Chapter 222: Herbs and Pills (1/2)

The other fields held very different types of herbs compared to the first one. The second field he harvested felt blazing hot like he stood in the middle of a desert or on the edge of a volcano. The herb growing there looked like a small bush that grew up to three intensely red fruits.

The third field had dirt that was far heavier than lead, and it took some effort to dig out the odd brown roots from within the ground. But when he managed to extract them they emitted strong energies that reminded Zac of the Divine Crystals, though they seemed more vibrant somehow.

If he had to make a comparison of the two, then the life-attuned energy in the Divine Crystals felt more synthetic, whereas the energy from the root vegetables felt like a genuine article. It was similar to his Lotus Seed, though these roots didn’t seem quite as good.

The last field, and the empty one, seemed to once have been a paddy. But there was a crack in the mountain that had created an outlet for the water inside, making the paddy dry out. Perhaps when calamity struck this sect the events inadvertently ruined this field through shockwaves.

Another possibility was that the area was prone to earthquakes. He’d noticed a jagged scar in the ground from the first summit. It didn’t look like something that was made from an attack, like the swing of the axe-man in his vision, but rather the movement of a tectonic plate. Perhaps an earthquake had erupted that was strong enough to crack these reinforced mountains.

For the last field, he simply took all the dried mud that lay in the bottom of the paddy, hoping that there would be some dormant seeds inside that could be used to regrow whatever once grew there. It was pretty clear to Zac that the field was based on four different elements, Fire, Ice, Earth, and water.

Why these four specifically Zac didn’t know, but if he had to guess the four herbs could combine to a good pill. He didn’t think the previous owner of this place would go to the trouble to create four distinct fields and grow the herbs together if they weren’t supposed to get mixed into something.

That was the biggest reason he took all the dried mud. He was currently missing one of the ingredients, and whatever the alchemist of this mountain had planned probably needed all four of them.

He was no expert in Spiritual Herbs, but after sensing the energies they contained he would say that each of them was a Top Grade E-Ranked Spirit Herb. Or perhaps they were just extremely high quality Normal E-Ranked herbs that were overflowing with energy due to being left alone for so long.

It made him think of the Mystic Realm back at Port Atwood. If things could grow this spectacular over a couple of thousand of years, who knew what grew inside a pocket of space that might have been isolated for millions of years.

But while the herbs were great, in the end, they couldn’t compare to things like the Lotus of Harmony. That thing was D-Graded, and it felt like it was on a completely other level compared to these things he just harvested.

The fact that he was boosted to the top of the gatherer list also was an indicator that the herbs likely weren’t just F-Graded. As he walked up the cramped steps to the summit again he looked through the ladder to check what else was going on.

There were a few other notable names on the Gatherer Ladder. Emperor Nenothep was on the third spot, and there was another of their family, Repubat Medhin, in the top ten. The second spot actually belonged to his world as well, as Starlight held that position.

The fourth position was held by the top champion who resisted the Medhin Empire, Beruv Ylvas. The last names on the top ten ladder were completely unknown to Zac, making him believe they were simply random people who had gotten lucky and gotten their hands on something great.

The Hunter ladder, in turn, was quite different compared to the gatherer list at the moment, but Zac suspected that they would harmonize soon enough.

Killing people didn’t bring in a lot of loot at the moment, but that would change after a week or two after people had visited more mountains. But some clearly was actively striving to push themselves on the Hunter ladder, and unfortunately, he saw a name he recognized in the top three; Inevitability.

He had hoped that the System would limit the event to F-grade people, barring the Dominators from entering. That would likely have made him the strongest person inside. But seeing both the Emperor and Inevitability on their respective ladders showed that was just a pipe dream.

Apart from Inevitability, he recognized another of the three strongest Dominators in the top five amongst the hunters, an Anointed who called himself Harbinger. Fortunately, the top name amongst the Dominators, Void’s Disciple, wasn’t on the list. Perhaps that meant only two of the top 3 names were present at the hunt, which would be a small blessing.

In fact, he two suspected Dominators weren’t the only Zhix on the Hunter list, as Zac saw that a good half of the top ten were Zhix going by their names. Of course, a few of them could be Medhin Empire champions, since their names were slightly similar.

That the Zhix would be more interested in killing things than looking through various old ruins for things they considered to be corrupted wasn’t much of a surprise to Zac. The problem was how to figure out who were Dominators and who were just battle-crazed insectoids.

Besides, it made sense that the Dominators were more interested in the Hunter ladder compared to the Gatherer ladder at the moment. They were probably the strongest fighters around, and could simply rob others of their treasures later.

But gaining ten levels for the two Dominators was a huge perk. The only good news about the dominators was that they didn’t gain any levels while Zac kept improving. Inevitability had only gained one level since the ladders were made public, and the other two hadn’t moved at all.

Gaining ten levels in one move would save them years of cultivation.

Another familiar name on the Hunter list was Salvation, clocking in on the 7th spot. Salvation was still shrouded in mystery, and apart from the rumors that Salvation was the one who controlled The Cradle of God nothing was known about him or her.

“Congratulations on reaching the top placement,” Thea succinctly said when Zac finally emerged from the tree. “Quite a few people will probably target you now.”

“Nothing new,” Zac said with a shrug as he took out one of the hard root-like vegetables. “This was the only thing I found that might help against wounds.”

Thea caught the hard vegetable and scrutinized it for a bit.

“It looks a bit like ginseng. It isn’t poisonous, but I don’t know how to eat it. It’s even harder than a rock,” she mumbled.

“Perhaps boil it?” Zac ventured.

“Take a break for dinner?” Thea agreed.

“This place is as good as any. Shouldn’t be too many who can pass that combination of arrays to get here,” Zac said.

Thea nodded as she took out a couple of crystals and a pot. The crystals were the same ones he’d seen the Imp Herald use to create a fire, but it wasn’t something Zac himself used very often. He was a bit lazy so he usually ate dried meat instead to save time.

“Wait,” Zac said as he took out the cauldron he snagged earlier. “Perhaps we can cook the root in this instead? Don’t most cauldrons contain inscriptions that stop the energies from escaping?”