Blademaster Ascension

18- Observation

The two kids reached the marsh, both lost within their own reverie. Isa broke out of his first. Looking at the dazed Rowan, he clapped loudly to get his attention back to present.

"Okay, so we're going to hunt monsters! Sounds fun! What do we do first?"

Rowan looked around and realized that they were almost near the place he had previously marked as the paradise of herbs. Isa purposefully stared at Rowan, strongly hinting that he should do something about the poison inside him. The wound on his shoulders would need a professional doctor's prescription. But the poison was the most pressing issue for him at the moment.
After figuring out the meaning of Isa's stare, Rowan scratched his head, too embarrassed to tell him that poison was just a by-product of his alchemy practice. He actually didn't have any potion formula to counter the effects of the poison on his hand. But one could always improvise, that's what he told himself as he began to look for herbs with healing properties.

"Uhhh...Rowan? Where is the antidote?"

"There is none. I am looking for ingredients to make one right now, see?"

"...#$^#!&$...you're telling me that you carried poison with you without its antidote? Here I was, following you like a loyal dog for hours!"
Isa cursed out aloud with profanities that escaped Rowan's understanding. But he got the gist, enough to understand that he shouldn't try to understand what Isa had said. If he learned the meaning, it couldn't be un-learned.

"Hey, I wasn't planning on slashing myself with my own sword. I didn't have enough time to make the antidote so why bother?"

"Since when were you an alchemist? Are you sure you got the skills to make the antidote?"

"Well...it's a fifty-fifty thing. Keep a lookout for monsters while I try to brew the potion. Don't interrupt me." Rowan dodged the first question by giving an answer that infuriated Isa so much that he lost the ability to even cuss. Leaving him stunned with his mouth open wide, Rowan continued on his search for herbs using Chip's scanning ability.

"Chip, can you suggest anything that might help me cure the poison?"

[ After analysing the dozen formulas from last time, I can roughly figure out a pseudo potion, given enough time and proper ingredients. I suggest host immediately scour the area for all the available herbs to see what we'll be working with. ]

[ scanning...found a low grade herb with minor healing effects. Works on many types of poison including paralyzer. But its effects are very weak.  ]

[ scanning...found a low grade herb with moderate healing effects. Could be used as an ingredient in healing potion formulas. ]...

The notifications continued as Rowan sniffed, crawled and tiptoed through the grassy fields, occasionally stopping to collect the herbs with medium to high healing effects. He realized that most of the weeds and grass and shrubs had one or other uses, even though mostly insignificant. Without Chip's pre-recorded data, it would be impossible for anyone to fully exploit their potential.

After half an hour, his hands were full of random herbs. Just as he was about to move further, Isa groaned.

"I think it's acting up. Hurry..."

Rowan was startled. That fast? The potion didn't seem very strong when he concocted it. But it was a by-product and one couldn't be sure about its effects. He gave up on finding more herbs and consulted Chip.
"Yeah, are these going to work?"

[  establishing task...
   Running simulations... 
  Trial simulation 237 has 58 percent chance of success and that's the highest so far. Host can proceed with the formula  ]