"Hello," I dismount Aluci – who's in his horse form right now – as Patrick's parents look at me.

George and Victoria are their names, according to Thomas. One of the things he's talked about with me when giving me information about the area is who all lives here. We both felt it important that I at least know who all lives in Mistwood village so that I'm not at a loss for names when I speak with them.

Something I'm going to make use of now. We spent the last five days building my new cabin and are taking a day off before working on Dylan's cabin. Since we have the day off, I want to see if I can trade with any of the villagers.

First thing after breakfast, because I forgot about chores until I was already halfway here.

"Hoi, there," George approaches his suspicion and concern strong in his mind and evident on his face. "What can we help you with?"

Victoria moved in front of Patrick, as if to shield him from me. The boy's looking at me from behind her, with just as much suspicion as his parents, but also curiosity. Is he hoping for more ice cream?

"I have a few things I'm growing from what I foraged," I tell him. "Such as potatoes, tomatoes, and some berries. However, I don't have a large variety, and was wondering if any of the villagers – yourselves included – would be interested in giving me some cuttings, saplings, and so on. I'm willing to trade for them, of course."

"Can't think of something you'd have to offer us that we'd want," George states.

"Trading crops to me in a state in which I can replant them, myself," I say. "Would allow me to grow more of my own foods, expanding what it is I am able to eat without needing to trade. I consider that to be quite valuable. I'm something of a craftsman, myself. All adventurers need to be, to some degree, and I had a larger interest in it."

I hold my right hand out with the palm up, and an item forms on it, a portable stove. It's about two inches thick and two feet on the sides, with a ring of runes made of reddish-orange crystal set into the top, four stubby little legs on the bottom. Toward the front of the stove are the controls for it.

"This is a stove," I inform George. "A simple item which allows you to cook on it, using a skillet or pot, of course. I also crafted it in portal form so that it doesn't take up much space. You use the slider here to adjust the heat level provided, and it only heats where it contacts items with a special enchantment on them. It requires no wood or mana crystals to use."

"Ain't ever heard of a magic device what doesn't use mana."

"It does use mana," I tell him. "Except it draws on the ambient mana in the air to function. There's enough of it in the area here that you can do that with these without a problem. So while it does use mana, you don't need mana crystals."

"How does it work?"

Victoria and Patrick have moved closer to look at the stove better, though they're still a little bit further away from the fence than George is. They're curious about the stove, and I know George is really challenging me for whether it actually works or not.

Fortunately, Dylan told me this might happen and I came prepared.

I pull a table from my storage and set it down, then set the stove on top of it. A skillet is pulled out next, along with some sausage links and eggs. By the time I'm done cooking, all three of them are at the fence.

"What're those?" Patrick asks as I turn the stove off. "The little… meat rolls?"

"They're called 'sausages'," I answer. "Made by grinding up meat with some seasonings and putting them in a special casing. It's very thin and you can bite through it easily. I learned how to make them while visiting another kingdom. If you cook the eggs in their grease, it adds a little bit of extra flavor to those as well. You can try them if you want."

I made three plates of it just so they can.

George is still cautious, while Victoria realizes what's happening too late to stop Patrick from jumping the fence. By the time she's called out to him, he's already grabbed one of the forks and stabbed a sausage with it. He takes a big bite and his eyes light up.

"Mmh!" He quickly chews and swallows, then looks at his parents. "Da! Ma! These are super good! He's suspicious, but he really knows how to make good food!"

All sourced using local ingredients, just prepared a little bit differently than what they're used to. Nothing too different from their existing tastes. That makes it easier for them to like it. If I were to start introducing foods using ingredients they aren't used to, or ones prepared in vastly different ways, with completely different flavor profiles, they'd probably hate them.

One of the easiest ways to earn their trust isn't just to give them items, it's to also give them new knowledge of things they already have.

George and Victoria reluctantly join Patrick in trying the sausages and eggs, and I can tell by the feel of their minds that they're enjoying it as well. Not as much as the tween is, but they still appreciate the flavors.

"How did you get the casings?" George asks. "And stuff the meat into them? Magic?"

"I made the casing using slime goo," I answer and his eyes widen as horror fills Victoria's mind. "It's actually pretty edible – just think of it like a slime monster's version of meat."

"Just as goo?" Patrick asks.

"Just as goo," I nod. "I treated it, then shaped it into thin casings. As for how I stuffed them, I used a device I had made in town. I learned how to make it from another kingdom – they mince and grind meat in some others – and the device does it faster and with less work on our part. I just put the meat and seasonings into a sort of funnel/tube portion of it, and it comes out the front. To put it into a casing to make sausages, I fix a special attachment to the front of it, fix the casing onto it, and the meat will fill the casing as it comes out. All of the seasonings I used are ones that can be found in the area, including some Thomas gave me, and the meat comes from a boar that got a little too close to my home a couple of days ago."

"That must've cost a pretty coin," he says. "For the device to make the sausages, that is."

"It was about eight and a half silver for the device," I tell him. "But as long as it's cleaned properly and cared for, it'll last for generations."

That was before I enchanted it, too.

"Well, that's the cost excluding some of the enchantments," I say. "But it won't be too much more to have it modified to not need magic to grind. The enchantments that make mine function ensure the meat is ground evenly. I'm the one who put them on, though, so I saved on that cost."

I gesture to the portable stove.

"Well?" I ask. "Does this seem a fair trade to you? It'll save you wood and once you've adjusted to using it, you'll be able to cook with a more consistent heat. Since the heat is produced immediately, you also save on time there. You'll just need to adjust to using it over wood fires and that's it."

"And it cooked without flame?"

"It used heat alone," I say. "Here's a clean set of the dishes that it will work with. Again, it will only produce heat while on and in contact with dishes that have a special enchantment on them, like these."

"That seems like it'd be more expensive," George frowns, confusion now the more prominent emotion in his mind. "Than just a magic stove, I mean."

"It is," I confirm. "The enchantment is more complex, and you're getting more than just the portable stove. However, I don't mind giving you a little extra in exchange for being able to transplant some crops to my own property."

He thinks for a few moments about this, the frown still present on his face. However, I can tell there's interest there. If things work as advertised, then he and his family will save on time and wood.

"Throw in some of those sausages, too, and you have a deal."

I pull a small box out of my storage and set it on the table.

"This box has twenty-seven sausages in it," I tell him as I put the original stove away. "It also has a freezing enchantment on it, to keep whatever's inside frozen. The sausages won't be stuck together. If you pull them out and set them on the counter or wherever, they'll thaw within about ten minutes, then you can cook them fine. Or you can cook them immediately, but they'll take a little bit longer to cook all the way through."

Suspicion grows in his mind.

"You came prepared," he says. "If I said I wanted you to take out the monster messing with a pond up north-"

"I'd direct you to Thomas," I say. "I'm a retired adventurer. Thomas is the one who handles that sort of stuff now."

Small acceptance forms in his mind.

"Alright," he glances at Patrick. "Help your ma bring this stuff inside," he looks at me again. "I'll show you our crops."

Patrick and Victoria grab the stuff off the table, and I put the table itself away. Then, I walk around to the front of their property and wait for George to let me in. Aluci waits outside, pretending to be a very well-trained horse.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

For some of the crops, George has seeds he allows me to take, such as wheat seeds. There are a few herbs he allows me to take a little bit of, but one in particular draws my attention. It resembles sage, but with yellow swirls on its deep green leaves.

[Life Herb] An herb with a slight peppery flavor, which draws in holy mana through its roots and converts it to healing power, which is stored within its leaves.

This is one of the potential reagents I need for making health potions, and the locals are just growing it in their gardens. Definitely "locals" rather than "local" because if one is growing it, what are the chances that none of the others are?

Thomas probably didn't think to look in his own garden to see if he has anything with the phrases I showed him to look out for in item descriptions. Chances are, the locals just think they're a rarer, more difficult-to-grow variety.

That said, I already have this one. It's the juicy and non-juicy reagents I need. However, they have the life herb growing right next to strawberries with a much more prominent heart shape than normal ones.

Which is a juicy reagent for health potions.

[Heartberry] A berry which stores healing mana which its vines draw in through their roots.

Now all I need is a non-juicy reagent for it, but I can use the heartberries and life herbs to find that. At least, if I don't find one within George's farm.

By the time I'm ready to leave the farm, I've acquired quite a few things to plant in my own gardens. They're all stored safely in one of my stasis pocket bracelets, to retain their states for the transportation. Dylan will help me plant them once I arrive to make sure that's done properly as well.

"Thank you," I tell George, Victoria, and Patrick when I step back onto the road.

"You're welcome," George says.

"Your horse is gone," Patrick says.

"He probably got bored and went to take a nap somewhere," I say. "I'll just use the waystone to get home."

"You ain't worried 'bout your horse wandering off?" George answers.

"Aluci's not a horse," I tell him. "That's just the form he took earlier."

"The form he took?" George asks. "What's that mean?"

"Shapeshifting," I point at my head, and my human ears fade away as a pair of wolf ears grow further up, the same brown color as my hair. Shock and confusion fill their minds. "He possesses the ability to shift his form."

"And… you, too?" George asks, his eyes and his wife's and son's all fixed on my new ears.

"I learned it from him," I say. "But yeah, I can alter my form to a degree. Not on the level he can, but I can do some shifts like this. There's a type of person called a beastkin, and they have the ears and tails of animals. I didn't grow myself a tail as my pants don't have a hole for them, but I can do that, too. In fact, I can actually turn myself into a beastkin, such as a wolfkin."

"What about foxkin?" Patrick asks. "Is that a thing?"

"It is," I nod. "And bearkin, otterkin, lionkin, leopardkin, and more. Beastkin are different from humans in a few ways, including the tails and ears thing. Ones of predator-type beasts, such as wolves, have fang-like canines. Their eye and hair color are also dependent upon their beast side. They're all people too, not beasts."

I switch back to normal human ears.

"They're from quite a far ways away," I tell him. "I discovered the various other species of people during my travels over the past seven years, but most Silveroakans wouldn't have ever heard of them. There are even more types of people than they, too."

"Anyway," I give them all a small smile. "Thanks for the trade. I should be heading back now to get them planted. You all have a good day, and may the gods and spirits guide your paths."

"May the gods and spirits guide your paths," they respond.

I walk to the waystone and use it to warp back home. Dylan is in the back yard, supervising Nolan as the boy plays with some spirits.

Only in an area so dense with spirits and mana, but also where everyone is loved by spirits, is something like this even remotely possible.

"Welcome back," Dylan says. "How did it go?"

"Well, thanks to you," I tell him. "George was more amenable to the trade thanks to the demonstration, and I threw in a box of sausages as well."

"Unprompted?"

"He required it," I inform him. "But I'm fine with that, it's not like I don't have an excess of the meat, and it's not like I can't get quite a lot of the casings from a three-inch blob of slime goo. The actual slimes should start producing excess soon, too. Anyway, I want to get started on planting the crops. Thanks for helping me with the separation yesterday."

The entire zone I've claimed as my own on this side of the stream is cleared, which gives me plenty of space. At least, outside of what's being used for storage for various things. That much space means I can really spread out some stuff.

So we split up my garden after we finished building my cabin yesterday. The magical plants and the nonmagical ones each now have their own zone.

"Quite fortunately, too," I say. "As it turns out, you have all been using magical plants for some of your food. George had both normal strawberries and heartberries in his garden."

"Heartberries?"

"Yeah," I say. "The ones that always grow shaped like hearts? That's a magical plant called a 'heartberry'. They're a type of juicy reagent you can use to make health potions. All I need now is the non-juicy reagent and I can make them."

"You already have the leafy one?"

Some of the stuff he's learned while studying under me and staying with me is some of the basics of alchemy. A little bit better than what I'd explained to him and Thomas in the past. That just comes with him watching me make mana potions.

"The sage that I planted in the magical garden," I confirm. "It's called 'life herb' and can be used as the leafy reagent. Now that I've got heartberries, I can use both to find others."

"How?"

"The [Divine] spell," I explain as we start walking to the garden zones, Nolan following us with some spirits in tow. "It allows for locating materials and other items with your magic. If you already have one of what you're looking for, you can use the spell with it to locate more of it. If you have two items with a feature in common – such as storing healing power – you can use the spell with them to focus on that single aspect."

I can also power through it if I put in enough mana, but I didn't want to do that. Crafting health potions hasn't really been a necessity, as both Thomas and I are aware of what we can handle and don't go past that. Only if it was actually needed would I have done that.

"Oh," he says. "Alright. How much are you planning on planting? You did mark out pretty big spaces for the gardens for just one person. Things grow a lot faster here than they do over in the village, so you don't need as much space."

They're marked out using slices of trees similar to the ones I used for the lessons section. As we're a significant amount of distance closer to the Mistwood than the villagers are, things really do grow a lot faster. Thomas and Dylan have both informed me of this. I still want a space at least one hundred and fifty feet on each side for each garden, though.

"Enough to sustain me and a little extra," I say. "To make treats and stuff, and in case I have visitors. Also to trade, if necessary, especially with the alchemy stuff."

We reach the garden for the alchemy reagents, where I've planted the mana berries in rows based on the mana veins. The best places for those to grow is along pure mana veins, but ones which overlap or intersect with plant mana veins work even better. It doesn't have to be right on top of them, so I planted them between where a pure mana vein and a plant mana vein run nearly parallel to each other, overlapping slightly in one spot. The same goes for the mana mint, which I planted in another section, near to the rows of berry bushes.

These were things I told Dylan about when I planted them, so I don't need to cover that for him.

"There are several life mana veins going through here," I say. "One of them runs right along there, and another flows through that corner there. Then there's a plain holy mana vein which runs along there. That's why I planted the life sage in that spot, since all three of those veins intersect there. The herbs will draw on the mana within them to boost the amount of magic they store."

"Didn't you say there are mana veins of all types everywhere?" He asks. "So every spot has them?"

"Right," I nod. "Those are what we call 'minute' veins. They're extremely small, but still produce mana. They're everywhere. Mana veins aren't actually physical, so they can occupy the same space. Those are so tiny, they don't matter. Most people who can activate magesight wouldn't be able to spot them. Probably a good thing, since they are everywhere. Plants generally don't draw on them, due to how small those veins are."

"Next up are 'minor' mana veins," I continue. "These are everywhere as well, but not as densely as minute ones. They're up to an inch in width, but can be directly drawn on from up to about half a foot away by plant roots. Ignoring, of course, the mana they put out into the soil and air and such. I'm talking about directly from them rather than their emissions."

"So when we grow things," he says. "And have a smaller garden of stuff that doesn't need as much space, but we find that they grow better in one spot over the other… that's because they're drawing on a minor mana vein there?"

"Right," I nod. "They're likely to be drawing on a minor mana vein. Here in the Mistwood Region, there are minor mana veins absolutely everywhere. If you walk ten feet, chances are, you've walked over at least one or two, not including the ones that are actually in the air."

"There are mana veins in the air?"

"Some," I nod. "Not as many as are in the ground, though. Anywhere, there are enough of them here to basically blanket the view if you look too deeply."

"Huh."

I take a few steps over, and a bunch of low-rank lightning spirits and a few mid-rank ones manifest in a line that curves and swirls. They form a band about sixteen inches thick and are low to the ground, the mid-rank ones actually standing on the ground.

"They're showing you a moderate lightning mana vein," I tell him. "They can be up to about two feet thick, and can drawn on from up to about fifteen or so feet away. What I'm looking for are places where there are moderate veins like this, since it's basically a given around here for there to be minor ones of the appropriate types overlapping them. This will, ultimately give me the greatest growth and quality rate for the plants."

Which, in turn, will provide more yields and increase their quality faster.

"Is there a spot where the ones good for health reagents overlap with a spot that's good for the mana berries?" He asks. "And the mana mint?"

"Yeah," I walk over to another spot as the spirits outlining the mana vein return to a partially-manifested state, out of the view of Dylan and his son. "Right here, for about seven feet in all directions, would be a spot I can plant both and still have a good rate. It won't be the best rate, but it's still a good one. Why?"

"You ain't really from an area like this," he says. "And I've gotten the feeling you ain't done much gardening beyond just growing some reagents in optimal spots based on the mana veins. Right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Companion planting."

"I think Thomas has mentioned something like that before."

"You noticed how the farms have plants grown close together?"

"A high mana density in the soil makes plants grow quickly and more bountifully, even if the conditions aren't ideal or season isn't fully right."

"Right," he says. "But it ain't just that. If you plant some things close together, they help each other. Mint and sage help ward off certain insects that are pests and attract others that are pollinators. Plant 'em near blueberries, and the berries'll survive better. Some flowers and ferns can help, too. Strawberries act as a sort of ground cover for blueberry bushes, helping the soil retain moisture while deterring weeds. So if you plant those together, you'll strengthen the harvest some more as well."

This sounds a bit strange to me… but magic probably sounds strange to him. There's no guarantee that magical plants will interact the same way as nonmagical ones, but I won't know without testing it. I'll still grow things my way, but I'll also give this a try. If it ends up making the reagents grow even better, then I'll be pretty happy with the result.

"We can devote some space to see if that works for the reagents," I tell him. "For the normal plants, well, you have experience in that field so we'll just do that. Even if most were normal, there were a few magical plants on George's farm. I'll just state their normal variants, then you tell me if any work well together from your knowledge. Alright?"

"Alright," he says.

"Then let's get started," I say.