The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Chapter 283: Natural Adhesive Glue (Second Update)
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The species of poisonous bees was unknown, and nobody cared about exactly what type of poisonous bees they were, as Dou Qi burst forth in spurts and limbs flew chaotically. When the sunset was about to fall below the horizon, almost all the poisonous bees had perished.

Even the beehive was split open, and the hidden bee queen was found and directly pinched to death.

Only a small number of poisonous bees flew away. According to bee behaviors, they would likely linger around here for a few days until they were sure the beehive no longer existed before they would completely leave.

“Teacher Marcus, remember to warn all serfs not to come over to this area,”

“Understood, my lord,”

At this moment, Lasse suddenly shouted, “My lord, it’s honey, there is honey inside this beehive!”

“Is there really honey?” Liszt lifted his visor and looked through the broken face of the beehive that Lasse had pried open. Indeed, he saw golden, glistening honey, exuding a faintly tempting sweet fragrance.

He pried deeper with his hand and discovered that many honeycombs contained white larvae.

These were bee pupae.

They were about as thick as an index finger and as long as a thumb, plump in size.

Seeing these white bee pupae almost made Liszt drool; he had tasted stir-fried bee pupae before, which were savoury, crispy, and delicious. Moreover, bee pupae contained high protein, low fat, various vitamins, and trace elements, making them a very nourishing ingredient. Now, this beehive, a person and a half tall, could yield at least ten pounds of bee pupae.

There was food!

“Lasse, Griffin, lift the beehive and carry it back! The honey and bee pupae inside are all good stuff, I want them,”

“Yes, my lord!”

The two of them said so and began to move the beehive, but they could not lift it, their faces turning beet red with the effort.

“Haven’t you eaten?” Marcus asked incredulously.

An Earth Knight’s strength, although not boundless, was at least several times that of an average adult. Lifting a poisonous beehive that weighed less than five hundred pounds should not have been so strenuous.

At this comment, Lasse’s face turned even redder.

He exerted all his strength, and his Dou Qi ran wildly, finally causing the beehive to wobble.

Griffin, who was lifting with him, suddenly discovered the problem, “Captain Marcus, it seems like the beehive is stuck to the trunk of the tree here, as if glued by something. No wonder we cannot move it.”

“Stuck?” Liszt also went over to inspect the part where the beehive and the tree trunk were connected and indeed saw, as Griffin had said, some white substance tightly bonding the two, which could not be pulled apart, “Could it be the sap secreted by the tree, with such strong adhesive properties?”

Following the white substance upward, it originated from where Lasse had previously cut off a branch, leaving a lot of sap, which had flowed down here and then dried and solidified.

It seemed even stickier than 502 glue.

“Glue… solidified…” Liszt felt that this substance was very unusual and, if utilized, could have a wide range of potential uses.

At that moment, Marcus had already drawn his Fine Steel Longsword and aimed it at the bonded area, striking with his sword.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Three strikes in a row only cracked a small slit into the white material, showing no signs of coming apart.

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“Chop a few more times with your Dou Qi, Teacher Marcus,” Liszt indicated for Marcus not to stop and to continue swinging his sword to test the strength of the sap’s adhesion.

Marcus did as told.

He surged his Dou Qi, and a cyan light clung to the longsword. Targeting the white substance, he struck fiercely—crack! This strike finally split the white material apart, completely detaching the wasp nest from the tree trunk: “What is this thing so hard that I had to use all my strength to cut it down?”

“It’s the sap that’s flowing down from the tree. Teacher Marcus, Lasse, Griffin, we might have found something even better,” Liszt said, pointing at the tree in front of them with a smile.

The tree was a kind of ordinary mixed tree that Liszt had studied when he landed on Black Horse Island for the second time in search of dragon bones. The trunk was straight, and the branches were high up and not lush, bearing no flowers or fruit, nor did it grow very tall. When he had first arrived before the New Year, the leaves were only slightly yellow, but now they had turned completely yellow.

The conclusion he had reached then was that it was a deciduous tree, quite ordinary, probably suitable for timber use.

He had even planned to cut down all the mixed trees near the pasture to expand the cultivation area of the grass once he had enough hands. Now it seemed fortunate that he hadn’t cut them down, for trees that could secrete such a potent glue were clearly gifts from nature.

The sun was setting in the west.

Liszt was in no rush to return, as there were no magical beasts on the island, and hence no dangers. “Griffin, chop at the tree trunk with your sword.”

“Yes, my lord!”

With one strike, the tree bark split open.

About a minute passed, and then a white sap started to ooze from the split. Liszt collected some with a stick and then stuck it to the tree trunk, occasionally shaking it to judge the speed of the sap’s adhesion. Exposed to the air for about five minutes, the sap began to solidify.

Once solidified, it was nearly indestructible.

“The effect is very strong. Do you see its use?” he asked proudly, with a hint of showing off—this tree’s sap was undoubtedly a natural adhesive, and judging by its durability after congealing, it was definitely comparable to rubber, essentially a hybrid of rubber and 502 glue.

The importance of rubber was unquestionable, and the uses of 502 glue were also very significant.

The combination of the advantages of both clearly made a more valuable natural glue.

However, the trio of Marcus didn’t quite realize this point so quickly, hence they seemed a bit confused.

Griffin even replied earnestly, “Maybe it can glue two things together? It seems a bit troublesome, my lord. The serfs might end up gluing their axes to the tree trunks when cutting down trees.”

“Cutting trees?”

“That, my lord, aren’t you planning to cut down all the trees on the island to expand the grassland area?”

“That was the old plan, but now it has changed, we need the pastures, but we need these trees even more!” Liszt stated definitively, “It seems you did not understand what I just said; the sap of this tree is a good thing, a very good thing. In my view, it’s more valuable than gold.”

“More valuable than gold?”

“The sap can be used directly as a glue to bond things. For example, when a cooper makes a barrel, with this glue, simply sticking two planks together would make a perfect seal that won’t loosen or leak. It would seem a waste to use it just for barreling, it might be suitable for bonding weapons.”

Liszt calmed his excitement and continued, “Of course, we first need to determine its properties: its durability, whether it’s fire-resistant or water-resistant, how to collect and store it, and so on…”

As he said this.

He suddenly remembered that the Smoke Mission had been completed and that his Elf Bug was due to arrive. While letting Marcus and the others study the properties of the natural glue, he silently summoned the Smoke Mission.

However, he found that the content of the mission hadn’t changed, and the task of clearing the wasp nest had not yet been completed.

“It seems that I need to wait until all the wasps have flown away and the danger is completely removed for the task to be considered complete, but this tree and this mission…” Looking at the trunk and thinking about the mission, he felt there might be a connection between the two: “Could it be that my tenth Elf Bug is related to this type of tree?”

He quickly activated his Eye of Magic and began to examine the big tree before him. As his gaze moved to the canopy at the top of the trunk, a flash of magic power flitted across his field of vision.