NOVEL SIMPLE V1 Chapter 12: Nurture
- 1st Person POV (MC)
-Present Time-
“Haaa... 4 hours.... 4 whole hours...”
A total of 4 hours was spent for me to restore the white deer’s HP to full.
I can see the visual effects of injuries are completely gone. The unblemished white fur waved by the gentle breeze coming into my home.
I kept on stroking the deer’s back and after a while, his eyes opened revealing its glimmering forest green colour and horizontal pupil.
Staring at his eyes, I feel like I’m in the depths of a tranquil forest. It shines amidst the sunlight of this place. And the more I stare at it the more I can hear the river flows, birds chirping, and soft rustles of leaves by the wind. The wonderful beauty of nature, I am pretty sure I’m not imagining it.
Then I backtracked my mind from thinking all of that.
(“What was that?”)
Once I regain my senses, I start to look at the deer’s forest-green eyes.
(“Are deer supposed to have green eyes?”)
“Huh... You are a unique one aren’t you?”
It stares at me for a few seconds while I fondly look at the creature, once it registers what’s going on. He seemed to lazily close his eyes, bend his head, and lean on my outstretched arm.
As if begging for a pet, I couldn’t help my instincts. It is in human nature, to pet friend-shaped creatures.
I begin to stroke his head and the four nobs at the top. Judging by the size, he appeared to be the same size as a children’s ride-on car. So it’s safe to assume this one is still incredibly young.
“Where’s your mom?”
*Ba...*
It is a sorrowful tone coming out from his throat; I can deduce he has lost his mom. Possibly due to what happened to him in the first place.
“I see...”
Then my eyebrows twitched after realizing that he understood my words.
“You can understand me?”
Pointing to myself, I waited till the deer replied.
It did by bowing his head up and down mimicking a nod.
“Ah...”
Now, I feel embarrassed talking to him while he’s sleeping.
Hm? What is this?
On his head, I can see some sort of faint pulsing glow then...
*DINGGGG!*
Ouch!!! My ears! As I rubbed my left ear then stared at something in front of my eyes covering my view of the deer & his head.
Another big panel appeared in front of me.
-System-
Congratulations! You have tamed your first pet.
Pets are the player’s best friend! They can be your battle partners and the ones that spiced up your life.
Please treat them lovingly as they have emotions too.
First! Name your pet.
...
-System-
There’s a keyboard display on the bottom where I can enter the deer’s name.
(“Of course! A game like this must have a pet system as well. Uhm... a name.”)
I began to type in the name and once I pressed confirm. I tell the deer...
“You’re now, Gaia. Your eyes remind me of the forest and earth.”
*Baaaaa!*
He seems to have taken a liking to that name while still sitting folding his legs to rest.
I stroke the head of the deer as the glowing light solidifies into a mark where I can see his name being displayed much like how I see a player. He gently closes his eyes in reassurance indulging in my constant petting.
My eyes glance to the side, seeing the system panel. There is a new tab being added, in a moment of curiosity I check what it is.
The title of that tab is ‘Pets’ and in it, listed the very first pet I have which is Gaia.
-System-
{Name}: Gaia
Description: A mysterious white herbivore.
{Affection Meter}: Max
{Age}: Baby
{Owner}: Magie Magia
-System-
Uhm... I guess I need to take care of him until he grows bigger.
I began stroking his neck as I could feel a soft rumble coming from the deer’s throat.
“Fufufu... you are kind of cute.”
I slowly stand up from my sitting position since I’m done healing Gaia, and he is still a baby... I’m thinking of buying some milk for Gaia.
“But where can I buy milk?”
I asked that question to myself and an idea flashed into my mind.
(“The grocer I saw in Frontera, they might have what I need. Hmm...”)
I stole a glance at Gaia, who was enjoying himself lazing around atop the flat grassland.
Chuckling, I opened the system panel and decided to teleport to Frontera.
I believe it is around here, Ah! There we go. In front of me, is a small stall with steel jugs on the tables.
The person handling that stall is a middle-aged man probably in his late forties.
“Excuse me?”
I asked, the shopkeeper turned his head towards me.
“Yeah? Anything I can help?” -Shopkeeper NPC-
“Are you selling goat milk by any chance?”
With a firm nod, he brought out a massive jug filled with what I assumed to be goat milk. I do not ask where that jug came from since he has a small stall. It is game logic after all!
“It’s 2000 Zeni a jug.” -Shopkeeper NPC-
I gave out the two bronze-coloured coins amounting to 2000 Zeni as the jug was transferred to my inventory.
(“I guess based on what the system gave to me. One bronze coin is 1000 Zeni.”)
Oh, shoot! I stared at the coins for too long. I quickly dart my eyes to the shopkeeper.
“Thanks for the purchase, made sure to drink it daily so you can grow taller lad” -Shopkeeper NPC-
(“GUHHHH!!”)
I know I’m short but why did he tell me that? It hurts my heart a bit, haaa... I can’t grow any taller but at least Gaia can.
After that, I teleported back to my home where Gaia welcomed me with wobbly & quivering legs. His tiny tail wags around so quickly that it blurs.
*BA!*
“Hahaha...”
Stroking his head, I brought out the jug of goat milk. In my head, this is the closest milk to deer so I assume he can eat it.
He bent his head to the inner part of the jug and began drinking. While I’m currently browsing my {Skill} regarding <Crafting – All> focusing on the branch of Farming & Artisanship. Because I’m thinking of planting all of these seeds in my inventory and ‘functional’ furniture that the {Skill} offers.
But before I can look at them in closer detail.
*PINGGGGGG*
Again? Sooner or later my ears will tune that out like the machines in the lab.
-System-
{Name}: Gaia
Description: A mysterious white herbivore.
{Affection Meter}: Max
{Age}: Youngling
{Owner}: Magie Magia
{Skill}: <Nature’s Bounty>
Description: All gatherable materials within a Safe Zone where Gaia is present will always have maximum yield and the highest quality.
-System-
Huh? What is that ridiculous {Skill}? This is incredibly advantageous in terms of Farming.
And.... High Quality? I have never gotten any higher quality herbs than just the normal ones. I assume you can only get them once you planted the seed.
*Baaa?*
Gaia tilts his head questioningly as I stroke his head gently in response.
My eyes hover to still see that there’s a leftover milk from where Gaia drank, it appears he stopped drinking it.
With that in mind, I think he has a change in diet as he’s not a baby anymore. Now that I mention it, he’s a bit bigger than usual...
Well... He is a herbivore so I think he wants some greens. Ah! I have some berries in my inventory, let’s see if he wanted to eat it.
Taking out the berries, I presented them with my hand as he began munching on them.
*BAAA!* *MUNCH* *BAAA!* *MUNCH*
The tiny tail of his wags left and right while giving out bleating sounds between eating as if he’s enjoying it.
“Careful! Don’t speak and eat at the same time, Gaia...”
He’s a big eater indeed, I gave him a full stack of berries and he consumed it all.
...
“Gosh, don’t look at me like that...”
*Baaa???*
Gaia's forest green eyes glimmer as he stares at me pleadingly as if asking for more.
“Hurkkk! So cute, Augh... Fine! Let’s see if I have more.”
I brought out my stash of herbs and he immediately munched them all with a more pleasant expression etched on his face.
His ears twitch and I can see the knobs on his head grow slightly & his body grew bulkier each time he chews on the herbs.
“Oh! Is this your diet?”
When he ate the wild berries, he didn’t grow at all but when he ate these herbs I could see visible changes.
It made me think...
Let’s see here, I think I briefly saw the option to plant the seeds when I browsed the Farming branch of crafting.
That way, I can save the trip from going back and forth from the Deep Woods area.
There we go...
Same with other crafting branches there are ‘Auto Mode’ and ‘Free Mode’.
The ‘Auto Mode’ is empty, I tried tapping everywhere but there’s none to do.
With no other choice, I pressed the ‘Free Mode’ option. The panel vanishes and is replaced with an array of tools for gardening.
*BA!*
“Look at you being all happy.”
I chuckled seeing Gaia stand beside me as I crouched and began planting the seeds.
I don’t know much about gardening so I decided to opt for the simple thing, such as digging not too deep of a hole then dropping the seed and covering it with the dirt.
Once I had done that, I re-checked the crafting panel and saw in ‘Auto Mode’ I could plant Vitality Herb Seeds.
“I see... it is just drag & drop like spawning the dummies in the training room. Let’s try...”
I dragged the Vitality Herb Seed icon and put it near where I’m at. There is a translucent image of a full-grown herb and once I let go...
*POP*
A mound of soil appeared with it, and the seed count was reduced by one.
“Ah... simple enough.”
I changed to ‘Free Mode’ and began planting other types of seeds such as; Stamina Herb, Mana Herb, and Wild Berry.
“Don’t eat it yet!”
I told Gaia who was beside me, I could see his forest green eyes staring intensely and brightly at the mounds as if saying that he couldn’t wait for the plant to grow just for him to eat.
Once I observed the mound for several seconds a display popped & informed me.
-System-
Vitality Herb Growth
{Maturity}: 1 full cycle left
Stamina Herb Growth
{Maturity}: 2 day cycle left
Mana Herb Growth
{Maturity}: 2 night cycle left
Wild Berry Growth
{Maturity}: 1 full cycle left
-System-
I see...
It makes sense that Vitality Herb needed fewer cycles compared to its rarer counterparts. Hmmm... might as well figure out how long a single full cycle of time is in this game.
Leading to this moment, where I am sitting with Gaia beside me. Stroking the soft fluffy fur of Gaia’s back as he folded his legs into a deer loaf.
Gaia closes his eyes and blinks slowly enjoying the sun’s warmth shining down upon him and me before falling asleep.
Come to think of it, I can 'alter' the cycle to speed up the growing process of these plants. But I won’t do that as I would feel nauseous with the sun & moon going round and round continuously.
-After an hour has passed-
*MUNCH* *MUNCH*
Gaia is currently eating the freshly grown Vitality Herbs. Based on my findings, a single cycle of time in this game is around 60 minutes / 1 hour. 35 minutes of daytime and 25 minutes of nighttime
Unfortunately, I didn’t figure out how long are the dawn & dusk. But I can estimate 5 minutes each most likely, since I have experienced similar games before where the time cycle is almost the same.
“Gaia! Don’t eat all of them, I need to pick some too.”
Once I approached the herb Gaia was eating.
(“Oh? The herbs look different. Is this the effect of Gaia’s {Skill}?”)
Picking them, I click on the newly added item in my inventory just so the system can display an in-depth look at what it is.
-System-
[High Quality Vitality Herb (Rare)]
Description: The rumoured Vitality Herb. Only grows within the depths of the Deep Woods. They are known to be capable of healing even the worst of injuries. When consumed greatly restore HP.
-System-
It has its usual appearance but is twice as large compared to the normal Vitality Herb. In addition, the flowers on the top of the plant faintly glow.
(“Ohhhh! I got double the amount of seeds. Let me replant all of them in ‘Auto Mode’.”)
With a simple drag & drop, I replanted all the Vitality Herbs.
I have neatly arranged where I planted all the herbs. This place is essentially a big circle as such I divide it into 4 segments.
Those segments are the Upper left cone, Upper right cone, Bottom left cone, and Bottom right cone.
But there are also the unique ‘Rings’ that divide the temple which are the inner, middle, and outer rings.
Creating several sections in each cone, I called it Small, Medium, and Large for easy identification.
Those plants that I got are planted within the inner circle at the Upper left cone. I would name this place ‘Mini Deep Woods’ but I don’t think I can as I didn’t see any naming prompt.
Hmmm... if I want to make this ‘section’ similar to deep woods I need some kind of trees to add to its atmosphere.
(“Can I craft it using the artisan branch? Is it regarded as pieces of furniture though? Hm? What’s this?”)
My eyes glance at the white deer...
Gaia now has small four antlers growing on his head. His body is now bulky resembling more of a healthy deer.
But in his panel, his age is still young so he’s not mature yet.
“I wonder how big you will be.”
At the moment, Gaia isn’t tall probably half of my size and I am only 160 cm. I’m pretty sure he’s going to be taller than me.
Is he a moose? But... He looked like a deer and his bleats are so similar to a goat. Is it because he’s still young? I don’t think a ‘deer’ bleats will have the same sound as a goat though. How mysterious...