CH 20

Episode 20 – Final Sum of the Collected Plants 

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After taking a cold shower, I returned to my room and began to work on sorting the collected plants and herbs. The brisk coldness of the water seeped into my bones, but, thanks to that, the drowsiness I was feeling earlier quickly melted away. To make sure I didn’t catch a cold, I threw on some warm clothes. Then, after walking over to the bulging cloth bag, I dumped its contents onto the floor.

The odor that plants and herbs with strong effects possessed was as harsh as always. I could catch a whiff of the plants when they were inside the bag, but, when I dumped the contents of the bag onto the floor, the smell rapidly pervaded the entire room.

……It had already been said and done, but I really hoped the innkeeper wouldn’t catch a whiff of it from downstairs and come find me in a rage. I dumped everything on the floor in one go since my blood was pumping and I was raring to go, but now I had gone and done it. Maybe if I hurried and finished the work quickly, it would be okay. Probably.

I decided to organize and classify the herbs by level and species. I was thinking about selling the lower-leveled herbs to the Adventurer’s Guild and selling the higher-leveled herbs directly to the store. In regards to selling the high-leveled herbs to the store wholesale, I planned to do so with the ulterior motive of having them raise their evaluation of me in the process. Regarding the Adventurer’s Guild, since it was an organization that purchased goods and then distributed sales towards business with stores specializing in specific professions, even after taking into account the handling fee, it should be fine to sell the lower-leveled herbs there. For the Magical Grass that I wanted to use on myself, it would be better not to have to sell those if possible. Well then, here commenced my prolonged battle against drowsiness.

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After about two hours of earnestly appraising and sorting, the work was finally finished. My way of defining quality overall was separated by level into three categories: under level 10 (low quality), between levels 10 and 20 (medium quality), and level 20 and higher (high quality). The low-quality herbs numbered 231; the medium-quality herbs that were between levels 10 and 20 numbered 359, and the high-quality herbs at level 20 and higher numbered 84. If I were to sell all of these herbs wholesale to the Adventurer’s Guild, it would amount to a little over 2 gold coins, after deducting the handling fee.

Without factoring in the worth of the useful plants, just these herbs that I collected alone were worth that much, so I’d be able to far exceed the four gold coins I used to recruit [Azure Alliance]. It was now very possible that I could keep all of the Magical Grasses for my own use without having to sell them.

TL Note: It’s pretty unclear since for almost every single species of herb and plant so far, the author has just been using the kanji 草, which means weed, herb, and/or grass in English. To give some variety to the names, from the beginning I’ve been appropriately varying the use of each of those words when naming, but unfortunately this also makes the categorization of herbs versus plants slightly unclear. It was not apparent before this chapter, but I think the author started using “herbs” when referring to Magical Grass, Medical Herb, and All-Herb, and “useful plants” when referring to everything else: Bomb Grass, Linrin Weed, Angel Grass, etc.

Alright!! I was finally done with sorting through the overwhelming number of medicinal herbs, so I decided to finish sorting the useful plants as soon as possible.

After another two hours of working, at last all of the useful plants were sorted. Due to my physical fatigue, this was probably the toughest session of appraisal and sorting that I had ever done, but I managed to push through without breaking my concentration or falling asleep once.

The final sum of everything (both herbs and useful plants):

Magical Grass: 142 total. 39 low-quality, 78 medium-quality, 25 high-quality.

Medical Herb: 28 total. 11 low-quality, 14 medium-quality, 3 high-quality.

All-Herb: 15 total. 5 low-quality, 8 medium-quality, 2 high-quality.

When I calculated the total amount based on the market price for each item, I found that the grand total from everything I collected on the expedition amounted to 10 gold coins and 7 silver coins. Feeling a fire lighting in my heart, I wanted to go wild and jump for joy, but I held myself down.

Thank goodness… I was so relieved….

With this, after wandering, trying to fumble through this uncertain, murky future, the fog finally cleared and my future prospects were finally within sight. After scraping my way through life off of small wages earned through doing odd jobs, chores, and appraisals, I could finally say that I had earned myself a way of “living”, in all meanings of the word. That realization honestly made me feel like crying out of pure, wholehearted relief.

……No, not yet. I can’t be satisfied just yet.

I hadn’t yet gotten the money into my hands, and this time I was only able to concentrate due to the protection of the [Azure Alliance]; the fact that I was still weak hadn’t changed. If Brandon were to try to actively cause problems for me, the current security of my situation would be blown away in an instant. It didn’t even have to be Brandon; it could be anyone who was out to harm me. I had no idea when someone like that would show up, after all.

When I remembered these things, I steeled myself. I had to become strong enough to protect myself. I already promised Ahmed that I would become stronger and go to see her, and I intended to fulfill that promise. Looking down at the plants that I had worked so hard to collect, I pulled myself back together.

And finally, I slowly pulled out the Dumbbell Weed that I had been saving all this time. This plant was the most important part to fulfilling my promise to become stronger. It looked just like a weed, but, in my eyes, it was an entire treasure trove. When I think of the labors I went through to collect this plant, using it felt like a waste, but… I couldn’t move forward without knowing the exact effects.

It was time to take the Dumbbell Weed.