[Cozy Fantasy] [Farming LitRPG] The Chronicles of Emberstone Farm

Chapter 112 - This lil mushroom dude looks like a fungi to be around!

🙞❤︎🙜

Yinuo and I practically ran to the front door, but it was only my household staff who had returned early from their shopping trip.

“Welcome back, everyone!” I smirked at Yinuo, who had a difficult time hiding her disappointment that it wasn’t the most beautiful man in the world waiting for us at our doorstep.

After greeting everyone, I went back to the kitchen to slice more [Strawberries] until dinner time. The more fruit that I cut, the better I got at it until I eventually stopped producing burnt food. Phew! That was a relief. Once I had enough of the [Strawberries], I moved on to [Apples], which were harder to process because I had to remove the cores. I filled a few of the smaller containers before taking a break for dinner and then continuing until bedtime.

***

The next day, I woke up before dawn. I took my time showering, dressing, and drinking a cup of coffee before using the portal to the Mines to collect the day’s harvest from the hydroponic and mushroom caves.

Seeing that the mushroom substrates that I had placed now had spores growing on them, I examined each one to see if there was anything useful I could take with me.

Jackpot!

[Naughty Mushroom:

When dried and ground into a powder, this can be mixed into hot water and drunk to increase men’s stamina during XXX. Slightly increases fertility.]

Giggling to myself, I removed that part of the substrate and stored it in my inventory. The clans had a problem with dwindling fertility, so they were sure to love this particular mushroom.

When I returned to my [Ranch House], I saw that it was raining. Spring rain tended to be quite light, but was still cold, which would make it unpleasant to be outdoors today. Nonetheless, I need to work on the farm, so I put on a raincoat and waterproof boots, and collected an umbrella before heading to the main house.

“Teacher, we won’t get exp from watering the crops today,” said Mo after the usual greetings at the breakfast table.

“I know. I planned for us to clear the land for the animals, but if the rain doesn't stop soon, we can just clear more land around the house instead. We’ll need more space in the future when we expand the house.” I helped myself to the piping hot tea, fluffy white rice, fried salmon, and stir-fried mushrooms. Dessert was a sweet egg custard bun.

“We’re getting a bigger house?” asked Lari.

“Definitely!” I said. "We can't do it just yet, but maybe next year we can upgrade the house and get a wine cellar."

“Wine? But I heard the chef is already planning to make some apple wine,” said Lari.

“I’ve never actually had apple wine,” I said. “I wonder what it tastes like.”

I was intrigued by this new bit of information. What kind of wine would the Demon Chef make with the apples I sliced yesterday? Would it be some sort of really precious spirit wine? Or maybe a really strong liquor?

“I bet Teacher’s wine cellar will be better. The chef will just be making regular wine, but we'll be using the System,” said Kharli.

“Right, but that is for the future. For now, let’s concentrate on Woodcutting,” I said.

When Fengying came to check if breakfast was satisfactory and ask if we wanted something, I gave her the mushroom-growing substrate that contained [Naughty Mushroom] spores.

“Shuye sends one of his staff to visit us every day, right? Please give this to them,” I said. “It has spores that will grow mushrooms that will be useful to the clan.”

“May I look at it?” asked Mo. Out of my three apprentices, she was the one who was best at foraging and was, therefore, the most familiar with wild mushrooms.

“I’ll do you one better. Here is what the mushroom will look like when it’s grown.” I took out half a dozen [Naughty Mushrooms] from my inventory.

Lari quickly covered the girls’ eyes. “Don’t look! Teacher! How could you?!”

I burst out laughing. “What? It’s just a mushroom.”

“It looks like a...” said Lari.

Fengying coughed and took the items. “I’ll take care of it.”

Mo pushed Lari’s hand away and peered at the mushroom. “What is it? It’s just a mushroom?”

Kharli also moved Lari’s hand away from her eyes. Her eyes widened when she saw them. “Those look exactly like-”

“Don’t say it!” Lari rolled his eyes. “Just don’t.”

“Look like what? What are you guys talking about?” asked Mo, with a confused look on her face.

“Never mind. It’s nothing.” I nodded to my housekeeper, who left with the items. Then I changed the subject. “Is everyone finished eating? Let’s go and do a bit of Fletching while we wait for the rain to subside.”

“Yes! I love Fletching,” said Kharli.

Mo still looked confused. She sidled to Kharli and whispered, “What was that about the mushroom?’

“Shh. I’ll tell you later when we’re alone,” said Kharli, darting a nervous glance at me and Lari.

We finished off the last bits of our breakfast and then moved to the inner courtyard. Ever since my sojourn at the Mines, I realized that certain things were different from the game. In Adventure Incarnate, one could only place a single furnace inside the house, but through experimentation I found out that eight was my current maximum.

When I was first transmigrated into this world, I didn’t really worry much about leveling up or creating more wealth since I had billions of useful items. I simply “played the game” normally.

However, my experience with the [Potato Cannons] opened my eyes to the System’s potential. Sure, leveling up in the normal way was fun, but using item cheats was even more enjoyable! Today I planned to make full use of the maximum number of furnaces.

“All right, we’ll start this year’s Fletching the right way. Last year, I let all of you familiarize yourselves with how to make arrows. How do you feel about Fletching?” I asked them as we walked into the workroom.

Our designated workspace was dominated by a large, sturdy wooden table that had benches on both sides. One wall was covered by shelves filled with various tools while the inner wall had a window that opened up into the courtyard.

“I love it! I can’t believe I’m a magic artisan!” said Lari.

My other two apprentices nodded vigorously to show their agreement.

“Good. Now we have to discuss the division of labor,” I said. “Of course, you all know that a higher crafting level is better than a lower one.”

They all nodded.

“Therefore, logically we shouldn’t all do all the tasks equally. Rather than having three people who are level 15 in Fletching and Smithing, it would be better to have one person who is level 30,” I said. “So I want you guys to pick which one of you will specialize in Smithing. The other two will work on their Fletching.”

“I like to work with wood, so I would like to do Fletching,” said Mo.

“I want to do Smithing,” said Lari. “But we’re not able to use the metal bars. How can we train it?”

“Teacher, I’m the fastest at Fletching,” said Kharli.

“Okay, so Mo and Kharli will fletch while Lari will smith. I will also do smithing. I have a lot of ores that I can smelt into metal bars that Lari can use,” I said. “Come to the other room and I’ll show you how it’s done.”

We walked over to the northern room which was totally bare except for a large metal furnace.

“It’s quite simple to use.” I pointed at the left side of the furnace which was open. “I’ll put the ores inside through this opening.”

I took out twelve [Tin Ores] and twelve [Copper Ores] and put them inside the furnace.

Then I pointed at the space below the opening. “Now, you guys open this small door and fill the empty area behind it with wood.”

I waited until they finished loading the furnace with wood before pressing the red [Start/Stop] button. Lari, Kharli, and Mo jumped back in surprise when the furnace roared to life, with bright red flames leaping from the wooden logs. In seconds, the air inside the room became hotter, and we could see the ores melting inside the furnace. After a few minutes, molten metal poured down from one side of the furnace into the waiting molds.

“It’s so fast!” said Lari.

“Yes, it melted fast, but won’t it be too hot for us to use?” asked Kharli.

Mo hovered over the molds where the molten metal was rapidly hardening into bars. “No, it’s magic. Look, they’re already cooling down.”

“The System is so convenient,” I said. “When it’s ready, you can just take out the metal bars and use them to smith [Bronze Arrowheads].”

From start to finish, it took around ten minutes for the furnace to produce twelve [Bronze Bars].

Or so I thought.

“Teacher, these aren’t bronze!” said Kharli.

“Oops. I think we can still use these…” I said. “Probably.”