CH 211

Episode 211 – Old Style Brewing Stand

After leaving the Dungeon, I sorted the plants at Ponpokotei before taking them with me to the deserted bar street.

That’s right. As a matter of fact, the location the brewing stand was placed at was none other than the first floor of the Laudungeon Company, which was made possible with Tobias’ permission. He also said that I could go ahead and make potions here, so I gratefully took him up on his offer and borrowed the storage-like place on the first floor. I was borrowing it for free because I didn’t have the spare cash to pay for it at the moment, but I was planning to eventually pay him properly for it.

…Either way, I felt really indebted to Tobias. The information he gave me was all so useful, and if I hadn’t met Tobias, I wouldn’t have been able to form a party with Aruna or Rosalie. I probably wouldn’t have even been able to meet them in the first place. Not only had he given me detailed information about clearing the Dungeon, but he had also told me about the hidden spot on the 10th layer. And now, he had even secured me a location to put my brewing stand.

He had really been only good to me so far, to the point that I was feeling increasingly puzzled about why he was doing all this for me. Tobias said he would be happy as long as he would let him write articles about me, but… I didn’t think I was worth nearly this much.

Feeling grateful for his kindness, I walked into the Laudungeon Company, a little anxious about how many times I would have to repay his favor. As soon as I entered, I found the brewing table that I had purchased yesterday. Looking at it again like this, I could see that in the end it was still rather old-fashioned, but it didn’t change the fact that I was happy about it.

After touching the brewing stand for a while to get a feel for it, I went up to the 2nd floor to express my gratitude first.

“Excuse me, my name is Lewin.”

When I opened the door, the only person I saw inside was Juno, the pale-skinned woman who received me last time. Unlike the previous time I came where there were many people hunched over their desks, this time the space was pretty empty.

Whenever Juno looked at me, it made me feel like I was being sized up like an item being sold at a market, which wasn’t particularly one of her strong points. Regardless, I asked her if she knew where Tobias was. Juno stared at me for a while, then slowly opened her mouth.

“He was here just a moment ago, but you just missed him since he went somewhere not long ago. I don’t know where he went, but if you wait here I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

“I see. Thanks for letting me know.” (Lewin)

“Not at all, it wasn’t much. Why don’t you wait here? I can make you a cup of tea, or if you want I can be your conversation partner for a while.” (Juno)

“Ah, sorry. Actually, I had my brewing stand placed here on the first floor earlier, so I wanted to work with it… I’d love to talk to you too, but I’m really sorry.” (Lewin)

“Hoh… So that package was yours. Hehe, it seems interesting, so would you mind letting me watch you work?” (Juno)

Ehh. I want to refuse, but it’s extremely hard to refuse at this point. I already had to work with an old style brewing stand which I had never used before, and being watched would only make it more difficult.

Well, just because they were letting me use the company’s first floor, I reluctantly agreed, thinking that I should have just gone with the conversation instead.

Juno followed me downstairs, and we now stood in front of the brewing stand. I’m going to try and make a Low-Grade Recovery Potion using the same brewing method I learned, even though it’s for the new style.

“Hoh, I didn’t look too closely earlier but it’s actually an old style brewing stand. Are you going to make potions now?” (Juno)

“That’s right. I’ve only used the new style before, so I’m not too sure if I can brew things properly yet though.” (Lewin)

“I thought it was just for temporary storage, but you’re so young and you can even make potions? And on top of that, you’re a promising adventurer. I see. I think I can start to understand a little bit why Tobias has his eye on you.” (Juno)

As she said those words, the look in Juno’s eyes changed, and her usual languid atmosphere vanished. Her gaze grew even stronger than before, making it even tougher for me to work.

Hmm… Let’s first try out a Focus Herb here. Under Juno’s pressuring gaze, I think this would be an extremely good situation to try out the concentration boosting effects.

Secretly synthesizing a Focus Herb, I tossed it into my mouth…The flavor was a bit bitter and sour, but it wasn’t foul or unpleasant at all. After finishing it, I immediately got to work with brewing potions.

The first thing was to put the Magic Stone in place to activate the brewing stand. I managed to successfully get it working by manually moving the parts that would have been done automatically if it had been a new style brewing stand.

The rest should basically follow the same procedures as that of the new style brewing stand, but there were a few things missing. One of the biggest things was that there were only three places to mix ingredients, whereas in the new model there were five.

As a result, the number of ingredients that could be mixed at once was reduced, and it seemed to be the case that any potions that were made using a complex combination of ingredients simply couldn’t be brewed with this design. But with my current skills, I wouldn’t be using five of them anyway, so it wasn’t a big drawback aside from the fact that it slowed down the brewing speed somewhat.

While thinking this, I combined the ingredients and mixed them together speedily so as to not make any mistakes in the procedure, then activated the brewing stand. I quickly cut my arm and sprinkled it into the potion, which was making a pleasant bubbling sound.

“…Yeah. The effect seems to be good, it’s a success.” (Lewin)

The oozing wound showed signs of regenerating, signifying that I had been successful in brewing my first Recovery Potion with this old style brewing stand.

Author’s Note: Thank you so much for reading this far. Actually, I have a big announcement to make… This novel will be published under the GA Novel label!

It’s thanks to all of you that I could get this work published in this format. Thank you very, very much. The book will be released on November 15, 2021, which is about a month and a half from now (at the earliest, it will be in stores on the evening of the 11th).

Amazon has started accepting pre-orders, so if you’re interested in buying it, I’d really appreciate it if you pre-order it. <(＿ ＿)>ペコ

The illustrator is Amegasa Yun-sensei (雨傘ゆん) Pixiv Twitter. Of course Lewin, but also the members of the [Azure Alliance] look very cool and attractive, so please take a look at the illustration. (You can see it on Amazon) Thanks to the illustrations by Amegasa Yun-sensei, I can boldly declare that this book is without a doubt worth buying.

…Well, I’ve rambled on for a long time now, so I’d like to tie up this announcement with grateful feelings in my heart.

I’ll continue to update this page on Syosetu, so please keep an eye out for it. <(＿ ＿)>ペコ

TL Note: Congratulations to the author for getting the light novel published! The author says that the he will continue to update the web novel on Syosetu, so it shouldn’t give rise to any copyright issues. Thus, the releases will continue as always, unaffected. As always, thanks for reading this far, I appreciate it!