[NR] Mystical Sugar - Chapter 705

Rosha, “So plants make mystical sugar. Fair enough. How does that let you figure out what to use?”

Jason, “Well, regular plants don’t have actual photons captured in their sugar, right? Similar idea. The plants might take in the energy, but in doing so, they transform it. Oh sure, higher end plants might have literal plasma being held in suspension. For us, though?

“The important part isn’t the power being sequestered. Though we do need to be careful to not use plants which are counter to our personal cultivation. It is the physical structures that are important to us. The sugar and not the fact that the sugar was formed using sunlight.”

Courtney, “So, how do you figure that out? You talk about sugar, and presumably you also include stuff like starches. Except, I don’t exactly see you pulling out a microscope to take a peek at those things. And I assume many mimic one another, especially those using literal sugar.”

Jason, “Do you have any samples you could send to me? I can explain it, but the process would make more sense if you could see the process.”

Courtney raises an eyebrow, “You know I do.”

Jason shrugs, “Yeah, but it’s polite to ask first.”

Courtney, “I’ll send on the most common sample. It should reach you within an hour.”

Jason nods, “I’ll do some meditation and once the herb arrives, I’ll stream my examination.”

Rosha sighs, “I guess we can stick around.”

And with that, they separate to wait. Though in the end, it doesn’t take a full irl hour for the sample to arrive, more like 40 to 45 before Jason receives an alarm about the delivery.

Jason grabs the package and sets up in the streaming room. It isn’t his, mind you. He hadn’t ever been one for watching or broadcasting, though he would watch stuff afterwards. No, this room was his mom’s for work purposes. Though the room would work for his purposes as the place had a large table for examining things on camera.

Sure, he doubted it had ever been used for a plant, but the oil stains showed that he wouldn’t have to worry about making a mess. If anything, he should be the one worried about contaminating his stuff.

However, that may work out can be worried about later. For the moment, Jason had a herb to analyze. “House, lock the door and if Mom shows up, you can tell her I’m in here.”

Satisfied that would be taken care, Jason connects his NR account to the streaming set up and selects his party for a targeted broadcast. Within moments, Rosha and Courtney connected from their respective private rooms.

Courtney sends a thumbs up in chat, “Looks like you have a secure signal. I won’t have to do anything extra on my end.”

Jason nods, “I’m glad it is satisfactory. I know upgrading the security is expensive when you have to do things fully from the digital side of things.

“Now, as you will notice, I have not opened the box. I have not even tried to examine the box, though you have no proof of that. So, let’s see what’s so common around here.”

Jason runs his finger along the tape, which parts easily. “Unrelated to the herb, but this is an example of what in roleplaying games and such would be under cantrips and specifically the classic spell, prestidigitation. Using power that doesn’t even register as a proper spell, I easily cut the packing tape.”

Box now opened, he pulls out a plastic canister, which is a cylinder big enough to hold a basketball, discarding the packing foam that is holding the canister in place. The canister is solid black with a screw-on lid. Though there is more tape, this time of the variety used to make sure the package wasn’t tampered with.

Jason runs his fingers over the tape tabs, and they peel up leaving no residue. Then he pats them back down, leaving the canister looking exactly how he received it. “This sort of security measure was always faulty. I’ve watched a couple videos where a guy uses various alcohols and other chemicals to separate the tape without damaging the adhesive or tape. Though that requires a bit of drying time. Actual magic just makes it easier if you know what you’re doing.”

For a second time Jason removes the tamper tape, though removing it completely from the body and lid of the canister. “Now, let me show you another trick.” And he places the tip of his finger on the seam between the two and with his other hand, easily unscrews the lid.

Jason nods, “This was screwed down tight! I could have easily unscrewed the lid, but it would have been obvious I was brute forcing it. However, since my power by default isn’t a physical thing, it doesn’t really have that much friction. So, by spreading it up under the seam, it makes opening the lid smoother than would be possible otherwise.”

Through speaker, Courtney snorts, “Stop showing off. I’ve had people testing this stuff and we have a diverse amount of stories to pull from for things to test.”

Jason shrugs, “Fair enough, I guess I shouldn’t get out my pipe to blow a smoke ship then.”

He then removes the lid to reveal a clover plant suspended in the middle of the canister. Jason nods, “This is a well-preserved plant! I assume there has been a good bit of research by this point, even if not much has been figured out. You can tell that because while grown in soil, as evident by the but still clinging to the roots, it has been carefully removed from the soil such as to not break any of the roots.”

Courtney, “There is a clear loss of power in the roots if you damage them at all.”

Jason nods, “And it is quite hard for people new to harvesting plants to manage this level of care. So, thankfully, most herbs end up having the useful stuff in their flowers, leaves, and fruit. Root plants aren’t rare or hard to process, mind you. It is just that the low end of alchemy also tends to be skewed towards herbs that are easy for people to harvest. Though some root based herbs do show up if they’re easy to grow.”