Old Thane grunted as he carried his wagon uphill. The slope was relatively steep, almost forty-five degrees, give or take, and Li worried for a second that the old man's knees would just collapse on him. However, the elderly farmer had plenty of life pumping through his veins. His shoulders, rounded with muscle as they were, stood as a testament of a lifetime of conditioning and a bulwark against his advanced years.

"Don't worry about me, young lad," said Old Thane. He maintained a slow and steady pace up. Thankfully, the grass on the hill was rough and thick, perfect for maintaining traction. "I make this trip every month when the food runs low. Never had an injury."

Li walked a few paces behind just to make sure he could catch the old man if he slipped back. "And you don't mind me, old man. Just treat me like insurance and keep your eyes, I mean ears on the road. Anyways, how long do we have to go? It's been an hour, almost, and we already put in an hour getting to the knights in the first place."

"Patience, my boy. Just up this slope. Modeste lies atop rolling hills, but none are as steep as this one, so on the brighter side, the trip down will be much easier."

"I know you come all the way out here to avoid getting scammed by the marketplace at Riviera, but is it really worth it? There'll come a time when you can't make this trip, you know."

Li put a hand into his trouser pocket and willed coins from his inventory. He felt their cold metal scrape against his flesh. Taking items out of his game inventory was still a strange process. He had to think of the item, very clearly visualize it in his head and remember its name, and then think about wanting it. It would then just magically materialize in whatever storage he had on him, which in his case, usually meant his pockets.

Thankfully, the coins in Elden World were the exact same coins here, although there were only gold coins in the game whereas there seemed to be other denominations such as bronzes and silvers here. He had thought about giving Old Thane some coins, storing them here and there and making up a story of how he had gotten them, but he had decided against it. It would hurt the old man's pride if he found out it was essentially a donation and Li didn't want him to start asking questions either.

"Aye, and that's why I roped you into the farm, hah! To take care of me when my bones grow brittle." Old Thane laughed. "Just a jest, lad. When the time comes that I can't stand on my own two feet anymore, well, that'll be my time. The young burdening themselves to care for the old is the greatest waste of youth I can ever think of, and to be honest, I would rather sod off with my dignity intact without anyone else wiping my arse for me."

Old Thane paused and wiped a sheen of sweat from his wrinkled forehead. "And you don't get much better deals on herbs than here, Li, trust me. When the Duchess came into power, she tightened the trade laws with a mighty hand. Restricted the sale of valuables like herb seeds to cities and their growth to villages on city outskirts. That's where she can have her lords keep a close eye on em', after all."

"Any reason why? Can't see why anyone would get their underwear in a twist over some sprigs to put in their tea."

"That's the basic usage of herbs, aye, but the valuable ones, the ones with magic flowing through their roots, are precious like gold and dangerous in the wrong hands. Before the Duchess, it wasn't rare to see dens of addicts in every village and city full of skinny fools wasted away from smoking mist poppy. But on the other hand, that very same mist poppy can distill into an elixir capable of turning even the most cowardly of soldiers into fearless heroes or ease the sharpest of pains."

"Basically, the duchess wants to control the supply and the distribution," said Li as he recalled his economics classes from university. He had taken a couple introductory ones just out of curiosity, but he could confidently admit he had a basic functioning knowledge of how trade was done.

Old Thane scratched his beard. "Precisely. And, to be honest, Li, it makes my instincts worried. She's done it all under the guise of tightening up drug laws, improving public health and morality and all that good talk, but I daresay this has all the stench of a war to it."

Li raised a brow. "And why do you say that?"

"Elixirs make or break wars. Spiking an army's soup is enough to render them more powerful twice or thricefold. Poisoning it can put them to sleep for a right rout. During peacetime, nobody cares that some folk choose to spend their idle time blasting their minds to the heavens, gods know the nobles have a fondness for it despite all their flowery appearances, but if I was the Duchess and at war, or preparing for it, I would take every single seed and herb to make sure all of it goes to the soldiers and not into the mouths of lowly addicts."

Li nodded with minor interest. It was nice to know the politics revolving around this world, but it was like reading about game lore or trivia. It didn't feel too consequential to him. Perhaps because he was so powerful, he didn't know, but he was more interested in why Modeste was the best place to get herb seeds.

"Then why Modeste for herbs? What's a village out in the woods got over the Rivieran marketplace that probably has the crown's support for gathering seeds?"

Old Thane began lugging the wagon back up the hill again. His jaw was set, and his brows were furrowed. Li wondered if he had said something wrong.

"The law is looser there," said Old Thane quietly. "Forgive me, Li, I was not too forthright: not only do I have little coin, but no official pharmacy will sell a simple farmer like me anything. Perhaps my wife as a proper herbalist, but not me. In Modeste, I know a man from my adventuring days, a right scoundrel he is, I daresay, but he is willing to weave around the Duchess's good law to sell the seeds we need."

They walked a few paces in silence.

"I've been thinking about it," said Li. "But going out into the boonies to meet a questionable guy ti get some illegal plants? Really sounds like a drug deal."

Old Thane shrugged as much as his shoulders would allow while tugging the wagon along. "Such is life, Li. We make do with what it grants us, and sometimes, many times, really, it is not generous."

Li knew that Old Thane wasn't proud of this. He knew that the old man had thought the bandits and their ilk as lowlives, but he had to resort to more of the same to get what he needed. To Li, it didn't matter much where the seeds came from so long as they got them, and they didn't draw too much unneeded attention.

There was also a part of him that thought agonizing over laws drawn up by such lesser beings was ridiculous to invest much thought about, but he shook that part of him off. He wanted to farm without using his powers as much as possible, after all.

"That's true," said Li nonchalantly. He knew Old Thane would appreciate that his voice had not even the slightest shred of judgement in it. He eyed Old Thane's wagon. "And we're going to be paying for this drug deal with…berries?"

Old Thane smiled. "What? You think I have some illegal coin stashed away anywhere? Hah, no such thing, Li - I'm just a farmer, after all. Coin holds little merit to those who sell in the shadows. If any authority finds that your coin came to be through questionable means, then at best, you will be penniless, at worst, you will find yourself at the gallows. But food? Everybody needs food, especially now when times are as hard as they are with the rise of the Republic straining Soleil."

Old Thane pointed upwards. "We're here! I can feel the land has leveled and the grasses worn away. This is the familiar earth right in front of Modeste's gates. Tell me, Li, how does it look?"

Li took a look and said the first word that came to his mind.

"Strange."