Sweetgrass

After another hour of standing over Glim Roth slowly withdrew his mana.

When the foreign mana and therefore the tingling left Glim's body he couldn't sense his mana anymore. He knew it was in his heart now, but he couldn't feel it as easily now.

"Roth can you send your mana into my body again? I can feel that I am so close. I might be able to get it after just a few more tries!"

"No. We have already been at this for hours. While I still have plenty of mana I am still tired."

Glim looked around and noticed that the fire was just a small pile of coals now. What had felt like just a few minutes to Glim had actually been several hours.

"If you want you can stay up and try to control your mana by yourself, but I am going to bed."

With that Roth slowly walked over to his room and closed the door.

Glim was still awake and had plenty of energy so he figured he could practice by himself. He might not have Roth to help him, but he knew where the mana was now.

Thus Glim got himself comfortable once again and focused his attention inwards.

The contrasting silence was quite startling to Glim. He went from his whole body tingling to nothing. The only thing that caught his attention was his breathing and his heart beat.

This silence made it quite easier to push aside distractions for a moment. Unlike before though anything that came up was amplified by the silence. Any random though or sound from the night was enough for him to lose his concentration.

When you have a crowded room you don't notice it when someone starts talking because it just blends into the noise you are already ignoring.

If you are in a quiet room though that new voice would draw your attention. It might just be for a moment, but only a moment was needed for Glim to lose the sense of his mana.

After a half an hour of attempting to sense his mana there was no luck. Not to mention trying to take hold of it, just sensing it was not something Glim could currently do.

Deciding that rest was a better option than his current unproductive work Glim went to his room. Once there he changed into his simple pajamas and went to sleep.

He tried to sense his mana and grasp it a few more times while laying in bed, but the results were the same as before. The only consolation was that since he was lying in bed with his eyes closed and trying to push random thoughts out of his head he fell asleep rather fast.

The next morning Glim woke up to the first sun rays of the day streaking through his window. Once up he changed out of his pajamas and left to find Roth, hoping to continue where he left off last night.

That hope was put down when he came out and saw Roth gathering his things to head out. He remembered that today was not Roth's day off.

Thankfully tomorrow was though.

Roth could see the disappointment on the bleary eyed Glim's face.

"Do worry to much. I'll be back in the evening and we can continue from last night. You should take the day to go gather some herbs like usual. I am out of sweetgrass so if you could find some it would be helpful."

Sweetgrass grew in open areas in the forest. There were a few clearing that Glim had found sweetgrass in before. He should be able to find a good amount of it if he went there.

Sweetgrass was a simple grass that had a slightly sweet flavor. This made it helpful to put with bitter medicines to make it more palatable. Roth loved to put a bit of this grass in his tea as well.

Roth had already eaten his breakfast and left Glim's portion out for him. Just as he was about to head out the door he stopped to remind Glim.

"Don't forget to check on the furem berries. They probably wont be dried this morning, but by evening they should be just right."

With that he turned around and left the house.

Glim sat down to eat his breakfast and finish waking up. He had gotten to used to trying to sleep in lately.

After his meal Glim was fully awake so he went to check on the furem berries. Lifting the top cloth he inspected a few berries in different spots in the trays.

They were still a bit soft for the most part. When properly dried they should be firm, but deform with a little force.

Glim spread the cloth back over the berries and went inside to grab his bag and a snack for later. Then he was heading out to the forest clearings.

On his way there he had some time to think a bit. Several things came to his mind.

Learning the basics of magic. The mysterious system. Who his mother was. How to finish the system mission.

Some of these he couldn't affect right now and some of these he could.

He wouldn't learn anything more about the system unless it told him of it own volition. By the way his talk went with the system two days ago it didn't sound like that was happening any time soon.

He had no idea who his mother in this life really was. He had asked Roth a quite a few times through the years. He always told Glim that he never met the woman before.

As glim got older he got the feeling that Roth wasn't telling him the truth on that topic, not the whole truth anyways. Glim put the chances of Roth answering any different than before along with the systems spilling its secrets for now.

Then we have magic. Glim was quite enjoying learning to use magic. Who didn't want to have superpowers at least once in their life? In this world that was an actual possibility!

From what Roth told him he would just have to keep practicing for now. There wasn't anything else he could do. At least he was moving somewhere with this one though.

Last there is the system mission. Now that Glim knew where he was going wrong he could correct the issue. He just had some new hurdles though.

Roth told him that magical herbs usually grow in places with more mana. This made sense as they themselves held mana. Sadly magical beasts also usually lived in those places.

'Now Roth didn't say that they only grow in those places so there could be a small chance that there are some growing in this forest. What do they look like though?'

The next problem was the lack of knowledge. Roth had only taught Glim about simple herbs. What they looked like. Where they grew. What parts to take. What parts to leave.

This meant that Glim knew nothing like this about the basic magical herbs. This lack of knowledge was one of his biggest roadblocks for now.

Roth might know about a few herbs, so he could ask him this evening about the topic. This might also draw a bit up his suspicion though. Roth would ask why he wanted to know.

He could see Roth not teaching him for fear of him heading into the mountains to find some.

The only other source of knowledge he had was the system.

'Status'

[Name: Glim]

[Profession: None]

[Plant Points:50]

[Attributes:]

Strength: 0.5

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.5

Intelligence: 0.9

Mana capacity: 0.1

[Skills:]

Collection: [Simple herb harvesting]

Storage: [Simple herb drying]

Everything looked the same to Glim. Sadly his mana capacity was still 0.1. The fifty plant points did give him an idea though.

He navigated his way over to the shop. Glim was hoping to find something that would help him there.

Once in the shop he scrolled over the various things sold there. Soon he came to the item that could help him out.

[Basic herb identification]

150 PP

Sadly he was to poor.

"What the hell system! Why give me so little starting points that I can't even buy what I need?!"

.....

Glim received no answer to his frustrated yell so he closed the windows and continued on to the first clearing.

Since the system was a bust he would just have to ask Roth this evening and hope for the best.

Once he closed on the edge of the clearing Glim slowed down a bit. Looking in from the edge of trees he saw a few deer leaving into the forest on the other side of the clearing.

Glim figured they must have herd him walking. He wasn't the quietest after all.

Since Glim saw the deer leaving he knew there was a large chance for sweetgrass to be in this clearing. Deer loved to graze on the sweetgrass.

After a minute of walking around the clearing he found a few cluster of sweetgrass. Most of them had been chewed on by the deer so glim could only gather sweetgrass from the few untouched ones.

The grass would reach a bit above Glim's knees when fully grown. The sweetest stalks were the one about three quarters of this height though.

If they were smaller they had no taste at all. The bigger ones had some sweetness, but is was much less.

Sweetgrass leaves are round at the bottom of the stem. They would grow straight up and split into three wide leaves from the layers. Unlike other grasses there are no smaller leaves along the bottom of the stem.

To harvest these blades of grass Glim would grab the stem a few inches above the base of the stem and snap it off.

Glim took the good stalks of grass from one tuff of sweetgrass then moved onto another tuff in the cluster. Soon he had several handfuls of sweetgrass in his bag.

Since the deer were just here there was less sweetgrass for him to harvest, but there was still a sizable amount after he worked his way through the small clearing.

Once he was done had had filled about a eighth of his sack. There are two other clearings nearby that are about the same size that Glim has found sweetgrass before.

Since they were so close by Glim figured the deer had already gotten to the grass though. There was one other clearing he knew of. It was much bigger and hopefully the deer hadn't gotten to it yet.

The clearing was a fair ways away and would bring him closer to the mountains, but Glim had plenty of time left in the day. He had been to the clearing several time in the past.

He hadn't had a problem in the past there so he figured it would be alright. The clearing was still a ways away from the mountains, but just close enough to start being a bit cautious.

Glim put his sack back on his back and started to head off to the clearing. It would take him a little over an hour to get there if he kept a good pace.

In the meantime he checked the shop for any other options to help him in his mission, but all of them cost more than he had.

Once he was sure there was nothing there that could help him he closed the window and pulled out a stalk of sweetgrass.

He started nibbling on the stalk and was rewarded with a light and sweet flavor. There was candy in this world, but it was considered a high luxury for commoners.

Roth had bought some for Glim in the past from the merchants that traveled to the village a few times a year. Sweetgrass on the other hand was free as long as you knew where to find it.

As Glim traveled he kept nibbling on the stalk of grass. When he got near the clearing the grass was basically gone so he spit out the last of it.

Glim had been going at a good pace so far through the woods, but he started to slow down now. He never ran into trouble here before, but he had been warned by one of the hunters in the village that wolves would come here every now and then to hunt and kill deer.

For the most part the wolves left humans alone. They had learned that if they killed one of these two legged beings that several would come after them and kill several of their own.

That didn't mean they were friendly though. If you approached them or their young they would become vicious. If there was hard times and there wasn't enough food they could attack humans as well.

For the most part as long as you didn't act aggressive towards them or their young you were okay though.

Glim has ran into some wolves before, but as soon as he saw them in the distance he backtracked and avoided them. He didn't want to test his luck.

Today looked to be another good day. Looking into the clearing it was several times larger than the last one. At least ten times the size Glim reckoned.

Even though he couldn't seen anything in the clearing Glim still waited several minutes. Better safe than sorry.

Once fifteen minutes had passed Glim figured it was safe to enter so he exited the tree line and checked the edges of the clearing for sweetgrass.

He quickly found several tuffs of sweetgrass. Luck for him these were untouched by the deer.

He already found a small cluster in the edges of the clearing so there would be plenty more in the clearing.

Glim got down and started to collect the sweetgrass. Since the deer hadn't came here yet it was much faster gathering the sweetgrass this time.

After a minute he had a handful and put it in his sack. After a few more minutes he picked what he could from this cluster and went to find another.

He glanced around the clearing and saw a few more clusters near the center. After a moment he was harvesting these clusters as well.

Glim continued to harvest sweetgrass for almost another half hour. He stopped to check his sack and saw that it was a little over three quarters full. He tried to put the grass neatly in his sack to be able to fit as much as he could.

Just as he was trying to arrange the grass better the wind shifted and brought a familiar smell to his nose.

This smell sparked a memory from his life as Dex.

Annie was in the hospital yet again at this time. Dex was still in his freshman year of college.

He told his professors that he was going to watch over his sick sister and skipped class. While he was there Annie asked him to sneak her a bottle of orange soda from the vending machines downstairs.

The doctors didn't like it when glim snuck Annie candy and soda, but it made her happy. Glim headed downstairs to the lobby where the working vending machines were.

Just as he got the soda and was heading back several sirens could be heard in the background. After a moment several bodies were brought in on stretchers. With them came the awful smell of burning flesh.

Apparently there was a fire in an apartment building and several people were unable to get out in time. A few of these people were able to be rescued and brought to the hospital. They were in awful shape though.

Black char coved several portions of their body. The smell they gave off was unmistakable. Nauseating, sweet, and putrid. Like the smell of nothing else. The smell was so thick you could almost taste it.

Even when Glim left the lobby he could still feel the smell trapped in his nose.

This was what he smelled right now. Glim snapped his head to where the wind was coming from.

At the edge of the clearing was a gruesome sight. A wolf bigger than any had ever seen was staring at glim. While normal wolves might come up to his waist, this wolf look to be the same height of his chest.

The left side of the wolf from the middle of the neck back to the side was charred black giving off the unmistakable smell of charred flesh.

'Well fuck me sideway'