Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

Flora clasped her hands behind her back, slightly raised her head to look at him, and the two signature dimples appeared on her face.

“It contains some very basic potion-making techniques. Once you learn them, you can earn quite a bit of extra income.”

During that time, they had all seen Lance’s efforts.

Looking at the girl’s sincere gaze, Lance felt warmth in his heart.

“Thank you.”

This expression of gratitude came from the bottom of his heart.

The two carried their selected books to the counter to pay.

However, when the old gentleman quoted the price, Lance’s originally relaxed expression instantly froze.

The pricing of these three books was extremely high—each one cost between 2 to 4 silver coins.

Lance quickly calculated in his mind.The price of this stack of paper was actually more expensive than the iron-plated leather armor he was wearing.

No wonder this shabby bookstore was usually deserted—this wasn’t selling books, it was outright robbery.

He awkwardly touched his coin pouch.

The joy of his recent windfall vanished instantly. At most, the money he had on hand was only enough to buy one of the books.

Just as he was hesitating over which two to give up, a fair hand reached out.

Several shining silver coins were gently placed on the counter.

“Let’s pay for them together.”

Flora’s voice was soft, but to Lance’s ears, it sounded as pleasant as a goddess descending to the world.

In the end, with Flora’s financial help, Lance successfully brought these three heavy volumes of knowledge home.

As they left the bookstore, Lance patted his chest and promised that he would repay her as soon as he earned money.

Flora, on the other hand, did not seem to mind. She simply smiled, waved goodbye, and hurried back to the potion shop to help.

……

In the following days, until the next rest day—

Lance’s life returned to its usual calm and routine.

During the day, he worked quietly as a low-profile scribe in the Adventurers’ Guild. At night, he gathered with the girls at their usual spot to play Three Dragon Cards.

In his remaining spare time, he devoted himself to studying the books he had spent a fortune to buy.

Hard work paid off.

Soon, an entry related to botany appeared on the system panel.

But to Lance’s surprise, it did not appear under the 【Skills】 tab. Instead, it opened a completely new category.

Knowledge: Botany LV1 (2/1000)

This was a brand-new section.

Compared to skills, knowledge was clearly much harder to improve—the experience required for leveling alone had multiplied several times over.

Lance tried allocating the 10 points of 【Knowledge EXP】 he had previously earned from the mission into Botany.

At the moment the experience was injected, a wondrous sensation surged through him.

It wasn’t just memory infusion.

He felt that the previously isolated pieces of knowledge in his mind seemed to come alive, sprouting countless fine tendrils that extended into unknown domains.

For example, the book recorded a type of mushroom in Copper Creek Forest called the “Cup Mushroom.”

Originally, he only knew that it was non-toxic, had a crisp texture, and could be used as emergency food in the wild.

But through the extension of knowledge, he suddenly gained an intuitive realization of a new property.

The structure of this mushroom’s cap was unique—it could filter dew and store it in the center of the cap.

In emergency situations lacking water, it could be used directly as a source of fresh drinking water.

This knowledge was not forcefully inserted out of nowhere, but rather a logical deduction and extension built upon his existing understanding—extremely remarkable.

Moreover, this kind of growth was extremely stable, completely becoming Lance’s own instinct.

If he continued to invest knowledge experience over time, Lance felt that in terms of breadth of knowledge, he could soon surpass so-called veteran scholars.

At least, neither the 《Copper Creek Herbal and Mineral Compendium》 he currently had nor the potion-making book recommended by Flora contained any mention of the Cup Mushroom’s ability to store water.

This wasn’t because the knowledge itself was particularly rare.

Rather, the authors of those books were limited by space or focus and had not included it.

But the knowledge granted by the system could fill in these missing details.

And as the knowledge section was unlocked, a new functional module was also revealed at the bottom of the panel.

【Research Module】

Seeing this interface, Lance couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows.

This feature also existed in the original game.

In the game, the research module had two main directions.

One was biological research.

This feature had been thoroughly exploited by veteran players back then.

Through in-depth research on specific species, not only could you increase your damage against that species—

as for what kind of “damage,” those who knew, knew.

On the other hand, it also allowed players to obtain special bodily enhancements from different types of demi-humans, making it easier to defeat them.

Lance remembered very clearly that in order to unlock a special interaction scene called “Deep Sea Kiss,”

he had deliberately spent a great deal of time researching aquatic monsters. In the end, he successfully obtained the ability of “Underwater Breathing” from a certain fish-man species, allowing him to dive into the ocean depths.

Now, it seemed this function had also been perfectly adapted to the real world.

However, the biological research section was currently completely empty.

It would likely only unlock relevant entries once he came into contact with living species other than humans.

Meanwhile, under the 【Potion Research】 section on the other side, the first project had already appeared.

【Hemostatic Ointment (Under Improvement)】

This was the simplest formula recorded in the 《Basic Botany and Simple Potion Crafting》 he had just read earlier.

Unexpectedly, it had directly entered the potion research system.

This type of medicine was a common item in adventurers’ backpacks, with a small jar selling for more than twenty copper coins.

Its main ingredient was a low-tier plant called “Coagulation Moss.”

The system’s first research task was very straightforward:

Task Objective: Personally collect, dry, and produce 30 ounces of Coagulation Moss powder.

In this world’s unit of measurement, 1 ounce was roughly equivalent to the weight of one kingdom gold coin—about 28 grams.

30 ounces of powder meant nearly one kilogram of finished product.

Considering the loss during the drying process, this required collecting a large amount of raw materials.

Fortunately, Coagulation Moss was not particularly rare in the forest. Lance planned to gather some along the way the next time he took on a mission.

What truly attracted Lance was the expected reward upon completion.

Effect: Medium-speed (+) coagulation of blood for small to medium cuts, forming a protective medicinal film, with a slight anti-infection effect (+).

Ordinary hemostatic ointments made by others typically only had normal-speed effects and lacked the additional anti-infection property.

Although he didn’t know exactly how much faster this “medium-speed (+)” was compared to standard products on the market,

the added “anti-infection” attribute was undoubtedly a life-saving advantage.

When injured in the wild, what one feared most was not bleeding—but infection leading to fever and complications.

Once this formula was successfully researched,

the hemostatic ointment Lance produced would completely outclass others on the market.

There was nothing more profitable than mastering core technology.