[TL: Asuka]

[PR: Ash] 

As the first ray of light pierced through the darkness which was spread across the horizon, dawn broke through the sky. 

“Mmh…” Roy stretched his arms and opened his eyes. Every cell in his body felt relaxed, as if he’d just soaked in a hot spring. It was the first time he’d had a good night’s sleep since he crossed over two months ago. The dawn breeze kissed him, and it took away his lethargy, making Roy feel refreshed.

“Oh, right, why’d I… Axii. Dammit. Why’d he use Axii on me?” The color drained from Roy’s face, and he quickly checked himself. I’m fine. My clothes are intact, and I don’t feel weird anywhere. He heaved a sigh of relief. “Good thing baldy isn’t gay.”

“You’re awake, brat.” As Letho said good morning in his iconic deadpan voice, some thigh meat grilled to golden brown flew across the air in an arc.

“Ow, ow, hot, hot!” Roy tossed the meat around clumsily before finally catching it. He blew on it and asked, “What did you do to me last night?”

“Look at your wound.”

“Oh, it’s all healed.” 

Roy’s thigh had been covered in blood since hours of horseback riding had gnawed his skin. It would have taken five days to heal, but the wound had formed scabs overnight. They were hideous, a dull reddish-brown hue, and were hard to the touch. But it didn’t hurt.

“I hypnotized you with Axii last night and fed you some herbs.”

“That’s not a good idea, Letho. Shouldn’t you tell me before you do that? Didn’t think Axii helped with sleep, though. Wait, you couldn’t have fed potions to me, could you?”

Potions for witchers could harm normal humans greatly, and Roy didn’t want to hurt himself when he was still in his growing phase. He checked his character sheet, but everything seemed fine to him. His Strength even grew by 0.1 point, making it 4.3. Whoa. I got stronger in a night than I could in a month. What kind of magic meds did he feed me?

“Won’t be as effective if you have your guard up,” Letho explained. “Still a long way from the Trial of the Grasses. Potions will kill you if you take them before the trial. Relax. You had special herbs made for humans. It can even make you stronger if you take them regularly.”

Roy’s eyes shone at the mention of the effect. That kind of herb exists? He stopped complaining and gobbled up the remainder of the thigh. “Nice cooking.” He clicked his tongue in praise. “Meat’s tender enough, and smells great. What’s this made out of, Letho?”

Letho’s eyelid twitched, and he took a deep breath. “Wolf. The same beast that tried to kill us last night.”

***

Letho didn’t ask Roy to ride on horseback with him. Instead, he took the horse and sauntered in the wilderness. It was a land filled with strange plants and muddy ground that squelched under their feet, but the air was sweet, tangy, and humid. From time to time, roe deers, honey badgers, and deers would stick their heads out of the bushes, just to turn tail and run in fright at the sight of them both.

“Where are we going?”

Letho was already used to Roy’s incessant questioning, and he shrugged before giving a cryptic answer. “Think closely, and you’ll find the answer.” 

Roy squinted skeptically, and a moment later, one long, strange message appeared in his mind. 

‘Marigold: Biennial plant. Has glandular trichomes. Its leaves are alternate and circular in shape. Its flowers can be yellow or orange. Prefers cooler climates. It can survive the cold, but dies quickly in higher heat. Can help with digestion and healing of wounds.

‘Buckthorn: Annual plant. Stem grows upright and has trichomes. Its leaves grow in a whorled arrangement. Prefers warmer climates and places with sufficient light as well as air circulation. Can survive hot environments, but dies if there’s too much water. Can act as an antidote for poison and a medicine for plagues.

‘Nettle… Belladonna… Comfrey… Myrtle… Chrysanthemum… Berbercane fruit…’

The images, details, and medicinal value for more than thirty herbs appeared within his mind, and Roy memorized them without difficulty. He was sure he could recognize every single one of them if they were to appear before him.

“You were almost healed when we left Kaer. Time for you to learn new things.” Letho still held the horse by the leash. “So I used a sign last night to make you memorize the common herbs. They can do anything from stopping minor bleedings to neutralizing toxins. Remember them well. You’ll have to use them eventually,” he explained slowly.

Roy had his question answered. Over the course of one night, Letho had bestowed multiple surprises upon him. Roy became stronger, and he had a compendium of herbs in his mind. He hadn’t seen most of them before, and he was sure they never appeared in the game. That’s normal though. This is the real world. It’s not as limited as the game. Course I don’t know a lot of things. However, he had a giant head start with a witcher mentoring him.

***

These witchers really know how to use signs to their fullest potential. Never thought Axii could be used to bestow knowledge. I thought that only happened in novels. “Why didn’t you leave more in my head, Letho? Something like alchemy? We can continue tonight.”

Letho was inscrutable. “Sure. If you aren’t scared of having a splitting headache for your whole life.”

He then stopped before an area filled with bush. Wherever Roy looked, there was green, but the plants also came in different shapes. Some thicker, some thinner. Some bigger, some smaller. 

“Now look for the herbs you saw in your head.” 

“Which one did you feed me last night? I want to pick more of them.”

“Those are berbercane fruits,” Letho answered. “Not a bad plant, to be honest. Take it every day, and it’ll make you stronger.”

Before Roy went to harvest the herbs, Letho told him what he should look out for. “If you go in to pick them without knowing their structure and the parts that are important, you’ll ruin the herb. Then, they won’t even be worth one crown. Take berbercane fruits, for example. The only valuable part is the red, misshapen fruits underground. The leaves that grow above it —  however beautiful they are —  aren’t worth a thing. You can’t just pull it out however you want though. Plants are a type of life form, and they can protect themselves. If you pull on it too strongly, the leaves will secrete a kind of fluid that will destroy the fruit. You’ll have to be careful with how you pull them out, brat. If you’re too soft, it won’t work. If you’re too strong, it’ll be ruined.”

As Letho went on with his explanations, Roy slowly paid more attention to the specifics. He never realized there were so many details to look out for, and it was a mere plant.

***

Around the bushes lay fallen leaves. They were covered in a sheet of sleet and dewdrops. The northern realms had always been colder than any other place. It was already late autumn when Roy arrived there, and snow had descended upon most nations.

Roy’s face was red from the cold, but still he went on with his harvest among the bushes, icy step by icy step. Fortunately for him, berbercane fruits weren’t rare, and he found a bunch of them not long after his search had started. The difficult part, however, was the plucking.

Roy had to pull the fruit out of the ground without shocking the leaves. If he made even one rough move, the green, juicy leaves would blacken completely in an instant, and the fruit would rot in a chain reaction.

Roy was drenched in sweat at the end, but he managed to pluck a sizable amount of berbercane fruits. They were gleaming under the sun, their crimson hue uncannily resembling strawberries, and the smell alone refreshed Roy. He placed most of them in his inventory and popped one into his mouth. Then a status that said ‘Poisoned (mild)’ appeared on the right side of his HP bar.

“Weird. My HP and stats are normal, and I don’t feel unwell. Why’d this status show up? If I could just find out more about the fruit…”

Roy fell into his thoughts for a while, and a stroke of inspiration struck him. He remembered about his level two Observe skill. I made a mistake. I thought Observe could only be used on humans, animals, and monsters. But can it be used on herbs too?

Roy swiftly found a fresh berbercane plant, and he activated Observe. His eyes turned into a galaxy of knowledge as an information sheet appeared on top of the plant.

‘Berbercane. Perennial plants. This particular plant is currently two and a half years old. Berbercanes can be found in the northern realms or lands that constantly experience temperatures lower than twenty degrees.

‘Usages: 1. Can be eaten as food. Taking an ounce of berbercane fruit every day for a month will increase your stats gradually. It can raise your stats by one point at the maximum, and the effect will stop after your stats reach five points. 2. As material for potions and decoctions.

‘Negative effects: Contains mild poison. The user must wait until the poison has disappeared fully before consuming another fruit. If not, the poison will consume the user’s sense of taste. If the poison remains for more than two months, the user will lose their sense of taste permanently. The user is immune to the poison if their Stamina is higher than 15.’

***

The message detailed the age and dosage of the fruit. It was a perfect complement to the pointers Letho gave him. It was then that Roy prioritized the leveling up of Observe.

After putting the rest of the berbercane fruits in his inventory space, Roy started sweeping through the bushes for herbs. It took him the whole morning to get through the patch of bushes, but in the end, he found twelve types of herbs he saw in his mind, including myrtles, crow’s eyes, beggarticks, and black hellebore. Aside from berbercane fruits, an herb called blowball could give him a minor increase in Strength, though only by one point at most. It wasn’t too obvious an improvement.

Even so, attribute points were hard to come by. He was only awarded one point with every level up, and at the time being, he needed one thousand EXP to do so. Leveling up would eventually become a steep hill to climb, which made stat improvements through herbs a sweet bonus for him.

If Roy’s Observe was correct, consuming blowballs and berbercane fruits for a month would raise his weakest stats, Constitution and Strength, to five points, making him on par with a normal adult.

The only drawback was the fact that consuming herbs was a double-edged blade. It could strengthen him, but they could poison him too. If he wasn’t careful, he would lose his sense of smell and taste. Fortunately, the poison effect wasn’t permanent. On the contrary, it faded fast enough for Roy not to mind it. After finishing his berbercane fruit, he popped some blowball petals into his mouth and gave it a thorough chew in case it would upset his stomach. 

Raising my stats with herbs is the easiest way to train I’ve ever heard.

***

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