Frustratingly enough, around 4 weeks passed and Shane had yet to see the Lesser Starlet Fox for a second time.

He had already set up the remaining 199 reinforced taratector nets and had the spatial restriction parchment at the ready. He had tied it to one of his hands to be used instantly if the fox were to suddenly spring upon him.

It was annoying and Shane couldn't help but feel that everything he was currently doing was useless.

Yet, he was not bored due to the fact that Umbra and the whole artisan group were inside the Hidden Paradise. He was looking forward to how things would turn out with their efforts.

He neither let them do whatever they wanted to nor micromanaged by unnecessarily poking his nose in their business. Instead, Shane and the others became good friends and they talked about all kinds of things.

They were not as close to him as Fler, Aimy, Aisha, or Olivia who were the first friends he had ever gotten, but Talia and the other 7 were smart, gentle, and extremely hard working.

Their confidence had increased as well and Shane couldn't help but be proud of them.

Since they had started to cultivate the Nightshade flower field, more than 6 weeks had passed and they had already harvested the first batch of Nightshade flowers.

At the same time, the number of high-quality Nightshade flower roots had increased by 100 [Rare] and 250 [Uncommon] damaged ones.

This was perfect according to Shane, who had to consult the young students after they figured out how much they had earned from the first batch of Nightshade flowers they had cultivated.

Nightshade flowers required one month to blossom, which was after they received the additional boost of several skills that accelerated their growing process.

As such, it was shocking for them to find out that they had only earned 300 gold coins after the first month.

Shane had already expected this outcome because the biggest income source that stemmed from a high quantity of [Trash] quality Nightshade flowers was not present anymore.

There were several plans he had wanted to utilize, but to do that, the agri team in his Artisan group had to start cultivating the [Trash] Nightshade flower roots. They were experimenting with the [Trash] Nightshade flower roots to cultivate them into [Common] Nightshade flower roots first!

Based on Elyon's words, it was possible to duplicate 125x [Trash] quality Nightshade flower roots from a single unscathed [Uncommon] Nightshade flower root.

This was something he wanted to utilize, because then he would be able to receive 1250 [Trash] quality NightShade flower roots every 10 days. In the end, the mana consumption to cultivate those grain-sized roots that had been cut thrice to receive such a large number of damaged roots that could hardly recuperate was enormous.

It would be expensive and they didn't have enough funds to do something like that. It would increase his income in the long run, but it was not efficient enough for Shane who didn't want to use his precious mana for [Trash] quality Nightshade flowers.

Throughout the last several weeks, Louis and Elyon experimented a lot with the 100 Trash quality roots.

In the end, only when Clara and Mark joined them, were they able to cultivate the first few [Trash] quality roots into [Common] ones, which was the first step to learn how to cultivate flowers properly.

It was slightly expensive, but Shane had obtained a new source of income!!

With five material sets, Dyr and Han were able to create two unique ballistae, while the other three sets were miserable failures.

Those failures caused their newfound confidence which they attained thanks to Shane's motivational speech to dip a little. However, they gave their best to create two unique ballistae at the [Tier-2 (Uncommon] rank.

This astonished Shane, who expected them to create at most one [Tier-2 (Trash)] unique ballistae.

And even that had been a high expectation in itself.

Dyr and Han had been worried to let him know that they had managed to create only 2 and had wasted the materials procured for the other three. Hence, they were positively shocked to hear Shane's exhilarated voice echoing through the world.

Happy that Shane was not disappointed but rather joyous with this outcome, they couldn't help but sigh in relief.

Shane retrieved those slightly crude constructed [Tier-2 (Uncommon)] unique ballistae which he sold within the NoPainNoGain shop.

He set the price for 3,000 gold coins each because they were crudely constructed without any great aesthetic.

Fortunately, the system's assessment was enough to show everyone interested in purchasing the goods that it was in fact, a great deal.

Its aesthetics failed to represent the might it could manifest. However, Shane was still holding back with his prices, exactly because of its looks as many races liked to brag about their strong and magnificent-looking weapons.

But that was not something he had to be sad about. 6,000 gold coins were more than enough to be a profitable deal, considering that he had to pay 500 gold coins for the materials, while the two young craftsmen were still learning to hone and tune their occupational skills.

They were also not proficient with the blueprint of the unique ballistae which told Shane that they would gradually improve and become much faster as long as they had enough time.

With an income of 6,000 gold coins, he purchased 10 sets of materials for the unique ballistae before he paid everyone their salary. It made him happy to see that everyone inside the Hidden Paradise used their income to become stronger in their own field of expertise.

The farmers purchased better tools to increase the efficiency with which they tended to the flowers, soil, and fertilizer while it was also important how to cultivate the newly cut flowers.

In the end, the whole agri group utilised their funds to accelerate the pace at which they could cultivate the Nightshade flowers or increase their own efficiency.

Meanwhile, Dyr and Han had purchased a few more blueprints and lots of materials with which they wanted to increase their proficiency.

Other than that, Maya designed lots of shelters and spent her time researching how they should look and what could be improved.

She also designed normal houses, small inns, and something she called 'Nightshade-Chamber'

With the 500 gold coins she had, Maya purchased all kinds of darkened glasses and other materials after discussing everything with the others.

As such, after 6 weeks, there was a large cover hung above the Nightshade flower field. It was made of silk and the silk threads had been intertwined with a low-grade [Sunlight vortex] rune.

It sounded grand, but the effect barely allowed the whole sunlight in the surrounding of the hung coverage, which was in fact similar to a canopy, to be absorbed.

Thus, Shane was able to let the Hidden Paradise brighten up again as sunlight shone on the planet, except the area where the Nightshade flower field and everything it included was located.

Maya was proud of her achievement and she was even able to design something she had never heard of. This helped her unlock one of the hidden requirements that the [Platinum] quality Architect occupation had and everyone was happy about this.

Shane was also proud of Maya because he saw that she was working hard, while Talia was giving her best to manage the Hidden Paradise, their expenses, profits, and so on.

In the end, Shane was still at a loss, but Talia was confident that they could rapidly increase their income. In fact, Dyr and Han were the focal points of their current income owing to the fact that their occupational skills were suitable to create the unique ballistae.

They had even built a small house that had a few beds, three bathrooms, and a large living room within it.

Instead of demanding their payment, everyone wanted to improve their current capabilities and make non-combat-oriented occupations more interesting.

At the same time, they wanted to make Shane proud, without knowing that this, in fact, had happened already.

As such, he handed over all of his remaining fortune to Talia and said,

"I'll be responsible for selling everything and use my contacts to get money, but can you manage everyone's finances? If possible, purchase the blueprint for magic bolts or something with strong impact, that can be used with the unique ballista.

Other than that, you guys can do whatever you want with that money, whether it's purchasing cultivation resources for yourself or cultivating the Nightshade flower roots with it! I should return the amount of trust all of you give me by staying inside the Hidden Paradise even though it is so dangerous."

Now, Shane didn't even have a single gold coin in his possession and only 20 silver coins were left as his finances.

However, those 20 silver coins were important to activate the Dimension Portal because he had to move around 10 living beings at the same time.

There would be a few silver coins left, but it was better to have more funds than too little!

**

It was already the 52nd day of him entering the Starlight-river dimension when he saw the Lesser Starlet Fox for the second time.

Weirdly enough it approached him, thinking that it had found the toy it had played before with, once again.

Glad about the fact that he hadn't changed his position during the last few weeks, Shane could barely contain himself.

'Just come here!!.... I'll show you how a real trickster plays!'

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