Chapter 396

Chapter 396

Among them, Kong Dao is a floating octopus skilled in cooking, who recently began assisting in the kitchen at the newly opened Blue Star restaurant in Mauplan.

According to Mali, this child is the most talented among the recent batch of apprentices, be they humans or floating octopuses.

With proper training, in a few years, it could even be considered to directly hand over a branch for it to manage as head chef.

This is quite high praise, and Lorant has great confidence in Mali's judgment.

Thus, Lorant brought this highly talented floating octopus to the west coast to take charge of his daily meals and living arrangements during this period.

According to the unscrupulous shop owner, it's all about training and seeing how it goes.

The other four floating octopuses were carefully chosen by Lorant for their skills in carpentry and crafting.

These little ones have recently been assisting in building various facilities in the Blue Star territory, such as newly added factories and port docks, especially the facilities prepared for the Floating Giant Duck and other beasts in the rear, most of which were crafted by the floating octopuses.

This series of tasks has now made the floating octopuses quite skilled craftsmen.

These four little ones each have their own specialties; some enjoy carpentry, some like making glass items, and others are skilled at overall processing, just enough to complete a whole building together.

They came here to build a house by the west coast that matches Lorant's vision.

As floating octopuses that can each do the work of five or six, these four floating octopuses are equivalent to a small engineering team of about twenty people.

Having them build a not-so-demanding beach villa is practically no challenge.

After the construction is finished, the floating octopuses can even easily create a small garden.

This amount of work is completely manageable.

At this moment, Kong Dao is waving its eight tentacles—one with a knife, one with a fork, one with a salt shaker, and one with meat—diligently cutting the high-quality beast meat Lorant brought, while simultaneously seasoning.

Another tentacle is stirring the base in the pot, trying to adjust the flavor as much as possible to showcase its talent in front of the boss.

Just this one floating octopus can handle the entire dinner, needing no additional help, truly versatile.

Especially since today Lorant prepared hot pot, the preliminary preparation isn't complicated; just simmer the broth and prepare the dipping sauce, then Kong Dao can rest.

Floating octopuses have their own special diet, and for them, human food like hot pot doesn't taste very good.

Moreover, human food doesn't provide them with enough energy, so after making the hot pot, Kong Dao left directly to join the other four floating octopuses and started enjoying its dinner.

Lancelot, Lorant, and Shenuska sat together and began enjoying the hot pot.

It was Shenuska's first time tasting such a delicacy; the thick sauce was so delicious he almost chewed off his own tongue!

The evening beach and hot pot matched perfectly, and Shenuska, who had been busy for a long time, enjoyed this meal immensely.

Most of the beast meat Lorant brought ended up in his stomach.

Early the next morning, the four floating octopuses got up and tidied up the entire camp; they are diligent beasts and naturally wouldn't be as lazy as Lorant.

With these little ones, the hygiene and tidiness of the entire camp no longer required Lorant's attention, making Lancelot's job much easier.

Actually, Lorant didn't want Lancelot to come along; during the day, he had to go underwater with Shenuska to look for coral, and Lancelot would be somewhat bored alone on the beach.

But Lancelot disagreed; he just wanted to stick to Lorant, and after such a long separation from Lorant, Lancelot didn't want to stay away at all.

Moreover, the beach was already equipped with a transportation array, so he could leave at any time without delay if anything came up. So, Lorant was convinced by the knight and let him tag along.

Lorant and Shenuska mounted Val's back and brought Fa Meng along as they dove underwater.

Shenuska had already completed nearly half of the work, and with Fa Meng's assistance, the job should get done even faster.

It shouldn’t take much longer.

Lorant gave himself a silent pep talk before diving in.

Lancelot, who stayed on the beach, kept himself busy. He began guiding the floating octopuses to pick the spot for the seaside villa.

The seaside villa Lorant envisioned needed to be built at the intersection of land and water, with one part on the beach and the other extending into the sea, just the way he pictured his seaside getaway.

Lancelot picked a spot where the beach met the reef, right at the edge.

The ground here was relatively firm, making it simpler to set the foundation, and due to the reef, the water below wouldn’t keep flooding in like it does on the sand.

Even the sandy part here was firmer than other areas, letting the wooden stakes go in more firmly.

Moreover, there was a certain depth of water here, which was needed to meet Lorant’s idea of a water cabin.

Otherwise, in other parts of the beach, they’d have to build a sea corridor hundreds of meters long just to make the water cabin look decent.

That day, countless processed timbers were delivered to the beach, and the floating octopuses got to work, their eight arms clanging away.

Lorant had already picked out the blueprint for the small cabin.

A simple cabin stretched out toward the sea, with a little garden by the beach.

The cabin had two floors, with a small overall area. The second floor was a large bedroom, and the first floor was a simple reception room.

The standout feature was a first-floor platform that jutted out, about the same size as the room.

The entire platform had no railings, and with the right height, it let the waves just touch it, leaving a mark on the slightly slanted planks.

At the edge of the second-floor bedroom, offset from the first-floor platform, there was a net bed. The open ropes made a hanging net big enough for two, floating over the sea and swaying gently with a special charm.

On the other side of the net bed, Lorant planned to build a slide.

He pictured waking up in the villa’s big bed, stretching, lounging in the net bed to read a book or two, and when he got bored of reading, he could just slide into the sea for a swim.

Best of all, by then, he’d have bred some sea-friendly pets, and swimming with them would be the ultimate dream!

The cabin wasn’t big, especially next to castles with hundreds of rooms, but it was plenty spacious.

For Lorant, this place was all about relaxing and getting away from the pet shop, letting him totally chill out. So, he flat-out turned down a design from the designers that had a research room in the basement.

While Lorant was searching for coral by the West Sea and Lancelot was building a vacation cabin by the West Sea, the logging around the Black Forest near the church fortress kept going full steam.

Alfred was an ordinary farmer.

Rumor had it one of his ancestors was a respected practitioner, but the family couldn’t keep it up and slowly lost their standing.

Believing his bloodline might be better, Alfred changed his name from 'Tom' to 'Alfred' when he grew up.

Most of the nearby farmers still couldn’t get his fancy name right.

This, however, made Tom—no, Alfred—quite proud, always feeling that as a 'noble' with the bloodline of a practitioner, he should be different from the rest.

However, changing his name did not alter his fate. Alfred remained a farmer living in a village under the jurisdiction of the church.

Just two weeks ago, Alfred received a notice from the church.

All the able-bodied men in the village were summoned to the edge of the Black Forest for logging and hauling duties.

The news sent a wave of panic through the village.

The Black Forest! And it was the Black Forest at the edge of the Lopulo Mountains!

While most villagers had no clue what the "Lopulo Fortress" was, the grim look on the alchemist's face—a man who had traveled extensively throughout the empire and seen much of the world—suggested it was no place to venture.

This terrified the farmers, who had spent their lives in peace.

But this was a church mandate, not a discussion. They were given only one day to prepare before being taken away.

Too scared to run away, Alfred tearfully handed over his hidden savings to his wife—a farmwife whose legs were stiff from years of toiling in dim conditions—and bid farewell to his only son, instructing him to take good care of the family.

He stressed that they mustn’t let that distant relative—who’d long eyed their sturdy home—get his way!

This was his lifelong property!

With his affairs in order, Alfred, resigned to his fate, joined the villagers, led by the church’s priest, and embarked on this unknown journey.