Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 505 - 342: Journey South (Part 3)

Chapter 505: Chapter 342: Journey South (Part 3)

The local Church of the Goddess of Harvest’s Bishop heard about Malin’s donation and, naturally, did not forget to make a show of the Church’s presence, making Malin a bit embarrassed—he had forgotten that this wasn’t the saline-alkali land on the northern coastline; here in the south of Farole, which is suitable for cultivation, the Church of the Goddess of Harvest is the deity nearly all farmers devoutly believe in.

So, Malin had no choice but to give another two thousand Mowish, allowing both parties to share in the glory.

Churches like the Church of the Goddess of Harvest, which are harmless to humans and animals, are also very popular among the nobility in central and southern Farole. For instance, Richie, although he worships the War God, his fourth son Dodgie worships the Goddess of Harvest.

Normally, this indicates a future as clergy for Dodgie—as noble heirs are generally educated with priority given to the first son, who would inherit everything, thus the first son and father will often share the same faith.

The other children will depend on how much favoritism their father shows. Generally, children with talent will be taught according to their abilities, such as Dodgie, who must have some Spell Talent to be sent to the Church of the Goddess of Harvest.

Although the Church of the Goddess of Harvest is not as adept at teaching spell formations as the Mage Tower, it excels at caring for crops and far outperforms all other churches in agricultural matters. For any noble reliant on farmland, having a child enter the Church of the Goddess of Harvest is the cornerstone of the family’s prosperity.

And those children who are able to enter the Church of the Goddess of Harvest for study are usually not only talented but also favored, and they typically have a specific status—for example, sharing the same mother as the oldest son.

After all, being a noble is hardly a romantic profession.

However, this had little to do with Malin, who out of professional obligation, blessed the child—of course, it was just a verbal blessing, while he also gave the Moriti family three bottles of the No. 2 Holy Acorn Potion.

The Holy Acorn Potion now also had a batch number.

The No. 2 Holy Acorn Potion was made from the fruit of four World Tree Saplings that Malin had. Consuming one bottle would render you immune to the effects of ordinary potions for at least half a year, but the advantage of this potion was that it could heal flesh and bone, and as long as you were still breathing, it could pull you back from the brink.

The No. 3 Holy Acorn Potion was made from the fruit of the great oak tree. Though not as potent as No. 2, it could heal serious injuries or cure severe poisons with almost sure success. The only problem was it also had a low production rate; it would be sold out before it could even leave Carterburg, and His Majesty of Mowish would have to have Malin set aside a few bottles from the production—orders are backed up until next year.

No. 4 Potion was a mass-produced version, created from the residue of great oak tree fruit potions, and its effect on healing serious injuries was almost indistinguishable from that of general injury-healing potions. But the residue from ten bottles of No. 3 Potion could be reprocessed to produce at least thirty bottles of No. 4; financially, it was a great deal—since generally before this, all potion residues were either toxic or had lethal side effects.

Only the fruit of the World Tree could be used to make non-toxic and side-effect-free potions.

You ask why there is no No. 1?

No. 1 is produced from the fruit of the mother tree of the World Tree, and that fruit can truly achieve a resurrection effect, but Malin does not have any—such fruit is said to be a rare commodity even in the plane where the mother tree is located.

So, the gift Malin gave touched Mr. Richie of the Moriti family deeply—this potion, for a warrior family, could already be considered a family heirloom.

Malin also received a gift from the Moriti family—two Farole warhorses, which were young foals. They would be raised on the Moriti family lands and taken back to Carterburg by Malin on his return.

The warhorses of Farole were among the top in the equine world. While they might not match up to potions, they were still very valuable gifts.

Thus, once again the host and guest parted well-pleased, and as Malin boarded the train to continue southward, he took Dodgie with him—having heard that Malin was attending Baron Anthony’s wedding, Richie decided to let Dodgie carry gifts and accompany him there.

Normally, Richie would not need to send gifts to Anthony, because their statuses were dissimilar; and Dodgie, being of a different generation from Anthony, would not normally be suitable to represent the Moriti family. The correct approach would be for Richie’s eldest son to bring the gifts over.

Their similar ages and comparable statuses would make this the obvious choice.

But if Richie attended as a follower of Malin, who was personally invited by Anthony, it would mean he was attending as a younger generation witnessing the event, and brought gifts representing the family as well as a gesture of goodwill. Dodgie would bring fewer gifts, not expecting anything in return.

Of course, the nobility would also remember this act of goodwill, and when Dodgie got married, Anthony would surely send his children to return the favor.

Therefore, the gifts were guaranteed not to be items that might fluctuate greatly in value; they were typically the most stable assets—cattle and sheep.

Mr. Richie had previously received a small gift from an elder of the Anthony family—a pair of lambs—and this time he reciprocated with the finest pair of lambs.

The journey was long, but Malin had specially added a small carriage, which could house the lambs.

It could also accommodate the pair of black-patterned hounds that the Bishop of the Church of Justice was sending on behalf of his family to Faye—these, like horses, were a mark of a noble family’s strength.

While Malin wasn’t fond of dogs, Faye loved them, and, oddly enough, so did Maya.

As the train left the station, Malin specifically asked his sister why she wanted to keep two hunting dogs.

"When they’re grown, they can be eaten," Maya said.

"They’re not for eating," Malin specifically admonished his younger sister, "You can train them to fetch..." At this point, Malin turned his head to glance at Clovis, who was peacefully minding its own business.

"You can train them to retrieve the ducks you shoot down for you, how nice would that be? You just need to hit the ducks, and then you can let them do all the work."

"Really?" Maya seemed to have never considered this point before.

"Of course, that’s what hunting dogs do."

With the method introduced by Malin, Maya grew even fonder of the two puppies. As a shaman adept at communicating with animals, Maya quickly became the true master of the two dogs, which soon learned to navigate between the train carriages.

The only thing they seemed to fear was the reserve food supply, but that bear had grown accustomed to eating the food provided by Malin and had learned to act cute and roll over. To the bear, those two little hounds were not even worth a glance—after all, the small things they ate and their size wouldn’t even suffice to stick in its teeth.

Once the puppies confirmed that the big bear, like them, was also one of Maya’s pets, they immediately began their rambunctious puppy life and started to learn to occupy the head of the reserve supply.

Doji was somewhat afraid of the bear—being a child of the Moriti family, he instinctively felt that the bear was not to be trifled with, but after seeing that Mr. Malin’s wives treated it like a pet and fed it, he also began trying to feed it.

Although it disliked the little brat, under Malin’s command, the reserve food supply started to accept Doji—at least it understood that this type of lean creature was no longer on its menu.

And as the train crossed the Samor plains, it began to ascend over Mount Orbe—next, the train was heading to the city of Galicano, the capital of the Galicano province.

The bad news was this would be a very long journey, and not a safe one, as there were many spirits in the mountains, and due to the altitude, these spirits were rather formidable.

The good news was that on the first day of this leg of the journey, Malin caught a Mount Orbe snow leopard spirit that had jumped onto the train.

It looked almost like Maya with its snow-white fur and black spots, the only pity was that it couldn’t transform into a human.

The leopardess had jumped aboard perhaps because it saw Doji, but it didn’t notice anything else, or maybe hunger had prevented it from thinking too much.

Then it was subdued by Maya—or rather, it was enticed by the bone-in meat chunks in Maya’s hand.

In the end, the leopardess made a tough choice between being captured after eating her fill or running away hungry—she accepted Maya’s feeding and contentedly became Maya’s new pet, while Faye was also pleased that her two little hunting dogs could return to their rightful owner—after all, Maya had obtained a better pet.

Further investigations discovered that the leopard was pregnant, and on the fifth night, she gave birth to a litter of four cubs.

The girls were delighted, while Malin could only lean on the innocent reserve food supply, watching the girls gather around the leopard’s nest, cherishing it immensely.

The reserve food supply felt very innocent and wronged, having tried several times to get a treat from its mistress, but each time it was shooed away.

For this, Malin could only take over the task of feeding—a truly pitiable and unlucky creature, after all, when it came to cuteness, there was absolutely no chance of winning.

Malin also made up his mind—no more pets, no matter what. After all, Malin couldn’t attend someone else’s wedding with a zoo’s worth of pets.

With that thought in mind, the train passed through the northern valley of Mount Orbe and entered the Galicano Basin.

The city of Galicano similarly boasted a defensive wall design, and seeing that zombies could make their way south to this location made Malin unsure of just how many zombies there were in the northern mountains—certainly an astronomical number.

When the train pulled into the station, a half-human inspector led a team to examine Malin’s carriage.

His first sight was the reserve food supply, and after confirming thrice that it was Malin’s pet and seeing it dance a few steps on two legs under Malin’s command, he dared to enter the carriage—after all, the creature was too dangerous.

Then, just three steps in, he was toppled by the newly-mothered Spotty.

Malin rescued the hapless half-human just in time by grabbing Spotty’s nape and pulling the inspector from its mouth.

"This is too dangerous! You shouldn’t have brought it out of the mountains!"

"Firstly, it’s my pet, and secondly, you’re heading towards its nest which contains newly born cubs," Malin rebutted with a standard response,

Upon confirming the existence of the nest, the half-human ultimately conceded defeat in front of the thirty coin tip prepared by Malin for the tea water.