Britannia
Time ever passed as its nature; Emery decided to stay in the settlement called Mistshire for the meantime. He postponed his thoughts of finding out more about the marauders' chief, Padraig and who was the mastermind behind the attack.
For now, he spent time helping Granny maintaining the herb garden and learning how to make various potions. Granny observed the young Emery and grew increasingly fond of him since his ability in caring for the plants and natural talent in potion-making was a cut above Lanzo. Due to her growing trust in Emery, she gave more and more tasks to him and in return, Emery's understanding of the plant element and concocting potions resulted in him gaining knowledge more than he had ever expected. Fortunately, Lanzo didn't seem to mind it one bit and continued on his own business in gathering plants and helping Granny with various tasks.
In his first month of staying in the Mistshire settlement, Emery had started to know more about the plant element and eventually mastered the initial stages of plant spirit; with that came a sense of connection with the plants. He could feel the flow of spirit in each plant that had some unique energy in them. With that in mind, he had started experimenting with the moisture, sun, fertilizer, etc. In time, Emery's methods had improved the quality of these herbs. Not only Granny's medicinal plants but when he also started mentioning to Granny and Lanzo these methods, they shared it with some of the Mitshire residents' vegetable and fruit fields, which proved to be most effective.
Two more months passed, the air was getting chilly and some of the trees were starting to die from the coldness. Emery was starting to see his breath in each exhalation. He was wearing thick fur made from various animal skins, the same as the other residents to combat the increasing coldness. He wasn't worried about the upcoming winter though since the most recent improvements with the vegetable and fruit fields resulted in a large harvest.
This morning, Emery was actually more excited at the thought of how he had just penetrated the barrier of his cultivation that was now the middle stage for the plant element.
[Congratulations! You have mastered the middle stage foundation of plant elements.]
[Spirit Energy - plant - middle stage]
[Emery Ambrose]
[16 years old]
[Spirit Aptitude B]
[Spirit Affinity: Plant, Water, Earth, Darkness]
[Plant Spirit - middle stage]
[Water Spirit - Initial stage]
[Earth Spirit - Initial stage]
[Darkness Spirit - Inestimable]
[Battle power 16 (11)]
[Spirit power 32 (21)]
[Acolyte Rank 2]
Because he had been working with plants that involved tilling the soil and watering them every morning and evening, he also successfully mastered the basic spirit understanding for both the water and earth elements.
As for darkness though, Emery had no clue how to begin cultivating it. He had once tried staying in a nearby cave, which was fortunately uninhabited, but it was for naught. Its darkness didn't help one bit, so he couldn't help feeling a bit behind the rest of the other acolytes, including his friends located in different parts of this world, in the Magus Academy even though he had no idea how they were doing. He half-blamed it due to his low aptitude, but whatever the cause was, Emery placed it at the back of his mind and determinedly focused on what was improving at the moment instead.
Although a total of three months had passed, Emery still decided not to pursue the marauders. He could still remember as if it was yesterday how he had almost died again fighting against the two adult marauders. Of course, those men would be just the lackeys, the lowest of the bunch, if so, then how much stronger would the chief be? It would be too difficult for him to fight with them at this time but as long as he was alive, revenge would never be too old.
Earlier before sunrise, Emery had attempted to use the spells he had bought in the Magus Guild inside the cave. Unfortunately, however, even after mastering the initial stages of the water and earth, he still hadn't been able to use the two spells he had. Another reason not to pick a fight with the marauder group for now, so finally Emery continued focusing on cultivating the elements, especially the plant element.
Emery proceeded to head to the herb garden, wanting to try out his rare spell that was of the plant affinity. After making sure he was alone and no one hiding by the trees, he plucked out one bunch of round black fruits that was called elderberry.
[Fragmentation]
Slowly, the medicinal fruit withered and secreted a dark liquid, which was floating in the air. Emery hurriedly grabbed a clay pot lying nearby and pointed his finger to the clay pot where the dark liquid dripped into before looking around the area again, making sure no one had seen him. At the same time, his palm glowed and issued various notifications in his mind.
[One essence found]
[Elder berry essence]
A good deal of knowledge about how the essence could be used entered his mind and Emery started to feel more close to these plants. Aside from feeling joyful that the spell was working, Emery smiled at the plants, which he could somewhat feel were giving a vibrant good aura. Since it was in his nature to experiment as well, he began plucking the other plants that weren't in the database and with each usage of the fragmentation, it felt like the plants were being used in accordance to their purpose.
He then picked up a mushroom that had a red cap with yellow spots. Emery remembered that this plant was actually poisonous, but Granny told him that in order to counteract the poison inside the people who had accidentally eaten stuff like these, they have to know the properties and what would work against them.
[Unidentified medicinal plant]
[Unknown properties]
[Fragmentation]
It withered the same as the elderberry but this time, two different colored essences came out of the mushroom.
[Two essences found]
Instantly, a list of the mushroom's functions and specific properties entered Emery's mind. He was over the moon when another notification came into his mind.
[Unidentified herb rank 1 data received. You are awarded 10 contribution points]
When he had first found this, what he only received was only one point but now that he used fragmentation to learn more about the mushroom, he received ten times the amount for the same plant! Granted that even knowing the properties of a plant, it didn't mean he had the understanding how to apply or use this knowledge properly. So, he still had to test it out on how to use these essences. With the help of the science of fragmentation, however, that would eliminate unnecessary trials and errors.
Emery hurriedly picked up the other plants he had previously discovered as unidentified first and foremost, and continuously used fragmentation on them.
[Unidentified herb rank 1 data received. You are awarded 10 contribution points]
[You are awarded 10 contribution points]
[...]
[Total contribution points: 140]
Dusk was arriving, but he finally finished using fragmentation on all the plants in the garden as well as in the forest. His next course of action was to check out the dried herbs stored inside the storage room Granny had lying around. He wasn't sure if the dried one would have some additional essence or something but based on how Granny kept some of them dried while others were fresh, there should be some difference in the essences. Emery made sure that only one of each would be used for the fragmentation since these plants were not cultivated inside the medicinal garden. He particularly focused on the ones that had become powder or extremely dried up.
[Unidentified herb rank 1 data receive - incomplete - you are awarded with 3 contribution points]
Even though he only got unsubstantiated points, Emery was not disappointed, he was sure that there were hundreds or even thousands of plants in this world that could give him more points.
Emery tried fragmentation on dozens of other plants in the storage room, which gave him additional contribution points. As he looked for more herbs that he hadn't used fragmentation yet, he then remembered the ingredients in the special storage basket. The use of this ingredient was extremely limited but the temptation was too strong for Emery not to use fragmentation on it even though he and Lanzo had been reminded several times in handling this valuable ingredient.
He lifted open the basket's lid and carefully placed down the boxes on the floor. There were a few ingredients in the boxes but one in particular ingredient caught Emery's eyes the most. It was the bluish powder that Granny sometimes used to calm down a person's high body temperature. Emery pinched a bit of the power and when he used fragmentation, the information he received surprised him before the blue power turned into brownish dust.
[Unidentified herb rank 2 data received - incomplete - you are awarded with 30 contribution points]
Thirty contribution points and the first rank two herb Emery had ever seen, and it was ten times more valuable from the other dried herbs and at least three times more than the fresh herbs he had picked! As information about how this rank two herb flooded his field of view, Emery's mind went into a fast track on how he could make use and combine it with the other herbs lying around.
Feeling more excited than ever, he started experimenting with it but still made use of it sparingly.