After Lin Chen returned home, he began to study the Spell book written in druidic.
Although he had knowledge of druidic in his mind due to his profession, he had never spent time learning it or used it much. When he truly started reading books in druidic, it was not a smooth process.
It was as if he had a druidic dictionary in his mind; when reading, he had to flip through the dictionary in his head, then understand, and even determine the true meaning based on the context, which was very slow.
He barely finished reading the basic introduction to this Spell.
It is called "Identify Plants," and it is similar in name and effect to the Druid 1st level Spell "Detect Plants"; it is an upgraded version of "Detect Plants."
Detect Plants can only detect the type of plant. For example, if you use it on a rice plant, you will only conclude that it is rice.
But if you use Identify Plants, you will also know some of its characteristics. Grandpa Xiao Mu used this Spell to determine that hybrid rice could not stably inherit its traits.
It is a useful Spell, but it is also truly difficult to learn. The cost is to thoroughly understand this book, which contains a large amount of plant knowledge.
Lin Chen felt both love and hate for this Spell. What he lacked most right now was time. There were still many Spells in the player handbook he had not learned, not to mention this more difficult rare Spell.
Its learning order had to be postponed; improving his survival ability was the top priority.
Currently, Entangle was at the top of his learning priority, followed by Healing Word, and after Healing Word, there were Thorn Whip and Burning Hands.
Lin Chen put down the book, picked up a miniature soft bamboo, cut it into pieces, and cooked a large pot of bamboo shoot porridge, which, of course, included spring of recovery.
While the porridge was simmering, he held up the player handbook and studied Entangle.
By then, the sky had completely darkened. The hoe handle, enchanted with Light, emitted a soft glow, standing quietly by the wall, illuminating the small room.
Entangle was the Spell Lin Chen chose to combine with Shillelagh. It allows him to designate a point within the casting range and have weeds and vines spread out from that point in a 20 foot square area to Entangle enemies. It can even be amplified in places with dense vegetation.
This is a very suitable control Spell to use in the forest. It would be much easier to control enemies with it and then attack with a weapon enchanted with Shillelagh.
With it, Lin Chen could put up a fight even when facing multiple enemies.
"Lin Chen—, Lin Chen—"
A shout from outside the house startled Lin Chen, who was engrossed in Spell study. He walked to the window, leaned out, and saw a large bonfire had been set up at some point in the open space outside Oak Grocery. Everyone in the camp was sitting around it, and it was Cheng Wei from the Mountaineering Club who was calling him.
"Lin Chen, we got a pig to roast! Come down and eat with us! It is so early, it is boring to stay in the house alone!"
Lin Chen saw that the pig was quite large; it should have been a domesticated pork pig. Half of the pork was roasting over the fire, and even Wu Ya Ya had come out, standing on the railing at the entrance of the grocery store, with a leaf in front of it, and on the leaf was fragrant, oily roasted meat. He did not see Grandpa Xiao Mu, who was probably busy researching hybrid rice.
The atmosphere was excellent, as if they had not been arguing earlier. However, he was happy to join in such harmonious fun, and his porridge was just ready.
He carried a large pot of porridge out the door and first scooped a small bowl for Yuan Gun Gun.
As soon as the bowl was placed steadily on the ground, Yuan Gun Gun scurried down from him, wagging its tail, and went to the small bowl, licking up its long awaited dinner.
For as long as Lin Chen had been studying Spells, it had been tormented by the aroma of the bamboo shoot porridge and could no longer resist.
"Lin Chen, your porridge smells so good!" Cheng Wei, sitting closest, smelled it most clearly.
"Mm, it has bamboo shoots in it. Do you want some?" Lin Chen said generously. Although there was spring of recovery in it, the amount was very small, and the effect of spring of recovery is very slow. This small amount would not show any abnormalities; at most, it would just taste better and be more filling.
He had brought out a bucket of disposable cups, which he had found in that tent earlier.
Only one day had passed, and the plastic bag packaging already showed signs of degradation. The cups inside would probably be damaged soon, so Lin Chen simply took them out to share the porridge with them. Building good relationships with the residents of the territory was also very important.
Cheng Wei held her small cup of porridge and was amazed by the first bite.
Several people from the Mountaineering Club, strongly recommended by Cheng Wei, also came to get a cup. These few people were of similar age.
The others were older, mostly middle aged people who came to Forest Park to hike on weekends. There were twenty people in total, fifteen of whom were male. Compared to the porridge, they felt that meat provided more energy.
Moreover, if everyone shared that pot of porridge, each person would get at most half a cup, so they did not speak up. Only one woman with a child came over to get two cups for her child.
Wu Ya Ya also came over, drawn by the scent. "This is miniature soft bamboo shoots, right? Not bad!"
"Miniature what?" Xu Shan asked in confusion. Could this not be ordinary bamboo shoots?
"Uh, these are snacks Grandpa Xiao Mu gave Yuan Gun Gun. They are called miniature soft bamboo shoots. Anyway, they are just a type of bamboo shoot with a softer texture," Lin Chen said, guiltily touching his nose.
"Ah? Then are not we stealing the national treasure's food?" Liu Luoluo caught the key point. She glanced at the tiny Yuan Gun Gun, hesitated for only a second, then decided to continue drinking.
"Did you succeed in selling seeds today?" Li Wei was fixated on finding quests to grind.
"Yes, I went to some farmers' homes today to find and sell some crop seeds. The variety was quite complete," Lin Chen did not hide it.
"No wonder they stopped accepting them when we went later!" Li Wei wailed. They were just one step too late!
At that time, their conflict had been interrupted by Lin Chen's reminder. Although they argued righteously to save face, they did not intend to attract another large wave of monsters to kill.
Without a shortcut, they could only look for places where zombies were not dense, which led them to those scattered farmers. They also found many seeds and even got a pig.
Now there was no refrigerator and no large amount of salt, so the meat was not easy to preserve. They simply roasted it for everyone to eat together, which could also ease the tense atmosphere of the day.
Unexpectedly, when they went to sell seeds, they were turned away. Oak Grocery only accepted seeds or young plants that had not been collected before.
"Hey, young man, you just called that guy Lin Chen, right? Which 'Lin' and which 'Chen'?" An uncle next to Liu Cheng patted his shoulder.
"I do not know, why ask that?" Liu Cheng looked confused.
"Look at the first place on the level ranking, it seems to be called Lin Chen! Could it be him!"
Liu Cheng and the others had been busy all day, so they had no time to check the Forum. Hearing this, they quickly opened it to look, and sure enough, it was true.
He excitedly moved closer to Lin Chen. "Let me ask you something, is your name 'Lin' from forest, and 'Chen' from morning?"
Lin Chen nodded. "Yes, why?"