Chapter 6

Crunch, crunch.

The sound of chewing something hard can be heard.

That sound is coming from my mouth.

I am sitting on the ground in front of the field, gnawing on the freshly harvested Hatsuca.

As always, the taste of this Hatsuca cannot be called good, to put it mildly.

In fact, since we eat the root part, it is obvious that the taste would be much better if it were properly boiled or cooked in some way.

However, the vegetables I harvested are, in the end, treated as belonging to the family, even though I grew them.

But my hunger does not allow for such considerations, so I am eating them raw right after harvesting.

The breeding of Hatsuca is progressing.

The differences in characteristics have started to appear in the six divided fields.

However, there is not much difference in taste yet.

In such a situation, while comparing the different varieties, something that caught my attention came to mind.

It was about the magic power I use when tilling the field.

The magic I developed on my own combines the magic power I have inside my body with the magic power I take in from the outside.

The basic image is to repeatedly take deep breaths, fill my body with well-refined magic power, and then activate the magic.

Naturally, when I use magic, the refined magic power in my body is consumed.

So, when I try to activate magic again and take deep breaths, I cannot combine and refine the magic power because the magic power I originally had in my body is gone.

In other words, I am in a state of magic power depletion.

Then, how do I recover the magic power I have in my body?

Until now, I thought it would recover over time.

In fact, that is not wrong.

But it is not entirely correct either.

I only realized this recently because I can now steadily secure food.

The magic power in my body was recovering by consuming food.

I did not notice it before because it does not recover immediately after eating.

Just as the food does not immediately become blood and flesh, it takes some time after eating for the magic power to be generated.

That is why I mistakenly thought it recovered over time.

And here, the important point is how much magic power is recovered by what you eat.

In fact, among the several types of Hatsuca that have recently started to show differences, the amount of magic power recovery has also started to differ.

Despite the lack of significant changes in taste, there is a difference in magic power recovery.

What kind of stimulation this gives me might be obvious.

Originally, I started the breeding for the sake of securing food, out of mere interest.

I gradually shifted my focus from taste to magic power in the breeding process.

※ ※ ※

I recall a popular TV show from my previous life where idols engaged in agriculture.

There was a standard when improving rice.

I remember they put a large amount of salt into a container filled with water to create a saltwater solution and then submerged the rice seeds.

The saltwater, which has the property of making objects float more easily than regular water, can effectively separate heavy and light rice seeds.

Basically, the bigger ones are the better ones.

This simple method was apparently very useful for breeding.

I managed to recall this method and tried it immediately, but it did not work.

Unlike rice, there were no seeds light enough to float in saltwater.

Moreover, the method I was looking for was to select the ones that recover more magic power.

Even if the previous method worked, it was unlikely to be related to the difference in magic power recovery.

The most reliable method would be to compare the recovery amounts daily and prioritize the cultivation of the ones with higher recovery amounts.

However, as a 3-year-old with a small and young body, I could not do such extensive comparisons.

Is there any way to distinguish them somehow?

I continued to think about this while taking care of the field.

And one day, the problem was solved.

That day, I was casting magic on the soil to till the field.

Usually, I close my eyes to concentrate and repeatedly take deep breaths to activate the magic.

However, on this day, since I was getting used to the magic, I started deep breathing without closing my eyes and began to refine the magic power.

I combined the magic power in my body, located below my navel, with the magic power I took in through deep breathing, transforming it into a viscous magic power and spreading it throughout my body.

Then, as the magic power rose from my stomach to my chest and further to my head, I opened my eyes.

Since my eyes were open, the field where the Hatsuca was planted was in my line of sight.

The field appeared to be faintly wobbling.

Thinking it might be an optical illusion, I looked closely, but it was not.

A scene unfolded where a transparent gas seemed to be rising from the field.

Seeing this, I wondered if it might be something, so I focused the refined magic power on my eyes.

This was the turning point.

When I concentrated the magic power in my eyes, the scene became even clearer.

The transparent gas took on a color, and a pale blue gas was rising from the field.

When I pulled out the Hatsuca growing in the field, the gas was emanating from the Hatsuca itself.

The blue color was not only present in the air but also in the edible root part of the Hatsuca.

In fact, the blue color remained in the root part without leaking into the air.

Could this blue color be the magic power?

I had no proof, but that was how it felt to me.

And I thought that this idea was not entirely wrong.

Among the Hatsuca I had compared in terms of taste, the ones with the highest magic power recovery had a deeper blue color, while those with lower recovery had a lighter color.

In this way, I obtained a method to check the magic power of vegetables without eating them.

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