The main purpose of miscellaneous herbs was their scent anyway, so those were best used for decorations that had no effect. If I were to make something with miracle herbs, then I should make an item that would make the best use of their abilities.
“This bookmark looks pretty unique too,” I said admiringly.
“Ooh yes, but it’s just an ordinary bookmark for anyone who doesn’t use spellbooks.”
Maple explained that it was an accessory that only granted an effect to the user when it was placed inside a spellbook. Sawyer would be overjoyed to have an item like this. Actually, I had to assume that Sawyer himself was the source of this information.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“Nooope, that’s all.”
“Huh? Really? Okay then, do you know anything about this?”
I showed Maple the cloth Eine made using her Dyeing skill and the corsage she had made with that. It really was eye-catching.
“Y-Yes, I was wondering what that shiny thing on your chest was! Do you mind if I appraise it?”
“Go ahead.”
“Okay then, if you don’t mind— Whaaaaat?! I-It can’t be!”
“Ah, you too, Maple?”
That hurt my ears! Did all the members of the Quick-Eared Cats scream like Alyssa did when they were surprised by something?
I waited until Maple had calmed down, then I told her how Eine had crafted the corsage.
“I-It wasn’t an intermediary ingredient? That must be why there’s no plus sign... I don’t believe anyone has tried to use miracle herbs as a dyeing agent yet. At least, we haven’t received any information about it...”
Maple was muttering to herself for a while as she took in the information, but it didn’t take long for her to look back up and stare at me with a probing look.
“Y-Yuto.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Handling significant information like this falls under Alyssa’s domain. Next time you have information to sell, please go directly to her.”
“What? Seriously?”
“Yes, you absolutely must.”
“O-Okay, I will.”
Even though I had gone to Maple to buy information, I somehow walked away with more money. Just a little, though, since I had bought more information on top of the recipes.
“Now that I have these recipes, what should I do with my remaining miracle herb?”
My options were potpourri, a potion, or a bookmark.
“I can’t go wrong with a potion,” I decided.
I had no use for the bookmark, and I could try making potpourri another time with ordinary flowers. First, I figured I should start with attempting to make a more common item. The recipe for making an Inferior Buff Potion was a miracle herb, five-star quality or higher water, a healing-type ingredient, and a medium-grade medicinal herb.
“I’ll use this Strength-Boosting Miracle Herb, water I collected in Zone Ten, a Spirit Peach, and a Medium-Grade Medicinal Herb. That should do it.”
I decided to start by using the best items I had at my disposal. Now all I had to do was combine them together.
“Concoct— Hmm. Inferior was a good way to put it. The quality is low.”
Even though I used top-notch ingredients, since I hadn’t used an official recipe, I hadn’t been able to avoid the inferior quality.
Name: Inferior Buff Potion
Rarity: 5 / Quality: 2★
Effect: Minor boost to Strength for one hour. Effect does not stack. 18-minute cooldown time.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it had been worth the effort. The amber-encased miracle herb had cost me six million G, and I used some valuable ingredients. There was no denying this had put me in the red.
Although, if I could successfully mass-produce miracle herbs, then I might be able to figure out a recipe that granted a better effect. For now, though, the potion was getting stored away in my inventory.
“Next up... How about potpourri?”
Generally speaking, potpourri was made by adding essential oils to dried flowers to give it a scent, then placing the mixture into bags to let it age. There were more steps to it when making it in the real world, but it was a quick and easy process in game.
“Aye!”
“Tra-la! ♪”
“Oh hey, you two. Wanna help out? Okay then, first, let’s go pick some flowers.”
“Aye-aye!”
“Tra-la!”
We weren’t growing a huge number of flowers, but we had a decent spread that included tulips, sunflowers, and cosmos. And it was finally their time to shine.
“All right, let’s get a few of each, but don’t pick them all!”
Together, Fau, Eine, and I picked flowers, dropping them into a basket as we went. After not even ten minutes, we had a full basket.
“Aye!”
“Oh, do you want to carry the basket, Fau? Be careful not to drop it.”
“Aye.”
The basket was even bigger than she was, but Fau lifted it and carried it towards the barn. Next to her flew a little girl with white hair, the pair surrounded by a field of colorful flowers.
“Hmm, now that’s a fantastical sight.”
“Tra-la?”
“Nothing, I’m coming.”
We would have to make do with the barn as our crafting location. Himka and Reflet were using the workshop right now, after all.
“First step is drying the flowers. Fau, could you do the honors?”
“Aye-aye!”
“And Eine, could you make the cloth bags? Something small, and they don’t need to have any effects.”
“Tra-la!” Eine said with a salute.
Man, it had been a while since I’d gotten a salute from my monsters. Fau and Eine looked razor-focused, but they still just ended up looking adorable.
“As for me, I’ll be extracting the essential oils.”
There were two methods for doing this. The first was using Extract, an Alchemy skill. The other method was to crush and press the flowers. There were other ways to do it that required special tools, but those first two methods were the easiest methods for me to try.
“I’ll go ahead and try both of those methods.”
And so, after producing essential oils using both methods, I found that they produced more or less the same result. It was hard to tell a difference since the oils didn’t have any special effects. In that case, it was best to go with the easier method from now on, which was using Extract.
Since essential oils were used to give things a scent, what if I tried mixing them into a potion or something? Actually, never mind. It would probably be hard to down a potion that smelled like flowers. Besides, my goal right now was making potpourri.
From my attempts at making several different types of essential oils, I found that I could use Extract on nearly all of the flower types. One other thing I found was that despite it being possible to extract essential oils from fruit skins, attempting to do so in game only resulted in the skins turning into trash. I tried using whole fruits instead, but I just ended up making juice, so I gave up on that for now.
“The fun part starts now,” I announced to Fau and Eine. “Let’s try out a bunch of different combinations.”
“Aye-aye!”
“Tra-la-la!”
“What should we start with?”
I began by pouring lily essential oil onto dried cosmos. The scent was just okay.
“Aye...! Aye!”
“Tra-la.”
“Aye-aye...”
“Tra-la.♪”
Hey now, what’s that about? Fau sniffed the fragrance she created and then pulled a face. She must have created something awful. Meanwhile, Eine seemed to have a certain sense for this. She was an air elemental, so maybe fragrance was part of her area of expertise. She let me sniff her creation—it smelled heavenly.
From there, we tried making several more combinations and confirmed something devastating.
“I have a bad sense of smell. And so do you, Fau.”
“Aye!”
“Ahhh! D-Don’t get mad!”
Apparently, telling her she had a terrible sense of smell had hurt her pride as a fairy. She was flying around my face in a huff.
“Aye-aye!”
“I-I’m sorry! Please don’t be mad.”
“Aye.”
“All right, well, let’s put everything into bags for now. Maybe their scents will change after having time to age.”
“Tra-la!”
The last step was letting it age for a few days. How would they turn out? I couldn’t wait to see.