Chapter 78 Tailning with Spiders

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While waiting for Jack's result, we went on to Lhorne's reports of the parasites. Lhorne has brought back some results from Edelweiss. She said she could make some sort of potion to smear on your ears or tails regularly. However, this would only kill eggs or outside worms. They would not do anything once it entered your body.

"So, that's her current result. She is currently researching how to cure this for real, but we could use this potion to spray them on goods from dwarves." Lhorne replied. He currently brought only one bottle of the potion Edelweiss concocted.

"When will these potions be able to be mass-produced?"

"We need to arrange a field to farm the herbs for these potions," Lhorne replied.

"Is it hard to grow them?"

"Not really. We often used them for some tea. But they need to be grown for at least a year before we can harvest its leaves."

"Guh…" Lily Groaned.

"Nothing is instant, huh?"

"Yeah, we could handle it just fine if it is only one province. But lord Silvane's territory also borders dwarves…."

"The high council is currently assigning you as their only point of contact with dwarves. Dwarves usually wanted food, and Edenthal was already a farming town. But they also demand you chimed in on the transportation fee for the ores."

"What a tyranny!" Mattheus complained

"Well, as long as we aren't in the red…." Lily replied. "We can expect more sales, right? How's the profit looking?"

"Well, our 1 million profit is set in stone for this year, but for the next trade, we could only expect half, perhaps? This is due to transportation costs from another city to this town to carry the ores and surplus food." our financial advisor Lisey replied.

"Make sure the dwarves know about this rule. And the quarantine. They need to bathe with these potions before entering our settlement." Lhorne replied. "That's your main duty."

"Lily, we also need to buy more food," I advised her. "We could not handle dwarves' entire food import on our own."

"Lhorne, we need to purchase food."

"Yes. It would be best to get a varied assortment of food for dwarves to buy. Not just wheat, potatoes, and vegetables. But we don't have an ice mage. It would be difficult to preserve them once they arrive."

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"I wonder if Rhander has some pupil for these things…." Lily moaned. Edenthal region lacked mages.

"Well, if you purchase an ice ring, you could fulfill that role, can't you?" I advised.

"But what if I am away?"

"Yeah, we need to train some mages." I concurred

"Do you think we could patronize some students from the academies?" Lily asked

"No. You could start now but they will only bear fruit in four years." Lhorne replied. None of our personnel were mages.

"Lily, how about we gave out scholarships to our citizens. We could pick out maybe five or ten to send to academies to become mages." I replied. Lily only needed several months to learn spells, mainly because I personally tutored her with my blessings. The hardest part of becoming a mage is to feel mana and molded it.

"Lhorne, let's give out some scholarships to our citizens."

"Well, how would you filter them? You can't just give out scholarships to everyone, right?" Lhorne asked. Lily turned to me for advice, and I answered her with a test. A paper exam for anyone who would like to join our scholarship program.

"I see. There certainly was merit to this. I shall put out the announcements. But we certainly could not put out more than five people on scholarship programs. It would strain our finances." Lisey nodded. She was getting more active these days. Nobody gave her a weird look except Sarielle. And he was already back home at Regoia, so maybe she felt at ease? Anny and Hanna, however, were still passive.

The leveling program went on immediately the week after. We arranged a hundred troops into a platoon and raided the spiders. Lhorne, Mattheus, and Nora were with us.

"Lord Lily and Lhorne will be here to ensure no accident will cause death. However, if we did interfere, you guys would be punished for your reckless conduct." Mattheus shouted to the recruit, and we headed out of the spider's lair.

Lily stood in the center of the formation while yawning. The spiders were now too easy for her, but the recruit was having a hard time after two hours of being surrounded by those spiders.

"It brings back some memories," Lily replied at some random corner while watching the recruits struggle.

"Yeah. We were surrounded here." Mattheus nodded while munching on some bread.

"Hey, this is not a picnic," Lhorne replied.

"But we can't help them, right?" Lily said while some random spiders went after her. She bisected it with a swing and yawned.

"Well, that's true."

"Hmm… I wonder if spears are effective against those spiders. They are certainly struggling."

"Maybe we should build some wooden maces?" Lhorne suggested."

"Nah, it would be too heavy for them," Mattheus commented.

The recruits formed a circle formation just like the elves did when we were against them last time. In the center, they arranged their supplies and took rotation. Half were in the outer circle, while half were resting. I am glad that they use their head.

"These soldiers were promising," Sarielle commented. He came yesterday to bring the first batch of anti-parasite potion. It was to be used only if there were dwarves nearby. Though it is not tested, Edelweiss concluded that these worms could also infect elven ears. And thus, this matter blew out of proportion as every region now banned not only dwarves but outsiders, and the potion Edelweiss made was quickly robbed out of her.

We only secured ten bottles out of these first shipments. And the next dwarves shipment would be in two months. There were some selfish people, no matter who and where we were.

When the sun set, we came back home with our soldiers. They gained two or three levels each. Lily was overjoyed at the progress, but Lhorne replied that the dungeon would be exhausted in about two more days and would take about four months to recover. Our soldiers leveling can't be that easy, can't it?