[NeoRealm] Chapter 89 - Leather (Patreon)

Jason focuses on the portable planter and says aloud, [Planter Activate]. With the now familiar sparkles the planter expands to full size. It now takes up a good third of the apartment. After a look inside Jason removes all the seeds and a handful of the berries from his pack. He considers the seeds for a moment before he starts with the Bloody Lingzhi. There is not much choice with them as Plants Unlimited only provided two logs to plant them on.

He considers the two logs and places them on opposite ends of the planter. If the Lingzhi is supposed to balance out the energy levels, they should be spread out. Happy with the arrangements Jason takes the leather wineskin of blood out and sprinkles both logs. Once the logs are soaked, he snips open the seed, or in this case spore, bag and gently sprinkles the contents along them.

Next up he opens the Focusing Tea bag. With two Bloody Lingzhi then going by what Nole had said Jason needs to plant three. Balance in mind he plants one seed in the middle of the planter. He plants another behind the left side log and the final in front of the right side log. The seed bag still has some seeds left but he doesn’t need them for now. As luck would have it, the planter has a small drawer you can store seeds in. Jason could only guess Nole didn’t mention it because it requires the planter to be bound. With a shrug he commands it to [Open the Seed Drawer]. With a click the small drawer pops out and Jason is able to slip in the bag.

Jason decides to plant the remaining area with alternating Gloom Weed and Energy Herb. Though along with the Gloom Weed he will also plant his normal Ginseng with it. After he measures out the space left Jason figures out that six of each plant will fit. He sighs, despite having more space he ended up with the same number of Energy Herbs. However he admits that 23 plants is enough work for the moment. Jason places the rest of the seeds in the drawer before closing it. Then he commands the [Planter Deactivate] and it shrinks down into the portable mode.

With the planting finished Jason takes out the book on harvesting. After laying down on the bed Lily joins him for some pets while he settles in to read the night away. Jason had been working his way through the first half of the book and that was enough to finish it. Now knowledgeable of the basic methods of harvesting the System dings as his Farming skill updates. Jason however ignores this as he drifts off to sleep.

Next day the update slips his mind until just after breakfast. Jason is about to head out and is only waiting for Lily to finish her salad when the leafy greens jogs his memory. He pulls up the Farming skill and is surprised it had advanced a level and 25.3% experience since the last time he looked. The actual change he had looked for was less of a surprise. Nole had already said that the book would allow him to know how to harvest stuff. The fact it appeared as an effect of his Farming skill just made sense to him. Still just to make sure he missed nothing Jason carefully read the effect.

Harvesting Common Sense - With the knowledge of all basic harvesting methods you will be prompted with the best way to harvest plant that you know of and slightly increase the success rate of harvesting

It does what he expected though the slight increase to his harvesting success rate was a nice addition. The fact it did not actually say how much of an increase it provided actually made him smile. Some skills are able to provide specific percentages to what they do. As an example, his poison resistances are listed by what percent of the poison’s effect they allow him to avoid. This is easy for the System to do. However some skills provide bonuses that can’t be nailed down. Like this effect there are too many variables to it for an actual number. For instance, it doesn’t matter how perfectly he harvests a plant if a worm had gotten into it. What this ‘slight’ increase will instead do is nudge chance in his favor. If when he harvests a berry if it accidently falls when it comes off it is more likely to fall in a way that keeps it intact. While there isn’t a luck stat these effects are like a specialized version of one.

Quite satisfied with his gains Jason picks up Lily and heads to the door. While he would like to head towards the forest right away another matter needs taken care of. Once more he heads towards the market. What Jason needs won’t be ready today as it needs to be specially crafted but they should finish it before he leaves town. Though right before he leaves a quick question to Fern points him towards a good leatherworker.

Navigating the market he soon is in front of a simple shop. The only sign it belongs to a leatherworker is a small hide hung out with the image of various leather products burned into it. Once inside an overpowering smell, no, stench of leather assaults Jason’s nose. Every surface has some form of leather good laid out on it. While not that odd for a shop to fill their gallery space this one took it to the extreme. Someone made even the shelves themselves out of leather. Behind the leather counter sits a small ork. Clad in what would be normal clothes for the area except for being made of leather the ork itself even looks a bit like leather. Though this is mostly from age instead of some ability or magic item. The ork looks up and greets Jason with a bright smile which turns his face from almost a doll-like appearance to that of a kindly old grandpa.