YM778.TV Chapter 239 - 239: Medicinal Field
The bamboo building next to the herb field was constructed from purple bamboo. Each bamboo stalk radiated a crystalline glimmer, semi-transparent, appearing as if made from Purple Crystal.
Song Jian stepped onto the bamboo building. The steps underneath his feet creaked slightly, revealing an elasticity that suggested their durability.
Most of the other bamboo buildings in the village had collapsed. The few that remained had started to decay and it wasn’t long before they, too, would become ruins. However, this Purple Bamboo Pavilion gave an impression of being freshly constructed, still carrying a sense of “freshness”.
Once inside the pavilion, Song Jian first spotted a skeleton seated on a bamboo chair. The skeleton appeared to belong to a human, but it had a foot-long horn on its head and there were bone spurs about two or three feet long on its arms. There was even a bony tail trailing behind the chair.
“Could this be the remains of a Cantru person?” Song Jian stared at the skeleton for a long time before he was finally sure it was remains, not some sort of monster.
Next to the skeleton on a table, there were three bamboo boxes, all covered in dust, evidently having been there for a long time.
Song Jian quickly proceeded to the table and opened the boxes one by one.
In the first box, there was a medicine spade. The handle was made of purple bamboo, the blade was fine iron – surprisingly, it was a silver-quality tool.
“Purple Bamboo Spade (Silver), Medicine Gathering tool, Equipment effect: Strength +1, Medicine Gathering speed +4.0%, Medicine Gathering success rate + 8, Medicine Gathering Skill +2. Equipment requirement: Medicine Gathering Skill Level 3. Can it be taken out of the game: No.”
“Just as I was thinking about needing a pillow for sleep, they hand me one; Just as 1 was worried about the low efficiency of gathering herbs by hand, here’s a medicine spade! Ha ha!” Song Jian was quite pleased. He took out the Purple Bamboo Spade and put it in his bag.
With this Purple Bamboo Spade, he would be able to collect the herbs in the field without damaging them. Without it, nearly all of them would be wasted.
He could imagine that the herbs in the field would be far more precious than those growing in the forest. It would be such a pity to waste them like he did before.
He opened the second box to find two scrolls. Upon unrolling them, he found they were Alchemy recipes for “Slow Medicine” and “Fire Lizard Medicine”.
Medicine Recipe: Slow Medicine; upon use, it can produce Slow Medicine; Requirement: Mastery of Alchemy; Slow Medicine: Can be thrown at targets within a six-meter range, slowing the movement speed by 30% and attack speed by 30% of all targets within three meters for 60 seconds;
Medicine Recipe: Fire Lizard Medicine; upon use, it can produce Fire Lizard Medicine; Requirement: Mastery of Alchemy; Fire Lizard Medicine: Changes the user’s and surrounding team members’ attack attributes to Fire, causing a certain chance of triggering a Burn effect upon attacking, lasts for 60 seconds.
Acquiring two more Medicine recipes, the Slow Medicine could decrease the target’s attack speed. Combined with Song Jian’s “Rapid Sword” skill, it could create a crushing attack effect and decrease the target’s movement speed, making it impossible for the targets to escape.
The Fire Lizard Medicine could increase his own attack attribute. Ordinary physical attacks could also become Fire attribute attacks. If he had used the Fire Lizard Medicine when hunting the Necromancer Witch earlier, the Witch’s “Etherealization” skill effect would have been greatly diminished, making the battle much easier.
Song Jian picked up the two recipes and learned them directly. The Slow Medicine’s main ingredient is Blue Rat Grass, while the Fire Lizard Medicine requires Flame Flower. Both herbs were present in the herb field he had seen earlier.
Upon opening the third bamboo box, a look of surprise flashed in Song Jian’s eyes.
In this box, there were three golden herbs. They were not golden in grade, but the entire herb radiated a golden light, as if they were made of pure gold.
“What a treasure! Having been preserved for so long, even if they do not attain the golden grade, the difference can’t be much. It would be beneficial even if consumed as is, without making into a potion!” A smile emerged on Song Jian’s face as he reached out to grab the three herbs.
However, the moment his fingers touched the herbs, there was a soft pop sound. The three herbs surprisingly turned into a pile of ashes that scattered within the bamboo box.
Song Jian’s expression instantly turned sour. These herbs had been here for too long. Although they seemed intact, they had in fact decayed. As soon as he opened the bamboo box, they turned to dust. He examined the golden powder with his fingers. It was slick and lacked any vitality.
Shaking his head, Song Jian sighed and casually tossed the third bamboo box back onto the table.
Having obtained a silver-quality medicine spade and two alchemy recipes, his luck could be considered pretty good. It would seem that he didn’t have any fate with the three golden herbs.
Having searched thoroughly without finding anything else of interest, Song Jian turned to leave the bamboo building and headed towards the herb field.
The two-acre herb field had been artificially divided into several patches, within which the herbs grew luxuriantly, some even taller than a human. As he approached the field, he already smelled the strong scent of the herbs.
At the edge of the field grew a large plot of Blue Rat Grass, roughly amounting to over a hundred plants. Carrying his Purple Bamboo Spade, Song Jian began to dig them out one by one.
With the silver-quality Purple Bamboo Spade, Song Jian’s gathering went smoothly, with the gathering experience contributing significantly.
After spending over an hour, Song Jian managed to collect all of the Blue Rat Grass. His Medicine Gathering Skill also smoothly leveled up to four. With the additional boost from the Purple Bamboo Spade, Song Jian’s Medicine Gathering Skill had reached Level Six.
With all the 113 plants of Blue Rat Grass collected without a single failure, Song Jian was slightly surprised. The difference between having the Purple Bamboo Spade and not having it was quite significant.
After emptying the plot of Blue Rat Grass, Song Jian moved towards the Flame Flowers. The two new recipes he received required these two herbs as the main ingredients. In order to improve his Alchemy, he needed to prioritize their collection.
Gathering herbs is a dull task. If an average player was to repeat this monotonous work, they’d probably go insane. Many players couldn’t stick to collecting wood and stones in the past. Some even haven’t completed their first main quest yet.
But Song Jian was still persisting, just like how he handed out flyers in the real world. Every day, he needed to hand out three thousand flyers; he wouldn’t rest unless all were distributed. This kind of work, he continued for over a month. If it wasn’t because of this game, he would probably still be distributing flyers daily;
A few hours later, Song Jian had gathered from the fifth plot of the herb field, levelled his gathering skill up to five. Level five Gathering Skill, efficiency increase by 25%, gathering speed by 10%, success rate +3. With the additional two levels provided by the Purple Bamboo Spade, Song Jian’s Gathering Skill had reached level seven;
Just as Song Jian was done gathering from the fifth plot, and was on his way towards the sixth area, the goblin merchant Canaan appeared by the herb field.
Gazing at the robust herbs in front of him, Canaan opened his mouth wide, looking astonished. He blankly stared at the few small plots of herb fields left.