Chapter 32 – A Berry Good Foraging Lesson

🙞❤︎🙜

My apprentices were intrigued when they saw water shooting out from the end of my watering can and raining down on five squares at a time.

“I want to do that, too!” said Lari.

“Amazing!” said Kharli.

“It’s too early to be amazed,” I said. “Now take out a watering can from your System toolbelt and water the plants yourselves.”

The three of them positioned themselves at the head of a row of crops and did as I instructed. They could only water one tile at a time, and they had to refill their watering cans at the well every 5 tiles.

It wasn’t until we had gone to the second field that I realized that I had forgotten something important.

“Argh! There’s no water source here!” I said.

“It’s no problem, teacher,” said Kharli. “We can get water from the well near the house.”

“I don’t want us to waste time walking back and forth between the two fields,” I said.

My watering can could hold more water than one would expect given its small size. I suppose it had some sort of storage magic spell inside of it. The apprentices’ watering can, on the other hands, had a much lower capacity. Thus, I should dig another well.

“I’ll just look around for a good place,” I said to them.

Calling up the System map, I saw that there were a few suitable spots, with the nearest one right at the edge of the field. Perfect!

I walked on over to the correct place, and the System started digging the well for me. A glowing magic circle appeared on the ground, and there was a loud grrrakka kkakkakkak akk sound like a jackhammer.

Lari, Kharli, and Mo came running to see what the System was doing.

“It’s magic!” said Lari.

They all stared at the magic circle with wide eyes. Kharli even dared to touch it, even with the other two yelling at her to stop.

“Don’t do it, you’ll die!” said Lari.

“Nooo!” Mo moaned softly, but I noticed she didn’t actually try to pull Kharli away.

I let them play around. After all, I really doubted that the System would harm them. After seeing that Kharli was unharmed, the other two started poking and prodding the magic circle.

“It’s a magic circle just like they describe in children’s stories,” said Mo.

“Are you saying our teacher is a witch?” asked Lari.

“Shhh,” said Kharli.

I shook my head and continued watering the crops until I was out of water. Then I took the kids with me back to the well near the house and had them pull up dozens of buckets of water. Fortunately, this activity didn’t use up energy in the same way that watering the crops did.

Once again, I was reminded that the “energy” that we needed for farming tasks was totally different from what one ordinarily meant by “energy.”

After confirming that we could replenish the watering cans using the buckets of water, I put the buckets in my inventory and we went back to the second field to finish watering the crops. It was a clever solution, if I do say so myself.

By midmorning, we finished our chores and returned to the house to rest before lunch. My apprentices still had a bit of energy left, therefore I decided to introduce them to a new skill: Foraging.

Fengying, Deming, and the others were intrigued by the kids’ tale of a magical well that I was building and asked for permission to look at it, too.

“Sure, but don’t do anything excessive. Please don’t jump inside the hole,” I said. “I’m not responsible if you do something stupid and die, okay?”

“I’ll make sure to supervise them properly,” said Fengying.

Lari, Kharli, and Mo were supposed to rest, but they begged me to let them show the magic to the others.

“Fine,” I said. I didn’t want to be too strict with them, and we were here on an isolated farm in the middle of the woods, where there wasn’t much entertainment to be found. “You can spend another hour outside. Make sure you return before lunch to rest.”

“Yes! Come on, it’s amazing!” Lari grabbed Yinuo’s hand and ran off with her.

Kharli and Mo rolled their eyes and followed at a more sedate pace with the staff.

***

Two hours after lunch and a bath in the hot spring, we had recovered some of our energy. I didn’t want to waste it, which meant that we had a choice of several activities we could do in the afternoon: Farming, Fishing, Woodcutting, Cooking, Foraging, and Hunting.

Farming was obviously the most important, but it also used up the most energy, and we wouldn’t be able to do much with the amount we had left. Of the other five skills, I reckoned that foraging was the best use of our time. We still had a lot of meat and fish, but we were running out of vegetables and fruit.

To be more precise, we were running out of spirit vegetables and fruit.

Before I had hired the Demon Chef and the others, I had mainly subsisted on food items from my inventory, but now I had to ask Shuye to augment our supplies with food from the nearest village, Wuxi.

Of course, all Shuye could buy was regular ingredients. If I wanted spirit fruit and vegetables, I would have to forage for them.

“We just have to walk around?” asked Kharli.

“Yes, and there will be a yellow arrow on your System map when we’re near a spot where wild spiritual plants grow,” I said.

The sun shone through the trees, dappling the ground with light and shadow. Above us, birds flitted from branch to branch, their bright plumage a pleasing contrast to the dark leaves. The air was thick with the scent of the trees and the earth, the smell of summer.

It was a great day for foraging, but I was wary of more Horned Rabbits, so I kept Mr. Bear on [Guard Mode] to scan our surroundings while we explored the northern part of the forest. My three apprentices had been delighted when I first introduced them to Mr. Bear. The use of puppets and magical tools was known in this world, though they were uncommon in the Westerlands, hence they readily accepted the fact that I had an animated plushie as a guardian and didn’t ask any inconvenient questions.

“I can’t believe spiritual plants grow in the wild like this,” said Lari. “Why don’t people know about this?”

“What makes you think they don’t know about it?” I asked.

“Because if they did, this forest would be full of people foraging! Just one spiritual fruit sells for more than a farmer makes in a year,” said Lari.

I didn’t know about that. There hadn’t been a spirit farmer in decades, which meant that there wasn’t really a set price for spirit fruit.

“That is strange,” said Kharli.

“What matters is that we can fill our bellies with good food if we can forage a lot today,” I said.

We walked on for more than an hour before we found something.

[Wood Ear Mushrooms:

An edible mushroom with a ruffled, wavy body that gives it its name. It typically grows on dead or dying trees. Nutritious and filling, the wood ear mushroom has a sweet, smokey, and earthy flavor.]

“Just place your hand over the items, and think ‘forage.’ The System will automatically place the items in your inventory,” I said. “It’s very convenient, isn’t it?”

I reached out towards the patch of wood ear mushrooms growing on a fallen tree, and half of them disappeared into my inventory.

“My turn?” asked Lari.

“No. Only one person can forage one spot,” I said. “Try it, if you want.”

The three of them tried to forage the mushrooms, but failed.

“Teacher, the System says ‘No mushrooms left,’ but I can clearly see there are more here,” said Lari. “Why don’t I just pick some myself?”

Without waiting for permission, he reached out and plucked off a mushroom.

“Nooooo!” I cried. “You can’t do that!”

Lari looked baffled. “Why not?”

I sighed. “We should forage in an ethical manner. Whenever we forage using the System, we always leave some plants behind. Never, ever, take every single plant. You know that these are precious and rare species, right?”

I waited until all of them nodded before continuing.

“What do you think would happen if we took all of these plants from everywhere in the forest?” I asked.

The three of them looked at each other, and it was Mo who finally answered. “Then there won’t be any left?”

“Yes. For example, many plants have edible leaves, but if we take all the leaves from a plant, it will be difficult for it to survive. Always leave some items behind so that there will always be more for us to forage later. Don’t be greedy,” I said.

Lari looked abashed and dropped the mushroom he had picked.

“Look at the mushroom patch. Notice that the System didn’t take the biggest ones. It’s good to always leave the best specimens alone so that these wild plants will grow better and better. You must now think of yourself as not just a farmer, but also a caretaker of sorts of the forest.”

I must say that was quite a passionate speech that I just gave, but this was something that needed to be said.

“I understand, teacher,” said Mo. “Thank you for teaching us your philosophy.”

The three of them bowed deeply to me.

Wow! There was no “Teaching” skill in the game. Nevertheless, I thought I had gained a level.