[NR] A Little Gardening - Chapter 633 (Patreon)

Back in the clearing, Jason is worried. Courtney had messaged him outside of the game to say they’re fine, but the System didn’t let her say more about what was happening in NeoRealm. So while he knows they’re okay, if something changes he wouldn’t know.

There was nothing to do but turn his mind to other matters. In particular, after spending so much time focused on the book, his garden needed some pruning. Though he figures spending a day to do a general overview of the entire situation wouldn’t be out of place.

First, he checked the soil. With his bottleneck bonus, something he has figured out to be entirely based on the System, there has been a marked improvement. In particular, it seems that while the System has less control in the Deep Wilds, there is more to gain from it as well.

Which makes sense as in NeoRealm proper, the System already controls everything so it would just be regular improvements. Out here? There were unknowns and the System was likely to reward you for discovering them and reporting them back to the System.

Though it isn’t just the soil that being in the Deep Wilds has improved. Jason had kept things mostly contained, but for some reason, the focusing tea had grown much faster than expected. He even went and double checked his bonuses to make sure he hadn’t picked up a growth modifier for it.

Nope, for some unknown reason, the Deep Wilds has simply improved the growth rate of the tea. Quite odd, especially since what would normally improve the growth is mental Mana. Jason couldn’t really think of a conclusive reason this would happen.

Whatever the case, it was close to being ready. You know, at least a year early, but you take what you can get. Oh, and the bloody lingzhi was growing swiftly as well. That makes sense, though. The Deep Wilds, at least the areas near the incursion, is a non-stop battlefield.

Even if not shifting at the fastest of speeds, the Deep Wilds would keep bringing in new threats. Jason was just thankful that his clearing was close enough to the settlement that things shifted around at the slowest speed and had a harder time bringing in monsters. The Deep Wilds was basically the NeoRealm answer to infinite dungeons, except much more diverse. Though it is a question if it was on purpose or a happy accident out of a horrible mistake.

Whatever the case, being out here had been good for his herb farming skill. Not only had it increased from taking care of his garden in strange environments. It had also got a boost from the work he put in on studying the local herbs.

In fact, the skill was capped. Jason felt that if he had managed to figure out what some of those strange herbs he had seen out there did, it would have broken through to Journeyman. Which would have been interesting, to say the least. For a combat player to have a production skill as his highest rank skill would be a true oddity. Though the fact a production skill matched his core combat skill was odd enough.

Jason shook his head, Energetic Body Reinforcement had been at the Journeyman bottleneck for a while. Worse, he was mostly certain what. It wasn’t his string thing or the fact he had focused on crafting.

No, his cultivation technique was bottlenecked because he needed to go out and face some serious opponents. While his technique wasn’t something like what a sword cultivator would have. He was a fighter and not a farmer. Otherwise, it would have likely broken through already.

As it stands, every time he cultivated, there wasn’t growth, but rather refinement. This is not a bad thing. The step he is on would be referred to as building his foundation for the next rank. More than a few cultivators have ruined their long-term growth to reach the next rank a little bit quicker. Though admittedly, others held off only to find out they didn’t have what it took to advance anymore.

Jason leans back against the wall of his house. Sun shining down on him, the portable planter both an inspiration and a frustration. There it was, right in front of him. Not long and the sun would begin to set, yet he had just finished with the pruning and harvesting.

To one side of the planter, a pair of piles, one for each berry type. On the other side, a bunch of dead leaves and pruned limbs from the various faster growing herbs. The World Herbs in particular had needed it. While they weren’t growing all that much faster, they decided to branch out a lot more than usual.

However, unlike the other plants, Jason knew the reason for this. The Deep Wilds had a much more chaotic power field. That meant the World Herbs had to work extra hard to keep the power away to the point the plants force grew extra leaves to help handle it.

Though as Jason thought of this, it presented another reason for why the soil had improved so much. He wasn’t relying on just the System powered bonus. The World Herbs were also stuffing the planter’s soil full of the local powers. Still Mana, Qi, and Energy of course, but with more traces of the various attunements.

Jason pauses as that thought finally clicks fully into place. The Energy had strange attunements. Back in NeoRealm, Energy was just Energy. Sure, it could have an attunement, but the stuff that was a part of the world energy didn’t.

That wasn’t the case, even this shallow into the Deep Wilds. Why would this be the case? What did the System get from keeping the loose Energy free of attunements?

Jason ignored it as night stole over the clearing. His awareness turned away from the physical. Senses trained on the Energy mixed into the power around him.

Then it hit him. The attuned Energy was harder for Mana and Qi to absorb. While there wasn’t more or less Energy in the Deep Wilds, what was around had more depth to it. Jason wasn’t sure what this would do, but there had to be a reason.

Wait! People have a hard time becoming Energy users because any wisp of Mana or Qi would convert the Energy. So, what if someone had gathered fire attuned Energy? It would likely be easier for them to gain an Energy core, not having to worry about any random bit of the other two powers ruining it for them.