Once he was in the forest Wen Zixin consciously moved according to his Stealth Skill while focusing on what Herbology told him about the flora around him. While he stalked through the forest looking for the herbs Cheng followed behind. A half-hour later Wen Zixin found one of the herbs they needed. A small plant that reminded him of mint without any fragrance. It was used to make a cream to help fight fever. Sticking his hand into the satchel he pulled out a small, specialized knife meant to help harvest smaller plants. Herbology told him that he only needed the leaves and not the whole plant. It also told him to only harvest three fifths of the leaves in order for the plant to survive to regrow. His hands moved swiftly and skillfully like he had done the same thing a thousand times before instead of never. When he had the leaves, he pulled a glass bottle from the satchel and stored the leaves before sealing them up.
User has successfully harvested 1 medical plant +1xp
A little stunned that he found a way to generate xp, he started to look forward to using his Medicine Skill. Mentally shaking himself he turned to Cheng and gave him the bottle. Taking a moment to examine it closely, Cheng gave a small nod.
“Good, good, you seem to know what you’re doing Mr. Wen. If you can keep up this quality of work, then you’ll be able to start tomorrow.”
With a new motivation, Wen Zixin continued on with finding and harvesting what was on the list. The list was on the long side, and it took the rest of the day for him to find and harvest what was needed. As they exited the forest heading back to the city the sun was beginning to dip down. When they passed through the gate, he checked his xp.
User has 75xp
Pleased with his gains, he started planning on looking through the rest of the System Menu later before he goes to bed tonight. Once they hit the city Cheng took the lead and Wen Zixin followed. On the walk back to the store the conversations on the street all revolved around the tournament. Apparently, the young master he saw on the first day with the murderhobbo guard, was doing well enough to stay in but not meeting anyone’s expectations. While the Cao Clan’s participants were steamrolling everyone they faced. Once they got back to the shop, Cheng paid Gu Fenhua for keeping his eye on the store and went inside.
“Mr. Wen give me the satchel I’ll put the herbs away, and you can put the supplies back. After that you are free to do as you please for lunch. I expect you back withing the hour so I can test if you can make medicine as well as you harvest herbs. IF that goes well then you can officially start working tomorrow.”
Wen Zixin handed the satchel over to Cheng with a nod, and while waiting for him to hand it back, Wen Zixin only had one thought. FUCKING GOALPOST MOVING DICK. After getting the satchel back he went to put it away in the back. While he was by himself, he opened the Mortal Item Menu and spent some xp to get ten copper. With enough money to actually afford some food he when to see if there was something nearby. All the street vendors on the medical street didn’t serve much more than a mouthful of heavily spiced food to help with health issues. They also charged six coppers at the cheapest for what was essentially an herbal supplement. Seeing this he decided to head to the “Herb Garden” Inn to get a decently sized meal at least. Entering the inn, he saw it was fairly crowded with several waitresses running about. HE grabbed the attention of one of them and asked about dinner.
“Honored sit dinner is noodles with some seasoned chicken added for flavor. You can sit wherever you can find an open chair. It will be five coppers for the meal, and you can pay when the food is brought to you.”
Happy with the better price for more food than the street vendors, Wen Zixin went and found and open chair. When he was waiting for his food and while he ate it, he kept an ear out to listen to the talk in the inn. While the conversation around him was still about the tournament, with people having more time to chat they were going into more detail about individual fights. Most of the details flew over his heads but it seemed that not all the opponents of the Cao Clan members survived despite the judges keeping an extra eye on them. After he finished, he headed back to Cheng’s to show his ability to make medicine. When Wen Zixin walked into the store, he found Cheng waiting behind the counter.
“Good, you didn’t take too long Mr. Wen. Now come over here and let's see if you make something from some of the herbs you gathered.”
Wen Zixin went behind the counter to join Cheng as he continued to talk.
“Under the counter you will find the instruments you need, and any herbs you need that are in the cubbies behind us. I want you to make a powder for an elderly man to be added to water to help him to sleep at night.”
Wen Zixin figured he was making Cheng some sleep medicine, so Wen Zixin reviewed the knowledge that his Medicine Skill gave him to come up with several different powders and chose one of the simplest ones to make. He quickly checked the cubbies, finding them all labeled, and made sure the herbs needed were available before pulling the instruments out from under the counter. He proceeded to make the powder, again with his body moving almost on its own, like he had done this a thousand times before. Cheng watched on with apparent interest as he worked.
User has successfully created medicine(mortal) +5xp
When the message popped up Wen Zixin was putting the powder in a tin and was extra pleased that he got more than one xp. He handed the tin over to Cheng to see if it passed mustard. Cheng took the tin and looked over the powder inside with a nod and turned to Wen Zixin.
“Alright Mr. Wen you’re officially hired. Go into the backyard to get some water from the backyard. Use the water to help clean up here and pour me a cup, you’ll find them under the counter. At night you’ll be responsible if anything happens to the store at night.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
FUCKING FINALLY! Wen Zixin nodded before heading to the back to find the backyard. When he got to the back hallway he went to the door at the far end since it was the only door he hadn’t tried. There he found a small yard of dirt about five square feet big with a fenced wall surrounding everything, a well in the middle, some patches of grass, and an outhouse in one corner. Going to the well he found it had a hooked rope with a pulley and a bucket on the ground next to the well. Drawing some water, he took it back into the store and placed it on the counter. He reached under the counter to grab a cup and filled it from the bucket before handing it to Cheng. As Cheng headed to the back with the cup and tin of medicine, Wen Zixin started putting away the instruments that were fine and rinsing the others. After he finished, he returned the bucket to the backyard, dumping the water down the hole in the outhouse and looked around. While the yard was small the fence surrounding it was tall enough, he couldn’t see anything but the sky bridge above blocking most of the sky. Seeing as he had privacy, he used the bucket to draw more water for an overdue washing. Striping down to nothing, he dumped the water over his head and brushed his hair out of his eyes. Finally being able to wash made him more aware of his body. While he might not remember who he was, he was pretty sure this wasn’t his body. Nothing about it felt familiar, not his height of around six feet tall, not his flat stomach, and not shoulder length black hair. Although he would probably have to grow the hair out more if the hairstyles of everyone else was any indication. Refocusing on the cold water he had just poured on himself, Wen Zixin realized he didn’t have a towel in his pack, which was in his room. With a sigh he pulled up the Mortal Items Menu and got a small hand towel he could wipe himself down with before setting a routine. Dump water, wipe down, ring out hair, and repeat until he felt clean enough. He put on his underwear that reminded him of a night robe, grabbed his clothes and towel, and headed to his room. When he got there, he took his clothes, the towel, and everything in his pack and put it all away properly into the wardrobe. Taking a moment to open the doors between his bed and the front door so that he would be better able to notice any problems. Wen Zixin decided now that he had a way to earn more xp he would check the Spirit Root and Cultivation Methods Menus.
Cultivation
Cultivation Methods (Variable xp cost):
Methods Costing 5xp
Methods Costing 10xp
Methods Costing 25xp
Methods Costing 50xp
Methods Costing 100xp
Methods Costing 250xp
Methods Costing 500xp
Methods Costing 750xp
Methods Costing 5000xp
Spirit Root
(Variable xp cost):
WARNING USER CAN ONLY HAVE 1.
Spirit Root Costing 5xp
Spirit Root Costing 10xp
Spirit Root Costing 25xp
Spirit Root Costing 50xp
Spirit Root Costing 100xp
Spirit Root Costing 250xp
Spirit Root Costing 500xp
Spirit Root Costing 750xp
Spirit Root Costing 5000xp
Seeing that he could only have one Spirit Root he decided to look through that Menu first. Looking over the variable costs he decided to see a random Spirit Root from the five xp, one hundred xp, and one thousand xp options to compare.
1st Level Qi Condensation Spirit Root (5xp):
User can only reach the first level of Qi Condensation and cannot advance beyond.
Sword Spirit Root (100xp):
Any Methods, Techniques, or Skills following the Sword Dao have their cost reduced by 5xp.
Primal Chaos Spirit Root (5000xp):
User can convert any free Qi to Primal Chaos Qi, Cultivate anywhere without restriction, and can use all Methods, Techniques, and Skills.
It seemed that the choice was obvious, so Wen Zixin turned to the Cultivation Methods and used the same selection as the Spirit Root Menu to compare the Methods.
Qi Condensation Method (5xp):
Spirit Root Not Required
User can only reach the peak of Qi Condensation and cannot advance beyond. Gain 1xp per 1 day of Cultivation.
Unstoppable Spear Method (100xp):
Cultivation focuses on the Spear. All Techniques and Skills following the Spear Dao have their cost reduced by 5xp. Gain 5xp per 1 day of Cultivation.
Unbound Primal Chaos Rules Over All Method (5000xp):
Any Techniques and Skills with requirements have said requirements ignored and there are no bottlenecks. Gain 5xp per 1 day of Cultivation.
Again, it seemed that the choice was obvious, but to get the best of both Spirit Root and Cultivation Method Wen Zixin would need a ridiculous amount of xp. Having looked over the Menus and figured out what he wanted for the far future. He quickly checked the Mortal Skills to see if something could help him in the near future. In the Menu were a couple of skills that could help him sleep without fear of missing anything happening at night.
Hunter’s Instinct:
You are more aware of your surroundings and can better tell what is happening from the minor clues your senses provide.
Sentry’s Sleep:
You can fall asleep almost immediately and wake just as fast. If there is a disturbance within the range of your senses you will wake up.
After selecting the Mortal Skills Wen Zixin suddenly understood his surroundings better. His senses hadn’t gotten better but all the little details he would have otherwise overlooked or missed could now tell him something. He now understood the occasional rustle he was hearing was Cheng tossing in bed upstairs. He was able to better judge when his room was last cleaned which seemed to have happened sometime yesterday. Feeling better about keeping watch while also getting enough sleep, he was asleep before he finished falling into bed. Only to wake immediately when he heard someone trying the front door of the store. Getting up, he headed into the main area of the store and began moving about and fiddling with things to make enough noise that whoever was outside would hear it without disturbing Cheng upstairs. The person at the front door quickly left upon hearing noise from inside the store and Wen Zixin stayed near the front door for a little while to make sure the intruder was gone. Satisfied they weren’t coming back he returned to his room and fell back to sleep.