Crunch, crunch
The sound of chewing something hard resounded.
It was coming from my mouth.
I was gnawing on the freshly harvested hatsuka while sitting on the ground in front of my fields.
As usual, I couldn't say that this hatsuka tasted good.
Rather, based on the roots that I ate, it was obvious that this wasn't edible yet even if I properly properly cooked it by boiling or anything.
Also, even when I was the one who grew them, these harvested crops would be treated as my family possession.
Yet, I just bit into it raw right after harvesting. My hunger didn't allow such a thing, after all.
Selective breeding for hatsuka had been progressing.
The fields, which was divided into 6, were gradually beginning to show differences in the characteristics.
Although, there wasn't any much difference in taste for now.
But, I suddenly got concerned about something as I was comparing them by eating.
It was regarding mana that I spent when cultivating the fields.
The magic that I independently developed was making use of inner mana and outer mana that had been fused together.
My basic imagery was, as I repeatedly taking a deep breath, I would use magic after the refined mana filled up my body.
Of course, the refined mana in my body would be consumed as I used magic.
Therefore, even if I took a deep breath to use magic again after that, I wouldn't be able to fuse and refine my mana, since mana that I originally had in my body had gone.
In other words, I was in the state of mana exhaustion.
Then, what should I do to recover my inner mana?
Up until now, I roughly assumed that it would recover over time.
In fact, I wasn't wrong.
However, that wasn't correct either.
As I was able to secure food recently, I came to understand.
That inner mana was recovered by ingesting food.
The reason I hadn't noticed until now was because it didn't recover immediately after eating.
Just like how food didn't straightly become blood and flesh, mana restoration also took some time after eating.
Because of that, I misunderstood that inner mana was recovering over time.
Thus, the important things for me to find out were what to eat and to what extent mana could be restored.
Actually, my rate of recovery had begun to differ with these several types of hatsuka that recently had started to vary.
Although there wasn't any particular change in the taste, there was a difference in the amount of my mana being restored.
It was obviously excited me.
Originally, I only started doing selective breeding out of curiosity after I managed to fulfill my basic needs of securing food.
But I gradually shifted my attention to mana rather than tasting while I was doing selective breeding.
***
I remembered when I was watching a popular TV program in my previous life, about idols doing farming.
It mentioned a guide to improve rice.
I was sure it was by creating saline water. Just pour a large amount of salt inside a water-filled container, and put rice grains inside.
Salt water caused heavy and light grains to separate, as it had properties to easily float objects unlike ordinary water.
Theoretically, that method was correct.
The method was really simple, but also very useful for breeding.
I, who managed to recall this method in my head, tried it immediately. But it didn't go well.
Unlike rice, none of them were light enough to float in saltwater.
Besides, the method that I was looking for was to select the ones that would increase the rate of mana recovery.
Even if this method worked, it was probably irrelevant to magic recovery rate.
The most definite method was to eat and compare them every day, and then prioritize to grow the ones that recovered my mana by a lot.
However, I couldn't compare them often because I only possessed the young and small body of a 3 years old.
Wasn't there a way to distinguish them, somehow?
Thinking about it deeply, I continued to tend to the fields.
Then, that problem was solved one day.
On that day as well, I was casting magic to the soil to cultivate the fields.
I always closed my eyes to concentrate and took a deep breath many times before wielding magic.
However that day, as I started getting used with magic, I began by taking a deep breath without closing my eyes and then refined my mana.
My inner mana in the lower core was fused together with outer mana that I breathed in, changing it into a dense mana, which was spread throughout my body.
It was right when that mana rose up from my stomach to my chest, further to my head.
Since I had my eyes open, I could see the fields where hatsuka were growing in front of me.
And the fields faintly flickered.
I thought I was hallucinating, but when I looked at it closely, I wasn't.
The sight of clear gas rising from the field was spread in front of me.
Maybe I knew what it was. I decided to concentrate the refined mana on my eyes.
This was what started it.
When I concentrated mana on my eyes, that sight became clearer.
The clear gas changed its color. Pale blue gas was now rising from the fields.
When I gently took out one hatsuka that was growing in the field, I saw the gas was coming from the hatsuka.
The bluish color wasn't only present in the surrounding air, but also inside the edible roots of hatsuka.
Rather, it didn't leak into the air from the root, as the bluish color remained in that part.
Perhaps, this blue gas was mana.
There was no way to confirm it, but it felt that way.
That idea didn't seem to be wrong.
Because the ones with deep blue color had the highest rate of mana recovery among hatsuka that I had eaten and compared. Conversely, the light blue ones were the ones with lower rate of mana recovery.
With this, I obtained a method to compare them without directly consuming those crops.