Chapter 37: A Potion That Makes You Feel Good – 1

Chapter 37: A Potion That Makes You Feel Good – 1

After arriving at my cozy home, I immediately flopped onto the bed and lay comfortably, thinking about the skill I was about to receive as a reward.

“By the way, can this reward be anything, just like last time?”

*No. This time, considering your meager combat power, combat-related skills have been included.*

“Combat-related skills? For example?”

*Simply put, basic magic, perhaps? Due to the restrictions we’ve placed, you generally can’t use magic, can you?

 So, we’ve carefully selected and placed the best magic spells in skill form.*

“But couldn’t I just register potions in the ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ now?”

Of course, the potions created by the ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ effect, or more precisely, the low-grade freezing magic potion I registered, had some ambiguous parts that made them hard to call magic.

…Still, I thought they were quite useful.

*You don’t need to bother using the ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ skill every time, and mana consumption is more efficient.

 Of course… unlike ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ which can use effects from various categories simultaneously, it has the disadvantage of only being able to use one category of magic.*

“Wait, so if I get a specific category skill here, do I have to use only that category of magic from now on?”

*The reward team will unify all future skill rewards into one category, won’t they? So this time, you really need to be lucky.

 Because it might determine the category of magic you’ll use for the rest of your life.*

“…When you put it like that, it makes me really nervous, doesn’t it? It’s like I only have one pull, but I have to pull a meta character.”

Of course, the System, which didn’t quite understand my analogy, told me to stop talking nonsense and just pull already…

But suddenly, thinking that the magic of my future life depended on this, various thoughts began to flood my mind.

A gacha with no ceiling, only one pull left, and the character I had to pull was a meta character…. That’s exactly how it felt.

However, as I said last time…

I, at least, am lucky when it comes to gacha!

Even if I’m unlucky in everyday life, I’m lucky when it comes to gacha!

Recently, I even experienced the misfortune of getting entangled with the main characters!

“Please, a useful category…!”

‘If not useful, at least something cool…!’

And so, my hand moved…

Before my eyes was not the good-looking card I saw last time, but a strange, old tome.

At first glance, it seemed like a completely screwed-up situation, but…

Just the fact that the tome looked obviously significant made me not give up hope yet.

*…Hoo. This, all the reward team friends are going to be bowing their heads, aren’t they?*

And, from the System’s subsequent message, I knew. This was a jackpot.

…At least, that’s what I thought at that moment.

***

“…So, this old tome contains potion recipes that even the System doesn’t provide?”

*To be precise, it’s a tome that isn’t provided to the user unless pulled like this.

 The attack-type potions in here produce magic with power comparable to skills of the same grade.*

“But this… isn’t it a skill that can’t be properly utilized without ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’?”

The skill I acquired was simple.

It allowed me to create potions whose recipes were generally unknown.

More precisely, a tome containing the recipes for such potions was provided.

Furthermore, it said that attack potions had the same power as skills of the same grade, meaning if I could acquire the ingredients and make them, I could use magic of all categories.

Of course, at first glance, it seemed unsuitable for combat, but what if it was linked with ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’?

It wouldn’t just be a one-time use; it would become a skill that I could use instantly whenever I wanted, as long as my mana allowed.

…Naturally, the mana consumed by using ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ itself, as well as the mana required to use those potions, didn’t seem small at all, so it would probably become a kind of ultimate move.

‘No, now that I think about it, I have to make them in the first place, don’t I? When will I ever make those…?’

Only then did I carefully examine the ingredient list for the potions, and there were ingredients I had never even heard of.

…It was also shocking that the grade 5 monster spoils I was supposed to receive were merely ingredients for a potion that only unleashed grade 3 magic.

No, conscientiously, if I’m catching a grade 5 monster to use, shouldn’t it be for a higher-grade magic…?

“…No, but why does magic get stronger as its grade increases, while monsters and adventurers get stronger as their grade decreases? The settings are confusing!”

*Ask the author those questions, please? Anyway, congratulations. In your current situation, you’ve pulled the best possible reward. Theoretically, you can use all magic skills.

 Of course… if you didn’t have ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’, it would have been a skill with absolutely no meaning even if you obtained it.*

No, of course, that’s true. It is true, but….

It’s true that it’s good because I’ve gained a lot of potion recipes that generally can’t be made, but….

How many of the potions here can I actually make with the current ingredients…?

*Oh, by the way, this tome, that is, the ‘Sage’s Tome’ skill, has a penalty from the moment you pulled it.*

“What?! Hey! You should have told me that beforehand!”

*It’s more of an exchange than a penalty, so just take it as it is. It’s easier to think of it as the list of potions you can make being upgraded.*

“So, I can’t use the existing recipes anymore…?”

*Exactly. You’re surprisingly quick on the uptake, aren’t you?*

Saying that, the System explained that from now on, I wouldn’t be able to make potions using my previous recipes,

And even if they had the same effect, I could only make them according to the recipes in the newly acquired tome…

And since I could make potions equivalent to skills, I would permanently be unable to acquire magic skills.

…And, seeing it add at the end that as the potion recipes changed, even the same potion could have different effects, required ingredients, and crafting processes, I thought.

‘…The gacha was a success, but why did it come with a binding curse….’

Clearly, just a moment ago, I was imagining myself using magic occasionally while fighting with potions…

I was imagining a future where I would actively use magic when fighting monsters……

There was no such future… it was the moment when it was cemented that my future was alchemy and potions.

‘But what if the ingredients for the potions I used to make easily all become difficult to obtain?’

……Correction. It was the moment when the worry came that I might become an incompetent person who couldn’t even make potions because I couldn’t get the ingredients.

***

With a successful but failed gacha, I clutched my aching head and skimmed through the new potion recipes.

…I wished it wasn’t so, but I knew almost none of the ingredients.

It truly felt like acquiring ingredients had become the main challenge.

But, no matter what……

“No…! Conscientiously, shouldn’t I be able to make at least that measly health potion with the current ingredients?”

*That’s because it’s the side-effect-removed version. Now it recovers without draining mana.*

“Then what’s the point?! I can’t even make it! And why did it get even more measly by having ‘low-grade’ attached to it, becoming a low-grade health potion?”

*But you can make one potion, can’t you?*

The potions I used to make well became unmakeable, either because their quality improved or their side effects were alleviated or removed.

I clearly remembered being able to make many potions after getting Flame Stones… but now only one was left.

And even with just a glance, not only the ingredients but also the crafting process seemed like pure agony.

Extinguish and relight the fire 10 times at 10-second intervals? The creator’s malice was overflowing.

*Still, cheer up? That’s a growth-type skill, so it would have been harder to pull later, you know?*

“…The tome grows too?”

*New potions that can be crafted are added according to your actions. There’s a reason why this isn’t a normal item, but a skill, you know?*

……My mood, which had been depressed from having so many craftable potions taken away, improved slightly.

Ingredients can be acquired, and crafting… well, I can sacrifice a little quality.

“By the way, what’s that one remaining potion I can make?”

*…Do you want to know?*

“What is it? Of course I want to….”

Suddenly, a scene from the past flashed through my mind.

The memory of mixing failed potions and creating a very subtle and beautiful colored potion.

And, when I asked about its effect…… the memory that it was, in fact, a drug.

Unfortunately, bad premonitions never proved wrong.

*Judging by your expression, you’ve intuited it, haven’t you?*

“No, really? Why that one of all things?! Where am I supposed to use it?! Why is something like that even in this antique tome?!”

*It’s not an original recipe, it was added due to your actions. I told you, it’s a growth-type.*

“…This is driving me crazy. I can’t sell something like this, can I?”

*If you dilute it a lot, wouldn’t it just end up as a potion that makes you feel good?*

“Why is that a question?”

*Because I don’t know either? But anyway, you don’t have anything else to sell, do you?*

“……”

…Looks like I’m about to become a drug-dealing girl instead of a potion-selling one.