140: Dressed

I looked around before I made my way into the garden itself. I wanted to be fairly sure I wasn’t being observed.

“Lily, you wouldn’t happen to know if I’m being watched right now, would you?” I asked quietly.

She wasn’t out in the open, but her presence never left, so I assumed she was likely still watching or nearby. It took only a moment to get my answer as Crisplet shot a single ember.

Nodding, I activated Arcane Foraging, and immediately tuned out the common and uncommon, looking around. There appeared to be at least four unique items glowing. The first appeared to be a series of flowers where just the centre was glowing.

Next was interesting, and likely something I wouldn’t be able to get to easily, as it appeared to be inside the trunk of the tree, or it was the very core of the trunk.

The third one looked to be the root system of a small bush that had tiny white flowers, with a powerful smell that was both refreshing and sweet.

Lastly, one was a single flower. It was both blue and white and didn’t look to be open right now, but it was clearly glowing brighter than all the rest. Approaching it, I noticed it seemed to be almost centrepiece to this particular part of the garden.

Moving back to the first set of flowers, there were several of them, so if I took a couple it shouldn’t, hopefully, ruin the garden and they’d regrow. But if I took the tree core or the single non-bloomed flower—especially without knowing what they were—I might be straight up killing those plants, never to see them again.

So, I picked two of the flowers. They were vibrant purple, with a black line through the middle of each petal. In the centre, there looked to almost be seeds, as there was a soft black substance, but what really caught me was the smell.

I recoiled slightly, especially after touching the centre, as the unmistakable smell of death wafted up towards me.

Interesting. I used Transformation on them, just in case they were poisonous in some way, before storing them.

Would you like to store 2x [Rare] Morvella for 5 mana? Yes/No

Notification:

You have reached Level 5 in Culinary Transformation.

You have 3 available Evolution Quests.

I was surprised to see this pop up, pulling up the quests straight away.

Congratulations! Your Culinary Transformation skill has 3 available Evolution Quests:

Purify 50 ingredients of poison or toxins. – 0/50

Consume 5 unique toxic ingredients. – 0/5

Purify 5 unique ingredients of their magical toxins. – 0/5

That was unexpected, and it seemed very easy to complete. I was sure that I could knock out several of the magical toxins tonight by purifying a piece of drake, and get confirmation if it worked on the dragon or not by the quest results.

Heading to the bush, I dug down, noting the soil seemed very soft, so I suspected these were planted recently. Finding a small section of the root, and being sure to avoid the main root, I cut off several pieces.

Would you like to store 3x [Rare] Alren Root for 5 mana? Yes/No

Notification:

Evolution Quest:

Discover 3 rare or better ingredients using Arcane Foraging: Complete!

Five evolution options are available for Arcane Foraging.

Skill: Arcane Foraging → Purity Appraisal

• Clearly reveals the rarity level of the ingredient.
• Helps in assessing value.
• Identify subtle traits and buff potential.

Skill: Arcane Foraging → Forager’s Sight (Passive)

• Edible ingredients faintly stand out in your line of sight.
• Permanent forager’s sight.

Skill: Arcane Foraging → Forager’s Intuition (Passive)

• Subtle directional pull towards the nearest rare item.
• No visuals, no exact distance.
• Large radius based on skill level.

Skill: Arcane Foraging → Living Larder (Passive)

• Constant detection of edible items, radius based on skill level.
• Rare and above items register as a moment of awareness.
• Removes visual cues, creating intuitive understanding.

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Skill: Arcane Foraging → Forager’s Senses

• Create a temporary ingredient map of your surrounding area.
• Radius and duration based on skill level.

I looked at all the skills several times, just trying to wrap my head around what each one did. I was still kneeling on the ground next to the bush when I was nudged from the side as Lily appeared.

Looking up, I saw staff coming down the path from the staff residence, re-entering the house after the earlier issues.

Getting up and dusting off the dirt on my pants, I headed inside. I remembered the library was on the ground floor, but even though this was technically my place, I felt like a stranger here, and it felt like I was intruding, walking inside.

I had contemplated even refusing the house, but thinking it over, it would solve the issue of having to find a house for Micca, Darren and George.

If they could stay here and look after the house, I could leave and keep adventuring, and only use it as a temporary base when we came back to the capital. It was also useful because I didn’t have to worry about Lily showing up at a random inn and causing panic.

But I worried about what the actual cost would be.