Sword Among Us

Herbalists were different from ironsmiths and tailors in the sense that most of the ingredients ironsmiths and tailors required were from wild beasts, while the higher grade weapons would need all sorts of metals dug out from mines. They could hire people to do this sort of thing. In fact, they could just buy pelts and metals from the market. Once they processed them, they could cover the cost they spent to buy them.

Herbalists were different. They could only enter dense forests to collect their ingredients themselves. Usually, they would need to spend a lot of time and energy to search for just a few herbs.

And when they collected herbs, they also had to be very careful and professional. Not all people could collect the herbs as they pleased. If their skills were not outstanding, they could not ensure that the gathered herb was still in perfect condition, and the medicine they refined would suffer terribly in quality!

Also, the higher grade the herbs were, the rarer they were, and it was much more difficult to discover them.

It was precisely because collecting the herbs that required a lot of time and a high degree of skill. Because of limited resources, many players during the early stages of the game gave up on becoming herbalists!

There was also another problem.

There was a certain risk in collecting herbs.

Even though the herbs that grew on their own were very easy to collect in forests, wild beasts would often roam the area. Some places where the herbs grew densely would also attract a lot of snakes, wild creatures, and some strange plants.

The Bloodsucking Grass was one of them.

This plant loved growing in areas with a lot of herbs, and it kept itself very well hidden. It would quietly extend their leaves when wild beasts and humans approached it and attach itself to them.

Even though the Bloodsucking Grass would only suck blood and rip tears, if too much blood loss occurred, lives would still be lost!

One Bloodsucking Grass might not be terrifying, and a normal player could just get rid of it through gritted teeth, but there would be lots of them in areas with a lot of herbs.

Blooduscking Grass could affect people’s movements when it wrapped itself around them. Soon, they would be covered in wounds, and they would lose their ability to fight back. Players who were below Blessed Realm could not handle a large number of Bloodsucking Grass. In other words, it was very difficult for herbalists to find herbs that grew alone, but if they searched for areas with a lot of herbs, they would find it very troubling and dangerous to collect them!

Grade seven medicinal pills, such as Dew Pills could already be considered as middle-grade medicinal pills. Refining one pill would require a large number of middle-grade herbs, and the chances of a herbalist coming into contact with Bloodsucking Grass would increase. Hence, when Happy heard that the man before him had a few bottles of Dew Pills, he was very astonished.

The man stared at Happy curiously, feeling quite puzzled.

He wanted to ask why Happy had asked him that question. The cost of the herbs required to create a grade seven medicinal pill, such as Dew Pill, was around one thousand eight hundred taels of silver crumbs.

A successful pill cost two thousand and five hundred taels of silver crumbs, and even famous and large guilds could only stare at it and sigh. Very few of them would dare to buy them. The herbalist had been trying to sell them for many days, and only a handful of people had bought them. Every single time they did, they would only buy one, saying that they could use it to protect their lives when in danger. Because of it, he no longer had the confidence to bring out all the medicinal pills he had to sell.

Over the past few days, the money he had had dwindled, and it could no longer support him when going into Herb Mountain. If this was not the case, he would not be simply sitting around for half a day.

His only hope was that someone would buy more of his medicine so that he could continue being an herbalist.

When Happy asked him how many bottles he had, he did not think of anything else.

“I only have four bottles that are of presentable quality. They make a total of thirty-six pills. If you buy in bulk, I can give you a discount.”

When the stall owner saw that Happy was not trying to make him happy and then turning him into a joke, he answered. Since he was bored, he might as well tell the truth.

The next words he heard shocked him so much that he felt as if he was in a dream.

“Based on the price you set, thirty-six pills would mean ninety thousand taels of silver crumbs. How about this? Herbalists have a tough life, and I don’t want to take advantage of you either. I’ll buy all of your pills with ninety thousand taels of silver crumbs. In exchange, when you create more Dew Pills in the future, could you save all of them for me? How does that sound?”

If Happy had not already brought out a stack of silver notes to pay for the pills, the stall owner would have thought that the boy in front of him was joking.

“Ah! You want all of them? Alright!”

The man was delighted!

He had just earned ninety thousand taels of silver crumbs. Even though it was not much, the money would be enough for him to maintain his life as an herbalist for another month. This was money that saved his life!

The trade for four bottles of Dew Pills was over, and the man suddenly wondered why Happy needed to buy so many Dew Pills. Was he someone important in some guild?

Happy smiled and put away the medicinal bottles into his Universe Bag.

“Let’s add each other as friends so that it’ll be easy for us to contact each other in the future.”

“Alright!”

Once the man received the silver notes, he was very much at ease. He was beside himself with joy and asked, “My name is Pomelo. What about you, brother?”

Happy did not answer him. He only sent a friend request.

Pomelo was a little surprised before he accepted the request with a grin. Then, his expression changed. He recited Happy’s name a few times in his heart as his gaze turned dazed. He pointed at Happy, and shock was reflected on his face.

Happy’s name was listed on the Famous People Rank and Rich Rank in the World of Martial Arts Secret News Log. By then, there were few people who did not know about him, and the people in the market definitely did, since the flow of information was incredibly quick there.

The Blue-robed Noble Sword User who came from Gusu City was discussed everywhere in the market.

Happy did not say anything. He only brought up one finger, and without batting an eyelid, made a shushing motion.

Pomelo understood what he meant. He nodded vigorously, and the excitement as well as joy in his eyes grew.

“Next time, when you create Dew Pills, just send them to me. I’ll buy at the price that you’ve set.”

Happy did not linger in the area. Once he finished speaking, he squeezed his way into the crowd and vanished from Herbalist Pomelo’s eyes, leaving him to clench his fists in excitement while his heart remained filled with enthusiasm for a long time. In the end, he closed shop and left as well.

Soon, Pomelo left the city and headed to Herb Mountain, where no one was willing to go.

*****

Once Happy bought a batch of Dew Pills, the one million and three hundred thousand taels of silver crumbs fell to one million and two hundred thousand. However, he was still on the Rich Rank, and he did not even drop. In fact, his rank had increased.

Many of the unlucky rich men had their money stolen from them, and their ranks plunged down the drain.

Happy had ample time, so he continued to browse through the streets of Luoyang in search of resources that he could use.

Soon, he stopped in front of a stall that sold martial art manuals.

It was surrounded by people without a single gap to squeeze through. It was filled with activity!

However, this was naturally not a problem for Happy. He adjusted his field of vision, and soon, he saw the items sold in the stall while looking down from above.

There were around a dozen martial art manuals on sale. There were low-tier martial art manuals and high-tier martial art manuals among them.

Happy did not behave like the others. He skipped the low-tier martial art manuals straight away and cast a glance at the three high-tier martial art manuals that were praised by the players and highly sought after. Then, he looked at the dozen low-tier martial arts.

He skimmed through them one by one. Upon noticing one of them, his eyes lit up.

There was something good there!

Even though the price for one of the three high-tier martial art manuals was very high—two hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver crumbs, and it was a price people could hardly afford—the prices of the low-tier martial art manuals were still rather fair. Each of them was five hundred taels of silver crumbs, but only few people showed any interest in them.

If they were all just low-tier martial arts, Happy would naturally not pay them any heed.

But the main point was that there was actually a set of martial arts in there.

The low-tier martial art Shadowless Kick and the high-tier martial art Stormy Shadowless Kick were both sold at the stall.

More importantly, that set of martial arts was just the high-speed martial art that Happy needed the most right then!