CH 80

Episode 80 – Cost-Effectiveness by Quality

After I left Elf’s Tears, I decided to head back to the rundown inn. I really wanted to stop by Iron Will to have the Angry Wolf Fang made into a knife, but my hands were full with the boxes of Magic Potions. I didn’t have any plans to go plant and herb gathering for a while, so there was no rush to get the knife made this time. For the rest of the day, I was planning to stay in the inn and drink the potions I had just bought.

I finally arrived back at the rundown inn carrying a large amount of luggage, and I immediately laid out the potions I bought on the desk. Seeing the Magic Potions arranged by quality like this, it seemed that the higher the quality of the potion, the deeper the shade of blue it was. However, the High-grade Magic Potions weren’t glittering, so perhaps it was the Demonstar Herb that was used as a raw material in the Top-grade Magic Potion that was causing its brilliant luster. As I pondered about the Demonstar Herb that I had never seen before, I popped open the lid of a Minimum-grade Magic Potion.

Today, I would start with drinking the Minimum-grade Magic Potions. It would be tough to drink all 20 bottles in one go, so it would probably be good to just go throughout the day and drink them whenever I got thirsty. For now, I would just start with one bottle. I poured the pale blue Minimum-grade Magic Potion into my mouth.

Hmm… Perhaps because it was a Minimum-grade Magic Potion, in comparison to yesterday’s Low-grade Magic Potions, it had much less taste and the bitterness of the Magical Grass was still apparent. But, it was by no means bitter to the point of making me unable to drink it… but maybe that was because I was already well acquainted with the bitter astringency of raw Magical Grass.

Tipping the last bit of Minimum-grade Magic Potion down my throat, I was able to finish off the very first bottle. Alright. Going at this rate, I wanted to try to finish about 4 bottles in one sitting for now.

Then, over the course of the entire day, I drank all twenty Minimum-grade Magic Potions while practicing my sword swings in between. As expected, compared to ingesting the raw Magical Grass, drinking these Magic Potions was way easier. Simply in terms of cost-effectiveness, it was better to be eating it raw, but, after taking into account the speed of intake and the taste, the Magic Potion method was better by a long shot.

It was already starting to get late, so I decided to get ready for bed and then measure the increase in magic power capacity from the Minimum-grade Magic Potions I drank today. Since the Minimum-grade Magic Potions cost 2 silver coins per bottle, if I got a 1 unit increase of magic power capacity for every 2 bottles, it would be the same rate of increase as a Low-grade Magic Potion. In the end, it was all up to how much the Minimum-grade Magic Potions would increase my magic power capacity by.

First, I would start by synthesizing 6 Magical Grass… Alright, I managed to finish that with no problems. From this, I knew that the Minimum-grade Magic Potions raised my magic power capacity by at least 1.

(TL: After last time’s synthesizing experiments in Episode 77, it wasn’t stated explicitly, but his magic power capacity at the end of that day was 17, and he got the weakness symptoms just before finishing the 18th. Again, Magical Grass costs 3 units.)

How many Medical Herbs would I be able to synthesize from this point on…?

The first Medical Herb was synthesized with no problems… followed by the second, third, fourth, and fifth, all good. I felt like the weakness symptoms were going to show up any moment now, since I had a feeling that the Minimum-grade Magic Potions were less cost-effective than the Low-grade Magic Potions.

But opposite to my expectations, I finished synthesizing the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth Medical Herb herb with no problems. At this point, taking into account the monetary value, the rate of increase matched up to the Low-grade Magic Potions.

Could it be that the Minimum-grade Magic Potions were the most efficient at raising magic power capacity…?

When this thought passed through my mind, as if confirming my suspicions, I managed to synthesize the tenth and eleventh Medical Herb. It was only when I was in the middle of synthesizing the twelfth Medical Herb that I showed signs of losing strength, and my whole body felt weak.

However, the 20 bottles of Minimum-grade Magic Potion raised my magic power capacity by 12. After some rough calculations, I realized that approximately three Minimum-grade Magic Potions would increase my magic power by 2. Considering that the Low-grade Magic Potions cost 4 silver coins per bottle and increased my magic power capacity by 1 each… the cost-effectiveness of the Minimum-grade Magic Potions was higher.

This was going to be quite a challenge for me. Even though the taste wasn’t necessarily bad, the upper limit of Magic Potions I could tolerate consuming in a day was about 20, just based on today’s experience. It now came down to two choices… prioritizing time or prioritizing money.

I thought I had a lot of financial leeway, but I had just spent a ton of money on Magic Potions all at once. For a while, it might be better to focus on the Minimum-grade Magic Potions and use them accordingly… But I still had to test the rate of increase of the Medium-grade and High-grade Magic Potions in the coming days, so I decided to take my time and think about what quality level of Magic Potion to use to increase my magic power capacity in the future.

And now… my total magic power capacity was 29. When I recalled that my magic power capacity was only 3 about one month ago, I realized that I had really grown quite a bit in that sense. The next problem to tackle would be the synthesis of Dumbbell Weed, huh?

If possible, I was hoping to be able to synthesize at least 2 Dumbbell Weeds each day, but… for now, I had already thought about a lot of things, so I decided to just go to sleep. As I drifted off, I rejoiced about the possibilities that had opened up before me.