Chapter 174: Demonization and Harvest Season

After a night's sleep, the matter of having nightmares seemed to have been forgotten; neither Aqua nor Darkness mentioned that night's events again.

Only, from time to time, the two would come find Broly and have him help them have a good dream.

Broly thereby obtained a new channel through which to farm the two's Happiness Values.

Summer passed and autumn arrived; the weather gradually turned cool, the wheat in the fields outside the city took on a golden color, and the Adventurer's Guild also began preparing for the Harvest Season.

The Harvest Season is a rather peculiar season in this world; it is said that some crops, unwilling to be eaten by humans upon ripening, will suddenly grow legs or evolve mobility during the season of bumper harvests, and then run away.

"The reason is that this world has relatively abundant Mana Factors; even ordinary crops easily end up Demonized under the influence of a dense Magic Power environment.

Of course, the probability of ordinary crops being Demonized is relatively small; it's just that the harvest season is a time when Mana Factors are relatively active, and also a period when many crops ripen in large batches.

Therefore, although the probability of Demonization is small, because the base number has increased, it has become common."

Aqua, holding a landing net, caught a potato fleeing on the ground using its root tendrils, casually knocked the Demonized Potato unconscious, and explained this situation.

In autumn, dealing with large quantities of Demonized crops also counts as a daily quest commonly posted at the Adventurer's Guild.

Overall, this kind of quest may pose danger to ordinary people, but for Adventurers it is still very easy to handle.

Moreover, because Demonized crops are rich in Mana Factors inside their bodies, whether in terms of texture or the experience gained from eating them, there is a certain degree of improvement; consequently, their value is also higher than ordinary crops.

That is why there is the term Harvest Season.

"However, the true Harvest Festival has not actually arrived yet; right now it's just small skirmishes."

Spending an afternoon, together with the others in the party, Broly dealt with the Demonized crop situation across several dozen acres of farmland.

Returning to the Adventurer's Guild side, Broly heard the Quest Board girl's new version introduction about the Harvest Season.

However, calling it a new version introduction, it's actually just something locals all know.

Further east of Axel, there is a vast cabbage plantation.

The lord there has people clear out many Demonized Cabbages, but every year many Demonized Cabbages still break through layers of obstacles and fly over to this side of Axel.

"Those cabbages' final destination is the Heath further west; Axel is their necessary passage; the true Harvest Festival is the day those cabbages arrive."

Broly grew somewhat expectant; he was currently chewing on roasted long-legged potatoes, as well as stewed long-armed eggplants and roasted tomatoes; the taste of these Demonized vegetables was indeed better than ordinary crops, and he wondered how Demonized Cabbage would taste.

The Demonized Cabbages did not make Broly wait long; in the second week of autumn, they flew over in droves from the eastern sky, like flocks of migratory birds.

Dense and packed, they dyed the sky a blue-green color.

"The Harvest Festival has arrived; is everyone prepared?"

The Adventurer's Guild's Quest Board girl asked, and a group of Adventurers who had come outside the city gates responded in unison.

"Of course we're prepared."

These people held tools for catching Demonized Cabbages prepared early on; moreover, not only Adventurers had made preparations to catch Demonized Cabbages, even the town residents inside Axel had made similar preparations.

It's just that ordinary people are not as strong as Adventurers; aside from some who have confidence in their own strength, other residents merely set up trapping nets around and atop their own houses, waiting for those Demonized Cabbages to walk into the trap.

"Broly, you absolutely must not use Energy Bullets; Cabbages turned to ash cannot be eaten."

Aqua had just finished admonishing him here when Darkness had already stepped forward; she went straight to the very front line to face the spearhead of the Cabbage army.

By no means underestimate these Demonized Cabbages' power; although they have no brains to speak of, even relying solely on instinct to charge, they are still formidable.

In Axel one occasionally hears of accidents on Harvest Festival day where people are killed by Demonized Cabbage collisions; the dead even include some careless Adventurers.

Of course, for Darkness, with her powerful Defense Power as a Crusader, the Cabbages' impact doesn't amount to much.

"You Demonized Cabbages, all come crash into me; I, Darkness, will protect everyone here!"

Darkness directly taunted a flock of Cabbages in the sky; countless Cabbages changed direction and crashed toward her.

Darkness let out wails amid the impacts, except they were ecstatic wails; she likes this feeling of being struck. "Come on, let the Cabbage storm come even more fiercely~"

"Well done, Darkness; next, watch mine!"

Aqua was very satisfied with the knight girl's mob-gathering ability; she raised her hand and cast Water Creation Magic toward Darkness's side; the jetting water flow directly bombarded a large flock of Cabbages, blasting Darkness inside along with them and sending her flying out together.

"Aqua, you bastard, did you do that on purpose?"

Soaking wet, Darkness was quite dissatisfied; Aqua's move carried a degree of personal grudge.

"Sorry, sorry; your mob-gathering effect just now was too good, like someone stuck their butt in my face and I just couldn't help kicking it."

Aqua's apology lacked sincerity, but Darkness just happens to eat that up; thinking how this was practically being kicked in the butt publicly, she could barely contain herself.

Mouth saying "Too excessive," her body honestly continued gathering mobs, then got blasted away by Aqua's water flow impact.

And this kind of coordination between Aqua and Darkness is also the choice of most party-forming Adventurers.

Only, not every Adventurer party has a caster member, so Aqua's Water Creation Water Flow Impact move becomes using a net bag to directly snare and control them, then finishing off those Demonized Cabbages with physical strikes.

Batches upon batches of Demonized Cabbages were knocked down, but a very large portion still either flowed into the town or directly flew past Axel toward the further west direction.

The harvesting process carries some danger, but every Adventurer's face showed an old farmer's smile; each was displaying their divine abilities.

Seeing this, Broly also prepared to act; but Energy Bullets couldn't be used, and using only fists and feet was inefficient and too easy to burst the Cabbages.

"Got it, I can use this move."

Broly raised his hand; the Absorption Touch Life Drain Skill was activated, but not applied to a specific target — instead applied onto his own Ki.

A vortex appeared on Broly's small hand; and as the vortex's rotation speed grew faster and faster, the Ki on the bodies of both Demonized Cabbages and Adventurers in the surroundings was drawn over to his vortex.

However, Broly properly controlled the size of the hand vortex; the Adventurers present merely gained a Debuff of Magic Power and stamina drain on their bodies, but the Demonized Cabbages near him fell from the sky one after another.

This kind of Demonized crop is actually very fragile; just having a bit of their Ki sucked away, they fall in batches from the sky and lie dead.

However, this method has pros and cons; Demonized Cabbages that had a portion of their Magic Power sucked away don't taste as good as those knocked unconscious directly or blasted unconscious by water flow; even their crispness decreased a bit, equivalent to sacrificing texture and taste.

Of course, purely in terms of quantity of Demonized Cabbages caught, Broly alone topped a whole group of Adventurers.

And the ranged Absorption Touch combined with Ki ultimately provided Broly with an Energy Ball brimming with Life Force.

Looking at the sphere full of Life Energy in his hand, Broly grew a bit troubled; if he reabsorbed this thing into his body, he wouldn't need to eat for at least two days.

Fortunately, upon hearing some Adventurers shout they were tired, Broly had a good idea.

But before that, he had to ask the Adventurer's Guild's logistics staff to help gather the small mountain of Demonized Cabbages he had harvested.

After those were dealt with, Broly used Qi to forcibly infuse the Life Energy Ball into the Water Creation Magic.

He had done this kind of thing many times before, and a Vitality Water Sphere appeared very quickly.

If it were bottled now, that would be a not very stable Vitality Potion.

But if used directly, there was no need to worry too much about whether it was stable or not.

"Go!"

Broly threw the Vitality Water Sphere in his hand into the Sky, and the Water Creation Magic engraved inside the Waterball rapidly unfolded.

Then, using Flowers Birds Wind Moon to atomize the Water Creation Magic's Water Outlet, an Artificial Rain carrying the effects of Vitality Potion fell from the Sky.

Broly bestowed a recovery rain full of vitality upon the fatigued people.

【This way, dinner can be eaten normally tonight.】

Broly wore a look of everything going according to plan.

(Chapter End)