Chapter 110. Harvesting and selective breeding

「By the way, where did you go to have dinner yesterday?」(Hind)

「Hmm? Sushi not served in conveyor belts! They were tasty!」(Yumir)

While harvesting the crops after logging into TB, I chatted with Yumir about what happened yesterday.

In my hand was a small sickle, I tossed what I harvested into my inventory one after another.

I had just finished talking about our exploration of the pyramid with Albert and Philia, then shifted the conversation to what Miyu went to eat yesterday.

However, a high grade sushi store huh…I’m so jealous.

「Ah, fish is also nice. We ate hamburgers.」(Hind)

「Hamburgers!? At home!?」(Yumir)

「Yeah. Made the buns with fermented dough and toasted them, I also tried making homemade hamburgers from scratch. Since mom and Rise looked happy, I think they came out well. I think for next time, I might prepare pickles.」(Hind)

「…gulp.」(Yumir)

Yumir made a sound with her throat and her hands stopped moving.

That would have been fine by itself, but she was approaching me while begging me with her eyes.

So close, her face is so close.

「I get it, I got it! Next time I’ll make a portion for you too.」(Hind)

「You are not lying right!?」(Yumir)

「More importantly, look, don’t stop moving your hands. Today it’s only both of us here, if we just talk, we’ll never finish.」(Hind)

「Umu! Though even if you say that, as you can see, about half of them have withered!」(Yumir)

「Don’t say it, it’ll make me sad…」(Hind)

Even with the improved soil, half of the medicinal herbs we had planted had withered.

I think the biggest reason is that it’s too hot over here for them…

When it comes to the succulent plants, they have grown pretty big in just a few days without any issues.

Though I guess that’s pretty obvious considering those plants are local ones.

「But Yumir, have you noticed? We are picking the medicinal herbs along with seeds right?」(Hind)

「I can see that, is there anything wrong with them?」(Yumir)

「Along with the normal seeds, there are some weird ones mixed in there. Look at them carefully.」(Hind)

Since the inventory automatically sorts things, it should be easy to see.

Hearing my words, Yumir opened her window menu and operated it.

「Re…sistance…?」(Yumir)

「They have resistance to heat level 1. In other words, these medicinal herbs…」(Hind)

「You mean that they have adapted to the heat?」(Yumir)

「It seems like that’s the case. If we can stock up on this generation of medicinal herbs that have heat resistance, in other words-」(Hind)

「Ooh!」(Yumir)

Yumir’s face brightened up.

There’s the possibility in the future that the number of medicinal plants that wither will drastically decrease.

Plants inside the game grow way faster than in real life, so there’s a possibility that it becomes reality in the not so far future.

「Once we are done with the medicinal herbs, I want to grow some food ingredients.」(Hind)

「Potatoes, Hind! We should grow potatoes!」(Yumir)

「You, you were just reminded of the hamburgers and are thinking about..French fries?」(Hind)

「Umu! Ah, just so you know, I also plan to eat that hamburger in real life OK!? I don’t want to do it inside the game! Even if it tastes the same!」(Yumir)

「I know.」(Hind)

To begin with, since the cookware is different, there’s no way they would taste the same.

The seasoning would also be different from real life.

Now that I think about it, I have never had that taste inside the game…they don’t appear that often, monster meat that is.

「Speaking of ingredients, in order to raise cattle, we should make an area with grass.」(Hind)

「Something like cows, pigs and…birds?」(Yumir)

「That’s right. There is far more preliminary work involved compared to a farmland, so we’ll have to do a lot of planning since it’ll be difficult.」(Hind)

「We would also need a shed among other things, even though there are games out there that prepare everything for you…」(Yumir)

We had already bought a plot of land for that purpose, so we plan to go through the same soil improvement method in the future.

Like Yumir said, we also need to build a shed to raise animals in it, it’ll take some time until we can finally start with that.

We can’t really afford to work on it currently.

We might have been able to use one that was originally in a village or something, but unfortunately, Waaha didn’t really have an agricultural district.

In a way, it’s as if we were forced to do farmwork in a big city, there were no small amount of inconveniences.

We stopped chatting for a little bit and for a short amount of time, we just kept harvesting.

「…Hey, Hind. Hasn’t it been a while since we were alone for this long?」(Yumir)

「Probably. We were only alone during the game’s launch, shortly after, Rise…I mean, Riizu joined us.」(Hind)

“That midget”…muttered Yumir as her face warped once she remembered that.

However, she returned to normal instantly, faced me and said.

「If you were to ask me, I would be happy if we could spend alone together like this once in a while…is that no good…?」(Yumir)

She was acting quite meekly and looked at me as if she wanted to know what I thought about it.

I thought for a second that I should make fun of her, but I stopped myself.

If I angered her here, she would not talk to me until tomorrow morning. Though she would forget after she went to sleep.

「You sure are saying something unusual. It’s not like you hate it when it’s lively, right?」(Hind)

「I rather like it? I don’t mean that, my time with you is like when you say you have a different stomach for cake. You could say that it’s like some nutrient that I definitely nee-」(Yumir)

「Your comparisons sure are weird as always. You even infected my mom with it…

But well, I sort of get what you mean. Let’s see…」(Hind)

I used the serious side of my brain and thought about it.

At school or at home, it’s true that the chances for both of us to be alone were few.

「I’ll make some time for us to be alone like this. Today might have been a coincidence but…how about I shift the times a bit from time to time and we log in before everyone else?」(Hind)

「Really!? You are being serious right!? Alright, I can feel the power flowing!」(Yumir)

Yumir’s cheeks loosened as she blushed.

And with that vigor, she harvested the medicinal herbs at high speed.

I’m so anxious that she might cut her own hand…

「Ah, just so you know, by shifting the time, I mean that we’ll go in earlier. No staying up late.」(Hind)

「I know! It’s fine if I leave the student council early right!?」(Yumir)

「Like hell it is! You, is your brain ok right now!?」(Hind)

As a result, we talked and decided that we would log in early if both of our situations were suitable for it.

Once we finished harvesting, we planted the seeds by giving priority to those with heat resistance and finished our work after watering them.

After that we planted succulent plants, then we began working on the sandy soil.

We mixed some medicinal herbs in there and they strengthened the effect on the soil, they have a lot of uses.

Among the plants, there was a type that Yumir consulted me about planting them and admired.

「Oh, they have bloomed beautifully…the Adeniums.」(Hind)

「Umu, you are right. Though I don’t like how they share the same name as that queen.」(Yumir)

The Adenium, also called the Desert Rose, was a beautiful crimson flower.

Yumir was planning to use these in the contest but…

Looking at the expression of the person in question, I could easily see what she was going to say next.

「But, if it’s just like this, it’s boring!」(Yumir)

「I thought you would say that. So, what do you plan to do?」(Hind)

「I’ll leave it to you! Make some sort of plan!」(Yumir)

You are going to leave it to others? Yup, even if you tell me to make it not boring…

Regarding plants, if you told me what drew your attention to them would be: the colour, the shape, how big they are and the fragrance, etc.

「Should we try to do some selective breeding…?」(Hind)

「Oh? For example?」(Yumir)

「Even if we talk about red flowers, there are a lot of pink ones out there, so let’s aim for something like one that’s more bright red. Or we could do something like they do with roses and make an azure Adenium. I think I’ve seen a Blue Adenium somewhere.」(Hind)

「Ooh! I see!」(Yumir)

「I mean, it’s a game, the degree of difficulty should be easier than it would be in real life, so it should work? What type would you want, you have until tomorrow to think about it properly. If we hurried up, they would be done in time for the date of the contest.」(Hind)

「Got it!」(Yumir)

After that, while being cautious of the thorns of the cactuses, we finished harvesting and planted seeds for the second time.

With this, tonight’s activities in the agricultural area are finished.

We were able to smoothly finish the work we had planned. It didn’t take that much time either.

With a large amount of plants in our inventory, we returned to our guild home.