Chapter 30: Alchemy leveling

"Orto, I'm home."

"Mu!"

"Please plant these."

I gave Ort the severe attack plants and the weeds. As usual, he converts the plants to seeds and plants them on the farm. Okay, that's it for the farm.

Now it's time for the alchemy and mixing festival!　Wasshoi, wasshoi!

"First.......I'll try cooking first. Besides, I've never made a salad before."

I chose the salad recipe and then followed the instructions to chop the spinach, green carrots, and orange squash. Then, pour my magic power on the cutting board and it was done.

Name: Salad

Rarity: 1 Quality:?★4

Effect: Restores fullness by 20%; restores MP by 4. Cool-down time 10 minutes.

This is good stuff!　It can restore MP. It's not as good as the mana potion that has been popular on the front lines lately, but you can restore fullness by eating it.

"Let's make another one. I only have enough ingredients for one more.

For now, let's do it on auto to be safe."

The next step is to raise my alchemy level.

"Then, put 2 poisonous plants on the alchemy table and synthesize!

One MP is consumed, and the alchemy table shines brightly.

And the 2 poisonous plants that were on the table became 1.

"The quality is now?★2."

Next, I will synthesize 1 poisonous plant from 2 poisonous plants. I continued to synthesize in this way. When 30 poisonous plants were turned into 15?★2 poisonous plants, my alchemy skill had reached Lv. 3.

My basic level and occupation level had also increased by 1 level each and became level 5. So it's true that you can get experience by doing production.

"It's going well.

Now it is time to synthesize the?★2 poisonous plants.

The alchemy table shines, the synthesis is successful. However, the quality of the poisonous plant on the table is still?★2. According to the bulletin board, to raise the quality of the same item, you need to synthesize many items equivalent to the square of the quality of the original item.

So, to raise?★2 to?★3, I need to synthesize this plant with 2 more?★2 poisonous plants. The hidden data should indicate that the item was synthesized from 2 pieces of?★1 poisonous plant. However, it cannot be checked with appraisal.

The synthesis of different quality materials is more complicated. To be honest, I couldn't fully understand it even after reading the bulletin board. The Analysis Clan must be a bunch of weirdos because they want to figure it out on their own.

After synthesizing the fourth poisonous plant as planned, I finally created a 3* poisonous plant.

I almost run out of MP, so I recover with the salad and turn 15 pieces of?★1 poisonous plant into 3 pieces of?★3 poisonous plants. I'm glad I made the salad.

"My alchemy has increased to level 7. Next is the paralysis plant!"

I intended to do that, but my MP is 0. I did a lot of alchemy work... I don't have any mana potions, and the salad only restores 4 MP.

"No choice, I'll just log out for the time being.

It's already lunchtime in real life. I'll log out, have some food, and then when I come back, my MP should already be restored.

After 30 minutes in real life, I finished eating my spaghetti and logged in again.

"Okay, my MP is full!　Right on schedule."

I repeat the same alchemy process as for the poisonous plants. In the end, I managed to produce 3 pieces of paralysis plants with *3 quality.

"Oh, my alchemy level just went up to 10!　Finally, I've reached the level!"

When I started the game, I never thought that my alchemy skill would reach level 10 before my servant magic skill. Although my skills are rising gradually every day, my servant magic is still at lv6 and my enlist skill at lv4.

"...... the new art is Drying?"

Yes, drying. Surprisingly, I needed an alchemy art for drying. After my drying experiment failed, I was shocked when I read about it on the bulletin board. It was a complete waste of time. No, no. It's not a waste. It's important to experiment and think by yourself. Experiment first, and then if you fail, check the bulletin board. That's the proper way to be a gamer. Isn't it boring if you have to check out all the information beforehand?

If that's the case, why even bother checking the bulletin board in the first place?　Do it all by yourself?　That's the thing. I'm sorry. It's boring to know all the answers beforehand, but it's also too troublesome if you can't find any answers at all.

"Mummu?"

"Oops, it's nothing, Orto. I'm just having a bit of conflict."

I think I'm going to use the new drying art right away. I plan to make honey dumplings for Orto after this, so I will use the dried edible grasses.

"Okay--drying!"

It was so simple. The edible grass glowed faintly. Nothing special about it. But when I appraised it, it indeed turned into dried edible grass.

Name: Dried Edible Grass

Rarity: 1 Quality:?★5

Effect: Restores 5% of fullness. Cool-down time, 10 minutes. It cannot be converted into seed, but the effect of using it as an ingredient increases.

"Then, if I mix this with honey--?"

Name: Honey Dumplings

Rarity: 1 Quality:?★6

Effect: A meal item for monster servants. When used by the player, it restores 6 points of fullness. Cool-down time: 10 minutes.

I succeeded, but the high quality doesn't make much difference. I'm going to give it to Orto anyway. It doesn't matter how full Orto is, right?

Well, the higher the quality, the more experience I can get. Think of it as raising my skill level and aim for high quality.

Then I made 4 honey dumplings for Orto. Actually, I had more ingredients. I tried a lot of different things but ended up wasting a lot of ingredients. I never thought that if I put honey on the fire, it would turn into garbage. I tried mixing it with water, but that didn't work. Mixing it with spinach was also a mistake. Apparently, improving honey dumplings is difficult.

I guess the best result of all this experiment is my increased skill level. My mixing skill is at Lv11, my cooking skill is at Lv10, and my alchemy skill is at Lv10. I didn't learn any arts in mixing or cooking. Instead, I unlocked some recipes.

The mixtures are low-grade mana potions, antidote, and anti-blood. The dishes were skewers, chestnut cookies, and soup. The recipes for the dishes are more like combination suggestions rather than specific ingredients. And the soup recipe is an out-of-the-box recipe: water, ingredients, and more ingredients. But I guess it's great to be able to make it on auto.

"So, what should I do now?"

Shall I visit the stalls again?　I will go around the player's stores and look for some weed that I can use for stock. I want the ingredients for the sleeping potion recipe I saw in Sawyer's store and some unknown vegetables. That's what I have in mind while walking around the town. And then I am attracted by some vegetables in a stall.

"Is this... a vegetable?"

"Yes, that's right."

"First time I see it."

Name: Dried Cure Carrot

Rarity: 2 Quality:?★3

Effect: Restores 4% fullness; restores 7 points of HP. Cool-down time, 10 minutes. It cannot be converted into seeds, but the effect of using this ingredient is increased.

I'm growing green carrots too, but this one is a rarity 2. And it has an HP recovery effect, so it'll be interesting if I use this as an ingredient.

Too bad it's dried. I can't convert it into seed. I ask the lady who is selling the vegetables.

"Can I buy the seeds if my rank in the Farming Guild increases?"

"No, you can't."

"Then how can I get ......?"

"Fufufu. Actually, it's a secret. But I'll let you know. It's a new kind of vegetable created with Selective Breeding. This skill can be acquired when your farming skill reaches level 10!"

"Selective Breeding?　Is that even possible?"

"Yes~"

That means this vegetable is even rarer than the rarity listed on the label.

"A, ano. Do you sell the seeds of this Cure Carrot? Or can I buy the carrot that is not dried?"

"I'm sorry, I'm only a reseller. The producer wishes to remain anonymous, so I can't tell you the source."

"I see....."

If she said that, I had no choice but to give up. But if it's an art that can be learned at level 10, I'm sure I can use it soon. Fufufu, this is getting interesting!　I must hurry back to my farm and help Orto with his farm work!　Then I'll raise my farming skill level!