After weighing the pros and cons, Seratus ultimately decided to prioritize purchasing the relatively affordable yet highly practical **[Primary Plant Encyclopedia]**.
As soon as he silently thought "purchase," the system promptly provided a confirmation prompt.
Immediately after, a soft green light flashed before his eyes, and in the next moment, a finely crafted book with an emerald green cover, adorned with intricate patterns of lush plants and mysterious runes, quietly appeared in his dragon claws.
The entire book exuded a faint, refreshing botanical fragrance, as if it truly held the boundless secrets of the growth of all things in the universe.
Standing in the field, guarding the land he had worked so hard to cultivate, Seratus caressed the newly acquired Plant Encyclopedia, his heart filled with hope for the future.
He gazed at the Sunshroom, which had grown large thanks to careful irrigation and the nourishment of energy-infused fertilizer, and recalled the regret of nearly missing out on this opportunity due to impulsiveness just days ago!
At this moment, as the system chimed in once more:
"Congratulations, host, on successfully completing the task. Unlocking the next task. Current task: Plant ten crops and successfully harvest them. Reward: Unlock a new plant."
Seratus felt both anticipation for the new challenge and a slight frustration with the stingy system, muttering, "Might as well not give any reward at all, offering so little."
Seratus lowered his head, his gaze puzzled as he stared at the green book lying quietly in his claws. A faint sense of confusion and bewilderment welled up in his heart:
This **[Primary Plant Encyclopedia]**, didn’t the system confidently claim that it could detect the life status of plants through touch?
So why was the book in front of him still blank? Not a single piece of information, not even the simplest word, could be seen. Only the four lonely characters on the cover—"Plant Encyclopedia"—gleamed with a cold luster under the moonlight, with nothing else to be found.
Unwilling to give up, he flipped through the thin book several times from beginning to end, but the result remained disappointing—the pages were still empty, void of any text or images, as if it were an unfinished, blank notebook.
Seratus furrowed his brow tightly, his heart beginning to murmur:
"How strange, what... what is going on here?
Could it be that the system is playing a trick, selling a pig in a poke with false advertising?
Or is there some hidden mechanism here that I haven’t figured out yet?"
Filled with doubt and a faint sense of unease, Seratus decided to temporarily abandon his aimless fumbling and instead try the most direct and effective method—practical application.
Carefully, he extended his sharp yet slightly trembling claw and gently touched the plump cap of the most thriving Sunshroom beside him.
The moment his claw made contact with the Sunshroom, a soft, warm light suddenly flashed across the previously blank page.
Immediately after, as if an invisible pen were rapidly writing on the page, line after line of clear, elegant text began to appear:
**[Plant Name]**: Sunshroom
**[Quality]**: Green
**[Current Status]**: Ready for Harvest
**[Description]**:
Grows diligently in the soil, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon to mature.
When consumed, it provides a large amount of lunar essence energy and a small amount of solar essence energy, while significantly enhancing lunar essence absorption affinity for a short period.
Seratus widened his eyes, carefully reading the description, and gradually understood:
So, while the Sunshroom may seem ordinary, it contains extremely precious energy.
However, its true function is limited to providing energy through consumption.
He turned his gaze to the cluster of white-quality radishes not far away, another question arising in his mind:
If this encyclopedia could display detailed information about the Sunshroom, how would it present the information about the radishes?
Filled with curiosity, he extended his claw once more and gently touched one of the radishes.
Instantly, a flash of light appeared, but the first page of the book remained fixed on the Sunshroom’s information.
Seratus was startled and quickly flipped to the second page to check.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
To his surprise, the second page now displayed detailed information about the radish—it stated that the radish was nearing maturity.
Just as he wondered, "Does each plant’s information occupy a separate page?"
Determined, he touched another radish nearby, and the page immediately updated, showing that the plant was now "ready for harvest."
At that moment, he suddenly understood:
The first page of the Plant Encyclopedia was fixed to display the Sunshroom’s information, while touching other plants of the same type would refresh the corresponding page. Different types of plants occupied different pages.
Seratus finally felt at ease, secretly relieved that the system wasn’t designed to waste information with every touch.
After confirming how the encyclopedia worked, he began to carefully inspect his farmland.
After a period of patient cultivation, many crops in the field had reached maturity: both the Sunshrooms and white radishes were ready for harvest.
Seratus harvested all of them and decided to sell them at the Exchange Store.
After some shrewd trading, his points quickly accumulated—each mature Sunshroom could be sold for 50 points, totaling 400 points after the sale.
He then spent 100 points to purchase 20 Sunshroom seeds.
With plans for the future in mind, Seratus planted all the Sunshroom seeds, meticulously arranging them in a 6x6 grid that now filled the field.
Though he had considered clearing new land to expand his farming scale, the current field was sufficient for his needs, and the expansion plan would have to wait for a few more days.
In one corner of the field, the stumps left from tree felling still stubbornly remained in the soil. Though their branches were gone, the open space could still be cultivated.
Looking at the newly planted Sunshroom seeds, Seratus felt a surge of hope and anticipation.
He knew that only through careful tending could he reap the joy of a bountiful harvest.
Thus, he decided to water the new seeds first.
He left the field and walked to the nearby clear lake, filling a bucket with water before hurrying back.
In the field, he evenly poured the cool lake water over the seedlings while taking out the remaining half of his stored fertilizer and carefully sprinkling it around each young plant.
The combination of fertile soil and ample water would accelerate the plants' growth.
As night fell, the volcanic lava cave still glowed with a faint red hue. Seratus sat in a corner of the cave, his gaze fixed on the three remaining lottery tickets in the system panel.
These tickets shimmered with a mysterious light, like keys to fate, drawing in his eager heart.
Gritting his teeth, he decided to muster his last bit of courage to challenge the unknown fate of the lottery.
Seratus opened the system backpack and carefully examined the three lottery tickets, each emitting a faint blue glow.
Without hesitation, he clicked to use them. Instantly, a dazzling light flashed, and his consciousness seemed to be pulled into an endless void.
Before him gradually materialized a tangible lottery machine, ancient and mysterious, spinning ceaselessly like a traditional gachapon machine.
He stared in astonishment, thinking to himself, "Isn’t this... just a gachapon machine?"
Seratus tentatively inserted the lottery ticket into the machine, which then emitted a low "gurgle" as it swallowed the ticket.
Immediately after, the number of lottery draws on the machine’s screen increased by one.
Without hesitation, Seratus clicked the screen, then gripped the sturdy lever with his dragon claw and gave it a forceful turn.
As he poured his strength into it, the machine began to flash with balls of various colors: pure white, emerald green, bright yellow, fiery red, deep purple, and even the exceedingly rare golden ball—though the golden one was so scarce it only flickered briefly on the surface.
Seratus nervously increased the speed of the spin, hoping to draw the golden ball, which symbolized the highest legendary quality.
He focused intently, adjusting the force as his eyes remained fixed on the shifting balls.
However, at that moment, the machine suddenly emitted a "ding," and a ball dropped out from the side.
Seratus hurried closer, hearing the crisp notification sound, his heart filled with anxiety: Could this be something bad?
He quickly opened the machine’s lid, and before him appeared a smooth, warm-glowing sphere—a red ball!
"Red..." Seratus murmured softly, a wave of inexplicable joy rising in his heart.
Among the seven levels—white, green, blue, yellow, red, purple, and gold—red represented the fifth level. While not the highest, it still signified a remarkable quality.
As he reached out to touch the red ball, it suddenly burst open with a "pop," its fragments scattering as its core transformed into a dazzling light that instantly entered his consciousness.
Immediately after, the system’s voice chimed in once more: "Ding! Congratulations, host, on obtaining a red-quality item—Plant Life Aura!"
Seratus’s heart leaped, and he quickly opened his backpack to check.
Sure enough, a golden-hued ring lay quietly within.
According to the system’s description, the Plant Life Aura, when equipped, could significantly accelerate the growth of nearby plants and greatly enhance the wearer’s affinity with plant life—emitting pure life elements around the wearer, providing immense assistance in farming.
Seratus gently put on the aura and turned to look around, but he didn’t visibly notice any aura emanating from his body.
However, the system panel clearly showed that the equipment had been successfully activated.
Soon after, Seratus clicked on the **[Attribute Panel]** on the right side of the screen.
The interface slowly unfolded, revealing rows of numbers and text:
---Farming System Attribute Panel---
Name: Seratus
Race: Red Dragon
Gender: Male
Current Strength: Gold
Current Good Deeds: 10
Current Evil Karma: 2.5
Current Stamina: 25 [Plant Life Aura +5]
Current Intelligence: 20 [Above average, providing a solid foundation for future cultivation]
Current Power: 25 [Overwhelming advantage compared to ordinary magical beasts]
Skills: Flame Jet, Explosive Blast, Dragon Breath, Healing Art
Special Ability: Dragon Inheritance (0.15%) [Plant Life Aura equipped]
Description: [As a red dragon whelp, your strength is weak, but your potential is limitless. In the future, even a mid-sized magical beast could be crushed by you.]
System Level: Lv.1
Seratus couldn’t help but mutter, "This red-quality Plant Life Aura, though it only adds a bit to my attributes, is still better than nothing. Combined with the Healing Art, this is practically overpowered!"
He then inserted the remaining two lottery tickets into the machine.
The second draw yielded a blue ball; the third, a yellow one.
When the yellow ball appeared, Seratus nearly jumped with excitement, thinking he had drawn the golden one.
However, upon closer inspection, he realized it was only yellow-quality.
The blue ball’s reward was ten "Forgiveness Rose" seeds—legendary plants that required extremely precise conditions to grow, blooming only after meticulous care. When they flowered, their three rose petals could grant forgiveness to the recipient.
Seratus sighed, "Forgiveness Roses? Who do I need to forgive?"
Thus, he stored the ten seeds in his backpack, deciding not to plant them.
The yellow-quality reward, however, was something else entirely. Its color, intense and fiery, far surpassed the blue-quality reward. "So yellow!" he couldn’t help but murmur.
Unexpectedly, the yellow-quality prize turned out to be a skill book—a tome titled **"Manifestation of Karmic Retribution."**
Seratus felt a surge of excitement, but it was quickly followed by a hint of unease and doubt: "Since this book comes from a yellow-quality draw, it must be extraordinary. But the name... 'Manifestation of Karmic Retribution'—does it have something to do with my accumulating evil karma?"
Carefully, he opened the skill book, and cold text slowly unfolded before his eyes.
The book detailed:
Each day, the host has three opportunities to check the evil karma status of others—when someone commits a misdeed, a black substance will gather above their head. The darker the substance, the greater the evil and the more frequent the acts of harm.
Additionally, once per day, the host can unleash a punishment skill on those with dense black energy, causing their karmic retribution to manifest early. This skill acts like a preemptive strike from heaven, triggering misfortune for those with heavy evil karma!
Of course, if the host themselves have accumulated evil karma, the punishment will also apply to both parties, creating a strict law of cause and effect—"What I sow today will bear fruit tomorrow."
Seratus looked down at the system panel, which displayed his current evil karma value: 2.5.
His heart was filled with complex emotions: on one hand, the number weighed heavily on him, as if foretelling the torment of divine retribution, where even drinking cold water would feel like choking; on the other hand, he secretly weighed the possibility that, when facing formidable opponents, if they were burdened with heavy evil karma, this skill could trigger their retribution early, potentially giving him the upper hand.
"System..." Seratus murmured softly, his tone tinged with both helplessness and sarcasm, "With your Buddhist-like settings, eating meat increases evil karma. Maybe I should just go vegetarian from now on."
He raised his head, gazing at the lottery rewards and the rows of clear data on the system attribute panel, silently pondering: Could this **Manifestation of Karmic Retribution** skill become a powerful weapon against evil forces in the future? Or would it become an unbearable curse, dragging him into the abyss of evil karma?
His thoughts wandered between the laws of cause and effect and the inevitability of fate. "Every cause has its effect," the phrase echoed repeatedly in his mind.
Whenever he thought of his 2.5 evil karma value, if heaven truly delivered retribution, even the pain of choking on cold water wouldn’t be enough to describe it.
But at the same time, he also thought that perhaps, with this **Manifestation of Karmic Retribution** skill, when facing opponents shrouded in dark energy, he could expose their sins and bring divine retribution upon them early, gaining the upper hand.
Seratus hesitated for a moment, knowing that his current strength was far from its peak, and it would be difficult to fully utilize the **Manifestation of Karmic Retribution** for now.
After careful consideration, he decided to temporarily store the skill book in his backpack, not rushing to use it. Instead, he would wait until the first task was completed to see if the Exchange Store could unlock more resources, or if a more suitable opportunity arose in battle to unleash this skill.
Gazing at the skill book glowing with a yellow hue and the clear numbers on the system attribute panel, Seratus sighed softly, "What I sow today will surely bear fruit tomorrow."