Chapter 43

—–

Today was a rather beautiful day, the sun was shining brightly atop the vast blue sky, there was not a single cloud, and it seems that there couldn’t be a better day to go out and forage in the forest.

Looking for a hunt wasn’t all that my father did with me in these days, we also looked for things we could gather. Mushrooms, seeds, wild berries, fruits, herbs, and so on, anything that could be of any value or that could be eaten.

There is a large variety of wild mushrooms around, although most of them lack any magical properties and cannot really be good at alchemy and mostly serve as good food ingredients or… poison.

The same could be said for the wild herbs in this place. There’s nothing special but some are good at treating specific things, such as calming down fever, helping with indigestion, or even doing some good for stomachache.

Although these herbs are not magical, I had thought about certain recipes for potions that could use them, maybe I could make very lesser Health Potions with them, and use the Alchemy Skill to enhance their rarity… This is why I’ve been collecting them whenever I saw them.

I had thought about doing something similar to Potions, but different at the same time. Pills which can also be refined through alchemy, but require a completely different technique. Pills can harbor more effects than Potions can, but due to this, they have a stronger effect on the body that might affect it negatively if eaten excessively…

However, they can be consumed faster than Potions, as they’re small candy-sized consumable items that can be easily eaten. Their effects would take place right after swallowing them, and they could bring explosive changes in the body temporarily… or permanently.

Due to these things, even if the ingredients are not magical, a good alchemist such as myself can still make out something good with them. As long as I had spirit orbs to add to the mix, of course.

I’ve collected a fair amount too, and I’ve absorbed a few during this time too, increasing my stats by mostly one random digit at a time. By consuming them, I feel like my spirit orb is being nourished, but it seems that the cultivation of a spirit orb is also closely related with the level of the spirit.

Spirits have levels after all, just like the spirit master, and it all correlates together. Spirit orb rank and cultivation, spirit level, and spirit master level, if all three conditions are meet, then the spirit orb rank will increase, which might bring even more changes.

Currently at level 0, I cannot do much, and Eleanora herself is also at Level 0, although she had been earning shared EXP from my hunts and vice versa, so we are at a similar amount of EXP. Whenever I level up, she’s most likely going to level up as well.

We foraged around the forest and quickly came upon a new herb I had not seen before.

It was purple in color with red-colored flowers. It was beautiful and stood out from the grass.

It was growing below a tree, right above what seemed to be a roting piece of wood.

“Oh, that herb… Watch out, Blake, that one is dangerous. It is a very venomous herb, even touching it might make your hands scorch for a while…” my father warned.

“What’s the name of this herb?” I wondered.

“Its called Snake’s Tongue, I believe. It is a venomous herb, but I’ve heard that the flower can be used to make potions that enhance physical strength explosively for some time… I believe Adventurers use them to enhance their power in battle, the after effect is dizziness… I believe.” He replied.

“Oh, interesting… Qi Coating.” I remarked.

I quickly coated my hands with Qi and pulled out the herb, looking at it, it emanated a strong citric scent.

“W-What are you doing? I told you that it was going to scorch your hands- Eh?” my father quickly realized nothing was happening to me.

“Don’t worry about it, sir, your son is very talented. He covered his hands in Mana to grab the herb without any problems!” Eleanora assured, backing me up.

“I-Is that so? I didn’t know such a thing could be done…” said my father hesitantly.

“It was hard to learn but I figured it out…” I explained opening a leather bag and throwing the herb inside. This bad was special, it was infused with Runes of my own creation using the Space Magic spell “Pocket Space”, effectively making this little and inconspicuous bag into an Inventory with an internal space inside, the items are stored in slots, and currently I can only make bags with a maximum of ten slots, but that’s enough.

Of course, Pocket Space Runes can only store inert objects. I infused them into an item and made it into an Inventory Bag because using the spell alone will destroy the pocket space and whatever I throw inside. Living things cannot go in, and certain objects that might be too strong will get spit out. It is a low-level Space-Attribute spell after all, not as perfect as a true Storage Spell, such as Dimensional Storage.

This is why newbie magicians make Runes out of this spell and infuse them into a bag, effectively creating such an item. I had already shown this special bag to my family, but I didn’t wanted it to become widespread, and said it was something that I found out while foraging in the forest, sometimes things can be found lying on the forest’s floor after all, which used to belong to someone else that died there.

It would be problematic if it becomes widespread that I can create such a valuable item so easily. Unlike Mana Potions that are a staple everywhere, spatial storage bags are incredibly rare, it might bring me more trouble than opportunities… for now.

“That bag is pretty useful, I have to admit it.” Said my father.

—–