[NR] Long And Quick Of It - Chapter 709

Jason closes his eyes and channels his power into a single clover leaf. So small, and yet so draining. He can feel his power slowly creep in.

Oh yeah, he hadn’t missed the feeling. There was another reason that sensing like this was generally deferred to higher cultivation. While cultivation didn’t make you “smarter”, it can improve many things.

Key for sensing like this was memory, and how fast you can take in information. Right now, the process was like using a memory stick that can only hold a thousandth of what was being sensed and could only write info at a glacial pace.

Jason took a deep breath and tried to meditate using a technique. Because memory wasn’t as much of a problem as it might seem. You don’t need to remember every detail of something to learn what you need. As long as you keep the important bits, you don’t need to remember that one of the tiny pores on the left side of the leaf grew malformed and can’t open.

So Jason sacrificed details for speed. Sure, the meditation technique used fancy imagery about a river with leaves floating by and how you’re supposed to only pick up the leaves you need or some such. Good for those who learn that way.

Jason had another image to use now, based on a popular saying that had managed to hang on since before the fall. “In one ear and out the other.” Easy enough to visualize for him and was more personal than a river with leaves.

Still, it took him five minutes to finish with the lead, and that is despite his previous experience from his last life. So when Jason opened his eyes and saw how bored Rosha looked, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Rosha frowned and huffed, “Took long enough. Doesn’t exactly feel like some magical sense.”

Jason shrugs, “Well, life tends to not match the stories. Nevermind the fact that I just used all my knowledge to shorten things to like, a tenth of the time? Yeah, I can see you taking almost an hour to analyze this leaf. Well, not just you, but Courtney as well.”

Courtney frowns, “Is this a matter of cultivation, practice, or technique? Reducing the time to a tenth is a little extreme.”

Jason frowns, it isn’t that straightforward. “Huh, if I had to nail it down? Yes.”

Courtney raises an eyebrow and waits in silence.

Jason looks away, but ends up shrugging. “Higher cultivation helps as it provides an overall boost. You won’t be smarter, but you can think faster, process more. 

“And of course, practice makes perfect. Though the bigger benefit is building experience. Analyzing your first dagger will take forever because you don’t know what to expect, what is important. Then you check your second dagger and things go a little faster.

“You won’t ever reduce the time to nothing through this. After all, you’re still having to check the item to find out if anything is out of whack. Though this sort of experience cross trains for other stuff.

“Analyzing a dagger doesn’t only teach you what a dagger looks like. It exposes you to the metal the dagger is made of, whatever was used for the handle, any remnants of blood on the blade, and so on. And all of that? Well, knowing about iron doesn’t only help with iron, but any alloys that use that metal and metal in general.”

Courtney frowns, “It sounds like you’re basically building a database of reality in your head? Which feels like you’d run out of space in your head soon enough.”

Jason shrugs, “Cultivation also helps with memory, though memory is a limiting factor in how much practice can help. There are people who specialize in analyzing certain types of objects.

“Though this brings us the technique side of things. I used a method that let the information flow through my head, only keeping what I wanted. Professional appraisers will use a technique so that they don’t take in things unrelated to their focus. There are even those who specialize in being able to analyze objects without remembering what they analyzed.”

Rosha sighs, “So, like any skill there are a bunch of things you have to pay attention to.”

Jason shrugs, “That’s life. Anyway, let me tell you what I learned about the leaf. It is boring.

“The leaf absorbs earth energy. Or rather, it absorbs energy that is earth-like. This is what allows other energies to sneak in. Also, since it isn’t converting energy, the leaf needs for there to be a flow, bringing new energy to it. Otherwise, the leaf clogs up after absorbing all the nearby earth energy and there isn’t anything left.

“The living plant could be used as part of a purification process. Take a large area and stack a bunch of plants like this? You can create spaces to cultivate that passively fill with a specific energy type. Or at least, a place devoid of whatever you can filter out.

“As for the leaf as an ingredient? Steep it in a brew to remove some earth energy, either entirely or just to remove the excess. Though more importantly, it can be used as a binder ingredient between various earth aligned ingredients.”

Rosha sighs, “Which means we are left with the flower. And note, I was very careful with how I said that to avoid a pun.”

Jason nods, “And the flower will be a lot quicker to test. In fact, here, watch this!”

Jason picks up the flower and plucks one petal. Which he does a few physical tests, stuff like bending and scratching it.

Jason then holds it up to the camera. “This flower is good for stamina recovery. Note that the various stresses recovered, but the scratch didn’t? I’d want to add it to something that helps with vital energies to make what is basically a healing pill.

“If I had bent it and the flower, while not damaged, did not unbend, but the scratch did heal, then it would be for healing. Those tests instead have the petal remaining firm, instead of giving way? Use it to reinforce.

“Oh, and to note, while I say things like ‘healing pill’, that isn’t the end all, be all. Their basic functions and drawbacks need to be properly recorded and tested so you can mix and match them with other herbs.”