Chapter 186. A Dryad’s district analysis [BONUS]

Chapter 186: 186. A Dryad’s district analysis [BONUS]

Mira had the second delivery ready before Carlos left for the district.

He completed the twelve-meal transfer beside the kitchen and received Iron x720 and Copper Coins x1,440.

One delivery remained tomorrow. She had already checked the next contribution, keeping the buyer’s ingredients apart from the four Hellfire Peppers Sela brought in last night.

"The ones we grew are suitable," she told him. "I will compare them in a small preparation soon to be really sure, but we have enough bought ones to finish the agreement."

Carlos smiled at the peppers on the board. "Keep telling Rowan what you need from them. I want more plants if this works."

"I will tell him when he comes back. You are taking him away again."

She said it while handing over their packed food, making Carlos look at her face to see whether she was annoyed. Mira only reminded him to bring the containers back.

Kaia joined him near the Domain Portal. Garr remained with the garrison, while Brann sat outside the Hall checking the leather wrapping on his hammer. He looked up when Carlos passed, but Carlos pointed toward the fields before he could ask.

"Farming work today. Stay with Garr."

Brann looked at Rowan floating along the path, then at the food basket.

"Bring back good thing."

"That is the plan."

Boro came after Rowan, carrying a small bag of tools. He had arranged for Elias to watch Hearthpod One during the visit and kept talking about where its water bowl should stand until Rowan told him Elias knew the crop too.

Carlos checked their group against the portal’s restrictions before letting them through. Blue stayed beside Sela in Ironroot. It lifted both little arms when he waved, then returned to the water basin.

Cedric was waiting on the other side.

He began raising his hand to greet Carlos, then stopped with his eyes fixed on Rowan.

"... What happened to him?"

"Evolution," Carlos answered, enjoying the reaction. "He is a Verdant Dryad now."

Rowan drifted past both of them and put his feet down beside the nearest bed.

"Where is Lydia?"

"Coming after her morning work," Cedric replied. "She said she could bring the Masons for the afternoon."

The Dryad nodded and crouched, white cloth moving around his shoulders. Cedric looked at Carlos again as if asking whether he should keep talking normally to someone who had become green and young overnight.

"He is still Rowan," Carlos said. "Show us the marked beds, bro." Carlos spoke, surprising Cedric with the informal tone.

They passed the channel work without stopping for another inspection. Cedric had brought records of the maintained beds, and Rhea joined them with the little markers the workers used when a crop changed.

"These three started drawing more water after the route settled," she said. "We kept the amount where Rowan left it. The leaves stayed the same, but the soil dried faster."

Rowan took the first marker from her and walked along the bed.

Carlos watched him pause beside a clump of narrow leaves. From above it looked less impressive than the cucumber rows at home. The leaves spread close to the soil, their pale edges curled inward beneath dust.

"This one," Rowan said.

Cedric looked at Rhea. "That is the bed we marked twice."

He opened the copied page. There were two separate dates beside a note about moisture. Carlos was pleased that the workers had kept looking after it when nothing exciting happened.

Rowan pressed his palm against the soil and closed his eyes. The thin roots around his fingers barely moved. After a little while he shifted to the other side of the clump.

"The centre is feeding the outside," he said. "There is growth below it. The leaves have stayed closed around the crown."

"Can we harvest it?" Carlos asked.

"I want to see the neck first. Bring a flat tool."

Boro handed him one before Carlos could look for a worker. Rowan loosened the top layer of soil while Rhea held the leaves apart. A pale green ring appeared beneath them, followed by a thick root running toward another clump.

Carlos leaned closer. There were rounded shapes on either side of that root, crowded beneath the surface.

His inspection finally settled on the exposed crown.

--

[Dormant Crownroot]

[Rare Grade]

[Perennial food crop]

[Parent crown viable]

[Harvestable side roots retained beneath preservation sheath]

[Recovery requirement: Release mature side roots while preserving parent crown and feeder roots]

--

"Rare," Carlos said quietly.

Rowan was looking at the last line. "It has been holding its harvest close. We need room around these sides."

"Then it can make more afterward?"

"The parent stays alive, yes, and the part we eat grows away from it."

Carlos looked along the bed, counting six leaf clumps. He had walked past preserved crops before and imagined a single valuable harvest. This was a different sort of gain. If the plants kept producing, the work would keep paying them back.

"Can you release it now?"

Rowan eased one finger beneath the pale ring, then withdrew it.

"The soil around it has set hard. Lydia can lift the outside without pulling these fine roots. I can guide the crown once there is space."

Cedric stepped away to send her the update. Kaia walked along the nearest access path, asking Rhea which workers had been crossing the bed. They marked a clear carrying route while Boro knelt beside Rowan.

"It is curled over itself," the Dogman said.

"Yes."

"Hearthpod does that when the opening leaf is caught. It keeps pulling the other leaves in. I had to free the caught one before it would open properly."

Rowan looked at him, then toward the ring beneath the soil.

"Show me where you would start looking."

Boro’s ears rose. He moved around the clump carefully, pointing toward the place where the outer leaf disappeared beneath the pale sheath.

Carlos crouched opposite them, trying to see it himself. For once, the old crop had given him something he understood.

It was holding food below the ground, and his people had finally become good enough to reach it.

Cedric returned with Lydia’s answer.

"She can leave earlier. 80 Copper for her and the Masons’ work this afternoon, and she wants the exposed part kept damp until she gets here."

"Agreed," Carlos said. "Tell her I will pay when we finish."

Carlos nodded and looked at the six crowns again.

"Then we get the first one out properly. After that, I want to know how many of these beds we can bring back."