NOVEL WEB Chapter 20: The Fruit
During the night, as expected, Foin's garden matured. His two peppers, which he had used many more seeds to grow, seemed to be fully grown now; still, they had green peppers and only seven on the two together.
The greatest change happened to the mysterious plant, which had barely grown previously. Now, that tiny leaf had grown greatly. It was now much larger but was still quite small. Its height barely reached knee level; still, despite that tiny size, it had a single product. The plant had a structure that of a tree, as it finally started branching outwards.
Not only were its leaves dark, but its whole log was as well. However, it had other great and unique characteristics. In the light wind, while everything was slightly moving, it stayed still, almost as if it was unaffected by it.
Just like its main body and leaves, its fruit was also dark. It looked like a dark grey peach. Despite the size of the tree, it was quite large, about the size of a human fist, and despite its size, it was not pulling the small and fragile tree down.
Although it was a great event, it was not the most surprising for Foin. As soon as he woke up, he drank a bottle of his tea and then looked at his leg as he was no longer feeling any pain from it. Although it still had slight marks from the incident, his leg was mostly healed by that point.
He was certain that the injury would last for at least a few months; as a result, he didn't really check on his leg at all. He was too focused on his tiny domain. But this was way too quick; he regenerated at an unbelievable rate.
He gently touched his leg just to be sure that it was not an illusion. It was not; he applied light pressure around the area where his marks were, and he was delighted to feel that even the light pressure was no problem.
"Wow... Maybe this is the effect of these strangely tasty plants? Now that I look at it, that strange seed has finally bore its first fruit..."
He mumbled after a few minutes of touching his leg. As his gaze was fixated on that tiny tree, he quickly made his way next to it. Although the tea's effect had yet to kick in, he felt absolutely no pain at all. Once he was next to the plant, he kneeled down and took a closer look.
At first, he thought that it would be just some small plant and one which would be hard to reproduce. And that the only fruit would be the only seed he would get, but upon closer inspections, he noticed that the plant was a tree, one which he had never seen before, so he gently touched its fruit and harvested it.
"New species recognised, Peteach!"
"You have gained 7 Experience Points and 7 Points!"
"Notice! Peteach! Level: Rare. Tier: 1. Quality: F. Type: Food/Resource. Maturity:100%"
Foin read the texts which had popped up as soon as he had harvested the plant. He was quite surprised to see the details of this fruit, especially its type. But that was not the only thing that had surprised him. The fruit itself was another stun; it had such a large weight that he hadn't expected. Despite it being the size of his fist, it weighed about one and a half kilograms.
"Food and resource? What could it mean? Also... did it just give me SEVEN times the amount of Experience Points and Points than any other plant?! WOW!"
He slowly pulled the fruit closer to him and slightly shook it. As the product moved, he heard some sort of strange splashing from inside the plant. He then proceeded to feel the plant around. After applying light pressure to it, he concluded that despite its weight, it just felt as if it was a real peach, just a bit harder but still soft.
Since he was unsure what that strange liquidy sound was, and he didn't want to eat it without checking out, he quickly decided to open the fruit. Despite its soft exterior, for some reason, as he applied greater pressure, it seemed sturdier; still, he managed to tear it open.
At that moment, from the core of the fruit, some kind of dark grey liquid started flowing out. As the liquid was flowing out, Foin noticed that the weight of the fruit was decreasing. Foin just watched as the dark liquid flowed out of the fruit. He was unsure what it was, but he assumed that since it was most of the fruit's weight, it must have been the resource part of the fruit.
Much to his surprise, the liquid which flowed out was way more than it could have possibly fit into the core of the fruit as he had examined its core. As a result, he came to the conclusion that the liquid is not only stored inside the core but also in the edible part, so he can't just go about and eat it without letting the liquid out.
Once every last drop of the strange dark liquid was out of the fruit, Foin carefully took a bite of it. Since it was such a valuable fruit that it gave seen times the reward for harvesting, he believed it must taste great. And how right he was. Despite its strange outlook, its taste was heavenly. He savoured every last bit of it until he ate it all. And even after that, a weaker taste still lingered in his mouth.
As he was done enjoying the taste of the fruit, he looked down at the liquid on the ground. Previously, it touched his fingers; however, it didn't stick to him, so he carefully poked the liquid. While he was eating, the liquid had slightly expanded, and as Foin touched it, he confirmed that it felt different. Previously, it flowed as if it was water, but now it grew somewhat jelly, and it slowly grew drier and drier.
Driven by a new thought, Foin waited for a few minutes and started forming the liquid. Soon, it reached the state of some kind of plasticine. And as he was forming it, he felt that it grew harder and harder. He quickly used the strange moldable substance to form a pot, which he had so desperately tried to do previously. He was able to pull the substance to a great extent and was able to form it into a bucket, which would hold at least two litres of liquid, maybe a bit more.