Chapter 12: The Headstart (3)

Chapter 12: The Headstart (3)

“I-it’s shabby... but please come in. It’s really shabby...” The Chemist awkwardly showed me into her shop.

She wasn’t being humble. The inside of the shop was a chaotic wreck that looked like a storm had passed through it. Glass fragments were scattered all over the floor and collapsed bookcases lay on top of piles of books. The specks of dust in the air rounded off the ensemble.

—Wow.

The Guardian clapped.

—Before I died, people always used to tell me that I should clean more, but I have to hand it to that young lady. What excellent hygiene. Zombie, do you really want elixirs made by that lady?

“Umm, are you really going to give me an order of twenty thousand gold...?”

The Guardian and Chemist asked at the same time as if they had planned it.

I smiled bitterly. “I can pay upfront if it’s difficult to trust me.”

“N-no need...” The Chemist stopped fidgeting after a moment.“...No, I think upfront payment is better if possible.”

Her face was as red as a tomato, ashamed of the fact that she was making such a request. It looked like her financial situation was so bad that it was difficult for her to protect her dignity.

“You can take as much money as you need from my vault. I’ll tell the employees at the MA.”

“As much as I need...” the Chemist blankly repeated.

“Yes, but my money isn’t endless. I would appreciate it if you keep the budget within twenty thousand gold,” I told her.

“Oh, s-so what kind of potions are you trying to order...?”

The Chemist looked happy and nervous at the same time about having such an enormous budget.

“I’m sorry, but I won’t create narcotics. It’s a matter of principle, so...if you’re here for narcotics, I’ll have to turn you down...”

“Oh.”

Though she’s clumsy in many ways, she really is going to be the Master Alchemist in the future, I thought to myself.

Not many people could turn down a deal that would bring them tens of thousands of gold, especially if their business was on the brink of ruin, yet the Chemist set down her foot when it came to narcotics. She looked very feeble, but she took pride in her work.

“Haha, they’re far from narcotics, so don’t worry.”

“Ah... I-I’m glad to hear it.” The Chemist smiled sheepishly. “What kind of potions are you ordering?”

“Hmm.”

I looked at the Guardian, who had been silent and grouchy since entering the shop. Only after I gave him the eye did the Guardian let out a sigh and break his silence.

—Phew. Fine. I really don’t think that lady is a skilled Chemist, but I’ll tell you the recipe.

I felt like he could have given up sooner and saved everyone the trouble.

—Listen up: it needs a rabbit-pig’s liver, a balloon cat’s eyes, a desert wyrm’s shell...

“So here are the ingredients: a rabbit-pig’s liver, a balloon cat’s eyes, and...”

“Ah, please wait a moment! I-I’ll write them down!” The Chemist jotted down the ingredients and formula.

It required twenty-three ingredients. The Chemist’s expression grew more serious as the list got longer.

—That’s the last ingredient. Mixing them depends on her skills.

“Those are all the necessary ingredients.”

The Chemist bit her fingernails as she examined what she’d written in her notebook. “If you mix these together...it’ll heighten your reflex to the limit, but by calming your nerves. It’s done by tensing them. No, I guess the right description is awakening them.”

—Huh? The Guardian quickly turned to look at the Chemist.

“This is a very high-quality formula,” she continued to mumble. “Ah, I might be mistaken since all I have are the ingredients... These ingredients need to be as fresh as possible and should be brewed at the same time, yes? They aren’t dried or refined in advance?”

—Yeah, that’s correct...

I nodded. “You’re right.”

“I knew it! It’s very weak, but desert wyrm shells are poisonous,” she exclaimed. “One way to neutralize it is to consume a rabbit-pig’s liver. Depending on the method, the effect is...!”

The shy, stammering Chemist became lively and talkative, verging on chirpy. It turned out that she was one of those people.

She’s still stumbling her way through this world but she’s good at what she does.

“You look like a good person,” I said.

“Huh?”

“I helped you because you look like a good person. Well, you would have made it on your own without my help, but good Hunters like us should be successful so that we can help each other in the future. It’s unfair if only wacky psychopaths get to thrive. I don’t want that to happen, so let’s do our best.”

I told her what I truly felt without a speck of lies. Actually, I couldn’t be more honest than I was right now. The rest depended on how the Chemist took my words.

She stared at my face for a moment. “...You’re right. Yes, you need to be successful first to change the world. Thank you, sir! I won’t give up, like you told me!” the Chemist said, clenching her fists. It sounded like she had found her resolve. “Feel free to call me whenever you need to make an order again. I’ll always prioritize your orders!”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

We exchanged a handshake and a smile before we said goodbye. Unfortunately, my smile didn’t last long.

—It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Hunter who called himself good. And it’s my first time to see someone who didn’t say anything about it. Hey, are you two nuts? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Both of you are out of your mind.

“...I know it was cringe, so let’s just get on with my training.”

On the next day, we headed to a hunting ground. My bag was loaded with a sleeping bag and elixirs. One difference from usual was that I was on the third floor, not the second. The third floor was a little high for a Class F Hunter like me because goblins, orcs, and other monsters that were too much for me to handle roamed the area.

I watched them from afar. “What do I do now?”

—Drink an elixir first.

I nodded and gulped down the elixir from my thermos bottle without question.

“Mmm...” I expected it to taste like ginseng essence, but it was pretty ordinary. It smelled like lemon and actually tasted rather pleasantly of honey.

I gasped.

My heart beat harder than usual. At first, I thought I was mistaken, but I wasn’t—my back was drenched in sweat immediately. It was amazing...I could feel every drop of sweat running down my back.

What? I frowned.

It wasn’t just my sweat. I could feel the texture and pressure of the air around my fingers, and even the ground I was standing on. A blink of an eye seemed to take thirty seconds.

“This...is...”

—It’s because of the elixir.

Only the Guardian’s voice sounded normal; the rest of the world moved at a crawl.

—It slows down your perception time to an extreme level. Well, it’ll be easier to understand as something that gives you as much time as necessary. I hate to admit it, but that lady is quite skilled.

It was horrible. I could feel every strand of hair on my body as if I was covered in hundreds of thousands of ants. Even the movements of my veins were clear to me. If I didn’t know it was an elixir, I would have mistaken it for poison.

—Can’t you feel it?

“Feel...what?”

—It’s moving around your heart.

There was definitely something there, flowing. I had never felt it this clearly in my life. It wasn’t my blood. It was much softer and thinner than my veins; however, it was clear that it was slowly circulating within me, centered around my heart.

—That is your aura. Every Hunter in the Tower has an aura of their own, but they just carry on with their daily lives without realizing it exists. The deciding factor of a fight is how much aura a Hunter can draw on, the Guardian said.

His quiet laughter lasted over twenty seconds inside my head. Although he probably only laughed for a split second, my perception of time made it stretch. It was so exhausting that I would lose consciousness if I let my guard down even for a second.

—You normally get used to the flow of your aura by meditating in the lotus position or training on your own. But that’d take too long.

Through the swarm of sensations, I could feel that something huge was approaching me.

I heard a footstep, stretched unnaturally long like the Guardian’s laughter. When I managed to look up, I saw a giant orc walking toward me.

—If a person lacks talents like you, you have to make up for it through pain.

Fuck.

—Now, draw up your aura unless you want to get hurt, Kim Zombie! Someone like you has to train through real combat! You won’t stay dead even if you die, so who cares if it ruins your body?

“You...freaking ghost...!”

—Hmm? You know, I have trouble hearing a loser who can’t even use his aura.

Once again, the Guardian burst into manic laughter.

—Does it hurt? You can kill yourself if you don’t want to do this. Oh, wait. It’ll increase your kill count. With over four thousand, Gramps Marcus will be so much nicer to you, won’t he?

Ah, my partner was a true villain.