At first, Rezen wanted to condense a new type of mystic gem but on the second thought, he decided to condense a second sun-type mystic gem

No matter how many mystic gems Rezen has, as long as they are still ungraded, his power wouldn’t be much

The only way to receive a qualitative increase in power is by advancing into the next rank

Rezen at least wanted to reach the peak of 1st fusion rank. The quality of resources he has can support him until the peak of the 1st fusion since quality 1 resources are for ungraded and 1st fusion rank mages

Of course, Rezen can still use these resources when he reached the 2nd fusion rank but their effects would greatly diminish

He already used up way more resources than people with high grades of talent what more if he were to use quality 1 resources when he is already at the 2nd fusion rank?

“I’m still too poor” Rezen complained before he continue cultivating

Since he already has a prior experience and the mastery of the [Sun Blast] spell increases his comprehension of the power of the sun, condensing the second sun-type mystic gem was a breeze for him though it didn’t increase his power that much

Rezen can only wait until his crops have grown since he already used up all of his soul-tearing peas to nourish his soul up to the peak of ungraded rank

———

After hours of waiting, all the seeds that Rezen planted are finally ready to be harvested but he checked the rainbow clementines first as they are new and he doesn’t know what effects they have

Compared to the vismian grass that yields 10 blades and the soul-tearing pea tree that yields 30 peas, the rainbow clementine tree only yields five pieces of clementines, and that further elevated Rezen’s curiosity

Aside from the pure mana aura that the clementine gave off, its outside appearance was the same as any other clementines

It looks like a small tangerine, the size that you could easily eat in one bite

Rezen plucked one of the fruits and curiously peeled it. Now, he finally learned why this thing is named rainbow clementine!

The flesh of the clementine was divided into seven pieces, each with a different color that corresponds to the color of the rainbow!

“Hmm, it smells nice!” Rezen complimented before he decided to check its description

[Name: Rainbow Clementine

Quality: Top-grade Quality 1

– A type of clementine spirit plant that nourishes the elixir field]

It was a very brief description but it was more than enough to make Rezen happy!

Before he can even feel ‘sad’ at only having one type of mystic gem, here comes a resource that would help him with his problem!

As long as he ‘upgrades’ his elixir field, Rezen can hold more mystic gems! Not to mention, this upgrade would last until he is at the 1st fusion rank!

Rezen excitedly harvested today’s harvest before returning to his room to cultivate

He immediately ate a whole rainbow clementine, filling his mouth with a sweet ‘rainbowy’ taste

It felt like he was sliding on a rainbow!

Rezen’s elixir field was filled with rainbow energies as they seeped and were absorbed

The seed only grew five clementines and Rezen ate them all. Anyway, he was already notified that the rainbow clementine seeds are now available in the system shop and he can just buy them to have more

After the consumption of five clementines, Rezen is now able to condense another mystic gem!

If he continues to eat more clementines then it is possible for his elixir field to hold four mystic gems or more!

When he reached the peak of 1st fusion rank, he could have two 1st fusion grade mystic gems of different types and it is even possible to have four so that he could advance into the 2nd fusion rank with two different types of mystic gems!

As such, Rezen didn’t waste any more time as he swallowed blades of vismian grasses as if they were common candies to replenish the mana he is using to condense yet another mystic gem embryo

Since Rezen’s first mystic gem is sun-type, this time, Rezen decided to bestow the power of earth into his second type of mystic gem

As for the reason? It was Rezen’s laziness. It was quite ‘hard’ and ‘tiring’ for him to constantly dig holes in his farm whenever he is planting

If he obtain an earth-type mystic gem and buys a magic spell for farming which is cheaper and easier to learn compared to attack spells, future planting would definitely be a breeze!

Just like the previous times, the embryo resonated with the natural laws of the world and Rezen thought of earth, the giver of life, and his embryo started sucking the power of the earth

Soon, the dull and lifeless embryo turned brown in color as it turned into an earth-type mystic gem

Rezen just stared at the gem for a bit before storing it

Aside from the basic stream magic, Rezen cannot use any other earth-type magic spells for now and he decided to just plant more clementines first

When Rezen checked the system shop, he almost punched the system in the face after seeing the price

To think that the rainbow clementine seeds would cost 20 mana stones when it only produces five fruits!

What a rip-off!

Rezen only has almost 300 mana stones remaining after all the planting and recharging for a blessing!

“System, fuck your mother, why is it so expensive?”

With a bleeding heart, Rezen purchased ten rainbow clementine seeds for 200 mana stones and he planted all of them

———

The next day

“After just a single day, the intensity of beast waves already increases this much!” Claude muttered after killing all the magic beasts that went down the mountain

“Captain, what do we do? If this goes on, the residential areas might be attacked soon” one of Claude’s subordinates said with worry

Truth be told, with a mage at Claude’s level, it wasn’t that hard for them to defeat the beast waves

The problem was the size of the mountain! The magic beasts can go down in different areas of the mountain and a dozen or so people cannot possibly cover the entire foot of the mountain

They are barely preventing the magic beasts from entering and attacking the residential areas but if the magic beasts were to continue to be agitated and decided to leave the mountain, this would spell big trouble for the civilians

“I know. Let’s watch out for a while. If we still can’t find the source of this phenomenon today, the best course of action is for us to stop passively defending. Since the high-level magic beasts are still acting normal and only the low-level ones are turning crazy, we might have to eliminate the low-level magic beasts before they can harm the civilians”

As of right now, Claude’s team is just passively defending. As long as they sighted magic beasts coming down the mountain, they would attack and kill them

However, this is merely just a band-aid for the problem. If the beast waves continue to intensify, it was inevitable that some of them would slip up and enter the residential areas

As such, they might really need to go from passive defending to active attacking to kill the magic beasts

“Call the military, have them send us troops. They don’t need to be high-level mages since the agitated beasts are just ungraded to 2nd fusion rank with very few beasts at the 3rd fusion” Claude ordered and his subordinate did his order before the man came back with a strange look on his face

“C-Captain…”

“Why?”

“A-another riot appeared in the military department…”

“What is it this time?”

Claude frowned. Yesterday, a riot already happened yet another one is happening today?

No matter what, the military is still the military and it requires great discipline!

“C-captain, d-do you remember the soul-tearing peas that you donated…”

“What about them?” Claude had a bad feeling about this

“W-well… j-just like the vismian grass, they are popular… they also don’t make the mage’s foundation shaky”

Although Claude was a bit surprised at that since he already tried the vismian grass, a soul-tearing pea that doesn’t make a mage’s foundation shaky doesn’t make him that surprised anymore

“If they want more, tell the military department that I made a partnership with the supplier. I can buy more of them later”

Claude really has a bigger problem than the brats in the military!

“W-well… y-yeah, Captain. T-they said that the peas don’t make the foundation shaky b-but it has another side effect…”

“Side effect?”

“Y-yeah, t-those that consumed the peas… um… t-they said that they were m-moaning indecently…”

“Moaning? Soul-tearing peas hurt the consumer. Instead of moaning, shouldn’t it be groans or cries of pain?”

“W-well, y-yeah b-but they said that the pain of those p-peas is d-different…”

“Different?”

“Y-yeah, the recruits… e-enjoyed them… a-and even the higher level mages that tried them is d-demanding for more…”

Enjoy? How can pain be enjoyable?

That thought is written all over Claude’s face

Moreover, what is up with the higher-level mages? The peas aren’t helpful for them anymore, why are they demanding more?

“I don’t understand. Shouldn’t the higher-ups tighten the discipline?”

“U-um… about that C-Captain… the effects of the peas are indeed better than the ones in the market. And u-umm… some people of the higher ups also tried the peas and t-they are also urging you to buy more… I-I don’t know if my words are proper but from the way they speak, i-it feels like t-they developed a masochistic tendency…”

Claude almost vomited everything in his stomach at that as he looked at his subordinate as if he was crazy

If it’s the recruits then fine, they might develop a… peculiar taste. But the higher-ups? Is that even possible?

“C-Captain, I-I actually censored the words of the higher-ups… in t-truth, t-they were demanding to have more of those peas…”

Claude was stupefied. The hell? Just because of the… peculiarity of the soul-tearing peas that don’t even have substantial effects on the higher-ups, they would demand more of them?

Is the military being messed with by someone or something?

“C-Captain… please go buy more soul-tearing peas… you don’t know how much the higher-ups are cursing me when I said that you are busy investigating the Ratois Mountain”

Claude is a good-tempered person but at this moment, he has an urge to smack the heads of the higher-ups

Can’t they understand how dire the situation in the Ratois Mountain is for them to demand him to buy soul-tearing peas?!

Are they crazy or something? Lives are literally on the line here!

Unfortunately, no matter how resentful Claude is, he has no choice but to comply especially after seeing the desperately pleading face of his subordinate

In fact, his other subordinates also received the same calls and all of them urged him to buy those peas

With a distressed heart, Claude can only head to Rezen’s house to buy more of those damned peas

When Claude arrives, he saw Rezen running around his farm with three mystic gems around him

Two were sun-type and the other one is earth-type

At that, Claude doesn’t think much about it. Since Rezen can sell him a thousand spirit plants, the ‘fortune’ that he encountered might be a pretty good one

It wouldn’t be strange if Rezen can improve at a speed faster than most people

As Claude is not the type of person that is envious of other’s fortunes, he wouldn’t think of harming Rezen to find out about his secret