Chapter 279 279

While thousands of low-grade mana stones might look like peanuts compared to the wealth of the rich, for a 1st cycle mage with no backing, that is a huge sum and is not something that could be easily earned by them

Only jobs such as being a forager could possibly let such a mage earn that much mana stones in just the span of a single day

The staff that originally looked down on Rezen started seeing him in a better light. He thought that it's not that Rezen has connections for him to get this job, it might be because he has great connections with Spirit Plants and he has the skills to be a forager

Rezen is still at the 1st cycle and he already brought this many Spirit Plants, what more if he grew stronger?

"Y-your payment will be deposited into your bank account. A-and the next time you can enter the valley or other resource points again depends on two things. Either you have luck and were randomly chosen or you are one of the people that brought back the most number and quality of Spirit Plants. A part of the quota depends on performance and another part was based on luck to give others a chance" the staff explained and Rezen nodded his head

There are foragers that are better than others. They are well-versed in the appearance, habitats, and harvesting methods of Spirit Plants and other resources. As such, almost every time that they entered a resource point, they would bring back more resources

For their merits, they could soon enter a resource point again but if all the quota was given to those that performed really well, the others wouldn't have a chance to enter the resource points again

As such, the quota depends on both merits and luck to give everyone a chance

The foragers cannot enter the resource points whenever they want to since that would fully dry up the limited resources. There is a need to only allow a certain number of foragers at a time to enter the resource points

"I understand, thank you" Rezen said and after all the formalities, he could finally return to the dormitory

As he and the other tribal people are now part of the city, they were given the basic things that they should have

Aside from flying sticks and their weapons, they have identity cards and bank accounts

They are really starting to integrate with the city and they just have to spend more time getting used to the city life

——

Dormitory

Using the excuse that he has to concoct potions, Rezen entered one of the vacant rooms in the dormitory

The moment he did so, he immediately sat on the bed, and had his mind enter his elixir field

His soul once again opened its eyes and entered the farm. The farm is still the same as usual aside from some differences

In the past, it always have Spirit Plants that grew on it. However, the Tree of Fortune absorbed all the nutrients available to bear the Fortune Fruit. As such, no Spirit Plants are currently growing or grown on the farm

However, on the side of the farm was a pile of Spirit Plants and seeds that Rezen got from the Bellmond Valley. The Spirit Plants here were at least twice what he submitted to the city and they are also on the rarer side

"I should buy some form of storage for these Spirit Plants. Spatial rings are crazy expensive. Spatial pouches are cheaper as there's a delay when taking out the things inside but they are also not that cheap. I should either buy a cabinet or large baskets in the meantime"

Rezen believes that he would store more Spirit Plants in the future and he can't just let them gather into a messy pile. He should organize them as soon as possible

But for now, Rezen retrieved the seeds of the Spirit Plants that could increase his talent. While the essence of the Edreaf Tree just boosted his talent, it was far from enough. He's not even a genius that can easily reach the Great Mage Rank and that rank is not high enough for him

There is a need to continuously increase his talent and Spirit Plants like the Rego Weed that could increase his talent upon constant consumption are needed. With the farm's help, Rezen can grow a lot of them to the point that there's more supply than demand

He started digging holes on the farm and planted seeds in them. Since these Spirit Plants are not so special that they do not require special planting methods, just putting them in the soil is enough

Rezen used half of the farm's space to plant these Spirit Plants and he used the other half to plant the Spirit Plants necessary to create mana elixirs. That potion is the second potion he was training to create after he learned to create mana recovery potions

When the farm work was done, Rezen's mind returned to reality and he didn't stop to rest

As soon as he opened his eyes, he opened the box that contains the ingredients for the mana recovery potion. Since it was the potion that he could create, the ingredients of that potion were the one he requested on the military base

For twenty sets of ingredients, he has to provide five potions to the military and if he creates more than five potions, it is up to him how he wishes to use them. He could sell or use the potions for himself

Aside from the box of ingredients, Rezen also has a cauldron and these are the things he uses to create potions

The first thing he did was of course purify the ingredients. The ingredients given to him have 40% or below purity percentage. If he doesn't distill them to remove the impurities, the quality of his potion would suffer

If they have the choice, mages won't consume potions with low purity percentages as it wouldn't take long before they have to cleanse their bodies to prevent their magic from being unstable

The first step is boiling the water on the cauldron and Rezen easily did that using simple magic

Rezen had the first ingredient float in front of him and on his fingertips, invisible threads of his soul power came out and wrapped the ingredient

At a rate visible to the naked eye, the ingredient broke down as if its body was constantly shredded. Soon, only the essence of the ingredient was left

Rezen stared at the floating essence drop as he controlled his soul power to remove the essence's impurities

This single drop contains the condensed essence of the ingredient but it also contains its impurities. Rezen has to remove these impurities and to do so, he used his soul power

He doesn't have much experience in distillation since the Spirit Plants his farm creates at least have 90% purity. Even then, he found out one thing

Distilling is a hard process that is taxing to one's soul. Rezen originally find it hard to do this but today, he found out that he can distill the essence way easier than before!

If in the past, the difficulty of the process is akin to climbing a very steep mountain, the difficulty this time is only akin to climbing your average stairs

With the current Rezen, it should be no problem for him to distill the essence until it has 60% purity which is already in the acceptable range

"My talent increased this much?" Rezen muttered as his eyes lit up. In joy, he controlled his soul threads to separate the impurities from the pure essence and it really reached 60% purity!

Rezen did the same thing to the other supplementary ingredients and after distilling the ingredients to the point that they have 60% purity, he dropped them into the cauldron

With the aid of simple magic, Rezen stirred the liquid inside the cauldron. Soon, the water changes its color to gray but this is still not the mana elixir

This is just considered the easy part since the main ingredients are harder to deal with

With a deep breath, Rezen had a blade of vismian grass float in front of him and he did the same thing to it as he did to the supplementary ingredients

He first broke it down until only the essence was left and after that, he used his soul threads to separate the impurities from the pure essence

The distillation of one of the main ingredients is harder than usual but in the end, Rezen succeeded though the purity is below 60%

After the vismian grass, Rezen turned his attention to the second main ingredient which was the leaves of the Hedil Plant

The process was similar since Rezen also has to distill the leaves and although it was harder compared to distilling the supplementary ingredients, in the end, he still succeeded