The Records of an Overpowered Herb Hunter

2.3 Welcome!

- Before -

The sound of scraping echoed through the forest, accompanying the rustle of the leaves. The soil carried a jade green luster, just a little darker than the bamboo around Aki.

Aki was trying to dig out the Pudica that was requested. However, since it was her first time uprooting a plant it was proving to be quite a challenge. Besides being extra careful, she also had to be gentle and yet exert enough strength to dig up the soil. It was a difficult balance.

This was especially so for Aki who had always used her brute strength to get through any problems and did not have delicate sensibilities. She had always sucked doing things like folding origami.

"ummmm is this all?... or does the roots go deeper?"

Tall bamboo trees tower over, casting a mesmerizing play of moving shadows and light. In the midst of the dense green was Aki squatting down at the base of one bamboo like a yankee.

"urgh is it here.... Ah no! whew I almost damaged it... maybe its here...."

Aki talked to herself under her breath as her hands stopped moving. Scratching her head, she tilted it in confusion while staring at the half dug up herb. Aki sighed.

"Maybe it was not as easy as I thought it would be... hunting herbs."

But looking at the bright side, Aki just needed to dig up one. When she asked Misha if that was actually enough, Misha explained the one of the use of alchemy to her.

"Because of Trippers like yourself, many who came from cosmic eras have warned us about needlessly stripping the planet of its finite resources. To counter that, alchemists, who had always been pursuing creating gold, have found ways to extract the material's essence and replicate it."

"How? We can create something from nothing?"

"I don't know the specifics either. Well, since we can actually do magic, replicating an item should not be an impossible feat. Anyways, the essence that is extracted are still perishables, so we still get herb hunting requests to stock up, but we do not need as many plants as before. Therefore...."

Misha leaned in close to Aki with her index finger pointing upwards.

"One. You just need to hunt for one herb every request. And that just one herb will be able to grant you riches!! Of course, if you are able to discover any rare or new herbs it would also be beneficial to bring it back because. It. Is. Money."

Misha's eyes have turned into gold coins. Aki gulped and retreated a little at her intensity.

"But won't this lead to people still over hunting?"

"There's a law preceding over any excessive and unnecessary hunts. Everyone is bound by it regardless of your Kingdom and Race. Hunters especially, since we also take it a point to enforce it. Criminals are judged by the world council which governs over our world. They don't get involved in national politics and issues but things that are of concern to the general survivability of our universe."

"That... sounds really heavy."

"Yeah, after all we all don't want to go poof any time soon or in the future."

Misha shrugged.

Aki having finally dug up the Pudicap threw her hands in the air in exasperation.

"Finally! Now to put this plant into the magic bag..."

The magic bag is a gift from Heiki and Takeshi. It was an unassuming ordinary small brown leather pouch, but it is about an 8 tatami room. Bigger magic pouches will be more expensive and rarer as no common folk will need such a big storage space to bring around with them.