Chapter 6

5. Visitor

The choco cherries had grown to a size where they could be harvested. Not only were they delicious, but they were also beautiful in shape and had a pain-relieving effect that could reduce headaches. He sent several beautifully packaged boxes of choco cherries to the mailbox.

Meow!

"It doesn't have to be a roar, but at least a meow, right? Why are you still making that 'meow' sound?"

Taesun, whose legs seemed to have gained some strength, was walking well. Although he stumbled a few steps due to the weight of his head, he was much better than when he used to crawl around the house.

"A white tiger is supposed to be a mythical creature, right? I thought there would be something special about it. Just a baby tiger?"

Taesun was seen either walking or rolling across the lawn, looking very excited. In real time, it had been less than two weeks, and it seemed his eyesight was still not very good. At home, the constant bumping into things by Taesun made my heart race. The garden was wider and had more open spaces, so I could leave him alone with some peace of mind.

"There are also wildflower seedlings. I heard some wildflowers can be used as herbs."

Wearing farmer's clothes and holding a seedling spade, I was rummaging through the store. After learning alchemy, I created a flower bed. I also planned to build a greenhouse next to the cabin.

In alchemy, not only herbs grown in the field but also flowers and weeds were used as ingredients. Therefore, I had to buy and plant several seeds and seedlings from the store.

Alchemy was a skill that suited Taesun, who had good eyesight and memory, even though he wasn't particularly dexterous.

The skin cream I bought from the store and the hair nutrient I obtained from a random box were very effective. Thanks to this, I was more determined to learn alchemy. In fact, I started looking into it because the price of fertilizer and nutrients after the second harvest of crops was quite high.

I thought the profit from selling strawberries was good, but the efficiency dropped significantly after I started using fertilizer and nutrients. I became interested in alchemy and alchemy because I saw a tip that making fertilizer or nutrients through alchemy could reduce costs.

However, the materials required for alchemy were quite expensive, making it difficult for a beginner gardener like Taesun to learn. Moreover, the mineral tree was too expensive to buy. The most expensive item Taesun had was a tablet worth 15,000 DP, while the cheapest copper tree was twice that, at 30,000 DP.

Squawk!!!

I heard Taesun's piercing scream. Surprised while looking around the store, I saw a giant crow pecking at Taesun on the lawn.

"What the hell."

I ran to chase away the crow, fearing that Taesun might be torn by its sharp beak. I approached the crow loudly, swinging the seedling spade to scare it away, but it was useless. However, the crow felt some threat and flew up. I quickly picked up Taesun during this time.

The giant crow, as big as a human torso, circled in the air several times. Then it perched on an apple tree by the well and started eating an apple. Although I was a bit relieved that it wasn't targeting Taesun or me, I couldn't relax, fearing it might attack again.

I moved cautiously to the shed, keeping an eye on the crow. I wanted to check on Taesun and grab something that could be used as a weapon for reassurance. After a moment's thought, I chose the pickaxe over the spade as a better weapon.

Flap.

The crow, which had been eating apples to its heart's content, flew away, making my tense grip on the pickaxe seem unnecessary. I sighed in relief, put Taesun in the cabin, and ran to the book statue to check the manual.

There were only three trees: two apple trees and one choco cherry tree. The manual explained that the more valuable the tree, the more visitors it would attract. It seemed the crow came because of the choco cherries.

"Visitors? There's no such thing as a monster."

In fact, the crow was a visitor.

These visitors often visit the garden and repay the good treatment they receive. In reality, the crow wasn't trying to peck at Taesun but was trying to carry him to a safe place because he was a young cub wandering around.

When I checked the apple tree where the crow had perched, I found a shiny object at the base.

"Huh, it really was a visitor? Then why did it attack Taesun?"

It was a misunderstanding between the beginner gardener and the young white tiger. Not knowing the reason for the attack, I had to be on guard every time a crow visitor came.

*

I went to the hospital as promised with my half-brother Min-soo to check if I was a suitable candidate for a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The test results showed that I was a suitable candidate. I was also told that my health was good enough that I didn't need to worry about any after-effects. After listening to the precautions before the donation and setting the transplant date, I returned home.

Min-soo's mother, who heard the news later, wanted to express her gratitude through Min-soo, but I declined. To me, she was my father's mistress before she was Min-soo's mother. Neither my father nor she wanted to meet. I also declined to meet the child who would receive the transplant, hoping to end the relationship simply as a donor and recipient.

"I'm glad there are many items in the store that help with recovery."

I bought the potions I would need after the donation in advance. I was told that I would need to be hospitalized for a few days before and after the donation, and that recovery would take time. Fortunately, the recovery potions were not expensive, so I could buy several. The store's potions were reliable and effective, so I expected to recover quickly. Moreover, the hospital stay for the transplant was not long, so I could tell Tae-woo that I was going on a short trip.

♪Baby white tiger, truru truru, cute truru truru, baby white tiger♬

I sang a modified version of a song I had heard while plowing the field. This time, I planned to grow pumpkins instead of strawberries. Pumpkins required 36 hours to grow. One of the two fields still had rainbow seeds growing, and I was careful when watering them as they had sprouted halfway recently.

"I heard the pumpkin delivery request is quite profitable. The price is good. Of course, it would be better to deliver them as pies or bread, but that's too much for me."

In fact, I had recently learned cooking and tried to make strawberry pies. When you have a cooking skill, you can learn basic recipes by thoroughly reading a cookbook. After preparing the ingredients and selecting the oven, the dish is made. The process is very simple, similar to a game.

I had high hopes that a proper pie would be made. After waiting for a few hours, the completed pie looked and smelled good. Fortunately, I tasted it before bringing it to the real world. The pie I made was very sticky and greasy, making me feel sick. It was a terrible taste that I never wanted to try again.

Later, I learned from the skill description in the book statue that there was a "aptitude" section. You can learn any skill by spending points, but the efficiency of the skill varies depending on your aptitude. After that, I decided to skip all cooking delivery requests.

If the request gave differential DP based on the quality of the delivered item, I definitely wouldn't give DP for the food I made. In fact, if there was a penalty, I would have given the maximum.

"Doesn't a random box contain something like an expansion for the second floor of the cabin?"

I wondered if I was so weak against temptation. I had been in the garden for less than a month, but I seemed to be addicted to random box draws.

There was no way a second-floor expansion would come out of a random box. You need to decorate the garden to a certain level to qualify for expansion. It was just a hope of mine who was enjoying the draws.

"To make sparkling skin cream, you need gold carp scales and star tree fruit powder, right?"

You can catch gold carp in a moonlit pond after creating one in the garden on a moonlit night. You can get star tree fruit every full moon after the star tree grows. I didn't have either of these items yet.

"Wow, this is definitely a garden, not a farm. I thought it was a farm because I was only growing field crops, but it's more like a vegetable garden. I can only plant 40 trees in total. After making a pond and planting a star tree, should I plant a heart tree?"

To upgrade the garden, I needed more trees and decorations. Since I was going to plant trees anyway, I carefully read the manual to plant trees that could be used to make medicine.

The heart tree bears heart-shaped fruits the size of plums. When you add these fruits to food or medicine while wishing for success, the success rate of the creation increases. Of course, the heart tree fruits are delicious and can be eaten as they are, but people usually use them in creations for the increased success rate.

"There are so many interesting things. I want to make nutrition for Tae-woo and Taesun, so I need to earn DP diligently."

Taking care of the garden became more enjoyable day by day. Although there were surprises like the crow visitor, time passed peacefully and leisurely.

While waiting for the pumpkins to grow, I bought various seedlings. In addition to seedlings of tasty fruits and those with unique effects, I also bought a seedling of a sturdy tree to build a treehouse.

It is said that occasionally unexpected visitors come to the garden to sleep in the treehouse. Mainly winged visitors like dragons, pegasi, and harpies. Having seen a dragon movie, I bought a seedling for a treehouse with some hope.

"Is it true that manual creation has a higher success rate than automatic creation?"

According to the explanation in the "Basic Alchemy" book, automatic creation takes longer and requires more herbs. For Taesun, who was starting to feel a lack of DP, this was an attractive proposition. Since the main task in the garden was managing field crops, making medicine manually wasn't a bad idea.

"I have to wait for the trees to grow from seedlings to make sparkling skin cream. For now, the only thing I can make is fertilizer."

Fertilizer is used not only for field crops but also for trees. It is said that giving fertilizer occasionally improves the quality of the fruit.

"Slime?"

Advanced fertilizer requires slime juice. After setting up a slime cave, I had to collect slime juice with a spade and bucket.

"Isn't this a bit much? Raising slimes? Should I just make regular fertilizer?"

Regular fertilizer is good, but advanced fertilizer significantly increases the chance of growing advanced crops. It would be great if I didn't have to raise a monster like a slime.

After much thought, Taesun decided to build a slime cave in the far corner of the garden. Since he would need to make fertilizer regularly, he couldn't always buy slime juice from the store.

"It seems like I have more and more to do. To make one thing, I need to prepare a lot more."

Taesun chose a slime cave item from the store. There were basic rock caves, mud caves, and sparkling crystal caves. If he had learned alchemy, he might have needed to install an expensive metal cave.

Taesun installed the most ordinary rock cave deep inside the garden. Curious about how it would be set up, he found it looked like an igloo cut in half. The entrance, made of brown stone, was dark inside.

It didn't look dangerous, but just in case, he took a recovery potion and entered. The sound of the bucket and seedling spade clinking together echoed in the cave, making him a bit startled, but he calmed himself and continued inside.

"The entrance was covered by about a meter of dirt, but now I've walked in about ten meters, haven't I?"

The inside of the cave seemed like a completely different space. Unlike the rough entrance, the walls were neatly arranged. The floor was covered with fine soil, which felt very soft and pleasant to walk on. Small torches were placed sporadically, so it wasn't very dark.

"It's much better than I thought."

After walking further into the cave, a large chamber appeared. The chamber was filled with mushrooms of various colors from the floor to the ceiling. There were mushrooms of all sizes, from the size of a palm to an umbrella, and slimes of various colors were eating them.

"Wow. These are slimes? Amazing! They're so cute."

The slimes ranged in size from a ping-pong ball to a tennis ball. There were about twenty slimes in the cave. The translucent slimes seemed to change color based on the mushrooms they were eating. A slime attached to a purple basketball-sized mushroom was a transparent purple.

Taesun watched the slimes for a while, then collected the slime juice on the floor into a bucket. He thought the slime juice might be dirty, but it had no smell and was the same color as the slimes. Unlike the slimes, which had a round core inside their bodies, the slime juice had no core. It felt like a stretchy jelly, unlike the bouncy slimes.

It was hard to leave the cave. It was difficult to turn away from the slimes bouncing around the mushrooms like bouncy balls. I had heard that children liked making slime, and even slime-making cafes had become popular. At the time, I wondered why they liked it so much, but seeing the actual slimes made me want to adopt one.

With the slime juice prepared, it was time to make advanced fertilizer. Taesun dug a pit next to the shed as described in the book. He dug a knee-deep pit, laid leaves and grass, added ashes from the fireplace and cut strawberry branches, and evenly sprinkled the slime juice before covering it with soil. If left for three days, advanced fertilizer would be made.

It wasn't a difficult or hard task, but looking at the fertilizer pit made him feel accomplished. I remembered feeling proud after successfully completing a difficult shoot, even though it was a small task. I felt a similar sense of satisfaction now, even though it was a simple task. Of course, it wasn't a bad feeling at all.