We left the restaurant a short while later. It was late afternoon at this point. “Let’s separate for now. We can meet up at the gate tomorrow at sunrise and continue to the city.”

“Are you sure? Do you have any money?” she asked.

“Good point. Can you lend me a bit?” I said.

She put a pile of blue stones on my palm. “Good luck with your endeavors.”

The first thing I went to do was visit the town’s medicine shop. I had an unwritten skill: Copy. I could copy any plant that I’d touched sometime during my life. It was hidden, so much so it wasn’t in my skill list, but it might become my most powerful skill. The other skills were for war, but that’s not what “The Cultivator” was for. My title was for cultivating.

I walked in. There was a burly and rough looking man wearing dirty robes standing close to the entrance. Multiple shelves of medicine were spread across the shop. Around fifty display cases of herbs lay at the back of the shop. As expected, the shop had many different rare plants on display.

The only problem being the thin glass sheet between me and the plants. I prodded at the glass playfully. “May I take a closer look at these?” I said to the shopkeeper across the room.

“What for, sir?” he said politely, “There's a tag next to each of them that says the name of each herb.”

I glanced down at the name tags, “I know, but there are some things that can’t be seen with the naked eye.”

He nodded approvingly, “That’s true, what’s your name?”

“I’m Jin,” I said.

“Weird, I thought I knew all of the alchemists around here.” I felt a bit of cold sweat on my back and neck. “I’ll let you take a closer at the herbs.” He walked over to me and unlocked the case. He lifted it up for me, “There you go.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I had to hold back from swallowing. Usually, I get a tiny amount of blurry information when I touch a plant. For example, I could tell how ripe a berry was after touching it. I could also tell if it was poisonous or not, but not much else. I reached out and touched the plant, begging I would get enough information to convince the shopkeeper I wasn’t a phony, which was exactly what I was. Even as the only real cultivator, I wasn’t that good at cultivating.

New Cultivator skill unlocked : Identify

Experience required for next level has not been reached! Identify stays at level one!

But apparently, I was improving. Was I improving or was I just cheating? To be fair to all the other “alchemists” out there, this skill was probably the equivalent of beta tester access to information.

The connection that formed between me and the small plant before me underwent a qualitative change. Information about the plant rushed into my head.

I stroked a leaf, pretending to feel its texture.

“Please don’t break anything,” said the shopkeeper.

“This is a Tiger Youth Herb, it can be used to make one look more youthful, improve their complexion, etcetera,” I said.

“Everybody knows that,” he said.

“Patience,” I gave the stem a thoughtful stroke and turned my head to examine the herb from a different angle. All of this was an act, all of the information I gathered from looking at it and more was contained in the connection. “This Tiger Youth Herb hasn’t seen sufficient sunlight in almost a year. This has stunted its growth, not very good for a tiger youth herb. You can see here,” I pointed to one of the leaves, “this leaf is drooping ever so slightly from lack of sunlight. The top six leaves are supposed to be solid yellow, but this sixth one has a slightly darker yellow than the others.”

I actually couldn’t see any difference in color with my eyes, but Identify was telling me there was a huge difference. “It’s been alive for two years and it still has another six years left in its life, although this can be changed if you take care of it better. It will reach peak maturity in five months, where you should pick the fourth leaf from the top. Want me to go on?”

I turned and saw the shopkeeper standing with his mouth agape. “Um, nevermind, I won’t go on.”

“H- how?” he stammered, “Are you an alchemy master from the city?”

“Maybe. Anyway, can I take a look at these other plants?” I asked.

“S-sure.” To my surprise, he handed me his key, “All of these cases have the same lock. Please, go ahead.”

“Thanks.” I locked the Tiger Youth Herb back up and moved on to the other plants. I pretended to carefully examine all of them. All of the herbs could do amazing things, any of them would miraculous medicines back on Earth. The Identify skill carved the information about the plants into my head. I could recall it perfectly, as if the information had been downloaded onto my brain.   

I walked out of the shop two hours later, my head throbbing and my arms drooping. I didn’t have the stamina to stand and stare at plants for two hours. I went out of the town and continued on for a few miles.

I went off the road and found a lone tree. It wasn’t nearly as big as the ones in the White Dragon Forest, but it was still at least three stories tall. I climbed up and took out five seeds. Less than a minute later, my tree house was complete. The sun was setting, so I lie down to sleep.