Cryptic Realm Lineage: Plants and Fungi

Lude and Sally had breakfast again.

After breakfast, Lude went to a local general store and bought five kilograms of high-quality kerosene for lighting, as well as a portable oil lamp.

Lighting tools played a very important role in many rituals, so he had to buy the best one.

Lude even planned to use Resist-Steel to cast a gas lamp that could double as a flail once he had figured out how to make it.

That thing was much brighter than an oil lamp!

After buying an axe, a few candles, and a coil of rope, Lude and Sally headed to the local market for mountain produce.

Some common crops could also be used as ingredients. For example, fermenting wheat into beer could be considered a simple form of Alchemy. But what Lude wanted to make was clearly more than that sort of basic stuff. He had to start with materials containing at least [spirit essence].

[Spirit essence] was Psionic Energy solidified within materials, providing them with extraordinary properties.

To his embarrassment, Lude had only learned the proper term for extraordinary properties that morning. But Alchemy had so many technical terms that even with his transmigrator's gift for understanding languages, he struggled to keep up while reading the texts.

Many materials containing spirit essence looked perfectly ordinary unless activated by special means.

The villagers here often went up into the mountains to dig up wild produce and medicinal herbs. Quite a few low-grade materials containing spirit essence were mixed in among them.

Some physicians knew nothing about the supernatural, but they understood how to use the basic properties of these herbs. That was another way of finding a path forward.

Before long, Lude found what he wanted at a stall.

At a stall selling mountain produce, beside a pile of boletes and pine mushrooms, sat a few plump, mercury-colored mushrooms all by themselves. They seemed to belong to the Amanita genus, but thick, translucent liquid kept oozing from their caps.

Lude reached out to pick one, but another somewhat pale hand touched his at the same time.

Lude was a little surprised. "Miss Sally, are you interested in this mushroom too?"

"Ah, don't—don't call me that!"

Sally grimaced and shook her head, an awkward blush appearing on her cheeks. "Don't call me 'Miss' anything. What kind of lady is a wild girl like me? If Silverback and Crow hear you, they'll tease me again."

"Speaking of which, you like using black oil mushrooms to fuel lamps too? Their smell is pretty strong."

Seeing Sally try to change the subject with a look that said, "This mushroom is really mushroomy," Lude chuckled.

"A mushroom's value has nothing to do with whether it grows in a ditch or on a treetop. What determines its future has always been how its owner chooses to use it."

As he spoke, Lude pulled a few small vials from his pocket and collected all the silvery-black oily slime spilling from the mushroom caps.

"This mushroom is called the 'fat-exuding silver-capped amanita,' but it's usually shortened to 'Silver-Cap Oil Mushroom.' It typically grows in dark, dry places. The oily slime it drips can burn on water and is often used to make Flame Urns and Fire Oil."

"Urn" was a shorthand term for a category of supernatural tools, which usually took the form of sealed jars with a capacity of around 100 milliliters.

An "urn" was a kind of grenade in the Hidden World, generally made by filling a ceramic jar with various materials. When thrown and subjected to a violent impact, it released an element that enveloped the area, such as flames, lightning, or icy mist.

Fire Oil, on the other hand, was an enchantment tool that could imbue weapons with an element.

Fire Oil was normally a black, viscous solid, but it quickly softened and heated up when it came into contact with metal. Its final temperature could reach 800°C. Ordinary iron weapons couldn't withstand such heat, so it was usually used with alchemical weapons such as Resist-Steel swords.

It was worth noting that alchemical weapons that already possessed elemental power could not receive conflicting enchantments.

Fire Oil was one of the most common enchantment materials. In fact, many countries in ancient times distributed it to ordinary soldiers for their use.

But if ordinary people didn't even have to avoid using supernatural items, then what exactly did the Hidden World conceal—and what was it afraid of ordinary people discovering?

Lude briefly scattered his jumble of thoughts and picked up the book in his hands.

Cryptic Realm Lineage: Plants and Fungi looked like nothing more than a palm-sized booklet, but once fully unfolded, it contained a total of 2,608 pages, each as large as a sheet of A4 paper.

The book recorded the properties of hundreds of plant and fungal materials. Even among Professor Beshe's collection, it was one of the most precious items, especially since it contained many of Professor Beshe's annotations.

Reading a massive tome of this caliber was quite a challenge even for Lude, who had a photographic memory.

Along the way, Lude collected quite a few other interesting things.

A handful of Evergreen Grass. Eating it directly could relieve muscle fatigue, and it was also highly effective for treating colds.

Two clumps of Humming Flowers. This herbaceous plant parasitized trees, and it was said to have come from moths that had failed to emerge from their cocoons. When held to the ear, it produced a faint buzzing. Listening to it for a long time or swallowing it could awaken the passion deep within people.

A handful of Red Sand Berries. These very sweet berries tasted like persimmons and figs, and could be used to replenish the blood of injured people and those menstruating.

Three vials of Ochre Smoke-Spore Ganoderma powder. These spores could remain suspended in the air for a long time, making them ideal for creating dispersible consumables. For instance, adding the spores to a Flame Urn would make its flames linger and burn in the air for more than ten seconds.

A big chunk of Thunder Pine resin. When subjected to a violent impact, it would shoot out electric arcs and sparks.

And a full two pounds of Flammable Boletes. The name of this mushroom was actually a mistake. The person who first named it had seen the plump mushroom burn up in an instant when exposed to an open flame, but that was actually just a phenomenon caused by its properties.

The true property of the Flammable Bolete was that it would be assimilated at incredible speed when it came into contact with an unstable element.

In other words, the Flammable Bolete wasn't set alight by the flames; the entire mushroom transformed into fire in an instant. This property worked just as well with elements such as lightning and frost. Later generations used it as the basis for inventing tools such as Flame Urns and Thunder Urns.

Thunder Pine resin, Flammable Boletes, and Silver-Cap Oil Mushroom oil were the main ingredients of a Flame Urn.

First, coat the inside of a glass bottle with a layer of Thunder Pine resin. Then fill it with chopped Flammable Boletes, and finally pour in five milliliters of Silver-Cap Oil Mushroom oil. After fermenting for a while, the Flame Urn would be ready to explode and unleash flames reaching 800°C.

Unfortunately, ever since gunpowder was invented, Flame Urns had been completely phased out. Thunder Urns and Holy Urns, on the other hand, still served a purpose.

According to Professor Beshe's notes, as ordinary technology continued to advance, ordinary people had managed to replicate many things that only spellcasters could once do. In modern spellcaster battles, a pistol was often the deciding factor.

No incantations, rituals, or sacrifices needed. This thing was much more convenient than all kinds of spells and complicated alchemical tools!

After all, not every spellcaster pursued eternal power or subjected themselves to alchemical modification or the implantation of organs from supernatural creatures. For them, being a spellcaster was simply a means to live a better life.

What Lude found interesting, though, was that on at least five occasions along the way, Sally had chosen the same target as him.

"Sally, have you studied this kind of thing?" Lude asked curiously.