Chapter 13 – Grass Fruits (1/2)

Chapter 13 – Grass Fruits

With the aid of the system help menu, I found the Alchemist Instructor to have been located at a small forest, which was just outside of Ba Huang City.

With my Bramble Thorn Sword, I jogged to the location of the Alchemist Instructor, but when I got there, what should have been a small forest was only an empty field.

What was going on here? I pulled up the online forum forand searched for posts regarding Alchemy. Soon, I found a post that was tailored to my need –

[Question]: Where is the Alchemist Instructor? Why can’t I find him?

[Answer]: Motherf*cker, I searched for the Alchemist Instructor for an entire morning and found out that the Alchemist Instructor isn’t at the place where the system guides you. Instead, the Alchemist Instructor is in the forest, outside to the northern gate of Ba Huang City. There are at least 11 spots where the instructor can be found and every 15 minutes the instructor goes to a different spot. Ridiculous!

…

So that was why I couldn’t find him.

I went around to the small forest, and searched there. It took about 10 minutes before I finally found the instructor napping under a Ginkgo Tree. The name displayed on top of his head was [Alchemist Mi Fu].

I walked up to him and respectfully bowed, saying: “Hello there. I would like to become an Alchemist!”

But after I bowed, he didn’t reply to me. Trying to stay respectful, I decided to keep my eyes to the ground and keep bowing. After all, I didn’t want to displease the instructor. But after quite a while, he still hadn’t replied. Confused, I looked up. What the hell? He had left.

I had thoughts of quitting Alchemy, but reason won, and so I kept on searching for the instructor. After another 10 minutes, I found the Alchemist under another tree. I walked up, and this time with a bit of force, I said: “Hi. I would like to become an Alchemist!”

Mi Fu looked up and glanced at me before saying: “Kid, do you really want to become an Alchemist?”

“Yes!”

“Okay!” Mi Fu smiled: “In order to become a great Alchemist, one must have a sharp mind. If you can correctly answer my three questions, I’ll give you a task. Only after you have completed the task will you be able to become a full-fledged Alchemist.”

“Okay, please begin!”

Mi Fu’s smile became even wider: “What kind of wheel can’t move around?” (The question is actually asking what kind of car can’t move around and the answer is a play on Chinese words which unfortunately can’t be expressed in English)

I paused. This was a riddle! After a few seconds, I got the answer: “A wind-mill”

“Correct. Next question, how can you use a single leaf to cover the entire sky?”

“Use the leaf to cover your eyes.”

“Last question, there’s a caterpillar and he wants to cross a river, but there is no bridge. How can he cross the river?”

This was a hard one. I thought about it for a full minute before tentatively answering: “He metamorphoses into a butterfly and then flies across the river?”

“Yup, not bad…” Mi Fu finally sat up. Looking at me, he asked: “Do you really want to become an Alchemist?”

“Yes!”

“Alright!” Mi Fu took out a miniature shovel from his pocket and said: “Alchemists must be able to collect herbs by their own power. To the south-east, there’s a Grass Fruit Forest, go there and collect 10 Grass Fruits. If you can do this, I’ll let you become an Alchemist.”

“Ding”

Do you accept the quest – [Alchemist’s task]?

Of course I accepted. The quest description matched what Mi Fu said, which was to collect 10 Grass Fruits. This shouldn’t be too hard, but the only difficulty was that I didn’t know what level the monsters were in the Grass Fruit Forest.

…

With my miniature shovel, I left the Alchemist instructor. After about 10 minutes, I arrived at the Grass Fruit Forest. At the edge of the forest, countless butterflies flew up and down. It was quite breathtaking.

I tightened my grip on my Bramble Thorn Sword. Even though the forest looked peaceful, there might have been extremely strong monsters in it. Right after entering the forest, a green Bat that was resting on a tree came flying at me.

[Vampire Bat] (Normal Monster)

Level : 12

Attack: 55-62

Defense: 24

Health: 400

Skills: [Transfusion LV-1] Description: A low level monster in . These Vampire Bats are skilled in leeching away health. They often destroy nearby fields, making farmers and hunters very wary of them. In fact, many lives have ended at the hands of Vampire Bats.

…

Looking at the clumsy actions of the Vampire Bat, I couldn’t help but laugh. This was too easy!

I thrusted my sword at the approaching Bat. It was simple yet effective. Puchi. I hit the abdomen of the Bat. Instantly, the Bat, which was about the size of a small rubber ball, cried out in pain. My strike had caused 97 points of damage.

Instead of backing away, the Bat flew into my chest, opened its bloody mouth and bit my exposed shoulder. The Bat turned 50% of the damage into his own health.