Chapter 2

Pinewood Forest was made up of pine trees. The tallest ones stretched 40 ft high and their branches blocked out the majority of the sun. Only a bit of light reached the ground, but it created beautiful sun rays as a result. There were few monsters here, so the wildlife thrived without regard for predators. I always enjoyed the peaceful nature of this place. I spent my whole life here, save for the few times Grandpa and I went out. A feeling of sadness rose up inside me before promptly being squashed by my desire to see the wide open world.

It was at this time that we exited the forest. A sea of tan plants greeted me. It always amazed me how much wheat grew on Fertility Island. Fertility Island was for the most part flat. Outside of every village and town in this region, wheat grew for miles on end. It wasn’t planted by farmers, but grew naturally. This was why this land was called Fertility Island. The populace here need not worry for food, because it grew naturally right outside their doors! When a farmer harvested the wheat, it would respawn the next day.

Beside me, Sophia stopped and inspected the status board of Pinewood Forest. Whenever you stood at the entrance of a dungeon, a hologram would appear informing you of tasks to do inside the dungeon. If you completed them all, you would gain a reward. The reward was generally stats, but sometimes you would gain magical items. The hologram Sophia was looking at could only be seen by her, so I didn’t know what her progress was. I took another look at mine and nodded in satisfaction.

Pinewood Forest

Explore the entire forest

Complete

Gather 10 Ferl herbs

Complete

Kill the boss Little Fang

Complete

You have completed all of the tasks. You were rewarded with .1 stat(s).

On Fertility Island, there were 25 dungeons. Grandpa taught me that when you completed all of the dungeons on an island, you would be given a reward. A reward on top of the rewards given by the dungeons? Hell yeah! I only had 1 dungeon left, and it was right next to the gateway. Grandpa never told me what the reward was, so I can’t wait to find out.

Sophia let out a sigh and shook her head. I think I knew why she was upset. I said, “Missing the 10 ferl herbs?”

She let out another sigh before saying, “I don’t know what they look like. I once thought I found one, but it turned out only to be moss. I gave up after that.”

I chuckled while taking out a ferl herb from my pouch. A waved it in front of her before walking inside Pinewood forest again. I said, “I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

“What’s that?” She asked while raising her eyebrow.

I ignored her and knelt down. I dug out a small hole with my hands before inserting the ferl herb inside. I moved the dirt back and filled the hole.

You used your herblore skill to replant a ferl herb.

I stood up and wiped the dirt from my knees. I pointed at the herb while glancing at her, “Hey, strange, a ferl herb appeared right in front of us.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes, “That can’t possibly work.”

I crossed my arms and raised my chin. I smiled smugly as I said, “Only if you replant it with the herblore skill.”

“No way, you have the herblore skill?” She said while looking at me in a new light.

I nodded repeatedly. You never knew when you would come across a rare herb or plant. If you didn’t have the herblore skill, or if it wasn’t at a high enough skill level, you would only damage or destroy the herb if you tried to harvest it. The herblore skill was a must have for Braves, or so I was told by Grandpa.

Sophia grew excited while walking towards the herb. She knelt down and clasped the herb with her hand. With a strong tug, she forcefully uprooted it from the ground. My fale paled as I watched her. I rushed up to her and exclaimed, “No! No, no, no! All wrong! You need to do it gently and gracefully, you brute!”

“Brute?” She blinked. She looked closely at the herb before saying, “Look, see? It’s fine.”

“It might be fine,” I rebuked her, “but other herbs are very delicate. You need to gently caress them like you would a woman.”

“L-l-like a woman?” She stammered with a high pitched voice.

“Uh, yeah, that’s what my grandpa said,” I explained while recalling his words, “he said that a herb is like a delicate woman. She must be coaxed and held firmly so that she won’t run away. You must be gentle so that she doesn’t break.”

Sophia threw the herb against the ground as she spat, “Your grandpa is a pervert!”

I widened my eyes and dropped to the ground. I held the herb gently in my hands and caressed it. I whispered, “There, there. It’s all right now, she won’t hurt you.”

Sophia looked at me with eyes of disgust, “Stay away from me when you harvest herbs in the future.”

I stored the woma- herb in my pouch and glanced at her, “So you don’t want to collect Pinewood Forest’s reward?”

“Th-” She froze and looked at me. She struggled internally for a moment before saying quietly, “I do.”

I cupped my ear and said, “What was that? I couldn’t quite catch that.”

“I do,” She said a little louder.

“Huh? What’d you say?” I said while leaning towards her.

“PLANT THE DAMN HERBS!” She roared towards the sky.

A few minutes later, I hummed happily while Sophia harvested the freshly planted herbs. After harvesting them, she stood up and handed them over to me. She glanced towards the side while saying, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” I said while putting them back in their pouch.

She faced the hologram and said with glee, “Yay. I got .1 stat points.”

“Congratulations. Where are you going to place it?” I inquired.

“Hm,” She mused and fell into thought. A second later, she shook her head and turned to face me, “I’ll save it until I get a whole point. It doesn’t do much at the moment, anyway.”

“Suit yourself,” I shrugged.

She began to walk along the dirt road that cut through the sea of wheat. She said, “Let’s head towards my village now. Father should be wondering where I am.”