“……”

Gio spoke as soon as he woke up.

“…Fruit tea…”

He wanted a warm, sweet fruit tea.

“Let’s make syrup.”

That’s how today’s content was decided.

Making syrup wasn’t that difficult. It only required tools sterilized with love, fruits grown with care, and enough sugar.

‘Ah, this much sugar is definitely enough to cause diabetes,’ he thought, realizing just how much sugar was necessary.

Most fruits could be made into syrup. As long as the fruits complemented each other, it didn’t matter if there were two or more kinds.

“……”

The first fruit Gio decided on was the mandung berry.

“But this might be too sweet,” he said.

To make a successful fruit syrup with a flavor that truly captures the essence of the fruit, the first required flavor was sourness, followed by bitterness.

With sugar already making it sweet enough to make the tongue tingle, if another sweet fruit was added, it would turn into just fruit preserves. Gio learned that lesson when he made syrup with overly ripe and sweet mandarins.

“That’s tasty, though.”

But what Gio wanted now was a fruit tea with a sweet base but added sourness and bitterness.

It wasn’t a hard combination to achieve.

“We’ll need a sour and bitter fruit to pair with the mandung berries.”

The combination he often used in reality was strawberries and lemons.

Strawberries aren’t completely without sourness, but they’re generally soft and sweet. In contrast, lemons have sour flesh and bitter rinds, giving depth to the strawberries' one-dimensional sweetness.

It was the same here.

“Though mandung berries have some sourness, they’re on the sweet side.”

And because the sweetness was so intense, he thought it would be perfect to pair them with a fruit as sour as lemon or as bitter as yuzu. A fruit syrup with such a variety of tastes was especially satisfying when drunk as a warm tea.

“Honey.”

“Kurrr.”

“Let’s go.”

Gio confidently set off on his adventure, with a golden waterfowl perched on his shoulder.

He turned to speak to Honey, who had settled into the basket.

“I can ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ just draw and make something like lemon or yuzu, but food made like that never tastes quite right… It’s better to harvest the fruits myself.”

“Kurrr?”

“It’s good for me, and it’s better for the syrup that’ll be made. And I’d like to use unusual fruits from this forest rather than ones that are less flavorful.”

Gio could draw and create food, but strangely, everything made that way lacked flavor.

If he ate it when bored, it was fine, but he didn’t want to use it for something he had to make carefully. With the honor of his grandmother, who had been the most influential in the village, Gio swore to make a fantastical fruit syrup.

“Thinking about it, farming doesn’t seem like a bad choice.”

“Grrk.”

“From my experience with fresh Gangwon potatoes, the soil here seems perfect for farming. The weather is always mild, though there’s wind, and while it hasn’t rained, the soil is always moist, with streams running through it. It’s a good environment for watering plants.”

“Kurrr…”

“I don’t have seeds or seedlings, but I could get help from Yoo Seong-Woon. If I want something from beyond the painting, I’ll need to give something in return, but that’s not a problem…”

The life of a human with unlimited content had this onion-like charm to it. Even if it didn’t seem that way, once you squeezed, something would come out.

“That’s great.”

Wonderful. This freedom was, after all, the greatest joy of being jobless.

“A crop grown with my own hands, full of the spirit of the Gangwon countryside, will surely taste good. Right?”

“Kurrrr.”

“I really feel like I’m living the rural life now. I feel like I’ve gone back to farming. I should have lived such a peaceful and warm life long ago…”

For Gio, born in a Gangwon mountain village, it could almost be considered a return to his roots.

“I’ve always liked helping with various tasks since I was a child. Thanks to the elders, I’ve done all kinds of things: I’ve kept bees, dug up ginseng, met wild boars…”

“Kurrr?”

“I’m not talking about poaching. I literally just ran into them, and nobody got hurt or died. I think I met them thanks to someone collecting mushrooms and ginseng in the mountains.”

Everyone had a garden, and some people raised chickens, ducks, or quails. There were times when fresh milk from a neighboring farm was turned into cheese or just honey was added to food, and those memories brought joy.

Gio had done almost everything a human could do on the land.

“There’s no way I can’t farm.”

Grandma, please watch over me.

“I’ll prove my talent in the name of our village.”

“Kurrr?”

“I was taught not to bet my name on such things.”

If you couldn’t do something, you were supposed to sell the name of an elder in the family, according to his grandmother’s philosophy.

“Of course, this probably isn’t what she meant by that.”

Interpretation was a matter of personal freedom.

“Well, what seeds should I ask for…”

“Kurrr?”

“…First, we need potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn.”

Gio began speaking with confidence.

“These are the staple crops grown worldwide, so it’s best to have them just in case. I’d also like to grow radishes. Young, tender radish sprouts mixed with rice, paste, and oil make for a delicious meal.”

“Kurrrr, kurrr.”

“Pumpkin? Yes, pumpkins are great. Large, old pumpkins are perfect for making soup, small, sweet ones are good simply boiled with honey, and long, plump zucchini is perfect for adding to soup for a hearty, savory dish. You really know something.”

There were more thoughts in his head.

“Lettuce, maybe?”

“Kwungkwungkwung…”

“That’s actually a good choice. It’s easy to grow, and the leaves are great to pick and eat with rice and paste. Or, bok choy is good for boiling in a clear soup.”

“Kurrrr.”

“Peas would be good too. Oh, cherry tomatoes… I like that idea too. After all, no home garden should be without at least one tomato plant.”

Gio, who had said all this, looked down at the basket in his hands.

“……”

“Kurrr.”

“Aha.”

He saw Honey, now spread out like a liquid monster inside the basket.

“Right.”

As long as it was cute, that was fine.

Honey was a bird that mostly carried jewels. The golden liquid that shimmered like honey inside the basket, filled with jewels, was quite the sight to behold. It seemed like it wouldn’t be boring to have it around.

As Gio rambled on about his farming plans, he soon stopped in front of a tree.

“Ah…”

A black tree.

It was made of obsidian.

“I found this first.”

Starflower tree.

A living obsidian tree. It grows by absorbing starlight reflected on its body. The flowers of the starflower tree bloom every dawn from the absorbed light and obsidian residue, and the flowers are effective for treating burns and frostbite. The sap and bark of the tree are primarily used for making art.

Method: The buds just before the flowers bloom are good for frostbite, while the fully bloomed flowers are effective for burns. Boil them until tender, then soak them in the juice of dew leaves for ten days before use. Be careful, as consuming the flowers without this process can cause burns and frostbite.

“……”

Gio blinked twice as he read the automatic description.

“I used too much obsidian paint last time, didn’t I?”

A lot of obsidian powder was used when creating the habitat for the waterfowl. It’s a material often used to create transparent textures, like water or glass. It wouldn’t hurt to harvest some this time.

Gio retrieved a chisel and hammer from the basket. These were tools not typically used for harvesting, but they were perfect for collecting from the starflower tree.

“Come on, son. Your lazy self is quite cute, but daddy has work to do.”

“Kurrrr.”

“This isn’t even your type of thing. Give it here. There, good.”

After calming Honey, who was playfully holding onto the tools, Gio returned the items to the basket and approached the obsidian tree. He touched the tree’s branches, checking its temperature and humidity.

There was a faint warmth, and he could feel the sap flowing like blood between the cracks.

“Maybe…”

Gio found a dead branch among them.

“Is this the one?”

It was a strangely cold branch, one that didn’t reflect light sharply but instead diffused it and felt dry and hard with no moisture.

Gio carefully confirmed the boundary of the branch and moved closer with the chisel and hammer.

Then, tap, tap.

“……”

Clink…!

“Done.”

The obsidian branch easily broke off with a clear sound.

The live branches couldn’t be detached so easily. They were too hard, and inside, the sticky sap made it difficult to break apart even when trying to smash it.

If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.

‘Such hard obsidian is inconvenient for making paint.’

The branches with sap flowing from them couldn’t easily be ground into a clean powder either. It was best to choose dead branches unless you needed sharp materials like arrows or for sap extraction.

“That’s better for the tree too.”

Though the obsidian tree had a glass-like structure, it was still alive. Removing the dead branches would make it more comfortable, and the flowers that bloomed could serve as excellent medicine.

Gio, careful not to break the dead branches into pieces, split the long branch into smaller sections. The pieces, filled with the cold essence of the stars in the night sky, all went into the basket inside Honey’s belly.

“Are you going to take care of it?”

“Kurrrrrr!”

“Alright, let’s do that.”

It seemed like Honey was gathering some independent funds, but whatever the case, it was a bird that loved jewels. It was greedy in a way that didn’t fit its clean face.

‘Shiny rocks are your weakness, huh.’

Once it makes a move, it will fully commit. Gio looked up at the starflower tree again.

“……”

The tree was dark black, reflecting sunlight like a mirror.

The obsidian, so cold it seemed like it belonged on a snow-covered mountain, blended well with the environment of spring, where flowers and grass bloomed vividly, perhaps because it was alive. Occasionally, a forest butterfly, a form of light, would land on it.

After admiring the sharp, hard tree for a while, Gio moved on.

“…I need to find some fruit.”

“Kyuruk.”

“I hope I can find some good fruit.”

Fortunately, it didn’t take Gio long to find a fruit he liked.

Drought jar.

A fruit inside a light brown-skinned mandarin with cracked skin, like a drought-ravaged field. It doesn’t rot for almost a year after harvest, making it a perfect preservation food for droughts. When placed under the sun or exposed to hot sunlight for three days, it becomes sweet like honey. However, when eaten raw, it is sour and bitter. Its nutritional value is so high that canned goods or soup made from it can save even someone on the brink of starvation.

Method: Process the drought jar to make it edible.

“A nutritional supplement,” Gio muttered.

That part was quite intriguing.

“…Sour and bitter, huh?”

That aspect caught his attention the most.

‘It doesn’t say it’s poisonous, so it seems like eating it raw won’t cause any major problems. But just how sour and bitter is it? I wonder if there’s a way to make it sweet.’

He bravely plucked the fruit.

It was about the size of a typical mandarin, with skin slightly firmer than usual, but it resembled one in shape. The pulp inside was also a deep yellow, resembling honey, which set it apart from a mandarin.

Sniffing the sour aroma, Gio didn’t hesitate to bite into the fruit.

“……”

Swallowing the fruit, Gio remained calm.

“……”

“Kur, kurur… kururu…”

“Yeah.”

He nodded at Honey’s nervous reaction, his face as stoic as ever. His facial muscles, long gone through disuse, didn’t succumb to the minor hardships and trials of the tongue.

“It’s sour and bitter.”

It was easy to see why the method was only to “process it into an edible form.”

‘Even the historical poison must have been sweeter than this.’

The shock was enough to make his head spin.

Gripping his fading consciousness, he realized that the texture was firmer than a mandarin, and there was less juice, but that was hardly noteworthy compared to the amazing flavor. He took a deep breath for a while.

“……”

He felt an inexplicable fondness for the fruit. Gio gained confidence.

“Now this is definitely going to beat the sweetness of the mandung berries.”

Honey, disgusted, jumped out of the basket. It seemed the sweet Honey couldn’t handle the shockingly bitter taste.