The Knight of Light plants the sun in the eternal night.

Under normal circumstances, serfs were required to bring their own meals when working for their lords.

But Leo, being kind-hearted, instructed the kitchen at Sunflower Castle to make plenty of dark bread—bread made from bran. He then gave each serf who was building a house a piece of dark bread enough for a family of three.

This is what we ate for the day.

"May the Holy Light protect Young Master Leo!"

"Praise be to Master Merio, you are the kindest man in the world, may the Holy Light forever bless you!" The serf who received the black bread kowtowed repeatedly in the direction of Sunflower Castle, wiping away tears as he accepted the bread.

The lives of serfs were too miserable.

They have to work every day, and there's hardly any pay.

Receiving a whole loaf of black bread that was enough to fill my stomach felt as touching as celebrating the Lunar New Year.

"Young Master Leo has arrived! Good days are coming!"

"Yes, under Young Master Leo's leadership, our Swamp Manor will surely get better and better!"

"Holy Light, please forever bless Young Master Leo!"

"Praise be to young master Rio! Praise be to the Fluorescent Mushroom family!"

Amidst a chorus of praise, Franken followed behind Leo, shaking his head: "Leo, you're too kind. That's not good. You shouldn't give these serfs any favors; it'll spoil them!"

"It's just a piece of black bread, Mr. Frankenstein."

"They should have brought their own provisions, Leo. Seriously, the lords have already shown them immense kindness by providing them with sanctuary," Franken flattered. "If it weren't for you, and if it weren't for the Glowing Mushroom family, they would have been devoured by monsters long ago."

"Uh..." Leo was speechless.

Standing on a large rock, watching the busy serfs, he slowly said, "I only hope that the serfs can live a better life, have more children, and cultivate more land."

"Yes, you can buy them. There are plenty of cheap serfs for sale in the serf market in Lancashire. Those impoverished plantation owners make a living by buying and selling serfs... When I was a child, my family sold serfs, and later we even sold the entire plantation."

Franken's ancestors were knights, but by his father's generation, they were no longer able to serve their lord.

Therefore, the title of Lord Knight was abolished.

Then the manor was sold, and with the last bit of money, Franken was sent to school in Lancashire, hoping to revitalize the family.

Unfortunately, Frankenstein lacked the talent for fighting spirit, possessing only the talent for affinity with holy light elements. However, he never had the opportunity to contract with a spirit insect, thus he was unable to enter the ranks of extraordinary professionals and ultimately ended up working as a tutor for Leo.

"Buy serfs...?" Leo was tempted, but not blindly so. "Let's manage the manor well first, and then buy serfs when we have enough food."

With over seventy households and more than three hundred and twenty people, the Swamp Manor was still too small.

Franken, however, was full of confidence: "With the support of the Glowing Mushroom Family, you'll definitely be able to develop and expand Swamp Manor."

He paused for a moment.

He laughed and said, "When the time comes, I hope to follow behind you, expand our territory together, and turn the swamp estate into a swamp town."

"Professor Franken is very confident, then we need your help in managing the manor."

"Don't worry, Leo, I'll put all my passion into Swamp Manor," Franken said, patting his chest confidently.

As they were talking.

Knight Commander Pluto returned with four guard knights, each carrying prey on the back of their gleaming warhorses.

"My lord," Pluto dismounted and bowed.

"Please rise, Lord Pluto." Leo glanced at the horse's back. "Today's hunt was plentiful. What kind of magical beasts were they?"

Pluto gestured for the knights to unload the prey, then explained to Leo one by one: "Harrison and the others were in a hurry to leave, and the monsters outside the manor haven't been cleared out for a while, so there's a bit more prey this time."

These prey were all Tier 1 magical beasts.

There were monsters that looked like leopards, but were all black and had disgusting tumors; there were monsters that looked like wolves, with fangs as long as a palm and four eyes on their heads; and there were monsters that looked like rats, but were as big as foals.

all in all.

The monsters are basically ordinary animals that have been infected by the power of the shadows and have been mutated generation after generation into deformed creatures.

However, the monsters are Tier 1 Shadow Monsters, which can kill ordinary people with ease.

"Did you get the crystal core?" Leo squatted down and touched the monster's corpse with his hand. Creatures contaminated by the power of the shadows cannot be eaten, but their corpses can be used to fertilize fields, making them excellent fertilizer for crops.

Pluto shook his head: "Not yet, we have to wait and let the crystal core condense better."

Living magical beasts do not have crystal cores; only after they die will the shadow power within their bodies condense into crystal cores.

After a while.

Pluto began examining one of the magical beasts, using his battle aura to locate the crystal core. He then drew his dagger and slit open the beast's abdomen.

But instead of removing the crystal core, he said to John, the farm manager with a big beard, who was waiting to receive the monster's corpse, "It's in the intestines, John. Feel around and take the crystal core out."

John the Beard is a novice knight.

But in front of formal knights like Pluto, he was extremely humble, nodding repeatedly: "Yes, Your Excellency, I will dig out the crystal core right away."

Reaching into the monster's blood-soaked abdomen, he quickly located the crystal core. With a forceful pull, he ripped out half of its intestines, squeezed it, and extracted a hard object the size of an infant's fist.

He carefully wiped the hard object clean with his hands, revealing its true nature.

He presented the item to Leo with both hands and said ingratiatingly, "Young Master Leo, please take a look."

This is an irregularly shaped transparent crystal with many black impurities inside, making it look like a dark shadow is flowing within the crystal.

This is the Warcraft Core.

The black impurities in the crystal core are the condensed shadow power.

Leo didn't take it with his hands, finding it dirty, and simply nodded: "Hmm, it's a decent crystal core."

This time, Pluto and his companions hunted down seven magical beasts and obtained seven magical beast cores. After breaking the fertile field, they had enough to supply the magical crystal greenhouse for half a month.

The monster corpses were mixed with wood ash and other materials and left to ferment.

Fermented fertilizer can be spread over large areas of farmland to promote crop growth.

It's worth mentioning that the bones of monsters also have a clever use: as a material for lime mortar. Lime, water, and monster bone fragments can be mixed together to form an excellent adhesive, more than enough to build castles.

At the swamp estate, it was used to build stone houses.

In just over half a day, the foundations for the two stone houses were completed. The houses, built with cobblestones and lime mortar, will stand for a hundred years.

"Young master, dinner is ready." Butler Dirk came over.

Leo, who was watching the house being built and was just about to return to the castle for dinner, saw several carriages approaching from outside the manor, with knights carrying torches ahead, heading straight for Sunflower Castle.