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It was the most basic of the basic principles. Combining a part of higher tier elements with a lower one, in order to help bring up the quality of the lower ones.

In the field of apothecary, if one wanted to create a better quality result from Tier 3 materials, they shouldn't combine it with Tier 2 ingredients. Instead, they should use Tier 4. It was a no-brainer.

Here, Emery was standing in the middle of a massive jungle full of Tier 3 to Tier 5 plants. However, without the aid of [Universal Flora Knowledge - Rank 3] and [Analyze - Rank 3], he wouldn't be able to identify how to harvest them, leaving him only limited to using lower tier ingredients his skills capable of harvesting.

For the first few minutes, Emery was pacing around in silence, busy thinking of the best way to deal with his current predicament.

As much as his brain tried to think of solutions, all his plans came to one conclusion. There was nothing for him to do but to accept the unfortunate situation he was in. With that acceptance, he decided to stop wasting time and use what he could to scout and analyze the plants within this forest.

Fortunately, Emery had the perfect skill to accomplish this objective.

[Nature Sense]

With that skill activated, Emery started dashing through the forest, careful not to trample anything valuable and analyzing each of them carefully. He made sure to touch the bark, leaves, or stems of any plants that had a slight restorative function and, and took notes on them.

[Wiggentree - Tier 3]

A yellow-ish tree bark with protective elements. Identifiable from its rough texture and the distinct yellow streaks extending from the leaves down to the roots, ideal as a base to create forms of protection against diseases and sickness.

[Spleenward - Tier 2]

A spike-like moss with tendrils that grows in underwater areas. It is known for its tenacity, sustaining its life even in the most contaminated water. This trait made it an ideal ingredient to cleanse poisons or any toxic substances.

[Thaumatagoria - Tier 4]

A fern cluster known for its hardy nature and famous for breaking through massive rocks. It is a plant that could thrive in almost any environment, and it is known for its high vitality and vigor. Careful preparation would ensure the transference of the effects to those who use it.

About 15 minutes had passed, and Emery had found almost a dozen plants with a restorative factor from Tier 1 to Tier 4. However, he only managed to explore a tiny part of the dense forest.

Normally, the skill range for [Nature Sense] goes up to 100 miles, or about one third of the forest area. But right now, he mainly used the skill to help his [Analyze] skill to work, so he could only sense things within one mile at most.

Time is precious, and there is still so much he has to do. Emery decided to focus on his Nature Core and enlarged the area that his [Spirit Reading] encompassed.

As the spirit energy from the core started to flow around the forest area and circle back to him, Emery was surprised. Now, he found his ability to sense the natural life around him had increased tremendously.

It was as if all of them were alive and beat for him, their lifesigns were clear like a candle in the nights. Emery can tell right away that the wonderful experience was much because of the added light pillar within his nature core.

With each passing second, millions of data came back to him, all from just the 10 miles area from where he stood.

Luckily, Emery had no need to analyze all of them. He merely needed to find a little glimpse of the restorative essence he was looking for. With that in mind, he closed his eyes and concentrated, pouring his energy into his Nature Core to cast a much stronger version of [Nature Sense] to find the specific target.

Gradually, the amount of information he received started to slow down, from overwhelming to manageable level. He was able to feel the shape of the plants, as most of the unimportant textures started to disappear. Now, information came to him in the form of hundreds of thousands of different light dots.

Emery subconsciously let out a smile, this was what he was looking for. He concentrated on himself this time to try and filter the information to find what he needed.

First of all, he took away all the duplicate genes, slowly filtering the lights into about a thousand. Then, he tried to limit the result to only plants with at least 10% restorative essence. Bit by bit, the lights dimmed, leaving only around three dozen plants.

With an elated smile, Emery opened his eyes and quickly headed over to where the plants were. He harvested one each to be analyzed later back at the workstation.

For now, his objective was finished. He dashed as quickly as he could, even going as far as to use his [Spatial Gate] and [Blink] to move towards and between his target. While the others took one or two hours to look around, only to bring back a dozen plants, Emery ended up bringing back hundreds of plants when he finally returned to his workstation.

[Tier 1: 311, Tier 2: 112, Tier 3: 42, Tier 4: 22]

Emery had almost 500 different plants, and he was confident that he managed to find about 99% of all the restorative plants hidden within the forest. He then set each plant down carefully on the workstation. Even when he noticed all eyes were staring at him, he was completely unperturbed.

A few moments later, Grandmaster Hazhard, who had been walking around, arrived at Emery's workstation. He had been spending his time to see what kind of plants the 100 people have chosen. Upon seeing what Emery had chosen, he was stunned for a few seconds. Then, when he regained his composure, he finally said.

"You know, I did say you can use any of them, but I didn't mean ALL of them." He shook his head in slight exasperation.

Grandmaster Hazhard then took a good look at the plants Emery chose, and he realized Emery didn't take any Tier 5 ones. He quickly realized what was going on and said, "At least you didn't harvest the expensive ones. With these many plants, even that 100.000 spirit stones entry fee won't cut it."

Emery didn't answer, instead, he only gave the grandmaster a wry smile. The old man seemed to not realize that Emery was admitted for free due to his privileged status, and it would be better for Emery to let the man remain in ignorance.

Considering how the grandmaster acted with Master Grom earlier, Emery started to wonder whether all apothecary practitioners really find money that important.

Then, he glanced towards the countdown and saw the remaining time.

[9 hours, 18 minutes]

Now comes the hard part. Emery had to wrack his brain and consider all the properties of the hundreds of different plants, then find a combination and a brewing method to emphasize their effects in order to create a result worthy of passing the exam.

To be continued