they are used by a mage profession called Druids. The title you previously understood was correct, this book is called 'Druid Transformation Guide: Bear Chapter,' which details how Druids transform into bears."

She handed over the Sun Script book that Liszt had previously translated, "Druid Transformation XX Bear XX": "But I haven't had the time to decipher it yet."

"So, you've already deciphered another book, 'Druid Essentials - Magic Bean Cultivation'?"

"Not completely, just deciphered one of the spells from it, belonging to the Magic Bean Cultivation category—Bathing in Sunlight," I said seriously.

"Bathing in Sunlight? Liszt was puzzled. What kind of spell is that? And is Magic Bean Cultivation a major branch of magic?"

"Yes, it's a very strange magic system, quite different from the human magic I have learned. Human magic is categorized by the properties of magic power. I can only attune to water magic, but Druid magic is chaotic and doesn't follow such distinctions."

After my detailed explanation, Liszt finally understood.

The spellcasters of the Children of the Sun race are called Druids, who master magic fueled by chaotic magic power.

Magic is mainly divided into two categories.

One is animal transformation magic, which allows mimicking various animals. For example, 'Druid Transformation Guide: Bear Chapter' teaches how to transform into a bear for combat. The other is plant cultivation magic, which influences plant growth like spirit bugs. Even the plants they develop require this magic to thrive.

"Druid Essentials - Magic Bean Cultivation" is plant cultivation magic. Each plant has a special set of cultivation magic—the Magic Bean plant corresponds to the "Magic Bean Cultivation" magic, and Bathing in Sunlight is one of them.

I pointed to a potted Magic Bean seedling and said, "Brother, look! This seedling is a Magic Bean. According to the book, it will grow into a tree full of Magic Beans. They’re not just food—they have magical properties too!"

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