Chapter 170: Shocking Honesty
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Yuri held soil-covered seeds in her small hands, carefully looking at them.
She had been learning about Herbology and its thousands of different nts for her sses, but not enough to know every seed from her memory.
She spent most of her time learning Magick from a genius magician, Kevin, who had taught her all of the basics.
After doing her tutorial, she nned on bing a magician, so she only learned the basics of Herbology to not get a bad grade.
"Uh..." Yuri turned to her partner and showed the seeds. "Do you know what these are?"
"They''re Karceless seeds," Adam replied, recognizing the small, ck seeds in Yuri''s hand.
"Karceless seeds..." Yuri checked the recipe, and a smile blossomed on her face. "It''s in the recipe!"
"Here." Adam handed her a small ss jar, knowing that she would need it to properly store the seeds.
After she put the seeds inside the jar, Adam closed it tightly and stored it inside his inventory. "How do you know so much about seeds and nts?" Yuri asked curiously as she stood up from the soil-covered ground, her knees covered in dirt.
"I knew someone that was very into Herbology." Adam said with a tone filled with nostalgia. "She found sce and peace in her garden, and I found sce in listening to her talk about
it."
"Oh, it sounds like you two were close." Yuri said with a curious tone.
She wondered who could make him-S-ranker-show such expression.
"What is her name?" Yuri asked.
"Lisa."
"She sounds like a nice person." Yuri said with a smile and then hopped off to another area of the forest to search for more ingredients for the recipe.
Adam slipped his hands inside his pockets and followed after her.
Yuri found a quite unique nt that she had never seen before.
Its petals were a vibrant shade of blue, and it was oozing a sweet, fragrant liquid.
"What''s this?" Yuri asked, bending down to inspect it.
"Sweet Blue nt." Adam said. "Its liquid is only an important part. Is it included in the recipe?"
Yuri quickly checked it out and said. "Sweet Blue nt''s liquid, 100 ml."
"Alright." Adam took out another empty jar, ced it under the nt, and began carefully collecting the liquid.
The jar was soon half-full.
He collected more than 100 ml, but he doubted that it would matter as more was merrier. After putting the jar inside his inventory, they headed to search for the next ingredient.
They had been working at a nice and leisurely pace, almost half of the ingredients already gathered, and it hadn''t even been an hour.
"Where''s this Lisa now?" Yuri asked.
She usually enjoyed the quietness as she wasn''t the most social person, but she was very interested in knowing more about him as he seemed very mysterious.
"Where..." Adam took a deep breath and said. "Somewhere in Klovend with her brother." "Klovend, wow." Yuri muttered to herself. "Are you also from there?"
"No, I am from Hignds," Adam said.
"Oh, you met this Lisa in the New World?" Yuri asked and then picked up one of the seeds from the ground, which she recognized as one of the ingredients for the recipe.
"I did," Adam said.
"You must be missing her, the way you''re talking about her." Yuri said. "Will you meet her once you leave this ce?"
"I am nning to meet her." Adam said. "In three years."
"Three years?" Yuri took her own jar from her inventory and put the seeds inside. "That''s a long time, no?"
"It is, but I am patient yer." Adam said.
"Are you dating her or?" Yuri asked as she stood up and headed even deeper to the forest.
As Adam followed after her, he said. "I used to."
"Used to?" Yuri curiously looked at him.
"Yeah, we broke up," Adam said.
"Oh, I thought the way you talked about her, you two were still a thing." Yuri hummed in surprise. "You still like her?"
Adam didn''t answer that question and just kept walking behind her.
"Uhm..."
After not receiving an answer, Yuri asked another one.
"Why did you two break up?"
"I liked her. She liked me back. But, in the end, we simply didn''t have the chemistry."
"Oh..." Yuri hadn''t dated anyone, so she couldn''t really understand what he meant by the
chemistry.
"When I was dating her, I felt like something was wrong." Adam said. "I liked her, I truly did, and I had fun with her, but I always felt like she wasn''t the one. It''s strange."
"Like she wasn''t your soulmate?" Yuri asked.
"Soulmate?" Adam looked at her and shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t believe in soulmates, but yeah, I always felt like there was someone else in the world for me."
"If you like her enough, maybe you should try to rekindle the candle with her." Yuri
suggested.
Adamughed and shook his head. "No, that ship has passed."
"Then why''re you nning to meet her in three years?" Yuri asked. "It sounds like you''re very
excited to meet her."
"I n on killing her."
"Huh?" Yuri stopped in her tracks and looked at him in shock. "Are you serious?"
Adam just smiled and plucked a nt from the ground.
"Yrhm''s nt." He handed it over to her. "Thest ingredient in the recipe."
"Eh..." Yuri took it to her arms and looked at him in surprise.
She wasn''t sure whether he was joking and this was just one of his darkedy jokes, but when she looked at his face, she felt conflicted.
It didn''t seem like he was joking.
"Shall we return?" Adam asked and started heading back. "I want to win the prize, after all~"
"Ah, alright..." Yuri jogged after him but couldn''t shake the feeling of unease that had settled
in her stomach.
She kept a short distance to Adam for the whole way back.
After a few hundred meters of walking, they arrived back at the Eldertree and saw that there were still some groups desperately trying to find any ingredients nearby.
However, it was painfully clear that there weren''t any, and other groups had found that out
already.
Bertha was standing in the same ce as she saw an hour ago. It didn''t look like she was focusing on anything that was happening around her, as she was stuck inside her mind.
"Teacher!" Yuri hopped over to her.
Bertha woke back up and looked at the chirpy young man, and in annoyance, she asked.
"What?"
"We''ve got all of our ingredients already." Yuri said with a smile.
Bertha''s eyebrow jumped in surprise, and she looked over to Adam, who was her partner.
"Are you sure you got the correct ingredients?"
"Y-yeah..." Yuri said with a nod.
She was still slightly hesitant whether Adam actually knew the correct seeds and nts.
He acted in a very convincing manner, but some nts and seeds look very simr to each
other.
"Show me them."
Yuri and Adam took out the jars filled with seeds, nt juice, and some nts.
Bertha checked all of them closely, and after doing so, she was genuinely surprised.
"All are correct..."
"Yes!" Yuri cheered and looked at Adam with a big smile.
"Good job." Bertha said. "You two may return to the institute, if you want to. I''ll give you
your reward after the ss has ended."
"Mm." Yuri nodded with a smile.
Adam immediately nned to take a trip to the gym. He had be slightly addicted to weightlifting as he had finally started to see his body improving greatly.
He felt like his current Tank skills wereckluster, as he didn''t have physique big enough to
take full advantage of his skills and knowledge.
It''s also the reason why no one had taken him seriously as Tanker, as no one expected someone as scrawny as him to be able to protect anyone.
As Adam was about to return to the institute, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned around and saw an unfamiliar face-clearly one of the students-look at him with
a hesitant gaze.
"What is it?" Adam asked. "Who''re you?"
"Uhm..." the student stammered and said. "Y-you''re Terry''s friend, right?"
"Yes?" Adam raised an eyebrow.
"Well..." the student looked around, and after seeing that no one was watching, he said. "Noel
and his two friends took Terry somewhere. It didn''t look like they were going to have a
friendly chat."
"Is that so..." Adam looked deep into the forest, tapped the student on the shoulder, and started heading into the forest.
"Adam, where''re you going?" Yuri asked, but after seeing that he wasn''t replying, she frowned and decided to follow after him.