Chapter 536: The Brutal Giant Kelp Elf

I woke up early, opened the window, and was greeted by beautiful sunshine.

It was another sunny day, and as April progressed, the weather on Black Horse Island kept improving. After spring plowing, the serfs returned to construction. Wooden houses sprang up in several small towns, roads connected them, and craftsmen’s workshops began operating.

The relocation of worm grass was nearly finished.

Now, only apple tree worm grass, tomato worm grass, and flytrap worm grass remain in Flower Town; all other worm grass has been moved to Black Horse Island.

Plantations were set up in various small towns to house the worm grass.

A group of castle servants was even assigned to Port Town to serve Liszt. They were settling into life in Port Town and helping prepare for the new castle’s construction. There were just over thirty castle servants, plus thirty to forty children in internships.

This world has no laws against child labor, and the children interning at the castle enjoy guaranteed quality of life and future employment. Many civilian parents want to send their children to intern in the castle.

I washed up quickly but skipped a bath. I’ll be in the water later anyway, so there’s no point in bathing now.

After breakfast, before 7:30, the fishermen were already hard at work harvesting Giant Kelp by the sea. Liszt came to the seaside, jumped onto a sampan, and prepared to continue rowing towards the Giant Kelp forest. At the same time, he habitually summoned the smoke task to take a look.

With just one glance, he was startled.

"Complete the task, reward: a Rainbow Dolphin."

This reward was no surprise, as he had guessed two days ago that the Rainbow Dolphin being chased by Acheronides would be his reward, a low-level dragon sea monster.

What surprised and astonished him was the new smoke task.

"Task: Acheronides has already discovered the deepest secret of the Giant Kelp forest in the seabed, which is a huge Giant Kelp Worm Grass. It belongs to a ferocious Giant Kelp Grand Sprite, and Acheronides can't even get close to it. Maybe you need new helpers. Why not get a water mount first? Reward: a Giant Kelp Grand Sprite."

"The Giant Kelp Grand Sprite!"

"It really is the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite! Acheronides has already discovered its spirit bug, and clearly has had contact with it!"

Liszt had been dreaming about this possibly non-existent Giant Kelp Grand Sprite for a long time, and now finally receiving confirmation, his excitement was palpable. The Grand Sprite is a symbol of status for a count, and only families possessing a Grand Sprite dare to call themselves great nobles.

Now.

Through the Giant Kelp questline.

He was finally going to obtain a Grand Sprite, joining the ranks of the great nobles. If he were to release Leo, he might instantly ascend to the ranks of Dragon Knights, challenging the king; of course, he might also be immediately subdued by the Sapphire Duchy, with Leo being harshly taken away.

In the situation where the Fire Drake cannot be exposed, a Grand Sprite would be his best symbol of status.

Inhale.

Exhale.

After taking several deep breaths, he finally calmed down: "The appearance of the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite means we can plant over six thousand acres of Giant Kelp Magic Potion. But the urgent matter is how to contract it. Wild Grand Sprites are rare, I've only heard about them in knight novels, and usually they actively contract humans."

Knight novels are filled with wishful fantasies, not only do spirit bugs actively seek out the protagonist to form contracts, even dragons beg the protagonist to ride them, and there are a lot of noble ladies vying for the protagonist's attention.

But in reality, spirit bugs that actively contract humans are very rare.

Spirit bugs like the Red Tree spirit bug Nami, which are active, can only be considered exceptions, and the spirit bugs of the Giant Kelp are clearly not among them. They are neither close to humans nor to their own companions. Before Fizz and Tahm contracted, they both snarled at Liszt and Acheronides, and without the True Fragrant Jade Powder, it was impossible to contract.

Even after forming contracts, they frequently quarrel.

If it weren't for Liszt's mandatory ban, they might have already settled their rivalry.

And this Giant Kelp Grand Sprite, in the depiction of the Smoke Dragon mission, is actually labeled as "ferocious," which gives a glimpse of its temperament.

"Spirit bugs wield cultivation magic, and the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite's cultivation magic is even stronger, already quite powerful. Even Acheronides can't get close to it; contracting it underwater will be tough... We’ll need plenty of jade powder and must brace ourselves for a standoff. Most importantly, we need to capture the Rainbow Dolphin."

The Rainbow Dolphin is the mission’s critical clue.

Liszt still hasn't fully figured out the principles or rules of the Smoke Dragon mission. He doesn’t know how powerful the fate power of the Smoke Dragon is, or how it interacts by pulling the threads of fate. But sticking to the mission is clearly the quickest path.

As he thought this over, he had already rowed the sampan boat past the fishermen in the near sea, heading further out. Acheronides had been keeping an eye on Liszt from below the surface, so she quickly surfaced to meet him. The shell opened, and Fizz and Tahm immediately swam over to him with four spirit bugs, circling around him.

"Brother, you finally came! Acheronides found the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite!" Acheronides excitedly recounted her discovery.

She accidentally discovered the huge Giant Kelp Worm Grass while working overtime.

After careful observation, she successfully found the Grand Sprite. It was a baby-sized sprite, with the same yellowish-brown color as the spirit bugs, its body translucent and bright, like a huge gem. It spread its transparent fins and swam around its worm grass, tirelessly and joyfully.

Occasionally, when fish approached it, it would wave its hand and cast a magic aura, instantly causing Giant Kelp to burst out of the fish, turning them into a pile of minced meat.

"It’s incredibly aggressive. After discovering Acheronides, it chased her for a long distance. Acheronides didn’t want to harm it, but she was also afraid it would plant that kind of Giant Kelp on her," Acheronides said softly. In terms of actual combat power, she would definitely surpass the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite, but without being able to fight back, she could only be chased.

"Is the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite really that fierce? Have you tried luring it with jade powder?"

"Acheronides tried, but it would always drive her away before eating the jade powder. Once Acheronides turned back to approach it, it would stop eating the jade powder and drive her away again... Brother, this Giant Kelp Grand Sprite is really fierce, and its big mouth looks terrifying."

Both the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite and the spirit bugs are very beautiful, but their mouths and teeth are a bit horrifying.

"Since the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite is difficult to contract, let's first come up with a good way to seal the deal," Liszt then said, "But before that, I plan to catch that Rainbow Dolphin first. I’ve seen it rescue people, maybe it’s intelligent."

"Hey, can that sea monster actually save people?" Ake was quite surprised.

Liszt briefly recounted the incident of the serf falling into the water and then said, "Here’s what we’ll do: I’ll arrange for the serf to fall into the water to lure out the Rainbow Dolphin, and then try to communicate with it. You hide nearby. If everything goes well, it will be fine; if not, we’ll catch it first."

"Okay."

With the plan set, Ake dived and followed Liszt back to the near-shore area. He found some serfs who could swim and had them pretend to fall into the water to attract the Rainbow Dolphin.

They didn’t know where the Rainbow Dolphin was hiding or how far it had gone.

The act of pretending to drown continued from morning until afternoon, and they still hadn’t seen the Rainbow Dolphin surface. Just when Liszt thought it was impossible, suddenly, the serf who was shouting for help in the water was pushed up by something.

Then,

Not far away, Liszt, through his telescope, clearly saw that beneath the serf was indeed a Rainbow Dolphin.

The dolphin was large, much bigger than any he had seen in aquariums on Earth, possibly as big as an orca. It had a streamlined body like a dolphin, and its skin shimmered with iridescent colors under the sunlight.

"To be precise, it looks more like a beluga whale,"

Liszt marveled, quietly paddling his sampan towards the Rainbow Dolphin. In his sampan, he had dozens of extremely fresh and delicious small fish. Animals, like humans, are driven by the need to eat, and using food as bait is the least sophisticated but most effective method.

As he approached the Rainbow Dolphin,

The Rainbow Dolphin, which had been pushing the drowning serf towards the shore, suddenly changed direction and pushed the serf towards Liszt.

Seeing this,

Liszt couldn't help but exclaim, "Hmm?"