Chapter 9

"Hey, that's a pretty sturdy sandal. Here, take it, kid."

With those words, the peddler handed me a coin.

When I took it, I was stunned.

It was because the stack of sandals I had meticulously crafted was bought for just a few coins.

Of course, the coins I received were not valuable ones like gold or silver, but rather copper coins with chipped edges.

While the stems of Hatsuca, the material for the sandals, were readily available, at this rate, I would never be able to buy a weapon.

However, it wasn't as if the peddler was overcharging.

It was simply that the price of sandals was too low.

So, I decided to research products that the peddler could buy at a better price.

Perhaps because I was only about five years old, I was told that it was impressive to have made so many sandals at my age. Nevertheless, I persistently asked questions to gather information.

***

"Alright... Let's try it this way."

A few days after my conversation with the peddler, I was working in the backyard.

I wasn't sure if it would work, but I was about to conduct an experiment to find an alternative source of income to replace the sandals.

I had detained the reluctant peddler for a long time, talking to him, and among the information I obtained, mushroom cultivation seemed promising.

In this world, magic exists, and there are magic potions that can quickly restore depleted magic power.

However, I had not known until then that such potions existed.

But magic potions are not widely available, and the reason for this lies in the raw materials.

The most important ingredient for making magic potions is a type of mushroom called a magic mushroom.

These can only be harvested from the forest, and the harvesting period is limited.

Even when harvested, the quantity is not enough to meet the demand.

Since I was still a child and not old enough to enter the forest, the peddler suggested I try it when I was older.

But to me, this was a business opportunity.

When I was shown a real magic mushroom, I realized something.

Isn't this just a "shiitake" mushroom?

Seeing the magic mushroom triggered a flashback to my past life.

I had actually grown shiitake mushrooms before, using a simple home cultivation kit.

It wasn't a professional method, but if magic mushrooms grew similarly to shiitake mushrooms, there was a good chance it could work.

So, I decided to conduct an experiment.

***

Mushrooms, fundamentally, are not plants but fungi.

Fungi grow inside wood, using the wood itself as a nutrient source.

Therefore, by creating conditions that are favorable for fungal growth, it is possible to cultivate them artificially.

First, I obtained logs from a local woodcutter that were known to produce magic mushrooms.

I considered going to cut the trees myself, but it was too difficult to cut and transport them.

Moreover, the logs needed to be dried for a few months before they could be used for cultivation.

The woodcutter had logs that were already dried and stored, so I selected a few good ones and brought them back.

There is a reason for drying the logs.

The wood dries from the outside, leaving moisture inside.

If only the outside is dry and the inside is still wet, the fungi will not grow well.

Therefore, moderate drying is necessary.

However, if the logs are too dry, it is also not good.

A certain level of moisture is still required.

So, I placed the logs in a shaded area in the backyard.

Next, I needed to embed the fungal spores into the logs and wait for the fungi to grow inside the wood.

However, if I did this as is, it would probably fail.

So, I decided to add a method that I had never used in my past life.

This involved infusing the logs with my magic power after embedding the spores.

Mushroom spores are essentially parasites that grow on wood.

Since magic mushrooms contain a large amount of magic power, they must be drawing magic power from the wood.

If so, couldn't I provide the magic power instead?

This was an experiment based on a hypothesis with no certainty.

I would inject different amounts of magic power into several logs and observe their growth.

My daily routine involved tending to the fields in the morning while the sun was out, infusing the logs with magic power in the evening, and making sandals at night under the light my mother provided.

After some time, I noticed that only one of the several logs had produced three magic mushrooms.

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