Growing Medicinal Plants
The next day.
Just like yesterday, I headed deep into the mountains to where the plantation was. The Sun beans I planted had already grown as tall as my waist.
「…They really do grow fast.」
Sun beans are plants that grow fast. It absorbs not just nutrients and water from the soil, but other plants and the corpses of monsters as well. Only a few bones were left of the Wolves’ bodies I scattered as fertilizers.
Sun beans grown this way are a bit different than ordinary ones. The magical energy that they absorbed from monsters can be easily absorbed by other plants as well.
I started harvesting them all for use as fertilizer.
「All done.」
I placed the Sun beans I harvested into my magic storage and looked around the place. There’s a few trees in the vicinity, but if I’m careful I shouldn’t cause any forest fire.
「Flame Circle.」
Careful not to cause a fire, I cast a fire-type spell on the ground where the Sun beans were grown. This was important for the belladonnas since they’re not as tough. If Sun bean seeds were left on the soil, the belladonnas will die – every single one of them used as fertilizer. So it was necessary to burn the area thoroughly so Sun beans won’t grow.
「That should be enough.」
After verifying that there were no Sun beans left, I took out the ones I harvested and checked to see they had no roots left before burying them in the soil. If there were still some left, they would take root right away and kill the belladonnas. I would have to do it all over again if that happened.
Finally, I took out the belladonna seeds. Belladonnas can’t grow in a normal environment. Only when there’s magical energy from monsters that’s easy to absorb will they grow properly.
There are a few ways to create such an environment. The simplest one is to just leave dead monsters on the ground. The corpses gradually disappear while dispersing magical energy in the soil.
Most of the magical energy can’t be used by plants though. Various conditions must be fulfilled: the right humidity, vegetation, temperature, and the quality of the soil. Only then can the plants use the energy for their own. Places where belladonnas grow naturally are places where these conditions are met.
But the method of simply leaving monster corpses relies mostly on coincidence and is just inefficient.
That’s where the Sun beans come in. They’re extremely vigorous, absorbing everything in the soil, even magical energy that normal plants can’t take in. With the energy within the Sun beans, other plants can use them. Sun beans are perfect for creating special fertilizers.
「There we go. Grow nice and big, okay?」
After burying the Sun beans into the ground, I scattered the belladonna seeds. They should be sprouting in three days.
Three days had passed since I planted the belladonna seeds. Once again, I headed into the mountains to check on them. As I got closer, I saw belladonnas growing as far as the eye could see.
「All right! It worked!」I said as I started plucking belladonnas one by one.
With this much, it’s probably enough to make ten potions. If I show this to Count Meigis, I can finally convince them that growing belladonnas is possible. There’s no better proof than the actual thing, after all.