That night—
The stars glittered overhead.
The night sky was unexpectedly bright beneath the starlight and moonlight. In his previous life, Tang Zheng had never seen such a starry sky, not even in the countryside.
Crackle, crackle!
The firewood in the campfire caught, crackling as the flames danced.
Nfirea sat beside the campfire, studying several herbs in his hands. From time to time, he sniffed them, and sometimes even bit off a piece to taste.
Grandma Lizzie stood by the carriage some distance away, inspecting the herbs loaded onto it.
Of the Rock team, aside from Captain Dossari and Lander, the older of the twins, who stood watch around the perimeter,
the remaining two had gone to scout the surrounding area.
They were camping out in the wilderness tonight.
Captain Dossari had mentioned that there was a village not far from their current location where they could stay the night.
However,
Grandma Sagi had refused. She did not want to take a detour.
There was a crate of relatively valuable herbs purchased from the Royal Capital on the carriage, and they needed to return to E-Rantel as soon as possible to refine them. Thus, they had chosen the fastest route.
As a result, they had skipped several towns along the way.
Such a decision by the client would undoubtedly increase the danger on the road. Under normal circumstances, it would naturally cause dissatisfaction among the adventurer team.
After all!
The relationship between a client and an adventurer team was merely one of cooperation. If the client did something the adventurers could not accept during the commission, the adventurers could naturally terminate the commission midway.
Of course, they would have to pay the Adventurer's Guild a considerable sum in compensation.
Under normal circumstances, with a situation like this—being made to do hard labor while traveling entirely outside safe routes—the adventurer team would have long since clashed with the client.
Yet!
Once the Rock team learned that Grandma Lizzie was the owner of E-Rantel's potion shop, hailed as E-Rantel's finest Potion Maker,
their dissatisfaction vanished completely. They even became far more attentive along the way!
Tang Zheng could not help sighing. The Rock adventurer team was truly exceptionally practical!
Tang Zheng sat beside the campfire, watching Nfirea intently study the herbs.
Nfirea held a thumb-length, slender plant resembling a root in his palm. He put it in his mouth and bit off a small piece.
The next moment!
Nfirea spat out the bit he had chewed. "So it was Bitterroot. The two really look completely identical."
Only after saying that did Nfirea notice Tang Zheng watching him from the side.
"This herb is called Bitterroot. It looks exactly like this Plumroot, so you can't tell them apart by appearance alone. You can only distinguish them by tasting them."
"Their effects are different as well. Bitterroot is suitable for soaking in alcohol and has some detoxifying effects. It is a basic ingredient for making antidote potions."
"Plumroot also tastes bitter, but it has a hint of sweetness. It is suitable as a basic ingredient for healing potions."
Nfirea had always been somewhat shy, but when it came to herbs, his eyes lit up, and even his voice became much more confident.
"I see."
Tang Zheng nodded, looking as though he were listening attentively.
In truth, he only wanted to see whether learning herbal knowledge could earn him the Potion Maker class.
There was currently no prompt on his status panel.
"Tang, are you interested in herbs?" Nfirea's bright blue eyes looked toward Tang Zheng.
"I am somewhat interested." Tang Zheng nodded.
"Hmph!"
Just as Nfirea was about to say something else, a soft snort sounded.
Grandma Lizzie approached with her hands behind her back. "Nfirea, stop showing off that shallow knowledge of yours."
"Tasting with your mouth is the most basic and lowest-level method of identification. It's not as though your nose can't smell!" Her stern voice carried a hint of reprimand.
"I understand, Grandma."
Nfirea lowered his head and spoke somewhat shamefully.
Tang Zheng withdrew his gaze. He did not know whether Grandma Lizzie's reprimand of Nfirea was also meant as a warning to him.
In this New World, where the spread of knowledge was clearly restricted,
his recent behavior of asking Nfirea about herbs was indeed somewhat inappropriate.
"Don't be nervous."
"I may be a little stingy, but I won't get angry over something so trivial."
Grandma Lizzie looked at Tang Zheng and spoke calmly.
Uh...
Calling herself stingy, even though it was true!
Still, Tang Zheng, an outsider, knew that anything he said at this moment would be inappropriate.
"You think you can make healing potions just by learning the properties of a few herbs? Don't even think about it."
"Since you have some talent in Divine System magic, don't waste your energy on other things. Whether it's Martial Arts or herbal knowledge, it's all a waste of time."
Grandma Lizzie spoke in an unhurried tone.
Tang Zheng froze. Knowing that she was kindly reminding him, he quickly came back to himself. "Thank you, Mrs. Bareare."
Upon hearing Tang Zheng's form of address,
the wrinkles on Grandma Lizzie's face immediately relaxed considerably. She seemed quite pleased by the title.
Bareare was her surname.
Tang Zheng had learned this while speaking with Nfirea, though he had known it already.
Step! Step!
Two sets of footsteps sounded from the wilderness.
They belonged to Ler, the younger of the twins, and the archer Bash, who had left earlier to scout the area.
With the two of them back, the other members of the Rock team visibly relaxed somewhat.
"Oink... oink..."
A weak groan came from behind Ler.
Ler carried a wild boar weighing over two hundred jin on his back, yet he looked exceptionally at ease. "Not bad luck. We caught a wild boar, so dinner is taken care of tonight."
"One arrow through the brow, and it's still not dead?"
"Hey, Bash, your archery has improved again."
With his hands on his hips, Lander looked at the boar on his younger brother's back, especially the visibly bloody hole in its forehead.
"It's only a wild boar." Bash spoke with a soft laugh.
Thud!
Ler walked to the campfire and threw the boar from his back onto the ground with a dull thump.
"Tang, it still has one last breath."
Ler grinned at Tang Zheng, then pointed to a spot on the boar's neck. "Strike here, and you can kill it in one blow."
"Thanks." Tang Zheng rose from beside the campfire and walked toward the boar, which lay on the ground with only one breath left.
Because Grandma Lizzie wanted to return to E-Rantel as soon as possible, they had chosen a faster route, but that meant they could not stop in towns to restock.
Grandma Lizzie had naturally planned the route in advance and come prepared. They did not lack food, but that clearly did not include the Rock team or Tang Zheng.
Therefore!
Besides conserving the food they had brought, the Rock team also hunted for food and supplies. For adventurers, this was obviously not much of a problem.
During this time,
Tang Zheng had suggested that, if possible, he be allowed to deliver the final blow to any prey they caught.
His explanation was
that he wanted to become an adventurer, but had never seen bloodshed before, so he wanted to get used to it in advance.
As for that explanation,
the Rock team did not doubt it in the slightest.
Tang Zheng truly did not look like an adventurer. Even the lowest-ranked adventurers would carry some tools when traveling far from home, while Tang Zheng had no such awareness at all.
They might have doubted his strength, but they could still recognize that lack of experience.
Therefore,
the Rock team did not hesitate at all. During this period, whenever they caught a beast, they would leave it with one last breath for Tang Zheng to kill.
Swish!
Tang Zheng drew the short sword at his waist and walked over to the boar lying on the ground, its body still twitching faintly.
Without the slightest hesitation, he raised the short sword and stabbed it into the spot Ler had indicated.
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