The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

This chapter is a special update due to a generous reward from "Little Ruizi's Kitchen".

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The research and development of tofu had been completed.

After savoring the tofu feast, Liszt decided to devote his upcoming free time to another important R&D project.

Paper! Read new chapters at empire

He had grown tired of the thick parchment — expensive materials, poor quality, foul smell, and too thick to write much on. A thick book might only contain a few tens of thousands of words, and even a large volume wouldn't contain more than a hundred or two hundred thousand words. So although his study shelves seemed filled with books, in fact, they contained very little content.

"Although the territory already has a workshop for thick parchment, it's white paper that is most suitable for writing," Liszt visited the port town to inspect the parchment workshop.

There were three paper craftsmen in the parchment workshop; the first craftsman, Lavaigne, was gathered from Mane City, Iron Hoof Island. The subsequent two craftsmen were scouted from the Eagle Kingdom.

In the workshop.

Lavaigne continued to update Liszt on the production situation of the thick parchment — as the name suggests, it was made using animal hides. Crushed animal leather, after special stirring and the addition of an adhesive called "Ashen Boar Gel", could be congealed into paper.

Ashen Boar Gel was a subcutaneous fat from a creature known as the Ashen Boar Beast. While there were many of these creatures on the continent, within the Duchy of Sapphire, only Blue Dragon Island and Iron Hoof Island had populations of this creature. This small beast preferred open plains and couldn't be domesticated.

Therefore, the value of Ashen Boar Gel was expensive.

This led to the high cost of thick parchment, which meant that those who weren't nobles generally couldn't afford it.

"I'm already clear about the production of thick parchment. Today, I'm going to teach you a new papermaking technology," Liszt dismissed everyone else, leaving only the three paper craftsmen, "This kind of paper is called white paper, which is entirely different from thick parchment. The raw materials included are all plants, including hemp, tree bark, straw, and the like."

All three paper craftsmen showed surprised expressions, "Lord Landlord, can paper be made from plants as well?"

"I'm not sure either, but it's worth a try," Liszt didn't finish his thought, "The exact manufacturing process I don't quite remember, you'll need to figure it out... The rough process is like this, first select the material, I suggest starting with flax as the paper material."

He had some recollections of the traditional methods for making white paper.

First, take the prepared materials such as hemp, tree bark, straw, bamboo, etc., and soak them, for maybe ten days to half a month. After they've softened, they were beaten into a pulp, mixed with water for stirring, and the coarse material was removed to make the paper pulp. It was best to add some kind of thickening agent to make the paper pulp easier to shape.

Then, the paper was scooped up using a bamboo screen. The screen was dipped into the paper pulp to evenly distribute a layer of the pulp, lifted to drain the water, and then inverted to take out the wet sheet. The wet sheets were stacked together, pressed with a heavy weight to dry them, and finally, the sheets of paper were spread out to dry into white paper.

"It seems there's no bamboo in this world," Liszt realized while teaching the technology.

As a result, he could only roughly describe the paper scooping bamboo screen, allowing the craftsmen to find suitable tools themselves to perform the scooping.

"In summary, the specific process flow is just like this, but the paper made this way is likely to be quite rough. And I need smooth-writing white paper, so you will need to keep experimenting to improve upon this basic technique to produce real white paper."

After listening to the craftsmen.

They couldn't guarantee the creation of white paper but promised to do their best. The honor of having their Lord Landlord pass down such skills thrilled all three craftsmen immensely; not to mention the importance of artisanal heritage, the glory itself was worth boasting about for a lifetime.

Of course.

The white paper process had to be kept secret, as this technology was even more important than making tofu.

If it weren't for becoming a Dragon Knight, Liszt wouldn't even want to bring it out now, fearing he couldn't keep this secret. Therefore, he immediately arranged for Goltai to situate the White Paper Workshop away from the town and instructed Paris to heavily guard and patrol the workshop.

If the white paper manufacture is successful, and the process is mature, it will definitely be an incredibly profitable business.

Moreover, this is an exclusive technology that can be passed down through generations.

...

In the following period.

Liszt's life began to become regular again, visiting Dodo Island every five days to train with the Little Fire Dragon Leo and to build their bond. The remaining four days were spent accompanying Ach in studying Sun Script, teaching Pike to speak, personal training and training the Blizzard Beast, inspecting his territory, and overseeing various progressions.

And writing "The Conjectures on the Nexus of the Magic Net, Elves, and Dragons," a book he had already written roughly twenty thousand words for, mainly consisting of speculative content.

Inspired by his understanding of the internet, he speculated about the Magic Net as he imagined it.

As days went by, batches of Flame Mushrooms ripened, and their quality greatly decreased. With the continuous harvest, once it was reduced to a thousand acres, there was a significant improvement in quality. According to the related data, Liszt and Chris jointly determined that with the current planting density, the optimal area for growing Flame Mushrooms was a thousand acres.

"Now we just wait for June 10th for the other nobles to come and trade for the Abandoned Cordyceps," Liszt quietly waited.

However, the Abandoned Cordyceps from the previous task had yet to arrive.

But there was good news from the Sun Script project.

In the seaside villa, Ach excitedly told Liszt, "Brother, Ach has decoded this 'Druid's Compulsory Courses - Magic Bean Planting' and learned a new spell from it!"

"What?"

"Brother, these Sun Scripture books are basically Magic Books, but they are a type of magic used by a mage profession called Druids. The book title you understood previously is correct, this book is called 'Druid Shapeshifting Guide: Bear Edition,' and it records how a Druid can transform into a bear."

She handed over the previously translated Sun Script book "Druid Shapeshifting XXX Bear XXX" to Liszt, "But Ach doesn't have the energy to decode it yet."

"So you mean, you have already decoded another book, 'Druid's Compulsory Courses - Magic Bean Planting'?"

"Not fully decoded yet, just one spell within it has been decoded, belonging to the planting magic of Magic Beans - Bathing in Sunlight," Ach said earnestly.

"Bathing in Sunlight?" Liszt was a bit confused. Is this Bathing in Sunlight also a spell? And Magic Bean Planting is a major category of magic?

"Yes, it's a very strange magical system, quite different from the human magic Ach has been learning. Human magic is divided based on different properties of magic power; Ach can only resonate with Water System magic power, but Druid magic doesn't differentiate like that, instead, it's based on Chaotic Magic Power."

After Ach's detailed introduction, Liszt finally understood.

The Child of the Sun race had casters called Druids, who mastered the magic created by Chaotic Magic Power.

There are mainly two categories of magic.

One is the animal-based shapeshifting magic, which allows transformation into various animals, with the 'Druid Shapeshifting Guide: Bear Edition' being an example of transforming into a bear for combat; the other category is plant-based cultivation magic, which allows influence on plant growth like an Elf, and even the plants they develop require this type of magic to grow properly.

'Druid's Compulsory Courses - Magic Bean Planting' is a plant-based cultivation magic, with each plant having a set of special cultivation spells — Magic Beans, as a plant, correspond to 'Magic Bean Planting' spells, with Bathing in Sunlight being one of them.

Pointing to a potted Magic Potion seedling, Ach explained, "Brother, look, this seedling is a Magic Bean. According to the book, when it grows up, it can bear lots of Magic Beans like a big tree. Magic Beans can not only be used as food but also have the effects of a Magic Potion!"