Chapter 62: Shop, Opening Soon! – 2

Chapter 62: Shop, Opening Soon! – 2

*……As soon as a meeting is scheduled, I’ll tell them not to give out quests like this anymore.*

“…Please, I’m begging you.”

Saying that, I counted the empty ‘Stamina Potions’ in front of me.

…Hmm, 10 of them. I drank a lot.

Of course, even I didn’t want to drink this much.

Originally, if I drank one, I’d have to make another to replace what I drank, so I didn’t want to drink them unless it was an absolutely unavoidable situation.

……However, after trying to endure without drinking and wasting two ‘Traces of God’, I just gave up and started drinking the potions.

Eventually, I reached a state of enlightenment and just started chugging them.

Ria, who was initially watching with a smile, gradually started looking at me with pity as time passed and she saw me withering away.

And by the end, she was even cheering me on.

…Unfortunately, stamina potions greatly alleviate physical fatigue, but they do nothing for mental fatigue.

“Still… I won’t have trouble with nothing to sell when the shop opens.”

*Well, that’s true. Anyway, congratulations on your success.*

“Wow, the system’s interior design is sooooo good!”

Truly, after saying something that didn’t feel good at all,

In fact, something that would convey how utterly not good it was just by hearing it, a familiar notification window popped up in front of me.

*Quest Complete!

-> You have successfully completed the opening preparations!

=> Rewards are being accumulated!

+> As an additional reward, the follow-up quest, Opening Preparations – 2, has been unlocked!

*

“…Huh?”

*Eek.*

My brain froze for a moment, seeing something I shouldn’t have, and Ria let out a short, sharp, genuine expression of disgust.

Perhaps sensing our chilling gazes, the system hurriedly began to display the next notification window.

*Quest! – Opening Preparations – 2

-> We commend you for successfully stocking your shop! You’ve worked hard!

-> However, there are still practical difficulties in opening the shop!

=> Craft 2 additional types of sellable potions within 24 hours, and raise their quality to excellent or higher!

+> Success: Acquire business-related skills

+> Failure: None

*

“…Is the lack of a penalty for failure the last shred of conscience?”

*……I’m sorry. For being such a company.*

“I don’t know… let’s think about it after I wake up from sleeping…?”

But, quest or no quest, I just slumped over my workbench and closed my eyes.

Well, 24 hours is a long time anyway.

***

……There was a time when I thought that.

Before I wasted 12 hours sleeping.

“…Huh, is the clock broken? Why has only 10 minutes passed?”

*12 hours and 10 minutes have passed. Look outside.*

As she said, I clearly remembered falling asleep when the sun was rising, but now the sun was setting.

…It seems I’m going to miss sleeping at night again.

*You slept so well, I felt bad waking you up.*

“Ahem.”

*Anyway, I’ve selected some potions that are realistically craftable at your current level. Would you like to see them?*

“Work as soon as I wake up…”

But, regardless of what I said, information about various potions was already floating before my eyes.

Most of them were healing types, with occasional defensive potions mixed in.

And, among them, the two potions that caught my eye were……

“Barrier Potion, and Immunity Potion. These two seem the most useful.”

*…Why did you pick the most difficult ones to make?*

“……Even if they’re difficult, if I have enough ingredients, couldn’t I somehow manage by retrying?”

Indeed, I had wasted several ‘Traces of God’ even when making stamina potions.

Of course, I still had dozens of ‘Traces of God’ left after that.

…One thing I overlooked was that, unlike stamina potions which only required one ingredient, these required several.

“……Why is there only one of each ingredient?”

*Because they consume such expensive ingredients. Their effects are already quite overpowered, aren’t they?*

…Actually, Ria was right.

The Barrier Potion, when thrown, creates a barrier in a certain area that controls the passage of targets, making it a throwable barricade…

And the Immunity Potion has the effect of detoxifying most poisons and weakening or temporarily neutralizing most curses.

As abilities that would only appear in the middle of the novel, the required ingredients also seemed ridiculously expensive.

*Actually, these potions feel a bit too early to be made right now.*

“…The ingredient cost proves that.”

*But well, if you’re not mass-producing and selling them, and instead selling them as special potions… it probably won’t matter much. As long as the quality is decent.*

“What if the quality is terrible?”

*A barrier would be created where the opponent can freely enter and exit, but you can’t, and curses and poisons would suddenly worsen, wouldn’t they?*

…I don’t know why potions have the opposite effect when their quality is bad, but one thing was certain.

These potions needed to be of a certain quality to produce proper, at least desired, effects.

……And I only had one chance to try it.

“…Wait, come to think of it, these potions must have side effects, right?”

*That’s right, isn’t it? The Barrier Potion has the side effect that the user cannot enter the barrier created by that potion, and the Immunity Potion has the side effect of making the user temporarily vulnerable to poisons and curses after use.*

“Haa…… The Barrier Potion seems to have a pretty severe flaw.”

*Well, couldn’t it be solved by making and using a side-effect-weakening potion later?*

…For a moment, the thought of what side effects a potion that weakens potion side effects would have crossed my mind, but I quickly shook my head.

It wasn’t something to worry about right now anyway.

The immediate problem was… having to make potions of proper quality with those rare and expensive ingredients, without any practice.

*Can’t you just make other potions?*

“……It’s a matter of pride.”

*…Then that’s right.*

Of course, practically speaking, it would be better to just safely make potions that have 3 or 4 ingredients.

If I carelessly make them and the quality turns out terrible, it’s not only a waste of time, stamina, and ingredients, but such waste also grinds down my mental state.

But… somehow, giving up and making easy potions felt a bit like a blow to my pride……

And, more than anything, besides these two, there weren’t any other remarkably outstanding potions.

To be precise, if stamina potions were for general recovery, the others were potions specialized in specific areas, I guess?

Specialized in wound healing, specialized in overcoming illness… and finally, even a potion explicitly described as just an energy drink.

All of them were useful, but none could match the versatility of the stamina potion.

“…Is there no tutorial or anything for potion crafting? Like a simulation or something…”

*There is.*

“Huh?”

*To be precise…… there is. But it’s not very effective.*

But the words ‘not very effective’ didn’t quite register in my mind.

Just the fact that there was a simulation function alone…

*You have to pay to use the function.*

“…What?”

*It’s like, we’ll lend you the lab and tools, so you have to pay for it. …That’s also why I didn’t particularly tell you about it.

Its efficiency is so bad that no one uses it.*

The subsequent explanation, in summary, was that while it was possible to simulate potion crafting virtually through the system’s technology…

You had to pay a fee every time you crafted a potion, and the simulation itself had subtle differences from reality.

“……Anyway, you guys need some reform. You’re subtly obsessed with making money, aren’t you?”

*…It’s because saving one person’s life and finding a suitable world is so difficult.*

Ria made a flimsy excuse, but her message conveyed a sense that she herself was quite fed up with it.

If she were actually next to me, wouldn’t she be glaring at the system with the same cold, cynical eyes?

“Well, what can I do? I’ll have to use it for now. It’ll be cheaper than buying ingredients again.”

*……It’s truly sad that’s the case.*

“At this point, didn’t they intentionally throw this quest at me to make me use this function?”

I thought it was a reasonably rational suspicion.

Could the reason there’s no penalty for failure also be……

*To say that, you chose the potions to make. And the system is sending these quests to help you with your opening in the first place.

……Though I don’t know why a quest to make potions by pulling an all-nighter was given.*

“What, you don’t know either?”

*…I’ve been next to you constantly, so I haven’t been able to talk to the guys who send the quests. Well, they must have their own reasons for doing this.*

“Is that so? Anyway, how do I do that simulation?”

At that remark, the world suddenly began to shake.

However… it wasn’t just shaking; it felt like something was being overlaid on my vision.

After the shaking stopped, Ria’s message and familiar objects appeared before my eyes.

*Like this?*

“No, but at least a word or two…”

*Oh, a lot of time has passed already, hasn’t it? Aren’t you in a hurry?*

……Can’t I make a potion to materialize this guy again?