Hawthorn Tree

Ina untied Xavier, gave him a hoe, and told him to go and reclaim the wasteland behind the restaurant.

Xavier stood there bewildered with the hoe in his hand, his legs already taking him toward the back of the restaurant on their own.

What kind of high-level puppetry was this?! He was unaware of his body being manipulated. Xavier swore he didn't feel any spells acting on him, but his legs were not obeying him!

No, he must return to his mage tower as soon as possible to thoroughly research what kind of powerful restriction the black dragon had put on him.

Xavier made up his mind, but his body honestly began to swing the hoe. Ina opened the window and yelled at him, "First remove the large rocks, then use the hoe to break up the soil clumps. The way you're doing it will just bury the rocks in the ground!"

Xavier looked at Ina behind the window, and secretly cast a curse spell on her - [Misfortune]. He heard that black dragons had high magic resistance, but curses were different from other magical attacks. Let him use a non-attack curse to test. Maybe the black dragon wouldn't know why she had become so unlucky in the end.

Just as Xavier was secretly rejoicing, a sharp pain exploded in his brain. The curse not only failed, but it also caused a serious backlash. Xavier became dizzy and fell to the ground.

Ina's system status bar quietly scrolled two messages.

[Attacked by a creature with lower evil value than you, the attacker will enter a [Fear] state, their luck will decrease by 200, and their attack accuracy will decrease by 50.]

[Cursed by an undead creature, the [Evil to the Extreme] state is activated (For creatures with lower favorability towards you, the curse failure rate increases by 50%, this bonus is doubled for psychic and undead creatures)].

"Oh my, I just said a couple of words to you, and you fainted from anger." Ina was about to help Xavier up when a flock of birds happened to pass by and cast a [Shit On Your Head] status on Xavier, scaring Ina to a halt.

Ah, well, you can get up by yourself, right?

————

After Ina thwarted the Dragonblood Sorcerer's coveting of the lizard, she finally could relax and spend the achievement points she had accumulated over this period.

The restaurant had now leveled up to 4. After Ina used achievement points to exchange for a lot of plant nutrient solutions and floating food carts, she still had more than 3000 achievement points left, enough for three ten-draws.

Of course, now it's time for happy drawing!

[You've received Sweet Glutinous Corn Seeds★10, Hawthorn Tree (Fruiting Stage)★★1, Copper Coins 73, Automatic Food Serving Mechanical Bee Swarm★★★★★, Fully Automatic Vegetable Washing Machine★, Copper Coins 5, Choice of Seasoning☆10, Sponge Gourd Seeds☆10, Restaurant Decoration - Drift Bottle Fish Tank★☆, Chocolate Brick★5]

[Seed store has unlocked the purchase rights for Sweet Glutinous Corn and Sponge Gourd seeds!]

Five stars! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, no mistake, so she had accumulated quite a lot of luck over these days without drawing!

[Automatic Food Serving Mechanical Bee Swarm: 999 mechanical worker bees at your service! Each worker bee carries two adjustable mechanical claws, equipped with an automatic recognition positioning system and a panoramic camera compound eye, providing food serving service to guests according to instructions.]

This is not just 999 mechanical worker bees, this is 999 free waiters! No longer need to worry about the restaurant being short-handed, even if the restaurant opens 10 branches in the future, such a mechanical bee swarm is enough for daily use. As for the energy problem of the mechanical worker bees, a mechanical beehive comes with the swarm, and the worker bees can automatically recharge when they return to the hive after depleting their energy.

Moreover, the mechanical bee swarm can also use achievement points to expand, 100 points per bee. In the future, if Ina's restaurants spread across the entire continent, each branch using mechanical bees to serve food would be a unique selling point that others cannot imitate.

Ina was full of confidence and eagerly drew the second ten-draw.

[You've received Restaurant Decoration - Old Wooden Picture Frame★, Branch-specific Transport Crystal 10★★★, Okra Seeds☆10, Silver Coins 41, Concentrated Honey Pomelo Juice★☆5kg1, Special Cleaning Mechanical Puppet★★, Plant Nutrient Solution★100, Bitter Gourd Seeds☆10, Copper Coins 33, Taro Seeds☆10]

[Seed store has unlocked the purchase rights for Okra, Bitter Gourd, and Taro seeds!]

This time was a standard three-star baseline. Ina studied the branch-specific transport crystal and found it could open a transport channel for users, helping those carrying it freely shuttle between branches of Ina's restaurant where she allowed access, just like a key to enter and leave the branches.

Anty must have one of these. Ina had to carry her back and forth between the shops in the Extreme Cold Icefield and the Foggy Town every day, sometimes forgetting to do so and needing a reminder from the system. Dusì was now deeply trusted by Ina, and Ina also relied on her to adjust the food materials between the shops. She planned to give Dusì a crystal with the highest access rights that could transport between any branches. As for the new employee Donne at Neranka's shop, he was a newcomer who had been on the job for less than two weeks and was bound to return to the knights' guild in the capital sooner or later. Ina didn't plan to reveal too many secrets of the Dragon Flame Restaurant to him.

Finally, it was the last ten-draw. Ina was not greedy. She had already drawn an unprecedented five-star reward, so it was not a pity even if she always got the minimum reward.

[You've received Amaranth Seeds☆10, Silver Coins 7, Plant Nutrient Solution★100, Copper Coins 79, Sacred Oak Wine Barrel★★★★☆, Gold Rimmed Bone China Tableware Set☆, High Efficiency Plant Fertilizer★10, Wax Gourd Seeds☆10, Copper Coins 1, Peach Jam★10]

[Seed store has unlocked the purchase rights for Amaranth and Wax Gourd seeds!]

What a lucky day!

Ina wanted to take out the Sacred Oak Wine Barrel to have a look, but she was prompted that there was not enough space currently, taking out the wine barrel might damage other furniture, was she sure to take it out?

She was standing behind the bar in the restaurant, and indeed, the space here was a bit narrow, so she found an empty room and took out the Sacred Oak Wine Barrel again.

The giant light brown oak barrel was more than two meters high, with a capacity of 2000l.

[Sacred Oak Wine Barrel: The top-grade oak-made wine barrel. The sacred oak that has received the blessings of the wine god can greatly reduce the fermentation time of the wine, and the wine produced has a smooth taste. The long-lasting elegant oak aroma gives the wine various layers of flavor: a faint almond aroma, the scent of caramel and vanilla, and the light ripe fruit aroma of autumn. The several aromas are elegantly coordinated, never overwhelming, and together they achieve the most delicate and full-bodied wine.]

wow, could there be wine in the Dragon Flame Restaurant? Ina's eyes lit up, but such a large barrel needed a considerable amount of raw materials, she couldn't just brew enough wine to barely cover the bottom of the barrel. Now, the malt for brewing beer is quite easy to obtain, as long as the barley is bought in Neranka to turn malted.

But this precious brewing barrel would be better suited for making wine. Where could she get some grapes? She didn't seem to recall seeing any shops selling grapes in Neranka.

Just then, the system reminded her,[[Tea Tree Forest] is maturing. Please note to pick in time!]

There was a prompt when the tea trees matured. Ina pushed the window open to look at the backyard, where the tea seedlings that were originally only calf-high were now as tall as a person. The fresh, tender tea leaves shone as if they had been washed in water.

The maturity period of the tea forest was as long as 30 days. Ina was quite confused about the maturity period, "Does it mean that the tea leaves will maintain their best maturity within 30 days and will not age due to growth?"

The system denied her guess:[It means that the tea trees will mature once a day for these thirty days.]

Ina suddenly realized: she knew it! The apple tree (fruiting period) she had drawn from the Lucky Draw Pool was laden with fruit when it was planted, and until now, the number of fruits on it hadn't decreased. Before Little Anty finished work, she would pick all the apples, and Ina had even given her a lot to take home because she couldn't consume them all.

"Why don't other plants have this feature?"

[Of course, it's because the tea seedlings and the apple tree are rare prizes drawn from the pool~]

This made sense, after all, a fruiting apple tree had a three-star rating. Although the tea seedlings were only one star, they were numerous and needed to grow from small seedlings, so it was natural for them to be rated lower than the apple tree.

Ina remembered that she had just drawn a sapling,[Hawthorn Tree (Fruiting Period)★★1].

She planted the hawthorn tree in the backyard and looked to the side. Xavier, who was assigned to reclaim the wasteland in the backyard, was leaning against the wall staring blankly at the sky. Not far away, a skeleton covered in white was continuously breaking up clods of soil with a hoe.

Xavier had tried many methods and had confirmed that he could not leave the backyard until he had reclaimed the wasteland as Ina had asked. Moreover, he was incredibly unlucky now, with a 60% chance of hitting his foot with the hoe, so he had no choice but to summon his carefully nurtured skeleton, whose combat power was comparable to an intermediate warrior, to help him reclaim the wasteland.

Hiring this employee was really worth it, it was like buy one get one free.

[Due to excessive spell failure, Xavier has a splitting headache and his affection for you decreases by 20 points]

??? What did this have to do with her?

Ina handed Xavier two baskets, "Pick the tea leaves over there. Put the tender buds in this small basket, and the tender leaves in the larger one."

Xavier's eyes were vacant, but he sprung up and took the two baskets towards the tea forest.

Oh god! Someone save him!