113 Chapter 113: Upgrading the Farm's Defense (2)
For now, Rezen planted around a thousand Evil Groundshrooms. These shrooms are useless for a mage’s cultivation and they are cheap
Rezen didn’t buy the seeds from the system directly but he used the ones he has from his stock
The Preston Family is a powerful mage Family and one of their business was growing various Spirit Plants
Thanks to Rezen’s connection with Claude, he obtained countless seeds from him
After all, if it’s only Spirit Plants at quality 3 and below, even if Rezen asks for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, the Preston Family might not even care
Only if it was the seeds of quality 4 and above Spirit Plants would they be unwilling to give Rezen that much
The thousand Evil Groundshrooms seeds could give birth to ten Evil Groundshrooms each. Meaning, that Rezen would have ten thousand of this underground unit of his!
4th fusion rank mages can defeat thousands of these shrooms by using a hit-and-run strategy
However, even they would perish if they were to fight with ten thousand Evil Groundshrooms at once in direct combat since their mana is not endless
Not all Spirit Plants are just there to be plucked. Some of them were similar to magic beasts. They can attack and kill other lifeforms just that their bodies usually held various effects once a mage consumed them
These shrooms are one such example of the ‘alive’ Spirit Plants
Aside from the thousand quality 3 Evil Groundshrooms, Rezen also bought five quality 4 seeds each cost 20,000 mana stones for a total of a hundred thousand
Since Rezen’s subordinates has other things to do, he dug a thousand holes by himself
Most of the seeds were planted inside the mini-forest of cherry blossoms while the others were outside but near it
“Thankfully, I am a Tattoo Warrior” Rezen muttered. With his physical stats, digging a thousand small holes is a small matter
“The Nightmare Crows is best at being an aerial unit with a touch of assassination capabilities. The Evil Groundshrooms are the best for enemies that would attack underground. What I need now is a ground unit… hmm…”
Rezen went back inside his Mushroom Home and turned his computer on. In his computer was a file containing all the plants and seeds that Rezen has. They are divided into mutated crops and Spirit Plants
Rezen checked the Spirit Plants that he has. This list was organized by his subordinates and each plant has a brief description and picture
This would help Rezen a lot in choosing his ground-type defense unit
“I think this one would be good?” Rezen muttered as his eyes stared at the Spirit Plant on his computer screen
This Spirit Plant is a cactus-type plant called Needle Shooting Cactus. Its appearance was a small circular and thorny cactus
It’s yet another Spirit Plant that is alive and has some consciousness. Its basic attack was shooting a needle from its mouth and if threatened enough, this conscious Spirit Plant would use its ‘ultimate move’
The ‘ultimate move’ is simply the Needle Shooting Cactus shooting all the thorns on its body
This Spirit Plant was quite formidable and even magic beasts at the same rank wouldn’t antagonize it for no reason
The needle basic attack of this cactus is equivalent to an average spell of the mage at the same rank
However, unlike mages, this cactus can shoot needles in succession. Unlike humans, Spirit Plants absorb the mana in the environment directly. As such, in a battle of attrition, the mage would even be defeated by this cactus especially since the cactus has its ‘ultimate move’
A single Needle Shooting Cactus has at least a hundred thorns in its body. If the cactus activated its ultimate move then that is equivalent to at least a hundred mage spells!
If a quality 3 Needle Shooting Cactus uses its ultimate move then even 4th fusion rank mages have to be very careful. If not, they would definitely be pierced to death
“This cactus is very Fierce. If I have a million of them, who could be my match?” Rezen thought with a chuckle before he continue to browse his list
Rezen checked more Spirit Plants but the Needle Shooting Cactus was the one he likes the most
These cacti are good defensive units and they could even buy some time for Rezen if he ever has to flee
After checking the Spirit Plants category, Rezen moved on and he checked the mutated crops category
Unlike the Spirit Plants that have fixed effects and power depending on the quality, the mutated crops can range from extremely useless to extremely useful
Just look at the Laughing Dandelion. It is a mutated dandelion that upon consumption would make the user laugh
Rezen has the attitude of hoarding things as you never know when they would be useful but even he doesn’t think that the Laughing Dandelion would ever be used by him
Rezen browsed and browse until a blood-red ginseng attracted his attention
Ginseng has always been a tonic and in fact, many Spirit Plants that are ginseng were highly sought after
However, maybe because their effects were too great, the ginseng Spirit Plants were at least at quality 5 and they are one of the rarest types of Spirit Plants
After all, most of the ginseng-type Spirit Plant are used to increase a person’s lifespan
Even mages at the peak of the secular world can only live a little over a hundred years and that is because they often have better and healthier bodies
Only those at the 7th rank have a longer lifespan
The mutated ginseng that Rezen has is a Blood Evolution Ginseng and this is one of the mutated crops that is useful for what he wanted to do
The Blood Evolution Ginseng has to be boiled in blood. After it was dissolved, the mixture should be poured into a Spirit Plant both the ‘normal’ and ‘conscious’ ones
When the Blood Evolution Ginseng is used, the Spirit Plant would have the ability to improve itself by ingesting blood
“This! This is it! With the Blood Evolution Ginseng, my Evil Groundshrooms and Needle Shooting Cacti could evolve!”
“If it’s really needed, I could even turn myself into a mobile blood blank! With my hundreds of thousands of recovery pills, I can even form a blood pool using my own blood!”
“With that much blood, I should be able to upgrade the quality 3 defense plants into quality 4!”
Rezen was excited. If he wants a large army of conscious Spirit Plants, that would require millions to hundreds of millions of mana stones which he currently doesn’t have
However, if he can use the Blood Evolution Ginseng then what he wants would be possible
“If I can grow a mutated plant that can also be used on my Nightmare Crows to help them advance to the next rank, it would be even better”
The Blood Evolution Ginseng could only be used on Spirit Plants and not on magic beasts
If not, Rezen would also help his Nightmare Crows reach the next rank. If that happens then Rezen wouldn’t be afraid even if he has to fight several mages at the 5th fusion rank at once
“No, I might be able to grow another mutated ginseng that would be effective on magic beasts”
Rezen upgraded his farm not long ago and he hasn’t planted many plants yet. From what he knows, the higher the rank of his farm, the more mutated plants he could grow
As of right now, most of the plants that Rezen grew only have one mutated version just like the Metal Potato of the ‘potato series’ and the cherry bombs of the ‘cherry series’
However, with the upgrade of his farm, it was possible for him to grow more than one version of mutated plants for every series
Rezen can only hope that he would be able to grow mutated plants that would help advance the rank of his Nightmare Crows
After all, if he wants the Nightmare Crows to have a breakthrough in a short period of time, he needs to feed them with a large amount of quality 4 Spirit Plants which are expensive and not something that his pockets can afford yet
“Farm! Farm! Farm! I need to continue farming!”
Rezen’s eyes were burning with the desire to farm
He doesn’t know why but ever since his last visit to Greenwood City and after learning about the City’s state he always feels like danger would befall him and the city soon
This sense of danger is pushing Rezen into increasing the chances of his survival if ever something bad happens
He’s already a 4th fusion rank mage and Tattoo Warrior with the element of sun. Even if he condensed another 4th fusion grade mystic gem that wouldn’t increase his strength much
He would be more versatile but that’s only it. Since it’s not easy for him to advance again and become a 5th fusion rank mage, for now, Rezen can only rely on strengthening the forces under him