"You folks still grow ginseng in the village? Got a lot of it?" Magnus jumped off the bed, looking straight at Alex with urgent eyes.
"Grow? Yeah, sure! Lots of mountains here. Every household keeps a patch just for ginseng." Alex looked a bit lost. He knew ginseng was a prized thing in the cities - but with how the world was now? Why was Captain Specter so excited over sothing like that?
"You still got ginseng seeds?" Magnus pressed, voice a little shaky.
"Yeah, yeah, we do..." Alex answered slowly. "But why do you want that stuff? We haven’t grown any in a while. Even if we did, the centipedes would wreck it."
"You’ve got so - that’s what matters!" Magnus’ eyes lit up.
He’d been thinking about growing ginseng for a while, but with no land or seeds, the thought just faded. Now that Alex suddenly brought him so ginseng, the idea sparked back to life.
Earth Crystals.
Just one of these green stones could make crops over ten acres mature instantly. Magnus had thought before - who’d be crazy enough to waste one on plain rice?
In recent days, he had thought of using them on vegetables, but they were rare - wasting them felt wrong.
But ginseng. That was different.
Ten acres of ginseng all ready at once? He didn’t know exactly how much that would yield, but it sure wouldn’t be small.
In this world now, even though the Ice Regint lived a lot better than most, the female mbers still looked pale and thin. With ginseng to drink or cook in soup? No need to say how much that’d help.
And it would only take one Earth Crystal for all that.
He had over seventy Earth Crystals in storage. How much ginseng could that make?
At that rate, the Ice Regint ladies could treat ginseng like cabbage.
Thinking of it made his blood run hot. He turned quickly to Alex.
"Old man, exactly how much ginseng seed do you folks have left? We wanna buy so - from you, with Sapphire or Crystal."
"For... for real?" Alex froze for a second. Seeing Magnus all fired up, he didn’t even ask what they were for anymore. He slapped his thigh and said, "I... I’ll go find Ian right now. We’ll check the whole village for seeds. Be right back!"
And like a shot, he bolted out the door.
Both gan and Amber were frozen in place.
When Alex was gone, gan asked quickly, "Captain, you’re really thinking of buying their ginseng seeds? We can use them?"
"Yeah," Amber chid in. "Ginseng takes years to mature, doesn’t it? And it’s not like we’ve got space in the food vault underground."
"That doesn’t matter!" Magnus still had a lit-up look on his face.
He pulled out a small pale-green crystal and held it out to them. "You’ve both been asking about these past few days, right? What these green ones do?"
The two nodded in unison. "Yeah, but you said you were still figuring it out."
"Well, I figured it out!" Magnus said firmly. "It’s called an Earth Crystal. It makes any crops within ten acres mature instantly. That’s what it does."
"...Instantly mature?!"The two won exchanged a look, both finding it hard to believe. In their minds: How did he even figure this out? And ten acres - so precise?
"We can talk about this after we finish clearing teorite Hill," one of them said.
Magnus paused, a sudden thought flashing through his mind. He shook his head. "No, can’t wait. We need to start preparing now."
Not long after, Alex ca marching back, grinning, lugging two big sacks of ginseng seeds. Ian, along with several older n, followed behind. Word had spread that Magnus wanted to trade precious sapphires for these ’useless’ seeds. Most of them were skeptical.
"Alex, help work it out - how many acres could these sacks cover?" Magnus wasn’t familiar with ginseng cultivation, so he asked the locals for advice.
The group muttered among themselves and did so rough calculations. Ian furrowed his brows and finally said, "Hard to say for sure, but planting seventy or eighty acres shouldn’t be a problem."
Alex nodded in agreent. "Sounds about right. This’s all the ginseng seeds we’ve got in the village. Should be enough for eighty acres."
Eighty acres - plenty.
Another idea hit Magnus. Earth Crystals could mature crops on ten acres around the user. But he had the black-ring tattoo, didn’t that an thirty acres for him?
With tal Crystals, others got one hour, but he had three. Going by that logic, it made sense.
Just then, Alex scratched his head awkwardly, grinning. "Uh... Commander Magnus, we’re giving you all the seeds... Any chance you could toss in two more sapphires for the village?"
Two sapphires? Not a big deal.
But Magnus didn’t show it on his face. He stayed serious. "Two Water Crystals also works. But we’ve got a deal - even trade, and when it’s ti to plant, you all help us."
"What? You’re actually planting ginseng?" Ian looked surprised. Before he could say more, Alex grabbed his arm and replied, full of enthusiasm, "Of course! Our village knows how to grow this stuff - we’ll help."
"Good. Then it’s settled."
Magnus took the sacks from them and handed over two Water Crystals. Then he turned and quickly gave orders.
"gan, round up ten people to guard Alex and the others while they help us. Amber, stay here and keep an eye on the sick prisoners."
Both nodded.
Then Magnus turned to Alex and the village chief. "Alex, Chief, I need you to scout out two small hills with gan’s team. About thirty acres combined - nothing huge. We’ll start burning today, and once we’ve cleared the hill, we’ll plant."
Alex gave a quick nod, no hesitation. But Ian frowned slightly. "Commander Magnus, are you planning to stay here for good?"
Magnus shook his head. "No. We’ll be gone in ten days, tops. Don’t worry about the rest - just help us out now. You’ll get your two Water Crystals as promised. Fair enough?"
Still uncertain, Ian didn’t press further. He turned and left with Alex and the others. gan and Amber followed close behind, off to carry out their new orders.
After the others left, Magnus sat in the room, sothing stirring in his mind. He suddenly got up and rushed out, catching up to Alex to ask about the ginseng yield per acre. Once he got the answer, he turned back inside, his thoughts already spinning...
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