NOVEL FROG Chapter 27: Successful Food
At Jonn’s house, Betta and Elia sat while he filtered Mimosa’s milk, with the wood already burning in his block oven.
He had just cracked Annabelle’s egg in front of the two women. The fullness of the egg frying in water gradually filled Jonn’s small residence, while the two women felt their stomachs rumble.
Elia became more and more curious as the moment approached for her to try the village’s new egg. She trusted Jonn, but she couldn’t help but doubt him a little about the veracity of his words the day before.
As she tapped one of her feet on the floor at a fast pace, the smell of the egg made her feel that there was indeed something different about the food.
“Wow, your eggs smell wonderful, Jonn,” Betta said with a surprised look, curious about what he had done. “Did you add any different spices?”
Jonn smiled as he finished scrambling the eggs. “No. I only use salt in my eggs… I’m afraid the more fragrant smell is because of the hen that laid it. Anyway, try them while I finish boiling the milk.”
He poured half the egg for each of the two women.
Neither hesitated to use their spoons to taste Annabelle’s product, both widening their eyes as they felt shivers on their bodies.
“That’s…”
“That’s delicious!” Betta said in a louder tone.
Jonn saw them both show their surprise. He tried to look at them through his magnifying glass without drawing attention to himself. To avoid their gazes, he poured some milk into two mugs and served them.
He poured Mimosa’s milk for himself, but waited to consume it while watching through the small lens in one of his hands.
I was right. That amount of mana isn’t a problem for them.
The major sign of mana poisoning was in the areas where mana came into contact. The airways and parts of the skin were the areas that first showed the signs, with burn-like wounds forming so quickly that one could watch them change without the use of equipment.
And mana poisoning was fast. Seconds of contact with more than one could handle were enough for their breathing to change and their skin to show worrying signs.
If the poisoning was too severe, the person might not have a chance to do anything to save themselves. But it was possible to return to a safe area and deal with the side effects for hours or even days.
With the two women having ingested the milk or part of the special fried egg, both should have shown almost instant signs in their digestive systems after just tasting what Jonn offered them. But neither showed any signs, much to the relief of the Village Elder.
Betta and Elia should have consumed less than 0.6 units of mana according to our division.
Mimosa produced 22 liters of milk a day. Even though she generated the same amount of mana in her milk as Annabelle did in her egg, by dividing this by the amount of milk the women tasted, the milk’s mana was almost negligible.
That’s good. The major component of milk for the village is its nutritional factor. Milk wouldn’t be the most interesting thing for a mage. But for people who need to avoid mana and need nutrients in their malnourished bodies, Mimosa’s milk is even better than Annabelle’s egg.
He himself tasted the warm, extremely white milk in his mug, enjoying the natural sweetness of Mimosa’s production.
This is delicious!
Jonn understood his fellow villagers’ reaction. Even though the milk’s mana was insignificant and Annabelle’s eggs were definitely more important to him, Mimosa’s milk was so tasty that he couldn’t ignore it. Its rich flavor alone, marked by a sweetness capable of making the tongue tremble in excitement. It had a creamy, smooth texture, and by swallowing it, one would feel comforted but also refreshed from physical and mental fatigue.
When he least expected it, his mug was empty, while his stomach begged for more.
But Jonn was used to moderation. He put his mug on the table and put his magnifying glass away, satisfied with what he had.
Elia finally said to him, “Impressive! I doubted what you’d told me earlier, but now there’s nothing to say. The milk and eggs are incredible!”
“What are you talking about?” Betta didn’t understand Elia’s conversation with Jonn.
Jonn summed it up for Betta as the three left his house. “I gave a mana crystal to a chicken and another to a cow. The egg and milk you tasted came from them.”
Betta hadn’t expected such a thing. “That… So if you did the same with all our animals, we’d have 21 eggs and over 40 liters of milk like these a day?”
“That must be the case.” He nodded affirmatively.
“Then why don’t we do it right away?” Betta asked the same question that Elia already had in mind after going through the previous experimentation.
“It’s not that simple.” He explained succinctly to both of them, “You see, the crystals in the greenhouses help us make the soil arable. However, the plants and the crystals have a favorable relationship on both sides that makes the crystals grow along with the plantation.
On the other hand, as much as the animals are showing signs of rapid improvement in their products, they only consume the mana crystals. They can’t produce more of the crystals. What they do is give us richer food.
If we invest everything in animals, we’ll produce less of our food, but also less of the crystals. If we invest in crops, the day will come when we’ll have enough crystals for both the plants and animals.”
“Do you think it’s worth continuing to invest in plants in the short term?” Elia pondered Jonn’s logic.
“Yes. The animals can really give us quick results if I let them ingest the crystals. But I value the production of these crystals more. Not only that, it’s not as if we have enough food for the animals. Depending on changes in their behavior, if we didn’t have enough food for an increase in their food demand, we could lose everything if we focused too much on them.”
Betta sighed as she understood their situation. “It’s a shame. That could solve our food crisis overnight. But what you say makes sense. If the animals eat more and we produce less, we could run out of food and all of us, including the animals, succumb.”
“It’s an annoying situation, but time is our friend. We’ll sort it out in a few more months.” He patted the shoulders of the two women, reassured by how things were developing for the village. “I’ll present it to the Village Councilors later. Keep the information until then.”
The two women agreed before they headed off in different directions.
Elia went to check on the completion of the village’s walled area—which still had some houses to build, among other details—while Betta took the eggs and milk to distribute among the villagers.
Jonn headed off to his morning job at the mine, planning to work in one of the three mining areas nearby until the early afternoon, and then return for the weekly meeting with the Councilors.
In the early afternoon, Jonn dried the sweat on his forehead, feeling the heat today in a different way, his skin burning under the midday sun.
On the way back to the village, he passed close to an area where there were some underground tunnels, something he had marked as one of the next places he would explore when he had some time.
Several places in the Barren Hills of Deepshadow had the potential to become useful to the village. Some of them Jonn had already investigated in depth and made markings on his map of the region, indicating what was in these areas and when it would be good to explore them in depth, while others he had invested little of his time in and had markings to analyze.
Jonn was an organized man. He had a list of places he wanted to visit, ordered from the spots he thought would be most successful to those that seemed most ordinary. The place he passed now was among those he was very interested in, something he wanted to explore over the next weeks.
But he wouldn’t let his curiosity get the better of him. If he put too much effort into the area, he wouldn’t be able to sleep or talk to his fellow villagers.
More aware than ever that he needed to rest, he was at peace with his plans, living one day after another, doing what he could and letting time work in his favor.
As he entered the walled area of the village, he faced a very different place from the outside. There was still a lot of black earth on the ground, indicating their location, but the place already looked more welcoming, beautiful, and well-organized.
On one side of the village, there were six houses perfectly ready and in use, while on the other side, there were two houses ready and a third being built, close to completion. Between the houses, there was a 20-meter space where the workers had built a central flowerbed, where Jonn wanted to place plants in the near future, and a plot of land that was gradually being paved with rectangular stones.
In another month, the new village would be completely ready, considering Elia and Tim’s project!
Jonn greeted his fellow villagers as they made their way to the new village storehouse, built at the end of the passage, which was being paved at the moment. There was also the new Village Council, built on the second floor of the warehouse, below the village’s large water reservoir.
The space of the new village was small. With only a thousand square meters, they had to make the best use of this walled area!
After storing the crushed ores in the storage wing for this type of material, Jonn made his way to the Council, where his companions were already waiting for him.
He greeted everyone and, as soon as he had their attention, explained what he had already discussed with Elia and Betta earlier. Some understood what he was saying, having already tasted Mimosa’s new milk this morning. But others were curious, as they hadn’t yet had the chance to taste the new version of the milk.
They talked for less than an hour, and it was decided that Mimosa’s milk and Annabelle’s daily egg would be divided equally among the villagers. Someone would draw up a list with the names of who should receive Annabelle’s eggs, as well as how Mimosa milk would be divided.
For the time being, the villagers could drink about one glass of Mimosa’s milk a day, while someone who had tasted Annabelle’s egg today would have to wait 40 days to get the chance again.
It was also decided that, at the end of the next harvest, Jonn would give crystals to other chickens and the village’s other cow, but would continue to focus on increasing the village’s plantation land as much as possible.
A few days passed, and Annabelle’s egg became the villagers’ favorite food. Mimosa’s milk was also a big hit, especially among the youngsters. Meanwhile, the new plants were gradually growing, adding to the farmers’ daily workload.
Fortunately for Arber and Jonn, the construction of the inner area of the walled village was nearing completion, and more people were being freed up to help with other functions in the village. Not only that, with better and richer food, some members of the village were getting more out of their jobs, helping to keep all the projects moving forward.
All the village guards were now armed with improved versions of Tim’s weapons, while the animals continued with their usual routines.
Today, Alise and Beri were fishing in the East Lake, while Wy and Eliot had traveled to hunt in the surrounding area. Jonn finally set foot inside the tunnels he had been thinking about exploring for days.
But as soon as he stepped alone into the dark and damp place, seemingly larger than the outside would suggest, something made him stop and change the curious look on his face.
{Ding!}
{New Mission: [Magic Cave].}
////Novaro////
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