For three days straight I was stuck in Mrs. Hemsworth’s store, learning the fine art of gathering the Crescent Moon Yin Flower. The only positive thing I gained from this torture session was 3 levels in [Herb Gathering], which is the minimum requirement for gathering the Crescent Moon Yin Flower.

She literally kept me in her shop the whole time too… Gave me food, a place to sleep. All so every other waking moment of the past three days at her store, I could be devoted to raising my [Herb Gathering] level.

However, now the torture sessions have finally ended.

Every village hunter who is going on this exhibition has been gathering at a small clearing outside of the village since early noon. I, however, was dragged out at the crack of dawn by Mrs. Hemsworth and have been waiting here ever since. While, of course, being lectured for one final time as well.

“Now Ian, we have been spending the pass three days learning how to pick this flower and any other herb you may encounter on your journey. And I want you to know that for every correctly picked herb you bring back with you I’ll pay you back double what I would usually pay you. Since I am, after all, taking you away from your other responsibilities.”

Mrs. Hemsworth continues on with her lecture for a bit, but I tune her out. I’m so nervous and excited about this exhibition. It’s almost like I am going on an adventure, like real adventurers do. Sadly my feeling of adventure is squished when the captain of the village hunters starts to talk to the crowd of hunters.

“Hello everyone, I’m glad that all of you have decided to humor Mrs. Hemsworth with what she believes is a very precious plant. If she is right about this, it could bring extra income to our small village. If not, then all the game and other materials we manage to gather along the way better make up for it.”

After giving his opening statement, George Markson, surveys the crowd around him. Apparently he was searching for a specific individual, because his next words begin as soon as he lays eyes on me. “And here with us today is the boy, Ian Blackstone, apparently he’s gonna be picking the plant. So let’s make sure the boy makes it through the end of the day, alright!”

With that remark, all the hunters that have been gathered turned their heads towards me. Looking like they are memorizing my very existence before turning away with last minute preparations. As if I will no longer exist to them outside this exhibition.

Finished gathering all their gear, George gives a small pack to me and Mrs. Hemsworth gives me her special herb gathering pouch. The reason why the pouch is special is because it contains a small space magic formation inside of it that lets the user carry around 10kg. Mrs. Hemsworth never lets this pouch out of her sight. So the fact that she has given me this pouch means how much the Crescent Moon Yin Flower is worth.

With both adults making sure I have everything I need to go into the Crescent Moon Forest, everyone else starts to move out. All while the Captain has kept a close eye on me as he moves along with his men, probably thinking I’m going to try to sneak back into the village or something.

Seriously, I was literally in torture hell raising my herb gathering level. No way am I going to sneak away! Plus with the money Mrs. Hemsworth is promising me for the Crescent Moon Yin Flower, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.

Finally leaving the image of the village behind us, we trek through the plains between the Crescent Moon Forest and the village.

By the time night descends, we have made it to the border of the forest. The Captain signals for everyone to start setting up camp. Apparently entering the forest while its dark out isn’t a smart idea.

As I watch the Captain setting up a tent like the rest of the hunters, he notices me in the distance watching everyone else. “IAN!” He yells over the noise of the camp. Some of the hunters turn their heads away from what they are doing to see why the Captain was shouting but upon realizing it wasn’t important they continue with their tasks.

Running towards the Captain, I notice him pointing to a small area beside his tent. “This is where you will set up your tent.” And tosses a small bundle onto said spot. I was never taught how to set up a tent, so this is gonna be fun.

Several minutes and a frustrated captain later, my tent for the night was set up. Some of the hunters watched out of the corner of their eyes and tried not to laugh for fear that the captain would pass the duty onto them. I’m apparently not the camping type…

After eating some warm soup made by the hunting teams ‘chef’ and I use that word lightly, it’s time for me to spend my first night outside of the village.

The next morning, the Captain signaled for us to break up camp and get ready to enter the forest. The process of breaking up camp, was slower than usual due to my presence. Like setting up a tent for the first time, breaking down one took me a lot of time too. So much time, in fact, that the Captain decided to assign a hunter to mentor me in camp set up. Apparently the Captain decided that he didn’t have enough patience or time to mentor me in the ways of camping. He probably doesn’t want to go through the frustrating process like last night.

The forest we are entering is called the Crescent Moon Forest, and it’s known for two things; the only place where the Crescent Moon Yin Flower grows and the magical enhancement called Moonlight Boost. The last one is only for the magical creatures that roam the forest. The moonlight from the Silver Moon Goddess turns into raw mana and is absorbed by the magical creatures and they gain a boost is their strongest stat trait. But this only occurs during the nighttime when the moon is visible in all of its phases.

Entering the forest, the mood of the hunters changed completely from when we were traveling on the first day. There was no funny banter, no unnecessary sounds were made like before. The hunter crept through the forest ready for anything.

Then there’s me. I’m literally the loudest thing walking in this forest. So loud in fact that I manage to scare a red-orange horned rabbit. It scared me too! I fell on my behind and could see all the smiles from the surrounding hunters that witnessed it. The red-orange horned rabbit was the first living magical creature I’ve seen.

Earlier in the day, the hunter that the Captain assigned me said that these horned rabbits were graded based on how many colors that they have on them. The highest seen horned rabbit is a rainbow horned rabbit. It has seven colours, just like a rainbow and apparently it is almost equal in strength to an adolescent dragon. Which is pretty scary considering it’s a rabbit.

Luckily this one is only a second grade horned rabbit. Apparently I could take it on equally, but if it was a third grade horned rabbit than I’m dead.

After my little embarrassment, we continued through the forest. It’ll take another two days to reach the location of the Crescent Moon Flower but hopefully nothing too exciting will happen in the meantime.