kscans

Chapter 34 - What Tree Is This Tree. Mapel

Having been told about the Pepit tree and enjoyed its benefits, Yuri had begun to extend his explorations into the shallow parts of the forest, albeit cautiously. A large part of his motivation was, admittedly, to find new Pepit trees. And since he had actually found several young Pepit trees, which were already bearing fruit, his search could be called a great success.

And on this day, a new page was about to be added to the results of his explorations.

《Mapel: A deciduous tall tree that bears small flowers in spring, reaching heights of up to forty meters. Its leaves are palmate, with three to five lobes. It is highly cold-resistant and shade-tolerant. It yields a dense, sturdy wood. The sap contains about two to five percent sugar and can be boiled down to obtain syrup.》

"...This is a sugar maple, isn't it..."

Though there was only one, it was unmistakably a sugar maple, or a Mapel tree in the parlance of this world. And most importantly, sugar could be harvested from this tree.

"I've secured some Stevia, but that's low-calorie... or rather, it's practically a non-calorie source. This might be my first real sugar ingredient."

Yuri himself only knew that "sugar could be gotten from sugar maple sap," but thankfully, due to his capable Master `Rural Life Guide`, he was able to learn the detailed particulars of sugar collection. According to it, the best time to harvest maple syrup was for two to three weeks in early spring, from February to April, when the temperature difference between day and night was large. It seemed you wounded the trunk to let the sap flow, then heated and condensed it to get syrup, which was apparently called wood honey here. However...

"There's a limit to how much sap you can get from a single sugar maple... and if I damage it too much and it dies, it'll all be for nothing... Even if I heal the wound with Wood Magic, there has to be a limit..."

In that case, having only one sugar maple... one Mapel tree... here was somewhat disappointing. Just as with the Pepit, he searched around for young trees or seedlings, but he couldn't find anything promising.

"It's supposed to be more shade-tolerant than the Pepit. Are the young trees being eaten... or maybe it's too hot for them?"

Whatever the reason, it seemed there were no saplings or seedlings in this area. After pondering for a while what to do, Yuri made a decision.

"I'll try taking cuttings... My knowledge from my previous life tells me that I read or heard somewhere that maples are hard to grow from cuttings, but..."

He had no rooting hormone, but in its place, Yuri could now use Wood Magic. He wasn't sure if it would affect cuttings, but there was no harm in trying. With that thought, Yuri unleashed a Wind Cutter with his wind magic, felling a branch from a high treetop. It was a moderately thick branch, since a thin one would be hard to aim at. It looked like he could get a good number of cuttings from it.

Incidentally, ever since his encounter with the Mudderboar, Yuri had been training his attack magic every night before bed. At first, it was just the four great magics of earth, water, fire, and wind, but after learning that dark and light magic also had means of long-range attack, he added them to his training. The battle with the Invisible Mantis spurred him on even more, and he continued to train to be able to unleash a stronger blow from farther away, and faster. Recently, he had begun a new endeavor, trying to launch magical attacks not from his own position but from right in front of the enemy. Needless to say, this was to attack the enemy while keeping his own location hidden. For Yuri, who was convinced that he was "weak," surprise attacks and deception were the fundamentals of tactics. As for his water magic, his level had somehow shot up while he was using it to bleed the game he hunted. The fact that handling blood-like substances with water magic was difficult and that repeating this process had improved his skill in manipulating water-attribute magic power was something Yuri was completely unaware of, but he was simply happy that his level had increased.

In any case, back to the cuttings. He took them back to the village field to give it a try, and when he attempted to plant the cuttings using Wood Magic, they took root so easily that he was somewhat let down.

Even though the growing season should have been over, seeing the cuttings grow over a meter in a month, it was perhaps understandable that Yuri got greedy. After obtaining new cuttings, he ended up with a field of several dozen Mapel trees. He might be able to experimentally tap them for sap in the winter.

...Well, regardless of whether he could harvest from the field or not, his policy of tapping the parent tree was already set in stone.

Incidentally, as for the reason why he couldn't find any Mapel seedlings or young trees, the little birds told him this as well.

`Beasts eat them in winter.`

`Yeah. Beasts and monsters.`

`They eat the whole thing.`

It seemed that in winter, animals and monsters seeking an energy source would prey upon the Mapel seedlings and young trees, which contained sugary sap, or in the case of young trees, the layer beneath the bark. This was the reason they would wither and die.

Yuri made a firm resolve to protect the saplings he had planted in his field from being eaten at all costs.