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After lunch, we returned to the Elven village and reached it while the sun was still high. I don’t know the exact time, but it looks like there is still some time before nightfall.
“Welcome back, Your Highness.”
“Yeah, is there anything unusual?”
“The scouts report that the Gizma has entered the forest. They said it’s still on the outer edge, so it’ll take some time before they reach the village.”
“I see… I think it would be better to form a squad around those who are fast and reduce them.”
“Danan-sama seems to think so too.”
While Sylphy and Melty are discussing, I set up the blacksmithing facility and start smelting iron. In short, the idea is to launch a guerrilla war against the Gizma, which is hindered by the trees in the forest and cannot move as it should, and to reduce their numbers before they reach the elves’ village. This means that more bolts will be used. I think I should make the bolts quickly.
“What’s that?”
“Mixing table.”
However, there’s nothing I can do while I’m refining iron. Since there is nothing to be done, I’ll explore the possibility of a new workbench. And the moment I set up the mixing table, Isla comes to me. I had expected that!
“By mixing, do you mean making medicine?”
“That’s what I want to find out. Can I use the medicinal herbs and poisonous plants you were gathering earlier?”
“Permission granted.”
Isla nodded happily, so I opened the crafting menu on the mixing table.
・Distilled Water――Material: Drinking Water x2 ・Small Life Potion――Materials: Medicinal Herbs x 1, Drinking Water x 1 ・Life Potion――Material: Medicinal Herbs x 3, Distilled Water x1 ・High Life Potion――Material: Medicinal Herbs x 5, Distilled Water x 1, Alcohol x 1 ・Poison Potion――Material: Poisonous Plants x 1, Distilled Water x 1 ・High Poison Potion――Material: Poisonous Plants x 3, Distilled Water x 1, Alcohol x 1 ・Cure Poison Potion――Material: Poisonous Plants x 1, Alcohol x 1 ・Cure Disease Potion――Material: Medicinal Herbs x 5, Poisonous Plants x 2, Distilled Water x 1, Alcohol x 2 ・Alcohol――Material: Liquor x 1 ・Saltpeter――Material: Stable Manure x 1, Ashes x 1 ・Gunpowder――Material: Saltpeter x 1, Sulfur x 1, Charcoal x 1 ・Gunpowder――Material: Saltpeter x 1, Alcohol x 1, Fiber x 1
“No way.”
“? What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
It’s a lie. As you can see, the last three are dangerous. I don’t know precisely what “stable manure” means, but I think it could be the dirt around the toilets or the stables. I’ve seen some stories on the internet about how they used to produce saltpeter, which is the raw material for gunpowder, by making good use of the stuff around there.
The recipe for the first gunpowder is for black powder. As for the second gunpowder recipe, I’m not sure, but I’m sure my crafting skills will accomplish it. This ability skips the process and the difficult details and brings you the result instead.
There are so many different kinds of gunpowder, but it’s scary that they are all lumped together as “gunpowder.” The recipe is obviously for black powder, but I have a feeling that the result will be high-performance smokeless gunpowder.
“Absurd.”
“Are you copying me?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
At any rate, let’s make what I can make now. I’ve left some mead in my inventory so that I can make some alcohol. I’ll make five small life potions, three life potions, and two for the rest.
Shortly after, the potion is ready. I see that the Life Potion is red, the Poison Potion is purple, the Cure Poison Potion is green, and the Cure Disease Potion is a golden liquid. Each comes in a glass bottle that I’m not sure where it came from.
The Small Life Potion is called “Small” because it is so small. The bottle is so small that about the size of the bottle that usually contains the seven spices. The Life Potion is about the size of a bottle of Or*namin-C, and the High Life Potion is about the size of a One-Cup bottle. The bottles of Cure Poison and Cure Disease potions are about the same size as Life potions, and Poison and High Poison potions are about Gashapon balls’ size. And the glass is obviously thin and fragile. I wondered if this was designed to be thrown away after use.
“Is this the potion that Kosuke made?”
“Yes. The red one is Life Potion, the green one is Cure Poison Potion, and the golden one is Cure Disease Potion. The purple one is a Poison Potion, so it’s probably poison.”
“What does the Life Potion do?”
“I think it heals wounds.”
“Internal? Or External?”
“I wonder which one? I have a feeling it’ll work either way.”
“…What does the Cure Poison Potion do?”
“Since the name is Cure Poison, I assume it would cure poison.”
“What kind of poison does it cure?”
“I think it works on any poison.”
“…And how about the Cure Disease Potion?”
“Since the name is Cure Disease, I assume it would cure disease.”
“What kind of diseases does it cure?”
“It works on any disease, I guess?”
With each answer, Isla’s large eyes become cloudy and vacant. I know, I know. I know that what I am saying is absurd; I know that. But you know what, I can’t help but agree with you! I’m well aware of the fact that my abilities are ridiculously complicated, based on my past performance! Maybe I’m not far off the mark with my answer.
“Give me everything.”
“Eh?”
“Give me everything you made.”
“Oh, okay.”
I was defeated by Isla’s gaze, which made me feel emptiness through the darkness and offered all the potions I had made.
“You should make as many potions as you can and give them all to me. Okay?”
“No, I wanted to get some for myself too.”
“…..”
When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Such words pass through my mind. Don’t go against the current Isla. I feel my life is in danger.
“Yes, with pleasure!” T/n: Hai, yorokonde!.]
Well, I haven’t told her how much material I can use to make something, so I can fool around with it. Also, I told her in advance that I can’t make a quantity of alcohol-based potion. I took the liberty of making one barrel of liquor, and I’ll have to tell Sylphy about it later. I wondered if it was too much or too little that I could extract eight alcohols from one barrel…
With the pressure of the ever-intimidating Isla, I made as many potions as I could with the materials I had on hand and handed it over to her. I sneaked in a couple of potions each. I might use them, too. I make sure that she doesn’t know. No one knows, right?
I watched her walk away with a basket full of my potions and decided to concentrate on the blacksmithing facility’s operation.
“But there’s nothing to do, is there?”
I’m in the middle of mass smelting iron, so I can’t even make iron arrowheads until that’s done. After much deliberation, I decided to check the contents of my inventory.
I’ve been digging many ores today, so I really have a lot of things in my inventory. There are many ores that I don’t know what to do with, such as zinc, nickel, and so on. I guess they’re used to make alloys, but I don’t have any knowledge about alloys. To be honest, I have to rely on the crafting menu for this. I can immediately think of uses for lead, though. Gunpowder, lead, and iron, huh?
Let’s leave it at that for now. I need stable manure to make gunpowder. It seems that there is no cattle breeding in this village, so I guess I’ll have to collect dirt from the toilet. What should I explain to Sylphy?
No, wait. As long as the refugees are making a living, they must be taking out what they can. If I make up a good reason, I can collect them, can’t I? The problem is that it absolutely stinks… Well, I can’t be helped. I don’t want to do it, but I have to.
I looked at the improved workbench’s crafting menu to see if there was anything else I could use, and I found a spinning wheel and a loom.
・Spinning Wheel――Material: Wood x 20, Mechanical Parts x 3, Iron x 1, Nails x 20 ・Loom――Material: Wood x 20, Mechanical Parts x 2, Iron x 1, Nail x 20
Yes, I can make it. The question is, do I need to use cloth? …No, it is necessary if I want to make bandages or splints, right? When it comes to survival games, bandages and splints are essential. Bandages can heal even the worst bleeding, and splints can instantly heal sprains and broken bones. It’s one of the most absurd things in survival games. Other absurdities in the recovery system are painkillers and energy drinks that heal wounds. Yup.
So, I quickly made a spinning wheel and a loom and set them up. The spinning wheel can turn the fibers from plant materials into thread. And the loom can make cloth from the thread.
“…What are you doing?”
“Spinning threads?”
When I was spinning the spinning wheel, I was taken aback by Sylphy, who checked on me. Yeah, it looks like I am just spinning a spinning wheel with nothing set on it from the outside. But by turning it in, I’m shortening the crafting time. Please leave me alone.
“Why are you spinning the thread?”
“I need some cloth. There are so many uses for it.”
“You’re right; we can never have enough cloth anyway.”
Of course, the cloth can be used to make clothes, bandages, and armor, but it is also an essential military item. You will never be in trouble, no matter how much you have. I’d also like to get rid of my sweatshirt that’s starting to look like crap.
“…Speaking of which, I need to take a look at your clothes as well.”
“I’m glad you remembered. Not that I started making fabric with the intention of making my own clothes, though.”
Sylphy told me a while ago that she was going to do something about my clothes.
By the way, my sweatshirt is washed every day. And my underwear, too. The way it works is that Sylphy does the laundry for us after dinner with water spirit magic. It’s kind of fun to see the laundry spinning around in a big ball of water.
“Are you free at the moment?”
“I’m in the process of melting the iron. I don’t think this is something I need to do right now anyway,” said Kosuke while pointing to the spinning wheel.
“Fumu, let’s go to the shared storehouse then. We can find some clothes for you.”
“That sounds great.”
I quickly put the spinning wheel, the loom, and the improved workbench in my inventory and headed to the shared storehouse with Sylphy. There are plenty of gems to offer as payment, so there is no need to worry about it.
And that’s why we came to the shared storehouse.
“No, I’ll take that stone.”
“Don’t be a fool; you owe me. I’ll take it.”
“I want this one. I’ll pay you with my bow and arrows.”
A group of people who looked like artisans were gathered in front of the shared storehouse, arguing and shouting. The storehouse keeper elf, who watched them with a troubled look on his face, noticed Sylphy and me, and his eyes brightened.
“Everyone, the miner who brought that stone is here now.”
“”””What!?””””
The artisan elves are all looking back at me at once. Yeah, they are all beautiful, but their eyes are bloodshot and scary. I hid behind Sylphy quietly.
“Hmm, Sylphiel?”
“The one in your back is… That’s the marebito the elders were talking about, right?”
“He looks like a normal human being, but he certainly doesn’t have any magical powers.”
“Wait, Kosuke is frightened, don’t come any closer.”
Sylphy stopped the artisans, and they stopped. Her eyes were bloodshot, but she seemed to have retained her reason.
“It seems that you were fighting over the distribution of the gems?”
“Yes. Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had anything of that quality.”
“Since the death of old Gaston, who excelled in earth magic.”
The artisan elves nodded to each other. I see, so the master gem hunter’s death was the reason for the decline in supply, huh?
“Kosuke, take out what we dug up today.”
“How much do we have to offer now?”
“It’s twice as much as before.”
I did as I was told and roughly pulled out the gems onto the wooden plates I had taken out beforehand. The lineup is almost the same as the last one.
“Oh…”
“If there is this much, I can make all I want, this and that…”
The eyes of the artisan elves shine brightly. Sylphy ignored the artisan elves, snatched the wooden plate from my hand, and took it to the storehouse keeper of the shared storehouse.
“I’ll deliver this. I’ll have to make some changes for it.”
“As you wish. I’ll take care of this one, and you can tell Lisa in the back.”
After handing over the wooden plate, Sylphy walked past the storehouse keeper elf into the storehouse, and I followed her. It feels like some of the artisan elves are sending me moist glances… and I’m afraid to leave Sylphy’s side. Yup.
There was a female elf right after entering the shared storehouse. I’m sure she’s Lisa since Sylphy walked up to her.
“Ara, it has been a day before yesterday. What do you want today?”
“I delivered twice as many gems as last time. Can you help me with Kosuke’s clothes?”
“Twice as many as before, you say… then, how many clothes are you going to need? There aren’t that many clothes that fit his size, you know?”
“Well, you can put the rest aside. Kosuke, if there is anything you want, you can take it. You’ve earned those gems, after all.”
“My pleasure.”
Lisa-san went to the back of the storehouse, saying that she would get some clothes that would fit me. Therefore, I’m going to look around the shared storehouse with Sylphy.
“Is there something you want?”
“I’d like some leather-based materials and some glue. Also some liquor.”
“What kind of liquor?”
“It’s liquor. I don’t care what it tastes like. I just want it strong.”
“Fumu… I know where to find it, so I’ll show you.”
Sylphy led me to find some leather and liquor, and I heard Lisa-san, the storehouse keeper elf, calling for us, so I took the items I had found and gone back to where we were.
“The ones that seemed to fit your body size were around here. You can try them on in the shade over there.”
“Okay.”
I accepted the clothes and changed in the shade at the back. The clothes Lisa-san had brought were comfortable, made of strong fabric, and easy to move in. It was vaguely ethnic in design.
“How about this?”
When I returned to Sylphy and the others in my new outfit, Sylphy and Lisa-san stared at me from my toes to the top of my head. I felt uncomfortable!
“My hair is black, so it doesn’t match the color of my costume, I guess.”
“Well, it’s okay, isn’t it? Why bother to dye it?”
Do I have to match the color of my hair to the costume? The evaluation was kind of subtle, but I decided that it was okay because it was comfortable for me to wear. Now that I have some spare clothes, I don’t have to worry about clothing anymore. Thank goodness for that.
After that, we left the shared storehouse with some strong alcohol, leather, and glue.
The stares of the artisans as we left the storehouse were frightening. It was the eyes of a wild beast with its prey in its sights… Let’s make sure that I never leave Sylphy.