Chapter 36 – A Scent-sational Quest for a Rare Blossom

🙞❤︎🙜

I sat down cross-legged on the ground in front of the patch of flowers, deep in thought.

“What’s wrong?” asked Prince Baiyu as he crouched down beside me.

“I need five of these,” I said.

“There are five here,” said Prince Baiyu. “Why do you look worried?”

“I don’t want to pluck all of them,” I said. “Whenever I forage for wild plants, I always leave at least half of them alone, because if you take everything, they might not grow back. If you over-forage, the wild plant population numbers will start to decrease until, eventually, it could become completely depleted.”

“I see. That’s a good philosophy,” said Prince Baiyu.

“This means I’ll have to return this time again next month,” I said.

“I can take you back here again,” he said.

“Thank you. I'd be very grateful for your help,” I said.

Having the prince accompany me next time would guarantee my safety and give him another chance to visit this secret location, since I doubted he would be able to enter without my presence. Adventure Incarnate players were said to be "blessed by the nature spirits" which explained how they were able to grow spiritual plants.

Though it was a pity that I wouldn’t be able to finish the quest today, I decided that I shouldn't complain since I was able to take two flowers.

[Curing Infertility:

Help the God Beast Clans with their fertility problem. Find five Dusk Dandelions.

Progress: 2/5]

The quest had no time limit, which meant that it wasn't that urgent. I suppose, since Shuye had told me that the clan's fertility problems reached back several generations, that a few weeks' delay wouldn't be a big deal. Given the fact that completing this quest would solve a major problem, I was sure that the reward would be pretty good. It would be great if I could get a good reputation as a valuable ally of the clans before the upcoming demon boss war.

However, there was one thing that bothered me. I couldn't remember this quest from Adventure Incarnate. That was a little weird.

Though I was a little confused about that, I decided to set that aside for another time when I saw that Mysterious Glade had another useful item that I could forage.

[Magical Sleeping Fairy Mushroom:

A small, white mushroom with a red cap. When eaten, it causes the eater to fall asleep for a short period of time.

The mushroom gets its name from the fact that it is often found near fairy rings. It is said that the mushrooms are left behind by the fairies after they have had their fill of dancing and merriment.

The Magical Sleeping Fairy Mushroom is said to have magical properties. If you place the mushroom under your pillow, you will have sweet dreams. If you give the mushroom to someone you love, they will fall asleep and dream of you.]

“Are you going to eat those?” Prince Baiyu pointed at the mushrooms.

“Nope. These are ingredients for a potion,” I said. “Most of the things that you find here are medicinal plants.”

When I had finished looking all around the small clearing, peering at every bush and flower patch that looked promising, I made my way to the small stream that was about three feet wide, lined with rocks and small pebbles. In the moonlight, the water glistened like silver, and its banks were lined with green moss, giant ferns, and rushes, dotted here and there with colorful wild flowers like pink water avens and daisies.

“You don’t mind if I do a little bit of night fishing, do you?” I asked the Prince.

“There are fish here?” He gave the stream a dubious look.

“There’s only one way to find out!” I said.

In the last few weeks, I had been focused on farming, which meant that fishing had taken a back seat. It was still level 9 while my Farming and Woodcutting levels were already 12.

[Player Name: Violet

Farming Skills:

Farming Level 12, Fishing Level 9, Woodcutting Level 12, Cooking Level 1, Herblaw Level 3, Foraging Level 3, Hunting Level 1, Mining Level 1]

Taking a pair of hip waders from my inventory, I put them on before wading into the water. Thankfully, the water still held some of the day's heat.

“Why don’t I give it a try?” said Prince Baiyu.

“You brought a fishing rod?” I asked.

“I can fish using my hands,” he said.

“I’d love to see that, but please let me try first,” I said, because I feared that I wouldn’t be able to catch any if he went into the stream and disturbed the fish since there was only one fishing spot indicated in the System map.

I cast my line out and waited patiently for a bite. After a few minutes, I was able to reel in a small rainbow trout. It was just a regular rainbow trout, which was disappointing because I had been hoping to catch one of the special fish that could only be found in the Mysterious Glade.

[Rainbow Trout:

A species of fish found in cold-water rivers and streams that gets its name from the beautiful colors that appear on its body when the sun hits it just right. Its scales glisten with red, orange, yellow, blue, and purple hues, and its eyes are like tiny black pearls.

Rainbow trout are not only beautiful, but also delicious, with firm flesh and a subtly sweet, sea-scented flavor.]

“What happened to the fish you caught?” asked the Prince.

“Oh, I have a very large dimensional storage space,” I said. “You have one, too, right?”

He nodded. His dimensional storage space must be enormous since he had a lot of qi, but mine was even more outrageous. I really doubted that anyone in this world had an inventory as big as mine.

I fished for two hours, then let Prince Baiyu try his luck. Furthermore, I was curious to see if he would be able to catch anything, since he hadn’t even been able to enter the Mysterious Glade without my help. He took off his robe and shoes, rolled up his pants legs, and waded into the water. While he watched the water carefully, looking for any movement, I sat down on the mossy bank and watched him fishing. It was a bit much, frankly. I mean, here was a tall, handsome, wealthy Prince who was alone with me on a moonlit night. This was something that you could only enjoy in a fantasy world.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Prince Baiyu turned to look at me.

“Has anyone ever told you that you look beautiful under the moonlight?” I asked.

“Only you.”

We smiled at each other. I wished I had some popcorn to munch on as I feasted my eyes on Prince Baiyu covered in glistening drops of water as he brought a rainbow trout out of the water, holding it by the tail. The fish disappeared, stored in his inventory, and he continued fishing for another hour.

“Are you sure you want to stop? You can continue fishing if you like,” I said.

“You were yawning,” he said.

It was true. “Farmers go to sleep early because they wake up at dawn.”

“I’ll take you home,” he said. “I hope I can see you again at the same time next week. I’m just so busy with my work that I’m worried I won’t be able to make it.”

“Hopefully, you’ll be able to visit me again soon. If you want, we can try to get here earlier. I’ll tell Deming to make a picnic basket for me. Then we’ll have plenty of time for both of us to fish.”

“I would like that.”

The flight back home was uneventful, then we said our goodbyes at the gate under the watchful eyes of Fengying.

What a great day! I had fun and I made progress with my current quest.

LinMeili

• Would you consider this a date? They also made an appointment for a second outing.
• I think I've seen bears using their hands to fish in some videos, but not tigers. I don't think that's a real thing
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