With Plant Synthesis I had a whole new way of creating new Plants. Now the limit of ten a day and also the chances of failure were a bit scary, but perhaps I could level up the Skill to increase the success rate? Although it didn't seem that worth it if the chances to do it per day were so small… Oh well, I didn't need to overthink it for now, I was just playing to have fun anyways, and mostly to… Well, to put my mind elsewhere before I get all melancholic again.
Let's see the next Skill on the list…
[Farming Tool Usage: Lv1]
As a Farmer, you have the innate ability to utilize Farming Tools. By using Farming Tools, you're able to enhance the richness of the soil and also the growth of plants, and you can take care of your plants' health so they grow stronger. Farming Tool Proficiency increased by +1000, Farming Tool Power increased by +1200, Farming Tool Mastery increased by +20%. The mastery, proficiency, and power increases with each level. Additionally, there is a 50% chance of inflicting Stun on a foe when hitting them with a Farming Tool.
Wow! So it could enhance the growth of plants and richness of the soil? Amazing! With this I could use these Skills to do my best on the farm. Hehe, I couldn't wait to get to it then! I'd build a big farm, where I could raise all the plants I want, and then I'd share them with everybody in the forest so we could eat all sorts of tasty veggies, fruits, grains, and tubers! Oh, also there was the proficiency and tool power? What's that for? To use the tools better? But weren't the numbers exaggeratedly higher? Maybe? I guess? Well, whatever was the case, this was nice—Oh, there was also a 50% chance to Stun a foe? Well… Erm, I didn't think I would be using a farming tool to fight, but sure.
[Terrain Adaptability: Lv1]
As an experienced Farmer, you're able to adapt to any terrain and make it your farm. You can adapt to the terrain of your environment, as long as there is any sort of soil to it, you can somehow find the way to make a farm! Additionally, it grants the innate ability of adapting to any terrain within the game. Additionally, it enhances the Soil Richness of any Terrain you make your farm by +50%. Each Level enhances the number of terrains you can adapt into farms, and the soil richness given to them straight away. Number of Terrains that can be taken over: 5
Well this was a weird Skill! Of course, this was a game so I was bound to find all sorts of weird mechanics, but this was the weirdest so far, with this Skill I could apparently just adapt any terrain to a farm? It even automatically converted the soil and gave it richness? Wow, I really never thought this could be a thing, but it was, I guess… It was quite interesting, and made you think about it a lot. Could I make a farm in the middle of a desert? What about a volcano? Could I make one in the sea? It said ANYWHERE, so was I assuming too much there? Yeah, probably there were limits to it… but seeing how this was just a nonsensical game with fantastic mechanics, maybe it worked in weird ways.
[Soil Manipulation: Lv1]
As a farmer, you have the innate ability to manipulate Soil. When manipulating the soil of your farm, you can choose which nutrients to enhance, and make the Soil richer. You can also shape the soil using Farming Tools and Soil Manipulation together, expanding the size of your farm as long as there is space to add to it. Based on the plants you're raising; certain types of nutrients will be needed. Corpses of animals, decomposing plants, and even feces can be used to enhance certain nutrients in the soil. Additionally, any Soil within your Farms receives a passive +20% enhancement to their Richness, which increases with each level.
This was also an interesting one! With this I could manipulate soil… but just soil from the farm, right? It was not actual Earth Manipulation… Right? It would be way too powerful if it were just that! So I guess it was limited to the soil of my farm, I suppose. Anyways, the ability seemed pretty interesting, the plants would ask for specific nutrients and I would have to give it to them by using materials, monster carcasses, decomposing plants, and even feces… Wow, I didn't know you could get feces in this game though… That's a bit wacky.
[Crafting: Lv1]
Grants access to the ability to craft items in-game through the usage of materials obtained from all sorts of sources. Items can be crafted using Crafting Recipes that can be acquired from certain NPC, other players, or as Rare Drops from Monsters. Crafting Recipes can also be created as you randomly make items, every player can make their own recipes and create their unique items! Increase your Crafting Proficiency and Recipe Making Ability with each Skill Level. The Alchemy and the Metallurgy Skills are recommended to go along with this Skill.
[Alchemy: Lv1]
Grants access to the ability to perform alchemy in-game through the usage of materials obtained from all sorts of sources. Items can be created through Alchemy by placing them inside an Alchemy Cauldron, which must be created, bought, or borrowed from another source. Items can be created through the usage of Alchemy Recipes that can be acquired from certain NPC, other players, or as Rare Drops from Monsters. Alchemy Recipes can also be created as you randomly create items, every player can make their own recipes and create their unique items! Increase your Alchemy Proficiency and Recipe Making Ability with each Skill Level. The Brewing and the Gathering Skills are recommended to go along with this Skill.
Oh, I see, they got almost the same description, huh? With this, I could both do Alchemy and Crafting, I could just switch it around as I liked whenever I feel like I want to make something! But even with these Skills, without proper recipes I might end up making nothing good and I would even waste the entire branch off…
So because of that I needed to find some people that knew about this stuff, and the fairies seemed like a good chance to find some info, while I'd also help them out with their Dark beast problem.
But unlike the squirrels they seemed strong enough to fend them off for now, so I would only go there to help them a bit but not really to save them… Though, I wouldn't really like to delay it too much, this was a game and I got my entire real life as well. Tomorrow I'd have to work almost 8 hours, so I'd be coming back from work very late, around 5 or 6 PM… Sigh.
A-Anyways, let's go back to the squirrel village for now! I moved with Belle and Loki back to the village, and then in there, we found the squirrels celebrating. They were mostly eating acorns because they had nothing else to cook, so I decided to go to the river and catch a few fishes, I only found small ones that were not hard to find.
SPLAAASH!
"Oof, another one! Catch it, Acorn!"
"Okay! Uwaah…!"
Acorn caught a green-colored fish with his hands, but the fish began jumping around and trying to move back to the river, but I quickly kicked it back to him. He grabbed the fish and threw it inside of a wooden basket.
"And done, with this it should be enough… We caught around ten fishes." I said with a smile. It took us roughly 30 minutes, and my Satiation was already at around 17, so I really needed to eat something here or I'd be dying!
Ding!
[You caught a [Big Largemouth]!]
[You caught a [Orange Trout]!]
[You caught a [Red Trout]!]
[You caught a [Small Catfish]!]
…
[You gained 1800 EXP!]
I ended up earning around 1800 EXP from all the fishes I caught, so that's pretty nice, a little boost was never a bad thing, and I loved how I could gain EXP by fishing, but it ate away my satiation, so I really needed to eat something now or I'll starve and begin losing HP instead of Satiation, which could kill me! I've read that dying gives you an EXP penalty where you lose 50% of your current accumulated EXP! Also, your stats were lowered by -20% for 30 Minutes, which was pretty harsh, so I guess we shouldn't really die. I suppose this debuff encouraged people to not be reckless like in other MMO games where they just constantly die and get revived… Oh right, there was also another thing, if you're playing in Player versus Player mode, a random set of items would drop from your Inventory, and also a bit of your money too, so that's pretty bad, if a player killed you, they can even get a part of your items and money… I guess that's why not many activated this mode. I guess if you're into killing people it's good, but the amount of people you'd find with the mode activated were very few, and they couldn't attack those without it activated, we were immune to player attacks after all.
However, NPC and Monsters could kill us, of course, although NPC that kill were very rare, and often are related to special questlines, apparently, where you need to stop certain NPC that were rampaging other NPC, or something.
"Ugh, I'm so hungry… If it wasn't for the Robust Body Skill halving my Satiation Consumption, I would be starving to death now. And it is already night so I cannot gain it through photosynthesis." I sighed.
"Don't worry, we'll eat good when we get back home!" said Acorn.
When we reached the squirrel village, we decided to make half the fishes into a big hotpot, using the mushroom ingredients we got from the Jumping Mushrooms back then, and also used other ingredients. Meanwhile, the other half of the fish were grilled with some salt on top, and everything was quickly made in roughly 40 minutes! Not so slow, wasn't it?
Ding!
[You cooked [Grand Fish Stew with Jumping Mushroom and Varied Spices]!]
[You cooked [Variety of Salted and Grilled Fishes]!]
[You prepared [Herbal Tea with Morning Flower Dew]!]
[You gained 1500 EXP]
[Your Race and Job Level has increased from Level 8 to Level 9!]
[You gained Stat Points and Skill Points!]
Eeeh? Another level today? So soon? I guess I really cooked a lot today, so that added to the EXP… Isn't leveling way too easy for farmers? They had a lot of sources to get EXP from cooking and fishing too! Wow… This Class could level up quickly as well then! Although I've noticed that the EXP decreased when I made the same dish several times, or when I caught the same fishes, it seemed that you get some bonus EXP for catching new stuff and also by preparing new things. But that bonus EXP was only for the first time, of course.
Anyways, I decided to not care about the level up for now and we enjoyed the meal we had today, we gathered inside the Hall, a large house atop one of the trees, where all the adorable squirrel-kin sat down around a big table, with me at the end, and they all ate with a lot of hunger and liveliness. The atmosphere was nice, the food was tasty, and this tea was so refreshing and relaxing… Without realizing it, I ended up talking my mind out.
"I am so happy… Thank you for everything, you've made my life happier than I ever thought…"
"Eh?"
"Ah…"
"L-Lady Dryad, really?!"
The Squirrels suddenly heard my words as they felt flattered…
"U-Uwah! I-I didn't mean to say it out loud!"
