Chapter 845: Coffee Beans and Cocoa Beans

... The great dragon had fallen.

Liszt Flame cradled the spirit bugs in his arms, while the invisible dragon's claws held the bound former Elder and fourteen stubborn Ancient Wizards.

Thus, they did not perform spatial travel but merely wandered through the physical realm. During breaks, he carefully examined each of the spirit bugs one by one.

The sixteen spirit bugs had not yet produced their fungal grass, so their varieties remained indistinguishable for the time being.

The Potato Grand Sprite needed no further identification. As for the remaining eight spirit bugs, he meticulously observed the features on their heads and communicated with them mentally to determine their types. Among them, five spirit bugs still remained unidentifiable, while the other three were mostly identified.

The first was unmistakable—it had a small gourd on its head, clearly a never-before-seen gourd spirit bug.

The second was also easy to recognize, as it bore a cluster of red-and-green berries on its head. This was an important valuable crop found in the forests of Flame Island—the coffee tree. Coffee was a beverage highly favored by nobles, though the Sapphire Duchy did not cultivate coffee trees and had to import them from the mainland.

However, Flame Island's forests were home to numerous coffee trees, and harvesting their beans would become a significant industry.

This coffee spirit bug was quite valuable.

The third spirit bug proved tricky for Liszt. On its head grew a sapling with prominent buttress roots.

Buttress roots were a distinctive feature of trees in steamy rainforests, where many trunks extended flange-like extensions at their bases, resembling plank walls—hence the name. Since several tree species possessed such roots, Liszt spent a while scrutinizing the spirit bug's head.

Finally, he concluded it was a Tetrameles spirit bug.

Tetrameles was a common canopy tree in the forests, occupying the highest layer and serving as a habitat for many birds and monkeys. However, beyond its use as timber, the tree itself held little special value, and even as lumber, it was inferior to ironwoods like rockwood or stonewood.

Still, for Liszt, the mere existence of such magical beings was value enough. There was no need to demand additional benefits from them.

"Angchi, angchi!" The Potato Grand Sprite crawled out of the box, studying Liszt with curiosity. It had been observing him with interest throughout the journey.

At the Grand Sprite stage, the power of the binding contract was no longer one-sided suppression—Grand Sprites possessed sufficient independent thought.

Yet, due to Liszt's rescue and the familiar sense of closeness, the Potato Grand Sprite had grown quite fond of him. It simply found it strange why it liked Liszt, who looked no different from those terrifying Moon Killers, except he was better-looking.

"My name is Liszt Flame."

"Angchi, angchi..."

"Come, repeat after me—Liszt."

"Lis... zt?"

"That's right! Just like that—Liszt Flame."

"Angchi, angchi, Liszt... Flame..."

"Good. Now that you know my name, what's yours? Ah, right—you don't have one. I'll give you a name. Seeing that potato on your head makes me think of bombs. How about 'Corki'? Like the daring bombardier from *League of Legends*."

A name was just a label. The Potato Grand Sprite didn't yet grasp the concept, so it absentmindedly accepted its new identity—Corki.

"Angchi, angchi, Corki?"

"Yes, Corki."

"Hahahaha, angchi, angchi, Corki!" The Potato Grand Sprite chuckled gleefully.

Liszt watched it, he mused, already planning how to cultivate potatoes and make them the main staple for Flame Territory settlers. Introducing any new food required time, but he expected potatoes to catch on quickly. Even if the settlers disliked them, the serfs of the Moon Killers could eat them.

Once potato farming was widely implemented, food scarcity would cease to trouble Flame Island.

After returning to Ember Prairie.

Liszt handed over the Listener and the Ancient Wizards to the Magic Guild for custody: "Subject them to rigorous interrogation. This is a Listener from the sacred tribe guarding the Holy Mountain of the Moon Killers and a group of die-hard Ancient Wizards. I want to uncover all the information they know, especially the meanings of 'Kassido' and 'Moxiros'."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Also, assemble a team of wizards specializing in species identification to help me classify the spirit bugs."

The interrogation would take time, but before dinner, Liszt had already learned the meanings of Kassido and Moxiros.

Kassido referred to "barbarians," while Moxiros meant "the evil force that defiles magic." According to the Listener, who had several of his molars yanked out, the barbarians had once betrayed their ancestors and used evil forces to desecrate the great magic.

"It sounds exactly like they're describing knights," Liszt found it oddly familiar, as there had been many knights during the Moon Empire era.

Knights were likely the vassal class to wizards, serving as guards.

For example, the Lunar Language term for Mount Mulagodin meant "Moonlight Guardian Knight," indicating that knights in the Moon Empire era were merely protectors.

Perhaps, to wizards who worshipped truth, knights relying on physical strength were indeed barbarians.

And these barbaric knights had indeed overthrown the Moon Empire, establishing the current knightly system that ruled the world. Calling it magic's desecration wouldn't be wrong.

But it was hard to say—the ancient era certainly wasn't limited to just wizards and knights. There were many other ancient warriors and spellcasters, such as the bear-skinned ones, vampires, sorcerers, bronze-skinned warriors, and so on. Who knew whether the Lunar Language's "Kassido" referred to knights or other ancient warriors?

It was even possible that "Kassido" was the ancient wizards' collective term for all warrior professions—those who relied on muscle were barbarians. Similarly, "Moxiros" might have been their term for all spellcaster professions—any non-traditional wizard could be seen as an evil force defiling magic.

In short, "Kassido" and "Moxiros" could roughly be understood as "heretics."

Once Liszt understood the meanings, he lost interest. Soon, he joined the wizards specializing in species identification to classify the spirit bugs.

The five spirit bugs were identified as cocoa tree, *Monstera deliciosa*, pigeon berry, lobster-claw heliconia, and bougainvillea. Among them, the cocoa tree's fruit—cocoa beans—was the raw material for chocolate, making the cocoa spirit bug as valuable as the coffee spirit bug in terms of economic crops.

The other four spirit bugs held little value.

The sixteen spirit bugs were also matched to their respective host plants, all of which could be found in the forest.

Only two of them had economic value: one was the breadfruit spirit bug, whose corresponding breadfruit tree produced breadfruit—a fruit that tasted similar to bread and could serve as a staple food. The other was the pistachio spirit bug, with pistachios being a type of nut-based magical herb.

"Viscount Fox, halt the capture of Moon Killers' serfs for now. I have a task for you: locate and transplant the plants hosting these spirit bugs from the forest. Each plant species must form a plantation expansive enough to sustain the spirit bugs," Liszt instructed.

Spirit bugs could not survive alone, or they would fade and perish.

Although most spirit bugs were deemed of limited economic value for now, this was only temporary. If a mutated magical herb variety emerged among their host plants one day, their value would skyrocket.

Fox accepted the order: "As you wish, Your Highness."

"Additionally, Grand Sprite Kuki's species is the potato, which can serve as a staple food. You must establish a potato plantation as soon as possible... It's already autumn, so if we hurry, we can plant one more crop before winter." With the influence of spirit bugs, even winter's frost couldn't kill the plantation's plants—though growth would halt.

If potatoes were planted now, under the influence of the potato spirit bug, they might reach maturity by winter's onset. Then, they would know whether these potatoes were truly high-yielding and quality.