A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 356: Strata Report

Chapter 356: Strata Report

According to Duke Darcy, the second strata is a marshland environment. It is full of swamps and rivers that would make the place annoying if one is ill-equipped from exploring the place. The reason they have taken time to reach the next strata was because of the environment itself. One wrong move and the marshlands might end up trapping someone alive. As for the monsters, typical marshland monsters appears to terrorize the place. The most common enemies are mutated fishmen and mud golems. They are pretty easy to deal with according to Duke Darcy, but they became troublesome and dangerous the moment they start to swarm.

As for the place itself, it wasn’t that bad until one will encounter the stalker of the second strata which is the Marshland Giant Mantis. The mantis is sort a mini boss but it is a roaming one and it doesn’t stay in one floor either, it can chase from the first floor of the second strata up to the final floor of the second strata. As long as they stay in the second strata, the stalker will remain to chase them down in any opportune time. Of course, to save the hassle, dealing with them is as soon as one meets them is the best action to avoid getting ganged up and defeated by the monsters in the process.

The boss is less of a problem but more of a chore to kill. It was a man-eating plant that grows in the middle of the boss room and remains stationary the entire fight. The only problem is that it is capable of using its vines to attack, block and stop one to attack the main body. The easy fight became a chore as it will take a while to deal with the vines instead of attacking its main body. By the time everyone had killed the boss, they are too exhausted to try and descend to the next strata.

On the other hand, the next strata was a lot more different than the first and second strata. If the first strata seems to be from a forest and ruins type of strata while the second is on a marshland strata, the third strata was a place that involves with a natural desert that one would think that they have been teleported from the labyrinth to the desert. Of course, the desert was actually a new strata with new monsters to deal with.

If it was fishmen and mud golems in the second strata, third strata has mummies, skeleton army and sand scorpions. Traps are also pretty common especially sandpits with giant antlions present underneath them. But that isn’t the biggest problem in the desert. Not the monsters, nor the traps. The problem is the heat.

Because they are not prepared to be transported in a desert, they have to abort their expedition midway and return to the surface before they get dried up by the desert heat. If they have decided to pursue and continue to push on, they would have ended up with lots of casualties as they are already running out of water by the time they are on the desert area and because of the heat, they have to consume more water than necessary.

As for the big help that the EX-2 gave to them, it comes from when they are fighting against the final boss of the second strata. Aside from its troublesome attacks and how it stalls them before they can attack the main body, it also attacks with debuffs most of the time. It’s most common tactic is to attack with either paralysis or poison debuff that deeply endagers everyone who gets hit by it. But thanks to the fruit, despite being bitter, was enough to shake off the debuffs completely and remain alive. It is especially effective against paralysis since the moment they eat it, the paralysis that would have ended up stopping them from moving would just be completely removed as a result of consuming the fruit.

The poison was also became a non-issue when the fruit is consumed. The bad effects of the poison disappears the moment one would consume the fruit. What made it better is that if one decided to keep it on their mouths for long and not consumed it in one go like one would usually do to stop the bitterness from spreading, the effects of the fruit would remain and will allow one to become immune to debuffs as long as one is currently chewing the whole thing.

In short, keeping the bitter fruit inside their mouth and keeping it inside will not only render the debuffs that would be enough to kill a person but make them temporarily immune from getting any debuffs until then. The fruit is disgusting, sure, but it was a fair trade for protecting them from the dangers of the debuffs. Without it, their medicines and the healer’s mana would have easily been drained before they can even deal damage to the plant.

Thanks to the report of Duke Darcy shared to Elaina, she has now an idea on what she will expect on the second and third strata in case she wanted to descend and try her hand on the place. The marshland seems to be a perfect place for Elaina to reminisce her childhood. Of course, Elaina has to know how similar the place of her childhood and the place that the second strata represent.

And Elaina also gained valuable information related to the EX-2. Aside from its tested effects, it seems that it also deals against regular debuffs and makes the user immune to any debuff as long as one keeps the fruit in their mouth without swallowing it just yet. They needed to have squashed the fruit in their mouth and feel the taste for the effect to remain though since the effect will not work if it isn’t eaten and just popped on the mouth. One would need to feel and taste the bitterness to get the effects.

Thanks to the taste test that the group of Duke Darcy did, Elaina had a good idea on what the EX-2 is capable now. It doesn’t heal most wounds like a portion would, but it acts as a full heal, one that would remove all debuffs that one would suffer from attacks.

And with this fruit being really capable of stopping a debuff from activating just by keeping one popped inside one’s mouth, is already something of a plus compared to normal healing items that does the same thing. The only negative thing of this fruit is the taste it has. It is hard to stomach it’s bitter taste.

Other than that, the Ex-2 would have been the perfect medicine. But since it was a fruit, the people can’t do anything to change its taste. It wasn’t made artificially, it was produced normally and harvested from a plant.

And with this, the observation process for the Ex-2 is finally complete. In short, this fruit is now something that will be approved by the God of Farming to be spread over to the world.

With how it only grows in a limited season, it has to be grown in a place with controlled season and environment. One who has no experience growing the plant will not easily succeed in keeping the plant alive. With Elaina knowing how to deal with it, she got an idea on how she can deal against the other greedy people and "punish" them for it. After all, sooner or later, other people would be desperate to get their hands on this wonder plant in the future. Profit is profit after all.

...

...

...

When Elaina have returned, the Witch is currently practicing magic with Princess Margaux on the yard. Since they got her permission from before, they don’t need to worry about practicing. They just needed to practice to the empty part of the farm to ensure that their magic will not end up destroying any crops in the process. She believes in them, it’s just that even with how careful one becomes, doesn’t change that there will be a few magic spell that might end up destroying the plants in the process so to ensure that no plants gets destroyed no matter how hard they practice, they have to conduct those practices on the empty area instead.

Elaina is happy to see Princess Margaux learning more on her magic spells. Compared to the first time she have arrived the farm, she have become quite a different person already and one that people should no longer underestimate.

Seeing that the two are still busy, Elaina did not bother them from their practice and headed straight to the farmhouse to tell Julia about the results... only to be welcomed with the result of seeing Julia currently unconscious on the smashed furniture while Adelaide is there, feeling guilty.

"Sorry about this Mom! I couldn’t control my strength and ended up throwing it to Sister Julia and almost causing major accident! "

Elaina can only scratch her head in confusion. "What the heck is going on?"