MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online

Chapter 168: Herbology

It was history week, thus the classes were all about the history of the New World.

While it was interesting for other students, Adam basically shut down his brain for those classes and barely paid attention, but he was thinking about his future plans.

Eldertree Institute had Christmas holidays, and during those holidays, there weren't any classes or mandatory attendance, so the students could do whatever they wanted.

While the students spent the time back in the real world, having fun with Christmas, Adam planned to visit the New World without any overbearing restrictions.

However, it was currently the fifth month of the year, and the Christmas holidays were still seven months ago.

On the other hand, his auction item had broken the 70,000 Shinecoin barrier.

It was slowing down, but the amount was still increasing with each passing day.

It was fun to see the money increase like that, as it felt like his bank account was swelling each day.

However, he doubted he could earn enough to pay the whole Z Package.

There was no way anyone would pay three million Shinecoins for the dagger, so during Christmas holidays, he planned to go do some treasure hunting to pay off the package.

Since there was still a lot of time before then, Adam focused his attention on strengthening himself.

At this very day, all the classes and the dinner had ended.

The gym was active with people working out.

At the furthest corners of the gym, where it was peaceful and quiet, Adam did biceps curls, the warm sweat rolling down his forehead.

The daily training had not been naught, as he could feel his muscles getting stronger with each repetition.

"Whoo..." Terry let out a satisfied sigh as he finished his final set of bench presses.

He then sat up on it, took his towel, and wiped the sweat away.

For the past week, he'd been joining Adam in the gym, and at first, it was almost like torture, as every morning his body was screaming in pain, even though it was just his virtual body.

However, for some odd reason, his real body was feeling way better, like he was living in bliss.

Adam explained that it was the magic of the workout and the Platinum Virtual Reality Pod. If you trained in the Mortal Online, its effect would reach the real body, and you would feel the physical benefits in no time.

It was surprising to Terry as he had no idea.

The other ranked pods didn't have as strong of an effect; that's why the Platinum VR Pod was a must-have, as its benefits were much greater than any money spent on it.

"Did you hear about what's happening tomorrow?" Terry asked while taking a sip of his water

canteen.

"No..." Adam said with a grunt while finishing up his set of bicep curls, then he put the dumbbells back on the rack.

"We have teacher Bertha's class." Terry said with an ugly expression. "She is very annoying, and every student hates her, but beside that, apparently we are going to the forest."

"To the forest?" Adam looked interested. "You mean the outside forest?"

"Yep." Terry nodded. "We're supposed to go gather some herbs, but it's dangerous outside..."

"Yeah, while the night is the most dangerous time here, the daytime is not some picnic time either. This is twenty-fifth floor, after all."

"We've been outside before, but very close to the Eldertree." Terry said. "The monsters don't really approach the Eldertree, but they can; nothing is stopping them from doing so."

'Bertha must be a teacher of Herbology.' Adam thought to himself. 'It is a dead art, but maybe I should try to learn it? It could come in handy, especially the poison aspect of the Herbology."

-

The students, dressed in their mandatory school outdoor uniforms, were waiting in the lounge, awaiting for their teacher so they could depart to the forest.

It made many of them excited but also nervous, as the outside world was quite dangerous.

Adam, standing beside Terry, straightened the sleeves of his school jacket. It was light blue in color with white flowers embroidered on it.

It was very nice looking, but Adam was more interested in the fabric.

'This jacket has good defensive capabilities. I suppose they didn't allow us to go to the forest completely unprotected.'

At that moment, a whirlpool of light descended from the air and landed at the lounge.

From the whirlpool of light, Bertha emerged, attired in outdoor clothes that clung to her body like a wet rag.

She wasn't smiling as her mouth was a straight line, and she even looked little bit annoyed when she looked at the students present.

"Move into teams of two. I give each team a recipe of herbs and spices to find in the forest. The team that completes it first will have a prize waiting for them at the end of the day."

It interested the students clearly, and the close friends already started to create teams.

"Shall we be a team?" Terry asked with a smile.

"Sure." Adam nodded.

Seeing the bustle of the students, Bertha frowned and said, "I haven't said the teams yet, so quiet down. I am not allowing you to create your own teams; otherwise, all you will do is fool around and not take this seriously!"

The students looked disappointed and had a hunch that Bertha was planning to do this. It wasn't secret to them that she absolutely hated every single student in the institute.

They were wondering why she even became a teacher if she hated teaching so much.

"Ah, cursed..." Terry started to feel nervous, as he didn't know anyone else that well.

He looked around the lounge and felt his face turn cold as he saw a group of three-Noel, Renee, and Jake-glancing in their direction with hate.

They had finally gotten out of their week-long detention.

After a week of sitting in a dark room and having time to think, they realized that Adam must've done something to them.

It scared them as it was like a work of a god.

The whole stair disappearance seemed so real that they still had nightmares about it.

Their nightmares have them falling down to their deaths, and they always jolted awake in a

state of shock, still feeling like they were falling.

It was all Adam's doings.

Bertha started making teams. She made sure that the teams included two people that clearly

weren't close with each other.

"Terry." She finally came to her and said, "Go join Noel."

"Eh..." Terry panicked. "C-can I get someone else?"

"Go!" Bertha screamed.

Terry, panicked and nervous, reluctantly walked over to Noel.

Noel's eyes turned cold, and he was repeatedly clenching and opening his hands.

"Now, Adam..." Bertha looked at the young man for a split second longer than others and

said, "You're with Yuri."

'Yuri?' Adam saw that there was one person without any partnet yet.

She looked like a timid-looking student with squinted eyes and a nervous look on her face with a small smile trying to break through.

Adam walked over to her slowly, then nodded to her-she returned the nod-then they stood side-by-side, waiting for the signal to leave.

Bertha handed every team a parchment paper of the recipe and then went to open the door.

"You have five hours to find every herb and spice!" Bertha opened the door. "Go!"