CH 75

After spending the afternoon doing some light mock battles, there’s a study session at night. Hikari and Yuri are taking part in it too.

Both girls are interested in magic, and are learning the basics. Yor looks very happy about teaching them.

I join the conversation here and there, and Yuri looks at me with a puzzled expression. Why’s that?

The next day, I make preparations to camp alone and leave to go pick medicinal herbs. I’ll be out for one night and two days.

Hikari says she wants to come along, but since she seems to be getting along with Yuri, I say no. She’s not too happy about it at first, but backs down when I task her with getting intel about stalls with tasty food and checking rare seasonings.

The nearest place where I can pick medicinal herbs is a half day of walking away from here.

I leave early in the morning, and head to the forest where I can find spots where medicinal herbs grow. There are a few dotted around in the forest.

Not a lot monsters appear here, but there are regular beasts wandering around. I check with Map, and don’t really find anything near me.

When I reach the first spot, I just start picking without a care, other than not picking buds. When I’m done I pour water with Water Magic, and have an early lunch.

In order to save time, I bought an already cooked meal and stored it in the Item Box. I picked something that’s still good even when it’s cold. I came fully prepared.

Although at this level, Spatial Magic would probably keep it warm for a few days, so I probably didn’t need to be picky about that.

I keep picking even after the sun sets, with Night Vision helping a lot. I’m raising its proficiency too, so two birds with one stone.

Sometimes I hear howls that seem to be coming from deeper in the forest.

If I couldn’t check their positions with Map, I’d probably get scared every time it happens. Even the sound of the wind blowing through the trees can be scary when you’re alone in the middle of a forest. Being surrounded by tall trees gives me this indescribable feeling of anxiety.

I’ve walked alone on a silent animal trail before, and back then I got scared when I stepped on a leaf. Now that’s just a nice memory. I’m used to that sound now, and it just feels nice to me.

I eat another ready-made meal, and use Earth Magic to make something that resembles a snow hut. Can I make something about the size of a shed if I get better at it? I’ve been practicing every day.

Before I go to sleep, I check Map one more time, and retire for the day.

The next morning, I eat and get ready to pick more herbs right away. I don’t want to get back after the gate closes, so I worked out when I need to leave the forest, and I’m going to keep picking until then. I see some animals, and I’m also attacked in the meantime, so I capture those. I can’t put living beings in the Item Box, so I strangle them, and since draining their blood would be a waste of time, I leave that for later.

I decide to skip lunch and eat on the way back. Would Leila and the others complain about my lack of manners if they saw me? No, I’m sure adventurers like them have done the same thing.

In the end, I don’t come across a single monster, or even see one on Map. Maybe it’s because this place is close to town and it’s easy to come here and hunt them. But then again, there aren’t really any adventurers around here. I guess picking quests are unpopular everywhere.

I have to stand in a long line when I go back, but manage to enter the holy city without any problems.

When I reach the Apostel house, they’ve already finished eating, but when I say I’m going to prepare something, they make a meal just for me instead. I feel bad for taking up their time. Tomorrow I’m going to give them what I captured in the forest as a way of saying thank you.

The next day, I start making potions of all kinds with alchemy. I end up with three hundred healing potions, two hundred mana potions, three hundred stamina potions, and a hundred potions to cure poison and paralysis. I changed my job to alchemist before I started, so it all went smoothly.

Because I haveso many to make, and I spend MP making them, I make them and join the girls in mock battles. Then I make more and study. Then I make more and do more mock battles with them, and I spend the whole day like this. But this also maxes out my Alchemy skill, bringing it to level ten.

I see a new skill has popped up, and it’s called Effect Attachment.

This allows me to attach magic I know and effects to all kinds of items. But if I want to add an effect, I’m going to need something with that effect as a catalyst.

This not only increases my potential in battle, but also creates another opportunity to make money.

For example, if I add magic to a bullet, it becomes an elemental bullet. If adding Fire Magic makes it explode, it might turn into something like a shotgun, increasing its lethality. But that would destroy the materials I would get from that monster, so it would be hard to use effectively.

As for making money, if I add Spatial Magic to a regular bag and create an item bag, I can probably sell that for a neat profit. I’ll have to try that later.

I would come to learn later that not only do I need the materials for what I want to create, but also relatively high quality magic stones. I guess I shouldn’t have expected it to be that easy.

Should I sell the potions fifty at a time in the merchant guild? I’m going to ask Leila if they need them too. How much can I get for them? Should I also sell them directly to item shops? I should at least check out the prices.

The next day, I go out with Hikari for the first time in a while. She insisted on it being just the two of us today.

She takes me to stalls she thinks are good, and we walk around town. We hold hands while we walk, because there are so many people here, but I get the feeling that Hikari is walking lightly.

“Do you know where item shops are?”

“Leave to me, master.”

She takes the lead and we get there without issue. Pretty reliable.

We go in, and I use Appraisal on things to check their condition, and check their prices. It’s about fifty percent more than what I got when I sold them in the merchant guild.

I can’t really reach any conclusions because I don’t know the original prices, and this is only one store anyway, so we visit more.

It’s all expensive. It’s probably because there are so many people in the holy city and demand is so high.

We visit several places to check prices, but I end it when I see Hikari is getting bored. I let her take the lead again as we walk around the holy city.