Back at his father's office, Yoshi was amazed that Andrea was able to organize everything down to the smallest details.
"Andrea, you did an excellent job here," he said. "But I still have more that I need to ask of you."
"Anything, my Lord."
"Tell me everything you know about Lord Sylvanus and the Eastlands," Yoshi said. "I promised to have a plan by dawn tomorrow so I need you to lay out all the information for me. Hopefully, something sticks out."
She bit her lip before starting to respond.
"Well, he is a cousin to your father and his biggest rival," Andrea said. "His land is filled with Iron and coal which made him very rich and powerful because iron and coal are vital for creating weapons but his farms are almost as depleted as ours."
"I'm curious, what is the price of Iron, coal, wood and grain on the open market?" Remus asked.
"Wood is one bronze coin per unit, Grain is one silver coin or ten bronze coins per unit, Iron is five silver coins or half a gold coin per unit and coal is three silver, coins per unit."
"What else do you know about him? Are there any rumours?" Yoshi asked. "What have you heard?"
"All I know is that he's very ruthless and always gets his way regardless of common law," Andrea said. "That's what everybody says about him."
"Thank you, I think I know what to do now," Yoshi said. "First, I need to acquire a lot of wood, as much as I can find."
As soon as she left. Yoshi pulled out a pencil from his inventory and some paper. He started sketching the design for chemical fertilizer, a crossbow and a steam-powered tractor.
"I hope this works," Remus said to himself.
After hours of working non-stop, the morning came and so did Julius and Ed. The two men made their way to Duke Lucian's office which served as Remus's temporary command post.
Remus took a deep breath and hoped that his plan didn't sound too crazy.
"I have a plan and both of you have very large parts to play in it," Remus said. "I know this might sound crazy but Mr Julius, how much urine do the horses and livestock produce every day?"
"How is that important?" Julius asked. "Are you making fun of me?"
"You will address Master Remus with respect," Ed said sternly. "He may be young but he speaks for the Duke."
"That's alright Ed. I'm not making fun of Julius," Yoshi replied. "It's very important."
"I apologise. They make a lot of piss but I don't know the exact amount because I never bothered to check," Julius said.
"I need you to give them as much water to drink as they want and collect as much of their urine in barrels as you can," Remus said.
"Come again?" Julius asked.
"We're going to use their urine to make fertiliser instead of manure," Remus said. "It's way more effective."
Julius sat there thinking for a moment before standing up and saying, "as you wish."
Remus wondered if he would do as he was told because much of the plan rested on his obedience.
"Captain Ed, gather your men," Remus said. "I'm going to train them to use a different weapon."
Once the soldiers were all gathered, Remus opened his inventory and pulled out a crossbow and several wooden bolts.
"This is a crossbow," Remus said. "I modified it to shoot three bolts at a time."
"You load it like this…"
As he spoke he pulled out three wooden projectiles made out of short pieces of wood with sharpened tips and loaded them into the crossbow.
"You point it at your target…"
He pointed it at a large oak tree.
"Then you pull this lever here. It's called a trigger."
The bolts leapt out of the crossbow and buried themselves firmly into the tree bark.
The soldiers inspected the bolts in the tree and marvelled at the effectiveness of such a simple weapon.
"Because it is made of wood, we can produce it without relying on iron from the Eastlands," Remus explained. "You repeat the process of loading the bolts and shoot again."
Remus reloaded and buried more bolts into the side of the tree.
"Forgive me, Master Remus," Ed said. "The weapon is formidable but won't it take too long to reload it?"
"Excellent question," Remus said. "That's why you will form shooting lines."
"What are those?" Ed asked.
"Ten men will shoot and then fall back to reload while another group of men will shoot," Remus said. "Each line of men will compensate for each other's reloading time and ensure that a bolt is fired at least once every three seconds."
"That is actually clever," Ed said.
"Hand me your sword," Remus said. "Just in case the bandits close the gap before you can finish reloading..."
Ed looked puzzled but pulled out his iron sword and handed it to Remus.
"All of you will submit your swords to me," Remus said. "I will modify them with my ability."
"Modify," Remus said.
After a flash of light, Ed's sword looked brand new. Remus handed back the sword.
Ed was surprised by how easily he could swing it.
"I also made it lighter and stronger but there was a limit to which I could adjust it's properties," Remus explained again.
Ed swung the sword at the tree and hacked it clean off in one hit. He sheathed it and grabbed Remus's hands in both of his.
"Master Remus, You have my undying gratitude."
After a few days, Remus went back to the farm and found barrels of horse and cow urine. He was relieved that the older man followed through but the smell was incredibly strong.
"Aye, you little squirt," Julius said after spotting him. "What are we going to use all this stinking piss for?"
Remus approached it and raised both his hands over the barrels.
"Modify."
After a few seconds, the smell disappeared and all that was left in the barrels were tiny bits of white granules.
"What did you do to it?" Julius asked curiously.
"I turned it into Nitrogen Fertilizer," Remus said.
"Into what?" Julius asked.
"Just spread it evenly over the soil and pour a little water on it to activate," Remus explained.
"The farms are quite large so there's a lot of ground to cover," Julius said. "You're going to need a lot more piss."
After two months, the field was booming with a harvest. The crops were plenty and strong.
"I haven't seen a harvest like this since I was a wee boy," Julius said. "I should never have doubted you. Perhaps you will make a fine Duke someday."
"When will you be ready to harvest?" Remus asked.
"In a few days," Julius said. "It's going to take a buttload of people to harvest all of this but we'll give it a good go."
"Delay it for a week," Remus said. "I need time to enact the next phase of my plan."