Blackthorne took up a set of rings that he fashioned earlier then held them close together. He began the process of combing them through synergy, and action that typically took several long seconds to accomplish seemed to be rendered complete slightly faster than normal.

He checked the resulting ring that he received and noted little difference between it and the two previous versions. "Stats are the same, looks mostly the same..."

The craftsmanship and appearance of the grass ring did look slightly superior if compared to its half-assed counterparts, but the resulting utility was no different than before. "What's the difference? Do I need to train more, or is there just not much that can be done with grass as a base ingredient..."

Previous synergy attempts which led to the combination of two rings did not always produce a superior ring. He knew that fact quite well. In a way the transfer and upgrade in skill rank for his synergy skill seemed like a waste of skill points at the moment.

"What about my new sub-skill, though?" he asked quietly. Blackthorne eyed his ring in a curious manner then accessed the new knowledge brought to him by his most basic understanding of synergy refinement. Skills did not provide much knowledge as a base, but did at least allow their wielder to know how to access their abilities.

Blackthorne searched his memories then nodded. "Two ways to do it... work on combining things until they were forced to become refined as a new item, or actively refine them by concentration on that aspect of synergy..."

The small green sphere of vita crystal he produced recently was a result of the first type of refinement, sort of a critical mass overload and item evolution. It was an extremely costly method, and could easily result in loss of materials. However, if it worked it would produce something much greater than the sum of its parts.

He knew how to do the first type of refinement but for now he would work on the type that his skill allowed him to utilize, direct refinement. Blackthorne focused his attention on the ring in his hand. He could only refine an item that was created through his own efforts at synergy.

It was the trace amounts of his life force converted into magical power than he could seize upon. There was also a variable time limit to deal with when it came to refinement. If he did not refine items within a few hours of combining them, the trace elements of his power would have completely vanished. He would not be able to refine the item at that point.

"Purity, refinement, compact..." he whispered as he focused on the idea of refining the ring into a purer substance. The process required only a few seconds, but for Blackthorne it felt like more than a minute. However, in the end the ring shimmered lightly then began to shrink down. It grew smaller, and smaller still. It eventually began to wriggle and writhe atop the palm of his hand. Not long after, the ring split apart and shrank down further. It took on the appeared of a tiny grass stalk with the merest hint of a leaf near the tip.

The refinement process ended as the tiny sprig of grass refused to shrink further. It became obvious that this pinky-nail sized bit of grass was the purest material representation of the grass ring that he crafted.

"I'm not surprised, but what good are you?" He looked it over briefly and then was surprised to see that it had an information blurb.

Miniscule Verdant Grass

Class: F

Quality: Low

Nutrition Value:

Restores [1] life force per [4] minutes for [30] total minutes.

Required Dosage: 5 Leaves

His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. "Wait... If I have five of these tiny little bits of grass I can eat them and get the same health restoring effects as a screaming onion?"

Blackthorne carefully set the tiny bit of grass on his pillow then ate an apple and got back to work. There was something that he wanted to try. He combined eight more rings then refined each resulting ring. Each time he did so, another miniscule verdant grass appeared.

"Alright, let's see if this works..." he said happily.

He ate another apple then set about making an attempt to combine two sprigs of grass. Blackthorne took a deep breath then got to work. The two bits of grass merged together easily! However, the cost to make it happen was higher than his previous refinement attempts, a four point life force cost.

The resulting sprig was slightly larger than before, not unlike what happened when he combined vita stones. It was easier to combine like resource items, but the result was a larger bit of material at a higher life force cost.

He glanced at the three remaining bits of grass then back to the slightly larger sprig. He combined another sprig with the larger one then grinned. He was exhausted at the moment and would need to result, but the result was obvious. The sprig, and its corresponding leaf, both grew larger. The resultant sprig of grass was now labeled as Tiny Verdant Grass, and he needed to eat only two leaves to achieve the same effect as five of the smaller leaves. Everything else was the same.

Blackthorne spent the time that it took for him to regenerate his life force crafting more rings. While he did not feel a burning need to grind his jewelry crafting skill until it was elevated to second tier status, he did not want to remain idle, either.

Apples were a more powerful healing agent than onions, but not by much. Their only real utility was that they he could buy them easily and he still had a good few of them left. The grass that he continually glanced at, however, might lead to a health restoration breakthrough. He could feel it.

Once his life force was full, he set about combining sprigs of grass once more. His life force was nearly depleted once again in the process, but he did manage to combine all five sprigs into one much longer and elegant looking bit of grass. Three dark green leaves rose majestically from the lighter green stem of the bit of grass. Eager to see what he had now, Blackthorne checked its information.

Verdant Grass

Class: F

Quality: Low

Nutrition Value:

Restores [1] life force per [4] minutes for [30] total minutes.

Required Dosage: 1 Leaf

"Now that's more like it... this little bit of grass is equal to about three onions..." If he took the amount of time to craft this bit of grass and compared it to the time that it took to simply purchase an apple or an onion, it seemed like a major waste. However, Blackthorne saw it in a different light. He could take a handful of grass and craft restorative items in his room during his downtime.

After a short rest, and ring crafting session, he opted to see what he would get if he refined the full-sized verdant grass. Blackthorne panted heavily by the time that he was done. "T-twenty-three life force? What the hell man...?"

The result was once again, a tiny sprig of grass. However, instead of being annoyed a demented grin was his reply.

Miniscule Vita Grass

Class: E

Quality: Low

Nutrition Value:

Restores [4] life force, plus [1] additional life force per minute for [60] total minutes.

Required Dosage: 5 Leaves

He threw his head back and laughed maniacally. "Now we're getting somewhere!"

His laughter erupted once more when a soft feminine voice whispered in his ear, "Your skill in Improved Synergy Refinement has increased."

"Oh, this is good..." he said several hours later as he finished his latest round of crafting. During that time, he managed to craft his way toward enough miniscule sprigs of vita grass that he was able to combine them into three separate sprigs of standard sized grass. Each leaf was capable of restoring four points of life force plus an additional sixty points over the course of an hour. More to the point, the effects stacked for up to three leaves during that hour. He could easily recover his life force to full in four or five minutes and regain three points of life force per minute for an hour with each sprig of this grass!

A soft voice whispered in his ear, "Your skill in Improved Synergy Refinement has increased."

Blackthorne chuckled lightly. "Already rank three in synergy refinement. Seriously, moving that skill up to primary tier was the best thing to do."

His stomach rumbled a moment later. Despite the fact that he ate apples all day long, he was once again hungry. "Life force depletion takes it out of a guy."

However, he took a breath and forced himself to continue working for just a moment longer. When he tried to further refine the grass before, it would not do so. It seemed as though something were missing. He could not be certain of that fact, but it was the feeling that he'd gotten. Combining two springs was also outside of his skill level as he could easily tell that they would combine, but the cost to do so would be exorbitant. He was not strong enough to manage it with his current amount of life force.

No, there was only one thing he could do with these bits of grass. Blackthorne plucked a leaf from its stem then checked it. The information remained the same for that leaf. The healing properties were found within it, not the stem. "Good. This won't be wasteful."

He plucked the rest of the leaves from each stem then grinned down at the stems in his hand. "Let's see what you can do for daddy, neh?"

Blackthorne fashioned the three grass stems into a grass ring. He hoped that the superior type of grass would help with the ring's abilities. He was right. His eyes widened excitedly when he realized exactly how right he happened to be.

Vita Grass Ring

Equipped: --

Weight: 0.01

Armor Type: Accessory

Armor Class: 3

Quality: Low

Agility Reduction: 0

Durability: 8/8

Hardness: 2

Equipment Requirements

--

--

Bonus Armor Class: +1

Special Options

Life Force Regeneration +1 per [10] minutes

Once again maniacal laughter pealed through the room like the joyful rages of a demented god. Blackthorne had managed to graft his first piece of stat boosting equipment. Better yet, it was a low-quality piece of trash according to the quality level. This meant that with time, effort, and synergy the result would soon be slightly better overall.

"Quickly get some lun—" he began then corrected himself, "Dinner... The day definitely got away from me. Then get back to it... If I can combine a few of these I might get a standard quality or better version!"

Blackthorne cleaned up his area a little then headed down stairs. He had precious few Jerin remaining, but it was enough for a simply mea.

Scraggles acknowledged him with a nod of the head. Blackthorne went to speak with him a moment, mainly about how much time he still had on the room. Upon learning that he had until midnight the next night, he grinned. It was perfect timing!

His dinner, something resembling ham with potatoes and a soup side-dish, arrived. He chose that moment to gorge on his plate of food. He went back for seconds, and soon his vitality had been restored. Cooked food restored health by a much larger amount than the raw version, and it also satiated him in a way that no apple or bit of grass possibly could.

Jackie poked her head out of the kitchen to tell Scraggles something a few minutes later then spied Blackthorne. She waved at him then offered him a sly grin and gestured at her breasts. Blackthorne laughed a little and shook his head.

The slave chef pouted at him cutely then made a chopping gesture with her kitchen knife. Did he want to reconsider now?

He shook his head again then offered her another of his rare genuine smiles. The curvaceous chef stomped her foot at him then then laughed and wandered back into the kitchen.

Blackthorne turned his head to see if anyone had taken notice of their little exchange. If they had, they did not act as though they had. Blackthorne thought about it for a moment then considered how she acted when they first met. In the end, he assumed that the overly endowed woman acted that way with any traveler who came to town.

While he considered the nature of the beautiful girl who bought his onions, something else caught his attention. Blackthorne lifted a soggy green leaf up with his fork then spread it out gently. He tilted his head from one side to the other then nodded.

Curious to see if he was correct, he waved to Scraggles. When the tavern owner arrived, Blackthorne asked him about the leaf on his plate.

"That? It's just vita grass," said Scraggles. "Pretty common soup stock."

"Really..." asked Blackthorne, a new smile appearing in the process, "Do you buy it from folks like you do with onions?"

"Sure, do you have some? It's common enough, but every restaurant in town buys the stuff so it keeps the price steady," replied the man.

Blackthorne pulled out one of his leaves and showed it to the man. "About how much would these go for around here?"

Scraggles eyed the leaf for a moment then nodded. "Not the best quality, so you can't really sell it as medicine. Should be fine for soup though."

He looked to Blackthorne then said, "The general store tends to sell them at one hundred Jerin for five leaves, or seventy per full sprig. I mostly buy sprigs since the leaves keep better than way. Unless you dry them of course."

"Really... A sprig has how many leaves growing on it?" asked Blackthorne curiously.

"Three for the normal size sold at the store," said Scraggles. "How many leaves you got? I usually won't bother unless I can get ten sprigs or about a hundred leaves."

"Had three sprigs, but I plucked them. I can get more in a few days, though. Would you still be interested?" asked Blackthorne.

"Sure. It only takes one leaf for a big pot of soup, so ten sprigs lasts me about a week," said Scraggles. "You get me ten sprigs, or a hundred leaves by the end of the week, and I'll buy them all at the normal cost."

A loud *Wha-ping* sounding noise echoed inside Blackthorne's head right after he answered the man. "Sounds good! I'll get you ten sprigs by the end of the week. That's how many days again?"

"Two and some change," said Scraggles. "That enough time?"

"More than enough, if I work hard at it," said Blackthorne with a grin.

Screw hunting for onions right now. He stood to gain seven hundred Jerin in a couple of days simply from grinding his skills. The timing was pretty good, and he even had enough grass in his room to make it happen! If he made a ton of rings and charged them in preparation, and used his current batch of leaves to help him regenerate his life force things would move along swiftly. He could easily craft one, or perhaps two, sprigs over the course of an hour.

The only hitch in the plan was the sheer number of grass rings he would need to craft. They were absurdly simple to make. He only need to quickly weave three pieces of grass together and tie the ends. Quite accomplished at this type of craftsmanship, he could easily produce between three and five of them over the course of a single minute as long as he did not become distracted. Still, twenty-five hundred grass rings at minimum would be needed. So far he'd had no trouble synergizing them due to their simplistic nature, but that was a lot of rings.

Of course, Blackthorne still had a little over two hundred of his current stock of rings left up in his room. At the moment, that was nearly enough for one sprig on its own.

Blackthorne rubbed his chin. He would actually be cutting it close even if he worked like a machine to make enough rings. However, a thought occurred to him. During his few hours of experimentation, he discovered that verdant grass rings could be made just as easily as any other. More to the point, when combined and refined they became miniscule vita grass sprigs just like a refinement of a full-sized sprig of verdant grass.

It was entirely wasteful as it took six times as many full-size sprigs of verdant grass to make one miniscule sprig of vita grass. However, that was only the case when it came to using synergy to get them. If he could find or buy it on its own, he would be much closer to his goal. It would take only six hundred rings of verdant grass to do the job, after all.

Blackthorne spent a short time inquiring around the tavern and then out in town. Eventually, he was directed to the general store where he sold things from his hunts. After a brief discussion with the chubby man behind the counter, Blackthorne's smile reappeared.

A loud *Wha-Ping!* sound echoed in his ears as he walked out of the general store. "Verdant grass commonly grows near ponds and springs, such as the one an hour's march north of town... How utterly convenient."

The general store guy offered to buy some off of him for the price of three Jerin per sheathe, a sheathe being one hundred stems. Blackthorne agreed to bring the man twenty sheathes of the stuff as a cover for his information gathering. However, he would check to see if there was enough grass to cover that deal once he arrived at his target location. There was no way that he would settle for that price when he could use the stuff to make armor and soup stock, not if supplies were limited.

None of that was the convenient part. No, the convenient part was what the chubby man did after Blackthorne inquired about the grass. Vita grass could not be found in the area, but he pulled out a map and showed him where verdant grass could be found nearby. It was a familiar spot, a location absurdly close to the forgotten mine he intended to seek out once he had proper supplies and equipment.