Chapter 16: Gathering Herbs

"You want to work as an apprentice in my workshop? Well..."

Dennis was reasonably surprised when he heard of Mirage's request. He would have expected the little child's request to be something like a toy or tool. Seeing that the six year old in front of him instead come and ask to become his apprentice voluntarily, Dennis's face showed clear confusion.

"Mr. Dennis, please allow me to become your apprentice. I have experience when it comes to working with tools, especially when it comes to carving wood."

'Becoming an apprentice can help me increase my dexterity faster, and I can also learn more about herbs and materials of this world. Earning money aside, I must become an apprentice here to improve my skills.'

"Umm... do you approve of this Lady Achlys?"

"... *sigh* Please take care of him for me Dennis. It is true that Mira has a fascination when it comes to working with tools. He had been carving wood to make statues for as long as he could."

"I see. Well, if Lady Achlys has no problems with it, then it's okay with me too. It will be my first time becoming a teacher, so please don't expect too much."

"Thank you Mr. Dennis."

"Then... You can leave little Mira with me for today Lady Achlys. I will send him back before the sun goes down, so don't worry."

"Okay... I am heading home first then, please take care of Mira for me."

"Of course."

After saying goodbyes to Achlys for now, Dennis brought Mira to inside the pharmacy with him.

"Hmm... so what would you like to learn from me, little Mira?"

"Please don't call me little... I don't really want to stop you from what you are doing Mr. Dennis, so I would like to do some odd tasks to assist you on your jobs."

"You saying that really makes things harder for me. What shall we do... Oh! I know, I will take you to gather herbs together. I've been running low on some local ones."

"Okay, is there anything I shall do?"

"For now, just follow me as I teach you the locations. They are outside he town, but not too far away from the town. Within a radius of a thousand steps, let's say. I might ask you to go get some on your own when you get older."

Dennis explained what plants to stay away from as he grabbed the necessary tools for gathering herbs. He made sure that Mirage understood to never leave his sight, or touch plants he didn't touch, as they might be poisonous.

There were also apparently monsters close to where they would be gathering herbs, but it would be fine if they were to stay within the thousand step radius. The monsters didn't dare to get too close to the town, or even if they did, they would get killed by the town guard.

While this town's guards didn't have falna like the ones in Mirage's village, they still posses magic items and fighting experience. The likes of weaker monsters such as goblins stood no chance to the guards when they worked together.

There was also an elven mage within this town, who was able to learn elven magic instead of using falna to manifest it. They were also treated as an honorary elder to the town, acting as one of the influential figures.

Since monsters couldn't pose a threat to the town, they simpt stood away from it. Knowing this, Dennis wasn't too worried about taking Mirage with him to forage for some herbs.

After making sure that he got everything necessary, Dennis lead Mirage to the southeastern border of the town. Just like the northeastern gate Mirage and his family used to enter the town, the southeastern gate was also made out of wooden fences and towers used to inform people.

Unlike the northeastern gate, this one had more guards present as there were monsters toward this directions. After greeting the guards in a familiar way and introducing Mirage, Dennis led the way outside the town.

As Dennis had told him to do, Mirage followed Dennis's steps as much as he could, and avoided plants that Dennis told him to avoid. After five minutes of walking, the two arrived in an area where the trees were more abundant and the grass was more lush and green.

"We are here. This is the best place to look for herbs around this part of the town. There aren't a lot of poisonous ones either, so no need to worry about making mistakes. It is a good place to learn how to identify herbs."

"Mr. Dennis, you didn't have to-"

"It's okay, you want to be of help to me right? The faster you can learn about stuff, the faster you can help me."

Seeing that Dennis had brought him here, a relatively safer place compared to some others, Mirage understood that Dennis wanted to teach him about the herbs instead of just making him do odd jobs.

As far as Mirage could remember, apprentices were treated more like cheap laborers to do work for lesser wages, but Dennis had genuinely wanted to teach him knowledge, making him rate Dennis highly in his heart.

Since he was given an opportunity to learn what he wished to, Mirage fully focused on listening to Dennis's explanations.

"This is an autumn dew flower. It blooms during fall, and gathers a dew inside its petals that have numbing effects. We will be gathering then during Fall to use them as an ingredient for pain-numbing paste. Do you remember?"

"Yes, autumn dew flower, ingredient for pain-numbing paste, gathered during fall."

"Good. Ah, lucky! This next one here is a mature sky droplet. It is a subspecies of a type of vine, but that's not important. You can find this plant year long, but they are actually really rare! In fact, this is my fifth time seeing one!"

"Mr. Dennis what is this plant used for?"

"Haha, just call me teacher instead of "Mr. Dennis.", okay? And this plant..."

Dennis continued to explain about herbs, as Mirage kept taking notes in his mind. Thanks to his skill, he could easily remember everything Dennis said. So, the time passed on as the Mirage kept learning about herbs under his new teacher.