Chapter 9: The Skill part 2

Upon selecting the skill, Foin let out a content sigh. He looked down at the peppers he had harvested to gain his extra Experience Points and then decided to harvest a few extra. As soon as he touched a product, two brand new texts popped up before his eyes.

"Pepper! Level: Basic. Tier: 1. Quality: E. Type: Food"

"Wow... that is truly descriptive... I can only assume what these things mean..."

Fo8n mumbled as the text faded. He quickly opened his status window to check what had changed. His Experience Points number really did change; it was now 150 instead of 100. Next to his strength, Endurance, Charisma, and Agility were no longer 1, but instead 2. Below it, the Ability Point counter was now showing 1.

His previously chosen skill, Apraiser, had shown up in his skill section; next to it was another line of numbers. 1 out of 100. It was almost as if he could level up his skill as well.

"Well, maybe if I can level it up, it will be more useful..."

He mumbled as the menu was closed. After he saw that his skill could level up with renewed enthusiasm, he started working on harvesting the peppers. Every time he touched a new one, the same message showing its stats popped up. After a while, it started irritating Foin, but then, after about ten times, it finally stopped appearing.

He first harvested the peppers and just put them into one large pile not far from them so that he didn't need to move with his injured leg. By the time he was finished harvesting the lush, greener and stronger plants, he started feeling that strange feeling once again. It surged up inside him stronger and greatly alleviated his pain.

"Maybe it was a higher quality paper; that is why I am so full now and feel such a strong reaction compared to the previous ones?"

He mumbled as he started removing the empty plants. He threw them to the already established pile of unneeded greens next to his pile of grass. Once he was finally done, he grabbed one of the weaker plant's peppers.

"Pepper! Level: Basic. Tier: 1. Quality: F. Type: Food"

A new panel showed up. Although, based on the outlook of the plant, Foin assumed something was different, he didn't expect the product would be that altered. These peppers were slightly smaller and had a weaker colour but nothing extra.

"Since it is of lower quality, I will just feed them to the ant... Come to think of it; it has been gone for quite some time... Maybe it got bored of me and decided to look for something else..."

Foin didn't give much thought to that problem, as he still had to harvest two rows of plants, pepper and potato. As he was happily harvesting the lower-quality peppers, suddenly, he heard a loud noise. He quickly put the products in a separate pile so that he could easily identify which was which, and then looked back.

The ant had returned, and it had brought a massive branch; it was about as thick as Foin's thigh or maybe even a bit wider. It was only that large portion, and it seemed to be debranched. As soon as the ant dropped it off next to the sticks Foin had painstakingly collected, the monster turned around and left.

"How...It took me two days to collect that many sticks and this guy just brought me that massive branch?! Wait... Did it just chop it off by itself?! It could kill me so much more easily than I had thought! If it had that much power to technically bite off that thich wood... I hope the taming will not wear off..."

It took him a few minutes to snap back to reality. After shaking his head, he continued harvesting his peppers and throwing away the unneeded plant. Once he was finished, he quickly went over to the potatoes. As soon as he dug out his first potato, the same his appraiser skill activated.

"Potato! Level: Basic. Tier: 1. Quality: E. Type: Food"

He had a massive potato harvest; all in all, he managed to harvest 78 potatoes, from which he planted 28. That was quite a long process, but it was all part of his plan.

He still knew nothing about this world, and maybe it had a similar climate as his previous world. Thus, he decided to produce more and store them just in case winter struck and he would not have enough food to eat.

"I should really start planning ahead... Some sort of underground storage would be useful for the food; if Winter exists here, then it will be quite bad..."

Just as Foin mumbled that, the ant had brought another quite large piece of wood and dropped it next to the other, slightly surprising him as he was so lost in thoughts. He quickly looked back; the wood the ant had brought was slightly smaller than the previous one, but still, it was large.

At that moment, his eyes quickly darted at the two large bushes like flowers. He just remembered that although he used his skills to see what the plants were, he had yet to try it on the Élion flower.

Still feeling the painkiller-like effect, he pushed himself up and, walked over to the closest and denser bush and grabbed one of its flowers.

"Élion! Level: Common. Tier: 1. Quality: E. Type: Herb"

"This is different...Common and herb... Well, I was somehow certain that it would not be food, but I still wanted a bit more information. At least I know that it is rarer or better than the other plants I have available... Well, the flowers do have quite a great smell... Maybe I will try using some when I cook next... maybe I could cook some today as well..."

He mumbled as he was taking in the reinvigorating smell of the flowers. Each hit him like a wave of calmness, yet he felt so lively. With a smile, he quickly harvested two flowers. At that moment, he received a notification he was not yet expecting. He had just levelled up. Although the required Experience Points was 150, he had just harvested and planted such a great number of times that it was no surprise he had levelled up.

"Congratulations! You have levelled up. Required Experience Points increased! All Stats have increased by 1! Ability Points increased by 1!"