Chapter 446 - The Demonic Attributes of the Vineyard

Weizemay Vineyard.Fairy Song (Special Ability) — On Midsummer Night each year, one can sing the Fairy Song in unison with the Fae Race of the Fairy Wilderness on the Dragon Oak Mother Tree, which will open a temporary veil lasting throughout the night, allowing free passage for both sides to sing and dance together. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ɴovel(ꜰ)ɪre.nᴇt

Limited Weather Command (Special Ability) — The output of the vineyard will be extremely optimized for one year; if the Fairy Song is participated in by more than ten species and over fifty thousand individuals, this ability will be activated for the following year.

Wildlife Pact (Special Ability) — Wild animals have signed a natural pact with you, increasing their affection for this land to friendly. Their behavior will automatically tend toward benefiting you. Within the range of the vineyard, their intelligence will increase by two points and a flocking mode will be initiated.

Flying Fowl and Beast Taming (Special Ability) — You may designate a specific flying fowl and beast to stay and nest in the vineyard. This is limited to legendary or lower tier beasts, with their fondness for this place increasing another level to cordial. The area will have a strong attraction to the same species. Once chosen, the selection cannot be changed for a year, until the next Fairy Song is sung, and an attribute will be chosen to increase by two points.

The Blessing of the God of Singing (Special Ability) — An incarnation of the God of Singing once descended to this place to join the banquet, giving high approval and blessings. Bards meditating here will have a chance to gain inspiration to compose new songs, with a definite enhancement to their professional abilities.

Most of these special abilities were as expected, but not the Fairy Song.

This ability obviously arose from last night’s resonance between the two locations, leaving a mark on both.

As last night’s attempt showed.

This ability can also be used as an unrestricted long-distance portal, although it only lasts one night.

But with proper preparation, the amount of transfer is still quite astonishing.

It’s not just as simple as transferring fifteen thousand Gnolls and twelve hundred Hobgoblins and Orcs.

It’s a pity that the next opening has to wait for a year.

The limited Favorable Weather is actually not much different from the regular version, it just has an additional prerequisite.

Even without this limited Favorable Weather, for that night’s unrestricted transfer alone, Duke Gaven would have held the Fairy Song, and it would only be bigger than required, not smaller. By then, Favorable Weather would come as a bonus.

There’s not much else to say about this.

However, the exclamations from the vineyard side prompted Gaven to consider this ability once again.

"Come and see, the grapes in the vineyard have grown bigger! I think they’re at least thirty percent larger than before, no, no, fifty percent, they must be fifty percent bigger."

"Here are new bunches of grapes that weren’t here before, definitely grown just last night. After we finish harvesting this batch, in a month or two, we’ll be able to harvest another batch of grapes."

"This is Mother Nature’s blessing, no doubt about it, it must be. It’s the power of the Fairy Song, the power of the Dragon Oak Mother Tree."

"Thank you for the great bounty of nature, thank you Dragon Oak Mother Tree."

"If we’re to give thanks, we should also thank Duke Gaven. He gave us a night to remember for a lifetime, a night that will stay with me forever."

"If the vineyard hadn’t changed this way, I would have thought everything that happened last night was just a dream."

"Even dreams couldn’t be this marvelous."

"Perhaps, we really should bring our families here. A place where one dances with nature is a gift from the gods. I suspect that at last night’s feast, gods incarnate danced among us."

"That’s not surprising at all. Even for the gods, last night’s banquet was of high caliber."

Indeed.

This limited Favorable Weather actually took immediate effect, impacting the soon-to-be harvested vineyard.

Not only did it make the original grapes larger and fuller.

It also spurred the growth of new green grape clusters on those vines that had previously been struggling.

While the quantity of the green grape clusters was less than half of the existing ones, as an additional part, it was still quite astonishing.

The special ability of the Wildlife Pact was like a bicycle that Gaven originally wanted to purchase, which seemed to have come as a bonus.

Even without it, the surplus yield from the limited Favorable Weather alone would have compensated for the damage caused by birds and insects.

But nobody complains about having too many advantages.

This ability was already starting to show its edge.

Flocks of birds with increased intelligence even began employing tactics in the airspace above the vineyard.

A group of birds would chase away pests on one side while another group waited in another direction.

Some flocks directly became the pest control experts of the vineyard, sweeping from south to north, from east to west, and then back again along another row.

Along the way, they would peck at grapes; however, they no longer picked only the juiciest to bite into but prioritized those of lesser quality. And if a bird could not finish one off, the leftovers would be eaten, focusing on the pecked berries first.

They took only what they needed, without waste.

Such natural behavior is hard to dislike.

This was their compensation for pest control, and there could be no cheaper pest extermination workers.

Flying Fowl and Beast Taming turned out to be an unexpected delight.

The description of this was simple and clear, with no need for repetition.

Even the choice of which two species to tame wasn’t a point of indecision and was decided upon on the spot.

The flying fowl chosen was the Keluo Parrot.

This bird species not only possesses a quite practical Rainbow Burst but is also adept at catching insects.

What’s most important is that their intelligence is already top-notch among birds. With the two-point increase from the Wildlife Pact, it became quite considerable. When choosing the Attribute Enhancement, intelligence was chosen again.

This directly brought their intelligence to seven or eight points, comparable to many Gnolls, sufficient to understand many things.

As for beasts, if not for the Razorback Boar, the wolves would surely reign supreme. Now, the wolves can only sit in the corner and sulk. Their abilities simply can’t compare to those of the magical Razorback Boar.

The enhancement of the Razorback Boar’s attributes, naturally, was also applied to its intelligence. Compared to other attributes, this one could make an immediate impact—there’s a world of difference between a magic beast with a certain level of intelligence and one in a wild state when it comes to fighting power.

No sooner had the enhancement been completed than Nola returned, riding the Razorback Boar King, looking disheveled and covered in dust.

Her war of attrition with the Razorback Boar King in the wilderness had lasted a full five days and nights, the two adversaries, locked in a relentless struggle without food, drink, or sleep.

It ultimately ended in a stalemate, with neither side able to completely subdue the other.

It wasn’t until the Weizemay Vineyard’s special ability was activated, forcibly raising the Razorback Boar King’s intelligence by four points, that the situation finally reversed, and a compromise was reached between the two.

As for the final ability, it belonged to the God of Singing who left a resonance-sympathy in the Magic Network with the songs from Gaven’s memory, specifically for the benefit of bards. It remained unknown whether the new songs composed by the bards here had any connection with the ones from his memory.

But one thing was certain: from this point forward, this place would become a sacred site for bards. It wouldn’t be long before many bards came to make their pilgrimage in search of inspiration and enlightenment.

As the grapes of the Weizemay Vineyard ripened in succession, the harvest and winemaking formally proceeded.

Making standard grape wine posed no difficulty for Weizemay Manor.

Estelle was a master of all its winemaking processes; it was merely a matter of training most of the staff.

The real challenge lay in the brewing of Ghost Grape Wine.

As Gaven had surmised, the key to the successful brewing of Ghost Grape Wine lay in the active enzymes that survived and mutated in an environment filled with Negative Energy, ultimately altering the nature of the Ghost Grape Wine, endowing it with both the characteristics of grape wine and the ability to store Negative Energy.

This balance was crucial.

Too little Negative Energy failed to stimulate the enzymes to mutate.

Too much Negative Energy killed the enzymes before they could mutate.

Luckily, Gaven had a manor where he could manipulate the concentration of Negative Energy at will, and a team of experts on Negative Energy to assist with the research.

They simulated environments with varying concentrations of Negative Energy to select and compare the results, then chose the best from among them.

Persistence paid off.

After ten days of repeated comparison and experimentation, the optimum concentration of Negative Energy was finally discovered, revealing that the mutation was a gradual process.

The concentration of Negative Energy had to increase over time, culminating in the final form of the Ghost Grape Wine.

Once the fermentation and brewing of the Ghost Grape Wine succeeded, the rest was much simpler.

Further research and comparisons showed that, compared to artificially infusing the Ghost Grape Wine with Negative Energy, the wine that naturally absorbed Negative Energy from the surroundings had a better taste and was relatively purer.

This is because Negative Energy has a natural and close connection to emotions.

The Negative Energy guided by human hands often contained the person’s own negative emotions.

If the energy guide was dominated by sorrow at the time, the resulting Ghost Grape Wine tended to be bitter.

If it was rage that drove the infusion, the wine leaned toward being spicy.

If it was melancholy, then the wine would be bitter and astringent.

Not only would the taste become odd, but the emotions of the drinkers would also be unconsciously influenced by the moods contained in the Ghost Grape Wine—this also depended on the strength of the energy guide and the drinker. The greater the discrepancy in strength between them, the greater the influence, and vice versa.

It can’t be said to be completely useless, after all, there are always those on the market who seek novelty, but they are in the minority.

Or rather, when they purchase Ghost Grape Wine, they don’t simply drink it but use it for other purposes.

The Wine Barrel Device Energy Laboratory founded by Daphne and Vick was not just focused on researching a new energy system for wine barrel devices. During the process, a series of topics would emerge.

Such as finding a liquid suitable to replace Ghost Grape Wine.

Such as how to store a portion of Shadow Energy in the wine barrel device for emergency use?

How to further optimize the energy system of the wine barrel device?

How to adjust the body layout of the wine barrel device for more efficient energy utilization?

How to further tap into the potential of Ghost Grape Wine, developing more uses beyond drinking.

Setting aside the other points for now.

The non-drinking uses of Ghost Grape Wine were indeed expanded upon by Daphne.

With Vick’s reminder.

Everyone recalled that Ghost Grape Wine was now a type of magic wine. To consider it merely for drinking was far too limited a view.

Its magical applications were what truly mattered.

Sometimes, what held them back was not sheer ability, but their approach.

Once the approach was opened up, they suddenly realized that a vast new world awaited them, teeming with novel discoveries.

Magic Grape Wine is an effective substitute for many spellcasting materials from the Shadow Plane, and while its effects might be slightly inferior, the ease of obtaining it was incomparable.

After all, any spellcasting material that required crossing planes was costly, especially from the notoriously dangerous Shadow Plane.

Many spellcasting materials were sold for hundreds or thousands of gold per gram.

Another benefit is its versatility; carrying a bottle of Ghost Grape Wine could serve as a substitute for more than a dozen types of spellcasting materials, isn’t that a convenient affair?