novelraw Chapter 238: Blue Moon’s Wine
Chapter 238: Blue Moon’s Wine
The Junimos stepped back at once upon hearing his words, shaking their tiny hands as if to refuse.
“You don’t like it?” Leon noticed their reaction and guessed, half in jest, that maybe they couldn’t handle the high theobromine content in chocolate.
He stowed the three slices of chocolate cake into his System Backpack, then turned to another large sack that contained small packets of gray-black powder.
“Deluxe Fertilizer: Improves soil quality and increases the chance of growing high-quality crops. Apply to tilled soil before planting.”
This was far more effective than regular fertilizer—thirty packs in total. They had come a bit late; if they’d arrived yesterday, Leon would have used them all on his potato fields. Still, keeping them for later wasn’t a bad idea.
After storing them away, Leon focused on two larger items. One was half as tall as a person, shaped like a drum washing machine, covered in glowing lights, giving it a distinctly high-tech appearance.
“Crystalarium: Insert a gem of your choice, and it will be duplicated.”
The other was a two-meter-tall metal cylinder. Several evenly spaced metal rings encircled its body, topped with a metal sphere. The base was wide, with triangular iron plates that looked like anchors—likely for securing it in the ground.
“Lightning Rod: Collects energy from storms and converts it into batteries.”
“Now this is good stuff.”Leon was delighted. Both the Lightning Rod and the Crystalarium were advanced tech he couldn’t yet craft.
The Lightning Rod drew down the power of storms and turned it into batteries—an essential material for making Iridium Sprinklers.
The Crystalarium, though, was pure black-tech genius. Insert a gem as a template, place it on the farm, wait for it to finish replicating, and you’d have a perfect copy with identical value. It was a steady, long-term source of gems.
Back in the game, Leon had once built fifty Crystalariums just to copy diamonds. The upfront cost was steep, but given enough time, it always paid for itself.
The only pity was that it couldn’t duplicate Prismatic Shards. If it could, all Leon would need was one shard and some patience, and he could have the seven required to upgrade his 36-slot backpack in no time.
Chuckling, he packed the Lightning Rod and Crystalarium into his System Backpack, then crouched down to pat the Junimos. “Alright, the Vault’s repaired. Now I’ll need you to fix the bus.”
“Choo! Choo! Choo!”
The Junimos hopped and chattered in their incomprehensible language, but their eager demeanor told Leon they really would help repair the bus.
He had half-expected reality to differ from the game. But now he knew—the special perk of repairing the Vault and getting the bus fixed still applied. That was a relief.
Leaving the restored Vault, Leon made his way to the Boiler Room in the basement.
It was a wreck—broken pipes scattered across the floor, cracks exposing soil where little mushrooms had sprouted, and the old furnace looked more like scrap iron from a junkyard than anything functional.
Ignoring the decay, Leon took out a Solar Essence and a Void Essence from his System Backpack and placed them in the standard offering basket used for all repair areas.
He watched the Junimos carry the essences away. Moments later, a pitch-black Junimo appeared in front of him, tossing down a ring identical to the Small Magnet Ring Leon already wore, before vanishing.
“Ah, another Small Magnet Ring. Not bad at all.” Smiling, Leon slipped it onto his finger and tested the combined range.
His conclusion: the effects stacked perfectly. The original two-meter pickup radius had doubled to four, and the weight limit for telekinetically pulling in objects had increased as well.
With these two rings, Leon could stroll down the streets pretending to have telekinesis like some kind of superhuman performer.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t Earth. Pulling such a stunt here might impress a few naïve folks, but if he ran into someone who knew better, the embarrassment would be monumental.
With the offering complete, Leon left the old Community Center.
Aside from the repaired Vault, the place still looked like an abandoned building. Leon wasn’t sure if anyone would notice the restored office ahead of time.
He rode his bike to the Stardrop Saloon, parked it to the side, and stepped inside. In the main hall, Willy and Gus were seated at a table with nothing on it but an unopened bottle of wine.
“We were just talking about when you’d show up. Didn’t expect you so soon,” Gus greeted, waving him over before heading into the kitchen.
“Care for a drink?” Willy held up the bottle.
“Wine?” Leon wasn’t much of a drinker, but he could handle wine.
“Yep. Gus splurged on a bottle from the Blue Moon Vineyard. This is the good stuff,” Willy said, stroking the bottle like it was a rare treasure.
“Expensive?” Leon asked.
“Very. Ordinary wine, even at top quality, might fetch six to seven hundred gold—but that’s aged stock. Blue Moon wine, even fresh, runs three hundred gold a bottle. Most other vineyards’ wines are only about fifty gold.” Willy sighed.
“We almost never drink it. But tonight, for this little celebration, Gus brought out the good stuff.”
“Oh? And why’s Blue Moon wine so pricey?” Leon’s curiosity was piqued. After all, he planned to go into winemaking himself and wanted to size up the competition.
“Everything’s done by hand. No impurities, no off-notes. The aroma after fermentation is rich. They say drinking it brings you good luck for a while. Might be a gimmick, but as wine goes, Blue Moon’s is the real deal.”
As Willy finished, Gus returned with dishes. Willy popped the cork, filled three tall glasses with the deep red liquid, and pushed one toward Leon.
“Just taste it—you’ll understand.”
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