Chapter 3: Potion Making…? – 2

Chapter 3: Potion Making…? – 2

“Okay… first, put this in, then light the fire…”

When I actually tried to make a potion, the difficulty wasn’t that high.

The system’s guide was so well done.

…This part was uselessly useful.

I concentrated on making potions for an hour.

Finally, usable potions were completed.

“It was made faster than I thought? It’s surprisingly easy.”

…I secretly pushed the ‘failed’ potions piled up next to me and put the completed potion into a bottle.

At first, I thought I would just put in the ingredients, light the fire, and wait, but it was surprisingly fun.

It seemed that a good potion came out when you stirred at the right timing, at the right speed, and the right number of times, and the expected quality of the potion changed in real time, so it felt like I was playing a game.

At first, I stirred it roughly and saw a mark on the quality grade that said ‘It wouldn’t be strange to die from drinking it’, so I tried to fix it somehow.

As a result, the potion I made now has a quality of ‘Excellent’.

…I briefly pushed the hard work that went into this into the back of my mind.

“Where… shall we see the effect once?”

There were a total of two completed potions, a stamina potion and a mana potion.

…Somehow, I succeeded in making one of each type.

*Excellent Stamina Potion & Mana Potion

-> This is a potion made by a producer with excellent skills.

=> Side effects are reduced. Now only 80% of the recovery amount is reduced for stamina/mana.

——–

==> You have created an ‘Excellent’ grade potion for the first time. Achievement recorded.

==> Rewards for achievements and proficiency accumulated while making potions can be received through the responsible system in the future.

*

“Proficiency? Achievement? It seems like there’s something else.”

The annoyance with the responsible system, which started with a quick dismissal and didn’t tell me anything properly, soared for a moment, but I felt a little relieved when I saw the explanation of the potion.

I didn’t care about anything else, but I was really happy to see the phrase that the side effects were reduced.

Honestly, if you recover stamina, your mana is reduced by the amount of recovery. Who would use it?

…Of course, it doesn’t seem like the performance is that great now either.

“Ah! This is not the time! Let’s go out quickly!”

I stuffed the two completed potions into any basket rolling around in the house and went outside.

I had been staying at home since I came to this world, so I was curious about the outside, so I quickly went outside, but…

…

…It was cold. Fucking cold.

“…Shouldn’t you give me clothes at least!”

To be exact, my outfit right now is something you would wear in late summer at best.

A very thin long-sleeved shirt and a skirt of moderate length.

And the weather in this town right now was the beginning of spring, in other words, it was very chilly.

…But, unfortunately, the system that could argue about this matter had already dismissed work.

“Ugh… I hate being cold… Is this the bitterness of the world?”

Even in the hospital, I would burrow into the blanket if the heating wasn’t on even a little bit.

It was like that originally, but somehow this body seemed to be more vulnerable to the cold.

Anyway, feeling the bitterness and coldness of the world for the first time, I walked to the central square.

…Fortunately, I could see such a simple map even in the offline system, so I didn’t get lost and become a lost child.

“It feels strange to actually see the houses that only appeared in the descriptions in the novel…”

Fortunately, the system and the company it belongs to have a conscience, so they built a house on the outskirts of the empire’s capital, which is the main stage of the novel.

It’s quite a distance to the central square, but it’s not a distance you can’t walk.

Thanks to the enhanced body, there was no strain on my stamina.

…The problem is that I was shivering from the cold the whole time I was walking. I think I really shivered a lot.

To the point where I felt like people passing by were looking at me with pity from time to time.

By the time I approached the market located in the central square, the sun was slowly disappearing below the horizon.

…In other words, there wasn’t much time left until the central market stopped operating.

After a moment of thought, I came to a conclusion.

“Run!”

Even if it’s a waste to have come all the way here shivering from the cold, I’m going to sell potions today!

***

The market where business is finishing.

Located in the central square of the capital, this market was so famous that it was used not only by commoners but also by nobles who were sometimes open-minded.

As such, a lot of goods were traded, and many goods that were not available in the empire were also distributed and handled.

That’s how many merchants came and went, and there were many products.

However… no matter how many merchants gathered there, there was no young girl among those merchants.

Even more so if it was a girl who couldn’t even dress properly and was shivering from the cold.

“S-Sell potions! If you eat it, you’ll gain strength and your wounds will heal!”

…Clearly there wasn’t. Until today.

A girl who suddenly popped up and started selling when most of the merchants were packing up as the market was ending.

The girl, who started selling a strange-colored liquid in a basket, calling it ‘potion’, attracted a lot of attention in many ways.

There are many reasons for this… but the biggest reason was clear.

A unique product?

No. The item being sold was something they had never seen before, but very few people seriously accepted the girl’s product because of her fragile appearance and poorly dressed clothes.

Most people thought she was just trying to make money by selling randomly mixed liquids.

Suddenly starting business?

That wasn’t it either. There were more than one or two merchants and groups that couldn’t make it on time, and the market was open every day.

The reason was not something else, but the girl herself.

She had a small physique that made you want to protect her just by looking at her, and she was even shivering from the cold, so you wanted to protect her even more.

In addition, she had a beautiful appearance and face that made you think she was cute first, and then you naturally thought she was pretty.

As people’s eyes continued to go back and forth over this unidentified girl, who they didn’t know where she came from, a merchant across the street approached the girl.

Since he was usually evaluated as a merchant with a lot of kindness, people roughly guessed what he was trying to do and started going their own way.

It was to give money to the girl by buying the liquid she called ‘potions’. In some ways, it was an act of charity.

Of course, the merchant didn’t think that the ‘potion’ the girl was talking about would really have an effect.

There were more than one or two people who came out to make money in this way.

…Of course, this was the first time someone had come out to the market like this.

“Hey, girl. Would you like to sell that thing to me?”

“Potion? Really?”

“Of course. I’ll buy both of them.”

“Wow! Thank you! This one has the effect of recovering your body when you eat it, and this one has the effect of recovering your mana when you eat it!”

At those words, the merchant smiled invisibly.

It looked like she was just making up words, but the girl’s appearance of explaining the ‘potion’ with sparkling eyes was cute.

“But, you have to be careful because there are side effects! Okay?”

“Yes, yes. So how much is it in total?”

“Uh… I didn’t really think about the price…?”

The girl said that and smiled awkwardly.

She tried to hide her flustered expression, but the merchant could see it all.

After thinking for a moment, the merchant soon took out a cloak that could be worn comfortably from among his belongings.

“Hmm… Then, how about receiving this instead of money?”

“This?”

“It’s a cloak that maintains the user’s body temperature according to the temperature, and it looks like you need it.”

“Wow… then, if I wear this, I won’t be cold, right? Okay!”

The girl said that and quickly put on the cloak.

Soon, she had a look on her face that she was going to live and bowed to the merchant.

“Thank you! Actually, I was thinking of showing the effect by drinking it myself if people didn’t believe in the effect.

Ah! I’ll be here tomorrow too, so see you tomorrow!”

The girl said that and ran away quickly, as if she was in a hurry.

The merchant, who was watching her with a smile, handed the two potions he bought from the girl to his servant and began to pack up.

“…You’ve done a pointless thing, master. That cloak is worth at least 1 gold coin, but like this for something that is nothing…”

“Hey, you. She looks young, but she’s shivering like that.”

“She looked to be in her late teens. There are plenty of such pitiful children on the streets.”

“But among those children, she was the only one who came to the market and tried to do business.”

“…I understand. More than that, how do we deal with these?”

The servant said that and pointed to the potion in his hand.

The merchant seemed to be thinking for a moment, then smiled playfully and said.

“Well, try eating one, just for the hell of it.”

“What?! What if there’s something strange in here?”

“Anyway, you know how to use mana, right? You also have a wound from fighting with the thieves recently, so you can eat one of those ‘stamina potions’.”

The merchant said that and pointed to the wound on the servant’s skin, and the servant nodded with a groan.

“It’s almost healed… Haa. I understand. How can I stop my master’s curiosity.”

The servant said that and opened a potion and swallowed it.

Then… a faint light shone from the wound area, and the wound began to heal quickly.

At the unexpected sight, the merchant and the servant stared intently at the area where the wound had been for a while.