The eyes of the people turned red, and everyone was excitedly yelling and shouting.
"Haha, this Tiger Cress belongs to me!"
A youngster joyfully started laughing. He stretched his arm forward and tried to grab the herb. However, right before his palm could touch the herb, a light curtain suddenly appeared and stopped his hand. At the same time, he was forced 3 steps backward.
"Haha, idiot, all these herbs are protected by a defense mechanism! You won't be able to put your hands on them without breaking the mechanism first!"
"All these newcomers are just idiots."
...
Some people started laughing. Those who had arrived here first had discovered how it works.
"This is strange, why are all these herbs protected by defense mechanisms?" One of the youngsters near Michael glared at the herbs and wondered.
"Without it, do you think there would still be so many herbs here? Not to mention this is only a garden with a 7 km circumference. Even a 70 km circumference garden would be emptied in an instant if there were no defense mechanism. Every single herb here is protected by a defense mechanism, meaning we have to break the mechanism before we can get the herb. Also, according to the rarity of the herb, how many years it has grown, and its value, the strength of the defense mechanism will be different as well. For the herbs with a higher value than others and who are also old, their defense mechanisms will be more difficult to break." Micheal heard someone explain how the mechanism works to the youngster who raised the previous question.
Indeed, Michael both saw many warriors restlessly working to break the defense mechanisms of those high-value herbs. One of the warriors stood in front of a Diamond Leaf, and his face had turned red. No matter how much strength he used, he just couldn't break its defense mechanism.
Although everyone's eyes were on the rare and oldest herbs like Tiger cress, Michael's eyes were on the other herbs that did not attract as many eyes as the Tiger cress.
[why is the host not fighting for the Tiger Cress?]
When the system realized that Michael is not walking towards Tiger Cress or any other precious herbs, the System asked in a curious voice.
"Because I didn't want to lose the chance of getting all these herbs fighting for one thing" As he said, he came before a herb called Wolf pepper and reached out to grab the herb.
[100 badass points to break the defense mechanism] A golden dome appeared around the herb and at the same time, he heard the system's voice in his head.
"100 for Wolf pepper? Sigh" he sighed and paid 100 badass points to break the shield to acquire the herb.
Right after he paid the system, the golden dome dimmed and disappeared. Michael grabbed the herb while everyone was focused on Tiger cress and moved to the next one.
The herbal garden had hundreds of rare herbs but only a few of them had extremely tough defense mechanisms and attracted the most eyes. Also, the people in the garden had already begun fighting for these rare herbs ignoring the herbs that were less rare than herbs like Tiger Cress.
Michael exploited this situation and grabbed all the herbs he could without attracting the eyes of the cultivators. The other reason Michael decided to go after these herbs was the rare herbs had people from powerful sects and families fighting for.
[The host should really hunt for more rare and precious herbs]
"And start a fight with most of the major powers in the continent? No, thanks. Besides, I know what I'm doing"
As a 5-star level Alchemist, he knew everything there is to know about the surrounding herbs. For a normal cultivator, the Tiger cress would help him/her breakthrough from the Body Refining stage to the Body Strengthening stage in one go after consuming the pill concocted using the Tiger Cress as the main ingredient. However, for Michael who uses Experience points and Badass points, herbs like Tiger Cress didn't matter too much. Also, these herbs would only have desirable medicinal quality if they matured for more than a thousand years and if not, their medicinal quality and worth would be subpar at best. Although Michael had the system, he still couldn't fast forward the time and grow a bunch of Thousand years old Tiger cresses.
Michael's sole intention was to get as many as the herbs he could and grow them in his herbal garden to make more varieties of pills and potions without making too many powerful enemies in the process. The herbs he was collecting could be easily grown in his herbal garden and didn't need to mature for thousand years to get the most out of them.
"Nacciabacca, Sotteder, Yatoth, Koneasbi, Uwogon, Autumn Licorice, Swamp Leaf, Star Cumin, Moon Oregano, Mountain Vanilla..." While recalling the herbs he collected, he continued to collect more and more herbs. Because of the size of the garden and Michael's quick work on the defense mechanisms, many did not even notice him as they were busy trying to break the defense mechanisms on their own.
The system urged Michael to steal precious herbs like Tiger Cress hoping to make him piss off many powerful people so it could reap the badass points from him by helping him in battle. He did the opposite of the System's intention and didn't fight with anyone. Yet, it was not true for others as he could see intense battles all over the garden for rare herbs like Tiger Cress or Diamond Leaf.
"Is that who I think it is?"
"Yes, it's that Ghost who won Heaven's gate competition"
"And he's also a 5-star Alchemist"
"Fuck! He looks younger than me"
"Why isn't he fighting for those rarest herbs?"
Many people who were from Bradford and River town instantly recognized Michael and started chit-chatting. They all wondered why he was not fighting for the rarest herbs but picking the ordinary herbs. Because of the rarest herbs, these people had forgotten that the herbs Michael was picking only became ordinary when they were compared to the rarest herbs. In the search for the rarest herbs, they were losing the chance of obtaining these 'Ordinary herbs'.
"My herbal garden is going to be awesome" the more herbs he picked, the more he felt excited.
He continued to avoid battles and collect herbs. Although the Garden was massive, with the help of Lightning dash, he covered a lot of ground and obtained hundreds of herbs. While he was obtaining these herbs, he also avoided many groups who were fighting for some herbs because the garden was so big and had thousands of herbs; there was no need for fighting.
Michael's goal inside the Nether Realm was to collect as many treasures as he can without making too many enemies. He liked to grow stronger in shadows and only show his power when necessary until he became stronger than everyone else in this world.
"Now it's time for some money-making"
"Oooh sounds fun!" He grinned hearing Gaya's excited voice and walked towards the Tiger Cress where a large group of people was fighting over it.
"Tiger Cress belongs to Morning Star, we found it first!"
"I don't see you or your sect's name on the Tiger Cress!"
"The Tiger Cress belongs to whoever breaks this defense mechanism"
"Yes, that's fair!"
All the major powers like Aragoth, the three big sects, and many prominent families in Elon Continent were arguing over the Tiger Cress.
"I can break this defense mechanism" Suddenly the atmosphere became silent after Michael's voice reverberated the area. Everyone in the place turned their head and saw a black-robed youngster walking towards them with a small grin on his face.
"Who do you think you are?"
"What makes you think you can break this defense mechanism?"
"He's just an attention seeker"
None of them thought Michael could break the defense mechanism and returned to bitch about how to get their hands on the herb.
"You can stand here all day trying to break the spell or let me do it for you" Michael spoke again but this time, his voice was louder and serious.
"Humph, do you really think you can break this mechanism?" A disciple from Aragoth asked arrogantly.
"Let's assume you can break this mechanism, aren't you going to claim ownership of the herb?"
"What if you can't break the mechanism as you said?"
They fired question after question at Michael as he just stood there with a smile, "I know I can break the mechanism and as for the ownership, I will sell the herb to the highest bidder. I will say this again, You can stand here all day trying to break the spell or let me do it for you. Whoever has the most gold coins will get the herb"
Everyone stared at the Tiger Cress and Michael for a few moments before the arrogant youngster from Aragoth spoke," Alright if you can do what you have said, you'll be richer when we return to the outside world"
Michael knew this youngster was making a threat, but he didn't mind his tone because he's going to break this defense mechanism with the help of the system.
"Step aside people, it's time to crack this baby open,"