Grandmother Lizzie's Reminder, Gaining Experience

That night—

The stars glittered across the sky.

Unexpectedly, the night sky was bright beneath the embellishment of starlight and moonlight. In his previous life, Tang Zheng had been unable to see such a starry sky even in the countryside.

Crackle, crackle!

The firewood in the campfire burned, crackling as the flames leaped.

Nfirea sat beside the campfire, studying several medicinal herbs in his hands. Every so often, he would smell one, or even bite directly into it to taste it.

Grandmother Lizzie stood in front of the carriage some distance away, checking the condition of the medicinal herbs inside.

Of the "Rock" party, only the leader, Dosari, and Land, the elder of the twin brothers, remained outside on guard.

The other two had gone to scout the surrounding area.

They were essentially camping out in the wilderness.

According to the leader Dosari's reminder, there was a village not far from their current location where they could stay for the night.

However.

Grandmother Saji had rejected the idea because she did not want to take a detour.

There was a box of relatively valuable medicinal herbs purchased from the Royal City in the carriage. They needed to return to "E-Rantel" as soon as possible to refine them, so they had chosen the fastest route.

As a result, they had simply skipped over some of the towns along the way.

Such a choice by the client would undoubtedly increase the dangers on the road. Under normal circumstances, it would naturally cause dissatisfaction among the Adventurer's Guild party.

After all!

The relationship between a client and an Adventurer's Guild party was merely one of cooperation. If the client did something unacceptable to the adventurers during the course of a mission, the adventurers could naturally stop accepting the commission midway.

However, doing so required paying the Adventurer's Guild a considerable sum of money.

Under the current circumstances, where they were expected to do hard labor while completely ignoring the safe route, an Adventurer's Guild party would normally have clashed with the client long ago.

However!

After the "Rock" party learned that Grandmother Lizzie was the owner of a potion shop in "E-Rantel" and was reputed to be "E-Rantel's" best Pharmacist—

All their initial dissatisfaction vanished without a trace. They had even become much more obsequious along the way!

This forced Tang Zheng to sigh. The "Rock" Adventurer's Guild party was truly exceptionally pragmatic!

Tang Zheng sat beside the campfire, observing Nfirea as he focused on studying the medicinal herbs.

At that moment, Nfirea held a slender plant about the length of a thumb, resembling a tree root, in his palm. He placed it in his mouth and bit off a small piece.

The next moment!

Nfirea spat out the piece he had bitten off. "So it's Bitter Root? You really can't tell the two apart from their appearances."

Only after saying this did Nfirea notice Tang Zheng sitting nearby and watching him.

"This herb is called Bitter Root. It looks exactly like this Plum Root, and you can't distinguish them by appearance. You can only tell them apart by tasting them."

"Their effects are different as well. Bitter Root is suitable for soaking in alcohol and has a certain detoxifying effect. It's the basic material used to make Antidote Potions."

"Plum Root also has a bitter taste, but it contains a hint of sweetness. It's suitable as the basic material for making Healing Potions."

Nfirea was already somewhat shy by nature, but whenever he spoke about medicinal herbs, his eyes brightened and his voice became much more confident.

"I see."

Tang Zheng nodded, putting on an expression of serious attention.

In reality, he only wanted to see whether he could gain the Pharmacist Class by learning about medicinal herbs.

At present, the Attribute Panel had not given him any notification.

"Tang, are you interested in medicinal herbs?" Nfirea's bright blue pupils turned toward Tang Zheng.

"I am somewhat interested." Tang Zheng nodded.

"Hmph!"

Just as Nfirea was about to say something else, a soft snort rang out.

Grandmother Lizzie walked over with her hands behind her back. "Nfirea, don't show off that meager knowledge of yours."

"Tasting through the mouth is the most basic and lowest-level method of identification. You have a nose, don't you? It's not as if you can't smell!" Her stern, scolding voice rang out.

"I understand, Grandmother."

Nfirea lowered his head and spoke with some shame.

Tang Zheng withdrew his gaze. He did not know whether Grandmother Lizzie's scolding of Nfirea also carried a warning for him.

In the New World, where the spread of knowledge was clearly restricted,

his recent behavior of asking Nfirea about medicinal herbs was indeed somewhat inappropriate.

"Don't be nervous."

"Although I'm somewhat stingy, I won't get angry over something like this."

Grandmother Lizzie looked at Tang Zheng and spoke calmly.

Uh...

She had called herself stingy. Although that was true,

Tang Zheng was an outsider, and he knew that no matter what he said at a time like this, it would be inappropriate.

"You think that merely learning the properties of a few medicinal herbs will let you make Healing Potions? Don't even think about it."

"Since you have some talent in Faith-based Magic, don't waste your energy on other things. Whether it's Martial Arts or knowledge of medicinal herbs, it's all a waste of time."

Grandmother Lizzie spoke in an unhurried voice.

Tang Zheng was startled. He knew that she was kindly reminding him, and he quickly came back to his senses and said, "Thank you, Mrs. Bareare."

Upon hearing Tang Zheng's form of address,

the wrinkles on Grandmother Lizzie's face smoothed out considerably. She seemed to find the title very pleasing.

"Bareare" was her surname.

Tang Zheng had learned it while speaking with Nfirea, although he had known it originally.

Clop! Clop!

Two sets of footsteps came from the wilderness.

It was the twin brothers' younger sibling, Lerr, and the Archer Bask, who had left earlier to scout the surrounding area.

With their return, the other two members of the "Rock" party visibly relaxed.

"Whine... whine."

A weak groan came from behind Lerr.

Then they saw it.

Lerr carried a wild boar weighing more than two hundred pounds on his back, yet he looked remarkably relaxed. "We got lucky. We caught a wild boar, so we have dinner tonight."

"An arrow pierced straight through its brow, yet it's still alive."

"Hey, Bask, your archery has improved again."

Land put his hands on his hips and looked at the wild boar carried by his younger brother, especially the bloody hole clearly visible in the boar's forehead.

"It was only a wild boar." Bask chuckled.

Thud!

Lerr walked over to the campfire and threw the wild boar from his back onto the ground, producing a muffled thump.

"Tang, it has one breath left."

Lerr grinned at Tang Zheng before pointing to a spot on the wild boar's neck with his finger. "Strike here, and you can kill it in one blow."

"Thank you." Tang Zheng rose from beside the campfire and walked toward the wild boar, which lay on the ground with only a breath remaining.

Since Grandmother Lizzie needed to hurry back to "E-Rantel," their route had been chosen for speed, but they could not stop in towns to rest.

Grandmother Lizzie had naturally planned the route long ago and was well prepared, so they had no shortage of food. However, that evidently did not include the "Rock" party or Tang Zheng.

Therefore!

Apart from saving the food they carried themselves, the "Rock" party also hunted to obtain food and supplies. This was clearly no problem for adventurers.

During this process,

Tang Zheng had mentioned that, if possible, he wanted to deliver the final blow to any prey they caught.

The explanation he gave to outsiders was:

He intended to become an Adventurer, but he had never seen blood before, so he wanted to get used to it in advance.

As for this explanation,

the "Rock" party had not doubted it in the slightest.

Tang Zheng indeed did not look like an adventurer. Even the lowest-level adventurers would carry some tools when traveling far from home, yet Tang Zheng was completely unaware of this.

They might have doubted his strength, but they could still recognize his lack of experience.

Therefore.

The "Rock" party had not hesitated at all. During this period, whenever they caught a beast, they would leave it with one breath remaining and let Tang Zheng kill it.

Whoosh!

Tang Zheng drew the short sword from his waist and walked over to the wild 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 on the wild boar that Lerr had indicated.