faes walked in the forest border along with sky. they were currently on border of deeper forest and were travelling forward on their way. sky was running around pointing at various things and faes followed her with a smile.
they were travelling for few days and had hunted many beasts who attacked them while they just passed by the ones which gave them way.
along the way faes and sky saw lots of different species of animals and plants. many of them were medicinal plants too both common and rare. on their way they collected many medicinal plants for pills and potions. one have to know that both faes and sky had excellent alchemy skills and talent, when faes and sky refined pills and potions for their kin back in royal capital the queen gave them more books and recipes of the same to help them increase their knowledge.
while faes liked to fight more sky enjoyed alchemy, though both still continued to cultivate in both martial and alchemy paths and were best among others.
on the way sky and faes collected lots of medicinal plants and herbs along with many edible fruits vegetables and spices plants that were rare and uncommon and while they were advancing sky told faes something.
"i wanted to refine something from one of the books but it needs one core plant that is on our way but its hard to find" sky said pouting as she showed faes the ingredients list she wanted. faes being herself decided to collect them and on their way, they ended up on the border of a deeper region of forest in which they were travelling and now only two more plants were to be collected.
faes accepted to come here and let sky collect the ingredients was because she didn't want to make sky sad while also helping her hone her skills. faes knew that this part of the forest was dangerous but both sky and she needed experience and knowledge to grow. faes was going to give sky full freedom and wasn't going to keep her trapped along with her.
in her past life, faes had been trapped in her room back in the orphanage many times and knew how it felt, faes didn't want sky to feel trapped hence she let sky go around but not far from her and she was also keeping an eye around them.
"i can sense its around here somewhere!" sky said looking around excitedly. if she can get the last two ingredients then she can begin the refining process and increase her skills in alchemy.
"is it that?" faes asked as she pointed at a small plant hidden between many thorny bushes. actually, faes knew that it was indeed the plant but she asked sky to test her knowledge, just like she was doing in the past. they would ask each other questions and answer them. if there was something they didn't know then they asked someone else from their group or kai and look through the books.
faes can know about them from her scans but she wanted sky to learn and also remember the plants herself without depending on the system.
"yes! now only the last plant is remaining, its very rare and there is also a problem" sky said as she collected the plant faes pointed at by burning the thorny bushes with her fire.
"what problem?" faes asked
"the plant loses its medicinal power in half an hour after its collected. it can only be used fresh." sky said.
faes fell into thought as even she had been thinking about this. they were just collecting whatever they wanted but they would have to use these things again in future and then they would either need to buy them or collect them again. while some plants can be preserved for years some can only be used in a particular time frame.
it was quite troublesome!
faes even thought about beginning to farm these medicinal plants in mystic fog castle but she didn't have much area there around her castle and some of the plants needs special temperature and other conditions for growth. faes was already busy with her training and other things and to begin farming medicinal plants would take lots of her time.
as faes sent the plant to mystic fog castle and continued forward with sky to find the last plant she suddenly heard a notification and glanced at it
[quest: collect the glowing spiritual brahmi plant and defeat the elemental elephants guarding it
rewards: unlocking farm forest, exp, some rare medicinal plants from earth that are not present in this world and their knowledge, some recipes of pills and potions.
punishment: decrease in the area of mystic fog castle, decrease of host cultivation by one level
time limit: three hours]
faes saw the quest and smiled. whenever she was in any problem or confusion the system would give a quest and the rewards were always interesting. actually, faes found the system to be quiet nowadays. it barely talked to her or said unnecessary things. it also began to turn monotonous.
'system what happened to you? where are you?' faes asked as she realised that the system even stopped showing itself.
a white floating orb appeared in front of her unlike the normal squirrel
[the systems level is low and would recommend the host to upgrade the system level] the system said making faes pause in her tracks. there was still a thing like that? and was the system sulking?
'upgrade? what will happen after that?' faes asked
[the system will undergo a transformation and would be able to help host better like an assistant. the system would also be able to do many more things. the system shop will be unlocked, and many more] the system replied in a monotonous tone.
'fine how do i upgrade you?' faes asked interested in the upgrade now.
[host have to fulfil the conditions for the upgrade.] the system said as some conditions appeared in front of faes
[conditions for system upgrade 1
host should be above knight establishment stage cultivation
the host should have 5 sp and 5 ap]
faes looked at the conditions and had a blank look
'that's it?' she asked
[yes host]
faes decided that she needs to upgrade the system and look at what happens after that. but first she needs to take care of the huge elephants that appeared in front of them.
and behind that elephant was the plant they were looking for. the glowing spiritual brahmi. a plant with glowing leaves and black stem which gave a feeling of being otherworldly, actually it was more like a tree just like a banyan tree with several transparent glowing prop roots hanging from it.