Chapter 24: The Sweat

As Foin grabbed the blade and pulled it with all his might, it surprisingly came out without much struggle; in the process, he managed to break a few of the dragon's scales located around his wound, and the sudden removal of the blade caused the beast to scream up in pain, though it was more like a roar.

The pain was so severe that it managed to hit it even though the effects of the tea had already been activated. Though it only felt it for a brief moment, it was truly excruciating.

Foin put so much strength into pulling that blade out that he fell off of the dragon's back and could only hear the cracking sound but not the scream. On the ground, Foin shook his head and then stood up. At first, he looked at the dragon's back and then back at the blade.

"What is this man? Aier's blade is cursed... She should have the power required to surpass the curse and wield it... Heh... Maybe it is my good luck that I came here!"

The dragon thought as it slowly turned its head to look at the slightly surprised Foin, who was still admiring the gorgeously made weapon in his grip. However, feeling the dragoN's haze, he quickly put it down and looked back at the beast.

"You said it would take a day for your tea to be ready, right?"

"Y-Yes?"

As soon as the dragon heard Foin's response, it nodded, stood up, and slowly walked away towards the trail of devastation caused in the forest. Foin rubbed his eyes and then shook his head. At first, he couldn't understand what was going on, but then it hit him.

"So what it meant is that it will be back tomorrow for more of the tea?! I guess I have to use my pool as a tea storage for the time being... And now that I think about it, I should definitely expand that. I'd rather make it too big than be eaten because I didn't have enough tea... At least it forgot about the green peppers..."

He sighed as he slowly walked back to his sleeping area, dropped the sword, and then quickly walked back to the metal rods as well. Though they were useless in their current state, he figured that they could be useful later in the future. In the worst-case scenario, he could use them to fixate broken limbs should the need arise.

Once he put everything into one place, his next stop was his garden. He needed to expand his garden further now that there was a dragon around, which would most definitely eat much more than Foin and the ant could eat together.

Without hesitation, all the matured potatoes which he had collected were all plated. Since he now had a shovel, the process was much easier and faster than it used to be. As for the pepper, he still left the greens on, but half of what he had collected was broken, and the seeds were replanted.

Once he was down with all that, he finally looked at the green peppers. He sat down by the plant and quickly harvested one of the green peppers. Just as he had expected, it was different.

"You have gained 3 Experience Points and 3 Points."

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

Foin stared at the notification for a brief moment before it vanished automatically, and he looked back down at the product.

"So the overall stats of the plants determine how many Experience Points and Points I get... Though I still don't know what I can do with Points, at least if things go like this, I will level up soon!"

He mumbled as he carefully broke the pepper into two. After quickly extracting the seeds and planting them all next to the original plant, he took a bite from the vegetable. At first, he felt no taste; however, as soon he started chewing it, the taste hit him.

It had such a powerful taste that he stepped back with widened eyes. It was incomparable to the other ones. It was not sweet; it was quite strong and spicy, and he felt that his tongue was burning. He could even feel his teeth were on fire, but it had an aftertaste, which turned its powerful flavour into a wonderful sensation.

It was so strong that he started sweating without any warning. Also, his head slightly turned red, but for some odd reason, the saturation it gave was immense. He ate the whole pepper, and he was already full. With a still red face and drenched in sweat, he quickly took off his shirt and trousers.

They were so drenched that it seemed that he had just climbed out of the river. Thanks to the pepper, he felt quite hot; as a result, he just dropped his clothes onto the grass in his sleeping area, and then he drank the two bottles of tea he had stored and made for himself.

After consuming his tea, he grabbed his now empty buck and quickly filled it with water. He quickly used the water to water his plants, just to make sure that they stayed hydrated, and he was convinced that watering actually makes them better. The last bucket of water was used for himself. He splashed the water on his head since he was still sweating from the pepper he had eaten about an hour ago.

At that point, he was almost done with his garden; all he needed to do was harvest his fruits from the tree, and he was done. Just as he put the fruits next to his pile of products, he remembered the events which had happened just in the morning. He was so focused on his garden that it completely left his mind.

He quickly grabbed his shovel, and with incredible speed, he started expanding his pool in every direction. The dragon couldn't drink all of the water; as a result, there were still some that just barely buried Foin's ankles. Which, in his case, was good for some cooling, but due to the dirty work, the red water quickly turned black from the large amount of dirt that had fallen into the pit and had not yet been thrown out.