201: Gardening

Even the next morning, the blue haze over my vision had not passed, and I was thankful the radius right now was short, but sitting in the dining room, I could easily spot where the pantry and cold room were, as they were glowing considerably.

“How’s the eyes?” Milo asked.

“Better than yesterday. Still got a haze over my vision, though,” I rubbed at my eyes as I said it.

“Well, as you heard yesterday, your eyes have changed colour, fairly drastically, from the hazel before to a vibrant, gem like blue now,” Milo commented.

I’d never really paid attention to my eye colour or my reflection over the years, so I wondered just how much they stood out.

“I always saw people with strange eyes and hair to be powerful magic users,” I mused.

Milo let out a chuckle. “Trev, you are a powerful magic user.”

“I guess. Where is everyone today?” I asked, looking around.

“Jen and Hari are at the guild. I think they are looking for possible job options. Liane I believe, is still asleep, or she left without breakfast, which I doubt,” Milo said.

Soon the doors to the kitchen opened, Archie came out holding what I had to assume was a plate of food, but to my eyes right now it just looked like a mass of blue glowing objects.

“Will food items always stay as blue as they are now?” I asked, looking at Milo.

“No, likely not.”

Archie placed the meal in front of me, bowing. “Breakfast, sir.”

Seeing Archie reminded me of yesterday. “Thanks, Archie. Sorry, if you or one of the staff get some spare time, could I have you buy something for me?”

“Of course, sir.”

“I wanted to buy a sausage filler and meat grinder. However, the store owner tried to overcharge me due to being dressed as a noble,” I commented, still a little annoyed about it.

“I can send Cameron to get those. That won’t be an issue, sir,” Archie said.

I began to pull coins out of my storage, but Archie just waved it off.

“What are your plans for today, then, Trev?” Milo asked as Archie left the room.

“Oh, well, I wanted to do the jerky and work on the runes, but…” I just let out a laugh.

Even Milo let out a small laugh at that. I knew full well any chance of being able to work on runes while my vision was hazy like this was simply not going to work.

“What you could try, we have a garden full of plants, and I know you found some rare items out there, but it might be worth going out and picking some, and perhaps when you get a level up, you’ll get better control of it,” Milo explained.

This actually sounded like a great idea. Assuming I got experience for harvesting like we thought, then perhaps if I could get a level, I could tune out common items like before. Crisplet clearly agreed, sending off a burst of sparks next to me.

I didn’t waste any time after breakfast, going straight to the smoker before loading up all the racks with strips of meat, also using the colder parts of the room to do several bundles of lemon tea grass as well, before starting a small fire to begin the smoking process.

Joined by Crisplet, I was soon walking in the back garden, where everything glowed blue, some far brighter than others, which was a relief to me, as there was clearly a difference in rarity, which I was slightly concerned about.

As I pulled up my status just to get an idea where it was starting for the day, I got a surprise.

Notification:

You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.

…

You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal

…

You have earned 50 bonus experience for healing someone with your meal

…

You have reached Level 26 in Arcane Chef.

You have +2 unspent stat points.

I had gained a level overnight! And clearly the jerky had been used in actual combat if someone managed to heal from it.

Forager’s Sight (Passive)

Level: 1

Experience: 0/100

A magical eye for the freshest of ingredients.

Buzzing with excitement, I started. I would need to keep track of everything to make sure I understood how I was gaining experience, and importantly, I didn’t want to overdo it, in case my only future skill evolutions were related to harvesting my own grown plants or something, but also, I didn’t want to entirely rip up the garden.

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I went for what appeared to be glowing the least first, starting with some leaves of a small tree, picking a single leaf and checking, noticing nothing had changed with that. There was a small sliver of doubt that crept inside that this wouldn’t work at all, but I picked several more, holding ten leaves, checking again. I saw it: 1/100.

“This is going to take a long time if I need to pick that much,” I said to Crisplet, who just responded with confusion.

Rather than stripping that tree bare, I moved on, picking something that glowed a little brighter, which appeared to be the small flowers on a hedge bush. Picking one of those, I noticed immediately that a single flower had gained me one experience.

I went to store them both away, wondering if perhaps the flower was uncommon compared to the leaves, and was shocked to see they were both common.

What’s the difference, then?

I knew this garden contained uncommon and rare items, so next I tried to search for an uncommon item, but struggled to really tell the difference between it and a brighter common one.

Figuring I may as well go straight to the rare, I knew prior there were the Morvella flowers and the Alren root. Unfortunately, returning to the spot of the flowers, they were no longer there, not having grown any more since I picked them, but what I could still tell were there was the Alren root.

Heading back to the bush itself, I noted it was by far the brightest object in the surrounding area. I dug down again. Only the main root and a single offshoot remained. I really didn’t want to remove the main root, as that would certainly kill the plant, so reaching down, I gently removed the single secondary root and checked my experience.