“They’re all just ordinary plants, though.”
There were medicinal herbs, poison hemlocks, and paralyzing plants—all eighty-five plants were all ones that could be found in the vicinity of the Town of Beginnings. Which meant that all the Amber (Plant) items had all been duds. Maybe the miracle herbs and purified grass that they had extracted earlier had truly been a wild stroke of luck. Or maybe amber purchased from a stall simply wouldn’t yield any super rare materials?
If the only chance of getting rarer materials was from amber that I mined myself, that would make things pretty difficult.
“Well, at least you were able to get some miracle herbs from the ones called Amber (Miracle Herb).”
“Hm!”
“...♪”
Sakura and Himka had acquired three new types of miracle herbs.
Name: Magic-Reduction Miracle Herb
Rarity: 6 / Quality: 1★
Effect: Ingredient.
Name: Endurance-Boosting Miracle Herb
Rarity: 6 / Quality: 1★
Effect: Ingredient.
Name: Endurance-Reduction Miracle Herb
Rarity: 6 / Quality: 1★
Effect: Ingredient.
In addition to these three, they had also extracted a strength-boosting herb and another endurance-boosting herb. Yes, two endurance buffers.
“Okay, I’ll give the new herbs to Olto, and then... What should I do with these duplicates?”
I would ideally turn them into potions or something if I could, but I didn’t know the proper recipes. Among the potions and items I knew how to make, not one of them had a recipe that included miracle herbs as a required ingredient. Should I take a shot in the dark and try making a decoction or crushing them up into a mixture?
“Hey, Reflet, Fau. Do you know any recipes that use miracle herbs?”
“Humm.”
“Aye...”
Apparently not. But there was someone else who raised her hand.
“Tra-la!”
“Huh? You know a way to use these, Eine?”
“Tra-la-la.”
I was shocked to find out Eine knew a recipe that used miracle herbs. Eine specialized in skills that had to do with clothing and such, like weaving and sewing. Just the other day, she’d been working on making a fabric organizer and a stuffed toy. But the idea of letting her take the wheel seemed more promising than trying and failing to make potions without any sort of recipe.
“Okay then, I’ll leave it to you, Eine!”
“Tra-la-la!”
“Which one are you going to use?” I asked, placing the miracle herbs in front of Eine.
“Tra-la... Tra-la!”
After some contemplating, Eine picked up the Endurance-Boosting Miracle Herb. Then, she handed the herb to Fau.
“Tra-la.”
“Aye?”
“Traaa-la.”
“Aye.”
After some back-and-forth, Fau took the miracle herb and brought it over to the brewing stand. Eine had apparently asked her to process it in some way. I watched intently as Fau crushed up the herb into a fine powder. Eine was very satisfied with the result. She pinched the powder in her fingers and inspected it with the air of an artisan. The miracle herb was still sparkling even in its powder form. It looked a bit like glitter.
Eine then picked up the container of fine powder and dumped it into a pot she had set up.
“Tra-la-la.”
“Huh? You’re adding water?”
“Tra-la!”
Once she poured in the water, Eine lit a fire under the pot, and the concoction started to simmer. Based simply on the steps she was taking, I could only assume she was making a potion. But it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. Eine vanished from the room, only to return with a new item.
“Is that fabric?”
“Tra-la!”
Name: Small Spirit Silk Cloth
Rarity: 5 / Quality: 7★
Effect: Ingredient.
What Eine had brought out was the finest piece of fabric that she had ever made.
Silkworms produced different fibers depending on what they were fed. If fed medicinal herbs or other common plants, they produced regular fibers. If fed plants with an elemental attribute, like Firestarter Plants, they would produce fibers with that element.
And to have them produce the spirit thread used to make spirit silk cloth, the silkworms had to be fed special materials like a branch from an elemental or spirit tree. To make even the smallest wrapping cloth-sized piece of fabric required five to ten pieces of thread. The quality and difficulty to make the cloth changed depending on the number of threads used.
Eine took that small piece of cloth, which had taken so much time and effort to make, and tossed it into the pot without a second’s hesitation.
“Tra-la!”
“Whoa, what? What’re you doing?”
“Tra-la-la-la-la!”
Eine rubbed the cloth with her tiny hands like she was scrubbing it clean. Then, once the cloth was properly submerged in water, she used a pole to start churning it.
She did that for ten minutes, which was a long time for crafting actions in this game. Then, she took the cloth out of the pot and started drying it with air magic.
We all watched attentively at the gradually changing cloth. As it dried, it became pale green in color and started emitting light in the same way the miracle herbs did. Eine must have used the Dyeing skill she’d learned at level 40 to transfer the color of the miracle herb to the spirit cloth.
“Tra-la-la!”
Name: Small Spirit Silk Cloth (Dyed)
Rarity: 5 / Quality: 4★
Effect: Ingredient. Grants a boost to Endurance.
“Whoa! So dyeing doesn’t just make something a different color?!”
“Tra-la!”
Apparently, dyeing could also apply a special effect to a fabric. Now if I used this piece of cloth to make armor, would it grant a bonus to Endurance? That’d be awesome!
But what I was more struck by was the cloth’s appearance.
“Its effects are great, but look at the way it’s shining.”
“Tra-la-la.”
The cloth that Eine had used the miracle herb to dye was emitting a beautiful, soft-green light. It wasn’t just that it was a glossy piece of fabric, the cloth itself was shining.
“Anything made with this will be really pretty. Actually, I guess that would make it conspicuous, huh?”
“Tra-la?”
Wearing something made of this cloth would most likely put a big target on your back in a place like a dark forest. And it would definitely make someone stand out when they were trying to be stealthy. Taking that into account, there were definitely some downsides to making equipment with this cloth. It could be used to make a cute stuffed animal instead, but that would be a waste of its effects. There had to be some type of equipment it could be good for...
“Can you use this to make equipment that doesn’t stand out so much?” I asked Eine.
“Tra-la-la.” Eine said with a vigorous shake of her head.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
This time, she nodded. “Tra-la.”
So there was no way for her to make something that wouldn’t be conspicuous with a cloth that was shining as brightly as this. I figured as much.
“Okay then, then could you make it into something me or one of our crew could equip?”
Eine had gone through the effort of making this cloth, so I wanted to put it to good use. After I asked my question, Eine held the cloth up high and puffed out her chest. Mm-hmm, cute pose. Oh, wait. She was probably just letting me know she could.
“Great! Go ahead and make it!”
“Tra-la!”
Eine promptly spread the cloth out on her sewing table and started passing a needle and thread through it. The thread appeared to be spirit silk.
She folded the cloth into pleats, sewed them down, then repeated the process. It looked similar to how someone would fold pleats into the edges of gyoza dough. From my perspective, as a person who had never seen someone sew in real life, it looked like Eine was working at a tremendously fast pace.
“That’s amazing, Eine.”
“Tra-la-la!”
I ended up getting entranced and watched her work until she was finished. What she had made was a large-petaled flower made of fabric.
“It’s a corsage!”
“Tra-la!”
Name: Spirit Silk Cloth Corsage
Rarity: 5 / Quality: 3★ / Durability: 380
Effect: Defense +20, Max HP +8, Endurance +3
Requirement: Sanity 10 or higher
Weight: 1