Arc was slowly becoming convinced that it was a seed. It was the only possibility he could think of. Unless they did something to him, which was unlikely, then a seed in one of those fruits was the most likely answer. He didn't know which one though.
On the upside, he found after a bit of practice that it didn't display any negative effects, so he began to cultivate again. It paid to be cautious though, so he kept a proverbial eye on the seed. He didn't know how it would react in the future.
He found that he could gather Xan much more smoothly than before. It felt like there was more of it as well. He was left wondering if the seed had anything to do with it
His conjecture was fairly close to the mark.
The seed was from the Swedice melon, the one he favored, and the property it was exhibiting now was a big part of the reason they were so expensive and rare. In the entirety of the melon, there was only one seed. This seed had a massive concentration of Xan kept within. Unlike other such treasures and foods which also allowed for a source of Xan to be ingested, the Swedice Melon's seed, often called a Swedice Seed, was rare in the fact that it was not toxic nor did it ever spike. This meant that there was no need for any processing of it. It could be eaten immediately without any side effects.
The most intriguing part of the Swedice Seed's nature was that the flow of Xan it released was constant under the condition that it was being dissolved by acid and that the Xan surrounding it was below a certain threshold. This meant that those who were at a higher level and stored more Xan in their bodies would find that the returns for those seeds would be effectively null.
The number of masters of that caliber were very few, and the seas of developing cultivators bordered on the uncountable, meaning there was always a high demand for the melons. A demand producers simply couldn't keep up with.
Swedice Melons preferred to grow in cold places for a start, very cold places. This meant that those who were willing and capable of farming them were limited. They also had a very specific soil preference, leading to only certain areas being used. Animal attacks on the farms were also quite common as many wild beasts recognized the potential even one seed could give them. The final major problem was setting up a farm in the first place.
Each melon only provided one seed, meaning the farmer had to decide between selling it or expanding their operation. The cost of growing the was not small either considering all of the other risk factors, so this was not necessarily an easy decision. After a seed was planted it would take two years for it to grow, meaning that you would not even see profits from that investment until at least two harvest later. It was entirely possible that the crop would die if the weather changed too drastically for so much as one day. After that, you would still only receive a single melon from that plant each year.
This combination of factors lead to this shortage of melons.
Despite all this, the thing Arc would have found the most shocking was that people cut open the melon to find the seed without actually eating the melon. It was delicious, how could any moron pass up that opportunity?
Regardless, the mere existence of the Swedice Melon was considered a miracle by the public. The plurality of the population having some history in farming, it was well known that the way most plants tended to survive was almost exclusively by the number of seeds they had. How could a delicious melon with such benefits if eaten become so widespread? Wouldn't they have eventually died out because they couldn't reproduce? Nobody had an answer to that question. Even their origin was shrouded in mystery.
Not that Arc knew about any of this or was even pondering it. All he knew was that he had to cultivate and keep an eye out for that seed in his gut that seemed to be shrinking by the hour. He could work on standing up and walking later, for now he felt it was more important to cultivate and practice while Bell's lesson was still somewhat fresh in his mind.