Chapter 169. Expansion Tokens- We need more Trolls!!

Chapter 169: 169. Expansion Tokens- We need more Trolls!!

The Moonleaf agreement arrived before the afternoon watering finished.

Carlos took it to Rowan instead of accepting from the hut. Sela had marked the selected section, and one of the new Farmers was placing the last supports for the light cover.

The frame stood above the soil rather than resting against it, leaving room for someone to reach the water path beneath.

Cosmic had made the buyer define the medicinal-leaf unit. Twenty-five grams of inspected usable leaves counted as one unit, and the first delivery required forty. Carlos understood that much better than a promise to provide a good harvest.

He read the agreement out while Rowan looked over the attached cultivation requirements.

--

[Recorded Cultivation Agreement]

[Grower: Carlos Goldwin]

[Seed contribution: Rare Moonleaf Herb Seeds x20, including inspection sample already transferred]

[First delivery: Usable Moonleaf medicinal leaves x40 measured units]

[Unit weight: 25 grams]

[Payment on completed delivery: Territory Expansion Token x2]

[Resulting seed stock retained by Carlos Goldwin]

[No continuing supply obligation]

--

"One kilogram of leaves," Carlos said. "Can these twenty plants do it?"

Rowan checked the listing’s expected mature yield before answering.

"Healthy ones should. We keep the seed-bearing growth in place when taking the leaves. The record allows that."

Carlos accepted. The remaining nineteen seeds arrived through the transfer, and he placed them beside the inspected sample. Sela counted all twenty before opening the packets.

They planted after the light cover had been adjusted. Rowan showed the new Farmer how much water to release, then had him close the path and repeat it. The man watched the soil carefully, remembering the place where it first became evenly damp.

Carlos stayed until the record appeared. He knew enough now to wait for the complete row instead of expecting a timer from every seed he held.

--

[Moonleaf Herb]

[Rare Grade]

[Seeds planted: 20]

[Base Growth Duration: 20 days]

[Rare Farmland fertility: Growth Speed x10]

[Farmer’s Agricultural Expertise: Growth Speed +10%]

[Verdant Growth: Growth Speed +60%]

[Estimated plant maturation: 1 day, 3 hours, 16 minutes, 22 seconds]

[Early-growth light and water conditions require maintenance]

--

Carlos looked at the base duration and then the remaining one.

"Twenty days," he said. "That man lost two batches of this?"

"He could lose them before twenty days if the young roots failed," Rowan replied.

Carlos shook his head. Over a day was almost nothing compared with the time written above it. He did not need to tell the buyer how they had achieved it. He would send the harvest when it was ready, and the completed trade could explain the rest.

"Do you want to use Life Bloom?"

Rowan looked across the full row. "For one plant? We have twenty growing on the same timer. Let them finish together."

Carlos agreed and left the cover in their hands. He had a kitchen delivery to check and fighters to watch before evening.

The following day passed much faster than the days when Carlos had nothing to do except hope another crop grew.

Mira completed the second twelve-meal delivery. Its raw contribution had arrived in advance, and the buyer sent the agreed payment without asking for a delay.

The ordinary kitchen served the new residents with everyone else. Carlos watched the newest Hearthkeeper bring bread out while Mira worked at the smaller surface.

The worker had flour along her sleeve, but the food looked good and she knew where every bowl belonged.

Kaia trained two more newly summoned Militia and an Archer that morning. Carlos added no Farmers or Hearthkeepers that day.

Their first batch was already at work, and he wanted the fighters to catch up while their meals remained within Mira’s recorded allowance.

Near evening, Sela came to get him from the yard. Carlos thought the Moonleaf had finished early, but she pointed toward the tomato enclosure instead.

Rowan waited inside the fence with a bowl beneath one of the remaining fruits. The tomato had grown darker around its orange lines. Carlos stopped outside until Rowan waved him forward along the marked path.

"The seed assessment finished," Rowan said.

--

[Impactburst Tomato Vine]

[Seed maturation complete]

[Impactburst trait confirmed in mature seeds]

[Detached ripe fruit remains impact-sensitive]

--

Carlos grinned. "Then we can grow more."

"Yes. We open this one carefully."

Rowan supported the tomato on a folded cloth and cut it from the vine. He lowered it into the bowl before making the first cut. Sela stood beside him, waiting with the seed container, while Carlos kept his hands away from the table.

The fruit did not burst under the careful blade. Rowan separated the usable mature seeds and showed Carlos the harvest record.

--

[Impactburst Tomato Seeds x18 acquired]

[Impactburst trait: Inherited]

--

Carlos went to fetch Kaia himself. She came with the two handlers who had practised carrying ordinary fruit, and listened while Rowan explained the result.

"Is it okay if we plant all of them?" Carlos asked Kaia, who looked at Rowan instead.

"I don’t know anything about farming or if growing all is needed, but getting as many of these explosives can be beneficial to us, my lord. We can use them in the conquests, the raids on our territory and, as you said before, for trade," she spoke.

Carlos nodded in understanding but Rowan shook his head.

"We can’t risk planting all 18 seeds at once, my lord. As for the quantity, even 2 can suffice your requirements as they grow very fast," Rowan stated.

"That makes sense, let’s do 2 seeds for now," he commented, making Rowan nod.

Carlos wanted a larger row, but two plants could already give them several fruits. They had room to increase after the reproduced vines showed their own result.

Two seeds went into marked spaces, leaving sixteen from this harvest protected and labelled separately.

The opened fruit’s remaining material stayed in the testing enclosure for Rowan to deal with, away from the kitchen stock.

"I want them to be kept near the gate," Carlos told Kaia. "A small supply first. We need them for the raids and keeping them close can help a lot."

Kaia looked pleased at that. "I will assign the carrying and throwing. The archers will surely keep them near their own places."

Rowan’s Worldroot cooldown was already available, but the next suitable ordinary row had only been harvested that afternoon.

He had kept its standing crop intact during the previous days rather than convert soil beneath workers in the middle of their harvest.

Carlos checked the empty section with him before giving permission. Another 300 square meters changed, bringing the Worldroot-created Rare Farmland to eighteen hundred.

Their total territory remained twenty-seven hundred, and the ordinary ground that could become fields was getting harder to find between buildings and paths.

Later that evening, the Moonleaf timer ended. Carlos returned with Rowan and found broad pale leaves above slender stems.

Their darker veins reflected the light even beneath the opened cover. Sela had adjusted that cover through the day as Rowan instructed, and the water path remained shallow and clear.

The plants were healthy. The seed-bearing growth, however, still had its own record.

--

[Moonleaf Herb plant maturation complete]

[Medicinal leaves ready for harvest]

[Seed maturation remaining: 12 hours]

--

Carlos asked whether waiting would spoil the leaves. Rowan inspected the condition and shook his head.

"We can leave them until morning. I want the seeds collected before we cut around that growth."

They returned after the remaining timer finished the next day.

Mira had already begun the third special-food delivery, so one Hearthkeeper brought them the clean weighing tray before returning to her work.

Carlos held the empty containers while Sela harvested the leaves under Rowan’s direction. They took the usable outer growth without pulling whole plants out of the soil.

Rowan collected the matured seed stock separately, and its record showed thirty-six viable seeds.

Carlos had accepted twenty from the buyer and now had more than that waiting for the next planting.

The usable leaves weighed one kilogram and one hundred grams.

Forty measured units went into the contracted shipment, leaving four units in Ironroot. Rowan kept that small surplus for examination; Carlos made no separate sale of it.

Cosmic checked the completed harvest record against the agreement before Carlos accepted the delivery transfer.

He did not send the growing timer or the field panel. The client needed the inspected medicinal leaves, not a tour of how Ironroot had produced them.

The payment arrived while Carlos stood beside the empty weighing tray.

--

[Recorded Cultivation Agreement completed]

[Moonleaf medicinal leaves delivered: 40 measured units]

[Territory Expansion Token x2 received]

--

Carlos took one of the tokens out and held it in his palm. It looked much smaller than the ground it would give him.

Rowan stood beside thirty-six seeds they owned now. Behind him were the new fields, the cucumber frames and two carefully marked tomato plantings.

"We keep growing these," Carlos said, pointing at the Moonleaf seeds. "He bought the first leaves. So we will try and sell the next lot to him too. But if not him, we find someone else, I think he uses them for medicines or alchemy."

Rowan nodded, already reaching for the protected packet.

Carlos put the token away and went to find Kaia. They were finally going to make room for the buildings he had taken from those Lords.