188: Tea
Dashing towards the smokehouse and ripping the door open in a panic, hoping I had not ruined all the grass.
Entering the room, I was relieved to see it had not burnt, but some of it was certainly worse off. Instead of the greenish tinge it would normally have, it was now a grey-brown and crumbled away instantly when I went to touch it, while giving off an acrid smell.
The bundles further away from the vents spreading the smoke, however, seemed to be fine. They still had a green tinge to them, and although dry, they didn’t crumble to nothing.
Just in case, I piled everything into two separate piles, with the eight bunches I had ruined in one and the other fourteen to the side. I used infuse on both.
Notifications:
You have reached Level 4 in Resonate Balance!
That was unexpected. I had not really levelled up much at all in a long time, so it was nice to see an upgrade.
Inspecting the grass, I was surprised to see that both got the buff, but the one that I had overdone was providing a minor speed boost, while the regular one was providing the expected moderate speed buff. The question was, though, how bad did it taste?
I stored it all away before pulling out the next bundles, this time ensuring I positioned them away from the hottest areas so I wouldn’t over-dry them again.
Heading into the kitchen, I found myself a kettle. Filling it with water to try this tea, I was dreading it because it didn’t smell good at all.
Liane and Crisplet both entered the kitchen while I was preparing the tea.
“Oh, you’re making tea?” Liane said.
I knew I should warn her, but I felt it would be funnier if I didn’t, so I kept preparing the tea after a nod. The problem was, there was no hiding the smell. There was an acrid burnt aroma coming from the pot.
“You burnt it, didn’t you?” Liane said, leaning over my shoulder.
“Yeah, but apparently it’s still buffed with minor speed, so worse than the regular tea. I wanted to try just how bad it is,” I commented, pulling out two cups.
“Provided it’s not poisonous, people will absolutely want it, regardless of how bad the taste is. The speed boost gives someone far better reaction speed, as well as a noticeable bump to your movement speed. You walk faster, run faster, and fight better. That’s why it’s so valuable,” Liane explained while I poured the tea through the strainer.
I waited until Liane took her cup. At this stage, I would not suffer alone.
The smell was unpleasant. It had an acrid smell to it and a very strong smoky smell now that it was up close that felt like it clung to your throat.
“You drink first. I want to know if it’s poison,” Liane said with a grin.
With a sigh, I tried not to breathe it in as I took my first sip.
It was not pleasant. For the briefest of moments there was a lemon flavour, but it was rapidly overrun with a strong bitter flavour, followed by a burn on my tongue and throat that left an almost ash-like taste behind. But there was no poison notification, so that was a win, right?
“Not poison,” I said, looking around for some water to rinse my mouth out.
Liane took a sip herself and scrunched up her face before drinking the rest of the tea in a single gulp.
“It’s awful, but if you drink it quickly, you only get the aftertaste once, but you get the buff. Minor speed, three hours. This will sell like crazy, burnt or not,” she said with a chuckle, also getting some water.
“I really want to throw it away,” I laughed.
“Don’t you dare. Someone like Hari wouldn’t even notice the taste,” Liane commented.
I laughed, thinking she was joking. I had seen Hari eat some odd things like the grarok that tasted like shoe leather without issue, but this was different. This burnt.
“Want to make a bet?” Liane grinned.
I shook my head. “Not really, no.”
“I’ll bet you one muffin that Hari won’t even notice it tastes bad at all,” Liane continued, ignoring me.
“You can’t even make a muffin, though!” I contested.
“That’s how sure I am. Watch.” She vanished, leaving me alone with the tea.
It didn’t take long before Hari, Milo, and Jen all entered. Liane was pushing Hari to the front, though, quickly pouring him a cup before the others even caught up.
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“Hari tries first,” she said, handing it to him.
He looked at her with clear scepticism but took the cup all the same, bringing it to his mouth and not even recoiling at the smell, instead sipping it.
There was a pause as I waited for him to recoil or spit it out. However, it never came. He instead took another sip as Jen caught the smell, giving the expected recoil, which in turn made Milo approach it cautiously.
“It’s not bad. I like the smoky flavour,” Hari said with a nod.
“See! You owe me a muffin!” Liane turned to me.
“No, I don’t. I never took the bet,” I retorted.
Jen, looking between us, just let out a sigh. “Anyone want to tell us what’s going on?”
“Trev burnt the tea grass when he was drying it, but it still gets a minor speed buff. He wanted to throw it away, but I told him people would still drink it and buy it, and got Hari here to prove a point,” Liane explained.
Hari looked surprised, looking down at his half-empty teacup. “Tastes alright to me?”
Milo sipped a small amount while Jen pushed the tea away, deciding not to try it after all.
“Honestly, just sell it as smoky lemon tea, and adventurers will buy it,” Milo shrugged.
“I made a new candy today,” I announced, since everyone was there.
This caught everyone’s attention as I pulled out four of the Ril berry candies, handing one to everyone. They all ate it immediately.
“This will sell really well,” Milo commented.
“Just from the dungeon-goers?” I asked curiously.
This comment caused Jen and Milo to chuckle. “No, even non-adventurers will buy this,” Milo said.
I was now officially confused. I thought luck had no effect on anything outside of dungeons. “But wh—”
I was interrupted by Milo, who clearly knew the question I was about to ask. “You’re right, there is no known effect of luck outside of dungeon loot. However, that doesn’t stop the widespread superstition that it must be more than that, that the system wouldn’t just have a stat for only dungeons and there must be some other use we have not worked out yet.”
“Do you believe it?” I asked.
Milo snorted. “I believe in facts, and until someone shows me some form of proof that it affects anything, I don’t believe it, no.”
Jen raised her hand. “I kind of believe it. I mean, look, you have a slightly above-average luck stat, and I know Milo does too. Trev, you lucked out with a rare class and finding a group fairly easily that you clicked with. Milo is learning magic by association that he’d never get to experience otherwise, from an actual dragon.”
I expected Milo to have a comeback to this, but he said nothing.
“Sounds pretty lucky to me,” Hari commented, hitting his arm gently.
“It’s a coincidence. You can’t claim every time you get lucky is due to your luck stat,” Milo mumbled.
“Anyway, these will sell incredibly well as well. Also, it tastes fantastic. There is an intense sweetness with a tart aftertaste,” Jen said.
Spending the rest of the evening trying again to communicate with Crisplet, I thought I had some success when I swore the feeling I got back from him was “excitement for tomorrow.”
I also didn’t burn the lemon tea grass bunches, so in total I had thirty-four bundles of moderate speed and eight bundles of smoky tea.
Entering my room, Lily was sprawled across the bed, and I swear was intentionally covering it as much as possible. I had to force my way onto the edge to get enough room to sleep as I felt my mana slowly get drained.
***
Waking up early the next morning, I quickly got dressed in my formal wear. If I were going to represent my house, I may as well go all the way. I also made sure to wear my scale mail chest plate under the jacket, which worked really well with the vibrant green.
I was just about done when Lily appeared behind me with something in her mouth, dropping it on the floor. It looked like fabric. Reaching down, I picked up what was hard to describe. It was fur, and felt like silk, but I couldn’t concentrate on any single point. It seemed to blur away. Unrolling it, I saw it was a dark fur neck scarf, which I had to assume was made out of Lily’s own fur. How she managed that was beyond me.
The longer I looked at it, the stranger it was, as it didn’t seem to sit still. The fur was constantly moving, with the centre of the scarf appearing to faintly absorb light as it was darker than its surrounds.
I wasn’t sure how to wear these. I had seen them before, and I knew you tied them in front of your neck, but I didn’t know exactly what to do, so I wrapped it around and tied it off, noting it was just long enough to cover the dragon’s face on the armour.
“Thank you, Lily. It’s amazing!” I said.
Heading downstairs, I was met by Archie, who appeared to be waiting.
“Good morning, sir. I have organised a carriage for you, which will be waiting for whenever you’d like to go. Miss Carlye asked me to inform you she has already gone ahead with Jen and Milo to prepare, while Mr. Lind is there with the two young guards preparing them for their day,” Archie said, bowing at the same time.
“Morning, Archie. So it’s just Liane and Sylverith here?” I asked.
“That’s correct, sir. Sylverith I believe, is in the library. Miss Liane, I have not seen yet,” Archie said.
“I’m here, I’m here,” Liane voiced from the top of the stairs.
She was in her regular armour, but seeing me in my formal wear, she spun around.
“I’ll be just a moment while you grab Sylverith,” she called, already racing back towards the hallway.
I made my way to the library as Crisplet caught up to me, entering to see Sylverith still surrounded by stacks of books, which now looked like they had grown even more.
“Sylverith, we’re heading to Micca’s cafe today, if you’d like to come with us?”
“That sounds like a pleasant break,” Sylverith said, standing up.
“Come here, young one. Let me fix that neck scarf. It looks like you’ve just randomly tied it around your neck,” she said, coming over and adjusting it. I couldn’t help but notice it now also sat just above the dragon’s head on the armour.
Making our way back to the foyer, I was met by Liane, who was now wearing her own formal wear again, as she locked onto my neck scarf.
“Is that…” she began.
“From Lily, yes,” I confirmed before she could finish the sentence.
“I can’t see it properly. It’s so strange,” Liane said, coming closer.
“I’ll show you later! We need to go. Everyone else is already there,” I said, not letting her take a closer look. I didn’t want to be late for the event. I still had not given Micca the new candy or tea yet!