CH 16

“I just realized …… that the secret of alchemy is about connection to the magic world, in other words, manipulating the mana that floods the atmosphere is what alchemy is all about.”

“Hey, Sheila, are you okay? I feel a little scared……”

Thor calls out to her, worried about her beloved sister. Sheila’s eyes are vacant and her body is swaying from side to side like a ghost.

“In the past, the purpose of alchemy was to extract the mana contained within materials in high concentrations to increase their effectiveness. But the people of Aepha – La Clikara-sama’s alchemy didn’t use materials as mere materials, but as catalysts! A catalyst is an efficient way to gather mana from the atmosphere, which incredibly enhances the effectiveness of a potion! Do you understand, onii-san! Do you understand how wonderful this is?”

“Guee!”

The excited Sheila shoves a potion into my face. The glass bottle pressing against my face makes my cheeks distort and I can only make a pathetic sound.

When Sheila came into the room, her behavior was out of the ordinary.

Normally, Sheila is a ladylike woman who takes three steps backward to follow her sister, but now she’s in complete ecstasy, rubbing her cheek against the bottle of potion.

Thor, who was worried about her, runs up to her and asks about her condition. She asks her how she was feeling, and pushes her forehead against her to see if she had a fever.

“It’s all right, onee-chan.”

Sheila places the potion on the desk and falls straight into Thor’s chest.

Rather than losing consciousness, she seems to have fallen asleep from exhaustion. She’s asleep with a peaceful face, breathing lightly.

“……Sheila, thank you for your hard work.”

Thor strokes Sheila’s back.

“Let’s take her up to her room. She probably hasn’t slept much.”

I carry Sheila to her room on my back. The weight on my back is lighter than I thought it would be.

◇◇◇

After putting Sheila to bed, I go outside to test the potency of the potion.

There’s the corpse of a small basilisk – an eight-legged demon. I’m no match for it if I was petrified, so I killed it from afar by throwing stones from a distance.

The meat of this thing was surprisingly light and tasty.

After taking the meat, I thought I could use it as a material, so I left it in the garden. It hadn’t rotted away for long, so it would be good as an experiment.

“Okay, let’s test the potency of the potion with this one. A normal healing potion would take hours to heal a few wounds, but what about this one?”

“It’s okay. After all, Sheila was working so hard for it.”

Thor replies proudly.

I agree with her, so I open the lid of the potion and slowly pour it over the basilisk’s corpse. The wounds that had been wetted by the potion begin to heal immediately, and the basilisk soon regains its original form.

It’s not going to bring it back to life, but it’s an amazing outcome. I feel like I had just witnessed the difference in technology between the people of Aepha and this kingdom.

“Yes! Hey, Henry! This is a success, right?”

Thor jumps with joy. As a common elf, Thor probably doesn’t understand how great this is.

Thor is not happy because her sister has accomplished a great feat, but she is happy that her sister’s efforts have been worthwhile.

“No, it’s not…… amazing. The alchemy guilds are not going to shut up about this once it hits the market…….”

“Is that so? Then I guess it won’t sell.”

For a change, Thor’s expression turns gloomy. If they find out about this new innovation, not only the alchemy guild, but the whole merchants’ association would not keep quiet.

They might try to get rid of the troublemakers who are destroying the market, or they might try to monopolize this technology. In the worst case scenario, Sheila could be kidnapped and turned into a potion slave.

“No, there’s still a place to sell it.”

To the west of this meadow, the Beastmen have established settlements in clans. There is no chief who controls all of them, so if you can reach out to one of the clans, you can establish a distribution route.

Most Beastmen are rugged, and few of them are as ruthless as the human race. Humans are really dirty. I wish they would die.

Deliver the potion there and get paid. Money is probably not used, so it might be through bartering, but that’s okay.

We don’t have money or even supplies, but we can use DP to get resources, although we don’t want to rely on it too much. If we find out later that the dungeon rewards are finite, then our sources of supplies will disappear.

So even though I may rely on dungeon rewards for new technology and buildings, I want to have my own routes to procure food, ores, alchemical materials, and living supplies.

“Let’s go west and make a deal with the Beastman clan. Do you know how many potions we currently have?”

“How many… just look over there.”

Thor points to three large boxes. The open lids are filled with potions wrapped in packaging material. There seems to be at least 100 of them.

“Oh, this is quite something……”

Who told you to work this hard? No, it’s more like I was the one who said it.

“If it’s this good, I guess I can dilute it. I’ll go and sell it tomorrow. I’ve got Golemus and Gabriel at home, so I’ll leave you in charge.”

“I’d like to go too, I’d like to see people using the potions that Sheila made, and I’m sure Sheila would like that too.”

“Then let’s all go together. I’m afraid of having our things stolen, so we’ll just leave Golemus here. We also need Golemus to look after the fields.”

Thor nods happily in agreement to my words.

This is the first time I’ve gone out since I came to this meadow. Let’s get some portable food and water ready by the end of the day and leave tomorrow morning.

The potions can be put on the cart that’s used for farming. I’ll be the one pulling it, of course, but that’s the least I can do. I have to repay Sheila for her efforts.