[NR] Wheat? Really? - Chapter 572 (Patreon)

The only thing on the way back that was consistent, ended up being the region of compressed biomes. For some reason, they seemed to stay where Rosha and Courtney had left them. An oddity in a constantly shifting landscape. The two were about fifty fifty on whether it would start shifting once they had returned to the clearing or if the outside pressure forced these locations to remain in place.

Whatever the case may be, it seemed to provide another stable point of reference in the ever shifting landscape. Not that they were going to fully trust this. Maybe they had just been lucky to have it not shift over the last couple trips.

Back in the clearing, Jason greeted them, though they were more interested in all the new foundations being laid out.

With her hands on her hips, Rosha glances around before turning back to Jason. “Seems you have a bit of work planned out. Any reason for this? I don’t quite think we need this many buildings?”

Jason shrugs, “Training a new skill. I don’t know if I’ll build something in all those places. It is just that I wanted more practice making a foundation.”

Courtney, “Fair enough, though it’s made a bit of a mess. Not that I care about having a well-kept lawn or anything.”

Jason, “I will be using the spaces, I just might now put a building. For instance, once I get some wheat growing? One of those places will be convenient for threshing the grain.”

Courtney raises an eyebrow, “Got a little carried away?”

Jason sighs, “Maybe a little.”

Rosha laughs, “Fair enough, not like you can’t do something with it later. Though do you actually plan to grow wheat? Bread is nice and all, but I’m sure there are probably better crops you could grow. For all our bread needs, we’re probably better off buying flour from the settlement.”

Jason, “Well, yeah, a clearing isn’t exactly the best place to grow wheat. Give it a bit of time and maybe. For now? Forest herbs, even if they aren’t food, would at least sell for a pretty pen in the settlement. Plus, we can use them as seasoning.”

Rosha holds her arm up and flexes, “Don’t worry, I’ll hunt us enough meat to keep us going.”

Jason shrugs, “I guess I’ll get a smoking hut set up first. The only thing I would worry about would be how edible the stuff is.”

Rosha, “Good thing I’m trained in recognizing this sort of thing. Though it definitely helps that higher stats means you’re able to digest even more things.”

Courtney nods, “And besides that, I can also use some magic to detect for things like parasites, diseases, and poison.”

Jason, “We both know that isn’t as accurate as advertised.”

Courtney shrugs, “Only as accurate as the users personal experiences can provide. Which thankfully for us, my knowledge is quite extensive after my training irl.”

Jason, “Fair enough.”

Rosha nods, “Besides, it isn’t like I’m going to go out and find some weird monster to eat. I’m going to try and stick to stuff like boars and deer. I’ve had a ton of odd meals before, but I don’t plan to seek such things out. And to be honest? After some of what we saw out there, I don’t plan to eat anything that doesn’t come from a normal forest area.”

After that, the group settles in to figure out what to do with all the loot the duo had brought back. Most of it was set aside to sell in the settlement, some herbs are reserved for Jason to try and grow, and one particular crystal was interesting enough that they decided to get someone in the settlement to appraise it. A process that sadly isn’t as easy as most games or even irl.

There was an inner light to the crystal that seemed to be Qi based. So while figuring out this was some kind of quartz was easy enough, none of them were set up to figure out what the mystical side of things entailed. They could only hope that there was someone capable of figuring things out back in the settlement. Which while likely, they need to be prepared for anything that gets found out here, isn’t assured as Mana far and away was more represented in minerals.

It was just a simple fact of how Qi worked that living beings had an easier time absorbing it. On the other hand, Mana tended towards the opposite, ending up in inanimate objects. Even if that does end up with said object animating more often than you would suspect. Naturally occurring golems being about the best example of this. Oh, and the undead, but people don’t like to talk about that.

As for Energy? While technically everything has Energy, it generally doesn't do anything. Though Jason had some plans to play around with empowering stuff. That, however, was for later.

At that moment, the trio decided to make a trip to the settlement together. They all needed various miscellaneous things and while Jason had fought the occasional critter, nothing had come along to claim the place. Not that nothing ever would, but by now there would be a bit of buffer time for them to get back to the clearing before it all falls apart.

As they made their way, there was one problem. Even if the relative location of the settlement hadn’t changed, the area in-between was completely different. Well, not completely different as it maintained the same biome. However, all the features were certainly changed.

This wasn’t a problem to navigate. Rather, the problem arose from the fact that with a new area; the monsters were all shuffled around as well. While this did explain why, after so many giant beasts coming through, there was still a decent population of critters around. It also meant that the party stumbled upon some unexpected challenges. There were new monsters and some old ones in strange places. Rosha tried her best, but this change in scenery must have been recent because all the trails were mixed up and chaotic.