After a few hours, the two finally left the barracks. Hand-in-hand, they headed to the clinic to pick up the kids.
All throughout the walk, Althea was chattering passionately. She was very excited about the new sea of knowledge she had taken a dip in. The whole time, Garan just listened and looked at her dotingly.
"I really liked the drowning people technique. It doesn't take much power, but is super effective," she said. Although there were no water Elementalists in the barracks at this time, they did mention how Turbo handled his elements and inspired her.
Especially, like Vanessa, Turbo was a healer. This meant he chose the support aspect of the water element to master first, but he still figured out ways to find attack techniques using the element.
She practiced the theory of it and did get the hang of it after a bit.
(Mao had to be the poor soul to determine whether she could really drown people with it)
"Earth seemed to be the least consuming power in most cases," she said, "I just open up the earth on the ground and poof! I have a trap."
"Pity we don't have wood Elementalists among the soldiers though." She paused. Wood was also fairly rare, numbering just a bit more than the metal Elementalists.
Like Garan, she also thought it was odd. If Elementalists could use the elements in the air, then wood Elementalists ought to be much more common.
But this seemed to be something beyond their level at this time, so they could only move on and temporarily put this to the back of her mind.
They arrived at the clinic before they knew it, with the children having their own elevated and railed space near the counter for everyone to dote on.
It was relatively big—more than 2 square meters—and occupied a big part of the reception area. It also had a detailed railing about half a meter high, which would've been enough to block the babies even when they started to stand up.
Well, theoretically.
Although it frankly looked too much like a zoo corralle—with the passersby (they even had some visitors who didn't need to use the health center) looking like zoo goers—they seemed to genuinely admire the children anyway so they didn't mind.
Looking at the smiles on the injured and bandaged people, Betty and the others didn't seem to be exaggerating when they said the children helped with lifting up spirits.
At this time, the babies' 'corralle' were surrounded by patients and their families (and a few guests) alike. They were all gasping and cooing. They were all talking excitedly but in muted tones, so they weren't shouting.
"They can crawl now! They're so young!"
"Ohmygosh look at their cute butts bonking as they crawled!"
"Such small hands and feet! I wanna touch them so much!"
"As expected of Miss Althea and Sir Garan's children!"
"Too cute, too cute!!"
"Stop yelling! Do you want to damage the babies' ears?!"
"Oh, rightrightright," she mumbled, considerably lowering her volume. "I'm sorry babies, forgive brother, okay?"
"C'mon little Pepper, call big sister!" Another one cooed, making Pepper tilt her little head in wonder. She didn't do anything, but said woman almost fainted from the cuteness attack.
"Little Meatball make a saliva bubble for me, PLEASE!"
Little Meatball seemed to have understood and made a bubble.
Pop!
"GAH! Soooo cute!"
To be honest, the couple was a little taken aback by the attention when they first saw it, but they eventually got used to it. As long as they didn't come on to the children too much or give them stuff, it didn't matter.
The babies obviously reveled in the attention, anyway.
They would later find out that the children had grown their own fan groups with their own names. For Little Meatball, his fan group was called 'the Munchkins' and for Baby Pepper, it was 'the Spices'.
When more stationary became available, even merchandise would be sold. Of course, Ansel would find a way to monetize it somehow because forbidding it would just create a black market of sorts anyway.
Of course, when it was Althea's turn to get merchandise, Garan stopped that with strength (while keeping a few in his own space, of course).
Overall, it was safe to say that the children would grow up surrounded by love.
"I hope they don't get too spoiled…" Althea mumbled worriedly. Frankly, she wasn't confident she wouldn't spoil the children.
"Don't worry, your husband would straighten Alphonse out."
"...what about Pepper?"
"She ought to be spoiled," He then turned to Althea, "You turned out quite well."
She pouted. Was she spoiled? Was she??
Garan chuckled but didn't answer. He only took the children, one in each arm. They were greeted happily by the audience but also felt sad that the babies were getting taken away.
"Come again soon, babies~" one said, cooing at a safe distance from the scary Garan, but loud enough to catch the babies' attention. "I promise I'll be here~"
This earned him a knock on the head. "Spend your own medical bills!"
"Ah, I'm sorry mother."
Anyway, some hilarity continued inside the clinic, even when the family was on their way home.
The couple smiled as they left the premises, giving their cute children a few kisses on their soft faces.
"My babies are really making so many people happy," she said, "Blessed babies indeed."
…
They went back home with the children just before dusk, and Althea after eating dinner went straight to her fenced experimental fields.
Except for the flower fields, the rest were now dedicated to the Endemic plants Garan and Team A brought back. A lot of them had begun to bloom and some easier-to-grow ones like some tubers had already been harvested.
For now, all she and the plant research team had of the harvested endemic plants were their compositions and some uses known by some of the aborigines. She managed to summarize a few, but she knew there was still so much to explore.
Fortunately, she had a research team to back her up and they could gather so much information in such a small amount of time.
Of course, if they had complete equipment, they'd have much faster progress. Their assessment skills (a skill almost all of the researchers had awakened) could determine a lot, but not everything.
Anyway, the edible ones were sent to Harold to study. The past few days he had been in the kitchen of their villa, passing the helm of the Restaurant to Joana (lawyer Jun's wife) and the others.
The same plants, if there was enough growth, were also sent to Cooke for him to do the same.
For example, there was one plant called Plopo which, according to the assessment skill, had a sweet peppery taste and was used to put in food. They had yet to know how it would be processed, however. When they tried traditional processing, the product was just bitter with minimal nutritional benefits.
Hopefully, they'll get more information within the week.
Anyway, while there were plants already growing, there were those that had already sprouted but would still take a while to bloom. For example, trees.
She had two new kinds, both of which were fruits from other regions of Xeno. One of them, the Bouti, was even a common fruit tree in the orc area.
According to Gochi, this was the Gouji fruit equivalent in the orc lands, only much less tasty and nutritious. She continued to try and raise it though, because she wanted to know if there were other uses for it.
Another one, now knee tall, had the composition of corn, only of smaller kernels. She didn't have seeds for corn before, and she hoped that this was an okay alternative.
Finally, there was a plant called Goldenroot, which had no use via her appraisal skill, but through her latest study, it had high amounts of polyphenols which could boost energy, reduce fatigue, and vitality.
She would try to use it to improve Sprite, especially as it would lose decent effect for people above level 20. Her husband was beyond this threshold.
She wasn't comfortable knowing her medicine wouldn't be able to help him as much anymore.
As for the other plants, most of them were still in the nursery requiring a bit more care and attention. Some plants were also placed in the greenhouse, so they had yet to be analyzed.
Actually, over half of the seeds from Garan and the Ferrol market festival had yet to grow—no, most of them had yet to sprout.
Because of the strong refresh rate here—planted all of them in level 2 farmlands in her villa—she knew that for many of these plants, she was doing something wrong.
If there was only a way to determine their status while they were still seeds, she wistfully mused.
.
.
Then… she remembered: she was a wood Elementalist.
She knew that most wood Elementalist tended to choose the aggressive route of the element, primarily due to the dangers of this world. It made sense if one were to think of the fact that they were surrounded by lush forests everywhere.
She understood why some would choose the aggressive route of the wood elements—but with her profession and the various other options for her to cause damage, she naturally chose the auxilary.
There was no one to guide her though, so she'd just have to study this on her own.
She raised her dainty hand and hovered them over the plants, wondering how much it could do with it.