Gathering Herbs

After arriving at their house, Henry went straight to his room, he was excited to finally explore more of his system.

-" Why don't I test the furnace now?" Henry had four treasures of the first level, so he could finally use the new feature. " What treasure should I use?" Henry began to examine the treasures one by one.

-'Wolpertinger Fur Boots - Medium Grade - First Level Human Realm Treasure - Makes the user's footstep lighter and quicker.'

As Henry began to examine the new treasures, he was surprised by the additional information that the system displayed.

Henry was puzzled as to why his swords didn't display any information like this; even the dagger he gave to Makayla displayed information on the item's effects, but the only thing that the system pointed out about the swords was their level and grade.

-' The host can only see the full information about treasure two levels higher than the present system level.' Henry thanked the system for the response and went on to check the remaining items.

-' Saw-Toothed Dagger - Low Grade - First Level Human Realm Treasure - The wounds caused by this dagger induce profound bleeding.'

-' Beamcloth Shirt - Low Grade - First Level Human Realm Treasure - This shirt aids the user's recovery of stamina and provides a cooling sensation while worn.' Henry's eyes widened as he saw the effects of the items, they were all at the first level, but, almost all of them were useful.

-' Red Nitarite - High Grade - Natural Treasure - First Level Human Realm Treasure - This gemstone can capture and store the energy of the surrounding environment, but it is sensitive to collision and can explode if fractured.'

Henry was surprised by the quality of Marcos's treasures; especially the Beamcloth Shirt and the Wolpertinger Fur Boots as they could help in Henry's future treasure hunts.

However, what made Henry intrigued was the red gemstone; the description made Henry believe that this item could be helpful as a hidden weapon. - "The dagger is the only item I don't mind losing, while the gemstone is a one-time-use item. Is it really worth saving?" Henry was torn between two options, and after some thought, he placed the dagger in the furnace.

Henry's heart raced as he put the dagger in the furnace, only to have all his hopes crushed as he saw the small amount of energy value he would gain. -" System? Is something wrong with the furnace? Why is this only giving me 0,75 stats points?"

-' The system calculations are correct; the low point quantity is related to furnace level and dagger's energy value.'

-" So this means that this dagger isn't worth anything?"

-' Yes, with an Energy Value of 5 points, this dagger barely qualifies as a treasure of the first level.' Henry was instantly disappointed by the dagger and threw it into his inventory.

Henry didn't want to waste his furnace usage on such a useless thing, so he chose to see how many points the gemstone would provide him. Henry jumped in astonishment as he placed the gemstone on the furnace. "7.5 points?" Henry was taken aback by the difference between the dagger and the gemstone. Even if the gemstone was a high grade item, he didn't expect it to provide him with ten times more stats than the dagger.

-'This gemstone is an item whose sole function is to store energy, hence it has a high energy value.'

Henry gulped as he saw how many points he could obtain; if he spent all of them on mana, his mana storage would double overnight. After some thought, he pressed the confirm button and watched full of excitement as the item vanished and the furnace icon turned gray.

When Henry spotted the 7.5 free stats points on the character index, he immediately added them all to his mana. Like he used the points, he felt a peculiar sensation, as if something was entering his body.

After the feeling faded, he conjured a small light on his hand, one of the only spells he could cast: Candlelight.

Henry burst out laughing as he noticed the light shining on the palm of his hand; previously, he had so little mana that the ball hardly illuminated anything, but now, thanks to it, he could see his surroundings clearly.

-"With only 7 points, I can notice such a big difference; if I keep using the furnace, I'll catch up with the others I studied with." Henry was ecstatic as he tinkered with the small ball of light. "System, how many points do I need to reach the peak of the first circle?"

-' The host requires 238 points to reach the peak of the first circle.'

-" 2-2-2-238? So many points just for the first circle's peak. So, how many points do I need to reach the second circle?"

-'To get to the second circle, the host needs 288 points.'

The system response made Henry upset; he knew that if he leveled up the system, the treasures he could sacrifice would offer him a lot more points, but 288 points were still too much for him to collect.

Henry was already tired from his full day, and with the horrible news he had received, he went straight to bed, however, not before wearing the Beamcloth Shirt. The shirt looked completely normal, and its casual appearance and refreshing fabric made the item a perfect sleeping garment.

Henry sighed as he gave one last look at his system screen, tomorrow would be another busy day, as Henry planned on waking up early and heading out to gather herbs.

Leveling the system and upgrading his furnace was his priority, as he knew that growing stronger would become way easier after a few levels.

When Henry awoke the next morning he felt strangely rejuvenated, he had always found waking up early difficult, but this time he felt full of energy and even felt like he was breathing better.

-"Is this due to the stats points I spent?" Henry began to feel his body as he showered, it had been years since he had felt so revitalized. "No, I just placed seven points in mana, I don't think it made a difference.... perhaps it's the shirt?" Henry finished his shower and left without eating anything, deciding to buy something on his trip to the mountain.

He first passed by numerous herb shops, he wanted to buy every level one herb he could find so that the system might assist him in gathering them during his explorations. Henry spent about 200 golds on herbs, as he purchased numerous level one herbs and many levels two herbs.

After gathering the herbs, Henry went to Jonathan's store, however, because he was rather early, Jonathan had yet to arrive at work, so Henry left the swords with an attendant and asked him to repair them.

With all of his preparations completed, Henry set out towards the mountain.

His heart began to pound uncontrollably; this was his first treasure hunting with the system, and he was far too nervous.

-" I'm hoping to get a lot of things today." As Henry strolled, he kept an eye on the progress of the herb analysis.

He first concentrated on analyzing the level one herbs, however, he had purchased more than 120 different varieties of level one herbs, so even if the individual progress was quick, it would take some time for the system to finish them all.

As he was leaving the city, small red dots began to emerge on the map; Henry was delighted and began to collect them. He had already harvested 7 stalks of herbs in the first few minutes after leaving the city.

-"Won't I have a monopoly on the herb market if I collect every herb's energy signature in this area?" Henry's eyes shone as he picked up the pace with which he was gathering the herbs. As time passed, more red dots appeared on the map, meaning that the system had completed additional analysis.

Because early morning was the ideal time to collect herbs, there were many individuals in the area Henry chose to visit, most of whom were simple villagers or townspeople, but some guilds even sent personnel to pick herbs here. Henry didn't attract much attention at first, but before long, the speed at which he plucked herbs attracted some attention.

Most of the people gathering herbs thought that he was some country-bumpkin picking random weeds in hope of finding a magical herb, however, it didn't take too long for one of the groups to notice that he wasn't just gathering random plants.

The group grew shocked as they began to follow Henry, and noticed that every single stalk of herb he plucked from the ground was a rare one. From Cinder Boxwood to Jade Weed, every single herb he found made the group even more set on robbing him.

The group kept following Henry, who was too absorbed in gathering the herbs all around him, to notice anything. It wasn't until Henry had walked far away from the city's gate, that the group decided to act.

-" What a lucky day!" The leader of the group licked his lips as he saw Henry's spatial bag. " We found a piggy bank!" He was sure that the robbery would be successful, they were quite far away from the city and no guards would patrol this area, and most importantly, the man had so little mana that he even looked to be a normal person.

The man's voice startled Henry, who jumped in fright and turned around, with his face completely white.

After the initial shock, Henry took a long breath and calmed down; he wanted to test the power of his swords in a proper fight, and the perfect occasion finally arose. "Robbery? Oh, please don't injure me." Henry pretended to be scared as he utilized his system to evaluate the group's cultivation level.

- "If you don't do something stupid, you'll be fine; we only want your spatial bag." When the group leader saw that the man was not going to resist, he smiled.

- "Of course, let me untie this knot." Because Henry's spatial bag was tied to his pants, he utilized it to pass the time until the system analysis was completed.

The group leader approached him and waited for Henry to untie his spatial bag, but the man quickly became impatient as Henry took far too long. - "Fuck, this man can't even untie a knot, give me a break." The leader drew a dagger from his belt and severed the cord that tied Henry's spatial bag to his pants.

The system analysis had just ended as the man slashed the cord. -" Oh? Only at the fourth level of body cultivation and going around robbing people, aren't you guys afraid of the guards?" Henry exhaled in relief as the entire group was quite weak, with the only one who could be deemed powerful being the one closest to him, who was at the fourth level of the Body Tempering realm.

- "Uh-oh? Did you call us weak? Look at yourself; I can't even feel any energy from you." The group's leader was perplexed as to why the man just changed his attitude after giving away his bag. "So what if we rob you? What will you do?" The man laughed loudly and turned to face his companions.

"What am I going to do?" Henry waited for the man to turn away, and retrieved one of the swords from the system inventory. "I'm going to teach you a lesson!"

When the rest of the group noticed a sword come out of nowhere in the man's hands, they immediately reacted. - "Nico, he was a weapon!"

The Leader instantly moved to the side, thinking the man was going to attack him, but before he could finish rolling on the ground, he heard groans of pain from his companions.