Herbal Apprentice

In the forest, a wild boar lay quietly beside a patch of grass.

"Why do you think it collapsed here?" A gaunt, middle-aged man in a white priest's robe asked, looking down at the motionless boar.

"I think it's sleeping—"

The priest frowned. "I'm asking Gagnor."

The speaker, a sturdy young man with various items slung over his shoulder and hanging from his waist, scratched his head at the interruption and looked at his companion, a brown-haired boy carrying a short bow.

The brown-haired boy was of average height, but he appeared somewhat small next to his taller companion. He wore a coarse linen tunic cinched at the waist with a piece of twine. He looked unremarkable, like the son of some farmer, except for the calmness and thoughtfulness in his eyes that belied his age.

In response to the priest's question, he stepped forward to observe the boar for a moment before concluding, "This boar ingested Nightshade Nettle flowers and fell into a coma."

The priest asked, "Besides that, what other uses does Nightshade Nettle have?"

Gagnor paused to consider. "Nightshade Nettle leaves are often used to make pain-relieving potions, but they are highly addictive, so the Apothecary Guild classifies them as restricted herbs… Also, according to the Nordanlen Herbal Compendium, Nightshade Nettle leaves have been used as a tool for taming Goblins."

The priest was secretly surprised by this answer.

Last year, he had discovered the intelligent Gagnor among the altar boys and taken him on as an apprentice in herbalism. At the time, he hadn't realized how astonishing the boy's learning ability was.

Yet, in just a few months, the boy had gone from a novice ignorant of herbalism to a competent assistant who could share his workload.

Now, after years of studying herbalism himself, he could hardly find a question that could stump the boy.

Logically, a mentor should be proud of such a student.

But for some reason, he never wanted to praise Gagnor.

Not at all.

As usual, the priest made no response to the boy's flawless answer.

After a moment, he walked over to the Nightshade Nettle with his hands behind his back and silently bent down to observe it.

The Nightshade Nettle, without its flowers, looked much like the surrounding weeds, and a hint of regret seemed to flicker in the priest's deep gaze.

"Take this Nightshade Nettle with us," he ordered as he stood up.

Finally, he said it.

"Yes, sir." Gagnor was a little excited. He already had his herb hoe in hand, and he moved closer to the Nightshade Nettle and began to carefully dig around it.

As he harvested the Nightshade Nettle, some information that seemed like text appeared in his perception as expected.

[Lv2 Herbalism: 198/200]

[Lv2 Herbalism: 199/200]

The reason he called it "text-like" was that, upon closer inspection, one could see that this information did not belong to any known language. It wasn't even perceived visually but was a subtle phenomenon beyond the five senses.

At his baptism a few years ago, Gagnor had received his first Holy Name and this Blessing ability called "Cognition."

But for him, "Stats Panel" was undoubtedly a more appropriate name.

He was a transmigrator.

In his previous life, Gagnor was a glorious successor to the motherland. He was probably only one civil service exam away from successfully taking over and making great contributions.

As a result, an accidental encounter with a dump truck reincarnated him on the Falaro Continent as the son of a farmer.

Due to his family's poverty, he was sent to the church in Driftwood Town by his parents as an altar boy a few years later, and had been there ever since.

Logically, after a fortunate baptism, Gagnor should have obtained a noble position, become a novice priest of the Mosa Church, and then become a full priest in a few years, so that he could make great contributions to the church and the duchy.

But he vaguely realized that this ability, like a stats panel, did not belong to any saint and had nothing to do with angels or prophets. If he revealed it rashly, what awaited him might not be a position in the church, but a comfortable seat in the Tribunal.

This was a world where religion was supreme, very similar to the "Dark Middle Ages" he had heard about in his previous life.

In fact, the church was quite tolerant. At least during this period, Blessings that did not originate from demons or evil spirits usually did not have any serious consequences, but the church's acceptance of him would definitely end there, which would be disastrous for a poor country boy.

Therefore, Gagnor had to hide his Holy Name and Blessing in order to continue to have a meal at the church, and more importantly, to receive a cultural education.

For poor children, being an altar boy at the church was almost the only way to learn to read.

Altar boys were equivalent to child laborers. They were provided with food, lodging, and education, but it was hard work and there was no salary.

Fortunately, with his mature mind and the learning ability boosted by the panel, Gagnor became Priest Green's herbalism apprentice, and his situation improved.

There were still some worries.

For example, he sometimes had to follow Priest Green into Driftwood Forest to collect herbs, as he was doing now. This process was not easy, and even a little dangerous, because not every beast would accidentally eat Nightshade Nettle flowers.

Also, Priest Green was not exactly an easy person to get along with.

Based on Gagnor's experience from two lifetimes, Priest Green's mental state was very unhealthy. He always wore a stern face, and few people claimed to have seen Priest Green smile, except for the head priest of the church.

As his apprentice, he had never received any praise from Priest Green.

"Priest Green is like a bowstring that always wants to shoot something." This was a wonderful analogy that Raymond had made half a month ago, which made Gagnor look at him in a new light.

Raymond was the tall young man accompanying them, who mainly did various manual labor for Priest Green.

For example, now, Priest Green pointed to the boar on the ground and said, "Make it quick, Raymond."

"Yes, sir!" Raymond replied excitedly, then took down the short-handled war hammer hanging from his waist, gripped it with both hands, and smashed it down on the boar's head.

"Grunt!" The boar twitched a few times and then fell silent.

"Thank the Lord for his gifts." Raymond made a praying triangle on his chest; he was probably the most devout person in all of Driftwood Town.

Gagnor had also finished harvesting the Nightshade Nettle, and just as he'd hoped, his Herbalism skill finally leveled up from lv2 to lv3.

This granted him 1 point of Intelligence and 15 character experience.

He checked his stats.

[Holy Name: Adakonyanus]
[Level: 1]
[Constitution: 9/20]
[Spirit: 17/20]
[Strength: 9/20]
[Intelligence: 16/20]
[Agility: 11/20]
[Experience: 63/100]

"Adakonyanus" was the holy name he'd received during his baptism, and the source of his stats.

However, he currently knew nothing about the origin of this name. The only thing that could be considered a clue was that along with receiving this holy name, a sentence had vaguely floated through his mind: Cognition is choice.

Priest Green: "Let's head back."

With the priest's instruction, Gagnor carrying the herbs, and Raymond dragging the boar, the three set off on their return journey.

They weren't returning to Driftwood Town, but to a small cabin on the edge of the forest. After all, the forest was quite a distance from Driftwood Town, and gathering herbs usually took several days. During this time, they obviously needed a place to rest.

In the days that followed, the three traveled back and forth between the forest and the cabin.

Until they had collected enough herbs.

The next morning.

"You two head back to town first, I'll be back in a few days." Priest Green woke the two boys.

Raymond seemed to think of something: "Sir, the baptism ceremony this year is coming up soon, you..."

"It won't interfere with the baptism," Priest Green added. "Don't forget to take that boar hide back to town and sell it."

"Yes, sir." Gagnor and Raymond were used to this; Priest Green always returned a few days later, and never told them why.

They didn't dare ask, and didn't bother to.

After all, they slept on the floor every night, and the smell of herbs inside the house was so strong that they didn't want to stay a single day longer.

If it weren't dangerous to travel at night, they would have preferred to leave last night.

Therefore, after Priest Green finished speaking, the two boys quickly left.

The forest was quite foggy today, and Gagnor couldn't help but be more vigilant as he walked.

The world of Falaro was very similar to medieval Europe on Earth, but there were also some fundamental differences - this world had supernatural powers.

Supernatural powers not only existed, but were quite common. Even a small-town church priest like Green could use a few holy light spells, instantly healing minor injuries or killing a beast with a flick of his fingers.

Of course, mana was precious, and Priest Green would never use it for minor injuries or some beast. To a large extent, he studied herbalism to save mana; for a level two priest, this was a perfectly normal motivation.

Low-level magical beasts occasionally appeared in Driftwood Forest.

And according to the head priest of the church, he had witnessed a Griffon passing through here when he was young, and the air pressure it stirred up was enough to knock people off their feet!

Gagnor was skeptical about this, but that didn't stop him from paying more attention to his surroundings.

Hmm?

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed and he stopped.

"What's wrong?" Raymond asked, puzzled.

Gagnor didn't speak, but signaled Raymond to take up his weapon, while he carefully approached a bush in front of him with his bow drawn.

Soon, he could see the scene in the bushes clearly.

A man with traces of blood on his body was lying motionless on the ground, seemingly dead.

Just then, Raymond suddenly shouted, "I understand!"

Gagnor was startled: "You understand what?"

Raymond pointed at the man on the ground and said with certainty, "He ate Nightshade Nettle flowers by mistake!"

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