Chapter 42 - 41: Beast Language Ring

Chapter 42: Chapter 41: Beast Language Ring

The gentle breeze along the way was incredibly pleasant. Occasional bumps added their own unique charm to the ride. Paying for a carriage truly made a difference.

"Sir, we have arrived at the Seda Medicinal Garden."

In less than half an hour, the carriage had stopped at the main gate of the Medicinal Garden, and the driver turned his head to address Gaode.

Gaode nodded slightly, retrieved his belongings from under his seat, and stepped down from the carriage with a bit of reluctance.

Gaode pushed open the main gate of the Medicinal Garden. As soon as he entered, an apprentice sweeping the grounds noticed him. The young man sensibly hurried over to relieve him of the various bags and parcels in his hands.

Gaode didn’t stand on ceremony and casually instructed, "Take the bread, vegetables, and meat to the kitchen. Bring the rest to my workshop. Also, tell Ramos we’re having an extra dish for lunch—potato stew with meat!"

"Right away!" Hearing "potato stew with meat," the apprentice subconsciously swallowed hard, his eyes lighting up as he replied excitedly.

In truth, it wasn’t just the apprentice craving meat; Gaode was starving for it, too. Since arriving in this world, he hadn’t had a single meal with meat! For a modern person like Gaode, this was simply unimaginable. He had always been a dedicated carnivore—a meal without meat didn’t count as a meal at all. At the very thought of it, his mouth practically watered with the imagined aroma of savory meat juices.

In the end, while Gaode’s expectations weren’t entirely dashed, they weren’t exactly met, either. He did get to eat meat, but the taste left much to be desired.

In this world, unless a family was wealthy, most common households lacked spices. Their method of preparing meat was incredibly crude: blanch the meat in boiling water, add potatoes and peas, toss in a little salt along with a mildly spicy herb called Spicegrass, and stew it for about half an hour before serving it straight from the pot. Potato stew made this way wasn’t exactly terrible, but it was a far cry from the flavorful dish Gaode remembered. It relied entirely on the natural taste of the meat itself.

Nevertheless, the apprentices—and even Gaode himself—ate with immense relish. For those who hadn’t tasted meat in ages, as long as it wasn’t burnt or spoiled, it was delicious.

He vowed fiercely in his heart, "I have to live a life where I can eat meat for every meal!"

Becoming the Master of the Medicine Garden came with another tremendous benefit. Previously, Gaode’s daily schedule was packed tight. Mornings were for routine Medicinal Garden chores, including cultivating herbs and feeding the little gray mice. Afternoons were spent brewing Magic Potions, and evenings were reserved for cultivation. But given his current status, he no longer had to handle those basic daily chores.

This meant Gaode suddenly had an entire morning of free time. Earlier, he had been recovering from his injuries, and his heart and spirit—which had been tense for a whole month—had just finally relaxed. Gaode enjoyed his free time with a clear conscience.

But after a while, he began to grow restless. It was far too boring! The main issue was that this world lacked entertainment—and even if there was any, Gaode couldn’t afford it.

On the other hand, he couldn’t find much to fill his newly freed mornings. Bound by the limits of his Spiritual Power and energy, he could only brew one set of Basic Spider Venom Potions a day. Any additional workload would overload his Spiritual Power and negatively impact his evening cultivation. His cultivation time was also capped at a fixed three to four hours. Exceeding that limit would lead to an excessive drain on his Spiritual Power, throwing him into a highly inefficient state of diminishing returns. The paramount importance of Spiritual Power was put on full display.

So, when the agreed-upon time with Pierre arrived, Gaode left the Medicinal Garden first thing in the morning. Carrying two newly brewed sets of Basic Spider Venom Potions, he hurried off to the general store.

At the general store.

"It’s settled? They were willing to increase the price to eight Sean Gold Coins?"

Looking at the smug expression on Pierre’s face, Gaode still found it somewhat hard to believe. Was this little old man really that good at haggling? He had nearly doubled the repair fee! With a silver tongue like that, why didn’t he become a traveling merchant and amass a fortune instead of holing up here as a small shopkeeper?

"Why would I lie to you?" Pierre raised an eyebrow. "Though I admit, they were in a rush, which made raising the price on the spot go so smoothly.

"Didn’t I tell you the day before yesterday that the number of wild beasts and Earth Vein Creatures outside the city has noticeably increased, and that they’ve become unusually aggressive?

"Some people in the city suspect a High Tier Magic Plant is about to mature, drawing the Earth Vein Creatures out in response."

Pierre’s gathered intelligence was incredibly detailed as he continued explaining to Gaode, "So, they sent people deep into the mountains and forests outside the city to search. But they’ve been looking for nearly half a month and have found absolutely nothing.

"The client who commissioned you to repair the Magic Item is one of those intent on finding this High Tier Magic Plant."

"This Magic Item can help them locate the High Tier Magic Plant they’re after?" Gaode asked.

"Smart." Praising him, Pierre pulled a plain, unadorned ring from a drawer beneath the counter and handed it to Gaode. "This is the Magic Item the client wants repaired."

The ring was forged from polished copper, its surface engraved with intricate Rune patterns that faintly fluoresced in the light. Gaode examined it closely. Sure enough, the originally pale lines of one Rune were covered in a faint layer of green rust. The once-continuous lines had been broken by corrosion, exposing the duller metallic texture of the ring band underneath. It seemed the ring had sustained some sort of corrosive damage that not only marred the band but also ruined the Magic Rune engraved upon it.

"It’s called the Beast Language Ring," Pierre introduced as Gaode took it. "It’s enchanted with the 1st Ring Magic, [Animal Communication]. This Magic grants the user the temporary ability to converse with animals."

"What humans can’t find, perhaps they can only ask the animals." Gaode immediately understood the client’s reasoning.

"Exactly," Pierre nodded, reminding him, "The client’s request is to have the Beast Language Ring fully repaired within ten days."

"No problem." Gaode tucked the Beast Language Ring away and promised confidently, "I will definitely get it done."

Gaode knew that the only reason he could so easily take the Beast Language Ring without any collateral or even meeting the client was because Pierre was shouldering all the risk. Pierre wasn’t going anywhere since his general store was rooted right here. He could hardly pack up his livelihood and abscond over a broken 1st Ring Magic Item. Because of this, the client felt secure enough to entrust the Beast Language Ring to Pierre. And Pierre handing the Beast Language Ring over to Gaode was purely out of trust. This trust made Gaode deeply grateful.

After putting away the Beast Language Ring, Gaode took out the two sets of Basic Spider Venom Potions he had brought with him. Pierre bought them at the usual price of thirty-five silver per set. With his freshly acquired fortune of seventy silver, Gaode headed straight to the herb shop. He spent sixty silver to buy five one-year-old Green Spider Sacs. It couldn’t be helped; the Green Spider Sac was one of the three primary ingredients for the Basic Spider Venom Potion. Without it, brewing a Basic Spider Venom Potion was impossible.

Enduring the heartache of handing over the money, Gaode actually really wanted to buy a book on herb cultivation or medicinal ingredient identification. Unfortunately, there was no way the herb shop would sell such things. Although not as precious as potion formulas, these were still trade secrets that provided their livelihood, valuable enough to be passed down through several generations. Knowledge, in this world, was incredibly precious and expensive!

This made Gaode even more eager to open the wooden box left by Mage Seda—there was a high probability that the formula for the Basic Endurance Potion was inside.