บท 29: Chapter 29: Suspicions
"Brother Claude! Thank you for today, I gained a lot! And the seeds... I will wait for them!" Rezen said happily and Claude smiled at him
Rezen is a straight man but a dashing man giving him a dashing smile still makes his heart tremble
Handsome people are really handsome people!
"It's alright. I should be the one thanking you..." Claude replied and he saw Rezen waving goodbye to him before running away
With the number of corpses that Rezen obtained today, he was extremely excited to return to his farm and make his farm even more fertile by letting it devour the 'fertilizers'
Claude labeled Rezen as a lively young man in his eyes before he turned his attention to the bloody battlefield where the other soldiers were standing blankly
"Hmm?" Claude was confused by their state but when he checked the battlefield, although there were still puddles of blood, the number of beast carcasses was way lower than it was originally!
In fact, he can't even see any grey wolf corpse despite them being the majority of the magic beasts that they have killed
"Ysel, what happened here? Where are the corpses?" Claude asks in confusion to his subordinate
"T-that... Rezen took them... he said that he has your permission" Ysel replied and Claude was stunned
He gave permission to Rezen to take as many corpses as he wanted but... just how big his void storage was?
The grey wolves were basically cleaned up by him no matter what rank they were!
Aside from the grey wolves, there were even a few more species of magic beasts that were completely missing despite Claude remembering that he had slain some of them
Just what is happening in here...
———
Contrary to Claude's side that was stupefied, Rezen was jumping in joy even until he arrived at his home
Without even taking a shower to clean himself, Rezen waved his hand and magic beasts' corpses numbering around thirty thousand were dumped on his farm
There were too many of them that Rezen already ordered the system to absorb the corpses while he was still dumping them
He is rich! He definitely is rich now!
Even if the lottery tickets and blessings have a low probability of 'dropping' useful items, with the number that he would obtain, he should still receive many great things!
"[Ding! Detecting thirty-two thousand magic beasts carcasses of ungraded to 3rd fusion grade. Does the Host want to upgrade the farm, upgrading would let the Host plant spirit plants up to Quality 3 or receive lottery tickets x23,000 and blessing points x21,00]
"..."
"Fuck your grandfather! I actually have to upgrade the farm before I can grow higher-level spirit plants?"
This system is too broken! It almost does not explain anything and most of the time, Rezen would have to investigate its functions first!
He doesn't even know that there is a limit to the quality of spirit plants he could grow!
Although he planted thousands of vismian grass and soul-tearing peas before, their Qualities were just Quality 1. It means that those spirit plants would only benefit ungraded and 1st fusion rank mages
2nd fusion rank mages can still use them except for the rainbow clementines but the effects were greatly diminished that it was not worth it anymore
Rezen's talent is the poorest of the poorest. He has to rely on spirit plants for cultivation as such, despite his mouth watering for the lottery tickets and blessing points, he forced himself to upgrade the farm
Rezen's heart bled while a mysterious power once again descended on his farm
This power feels the same as the power that appeared when Rezen first designated this place as his farm but it feels like it was on another level
That power is upgrading his farm and would turn it into a farm that can grow Quality 3 Spirit Plants!
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for upgrading the Farm to level 3! Quality 2 and Quality 3 seeds are now available in the system shop!]
The system's notification rang inside Rezen's mind but he doesn't have the capacity to be happy
After all, the corpses that should give him tens of thousands of blessing points and lottery tickets were used to upgrade a farm that he thought could let spirit plants of any quality grow in it!
"This is the result of an entire day's hard work. I'm so pitiful..." Rezen sobbed and with his shoulders hanging low, he entered his humble home to take a shower
When he was done, just like what every teenager would do after going out for an entire day he... he started using his phone
He just took his phone out from his storage when he already received a call again
Since he is not a soldier, even if Claude likes him, the military phone must be handed after every operation as it would be inappropriate for him to have them
As for his original phone, since he knew that he is going into a fight, why would he place it in his pocket when he knew that it might fall down or be destroyed by a magic beast?
As such, only now did Rezen have the time to receive his friend's call
"Hell—"
Before Rezen can even finish saying 'hello', Neil already speaks in a loud and pleading tone
"Rezen, you still have more spirit plants, right? Tell us you still have them! You can supply more to our shop tomorrow, right? We are counting on you!"
Neil sounds as if he would cry any moment from now and Rezen hesitated
He is tired and broken-hearted thanks to his system. He originally planned on taking a break for the rest of the day and tomorrow since the extermination of the magic beasts was put on hold
However, if he has to supply his friend's shop then he has to burden his back again to farm!
"Well..."
"Rezen, no, the only answer is yes! The customers will kill and burn down our shop! They even stalked us to our homes to inquire when we would sell spirit plants again! Don't do this, don't betray me, your cute little friend. You have not seen the bloodshot eyes of the customers! They are coming in for the kill!"
While Rezen was treating his spirit plants like they were nothing, the others weren't
After all, his spirit plants have no side effects and the potency was way better compared to others
Those that already tried using his spirit plants wanted more, especially the poor mages
For the poor, it was hard for them to buy resources. And now that 'cheap' yet effective spirit plants appeared on the market, how could they not want to buy them?
If not for Fierce Fire having a sharp brain and only deciding to advertise the shop to mages with no background, the shop might already be seized by the 'giants' while Rezen was forcefully kidnapped to spill his secrets!
"C-can it be the day after tomorrow?" Rezen tried his luck as he needed to spend at least an entire day on a break to heal his broken heart
"N-no! It must be tomorrow! We can't even sleep now in fear that those crazy customers would suddenly barge into our house!"
"I think I have PSTD now, I feel like I can see their bloodshot eyes everywhere!"
Rezen felt pity for his friend and he can only reluctantly agree
"Argh fine, just come tomorrow afternoo—"
"Morning! Morning! We need to have the spirit plants as soon as we open our shop!"
"Too demanding!"
"Don't complain! It was you that put us in this dangerous situation!"
If the situation was really as dangerous as Neil make it out then Rezen is indeed the one that is guilty here
"Whatever! Morning then! You come here tomorrow to take the spirit plants and bring today's revenue!" Rezen gave up
Anyway, he just has to force his body into planting the crops today and harvest them later
He still can have a 'much awaited' break with no farming and cultivation tomorrow
"Good, good, you are really my good friend! You didn't let my whole family die!" Neil said in relief before directly hanging up the call as if he was afraid that Rezen would suddenly change his mind
Rezen can only groan in annoyance. He kicked his feet in the air like a child
If he knew that he would have to farm again then he wouldn't have taken a shower yet!
That Neil really doesn't know what good timing is!
Without a choice, Rezen can only start his farm work. It was a good thing that he didn't market the rainbow clementines yet
If not, he would have to plant more!
—-
The next day, just like what General Leon promises, a mage specializing in sensory spells does arrive
The mage is a woman in the 4th fusion grade but her fighting prowess was definitely lower compared to other mages at her level since she specializes in sensory magic
"Mage Ellery Rose reporting" the mage reported to Claude respectfully
Claude doesn't know why but although the woman is acting polite and everything, he doesn't feel the least bit of warmth for her
He was not like this to other people. At the very least, he would think that others are 'normal' if he doesn't know them yet. And by normal, he meant that they are neither bad nor evil
However, to this woman... Claude has a bad feeling about her just like what he felt yesterday when talking with General Leon
Claude considered his senses sharp and he felt that there is really something suspicious about the General and this sensory mage
It's just that, his rational side doesn't think that there was anything abnormal about them
Neither the General nor the sensory mage acts out of character or do they show any signs that they have ulterior motives
As such, despite Claude's senses tingling, he decided not to judge them just because he was feeling like this
As long as the other person was treating him with respect then Claude should also do the same
"Mage Ellery, thank you for giving us your time" Claude said respectfully as the two shake each other's hands
"No, no, it was my pleasure to be of help with the renowned Captain Claude"
"Just treat me as any other colleague"
They exchanged some formal pleasantries for a moment before Claude went straight to the point
The faster that they can find the reason for the abnormal activities in the mountain, the sooner the civilians would be safe
"Mage Ellery, if you don't mind I hope we start the investigation now" Claude said and Ellery nodded her head
"No worries, in fact, when I heard about the situation, I already have a hypothesis about the cause of this unrest"
Claude's eyes lit up after hearing that
"And the reason might be?"
"A treasure... a treasure might have appeared in the Ratois Mountain"
"Hmm? Why would that be the reason?"
"Captain, low-level magic beasts might have low intelligence but when magic beasts reach 5th fusion rank or even just the 4th fusion rank, their intelligence would increase. They might not be as intelligent as us humans but they aren't mindless either. If a 4th or 5th fusion rank magic beasts found a treasure, especially one that needed more time to ripen, they would secure the area of the treasure and chase out other magic beasts..."
"But... I think that there is someone controlling the magic beasts behind the scene"
"That is something that higher rank magic beasts could do! They might have sent their subordinate beasts around to chase the other magic beasts to secure the treasure!"
"No... the beasts purposely targeted either the low-level soldiers away from us or the talented ones"
"Maybe, that is just a coincident?"
"No, I have a strong feeling that it was a deliberate act"
"Then I think I should start searching for any treasure for now if we don't have any leads yet"
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