WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 12: The Start of a Solo Run (3)

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"The place is a bit run-down... but please, come in."

The alchemist hesitantly led me inside.

The shop looked like it had been hit by a storm. 

"Really, it's quite shabby..."

It was no exaggeration.

Broken glass bottles littered the floor, bookshelves had toppled over, scattering books everywhere, and dust fluttered in the air as a bonus.

Complete chaos.

-Wow.

The Sword Emperor was astonished.

-I've been told I was disorganized, but this young lady takes it to another level. Such a sanitary place. Do you really want elixirs made by her?

"Are you really going to place an order worth 20,000 gold with me...?"

As though they had planned it together, the apothecary and the Sword Emperor asked me at the same time.

I smirked.

"Should I pay in advance if that makes it more believable?"

"No, there's no need for that, but..."

The alchemist hesitated, then abruptly stopped.

"...Actually, yes, if possible, I would prefer an upfront payment."

Her face turned completely red, seemingly embarrassed by her own request. As expected, her financial situation must be quite dire.

"Take whatever amount you need from my vault at Sang-Ryun. I'll let them know in advance."

"As much as needed..."

The alchemist mumbled to herself.

"Yes. Of course, my wealth isn't unlimited. If you could keep the budget within 20,000 gold, I'd appreciate it."

"What kind of potion would you like to order?"

Perhaps the enormous budget frightened her in advance. The apothecary looked delighted on one hand, but anxious on the other.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot produce narcotics. I refuse to make any drug-related potions due to my personal beliefs. If your order is about that, I must decline..."

"Oh."

I internally agreed.

'She seems naive, but she's destined to become the Master Alchemist.'

It's rare to find someone who can firmly decline such a lucrative offer, especially after facing the downfall of their shop. Yet, she adamantly refused to make narcotics.

This alchemist, while seemingly weak, had a strong sense of pride.

"Haha, don't worry, it's nothing like narcotics."

"Ah. Then what specific potion are you looking to order?"

"Um..."

I looked at the Sword Emperor, who had been silent since entering the shop. He finally sighed after noticing my glance.

-Alright. I'll tell you the recipe, though I still can't believe she's capable.

About time.

-Listen. The liver of a rabbit-pig, eyes of a balloon cat, skin of a giant desert worm...

"I will now list the ingredients. The liver of a rabbit-pig, eyes of a balloon cat, and so on..."

I recited the ingredients as told by the Sword Emperor.

"Wait! Please, let me write it down!"

The alchemist hurriedly scribbled down the recipe. A total of 23 ingredients. As the list grew, so did her seriousness.

-That should be enough for the ingredients. The rest depends on the alchemist's skill.

"That's all for the ingredients."

"..."

The alchemist quietly stared at her notebook, biting her nails.

"If these are combined... they would greatly enhance reflexes. Not relaxation but more like stimulation. No, upon further consideration, it's more about awakening than tension."

-Huh?

The Sword Emperor looked at her in surprise.

Unfazed, the apothecary continued muttering. "This is an extremely advanced formula. Ah, I might be jumping to conclusions from the ingredients alone, but you mean to decoct them all together while they are as fresh as possible instead of drying or refining them separately, correct?" The Sword Emperor faltered. "Uh, yes..." I nodded. "That's right." "I knew it! Giant desert worm skin usually contains trace amounts of poison. One way to neutralize it is to administer rabbit-pig liver, but depending on how it's administered, the effect...!" The apothecary launched into an excited explanation. The hesitant young woman who had been stammering moments ago was gone; the apothecary before me was now a full-blown chatterbox. There were people like her in the world: awkward with people but excellent at their work, the kind who threw themselves wholly into what they loved and eventually achieved something great. I did not dislike experts like that. "Can you have it ready within a few days?" I cut off a conversation that seemed liable to continue forever. The apothecary blinked as if returning from a world of her own. "S-sorry! It's been so long since I saw such a beautiful formula that I got carried away...!" "That's fine. So how many days?" "If there's enough money... I-I can have it ready within four days. Normally I could do it sooner, but I need to replace my equipment and tools..." Four days. "I can certainly wait that long." Before I regressed, getting a single dose of medicine from her had taken at least a year. Four days barely counted as waiting by comparison. Even after we finished our discussion and left the shop, the Sword Emperor kept complaining. -I still don't buy it. There are plenty of people who sound impressive but are useless in practice. Those are exactly the ones who grow into snake-oil salesmen. Damn it, we're about to waste all that money! "Then where did you learn that recipe?"

-That's my concoction. The ultimate elixir, developed after consuming various poisons myself. It's a precious potion that's hard to come by in your world!

I chuckled.

"Even she praises it as a highly sophisticated combination."

-......

"Recognizing the value of a combination after just one look. Trust her. Despite appearances, she will be the highest-ranking individual in the Alchemy Castle in 10 years."

The Sword Emperor remained silent, his expression turning grim. He looked exactly like a disgruntled toad.

-You just insulted me in your thoughts, didn't you?

"Now this ghost is falsely accusing an innocent man."

I played dumb.

Always too perceptive for his own good.

Four days passed quickly.

The alchemist used quite a bit of money from my vault. Someone from Sang-Ryun even came to confirm if it was okay, but I told them to let it be.

No matter the cost, getting potions from the future Master Alchemist was a bargain.

-How about a bet, Zombie? 

"What now?"

-That young woman will take the money and run. I'm certain of it. I may not know much else, but I have a killer eye for people. To me, she was born with the face of a master thief! Hurry up and kill yourself, Kim Zombie! Die four times and go back four days!

Obviously, ghosts have no knack for judging people.

On the exact fourth day at noon.

The alchemist personally arrived at my lodging, carrying bundles of elixirs.

"I'm sorry for the delay. I wanted to deliver them sooner, but the combination took longer than expected..."

"No problem. You promised to deliver within four days, so it's fine."

The elixirs she brought were in three boxes.

Considering three doses a day, it amounted to a 30-day supply.

Had I used the store the Sword Emperor knew, I could have only secured a two-day supply. The efficiency here boasted a whopping 15 times more.

'And the effects are likely to be even better.'

This is how money should be spent.

My lips curled into a pleased smile.

"Excuse me..."

"Yes?"

"I-it may be strange to ask this only now, but why did you entrust such an expensive commission to an unknown apothecary like me?"

The alchemist fidgeted with her fingers.

"I have confidence in my skills. The recipe you provided, only about two people in Babylon could comprehend and make it... But people only treat me as a weirdo..."

"Hmm."

The reason for entrusting her with the elixir production was clear: she was a prodigious genius, destined to be the Guild Master of the Alchemy Castle. I wanted to build a connection with her, anticipating her eventual rise.

But it wasn't just that.

Before I regressed across those 4,000 days, when the Flame Emperor set fire to the slums, this woman had been a top ranker yet arrived at the scene before anyone else and took command of the fire response.

While helping, the future Master Alchemist murmured:

-...I don't like that Flame Emperor.

-It might be a bit rude to gossip here... But I think Saintess should meet someone better.

The one who recognized the true nature of the Flame Emperor.

'Probably guessed it purely on intuition, without evidence.'

Still, it showed her exceptional insight.

She was skilled, kind enough to rush immediately to the scene of a disaster, and perceptive enough to recognize a psychopath. Wouldn't I be the one losing out if I failed to befriend someone like that?

I spoke up.

"Because you seemed kind."

"What?"

"I helped because you seemed kind. Even if I hadn't, you would have succeeded on your own. Like us kind hunters, we should help each other rise, right?"

"No way can we just let crazy psychopaths be the only ones to succeed. It's infuriating. Let's both fight hard, Ms. Alchemist."

I told her exactly what I felt without a single lie. I could not have been more honest. How she received my words was up to her now.

The alchemist stared at me intently, then spoke.

"...Right. We need to succeed to change the world."

Her tone implied determination.

"Thank you! I'll work hard too!"

She clenched her fist.

"Contact me anytime for more orders! I'll always prioritize your requests!"

"Thank you."

We shook hands and parted with smiling faces.

Unfortunately, my smile didn't last long.

-Oh boy. Hearing someone call themselves a 'kind hunter' and the other person actually believing it. You guys are nuts. Absolutely insane.

"...I feel embarrassed about what I just said. Let's just go train."

The next day.

We headed for the hunting ground. I had packed plenty of elixirs and a sleeping bag in my backpack.

The only difference from usual was that we were at the 3rd floor hunting ground, not the 2nd.

Monsters still somewhat beyond the capabilities of a low-level hunter like me, including packs of goblins and orcs, prowled here and there.

I gazed at them from afar and asked.

"What should we do now?"

-Start by drinking the elixir.

I nodded and gulped down the elixir from my thermos without any doubt.

"Hmm."

It tasted ordinary.

Even pleasantly lemony with a hint of honey.

As I was relieved it wasn't bitter like ginseng extract, suddenly...

"Uh...!?"

Thump.

My heart beat fiercely.

At first, I thought it was an illusion, but it wasn't. Sweat streamed down my back. Surprisingly, I could distinctly feel each drop.

'What's happening?'

Thump.

Not just the sweat, but the sensation of air around my fingers, the pressure, the texture of the ground under my feet, even the time it took to blink felt incredibly slow, as if 30 seconds long.

"This is..."

-The effect of the elixir.

Only the Sword Emperor's voice remained normal amid the slowdown.

-It drastically slows down your perception of events. Think of it as extending time indefinitely. As much as I hate to admit, that girl has decent elixir-making skills.

It was terrible.

Every single strand of hair and each of the hundreds of thousands of hairs on my body felt vividly distinct, almost as if they were crackling. I could even feel the blood vessels in my eyeballs twitch. If I had drunk it without knowing what it was, I would have mistaken the elixir for poison.

-Do you feel it?

"What do... you mean?"

-The wriggling in your heart.

Thump.

There was something. No, something was flowing. It wasn't blood.

It was far smoother than blood and far finer than a stream of blood. Yet something was unmistakably flowing throughout my body, spreading slowly as it passed through my heart.

Something I never distinctly felt before.

-That's Aura.

The Sword Emperor explained.

-Every hunter who enters the Tower has Aura. It's just that they live unaware of it. How consciously you can use this Aura, how freely you can draw it out, that's what decides the battle.

The Sword Emperor chuckled.

His laugh echoed in my head for over 20 seconds. What should have been a fleeting moment, my mind perceived as 20 seconds long.

The fatigue was so intense that if I lost focus for even a moment, I felt as though I would collapse on the spot.

-Normally, you'd practice quietly alone or sit in meditation to get used to the Aura flow. But...

Then, something massive approached me.

-That would take too long, wouldn't it?

Boom.

Footsteps.

Like the laughter, the footsteps resonated long. Barely lifting my head, I saw a large orc approaching me.

-If you lack talent, you suffer.

Damn.

-All right! If you don't want to suffer, draw out your Aura and use it, Kim Zombie! You have to train through real combat! You won't stay dead even if you die, so who cares if your body gets wrecked?

"This ghost... really...!"

-Huh? I can't hear what the loser who can't even use Aura is saying.

Again, the Sword Emperor burst into laughter.

-In pain? Then kill yourself. Oh, then your kill count will go up again. That would make Sword Saint even nicer to you, right?

Ah.

My partner was indeed a terrible being.

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