Jason stretches and turns back to the fire. “No real tea yet but if you’re partial to traditional medicine, I can make a mean lingzhi tea.”
Rosha shakes her head, “Not my cup of tea. Plus there should be something better to use it for.”
Jason shrugs, “You could look at these two bottles as a form of unrefined potion of Qi. Actually, now that I think about it, do you use Qi? I know Courtney uses Mana and I use Energy.”
“Huh”, Rosha tilts her head, “I guess I didn’t tell you, have I? Anyway, those potions won’t be of much use to me as I also follow use Mana. While Qi is useful for a lot of ranger type stuff, my main weapon in theory is a bow.” Then with a dark look she mutters, “not that I ever get to use it that way it seems.” Though she recovers her smile after that, “so yeah, Mana was the better choice. While Qi can be attached to an arrow, Mana just does the job better!”
Courtney pats her shoulder, “Don’t worry, we just need to stop fighting fair. Once we can start doing the ambushes instead other way around, you can fire all the arrows you want. Though if we could pick up another frontliner, preferably someone with a taunt, that would be nice.” And she turns to Jason, “So what did you get from your harvest anyway?”
Jason sighs, “mostly low normal ingredients. My glowy weed came out better.”
He takes a breath to sigh again and Courtney interrupts him, “Just call it Energy herb. I know it is polite to keep such little hidden knowledge tidbits hidden so others can discover it. Neither me nor Rosha will ever deal with the stuff and we both got a proper education on the various basic herbs. We might not have gotten the discovery bonus but there are other benefits we have received because of it.”
With a smirk Jason continues, “well they came out as mid normal. So none of the stuff is trash but none of it has any mentions of bottlenecks and definitely no exquisite results.”
Courtney scoffs, “as if you would be getting exquisite results when you can’t even grow a high normal grade plant let alone a top normal. Maybe once your farming skill ranks up more and you grow a second break plant, we will talk about exquisite plants. Now how about you share the stats on your harvest?”
“Oh huh”, Jason leans back, “I guess I should have expected you to know something about exquisite requirements.”
Courtney scowls at him, “mostly worthless to grow them. An exquisite plant might be useful in niche markets but at that point you should be able to grow second break low normal plants instead. Rule of thumb is when you can make something of low quality for the next bottleneck it will be better than most exquisite things of the previous. Now show us what you got please. I need to do some research so we can make best use of what you are growing.”
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Jason scratches his chin, “I didn’t really tell you what’s in my garden, did I? Quick rundown then. There is energy herb, gloom weed, bloody lingzhi, focusing tea, and ginseng. Also let me [show the party my harvesting results].”
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Bottle of Bloody Lingzhi Fluid x2
Description:
A potion bottles worth of the liquid that bloody lingzhi produces when harvested. Has the same look and feel of whatever blood was used to fertilize the mushroom colony, human in this case. The lingzhi however was harvested after peak maturity and the quality has suffered for it. Because of the bloody lingzhi’s nature this fluid is packed with Qi.
Grade: Low Normal (ingredient)
Effects:
* Qi Infusion - When drunk will refill a Qi pool by 1d6 points but it will pause natural Qi recovery until half that amount would have been recovered
Energy Herb Bush x4
Description:
A glowy weed bush that has been harvested in such a way as to allow the preservation of each berries Energy supply while being dried. On the bush are 20 berries. The grower has experience with this type of plant boosting the results.
Grade: Mid Normal (ingredient)
Gloom Berries x28
Description:
A type of berry that looks like a black strawberry with a crystal-like feel and is void of power. This specific berry has been harvested with sub-optimal tools though the method used was correct. Instead of the proper black void color the berry has absorbed small amounts of power and so are only matte black.
Grade: Low Normal (ingredient)
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Courtney looks them over and nods, “good results over all. Most new farmers tend to just get trash grade plants for the first few months. Plus you aren’t working with stuff like normal wheat. Getting breakless trash wheat can suck the enthusiasm out of even the most hardcore farmer.”
“Though that said, I can’t wait till your tea is ready. Properly brewed that stuff will be an amazing boon for us all. You can even use it as you cultivate Energy. It just won’t be able to improve your resource pools. Though I will have to pick up a proper tea set in the next town. Maybe a spell to dry the leaves quickly? No, that can wait for now. Fire isn’t exactly in my portfolio.”
“For now a simple Yixing teapot will do since there are three of us. Though can it really be called Yixing when there is no way the clay came from there? Oh well, as long as the clay they use is close enough and the teapot isn’t glaze whatever they have suffice. It isn’t exactly our culture but when there has been so much thought put into such a simple thing as brewing tea you might as well learn from it.”
Jason grimaces, “I, ah well, am not exactly a uh, fan? Of tea?”
Courtney rolls her eyes, “let me guess, you think tea only comes in a bag?”
Jason shakes his hands, “no no no, I know about loose leaf tea and all. I just find tea a bit too bitter for my taste.”
Courtney looks quite disgusted at him but Rosha interrupts before she can say anything. “Let me head this off at the pass. She really likes tea and preparing it. She will take your tea leaves, prepare them, and brew the most luxurious cup you will probably ever have. If the tea you had before was too bitter that just means whoever made it didn’t know how to brew tea. Either used water that was too hot or let it steep for too long. Just keep an open mind and let her take care of us when it comes to tea.”