Chapter 58

Grinding Levels on the Ethereal Plane

We collected berries together. Warm strawberries that soaked up the sun and flashed a metallic red. Blueberries that were near bursting and as big as my thumb. Clusters of cassis that were heavy enough to make the shrubs look like they were dripping fruit. Lugging fruit. Peaches that nearly split apart when plucked from their cool shade. These were fruits that Dellia loved. That we shared for some time. Fruits that multiplied her joy.

“Well, Hawkin,” Dellia said at last. “It’s been a pleasure. I look forward to seeing what beers you send my way. Your beers will be turning up into the hands of adventurers, you know. Farewell for now, and perhaps I’ll see you once you return to this plane. Perhaps not until later. Good luck.”

I gave my goodbye and watched Dellia walk into a field of goldenrods and lilacs. When she passed into the shade of a lilac, I could see her no more.

[Quest: Answer Dellia’s Calling. Complete!]

[Reward: 1 silver ranked uncommon Brewer’s Loot Chest.]

I opened the loot chest. There were two 5 gallon oak barrels. Empty barrels. The hoops were silver. From the bunghole, they stank of islands, spice, and sap. I could not identify the wood and there were no signatures from a cooper or brewery.

Aside from the barrels, there were pale barley seeds, yeast, a coiled vine of jungle-green hops, 10 skill books, and 2 silver boots.

“Silver boots,” I muttered.

They were made entirely out of silver. The laces were silver and pulled away from the tongue to form a solid handle. It was when I grasped one by the handle that I realized they were meant as drinking vessels.

Most interesting were the barley seeds, and after stowing everything away, I went on a stroll. There was an easy path that took me by the field of goldenrods and lilacs, through the honeysuckles, and emerged out onto rolling meadows. It was there that I used my Brewer’s Harvest skill for the first time.

A couple of seeds flew out from my inventory as though carried by a wind. The seeds settled into the ground before me. My mana dwindled, and the seeds sprouted. Only a few seeds, but they stretched into long stems and blades of grass in mere moments. The tips plumped with grain heads that matured in the blink of an eye. When the barley ripened, they popped off the grain head and streamed towards me, vanishing into my inventory. When I examined the barley, they had germinated, malted, and were ready to be used.

Not nearly enough to brew even the smallest bottle of beer, but I’ll get there.

The only way to get there was to level up. Taking Dellia’s advice, I spent the rest of my day waiting every few minutes for my mana to refill, and then using Brewer’s Harvest over and over again. Before running out of seeds, I harvested some more, and plucked a few kernels from their stream of travel to my inventory. They had been germinating en route and I simply tossed those on the ground and grew more. Thus I had infinite barley at my whim.

Training my skill through repetition was tedious. Were I not amazed by watching the grass grow, it would have been monotonous. This was so far one of the most important skills I learned. I had no idea what skill would come next, but I was beyond excited and looking forward to it. If things kept up, I could be brewing beer in mid-air and bottling it in cyclones of wind.

I did not doubt Dellia’s words. I’d nearly portaled when drinking two different beers so far. If I could brew beers that worked like doors to ethereal planes, how awesome would that be? I wonder if I could keep a cellar on an ethereal plane.

I could hike up to the cliffs that overlook the valley, and pull any beer out of my cellar on an ethereal plane without having to keep it in my inventory. I might eventually be able to live on an ethereal plane!

Except Thrush might not be able to come, and I did not want to defy the goddess assigned to my quest path. So long as Thrush was my friend, I would not be moving to live on a plane. It was an easy decision since I loved my woods.

…but the goblins.

They’re deforesting. I thought it would have gotten better as the chill of winter thawed, but it hasn’t. It’s getting worse. Many goblins are venturing from their fleet and exploring the land, foraging with harshness, ripping trees away, and dragging destruction behind them.

What have I gotten myself into?

The goblin situation was something too complicated to handle at the moment and it fell to the back of my mind. When my mana refilled for the 300th time on this plane, I cast out more seeds and used Brewer’s Harvest. I’d earned enough barley to brew at least 5 gallons. Now it was time to switch to cultivating hops. I took the new jungle-green hops and examined the coil.

That’s when I realized why I received some hops in coiled vines, and others simply as a pile of hops. I was able to break off a section of vine, throw it to the ground, and then use Brewers Harvest on it. The vine grew a few feet every second, whipping about as they grew higher and higher. Hops fruited and ripened on the vine. They plucked off and came streaming right into my inventory.

Along with the hops came fragrances of jungle flowers, sour tamarind, freshly cut grass, resinous pine, and damp moss. The fragrances stirred a hunger for hoppy beers, and I realized that I hadn’t yet brewed a really hoppy beer.

There were now three beers I wanted to brew next. The best oatmeal stout that I could, the hoppiest beer that I could, and an attribute beer. The latter being the most difficult, because I might not have the skillset, or access to ingredients that would allow for that.

Guess I’ll have to study my guide some more and see if there’s anything nearby I could use. Anything I can forage.

In the meantime, I set my goals aside so that I could focus on alternating between harvesting barley and harvesting hops. I was thankful for the ambient mana that replenished mine, because I could simply grind my skills without getting too drunk on mana beers.

My efforts had earned me several levels in the Brewer’s Harvest skill. I reaped the rewards of my grind as each level up earned me more hops and more barley.

I was just lifting my hand to use Brewer’s Harvest for maybe the 1000th time when I blinked and found myself suddenly back in my cabin.

I was alone, with everything just as it had been. Though I’d been working all day, repeating the same task, I only felt the slightest bit tired. Certainly not what I should have been feeling. I should have felt physically and mentally exhausted.

Without a Planes Cutter shard, I couldn’t cut into the plane. Which left me with the task of brewing beer to donate to Dellia in exchange for more.

“Well, I better hop on that,” I said and finished the last sip of my still chilled Ale of the Vale of Ara.

For the rest of the night, I used my newest ingredients to brew a hoppy beer. I didn’t roast the barley this time, wanting to taste the simple results of my harvest before doing anything different. I generously hopped the beer, and transferred everything into one of my new barrels that smelled of islands, spices, and sap. I dry hopped the wort with a small handful of the jungle-green hops, pitched it with yeast, and set the wooden air-lock ball onto the bunghole.

I promptly earned another level in Brewing and decided to see what Thrush or BarnacleEyes were up to.