Translator: P411

Editor: Argenti

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 036 – And the Clear Reward is…

“I do have rank B potions. But still, I don’t think I have 99 of them.”

“Then, sell me as many lower-rank potions that you have as possible, and only fill the remaining numbers with rank A. Just don’t give me rank S, even as a mistake.”

“Okay. But why?”

“Hmm…… the potions you make are highly effective, so it’s not that suitable to show your products in large quantities on the market. But it’s perfectly fine if you make them for your own personal use.” 

Crash said this with a troubled look on his face.

Highly effective, was it? As I had always been making all the potions I used except the ones I received in those early days, I had almost never used the potions that were sold on the market. 

When I honestly told this to Crash, he brought two bottles of high potion from the shelf.

“This one is the normal high-potion sold in the guild, and this one is low-quality high-potion that is provided to the guards. Just compare them with the ones you make. You’ll understand what I mean.”

“Ah, okay.”

Anyway, I used ‘Appraisal’ on the potions Crash showed me. 

[ High Potion : Rank B    HP Recovery : 81 ]
[ High Potion : Rank E    HP Recovery : 50 ]
[ High Potion : Rank A    HP Recovery : 139 ]

I could tell right away which one was which. By the way, my rank B high-potion had an HP recovery of 113.  Wow, so it was true that they were completely different. But to provide the guards with potions that could only recover this amount, it was like (indirectly) telling them, “Don’t heal the injuries at all’’. ¹

Even if the pharmacists weren’t that skilled, they were worse than the normal potions I made. And above all, this was the first time I ever saw rank E. 

“You understand, right? They’re the same products, but the gap in quality is this much. The ones you make are roughly one and a half times more effective than those that are sold on the market. That’s why I was telling you that it really was a bad idea to give out these high quality products and to lower the rank of the potions you made.”

“I’m now convinced.”

As I was nodding in agreement, Crash spoke again telling,

“Besides, I have a bad feeling about this, so I don’t want to show this kind of high-quality products too much and my hunch is almost never wrong in this kind of situation.”

Certainly, it was a bit strange that there was a shortage of high-potions around this time. I also hadn’t heard about a flood of new players logging into the game. Nothing about this was written on both the bulletin board and the official site. Certainly, this kind of foreboding was rarely missed. I hoped nothing would happen in the future.

As I shuddered thinking about this, Crash apologized with a bitter smile saying, “Sorry. It’s a suggestion I brought up, but try not to take it to your heart too much?”

“Hmmm…… all right.”

I pretty much said this to him, but I was somewhat concerned about it. I felt like quests concerning this case might pop up sooner or later. Maybe I should prepare myself while I still can. 

A blinking notification icon at the corner of my vision caught my attention and I was notified of a new quest. 

I opened it and took a quick look at the quest while Crash was storing the bottles. 

[【NEW】Deliver High Potions
　High Potion x 99 bottles
　MP High Potion x 99 bottles
　Let’s deliver them all to Crash’s shop!

　Time Limit : 3 days

　Clear Reward : Empty bottle x 200, 
　　　　　　　　A bundle of white papers,   
　　　　　　　　A small box.

　Quest Failure : Failure to deliver the specified number, a month closure of Crash’s shop. ]

Ah, here came again, a one month closure thing.

Why? Why would his shop close for a month if I didn’t deliver the goods?

And, no matter where I looked at it, there was no mention of providing higher-ranked potions as a better option. As expected, it was better to give lower-rank ones. But still, I was curious about this bundle of papers and small box. For empty bottles, I could see through Crash’s intention of telling me to deliver more with these empty bottles, so I wasn’t particularly happy about it. 

“What will you do if I don’t deliver the potions?”

I was a bit curious, so I pretty much asked him about this, and Crash told me with a sigh.

“The pharmacist I’m contracted to is now leaving for the desert city. He said he took in a disciple over there or something like that. That’s why, all I can do now is to go there, wait by his side while he’s making, and bring them back. But it’s a desert city, so it’s hard to grow herbs because of its temperature. That’s especially why I got those Dried Herbs. But everyone else is still a novice in pharmacist skills. You really came at the right time, Mac.”

Now, I see. That’s why there was a month’s closure. It was really well-made. ²

Convinced, I took out my high-potions that were no different to failure.

I failed quite a bit at the last moment whenever I lost my concentration. All those high-potions had weird colors, strong scents, and their rank would become C or so. I was sure the quest would suffice with this. 

Thus, I offered all of these high potions — 58 rank C, 34 rank B, and the remaining with 7 rank A — to Crash that I had piled up after repeated failures and tossing them into my inventory. I also offered similar conditions to lower-rank MP high potions in subsequent order to Crash. ³ 

“Thank you, and the reward is these empty bottles.”

After putting away the potions, Crash stacked the potions on top of each other in a case on the counter that had 100 empty bottles placed there, with a ‘Don! Don!’ noise. ⁴ 

Then, with ‘Picon!’, there came a notification informing me of clearing the quest. 

“Why the empty bottles?”

When I butted in ⁵ with a laugh, he grinned after saying, “No, no, there’s no deep meaning behind this. That was the only thing I had that I could give to you. Or, my exclusive pharmacist-san, do you want to have something more expensive?”

“I don’t mind it, but this just looks like disposing of some leftovers.”

Maybe it was because a clear rank was low? As I told him while thinking about the clear rank, Crash went into the back of the shop, rummaging around for something.

“Here it is! It’s the one that Sage-san left behind before, but neither Sage-san nor I could understand its meaning, and since then it has been stored away in the back. He said it was fine to throw away, so I’ll give this to you, Mac.”

Then, he handed me a bundle of white papers and a small box. 

Those ‘planning to throw it away’ words would lessen the gratitude, but I would gladly receive them even though I didn’t need them. I still received this, so did this mean my clear rank this time was high? 

At any rate, where have I seen this white paper before?

I spread out the bundle while thinking. 

[ Caterpillar Fungus: Delirium x 3 ]

As I flipped through the papers, only those words were solely written at the center of the paper. 

“What? There are words on them. When Sage-san and I looked at them, they were just plain white papers with nothing written on them.”

This must be it. This must be one of those tattered parts of alchemy recipe paper.

And that meant, this box was……

Then, I quickly opened the box gently.

“Ah, [Phoenix Power]……”

Th-this was material for alchemy. An orange, jewel-like stone that was faintly shining.

“Ah, is that called [Phoenix Power]? No matter how many times I appraised it, it came out as [Unknown Material], so it was hard to figure out how to handle it. That one too, Sage-san has already given me permission saying, ‘Just throw it out when the shop is in danger,’ so just take it, take it Mac.” ⁶

“Just how much of Sage-san’s stuff have you been handling….?”

A man called Sage-san was a mysterious man, who had frequented Crash’s shop, or rather using Crash’s place like his nest.⁷ He looked about the same age as Crash, but it seemed like he was an acquaintance of Crash’s mother. Once in a while, he suddenly stopped by the store when I was there saying, “I’m back—“  and quickly entered the back of the store. He truly was a mysterious man… I had never had a proper conversation with him, but just once, he just stared at me and muttered, “Your magic resembles that person; how nostalgic.” I thought I tilted my head at that time wanting to know what he meant about my magic similar to another person.

“But, Sage-san said that if it was by himself, he would be reluctant to throw them away, so it’s fine for me to give them at my own discretion. It was like a memento for him, but he said it was meaningless for him even if he had them.”

“I don’t clearly understand it, but what if this was still useless even if I had it?”

“Well, that’s also fine in its way, right? It’s a good opportunity, so how about helping me get rid of things here?”

Crash had been lightly saying this, but he must have known that I was an alchemist, giving me recipes and selling me a cauldron. But Kyle-san and Vidello-san both said that they didn’t know about the players’ job…. Hmmm……

Well, it was a quest reward, so I would gladly receive it. You aren’t going to ask me to return it later, are you?

*****