Chapter 44: The value of plant knowledge

Right after I cut down the tree, Ashihana approached me in excitement.

"What did you just do?"

"What do you mean, cut down the tree?"

"Ho, how?"

"Huh?　No, I just hit the logging point with my ax and cut down the tree like normal."

"No, I mean, how did you cut down a tree without a logging point?"

"No logging point?"

"Yes. No matter how I look at it, it's a bush... Hoo."

Ashihana swings her ax at the sawtooth oak tree.

"I can't cut it down."

"But look."

I show her the wood that I've cut down.

"Wood, miscellaneous wood, sawtooth oak?　The quality's low, but I've never seen that wood before."

Ashihana is a top player in woodworking, right?　Wood that Ashihana has never seen before?　Seriously? Her logging skill level is way higher than mine. Then there's only one thing I can think of.

"Naa, have you ever heard of a skill called plant knowledge?"

Like weeds, bushes are probably impossible to identify without plant knowledge. We are just teaming up with Ashihana and Sawyer, but we are not in the same party. We don't share the same skills for gathering. When I was cutting down the green peach tree, Ashihana and I had to form a party once.

"Plant knowledge?　I've never heard of that."

"I've never heard of it either."

"Yuuto-san, do you have that skill?"

"Yes, I do."

I explained to them the effects of my plant knowledge. The two of them then get excited and ask me a lot of questions.

"Yuuto-san! Are you sure the other pages of the?encyclopedia?are filled?"

"Ah, yeah."

"I never thought weeds have individual names. Do trees have names, too?"

"Yes, but not every tree has a logging point. For example, the trees there and there are sawtooth oak, and that one is mongolian oak."

Maybe, but not all trees can be cut down because of the quality of the wood or other reasons. Even in real life, not all trees in the forest can be made into wood. Some trees are bent in the middle, some have hollow spaces. Not many trees that grow in nature can be made into wood.

In the first place, if all the trees in the forest could be made into wood, woodworkers would have too much work.

"But from my experience with weeds, I'd say making something out of them would be less effective. That herbal tea I made earlier is also made from weeds, but it didn't restore fullness, right?"

"I don't really mind. Just the fact that its new wood is a big discovery. Besides, for a home chair or interior decoration, the scent and the beauty of the wood grain are more important than the special effects."

I see. Maybe that's true for ordinary furniture.

I added Ashihana and the others to my party once to show them my plant knowledge skills. They can now recognize the names of the weeds. They're excitedly appraising the weeds at their feet.

"Yuuto-san. I'll pay for it. Could you tell me how to acquire plant knowledge skill?"

"Please, let me know too. Of course, I'll give up if you want to keep it a secret."

"If you teach me, I'll give you the beekeeping box for free. I'll also do anything else for you!"

"Me too. I can only pay you about 2,000 G, but I will do anything for you!"

Hmmm. I'm glad the beekeeping box is free. Rather, I think I'm getting too much. We can negotiate that later.

Besides, I don't mind telling them how to acquire it. I'm surprised that people don't know about this skill at all. I thought they knew about it already.

"Aah, I don't mind telling you, but it might be difficult to acquire."

Then I told them the story of how I acquired plant knowledge. As far as I could guess, the requirement was to grow and harvest weeds on the farm. I did that on my own initiative. Well, in my case, I didn't want to waste any empty space, so Orto planted herbs for me.

"That's going to take some time."

"But it's not impossible!　When we get back to town, I'll buy a farm!"

"I agree."

The two of them are going to buy a farm, but I ask them about something that has been bothering me.

"Excuse me, can we get wood without logging points?"

Actually, weeds do not show any collecting points. Still, if I gather them, I can grow the plants and process them. If that's the case, wouldn't it be the same for bushes?

After I say this, Ashihana is thinking about something. But Sawyer-kun seems to be skeptical.

"Actually, there were players who tried that. Because if we can use the trees that grow in the forest as wood, we can easily make a large piece of work. They went into the forest and tried to cut down the trees. But all they got were garbage."

But Ashihana looks very motivated. She turns to the sawtooth oak tree that I cut down and starts swinging her ax vigorously. The nice sound of the sawtooth oak echoed through the forest. If she forms a party with me, she can get a miscellaneous wood right here, but we can't keep working together in the future. I guess she wants to know if it's possible to get some trees without plant knowledge skill.

What surprised me is that when she takes a break during work, the tree's condition returns to normal after a few minutes. I guess the object has an automatic repair function.

She had to start all over again because of this, but she managed to cut down the tree after 30 minutes.

The sawtooth oak tree falls with a loud cracking sound.

"How is it?"

"Eeeto. I did it! I got some wood! And there's an announcement that some skills have been unlocked!"

When Ashihana checks her skill list, it seems that plant knowledge is now available. I never thought she could get the skill.

It seems that the requirement is not just to cut down trees randomly, but to cut down trees that can be used for wood by yourself. I think we can acquire this skill if we try some other plant-related skills.

"Then I'll acquire it as soon as I can!"

"Wait a minute!"

"What is it, Sawyer-chi?"

"If Ashihana-san gets the plant knowledge here, I can see the logging point as her party member, right? Please wait until I cut it down by myself."

"OK."

So, we waited for the sawtooth oak to return to its original state, and then Sawyer worked hard to acquire the skill.

However, it took him much longer than Ashihana, probably because his logging skill level is lower.

In the meantime, we spent time killing monsters that approached us, and Ashihana held a woodworking class for Sakura. Orto and I raised our base level by one, and Rick and Kumama raised theirs by two.

Also, Orto collected some ores for me. I didn't have mining, so I didn't pay much attention to it, but there are actually several mining points on the riverside. I got some low-quality bronze ore from the riverside area.

Moreover, in the cliffside where the green peach tree grows. The same cliffside where I had fallen to my death. There is also a mining point there. Normally, you'd have to climb up or use a rope to get down from the top, but Orto had used earth magic to make footholds to mine it easily. That surprised Ashihana.

Other than bronze ore, we also got a rare ore called water ore from this cliff. Perhaps it was thanks to Orto's luck skill. The rumor says that water ore can be obtained from this cliff, but the probability is so low that many people doubt it.

One hour later. Sawyer-kun keeps swinging his ax without resting and finally successfully cuts down the tree.

"I did it! I totally did it! I acquired the skill!"

"Good, good. That's good. The shouta elf is jumping up and down with joy. Stop! I am not going to that side!　Don't strike a cute pose!"

"What's wrong?"

"No, no, nothing is wrong. More importantly, is plant knowledge not well known?"

"Yes, that's right. I had never heard of it before.?Eeeto, according to the aggregate data, it seems that by the 9th day, only 3 people have acquired it."

3 people?　That's not many. But didn't the other people post it on the bulletin board?　Tough, I don't have the right to say that.

"I wonder why. Maybe they don't think the skill is that important like Yuuto-san did. It just became available by accidentally fulfilling some requirements, and once you got it, you would know the names of weeds."

"Maybe you have to be a woodworker or a farmer to realize the value of this skill. Either that or they're secretly keeping it to themselves."

I see. I'm not the type to worry about it, but I'm sure there are a lot of players who want to keep useful information hidden as long as possible.

"Yuuto-san, what do you want to do?"

"Eh? Me?"

"Do you want to keep it a secret?　Or do you want to post it on the bulletin board?"

"No, why are you asking me?　You two can do whatever you want."

"Listen. It was thanks to you that we acquired the plant knowledge skill, right? We can't just do whatever we want without your permission!"

Is that the case?　Because I thought it only natural that the information would spread once I told them.

"I don't really mind either way.　What do you two want to do?"

"Eeh? I see... Then, should we keep it a secret for now?"

"You are right. Yuuto-san was the one who found it, so it's better that way, right?"

It seems that my way of asking was wrong. They're trying to be considerate of me. Although they are reluctant to do so, they have decided not to post about it on the bulletin board.

"Then let's just keep it between us for a while."

It seems to be valuable information for Sawyer-kun and Ashihana, so I think we should keep it off the bulletin board for a while. But I also tell them that they can share it with anyone they want.

After that, we decided to go back to the town while gathering wood. It is almost evening. No matter how strong Ashihana is, it's tough to explore at night when the monsters are getting stronger.

They gather a lot of wood along the way. Ashihana and Sawyer-kun look very happy.