Chương 132: The Royal Demand (V)
"Hey guys, give me a moment." Zero walked up to the new plant beside the tree. With his herbology skill, he successfully gathered the new plants without destroying them in their natural state.
Rosemary was acquired. It is a great culinary ingredient to spice up the flavor of any dish and has additional healing properties.
"Agnis. I got some ingredients for you to cook for us." Zero was busily picking up more herbs. He was going around picking up more and more.
"What kind?" asked Agnis.
"Rosemary."
"Rosemary. Sweet! I know a couple of dishes I could try out with that."
"What are you doing?" Zeraph asked, perplexed at Zero actions.
"Collecting edible plants. Some of these we can use to make food with. Agnis has a second job as a cook." Zero replied. He pulled out his stone mortar and sat down.
"Agnis cooks? Really?!" Jack said with excitement. "I haven't met many cooks in the game. What kind of dishes can you make?"
"Everything." Agnis proudly stated.
"She fails half the time," Zero loudly reported back to the group while he was picking more plants.
"No, I don't. My cooking skills have a 60% chance of success now."
"That's great. Now we don't have to eat your failed dishes any more." Zero teased.
"Those dishes are god sent. You should never waste food."
"I don't want to die."
"Hmph." Agnis folded her arms in disapproval.
At that moment, an idea struck Zero's mind, "I just thought of something I have to try. You guys give me a moment." Zero rummaged through his bag, pulling out different plants that he knew were considered safe. Then, using a couple of combinations, he put them into the mortar and ground them together.
You have failed.
You have failed.
You have failed.
You were successful in creating a small health pellet that recovers 500 hp.
"It worked." Zero eyes sparkled with joy. He forgot that combining different plants could make medicine.
You have learned the skill to create Herbal Medicine using herbs.
Creation of Herbal Medicine
Beginner level 1
Using different combinations of herbs, plants, roots, trees, and even animals, one can create different tonics, pills, teas, potions, and many more.
"What worked?" asked Agnis as she looked over his shoulder.
"This." Zero held the medicine that looked like a brown pellet ball in his hand. "Our possible lifesaver." His mind went into overdrive; he had already thought of the thousands of different combinations he could try.
"That is?" asked Jack. He leaned in to see what Zero had in his hand. "It looks like hamster pellet food."
"Nope. It's medicine. The next closest thing to a potion." he proudly showed off to them.
Zeraph took medicine off his hands. "It's barely worth eating. You must eat a thousand of these before your health could recover to half."
"It is just the first product. I haven't tried many other things out there yet." Zero said with slight disappointment in his voice.
"Let's get on our way. I personally don't have all day to be playing," said Zeraph. He took the Health Pellet and stashed it in his bag.
He still took the Health Pellet; Zero smirked. He grabbed more plants that were on the ground. His identifying skills in Herbology had increased to the point where he only had to pick up the plant to understand if the plant was edible, poison, or a dud.
Traveling through the Forgotten Forest near the road helped the group travel quicker. In addition, they did not meet large swarms except on rare occasions; most of the time, the monsters were low-level creatures.
At times they met travelers, merchants, and mercenaries, where they exchanged quick words, but those were on rare occasions. Instead, Zero was busily gathering as many plants as possible so that later on, he could create more pellets.
"How much further until we get out of here?" asked Jack.
"Well, according to the map, we're about halfway there," said Zero.
"Only halfway?" Jack groaned. He wasn't too keen on staying in the forest any longer. "Ugh, Alan, why didn't you bring your horse and carriage so we can get there faster."
"I would love to, but it's not possible when crossing the valley. The terrain is too uneven."
"Anybody got anything to lighten the mood? This dreary atmosphere is making everything seem so serious."
"We could tell stories?" replied Agnis. "Or some News that's been going on in the world."
"Actually, I was wondering what's been going on with the murder case at the College," asked Jack. "We could have lost our lives on that day."
"What do you mean murder case?" Alan asked. He was not sure what they were talking about.
"Yea. Zeraph, Jack, Zero, and a couple others stumbled upon a crime scene while it was happening. We were lucky that we got away before something happened to us," said Agnis. "Lately, they've called this the Posture Art Serial murder case. You know those strange poses that the murders have been found in that we have heard about? Apparently, they're saying it's done by the same person."
"You're saying that masked man." Zero shivered, remembering the day they were sent to do a real-world quest. He had never met such an overpowering aura before till that day. His senses were completely overdriven, telling him that the man in the mask was no ordinary man.
"Yes. There have been more Posture Art murder cases around the U.S. Some are just copycats, but the genuine ones are his signature murders. What was the madman's purpose in even being at the college anyways? Why would he go to a high-profile place in the first place?"
"Posture Art Murder cases? What? Why such a weird name?" said Alan.
"Probably because they're all in some kind of weird poses."
Everybody was in deep thought. Alan spoke up first, "What were you guys doing there anyways? Where were you all going to the same school when this happened?"
"We don't go to that particular school; it's just that that school was where the Quest took place. We had a Real World Quest handed to us at the time." Zero leaned over to snatch a plant he noticed while walking. "My theory is that he was purposely there for a reason. To be a hindrance."
"To who? Us?" asked Agnis. "What benefit would this masked man get from stopping us?"
"That I'm not sure, but remember how I told you I had an Easter Egg, right."
"Yea, what about it?"
"It was a Hidden Quest. An Angel Quest."
"An Angel's Quest? Is there such a thing?"
Zero nodded, "If I remember correctly. The Quest asked me to stop the masked man by stealing his round obsidian stone."
"So, did you succeed?" Alan quickly asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Yes."
"What did you do with the stone?" Zeraph asked. He quietly listened to their conversation until he finally jumped in when Zero was speaking about the Angel Quest.
"I threw it into a pond and played skipping stones with it." Zero flat-out spoke.
"You did what? All that trouble to gain a stone, and you threw it away." Zeraph was shocked at what Zero said.
"I felt like I had to. I know the stone gave off a negative feeling, and I didn't want it anywhere near me. So it's best forgotten." Zero did not like how the stone felt when he had it in his hands. The stone gave off a static shock that shocked him repeatedly throughout the whole time he had it.
"Have you thought it could possibly be used for something?" Zeraph asked. He was still appalled at what Zero had done.
In actuality, Zero did not want to know what the stone could be used for. The message on his Alive gear at that time told him it was not good having a cursed object near him, but he didn't tell them any more than he had to.
"This conversation went too serious." Jack replied, "It fits perfectly with the surrounding mood of this forest. I asked for something to lighten our mood, not darken it even more."
"Well, nobody spoke up, and everyone went with the flow. At least we're almost out of the Forgotten Forest."
"You know, this is off tangent, but I heard from the locals there is some kind of Leprechaun sanctuary in the Forgotten Forest," chimed Alan. "There's supposed to be pots of gold as far as the eye can see." His eyes twinkled at the thought of a mountain of gold. "How about we search for the rumor when we are done with the quest?"
"Who did you hear such a ridiculous rumor from?" Jack couldn't help but scoff at Alan's words.
"Want to bet 5 gold?" Alan retorted back, scowling at Jack.
"Sure. I'll add 10 gold."
"Deal," Jack pulled his beard, twirling it around his fingers. "Leprechauns, in the forgotten forest? More like ghouls and ghosts would love to live here than happy-go-lucky Leprechauns. Think about this landscape with goofy-looking old men with red beards and green clothes about three feet tall. It would be quite a contradiction in itself."
"Jack," Zero called out to Jack, trying to stop him in his rant.
"Shouldn't a pot of gold be at the end of the rainbow? I don't see a rainbow a mile away. The closest thing to a Leprechaun would be us Dwarves."
"Jack," Zero spoke out louder. This time it caught Jack's attention.
"What?" Jack turned around towards the direction where Zero was pointing.
"My word-"
Alan stretched his hands towards Jack, motioning for him to pay up.
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