Chapter One: Don’t Underestimate Weeds!
Chapter One: Don’t Underestimate Weeds!
“Add this and this and mix ’em all up...”
“Chirp?”
“Oh, hey, Rick.”
As I was cooking on the table in the barn, Rick climbed up on my shoulder and glanced down to observe. I wondered at first if he was interested in the cooking process until it occurred to me he might have just been drawn to the food. My hunch turned out to be correct—he scampered down my shoulder and began sniffing at the blue acorns and walnuts among the assortment of ingredients.
“I need those for cooking, Rick. Don’t eat them,” I cautioned.
“Chirp?” He looked at me questioningly.
I was currently testing out some recipes that I’d unlocked in the past few days upon obtaining new ingredients. First on the list was a recipe using the green peaches I’d just harvested. Since I had four of them, I could attempt the dish a few times.
“Guess I’ll start with this one first.”
I pulled up my status window and viewed my list of available recipes for Cooking. Recipes that I hadn’t tried out yet were listed as ????; if the box was also colored gray, that meant I lacked the ingredients to make them. White squares, on the other hand, indicated that I had all the necessary ingredients.
I selected a square that listed the following ingredients: honey, fruit, and water. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it was likely a recipe for the honey carrot juice that I got from Alyssa. Although that drink used carrots rather than peaches, I figured I’d be able to make something similar.
“Let’s give it a shot.”
I chopped up a peach and added it to my mortar along with some honey and purified water for good measure. After stirring everything together, I infused the mixture with magic, and within seconds, I had an item.
“Still wish I knew where these containers come from,” I muttered, eyeing the clear plastic cup that had suddenly appeared before me, filled with a translucent, pale-green liquid.
Wasn’t this a little too easy, though, even for Auto Mode? Not that I expected it to be all that complicated, seeing as it was just mixing ingredients together...
Name: Honey Peach Juice
Rarity: 2 / Quality: 3★
Effect: Recovers hunger status by 32%.
According to my Appraisal skill, the liquid in the cup was indeed juice.
“No surprise there.”
“Chirp?” Rick squeaked curiously.
“Come to think of it, this is your first time seeing me cook something, isn’t it?” I asked him.
“Chirp!”
Rick seemed fascinated by the cup that had suddenly appeared, and began sniffing at it. After a few whiffs, however, he turned up his nose.
“Oh. Do you not like juice, buddy?”
“Chirp.”
Apparently, Rick was not a fan. He curled up in a ball at the edge of the table, giving no indication of even wanting to taste it. He had seemed interested in the walnuts and blue acorns earlier, but he was a squirrel-type monster, after all. Perhaps he preferred nuts?
“Hmm, should probably test that out later.”
Right now, I needed to focus on improving my honey peach juice. Auto Mode allowed me to churn it out in no time flat, but the end quality was way too low for ingredients as valuable as I was using. If I was going to get the most out of them, I needed to raise the quality.
“This is where the fun starts.”
After experimenting with various methods, including different ways of chopping the ingredients and boiling water, I achieved the following result:
Name: Honey Peach Juice
Rarity: 2 / Quality: 5★
Effect: Recovers hunger status by 24%. Endurance +1 for 1 hour.
“No way. A buff?”
Although its hunger status recovery rate had dropped slightly, this new batch of juice came with a buff.
“Dang, that’s pretty dope.”
I’d never seen food items with a positive status effect before, so I hadn’t been expecting this. I mean, a tasty meal that comes with an Endurance buff? Talk about a win.
I almost forgot to mention this, but simply put, buffs refer to all status effects that benefit the user. This includes stat boosts and resistances to certain ailments. In contrast, effects that negatively affect your stats are called debuffs. The honey peach juice that I just created had a buff that boosted your stats.
“Never knew you could get buffs from food...!”
So...what was I waiting for? I had to try out the other recipes too! Who knew what kind of handy-dandy item I might create next?
“Let’s try making some food rations with blue acorns next.”
“Chirp!”
“You wanna help, bud? Awesome, thanks.”
Rick scooped up some blue acorns into his tiny paws and moved towards me. His interest seemed renewed now that I was making something using one of his favorite foods.
Mix some edible grass and blue acorns together, then grind it all into a paste. Easy as that. The mortar glowed once again as I infused it with magic, producing a fragrant bar of food rations in no time.
“Looks like that went well too. Let’s try it with walnuts next.”
Nothing complicated about this batch either; it was just more grinding and mixing. Although both food rations looked almost exactly the same, my Appraisal skill let me know that one was an acorn cookie and the other a walnut cookie. Their recovery rates were also slightly different; the walnut cookie restored your hunger status by an extra five percent. What mattered the most, however, was the taste. With gusto, I started right in on the juice and blue acorn cookie.
Munch munch...
“Whoa! This stuff is great!”
The acorn cookie tasted like the kind of energy bars I was used to eating in real life. Although it was pretty dry and less sweet, it was still a huge improvement on the food rations I’d been eating up until now. Beats me how I ever managed to eat those in the first place.
“How about this one?” I muttered, taking a bite out of the walnut cookie next.
“Hmm... Yep, it’s good. Might be slightly sweeter, in fact.”
The walnut cookie was sweeter and less dry than the acorn one. That was probably due to the fact that walnuts were a slightly rarer ingredient.
“This juice better not let me down.”
It turned out to be way tastier than I expected, and perfectly sweet. No complaints there. It was a wonder how I had survived on food rations and water all this time.
“I should stock up on cookies and juice from now on.”
This wasn’t going to be an easy task, though. Unlike food rations, which I could make five of in one go, I could only make one cookie at a time using multiple ingredients. Still, after finding out how good these were, there was no way I could go back to those dry and tasteless energy bars. Besides, it seemed like there was still plenty of room for improvement on these cookies.
“Maybe I’ll try adding honey next.”
Should I have removed the husks too? Actually, hadn’t I once heard someone mention that it’s best to soak acorns in water to get rid of the bitterness?
“Hmm, that sounds too time-consuming, though...”
I’ll just remove the husks and crush them for now, I decided. I concocted my next recipe by adding honey, edible grass, and some dehulled and crushed blue acorns to my mortar, then repeated the process I had used with the walnuts. From this, I managed to produce two unique recipes—user-created recipes that weren’t available on the usual recipe page and were listed separately.
“I’m getting pretty psyched here.”
I was determined to experiment more and create tons of original recipes. Users could name the recipes they created, though by default, my two new recipes were named Honey Acorn Cookie and Honey Walnut Cookie. Although their recovery rates were the same as their non-honey counterparts, the most important thing to me was how they tasted.
“My hunger status is currently at a hundred percent, but...”
To hell with that, I thought, taking a bite out of the honey acorn cookie.
“Oh man, this tastes incredible!”
The cookie was much sweeter this time and tasted utterly delicious. I was sure it would cost me a pretty penny if I were to buy it—that was how tasty it was.
“Chirp chirp!”
“Hm? Hey, Rick. Curious about this?”
“Chirp!”
Rick seemed interested in the honey walnut cookie on the table. Did he want to eat it?
“Okay. Go ahead.”
“Chirp!”
Naturally. I placed the cookie in front of Rick, who immediately latched onto it, holding it neatly with his front paws and nibbling it with his front teeth.
“How is it?”
“Chirp chirp!” Rick gave me a thumbs-up with his tiny paw. I guessed that was a yes from him. The only problem was that he was spilling crumbs everywhere. Seriously, this game had no business being this realistic.
“Great, the honey ones were a huge success. What else can I try?”
What other ingredients could I mix into juice or cookies? I pondered that as I perused my inventory. I had all sorts of items, but...
“I know. How about medicinal herbs?”
Who knows? It might give me an HP recovery boost. While I might be losing out on flavor, I could deal with that if it gave me an exceptional buff, although it was best if it tasted great and came with a positive status effect.
“Please don’t turn out like those awful spinach ones,” I begged. Just remembering the taste was enough to make me cringe. Not only had they been super bitter, but they tasted like dirt and made my mouth extremely dry. This time, though, I was adding nuts and honey to the mix. At worst, they ought to cancel each other out, and the result should wind up tasting like regular food rations. At least, I hoped that was the case!
As I was grinding the ingredients to a paste and praying for good results, I suddenly heard a small Poof! and black smoke rose from my mortar.
“Yikes! I-It exploded!”
It looked like my experiment had resulted in failure. I was left with a black, coal-like substance, which, according to my assessment, was nothing but trash. Ouch. That was harsh.
“Are my Cooking skills that bad?”
It was either that, or the system didn’t allow this particular combination of ingredients. After all, I couldn’t have messed up any steps in such a simple process. It wasn’t as if I had an endless supply of nuts, and I didn’t think I could handle any more failures, so instead of combining them with unrelated ingredients, I decided to try adding both walnuts and acorns together—mixed nuts, if you will. I appeared to be on the right track here. My experiment was a success, producing the following cookie:
Name: Honey Nut Cookie
Rarity: 2 / Quality: 3★
Effect: Recovers hunger status by 27%. Prevents hunger status from dropping for 1 hour.
Not only did it recover my hunger status, but it prevented it from dropping for one hour to boot. This would make it much easier to manage my hunger. My Cooking skills were already an effective deterrent against hunger, but still, it would help. Let’s see, what else could I use? I was hesitant to use herbs, but I didn’t have any other nuts on hand.
Wait a minute. I did have one other ingredient.
“I can use wild strawberries, can’t I?”
Wild strawberries were a type of herb that I’d been asked to grow by the florist NPC. Since they didn’t have a specified delivery date, I could spare a few for cooking as long as I left some for propagating later. Having made up my mind, I added a few to my Honey Nut Cookie mixture.
Name: Honey Nut Cookie with Herbs
Rarity: 2 / Quality: 3★
Effect: Recovers hunger status by 27%. Prevents hunger status from dropping for 1 hour.
Aside from its name, everything else was the same. How about the taste, though?
“It looks pretty much the same as the acorn cookie.”
Upon eating it, however, the difference was apparent. A hint of acidity cut through the sweet cookie, giving it a refreshing taste. The sweetness of the honey and the sourness of the strawberries complemented each other perfectly, just how I liked it. I made a mental note to grow more wild strawberries from now on. While I’d thought plain blue acorn cookies were pretty decent, now that I’d tasted this, there was no going back. Even if it meant using up more ingredients, it was worth it for the taste. Man, I sure am acquiring an expensive palate, I fretted as I munched on the honey nut cookie with herbs and drank my honey peach juice.
“This is the life,” I sighed. I’d be hard-pressed to eat something this posh-tasting in real life, as juice and cookies of this quality would likely cost a pretty penny if I were to buy them. Besides, eating in-game didn’t affect your actual weight, no matter how much you ate. I could see why cooking enthusiasts wanted to recreate real-life recipes in LJO.
“Hey, maybe Olto would like some too. It is pretty tasty.”
I called Sakura and Olto over and offered them some juice.
“Mm-mm!” Olto exclaimed delightedly. Clearly, he had a sweet tooth. As usual, he placed a hand on his hip and downed the juice in one gulp, like someone fresh out of a bath drinking coffee milk.
“Mm-mm-mm-mmm!”
Just like before, Olto got a fresh case of the zoomies, bursting out of the barn and resuming farming at breakneck speed. It was probably best to give him juice as often as possible to boost his productivity.
“How about you, Sakura?” I asked, trying to offer her some juice as well. However, she made no move to accept it.
“...?”
Since she possessed Photosynthesis, she appeared to not require food. While that was useful, it also meant that she wouldn’t get bursts of energy from food like Olto did. How about Rick, then? I wasn’t sure if he actually drank juice, though.
“Chirp? Chirp chirp!”
Guess not. It looked like different species had different tastes and foods they could or couldn’t eat, and giving them something they liked resulted in a motivation boost.
“In that case, I better grow more fruits. I’ll need them to feed my tamed monsters.”
Seeing as I expected to acquire more monsters down the road, I had to make sure there was enough food for them as well. With that in mind, I handed some green peaches, walnuts, and blue acorns to Olto to propagate.
The following day was another productive day of harvesting and crafting, my yields about as decent as usual.
“The peach tree’s blooming already? Wow.”
My green peach tree currently sported five buds. At this rate, I could probably expect another harvest tomorrow. Once every two days was a pretty good pace if you asked me.
Unlike the green peach tree, which had grown steadily and already borne fruit, the Lakeside Sequoia had shown no signs of growing ever since it had produced Sakura. Judging by its sporadic growth spurts, things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed. Still, it had seemingly grown overnight in the past, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it suddenly became enormous; there was no telling what would happen.
“Man, I sure have a lot of saplings now.”
This farm could very well turn into an orchard in the near future. In fact, all of my companions possessed skills suited for that purpose: Olto and Sakura had Arboriculture, while Rick was capable of harvesting nuts and Pruning, which was a skill that improved the quality of the trees in your care. I really was going to end up with an orchard at this rate. Regardless, I had no intention of pursuing only farming —I was keen on going on field expeditions too.
“If I want to do that, I’ll have to complete more quests and raise my level.”
I decided to go report on the quests I had already fulfilled the requirements for. After delivering my daily batch of potions to Alyssa’s stall, I headed to my real destination with my tamed monsters in tow: the florist I had received the wild strawberry seeds from.
“Hi there,” I called out.
“Hey! Fancy seeing you again, boy!” The old man greeted me gruffly, sounding more like a greengrocer or fishmonger than a florist.
“I brought the wild strawberries you asked for.”
“Excellent! You grew them! Thank you! Here’s your reward.”
Delivery Quest
Requirement: Grow and deliver ten wild strawberries.
Rewards: 200 G, mint seeds.
Time Limit: None
I received 200 G and two types of mint seeds from the old man—five blue mint seeds and five red. Do they smell or taste different from each other? I wondered. I looked forward to finding out.
“I appreciate your help, son. The name’s Spade. Pleased to meet ya.”
Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t introduced myself yet.
“Hi, I’m Yuto,” I told him, shaking his hand.
“Well, Yuto, you seem trustworthy, so I’d like to ask you a favor. Mind hearing me out?”
“What is it?” I asked, taken aback by the abrupt request. All I had done was grow some weeds.
“Thing is, my brother runs a stall, and he’s been having a bit of trouble stocking up on items. I’d appreciate it if you could give him a hand.”
“I’d like to, but I’m not very good at fighting.”
“Doesn’t matter. Just hear him out, will ya?”
Hmm, was this some kind of quest chain? It seemed like the wild strawberry quest had triggered another request. Oh well, I supposed it wouldn’t hurt to hear what his brother had to say. I could always say no if I couldn’t handle it.
“All right. I’ll pay him a visit.”
“Excellent! My brother’s stall is in the North District!”
At the sound of Spade’s voice, a red dot appeared on the map, marking my destination.
“See you around.”
“See ya! Say hi to my little bro for me!” Spade waved me off with a grin. Next stop: Spade’s brother’s stall in the North District.
“Mm-mm.”
“...♪”
Olto and Sakura walked behind me amicably. At first glance, Sakura looked like she could be Olto’s big sis, but in fact Olto was showing her around as her senior, pointing out familiar places and explaining them to her.
“Mm.”
“...♪”
“Mm-mm.”
“...!”
While I hadn’t a clue what they were talking about, I couldn’t help but smile at their exchange. After walking for a while, we arrived at our destination, where there was indeed a stall.
“That’s it, right?”
I was pretty sure I had passed through this area during my mapping quest, but I didn’t recall seeing any shops back then. Perhaps it had only become visible now that I’d accepted this particular mission.
“Hello?” I called out tentatively.
“Greetings, young fella. What can I do for ye?”
The old man who greeted me wore a stern expression exactly like that of the florist, although he seemed slightly shorter and broader.
“Spade, the florist, mentioned you to me. He said that you were having a bit of trouble.”
“Ah. Are ye one of those otherworldly travelers?”
“I am. My name’s Yuto.”
“Mm.”
“...”
“Chirp!”
“And these are my tamed monsters,” I added.
“Ha ha ha ha! Y’all are adorable little munchkins! Welcome!” Spade’s brother guffawed as my three companions bowed and greeted him like obedient children.
“I’m not sure if I can accept your request yet, but could you let me know what’s going on?”
“Sure thing. The name’s Ryver. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”
“As ye can see, I mainly deal with herbs and spices, but...”
As he said, the stall sold a variety of colorful herbs and spices such as salt, pepper, red mint, and basilil. Just looking around at them was fascinating. Out of all the condiments, my eyes were drawn to some dried herbs sold in small individual packets.
“They must be herbal teas!”
The leaves I spotted weren’t any old dried herbs, but tisanes. There were several types available:
Name: Herbal Tea Leaves (Chamomilé)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 8★
Effect: None. Edible.
Name: Herbal Tea Leaves (Lahvender)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 8★
Effect: None. Edible.
Can I make these myself? I wondered, ecstatic about what I’d found. At present, the only drinks I had were water and juice; I had been hoping for some tea too. While some people weren’t fond of herbal teas, I actually liked them. I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to drink tea in-game.
“Curious?” Ryver chuckled dryly as I picked up one of the packets in spite of myself. Yikes, I’d interrupted him!
“S-Sorry.”
“Ha ha, it’s fine. Means you’re interested in my products, right?”
Thank goodness he was a nice person.
“Sorry, you were saying...?”
“Thing is, my herb supplier is closed for the time being, and I haven’t been able to get my hands on new herbs. I’d like ye to grow a few for me.”
“Will I be getting seeds?”
“Of course.”
In that case, growing them wouldn’t be too difficult. However, I was reluctant to grow hundreds of herbs on a regular basis, not to mention they would take up a lot of space on my farm. Thankfully, it turned out to be a onetime deal.
“I’ve already found a new supplier—it’s just that it’ll take them ten days to harvest and deliver the goods. As long as I get my delivery for this week, I’ll be fine.”
Delivery Quest
Requirement: Grow and deliver eight sprigs each of blue sage and red sage.
Rewards: 300 G, lahvender seeds.
Time Limit: Four days
As always, the reward was extremely low. If this was a quest chain, however, it was possible that I’d get something good by the end of it. I didn’t want to turn down a request from an NPC, and besides, I had an idea. The NPCs in this game apparently operated on a highly advanced AI system and were fairly flexible. In that case, I figured, perhaps I could negotiate with them.
“Do you sell herb seeds? If not herbs, flowers will do too.”
“Ye want seeds?”
“Yes. I’m interested in herbs.”
“That’s a pretty rare request for an otherworldly traveler. If ye deliver those herbs to me, I’ll consider it.”
“Really?”
“Sure thing. It’s not as if these are rare items anyway.”
Ryver showed me the herb and flower seeds he currently had in stock, which were oregarno, muggywort, hydrangeas, and cosmos. Good thing I’d asked. Or perhaps it was my high favorability score that was getting me results. After all, I had fulfilled his brother’s request. Since Ryver had promised to throw these seeds in as an additional reward, I had no reason to say no to him.
“I’ll do it.”
“Ye will?! Thanks, much appreciated.”
That was how I received ten blue sage and red sage seeds each. I also bought some herbal tea to try since I was curious about its taste. On the way home, I mulled over the remaining space on my farm. I didn’t have much space left to plant the seeds I’d been asked to grow. I’d need a bigger patch to grow more herbs if I planned on making tisanes as well.
“Guess I’ll buy a new farm.”
Herbs were considered weeds, which meant they’d still have a relatively high rating even if I didn’t put in much effort. Since I didn’t have to worry about the soil grade, the cheapest 2,000 G option ought to suffice. Might as well buy more land, I figured, otherwise I wouldn’t have enough space for growing plants for experimenting.
Having made my decision, I headed to the Farming Guild and purchased two additional plots of land. The process went off without a hitch, as I had gone through it countless times already. As soon as I returned to our farm, Olto and I began sowing the herb seeds I’d just acquired.
“Mm-mm, mm-mm.”
“I’m gonna water them now. Ready?”
“Mm!”
I waited for Olto to form some mounds and drop the seeds into them, and then I watered the plots. Instantly, the seeds began sprouting thanks to Olto’s Forced Cultivation EX skill.
“No matter how many times I see this, it never gets old.”
At this rate, I could most likely harvest and deliver them tomorrow.
“Let’s have some fun experimenting next.”
Since Olto and Sakura still had some work left to do, I decided to do a bit of crafting while I waited.
“Wanna help me, Rick?” I asked.
“Chirp!” he replied.
“I now appoint you my assistant.”
“Chirp chirp!”
Rick saluted me in reply. I gave him a pat on the head before checking my inventory.
“Let’s see, what weeds do I have?”
At the moment, I had basilil, chamomilé, wild strawberries, and tulips. Since it didn’t take much effort to mass-produce basilil and chamomilé, I figured I could reserve half of the harvest for experimentation. These experiments were for more than just pure curiosity, though. Despite weeds not having any special effects, be it on their own or as processed goods, they tasted and smelled excellent. For the sake of my taste buds and enjoyment, further research was crucial. If I succeeded at making herbal tea leaves, I’d be able to drink affordable and delicious tea anytime, anywhere. This definitely called for more experimenting!
Truthfully, I really wanted to drink coffee in-game, but unfortunately, I hadn’t heard any rumors of its discovery yet. If only I had a coffee plant, I could grow it myself—making my own coffee with the beans I harvested sounded lovely. For now, though, it still seemed like a distant dream.
“Let’s see, how do you make herbal tea leaves...?”
Despite any impressions I might have given to the contrary, I was in fact an avid herbal tea drinker. Besides herbal teas, I enjoyed coffee and black tea as well. While I’d never attempted to make them from scratch, I was well acquainted with how they looked and felt.
“Going by common sense, you just have to dry them, right?”
Should I try drying them with Alchemy? After all, I’d failed miserably when I tried to dry medicinal herbs in the sun. I felt like that was how you usually made tea leaves, though...
“Hang on a second.”
I recalled the time I had fresh herbal tea when I went all the way to Daikanyama to meet one of our clients, a nasty sales manager. We’d gone to a fancy little café that I’d most likely never have visited on my own, where they poured hot water over freshly picked herbs. I remembered it clearly, as I had been completely blown away by how good it tasted.
“Guess I’ll try that first.”
I boiled some water in my pot before adding a sprig of chamomilé. If I remembered correctly, the staff at the cafe added the herbs to a glass pot filled with hot water and left them to steep for a while. Recalling the steps to making the fresh herbal tea I had before, I turned off the heat and waited for a while. Within minutes, the water gradually turned green.
“Chirp?” Rick peered into the pot, fascinated by its contents.
“Don’t touch it, it’s hot.”
“Chirp.”
“Did it work, though?”
Name: Weed Water
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 2★
Effect: None. Edible.
Nope. Sadly, I’d failed at making herbal tea. Judging by its name, it didn’t sound particularly appetizing either, but...
“Wonder what it tastes like?”
“Chirp?”
Rick stared at me with a bewildered expression on his face, as if to say, Ew, you’re actually drinking that? Ignoring his appalled look, I took a swig of the sickly green water.
“Bleugh!” I sputtered.
“Chiiirp!”
Yikes! The weed water I spat out hit Rick right in the face. He covered his eyes with his small front paws, rolling about on the table until he rolled right off it, having gained too much momentum.
“You okay, Rick?!”
“Chirp!”
Clearly, he wasn’t, as he continued to roll around on the barn floor. I whipped out a glass of water from my inventory and splashed Rick’s face with it, determined to wash him clean.
“Chirp chirp!”
“Riiick!”
After repeating the process a few times and drenching Rick’s entire body, he finally seemed to calm down.
“You okay now?”
“Chirp...”
Perhaps “calm” was not the right word. My poor, soaked squirrel appeared to be sulking.
“Sorry,” I apologized. Come on, don’t look at me like that.
“Chirp chirp!”
“Pfft!”
The little rascal! He shook his whole body dry and sprayed me, right in the face! As a result, my face was covered with droplets of water.
“Rick...”
“Chirp.”
He looked the other way and pretended to whistle, as though this had been a complete accident. I grumbled inwardly, but I supposed it was my fault this had happened in the first place.
“C’mere, you.”
“Chirp!”
I let him off the hook, settling for simply ruffling his fur. Let’s see how you like that! But first things first, I had to figure out what to do with the weed water.
“What should we do with this abominable concoction...?”
“Chirp...”
The taste was truly horrendous—absolutely disgusting. It was like someone took all the grassiness and bitterness from the chamomilé and distilled that. It was just as bad as those gag-worthy spinach-flavored rations. I repeated the experiment, this time with basilil, only to end up with the same result. All I managed to produce was a greenish, foul-tasting water. It looked like making fresh herbal tea wasn’t an option.
“Chirp...”
Seeing Rick keeping his distance from the weed water, I wondered if I couldn’t use it as a weapon instead. Perhaps I could deal some serious damage to a large monster if I threw it into their mouth?
“Or it might just go berserk and trample me to death.”
I decided to stash it away in my inventory, just in case.
“Guess I’ll give up on making fresh herbal tea and stick to dried tea leaves.”
This too was a straightforward process. All I had to do was apply Drying, an Alchemy art, to the herbs.
“Dry!”
The instant I used the art, the herbs I had placed in front of me began to dry up, and I was left with a shriveled-up husk of them in no time. They looked exactly like the tisanes I’d bought from Ryver’s herb shop.
Name: Herbal Tea Leaves (Chamomilé)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 4★
Effect: None. Edible.
“All right, it worked.”
“Chirp!”
Now I knew that if I wanted to make herbal tea, I just had to dry some herbs. The only downside was that the quality was pretty low.
“Let’s compare it with the tea I bought.”
I made both teas the exact same way using water from the well, curious to see how much they would differ...
Name: Herbal Tea (Chamomilé)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 3★
Effect: None. Edible.
Name: Herbal Tea (Chamomilé)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 7★
Effect: None. Edible.
Time for a taste test. I decided to try the tea made with the leaves I had dried first.
“...Mm, tastes good,” I commented after a sip. It tasted just like the herbal teas I was used to drinking. Next up was the store-bought tea. I took a slurp of it.
“Hm?”
It tastes a bit different...I think? The seven-star tea did seem a bit more fragrant, but I wasn’t too sure. To be honest, I could hardly tell the difference.
“Want some, Rick?”
“Chirp.”
Rick stuck his nose into the teacup on the table and began drinking. Seeing a squirrel drink tea from a teacup seemed like something out of a fairy tale, and I couldn’t resist taking a screenshot. After comparing the two herbal teas, Rick crossed his arms and appeared to ponder his options.
“Chirp... Chirp chirp!” he squeaked after some thought, pointing at the herbal tea with the seven-star rating. Just how poor were my taste buds, anyway?
“Wait, you can drink herbal teas, Rick? Even though you can’t drink juice?”
“Chirp.”
It looked like he was fine with herbal teas. Given that they didn’t have any effects, it probably wasn’t that different from drinking water. Whatever. Seeing as I couldn’t really tell the difference, this meant I didn’t have to care about the quality of my herbs! Talk about a silver lining.
“...Well, that’s about it for herbal teas.”
The next thing I wanted to try making was the potpourri I had seen at the florist. Come to think of it, though, how did one go about making potpourri? In the end, all I managed to do was waste my tulips; the only thing I had to show for my efforts was my dried wild strawberries.
Name: Dried Herbs (Wild Strawberries)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 3★
Effect: None. Edible.
The wild strawberries had transformed into dried herbs instead of herbal tea. I figured I would have a taste, seeing as they were edible.
“How about you, Rick?” I asked, offering him a strawberry.
“Chirp!” Rick thrust out his paws in a clear No! He didn’t seem to be a fan of wild strawberries. Weird, considering how he was fine with herbal tea... Puzzled, I popped a dried wild strawberry into my mouth. Hmm, I could only taste the faintest hint of sweetness. However, the scent wasn’t bad; it was sweet and acidic, like a blend of strawberries and citrus. Like Spade said, it would probably taste great in herbal teas or cookies, and seemed highly versatile.
“This is worth experimenting with.”
“Mm-mm!” Olto greeted me as he entered the barn, followed by Sakura.
“Oh, are you two all done?”
“Mm!”
“...!”
The two of them nodded, beaming, apparently having finished their work on the farm. Just in time too; I was also done with experimenting for the time being.
“All right! Time to go exploring!”
Now that I had Rick and Sakura and was more capable of fighting, I wanted to get some mulch and water pumice from the Western Forest.
“You guys ready for an adventure?!”
“Mm!”
“...!”
“Chirp chirp!”
I pumped my right fist in the air excitedly, and my companions followed suit. Gosh, these guys are the best!
Sakura and Olto engaged in friendly conversation on the way to the Western Gate, trailing a few steps behind me.
“Mmm.”
“...”
From the way they toddled after me, you’d think they were brother and sister. Rick, meanwhile, was curled around my neck like some sort of fur scarf. Although it was a tad too warm to be wearing one, he was just so soft and fluffy, and I loved the feeling of his tail swishing across my skin. I could have stayed this way forever.
On the way to our destination, however, we were met with blatant stares from other players. I thought it might just be my imagination, but some of them were pointing at me too.
“He...on the first day...”
“Silver-Haired’s a Tamer...”
“Multiple titles? Seriously...?”
“Omigosh, a gnome! *wheeze*”
I strained my ears to listen in on their conversations. Sure enough, they were talking about me. So the rumors hadn’t subsided yet... Well, it was only the tenth day in-game. If, as the Japanese proverb said, it really did take seventy-five days to quell a rumor, I still had sixty-five more days of this to endure.
“Let’s pick up the pace, guys,” I urged. I figured there’d probably be fewer prying stares once we were in the forest.
As I suspected, the forest was almost devoid of other players. Those who had been leveling up and making good progress in the game had long moved on to the next town, while those who remained behind were mainly concentrated in the northern and southern areas, which were more advanced. Therefore, the Western Forest was fairly sparsely populated at this point. There were probably a few players around, but the odds that I would cross paths with any of them in such a wide space were slim.
“Phew, looks like the coast is clear.”
“Mm.”
This was where our adventure really started. It was time to head to the stream, which I’d only visited once on the first day.
“We’re gonna try to gather as much stuff as we can on the way to the river. Rick, I’ll leave the nut collecting to you.”
“Chirp chirp!”
From his place on my shoulder, Rick raised his arm in a cute salute, then scampered off into the woods, most likely off to forage some nuts. The four of us headed deeper into the forest, stopping to collect medicinal herbs and nuts on the way.
“Wait, I know this sound...” I gasped. Halfway along our route, I heard a rustling in the grove behind us. I turned around to see three Fanged Rats just poking their heads out of the trees.
“Everyone, get ready to fight!”
Up until a few days ago, I would have died the moment I encountered these creatures, but not anymore!
“Olto, Sakura, you two tank! Rick, attack the enemy!”
“Mm-mm!”
“...!”
“Chirp!”
Of course, I wasn’t going to let everyone else do all the work. I chanted the incantation for my newly acquired Aqua Ball and unleashed my magical attack. Now that I had a proper party, fighting was much easier. Our attacks struck easily while Olto focused on creating a diversion. Thanks to him, we managed to win the battle with very little damage to our side. Even Olto, who had taken the most blows, suffered only minor injuries, as he had been concentrating all his efforts on defending. He didn’t even need a healing item.
“Well done, team!” I crowed. Since I had stocked up on medicine and potions, as long as I didn’t die instantly, risking a respawn was unlikely. Losing any more battles seemed out of the question, at least for now.
“Heh heh heh, I’m no longer the man I once was,” I said, chuckling.
“Mm-mm.”
“...♪”
“Chirp.”
Regardless, Sakura still did most of the heavy lifting, as Olto was only capable of tanking and Rick guerrilla warfare. Meanwhile, Aqua Ball was my only form of attack. Truth be told, Sakura was carrying this party on her back as our tank and main attacker. We would’ve been doomed without her.
“Hmm, we gotta balance out our team more.”
Ideally, I wanted Sakura to focus on detaining the enemy with her whip skills and status ailment inflictions. However, given that Rick could only deal so much damage in one blow and I was incapable of consecutive magic attacks, it’d take too much time to defeat our opponent if it was just the two of us. What we needed was a frontline damage-dealer—a close-range combatant.
“If we’re talking close-range melee monsters in this area, it’d have to be them.”
By “them,” I meant Wild Dogs, those blasted creatures who had taken my (respawning) virginity. Aside from tree nymphs, which were considered rare, there were six types of monsters available in the Town of Beginning’s neighboring areas: Fanged Rats, Gray Squirrels, Snakes, Rock Ants, Rabbits, and Wild Dogs. Out of those six, Wild Dogs appeared to be the only suitable choice for the role. It was either tame one of those, or buy a monster from the guild.
“Well, guess I could try taming them if I run into a lone dog or two.”
If there were more than two of them, I’d have to abandon ship, since there was no way I could be sure that I wouldn’t kill them.
“Here, Wild Doggy. Come out, come out, wherever you are. Just not more than one at a time, please...”
However, it seemed that the greater your desire for an encounter, the less likely you were to find one. In the end, we didn’t run into any Wild Dogs until we finished searching along the river, when suddenly we encountered a pack of four.
“Crap! Get ready, guys! Shit’s about to get real!”
This was no time to be conserving my MP. I unleashed Aqua Ball after Aqua Ball while Sakura and Rick attacked the Wild Dogs, sustaining damage all the while. With our combined efforts, we somehow managed to defeat the pack. Even Olto, whose HP plummeted to the red zone during the fight, held up as a meat shield until the end. Once the battle was over, I gave everyone medicine for the first time that day.
“Dang, I’m totally out of MP.”
Even if I did run into another dog, I no longer had enough MP to tame it. I probably still had a few shots in me, but it’d likely take a lot more tries than that to successfully tame a monster.
“Oh well, it is what it is. Let’s go home for today. Besides, it’s not like we’re returning empty-handed.”
“Mm-mm.”
“Chirp.”
“...!”
Online Forum [Farming Rocks!] A Farming Thread for Farmers by Farmers
This is a thread where people who own farms in LJO can exchange information.
From topics concerning large-scale farms to small home gardens, all questions are welcome here.
Please make it clear if your post contains unverified information.
While we’re grateful for actual farming tips, we’re not sure how practical they’ll be in the game.
98: Charm
So we don’t know what kind of changes will be made to Selective Breeding yet.
99: Tsugarun
Well, they did say they were implementing the changes to make farming more popular, so it probably won’t affect its usability negatively. After all, there are only thirty full-time Farmers at the moment.
Even if you include those with Farming skills, there are still less than a hundred players. There are farms begging to be bought in every town.
100: Thomas
True, Selective Breeding’s hella hard to use. Can’t wait for the update.
101: Tagosack
I saw the orchard in the Town of Beginnings that everyone’s been talking about.
It really did have green peaches, as well as walnuts and blue acorns and some kind of weird tree I didn’t recognize.
102: Charm
How was it? That orchard belongs to a player, right? I wonder how they’re growing those trees—I’d love to grow some fruits too. Plus, I’d like to know what that mysterious tree is.
103: Tsugarun
You can grow trees from saplings as long as you have Arboriculture. Arboriculture’s a higher level skill derived from Farming, though. I could obtain it if only my Farming skill was like, thirteen levels higher.
104: Terrill
I checked out the orchard too. I didn’t see any players, but I did see a young boy plowing the fields like the reports mentioned. Who is that boy? An NPC?
105: Tsugarun
If he is, that opens up a lot more possibilities. If players can hire NPCs that have skills they don’t possess, like Arboriculture or Hydroponics, we can cultivate a wider range of crops.
I bet that old geezer who looks after the fields in one of the Zone Three towns has an EX skill. He just strikes me as the type.
Does this mean I can start up an apple orchard anytime as long as I have an apple sapling?
106: Tagosack
Don’t think he’s an NPC since his marker was blue.
From what I could gather, he’s probably a tamed monster—a gnome, I think.
According to the Tamer megathread, Silver-Haired’s first monster was a gnome.
107: Thomas
A gnome, huh? Come to think of it, one of my friends started up a farm with their gnome during beta. I don’t recall gnomes having Arboriculture in their initial skill set, though.
108: Charm
Maybe Silver-Haired kept grinding until it learned that skill?
109: Thomas
I doubt it. My friend’s gnome was over level 20 at the time, and it still hadn’t obtained Arboriculture.
No matter how much of a head start you get, it’s unlikely that a monster who’s been farming for only half a day would level up that fast in the official version.
110: Tsugarun
Might be a new skill that was added at the start of the launch.
111: Terrill
It’s possible.
112: Tagosack
It might not be, though, right?
It could be that he hired an NPC with an Arboriculture skill, and I simply didn’t notice when I passed by.
113: Thomas
Another thing: for some reason, Silver-Haired had a crap ton of weeds on his farm. What for?
114: Tsugarun
For leveling up his Farming skill, I guess? Maybe he didn’t have enough medicinal herbs, so he made do with planting weeds instead.
Weeds are a pain in the ass, aren’t they? Leave them for a few days, and they grow back with a vengeance.
115: Tagosack
That might be so, but... Would someone with a farm of that size really do something so pointless?
He must have some kind of reason, although I have no idea what.
Can’t we ask Silver-Haired himself?
116: Charm
Who’s Silver-Haired, by the way?
117: Terrill
No way, don’t tell me you DON’T know.
He’s one of the three unique titleholders, aka the legendary player who achieved three respawns right off the bat LMAO
He’s a silver-haired Tamer and widely known for having a gnome as his first monster.
118: Charm
The dude really has no privacy, huh lol
Aren’t the devs of this game pretty strict about that sort of stuff, though?
119: Tsugarun
These aren’t details that someone searched for trying to drag him out into the open, but info that got leaked through various channels bit by bit. The devs have no control over it. I doubt they’ll actively try to put a stop to it unless Silver-Haired files a complaint.
Anyway, ever since those players who were harassing him got banned from the game, very few people have tried to ridicule him face-to-face. Besides, most players seem to have a favorable opinion about him these days since people with a different play style tend to stand out and attract a certain amount of followers.
120: Tagosack
Regardless, I’ll have to be careful when approaching Silver-Haired. Who knows, someone might make another GM call. I’d rather die than make the same mistake as those losers.
121: Charm
I’d kill for some info, though. Good luck!
122: Tsugarun
Good luck!
123: Terrill
Don’t actually get reported, though, okay?
124: Thomas
And make sure to bring back some news!
125: Tagosack
I’ll think of something. Y’all could help me out a bit...
The day after we fought the Wild Dogs and narrowly escaped death, I started my morning by concentrating my efforts on farming and crafting.
I spent another busy morning perfecting my honey carrot juice and asking Olto to propagate the green peaches I harvested. Things were only going to get harder from here, though—today was the day I would tame a Wild Dog. Depending on my luck, I might very well have to fight another pack like the day before.
“Meds, ready. Cooking, done.”
What I really wanted was mana potions, but unfortunately, those weren’t available in the Town of Beginnings. My only option was to conserve my MP while fighting, although that meant drawing out the battle and sustaining more damage. In order to make up for that, I needed plenty of recovery items. Thankfully, in my case, I was able to make them myself, so I didn’t have to spend as much money as other players. While ideally I would be making my own mana potions, I had been unsuccessful in obtaining the ingredients for them so far.
“Never even seen anyone selling mana plants.”
I probably wouldn’t be able to get my hands on any until Zone Three, and anyone who did obtain mana plants was likely to use them for themselves rather than sell them in the Town of Beginnings. Oh well, such is life. I just had to be careful when fighting.
“Watch out, Wild Dog, I’m comin’ for ya!”
Yesterday’s fight with the pack of four had made me realize just how crucial it was to acquire a frontline attacker. Considering my current level, I wanted to tame one and level it up as soon as possible, meaning I had to tame a Wild Dog by the end of the day no matter what.
“But first, the Farming Guild.”
I hadn’t intended on accepting any quests today as I had more pressing matters to attend to, but it seemed like going to the guild wasn’t something I could avoid. As it happened, someone appeared to have bought a plot of land almost adjacent to mine. While I had no idea who this person was, they were currently occupying about three slots with some medicinal herbs and unfamiliar weeds, and the sight had made me uneasy.
At the moment, there were still roughly ten spaces between our farms, but what would happen if someone bought a farm right next to yours? Generally speaking, you wouldn’t be able to expand your farm any further. Even if I wanted to, I’d have to buy land from another location, away from my current farm. I wasn’t very keen on that idea, not to mention it sounded inconvenient.
Given that this was still the first town, I wasn’t about to build a megafarm or anything; however, I did want to expand it a bit further, as I intended to make this place my home base for the time being. Therefore, I wanted to know if it was possible to reserve plots of land.
“Welcome,” the receptionist at the Farming Guild greeted me.
“Hi. I wanted to ask you a few questions regarding farms...”
After questioning the old man for a while, I found out that plots of land couldn’t be reserved or paid for in installments. What do I do now? I fretted. I currently had around 28,000 G, which was enough to buy four 6,000 G-grade plots of land, but...
At the moment, I was making about 7,000 to 9,000 G a day by selling regular and various status ailment potions to Alyssa. While this was nothing compared to what top players made by selling the items they got from slaying monsters on the frontlines, it was more than enough to get by in the Town of Beginnings. By expanding my farm, I’d be able to earn even more money and easily recover initial costs. This was all thanks to Olto’s hard work at growing high-quality crops. Still, 24,000 G was a lot of money...
In the end, I decided to purchase four 2,000 G plots of land. I could always level up the soil grade later; for now, I could use them for growing weeds. The important thing was that I secured additional space for farming.
On the way home, I stopped by Ryver’s stall to deliver the blue and red sage as promised. Thanks to Olto, I had managed to harvest them in one day, although apparently weeds only took two days to grow even without any special effort.
“Thank you! That’s enough to last me a while!” Ryver thanked me profusely as he accepted the herbs from me. “Here’s your reward.”
“Thanks. Um...” I hesitated.
“Hm? What’s the matter, sonny?”
“N-Nothing. Don’t mind me.”
Although I got my reward, the quest chain seemed to have ended. Too bad. It might have been a tutorial-type quest for players who obtained Plant Knowledge. Still, I had managed to buy oregarno, muggywort, cosmos, and hydrangea seeds, so I decided to be content with that.
“Might as well sow these seeds before I head into the forest.”
I handed them to Olto, who took care of them in a matter of minutes. They would likely be ready for harvest tomorrow.
“Let’s go tame some Wild Dogs!” I exclaimed. With all of my tasks completed, it was time to head into battle. Or so I thought...
“Mm-mm-mm!”
“What’s up, Olto?”
“Mm.”
My plans were thwarted by Olto, who clung to my right leg tightly, immobilizing me. All the while, he kept on pointing at the barn.
“What about it?”
“Mm-mm!”
“All right, all right. Quit tugging.”
Olto tugged at my robe, trying to drag me to the barn. Thankfully this was just a game, or the fabric would have been stretched out otherwise.
“Mm-mm!”
He seemed extremely anxious; this appeared to be no trivial matter. I could think of only one thing that could possibly be so important as we hurried to the barn.
“Could it be? Is it what I think it is?”
I flung open the door to the barn, chest pounding in anticipation. There, I discovered that my hunch was correct.
“...I knew it!”
“Mmm!”
I was greeted by the sight of a cracked egg, the one that I’d purchased from the Magical Beasts Guild not too long ago. I had placed it in an incubator inside the barn, and it seemed like it was finally about to hatch. Cracks were beginning to form around the yellow egg in the incubator, as though it were about to be sliced into rounds. The crack already ran halfway around the egg—it looked just about ready to burst. The egg had been perfectly fine this morning, which meant that it had progressed to this stage within the four hours or so that I’d harvested my crops, concocted a few items, and gone to buy more land.
“It’s about to hatch, isn’t it?”
“Mm.”
“...♪”
“Chirp!”
Rick and Sakura had also joined us, and were staring at the egg with a look of wonder and anticipation. They seemed to understand that our little family was about to grow. Change of plans—I decided to stay here for a while and watch over the egg instead. I figured it’d be a shame if I wasn’t here to witness its birth.
“I know animals like birds tend to imprint after they’re born, but what about tamed monsters?”
“Mm?”
“Do you do that too?”
“...?”
“Chirp?”
My companions cocked their heads to one side and looked at me questioningly. As adorable as that was, unfortunately they didn’t seem to know anything on the subject.
“Which one is it gonna be?”
Since this egg was a cross between a Little Bear and a Honey Bee, the resulting offspring would most likely be either one of them, at least under normal circumstances.
“Whichever it is, it’ll likely be a welcome addition to our party.”
A Little Bear would be great as a heavy-hitting frontline attacker, while a Honey Bee would make a good turbo guerrilla attacker. Either one would make up for our lack of combat power.
“Can’t wait for it to hatch.”
“Mm.”
Depending on what I got, I wouldn’t have to bother taming a Wild Dog anymore. I was determined to wait it out. My three companions were just as captivated, pressed up against the incubator.
“Guess I’ll experiment a bit in the meantime.”
I sat on a chair and took out the various types of herbal teas that I’d been experimenting with since yesterday, as it had struck me that I could try mixing several tea leaves together like the ones sold in real life. At the moment, I had chamomilé, red mint, blue mint, basilil, and wild strawberries; red and blue sage were a no go, as I only had enough left for propagating after delivering the rest. I used my Alchemy skills to dry these herbs, then mixed them together and began trying each tea blend one by one.
Since this was a game, I could test as many combinations as I wanted without getting full. No wonder stuffing yourself in VR was some people’s recommended form of dieting. After trying out several kinds of tea blends, my favorite combination ended up being chamomilé, red mint, and wild strawberries:
Name: Herbal Tea Blend
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 5★
Effect: None. Edible.
I made several of these aptly named but unoriginal-sounding items. Now I could drink herbal tea whenever I desired.
“Mm-hm, tastes good. I’m glad I bought a teacup.”
Although the teacup was just a cheap, low-quality one I’d bought from the general store, it felt different drinking herbal tea from it, even if it didn’t affect the taste in any way.
“Hmm, wonder what kind of monster will hatch?”
Swirling the tea around in my cup, I glanced at the egg in the incubator, which had continued the hatching process in the meanwhile. Even now, the cracks continued to spread gradually across the surface. Looking at the steadily cracking egg, I imagined what kind of monster was soon to be born.
One hour later, I had wrapped up my experiments with herbal tea and was in the middle of dehulling acorns to soak in water. If this were real life, it was recommended that I soak them for a day. I wasn’t sure about in-game, though.
The egg was about ninety percent cracked through and looked very much on the verge of hatching. I checked the in-game forum for advice, but people were still debating whether it was necessary to be present at the moment of birth. Some players said it didn’t matter, while others argued that it could affect the monster’s favorability score, which was rumored to exist as an Easter egg. I was of the opinion that it was better to be present unless you were in a hurry to be somewhere else.
“Mm!”
“What? Is it hatching?”
Olto’s voice brought me back to reality. I turned my attention to the egg and saw that the cracks had run all around it. The sound of the shell cracking grew louder and more urgent, and a bluish-white light spilled from between the cracks. The next instant, the barn was filled with a dazzling light, reminiscent of a disco ball, and the egg and incubator glowed brightly.
“Gah! Too bright!”
I instinctively shielded my eyes with my hands. It was just like when Sakura was born, except the light was even more blinding at close range. I covered my eyes, heart thumping in anticipation of the monster I was about to meet. What would it be like? A bee, a bear, or something else entirely? The light, which genuinely seemed hell-bent on blinding me, finally subsided. Seriously, they didn’t have to be that dramatic. Or did this mean I was getting a unique specimen?
“Man, that was bright...”
Once the light had faded, the eggshells and incubator transformed into particles of light and disintegrated. All that was left in their place was a single monster.
“...It’s a bear...”
Was it a Little Bear, though? It couldn’t be. According to top Tamer Amimin’s website, Little Bears resembled brown cubs and were more on the realistic side. However, the bear that was gazing up at me now with small, round eyes was covered with bright yellow fur. By yellow, I didn’t mean it looked like a tubby bear about to ask for honey, but an actual stuffed toy. I was now face to face with a yellow plush toy too comical to even be called a teddy bear.
In terms of size, it was slightly bigger than Olto—over a meter in height. While it was a bear, I didn’t feel like it could be a frontliner. I mean, this was a teddy bear we were talking about.
“Your Monster Taming ability has leveled up.”
“Your Command ability has leveled up.”
My skill levels had increased despite not having done anything; apparently, you could gain XP just from hatching eggs. Then again this was, in a sense, one of the most major events for a Tamer. This meant my Monster Taming ability was currently at level 10. Additionally, I could command one more monster now, meaning I could now own a total of five tamed monsters. On top of that, reaching level 10 meant unlocking a skill called Monster Heal, a type of recovery skill that could be used on your tamed monsters. This ability would further strengthen Sakura and Olto’s defenses.
“Growl?”
Whoops. Right now, the yellow stuffed bear in front of me was more important.
“Hey, can I pet you?”
“Growl.”
The bear tilted its head towards me, making it easier for me to pet it. I gently stroked its fur, which felt exactly like a plush toy—soft, and a different sort of fluffiness than Rick.
“Looks like we got a new furry friend.”
“Grooowl.”
As adorable as it was, I was a bit worried about whether it could actually fight, so I decided to assess it first.
Name: TBD / Race: Honey Bear / Base Level: Lv. 1
Master: Yuto
HP: 27/27 / MP: 18/18
Strength: 10 / Endurance: 8 / Agility: 5
Dexterity: 8 / Intelligence: 4 / Sanity: 3
Skills: Cuteness, Gluttony, Smelling, Cultivation, Claw Attack, Climb, Poison Resistance, Sweet Scent, Beekeeping
Equipment: None
It turned out to be a creature I’d never heard of before. A Honey Bear? Was it because it was a cross between a Honey Bee and a Little Bear? The devs clearly had a model in mind when they came up with this character, a yellow bear that was capable of beekeeping. Whatever I did, I had to avoid clothing it in red at all costs. That being said, its skills weren’t bad. It had the stats and abilities to be a frontliner, not to mention it was capable of crafting too.
“Growl?” The Honey Bear approached me as I was checking its stats.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.
“Growl growl.”
“Mm-mm.”
“...!”
“Chirp chirp.”
My tamed monsters appeared to be trying to tell me something, especially the Honey Bear. It placed its teddy-bear paws on my hand and gazed up at me in earnest appeal.
“Hm? What is it?”
“Growl growl!”
Seemingly frustrated at my cluelessness, the bear pointed at itself with its sharp claws and jumped about agitatedly.
“Growl!”
“Hmm...”
After pointing at itself again, the Honey Bear used both paws and mimed drawing a square. Wait, I recognized this gesture: Sakura and Olto had done the same.
“You want me to open my status window?”
Ah, I get it now.
“You want me to name you, is that it?”
“Growl!”
Come to think of it, this Honey Bear didn’t have a name yet since it wasn’t a unique monster. Up until now, I hadn’t had to name any of my companions, since they had all miraculously turned out to be unique specimens. This was about to be my first christening.
“Hmm, let’s see...”
What now? I pondered. I had thought of several names beforehand, ones that would be suitable for either a bear or a bee, but I hadn’t expected to get such an adorable-looking teddy bear. The name Akakabuto, a reference I had reserved in case I got a bear, no longer seemed quite fitting.
“Teddy, Winnie, Christopher...”
None of them sounded right. I was starting to get confused, which was clouding my judgment. Calm down, I told myself. When in doubt, stick to the basics. Instead of aiming for something unique, it was better to go with something simple and cute that fit the person’s image.
“...Got it. I now dub you Bear Bear!”
The bear growled happily in reply. Hey, they seemed to like it. Couldn’t you have come up with something better, you say? No need to sweat the small stuff—naming is all about inspiration, anyway. The best kind of name is the one that I like! After all, I was the one who’d be using their name most.
“Good teddy. Welcome to the family, Bear Bear.”
“Grooowl.”
I patted their head, then proceeded to stroke them all over. Bear Bear didn’t seem to mind—welcoming it, even—standing there and letting me do as I pleased. They were just so fluffy! And such a different texture from Rick too. Rick’s fur was short and velvety, while Bear Bear’s fur was coarser and felt more like a towel. What the two of them did have in common, however, was the fact that they both smelled like sunshine. Forget the popular myth that sunshine is just the smell of dead bugs—that didn’t matter in-game.
“Hup!”
“Growl?”
Finally reaching my limit, I rolled Bear Bear onto their side. Bear Bear looked at me curiously, showing their stomach.
“Gah, you’re too cute!” I squealed, burying my face into their yellow belly fur, unable to contain myself anymore.
“Growl growl?” Bear Bear murmured as I huffed their fur.
“Man, this is total bliss...”
This was way more addictive than I thought. I was starting to get how furries felt.
“Mm.”
“...”
“Chirp.”
Shoot, I got carried away! Olto and the others were staring at me as though seeing me in a new light. So much for being their master...
“R-Right then! I don’t know much about Honey Bears myself, so let’s go gather some info, shall we?!”
“Mm...”
“...”
“Chirp...”
Unfortunately, I had failed to redeem myself. Come on, guys, don’t give me that look! I pleaded inwardly, cursing them for having such advanced AI.