Chapter 188. District Progress (2)

Chapter 188: 188. District Progress (2)

Carlos paid Lydia before she began putting her tools away.

Eighty Copper Coins left his record, and she confirmed the payment while the Masons checked the last supported section. The crowns stood higher now that the outer soil had been loosened. Water could reach the fine roots without pooling around the exposed cuts.

"My masons say you will have to get someone to watch this edge when the soil settles," Lydia told Cedric. "If it starts sinking, call me before they pack more earth over it."

Cedric crouched where she pointed. He asked her to show Rhea too, then made one of the workers copy the marked line onto their bed record.

Carlos waited until they finished before calling him over.

The baskets were still beside the store. Boro had separated the young crown into its own damp container, and Rowan was explaining its care to a worker who would stay at the district.

"I want your group maintaining this bed," Carlos said. "Water, records and keeping the harvest where it belongs. Rowan will decide the crop work. You organise who does it."

Cedric looked toward the crowns. "We can do that."

"Ten percent of what we harvest from this bed goes to your group while you are doing the work properly. Starting with today. Your existing food arrangement stays."

The man turned back toward him.

"The harvest itself?"

"Yes. Sell your share, keep it, ask Mira what it can become. We will separate it first."

Cedric looked at the baskets for a while. Carlos remembered the question his parents had asked him. About how much of this place belonged to him? The land still belonged under Carlos’s authority, but the work could give Cedric something he could point to now.

"I want the others to hear it," Cedric said.

"Call them."

Rhea, Tomas, Milan and Evan came over. Carlos repeated the arrangement in front of them, making the scope clear. It was the Crownroot bed and its harvest, with their work recorded. They were not gaining authority over every crop in the district.

They accepted, and Rhea brought the scale back. One point eight kilograms went into a marked container for their group. Cedric wrote the amount himself, checking the record before setting it inside the store.

Carlos left another 6 kilograms of his portion in the protected district storage. The remaining 10.2 kilograms went into his inventory for Mira. The living young crown stayed in Boro’s hands.

"Will we need to bring food back for the plants?" Cedric asked Rowan.

"I will write the ordinary soil requirements. First, keep the parent neck clear and follow the water amount we used today. The young one you kept will need its own checks."

Rowan showed them the difference between the parent and the small crown. Carlos listened for a little, then walked with Lydia to the cleared path.

"Thank you for coming sooner," he said.

"It was useful work for me too. Tell me when you choose the next bed. I will help you with it."

"I intend to choose a lot of them."

She looked toward Rowan and smiled slightly. "I thought you might. Leave me enough time to arrange my own territory too."

Carlos agreed before returning to the portal. He checked the permitted return load, then waited until Kaia had the carrying path clear. Boro held his container carefully through the crossing, looking down as soon as Ironroot appeared around them.

"Still standing," he murmured.

"Put it where Rowan tells you," Carlos said. "Then go see Hearthpod. Elias has been looking after it for you."

The Dryad selected a small unoccupied part of the Rare farmland. He had Tarin loosen the soil while Boro supported the crown. Its feeder roots were alive and already reaching against the damp earth inside the container.

Carlos watched it settle into the new planting hole. Rowan added ordinary water and waited until the leaves stopped folding toward its centre.

"Can you use Life Bloom?" Carlos asked.

Rowan checked the rooted plant and his own remaining energy before nodding. "Yes, I have one use left."

The green light spread from his fingers into the crown. Its narrow leaves widened, and the centre thickened while the earth shifted around the growing side roots. Tarin moved the marker back before the outer leaves covered it.

When the light faded, Carlos was looking at a mature parent like the six they had left behind.

--

[Crownroot established]

[Rare Grade]

[First side-root harvest mature]

[Parent crown suitable for repeated cultivation]

--

Rowan cut the mature side roots after checking their separation points. This harvest weighed two kilograms. Carlos added it to Mira’s batch while Tarin recorded the plant’s next interval under Ironroot’s cultivation effects.

Base regrowth was 7 days. The Rare soil, Agricultural Expertise and Verdant Growth reduced the current estimate to 9 hours and 32 minutes, which was good.

Carlos read it before looking at Rowan.

"That is less than a day."

"Here," Rowan said. "The district has its own conditions so we will have to keep those records separate."

"I will, and we will also need more of these."

Rowan was smiling when he nodded. "We have a parent now. I will watch for young crowns and keep replanting, young master."

Mira met them outside the kitchen. Carlos showed her the twelve point two kilograms, the raw-consumption warning and the crop’s recorded nourishment before offering to carry it inside.

She weighed out one hundred grams for the first test and opened the piece lengthways. Pale flesh showed beneath the thin skin, dense enough that her knife moved through it slowly.

"It needs skillful cooking," she said after inspecting the cut surface. "I can start with a small amount in water. Keep the rest cold."

Carlos helped move it into the ingredient section. By the time he returned, Mira had shaved thin pieces into a little pot and was watching them soften.

The smell was mild, almost like ordinary roots. When she crushed one cooked slice with her spoon, it formed a smooth paste.

Its preparation record kept the concentrated nourishment property.

Mira looked up at Carlos with the spoon still in her hand.

"Bring Cosmic over. I think he will want to see this."