After a wash and then a nice dip in the steaming water, I rinsed my filthy armour using an available bucket and some of the cleansing solution from my alchemy kit. When I finished, I donned my town clothes and returned to my room, where I found a vast array of food plated on a tray set in the middle of the floor. Using the available chopsticks, I quickly devoured it all in a hurry, and didn’t really question my ability to operate the two sticks deftly enough to clean the entire rice bowl of every last grain of rice. When my stomach was filled to the brim and no food remained, a momentary dizziness came over me, but then I felt renewed and ready to fight again. In fact, I felt like I could fight anyone right then and there.
As a safety-precaution, I looked through my inventory in preparation for the following day, realising in a panic that I only had the “Potent Healing Potion”, and none of the materials needed to distil more. But, in a stroke of geniality, I realised that I might find the ingredients I needed in the garden just outside my paper-thin[1] door.
I left the little room and hopped over the walkway railing and down into the garden lit by stone lanterns, where the fish in the pond were still going at it furiously, with no clear winner yet emerged.
The plants here were unnaturally vibrant, just like the forests I’d seen, and it was still quite bizarre to see so many flowers in full bloom. Although there was one flower which wasn’t blooming at the moment, its blue petals curled around tiny yellow petals within. I didn’t think too much of it though.
After looking through the staggering plethora of flora,[2] I came to the conclusion that I did in fact have absolutely no clue what the hell I was doing. So, I vandalised six different plants that I thought might do the trick and stashed them away in my inventory, after which I tried, with great difficulty, to climb back up onto the walkway. I only managed to somehow trap my foot in the tight gap between two wooden beams that travelled horizontally along its length. To make matters worse, my supporting hand slipped, and I flung backwards, slamming my back into the ground.
As I hung there, upside down and head obscured by grass, I distantly wondered if it was possible to die of embarrassment.
When I’d hung there for a few minutes, my head woozy and face muscles strained to the limit, I decided that no, I didn’t want to go out like this after all, since I was sure it’d haunt me into my next ‘life’, so, I did a sort of walking-on-my-hands pushing motion, until my body was horizontal. I then pushed off from the grass and contracted my abdomen to lift my body up, so I could grab the railing. Thankfully, I succeeded with the first attempt and quickly returned to my room, after crawling over the railing and onto the walkway.
As I sat in my room, face flushed and breathing rapid, I decided that if I discovered that anyone had seen me, I’d have to kill them… even if it was Hanada.
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I spent the following hour-or-two experimenting with the ingredients I’d collected. For the most part they were all duds, but I also didn’t know how I should modify my procedure in order to bring out the effects of each plant nor if all plants in this World even had an effect. When I got to the fifth plant, a flower with pink-veined white petals, I got a result, although it was a ‘Diluted Weak Stamina Potion’. That it was diluted meant that I likely hadn’t used enough of the ingredient, and when I thought about it, it was perhaps a bit dumb to only collect the petals of the flower, and not the stem and leaves. Even more so, considering that the materials I’d bought from the Alchemist had been just leaves.
The sixth ingredient I tested came from a green bush with tiny, tough, pearl-like, red berries. After spending nearly ten minutes mashing them all to paste in my mortar, I mixed the red paste with the solvent in a flask, set the flask over a flame, and evaporated it into a bigger flask that I poured some of the oil that normally used for the healing potions into. Finally, I swirled it around. The result I got was quite surprising, especially because I’d almost eaten one of the berries before testing them. The red berries, which I assumed would make a red potion, ended up creating a viscous, dark-purple ‘Weak Dizziness Poison’.
When I’d finished my experimentations, I stashed my equipment in my inventory, alongside the two flasks which had actually turned out well.[3] I felt knowledge flush through me as the objects left my hands, and when I opened up my ‘Crafting’ menu, I saw that a new appendix was attached to the ‘Alchemy’ screen, which was called, ‘Known Ingredients’.
On the list were three plants, each with their own short descriptions and art. The dark-green leaves I’d used to make the healing potions had apparently been ‘Aloe Vera’, while the stamina potion was made from ‘Cydonia’, and the dizziness poison from ‘Nandina’. Along with names and descriptions of known plants, the list also included the effects of each plant and recommended oils and solvents used to produce the best results.
From looking at the info, it seemed that the ‘Nandina’ could be more potent and have additional effects if mixed with a similar poisonous plant, and certain solvents could increase its duration. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure I wanted to use poisons, nor if they were really that effective when coupled with my sword. I mean, there usually wasn’t much life left in those cut by my blade, so it just seemed like a waste. I figured poisons might be better on bosses or other players, and it was that last part in particular that made me uneasy. I didn’t know how I felt about poisoning another person, it just seemed crueller than outright killing them, but, perhaps, if someone truly deserved it, maybe it was okay?
A loud, drawn-out yawn forced its way out of my mouth. My head was too heavy to think clearly anymore, so I decided that some sleep would be good and crawled under the cover and laid my head on the pillow. I fell asleep before I closed my eyes.[4]
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[1] Literally.
[2] See what I did there?
[3] ‘Well.’
[4] Sounds strange, I know, but trust me on this one.