The Exiled First-born of the Noble house. Rising to the top with the Worthless Skill [Null Poison]

Chapter 20

Plant Gathering

The next day.

With my preparations all done yesterday, I picked up my packed bag and headed towards the room’s exit.

“…….huh? Leaving already Chris-san?”

“Did I wake you up? My bad.”

“No, it’s fine. Please stay safe.”

“I will. For reasons, I wont be back for some time so tell that to Ralf as well. Oh and I have already paid my share of the rent for the time I’ll be gone in advance so don’t worry about that.”

“Okay, I’ll tell Ralf as well.”

“Please do.”

After telling that to Esta who I had accidentally woken up, I left [Shangri-la] hotel.

Outside, the sun had yet to fully rise, and the usually noisy streets were completely empty as I walked towards the city exit.

Since there are no inspections when leaving, I quickly passed through the gate and headed towards Peixa forest.

It had only been 2 months since I came to Realzard, but walking on this highway and recalling how I frantically made it here in complete tatters, I felt a bit nostalgic.

.

.

.

—-finally its in sight,

The place where I hid for safety for over a month. Peixa forest.

I could only see the entrance from here, and  the surroundings were only the peaceful nature, yet my heart was beating faster and faster as if it wanted to jump out.

When I left this place, my senses really must have gone numb because I really thought of it as a ‘good experience’. But thinking back all I felt at that time was fear.

Well considering the life I was having, it’s only natural.

Calming myself, knowing that I came here much more prepared than before, I stepped inside the Peixa forest once more.

The wind felt just right and the scent of nature made you feel at peace. But that only lasted for a while.

Peixa forests’ true entrance, which began from the spring in the centre finally came into my view.

From hereon, I know better than anyone how scarce water is, so I carefully collected as much water as I could beforehand.

I don’t plan to stay as long but there is no telling what might happen which is the greatest danger of this forest.

After taking a small break, I entered into the forest depths once more.

Walking inside the dim, thick tree covered forest, I used my faint memories and sense of direction to find the place I used as my base before.

There were no proper paths, and everything looked similar so I thought it might take me till sunset to get there but…….

“That big tree, I remember it. That means, if I head to the right from here—–there it is!”

Around 3 hours after leaving the spring, I was able to find my old base, almost too easily.

“I thought I’d never come back here yet here I am. Only two months later no less.”

Knowing I was alone here, I ended up talking loudly to myself.

While reminiscing, I entered the cave-like area and put down my bag.

The insects hadn’t completely repopulated the cave and eve the moss hadn’t fully grown back like before. With a little cleaning, I should be able to return it to its previous state, closer to when I was living here.

I planned to spend several days here, so I decided it was best to fix this place and get ready for the night to arrive.

First I collected leaves and covered the floor with it, and then lay the cheap sleeping bag I had brought with me this time, on top of it. After that, I brought out my water I had collected and put it in alongside baskets in a place with good ventilation as my storage. And with that my base was complete.

I suppose I could do a better job than this but this is fine for now.

I wasn’t here for a jolly camping trip. I’ll spend most of my time collecting plants and herbs. Since I had reached earlier than planned, I decided to leave and start collecting as much as I can before the sun set.

In these 2 months I gathered as much info as I could from shops, pharmacies, medic guilds about poisonous plans and plan to collect them all one by one.

With my early prep work done, I headed out into the forest.

Until I killed that orc, I had been devouring every plant I could find around here but there was still all sorts of plants and vegetation growing around in numbers.

With no huge amounts of monsters or animal to feed on the greenery, I even saw plants growing here that I had seen in Realzard being used and sold for food or medicine.

I was attracted to those as well but this time around I decided to ignore the plants I already knew about and only collected plants that I hadnt seen or looked poisonous.

If I focused on finding the plants I ate here during my last trip, it’d make things easier to find but unfortunately, I didn’t remember much of what I was putting in my mouth because I was so panicked and desperate.

Unable to really recall anything significant, I decided to just gather anything I could find that looked somewhat recognizable; and with that today’s gathering was over.

Returning back to base, I pulled out the plants I had collected, started recording details on the paper I had brought with me.

If I was rich, I could eat them one by one, get analysed, and perfectly record their effects but that was impossible for me right now.

This time around, I’ll focus on simply writing what all I ate, and if I see no difference in the next analysis, I’ll ignore them on my next trip.

If it did increase, I’ll pick half of the current batch, eat them, and have myself analysed, and so on and so forth to continue finding exact results.

After recording the detailed appearance, and a made up name I gave; I began to eat the plants.

I hadnt forgotten their taste, so I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about this part but thinking of it as part of my training, I began to swallow them one by one.

Since I wasn’t dying of hunger like last time, my pace of eating was much slower but soon I had eaten all 8 types of plants. Soon after, my stomach recoiled from the bitter taste that made me feel like I was choking , reminding me once again, that these plants in fact were most certainly not meant to be eaten as food.

Taking a bite from the fruits I had brought with me to wash away the taste, I looked at the papers that I had recorded the details on.

My goal this time around, was to eat at least 30 types of poisonous plants.And I plan to take all 30 of these plants back to Realzard as well.

Putting these plants inside the baskets with access to sunlight and ventilation that I had placed before, I began to dry them to preserve them for long term use.

I was worried if these will cause an issue during inspection when entering the city, but well, I’ll figure it out when that happens I guess.

While praying that my hard work pays off, I moved away from the baskets and entered my sleeping bag and soon fell asleep.