Chapter 465

Chapter 465

Lorant came back to his senses, rubbing his slightly guilty conscience. After some thought, he tactfully suggested: "That sounds good, but we should also add some other rewards. It wouldn't be fair to make them work for free, right?"

If we follow Paul's idea, the unlucky knight order that gets the bidirectional selection right for the Shadowstrike Cats would basically be working for nothing...

While this wouldn't directly affect Blue Star, it would still leave a bad taste in their mouths.

After all, Blue Star is a business, and it's best to keep things harmonious and avoid unnecessary conflicts.

"Here's an idea: let's make the Windbreaking Horse a fixed prize, with only the quantity varying for the top positions."

"As for the bidirectional selection rights for the Shadowstrike Cats and other monster eggs, let's offer them as optional prizes. The knight orders can choose from them based on their ranking."

This way, the knight orders make all the choices themselves, and most importantly, those who choose the Shadowstrike Cats' selection right would only lose out slightly, not enough to feel completely deceived or cheated.

Lorant, with his now calm conscience, felt he was indeed much kinder than seasoned veterans like Paul.

How lucky for the other knight orders to meet such a kind-hearted person like him!

......

Three days after the banquet, as Paul was busy lobbying other knight orders to join the newly proposed event, Lorant stood nervously in his monster warehouse, gazing at a large wooden barrel.

After fermenting for a while, the barrels with the cocoons needed to incubate the Mushroom Growers were now impossible to open.

According to several powerful monster eggs, the mycelium inside the barrels had grown so thick that it firmly connected the monster eggs to each other and to the barrels.

The mycelium now looked like the strongest ropes, making the inside of the barrels seem glued together, forming an inseparable mass.

And it wasn't just inside the barrels; the outside was also covered with a lot of mycelium.

In fact, most of the room was now filled with white mycelium. Luckily, the mycelium only looked like spider webs, without any more bizarre or scary appearances that Lorant couldn't handle.

Turning down Fa Meng's offer to use her magic to show the inside of the barrel, Lorant guessed from the little fat dragon's expression that it wouldn't be too pleasant. Lorant decided he didn't want to start his day on a bad note.

It's best to keep such ugly things out of sight, especially since they were already trying to hide inside the barrels.

But that didn't mean Lorant couldn't sense what was going on inside the barrels.

With Xiao Lan by his side, his five senses could be boosted to the maximum level possible for a human.

This is something only Fae Magic can achieve at the moment; even legendary practitioners of ordinary magic couldn't do it.

Moreover, Xiao Lan could also significantly enhance Lorant's other abilities, even boosting his spiritual power, which is an incredibly abstract force.

Lorant had tested it; when Xiao Lan maximized his spiritual power, he even gained the potential to learn magic.

It was as if he had one foot in the realm of practitioners.

Unfortunately, once Xiao Lan stopped the enhancement, everything would reset, like a pavilion built on a platform of foam.

It looked exquisite, but in reality, a mere gust of wind could destroy it all.

Even the 0-level 'tricks' he had learned couldn't be used anymore.

Fortunately, Lorant had long been mentally prepared for this, and he had always been quite indifferent about whether he could become a practitioner.

So, although he was slightly disappointed, he quickly adjusted his mindset.

Lorant has always been a hardcore pragmatist.

He needed strength to protect himself in this dangerous world, so from the very beginning, he decisively nurtured his younger brother and latched onto Lancelot.

Later on, Lorant gained two powerhouse bodyguards, Fa Meng and Xiao Lan.

With these two little buddies, whom he could absolutely trust and who possessed formidable strength, Lorant no longer worried about his safety.

The urge to gain more power hadn't crossed Lorant's mind for a long time since the two little ones cooperated to kill the giant sandworm.

He felt utterly content.

Compared to humans, he undoubtedly trusted monster eggs more.

Lorant found it hard to say whether his thoughts were correct, but perhaps it was because he had seen too many humans that he grew to like monster eggs even more.

Although monster eggs possess intelligence, they are pure-hearted and utterly devoted, without much scheming or ulterior motives. Their hearts and eyes are solely focused on their owners.

As long as you treat them well, these adorable little creatures will give their all, no questions asked, to their owners.

Their owner is their everything, regardless of whether the owner is poor or rich, handsome or ugly. The little monster eggs will never turn their backs on you.

They will only love you wholeheartedly.

Therefore, being with monster eggs made Lorant feel totally at peace. Looking at those adorable little ones, nothing seemed to faze him.

Thus, from all aspects, Lorant wasn't worried about whether he could become a practitioner.

Becoming a practitioner would just be the cherry on top; he was already very satisfied with everything he had now.

Lorant was very self-aware. He knew he wasn't a particularly diligent person; in fact, he could be somewhat lazy, a total hedonist.

And it seemed there wasn't a single practitioner like that.

Just by looking at the daily grind of Silem and Lancelot, Lorant knew he could never keep up.

When practitioners had already completed two rounds of training in the morning, Lorant would just be rolling out of bed if he had to get up early. If there was nothing urgent, Lancelot would probably take the Windbreaking Horses out for a spin along the Holy Shield River near the monster egg shop before coming back to call him for breakfast...

To make him keep up with such a routine year in and year out, Lorant was totally incapable.

Lorant thought about the magic that slipped through his fingers: "..." Suddenly, he felt there was nothing to regret.

Indeed, monster eggs, which only needed to be well-fed to develop strong powers on their own, were more suitable for him.

However, whether he could learn magic or not, this matter at least proved the sheer power of Xiao Lan.

With it by his side, Lorant could do things no less than a practitioner.

Just like now, he could easily pick up on everything going on inside the wooden barrel.

However, with Fa Meng's reminder, Lorant chose to only get a vague sense of the auras inside when 'looking.'

In Lorant's perception, there were countless life forms glowing within the barrel.

When he first put those cocoons in, in the spiritual world, Lorant felt the color of life was a somewhat spooky green.

That ghastly green covered the yet-to-be-formed monster eggs, making one feel that the life represented by such a color might not be a friendly child.

But now, over time, even the auras and the colors that could be 'seen' of the lives inside the barrel had changed.

Although in Lorant's perception, their life hues were also blue-green, they appeared more vibrant, with a beautiful emerald hue that radiated vitality.

A mere brush with his mental energy was enough to uplift him, and with Lorant's seasoned experience, it was undoubtedly a sign that the pet eggs had fully developed.

Then came the long wait.

Three hours later, the mycelium that had spilled over from the wooden barrel began to gradually disappear.

Lorant hesitantly set aside the picture book in his hand and looked up.

Speaking of the picture book in his hand, Lorant had to say that you should never underestimate people's smarts.

Since Blue Star Bookstore became established, and under Lorant's direction, it started encouraging authors to pen travelogues and knight tales among other books that people liked, and to cooperate with Blue Star for publication, which provided them with a decent income.

The profession of 'writer' had also officially come into people's view for the first time, and many struggling nobles and professionals were quite interested in this profession.

They either had better literary skills than ordinary people, able to create more attractive texts, or had more stamina than the average person, having ventured to various remote places with a rich history.

So they had an advantage in writing novels, but before Blue Star appeared, most travelogue writers barely made a dime, and the chaotic market often forced people to work for passion rather than profit.

But now, this new profession seemed to be a great conversation starter and centerpiece at parties, and it wouldn't be as busy and tiring as physical work. More importantly, it didn't require much time, so it could be completely treated as a hobby and part-time job.

This suddenly made many people want to cooperate with Blue Star to publish novels.

The addition of these two groups of people substantially boosted the book inventory of Blue Star Bookstore in a short time.

At the same time, what Lorant didn't expect was that several flexible-minded painters also contacted Blue Star Bookstore, asking if they would be willing to accept some picture book printing work.

This made Lorant immediately realize that he had completely overlooked a very important aspect before.

That is picture books, or comic books.

Although the painter ultimately couldn't afford the high cost of self-publishing picture books from Blue Star, he did bring back a job from Blue Star.

After seeing the painter's style, Lorant found a classic travelogue without an owner and handed it to him to try to depict the content of the travelogue through painting.

Thus, the world's first official and fully realized comic book came into existence.