"What you drank was a solution crafted through alchemy, using the most potent ingredients we have here on hand. Although that particular version was watered down, so it can be given to our lowest members, it is still usually only given as a reward.

For most, that entire bottle could be life changing, and yet you do not care about it in the slightest. Not only that, but you tell me that it exists outside of our sanctuary and is being advertised as some kind of lowly energy drink?"

Percival said to them, keeping his eyes forwards as he led them out of the pagoda, through winding stone paths until they reached a large, walled off garden.

"Yes sir, that’s right. Well... we think. It only tastes the same and has a mana component to it too." Valerie replied, rolling alongside Percy, who was staying strangely quiet. After his heated encounter with his father, the Young Master Monarch had not said a word, other than when he was backing up Valerie’s story.

Not just that, but Percival the Third barely looked at Percy whenever they did talk.

"I have no doubt in my mind that it is the same ingredient, after everything else you have told me. What I am curious about, however, was the effect it had on you." Percival continued, as another individual in monk robes opened the gate to the garden, allowing them inside and closing the gate behind them.

Valerie glanced at Percy briefly, who was busy staring at the ground in front of him, before she sighed and continued talking for the both of them.

"The Effect? I don’t understand. It just gave us some mana that we could put towards sources. Isn’t that what it’s used for?"

"Yes, it is. Although I would say that it gives Qi for cultivation, the point stands. It is not exactly about what it did to you, but how much Qi it gave you. In this case, the basic cultivation elixir shouldn’t have given you so much.

With all the strange information you have, I am curious to see if you will have any strange comments concerning our ingredients." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Out of the corner of her eye, Valerie could see Percy twitch slightly, his lips moving slightly as he muttered under his breath, but it was far too low for her to make any words out. Although the look on his face wasn’t pleasant, and it was starting to make her wonder if his mood was entirely because of the guilt of what he nearly did.

When they entered the portion of the garden that was actually dedicated to growing these crops, giving it more of a vibe like a miniature farm than a garden made for looking pretty, Valerie was immediately smacked with a wall of mana pouring off of so many plants.

Rows and rows of little green sprouts with wide leaves. It was like a forest of tiny, ankle high trees, with how thick the roots of these plants were. Some of them were as thick as two fingers, while others in another farm plot were the size of her forearm, and climbed tall enough for the leaves to reach above her knee.

"Wait..." Valerie muttered, looking over the plants before her with a slight bit of shock, "I recognise those. You have one in the lodge."

She had seen it every time that she went for her meditation sessions. There was just one of them, sitting in a little pot close to the back of the greenhouse and tucked away where it wouldn’t draw attention.

But she had been in that room so much and examined so many of the different plants, that she would recognise any of them. That was probably how Figg felt about any plant, now that she thought about it.

Percival nodded softly and gave a gesture to one of the monk robed workers, who immediately scurried over with a woven basket and handed him one of the root vegetables.

He immediately passed it over to Valerie, who eagerly took it and ran her hands over it. Mana still flowed through it, despite the fact that it had been picked.

Whilst everything living in the world produced mana, it was determined by the fact that they were actually living. Once something died, it stopped producing it and stopped holding onto it in its body.

Only certain animals, such as those that had been filled with an extraordinary amount of mana to make them into magic beasts, could hold onto it. That was why their meat was so expensive, it had the magic still in it and could transfer it to whoever ate it.

Plants were the same, although not exactly. Plants stayed fresh for longer than corpses, so they held onto their mana for longer too, but it still left them nonetheless. But it was easier to make up for that with quantity.

A single berry might not hold much mana after it was picked, but an entire bowl full of them would have plenty, and if you could turn that into a meal while they were still fresh you could make a decent mana meal.

This plant, for one reason or another, did not. It had exactly as much mana here in her hand as it did in the ground. It was as if it was a sponge sucking up all the mana in the world and storing it for later use.

While the root could still rot, if you could preserve it, say through drying it, then you would be able to preserve the mana trapped inside of it.

"Heaven’s Ginseng." Percival explained, "That is its name. It was discovered centuries ago. While other strains of Ginseng exist, this is the only one we have found that is rich in Qi. If you were to bite into that now, do you know what it would taste like?"

"I have a feeling it would taste like lime, am I right?"

"Indeed you are. So, do you have any insights on our secret ingredient?"

"On the ingredient? No, not so much." Valerie said, causing Percival to sigh and shake his head in disappointment.

"Although," She continued, "I really do have to ask why you need so much of this specific plant when your garden at home does the job just fine."