Here's a thought-provoking question for you: Why is there a [King] seated atop the Empire's throne? Shouldn't an [Emperor] rule the Empire? Strange, isn't it? Well, while we're at it, here's another thought-provoking question: Is it fair, just by asking that aloud, I've been sentenced to death? .... I woke up cold. My hard-earned cooking fire was long gone, but thankfully, so was the storm. I never thought much about it before landing in this world, but nature is nothing to mess around with. When you're almost always safely nestled in behind four walls, a good roof, and running electricity, it's easy not to worry about that sort of thing. Compared to a modern day structure, though, the shack was hardly fitting two out of three of those. The walls were thin, and the roof seemed to leak by design. Cold, clammy: those fit, but I didn't just lay down and accept the morning conditions as a matter of unchangable fact. Determined, I attempted to replicate the previous evening's results. Fire, then food. Fire... then food. But first: FIRE! ... fire? Shoot. Fighting with the piece of flint and metal beside the cook pit, I found myself humbled. Though I'd had luck the previous evening, or maybe just a moment of genius, this time the sparks were failing to catch. Even when I brought out a bit of fine tinder shavings that Gregory had saved in a small wooden box, the small embers I managed to coax to life, soon died out. It was frustrating. I had failed. It seemed like such a basic thing. Invented by someone in the stone age, simplified and perfected by the modern-day industrial complex. In any gas station or convenience store, I could probably buy a lighter for a dollar. Maybe, even less than a dollar. I could probably get a pack of matches for free in some places. Yet, there I was struggling to replicate the results of something that should be taken for granted. I'd been angry at a lot of things that had happened to me, but this was one of the few that pushed my buttons enough to have me sputtering curses. All I wanted, was breakfast. Warm food, the most basic of basic of luxuries. I just wanted to eat something. This was a world with magic, wasn't it? As a "Hero" shouldn't I have just been able to wave my hands and command some sort of spell to do this for me? ... the answer was apparently no. Out of sheer rage, I threw the flint and metal back where I'd found them, before collecting myself. In an effort to calm myself down, after, I had a quiet moment of meditation. Calm, I thought. I needed to be calm, because it was alright. Everything was okay: I didn't need the fire, I just wanted it. Logically, I could warm up another way, like exercising. Plus, I'd prepared extra food last night, so I could probably eat that without heating it. Optimistically, I would avoid getting sick on account of keeping the lip on the pot closed since I'd finished cooking it. And... well: even if I did get sick, my Vitality still needed some work. So, there was that. It was disgusting. Cold meal of fish and seaweed completed, stepping out of the shack that morning, I couldn't see myself going out on the boat. I was tired, still a little hungry, and by body hurt. Though my status in the glowing menu didn't seem to recognize injury, I knew that I needed to take it easy. The brutal march up the cliff was still a bit fresh in my mind, and I doubted that I'd be able to repeat the feat two days in a row. Instead, I opted to spend my time being as productive in other ways. Refilling one of the clay pots with water, from the nearby stream that ran off towards the cliffs, I got myself moving. Enough, that the chill left over from the storm seemed long gone, after only a few moments. Then, I set to cutting down another sapling. From that, I fashioned another make-shift walking staff, and took to walking around the edge of the cleared propery, making sure I didn't miss anything I might be able to use. Even after all that, though, I found the day was still young. Staff in hand, I considered stopping then and there, and spending a few hours making sure I wasn't getting rusty with the forms I'd been taught. It was a close enough approximation to a spear, that I knew it would probably serve my purposes. Plus, pushing myself through those motions had been the best method for consistently gaining attribute points I'd seen. But, I decided to save practicing for later. I had plenty of time for that, I reasoned, and there was only so much daylight. I could swing a staff around in the evening, just as easily as I could in the day. Besides, there was something specific I wanted to try and find. Dried Tubers. Those delicious looking roots had me thinking: Gregory had to have gotten them from somewhere. Considering how little he usually came back from town with, I had a good feeling that "somewhere" was a place nearby. Foraging. Just for an hour or two. I knew I wouldn't be an expert at it, but I could just take my time, and use [Identify] to help. By lunchtime, I was sure to have something good to eat. Something that wasn't fish, or fishy in flavor. How hard could it be? .... The answer: Harder than I thought. "Why is everything so damn poisonous?" I muttered to myself, setting down yet another prime example of should not be eaten.

Deathcap Mushroom

Profoundly dangerous, this is a type of fungi known to only grow only the edge of "The Forest of Madness." It can be fatal if consumed, but brings about death in a slow and painful manner. There are almost no uses for this mushroom, beyond the danger it presents.

It seemed that my quest for Tubers, was coming up with a big fat goose egg for results. Aside from a small handful of non-deadly mushrooms I'd tied to my belt with a cloth pouch, there was a lot more deadly plant and fungi about than I'd been hoping. The Forest of Madness wasn't that far off, but I suppose I'd just been expecting a bit more. It seemed that the problem with Tubers, dried or otherwise, was that the "Tuber" part wasn't visible. The edible portion of the plant was a root, which made for a confusing search, when you weren't sure what the actual above-ground portion looked like. To someone searching from above, who isn't particularly familiar with any of the plant life in the area (or any of the plant-life at all) the difficulty increases even further. Mushrooms, on the other hand, were much easier to find. Visibly scanning over the terrain for long enough, and they just seemed to appear. As if the human brain were almost seems built to find shapes like theirs.... well, I suppose evolution might have favored that, actually. But: mushrooms that are randomly found on the ground, as any trained outdoors-person will politely inform you, have a very bad habit of being poisonous. Which, put a bit of a damper on my spirit.

Warrior's Redshroom

Known for the hallucinogenic impact before death, this shroom was made famous by a warlord who had unlocked the [Poison Resistance] passive skill. Before battle, they would consume several, believing it brought them supernatural powers. Though, the belief was false, their legacy lives on. There are almost no uses for this mushroom, beyond the danger it presents.

Wasn't about to chow down on that one, though [Poison Resistance] did sound interesting.

Jundra's Tragedy

A deadly mushroom, known for the sudden onset of death after consumption. In lesser doses, typically dried, and ground into fine powder, severe sickness is the only effect. But, if swallowed whole, the mushroom will resist digestion. As such, when it does eventually dissolve, the rapid release of compounds bring about a very sudden, very painful, demise.

Or that one, either.

While I found a lot of interesting looking plant and fungal life that morning, there was almost nothing I wanted to eat. Apart from a few non-poisonous fungi, I'd come up almost completely empty handed. There were, though, some finds that fell into an entirely different category.

Singing Fern

Uncommon plant that produces a noticeable hum during strong winds. Roots can be used in medicinal potions, providing an effect of [Lesser Healing] when condensed. Often used with additional ingredients, for a more pronounced effect.

The Singing Fern wasn't exactly common, so far as my searching revealed, but it brought up a subject I'd been putting off. Money. While I found the concept of practicing Alchemy to be rather intriguing (if out of my reach for the moment) I was much more interested to know there might be value, lying around, just here on the ground. Alchemy might be well and good, and something I could look into eventually, but as long as there were already other people practicing it, I could still stand to benefit. Supply and demand was all I needed, and right there in the dirt, I could have an easy meal ticket. There was a thought. Apart from the few copper coins Gregory had hidden away in his shack, I'd lost all the earnings I'd made back at the Golden Wing camp. During my time in the Forest, in fact, I'd lost almost everything but my dagger and the clothes on my back. So, while I'd never been rich: I had been set back. Worse off, in many ways, from when I'd first arrived at the castle. With sword, or spear, or pack filled with goods. To call those things a "great fortune" wasn't accurate, but it brought up a very real problem. Somewhere down the line, I was going to need a method of putting food on the table. Fishing wasn't going to be a longterm solution. It might not even be a short term, on account of how difficult the boat was turning out to be. And, it wasn't as though I was going to stay here forever. True, compared to fishing, my foraging efforts hadn't yielded much in the way of immediate results. In fact, hours of utilizing [Identify] to scour the fields for herbs to come up with almost nothing, seemed a bit extreme. But, compared to fighting on a battlefield, the option was preferable. Compared to getting eaten by what might have been a giant sea-serpent... Gregory was right. It really was best not to think about it. Returning to the shack, covered in mud, with barely enough calories in my pouch to offset those I'd probably spent: I felt surprisingly motivated. No, I could fully admit: this wasn't a perfect solution. This wasn't a great haul, by any means, and I would have been much better off taking the boat back out. And yet, this was so much better than nothing. This was a first step. I would try again, tomorrow, I decided. Maybe, I would never find the elusive Tubers, but I could still look into gathering some more of those herbs. Even if they turned out to be worth next to nothing, I was sure I could still find a way to use them for my own benefit. At the very least, it didn't hurt to keep my options open.