/
The first thing we decided to do after escaping the dungeon was head right back over the Jean’s lab.
「So Stephan has passed on, I take it?」
『Yeah. He went with a big smile on his face.』
「Marvelous. Passing on in such a manner is best possible thing that can happen to an undead.」
Jean woke up, but he still didn’t seem to have recovered from all those activations of Aidoneus’ Blessing. He ended up collapsing just a few moments after he finished speaking. He was still conscious, but he didn’t bother getting up, probably because he was still feeling exhausted.
The only other thing he bothered saying was that he wanted to eat curry, and well, given the shape he was in, I couldn’t exactly say no.
Fran reluctantly agreed to sharing some with him as well.
Jean told us we could stay in the guest room for as long as we liked, so we decided to take a few days to rest up before heading out again.
『Hey uh… are you sure you don’t mind us taking all these items? You hired us, so they should be yours by all rights.』
「I mind not even in the slightest, for they are of little use to me. Do with them as you please.」
『Alrighty then.』
And that settles that, mission complete. We were rewarded with quite a bit more than what I was expecting. Jean generously handed over a whole 400k Gould alongside half the loot we found throughout our dungeon adventure.
The most notable items we were given were the two dropped by the Legendary Skeleton: the magic sword Deathgaze and a cloak by the name of Aidoneus’ Mantle. Their stats were as follows.
_______________________________________________________________
Name: Deathgaze (Magic Sword)
Attack: 880
MP: 600
Durability: 400
Magical Conductivity: B+
Skills
Instakill: The item has a 3% chance to instantly kill any foe it cuts.”
Name: Aidoneus’ Mantle
Defense: 40
Durability: 600/600
Effects
STR + 10
VIT + 20
INT – 20
DEX – 10
_______________________________________________________________
The mantle’s effects seemed pretty good, but we couldn’t really use it. It’s the sort of equipment you’d give idiots that don’t know how to do anything but use brute force.
A few of the other items caught my eye as well. Namely, we picked up an odd, S shaped flute-looking thing that seemed to be made out of a goat’s horn and a small but pretty ring.
_______________________________________________________________
Name: Horn of Impact
Effect: Playing this horn whilst channeling magical energy through it will occasionally cause a shockwave. However, there is a 4% chance that the horn will break upon use.
Name: Ring of Nightmares
Defense: 8
Durability: 200
Effect: Wearing this ring induces nightmares.
_______________________________________________________________
The hell… The Ring of Nightmares is clearly a cursed item no matter how you look at it. I can’t really see it having any use unless you want to give it to someone you don’t really like or something like that.
We were also given: a High Grade Life Potion, a High Grade Mana Potion, an Intermediate Grade Explosive Potion, an Undead Luring Incense, and a Bottle of Voodoo Poison.
The potions weren’t all that significant. Er, well, that’s technically not true. They’re the kind that’d cost you a pretty penny or two at a shop, but my repertoire of skills and spells made it so that they’re not really necessary for us. I took them anyways though, seeing as how it’s not like taking them is going to cost us anything.
Fran and Bernardo walked in right as I finished checking over all the loot.
They didn’t really seem natural next to each other, so I was struck by a weird sense of dissonance, but whatever.
『What’s up?』
「Nn. Learning potion making」
「She said she wanted to learn how to make them , so here we are.」
「I will, teach her.」
Another skeleton enters the room.
「This here is Peter.」
「Nice to, meet you, I am, Peter.」
It seemed that this Peter guy, er, skeleton, was capable of both alchemy and pharmaceutical practice. Jean’s subordinates sure do have varied skills.
『Isn’t making potions supposed to be some sort of like super special skill? Are you sure it’s okay for you to casually teach her how to make them?』
「Yes, my part, of exchange.」
『Exchange?』
「Curry, recipe.」
Hey! You guys just totally did that deal with my permission!
Wait, is Jean seriously willing to let Fran learn how to make potions in exchange for something as insignificant as the recipe for curry? Holy crap, he’s really gotten hooked on it.
「Naturally, I will, not spread, the recipe.」
『Eh, it’s alright. I don’t really mind.』
It’s not like it’s something I came up with in the first place anyways, and I am pretty curious as to what kind of spinoff recipes the people of this world will make if it gets popular.
「Don’t have to share anymore.」
『Oh, so that’s what this was all about…』
「Nn. Very important matter.」
Now that I think about it, I did have the skills necessary to make potions. I just never actually tried doing anything with them.
『Would you mind if I joined it? It looks like it’d be pretty fun to give it a shot.』
「I do, not mind.」
And so, we ended up deciding to learn how to make potions, but…
「Tired.」
『Already!?』
Well, it’s not like I don’t get where she’s coming from.
Fran isn’t exactly the type of girl that’d be able to sit around and grind a bunch of grass to the point where you could extract its essence.
「Urushi, here.」
「Woof?」
「Here.」
「Woof!」
She eventually just decided to give up and pass the task off to Urushi. The big, vinyl coloured wolf grabbed executed the action with ease by grabbing the mortar with his front paws and moving the pestle with his mouth.
「Woof. Ruff ruff woof.」
『Wow, you’re pretty dextrous, Urushi.』
「Woof!」
Alright, I better put in more effort too!
『Oryaaaa!』
「Woooof!」
「Go, go.」
Fran cheered us on while sitting off to the side drinking juice.
After we finished grinding up everything, we moved onto the next step: extracting its essence. To do so, we needed to mix the contents of our mortars with water, pour the resulting brew into a flask-like object and boil it.
Normally, I’d expect this to take about an hour, but waiting around for that long didn’t really make the whole process feel like a specialized craft or anything.
『I’m going to try devising some sort of spell to accelerate the process.』
can use magic when I’m cooking to speed things up and improve the taste. I’m pretty sure the same principles apply here too.
It shouldn’t really be too big a problem even if I do mess up because I’m only going to screw around with half the batch anyway.
I distill the necessary water with water magic, control the flames with fire magic, manipulate the pressure using wind magic, and speed it all up using space/time magic. Heh, perfect.
「Master, cheating?」
『I’d prefer if you called it using your head.』
The result of my efforts was a pretty decent life potion. Man, I’m so talented that I scare myself sometimes. That said, the potion Peter made through regular means was still of a higher quality.
You know, I might actually be suited to regular old boring tasks like cooking and mixing potions. Leveling these skills up takes time and effort, but, thinking about what you do can let you mess around with the result. I’d say that this was probably worth looking into. I guess I’ll go around collecting recipes and stuff next time we go to town.
You know, thinking about it, Fran really is a cat. She got bored of what she was doing, so she not only stopped, but even ended up going outside to play instead. Urushi, on the other hand, was totally her bitch; he followed her orders almost desperately.
Peter taught me a few recipes after we finished up our life potions. In total, I learned how to make ten different kinds, with the more notable ones being Mana Potions, Antidotes, and Spirit Potions.
I didn’t really think a mere curry recipe merited this much in return, but both Fran and Jean insisted that there was still more to be owed. I mean, I guess it’s fine since they’re in agreement about the terms. They’re both curry enthusiasts, and that isn’t much of an issue in and of itself, but their passion for it has gone to terrifying heights if you ask me.
「Master, sir, My Lord is, calling for, you.」
Jean asked me to see him in his room right after meal time. There, I found him looking a bit healthier than before.
『How’re you feeling?』
「Fuahaha, better, to say the least.」
『Great. Anyways, what did you need?』
「Ah, yes, why don’t we get down to business. Have you perhaps read the diary Stefan left you?」
『Not yet.』
I mean, he did hand it off to me, but I figured it’d be better for Jean to read it first.
「Would you perhaps mind lending it to me?」
『I was thinking that it should belong to you in the first place.. I wasn’t planning on reading it till you were done anyways.』
「Thank you.」
『Don’t worry about having to rush through it or anything. We were planning to stay a few more days anyway.』
「Understood, and thank you.」
『No probs.』
Jean gently took the diary from me and slowly turned its cover.
It’s really thick, so I doubt he’ll be able to finish it in a day. Hmm… what should I be doing the next couple days anyway? I guess there’s always making potions, but I’d like something else as well… Oh, right! I should check all my skills and stuff.