#029
[Quest: Meet the Administrator of the Sacred Tree]
[Take the Fragment of the Sacred Tree and go find the Administrator of the Sacred Tree!]
“Hmm… I guess I’ll only know once I meet this person. Well, that’s settled for now, next is.”
Farmer’s Axe.
‘An axe came out here.’
There doesn’t seem to be any particular consistency in obtaining tools. For a hidden dungeon reward, it didn’t look particularly special. Still, since it’s an axe, it should be stronger than a hoe, but I wonder if it’ll be better than my enhanced hoe.
‘I’ll find out when I try using it later.’
And the last one.
‘Essence of… Earth?’
I quietly looked down at the small clump of dirt sitting obediently on my palm.
“……”
I searched through my inventory again. There was nothing else that looked like Essence of Earth, and I had no memory of collecting any dirt clumps. So this must definitely be the Essence of Earth.
“Are you kidding me?”
What the hell am I supposed to do with this?
Could it be something like this? Mix it with contaminated soil and the surrounding area gets purified, or even if you plant contaminated seeds, they grow well in this soil? I tried pressing on the item but no description window appeared. I was starting to worry.
It’s not like there are strategy boards or tip boards, and to know its function I’d have to test it myself, but there’s only one clump. It was too little. If the clean soil gets contaminated instead and becomes unusable, wouldn’t I be completely wasting the reward I worked so hard to get?
Come on, if you’re going to give it, give me several clumps. System bastard, being so stingy with just a handful of dirt. This is barely enough to fill a palm-sized pot…
“Pot…?”
I noticed the various pots decorating Eira’s windowsill for the first time. The plants that once decorated Eira’s house with various fresh colors were all dried and withered now, but the pots of different sizes, colors, and shapes still looked like various decorative items themselves.
There were square and round ones, and some modeled after angels, fairies, and animals. The materials were diverse too. Some made of wood, stone, or ceramic, and some made of transparent glass that looked like fish tanks or glass bottles…
‘Glass bottles…?’
I think I have something that looks like that.
I searched through my inventory again.
‘Found it!’
Something I’d obtained from the settlement support box that I’d regretted as useless because I didn’t know what it was for at the time.
“It might be a pot…”
Actually, since I was only a farmer in games and knew nothing about plants in real life, I hadn’t thought that glass bottles could also be used as pots. Come to think of it, they used to sell things like this as terrarium kits.
I shook the glass bottle.
Splash!
But the glass bottle was already full of water. The transparent water I’d brought from the hidden dungeon sparkled faintly in the dim light. I wanted to try putting the dirt clump in, but I couldn’t waste the precious water, and with nothing to plant right now, putting dirt in didn’t seem like it would cause any dramatic changes.
“Let’s wait and see.”
I decided to buy a separate water bottle later and test it when I got suitable seeds, and put away all the items.
Just then, Eira appeared earlier than expected, opening the door. She held out a potion to me.
“Drink this.”
“……”
This color somehow looks a bit… Dark purple bubbles were bubbling and boiling. Moreover, it gave off a terrible smell that made me want to cover my nose. In the game, even seeing something like this, I’d think comfortably that all potions are like that, but now that it became reality and I had to actually pour it into my stomach, I couldn’t easily accept and drink it.
I recalled the thought I’d had briefly earlier. A potionist can naturally make poison. And I did something trashy that Eira would have every right to hold a grudge about. Even if my parents handed it to me, it would be hard to drink with this visual, but this was made by my ex-wife whom I unilaterally kicked out? Anyone would flinch.
I carefully observed Eira’s expression. Her eyes were hidden by her hair again so I couldn’t see her expression well, but she still looked tired and gloomy. Her invisible gaze was definitely directed at me. It felt persistent, as if she was monitoring whether I would drink it or not.
‘That’s a ridiculous imagination. Eira isn’t that kind of character.’
Besides, it’s not like I won’t drink it anyway. If I don’t drink it, I’ll die from poisoning anyway.
I kept calming my increasingly dizzy mind. I placed the potion at a distance and took a deep breath. Then I closed my eyes tightly and was about to drink it all at once while holding my breath.
Tap.
“Wait a moment.”
It was Eira who grabbed my wrist again to stop me from drinking.
“…Why?”
Feeling secretly relieved, I carefully opened my eyes. Through her split hair, one of Eira’s eyes was carefully examining my wrist.
“You… did you take something? Like medicine?”
“Medicine? No, I didn’t take any…”
I was about to answer that I didn’t take anything when something came to mind. There was that potion-like thing Carlisle had sprayed on me.
“Uh… I didn’t take anything, but I did have something sprayed on my body…”
I answered ambiguously, but Eira’s bright, shining eyes didn’t seem to plan on letting me go easily.
“What was it?”
“Um, well… how should I put it. Something that just looked like water? I’m not sure. Actually, I got hurt a bit in a cave, so Carlisle burst something like a water balloon over my body. It seemed like a potion or something because I recovered quickly…”
“Carlisle, you say… But you were injured?”
“Yeah, a bit…”
“Where and how?”
Along with the question, Eira began rummaging through my body without listening to my answer or asking for permission. She rolled up my sleeves and pant legs to examine them, opened my collar to look at my chest, grabbed my chin and looked at my eyes, skin, and inside my mouth.
“You do have some wounds. But you’re mostly fine…”
Actually, it wasn’t just “some wounds.” I thought I was going to die because all my skin had melted. I was newly amazed at how effective the medicine was.
“Yeah, well, recovery was fast.”
“Did you also tell him you were poisoned by moonring seaweed before he sprayed that?”
“No?”
“…Let me draw some blood.”
“What?”
While I was bewildered, Eira brought a terrifying syringe from somewhere and drew blood from my arm. Then she went back into the inner room, but stopped and came back to take the dark purple detox potion from my hand as well.
“Wait a moment. You might not need to drink this.”
“Huh?”
“Normally, by now blisters should be spreading again and your breathing should be getting difficult… anyway, your symptoms should be getting worse, but you’re too fine right now. You might already be detoxified.”
Eira went inside while I was stunned and came back quickly.
“You’re completely detoxified. You don’t need to drink mine.”
Eira seemed somewhat excited as she said this.
“By any chance, do you know anything about that potion Carlisle sprayed? Who he got it from, what it was made of, how it was made, whether it was a potion or some other item…”
Hey, calm down.
Overwhelmed by her energy, I stepped back a couple of steps.
“I don’t know anything. I just collapsed after getting hurt and Carlisle took it out and used it… I just said thanks and that was it.”
I swallowed the words that I was too scared to ask in detail because it seemed like it would be too expensive. When I answered like that, Eira glared at me.
“You received and used something so amazing and weren’t even curious? Don’t you have any sense of inquiry?”
Would I have any? I’m not a potionist.
When I just stared at her in disbelief, Eira also seemed to realize she had gotten too excited and stepped back a bit while clearing her throat.
“Well, I’m just saying it out of regret. The effect seems tremendous. That moonring seaweed poison may look easy, but it’s absolutely not easy to deal with. To be able to erase it so lightly while treating wounds, as a potionist I can’t help but be curious about who made it and how… no, never mind.”
When I stared at her with dead fish eyes, Eira cut off her lengthening words again.
“Then in the end, the potion I made is no longer needed for you. We agreed on receiving this and that in exchange for treatment…”
Her voice trailed off as Eira glanced at me.
“How should the calculation work…”
But I didn’t think much of it. Would there be much difference? Anyway, the condition was to get medicinal herbs instead of emergency treatment fees, and to hand over a few requested herbs for free instead of receiving the antidote. Eira had kept all her promises…
“Still, since you made the potion because of me, I’ll hand over everything promised. And if there’s anything else you need among the rest, I’d be happy to buy it for you.”
At my words, Eira felt relieved and quietly offered the dark purple potion she had taken away.
“It’s awkward for me to say this myself, but this is a pretty decent detox potion, so if you keep it just in case, it’ll help you someday.”
I hope I won’t have to drink it if possible… but if I’m going to keep clearing quests, antidotes will become basic emergency medicine. I gladly accepted and stored the detox potion.
“Now, let’s settle the rest. I want to buy everything you brought.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
