Chapter 191:
Rarest of the Rare
We turned our attention back to our tasks. I collected potions, and Druid picked up swords. We each loaded our bags quite full of them.
“Thank you for helping me, Mr. Druid.”
“It’s faster to divide the work, right? Besides, I’m going to be your travel companion, so I need to start doing jobs of my own.”
It was faster to divide the work. And if we were going to travel together, we would need to assign roles to ourselves. The reality of it suddenly hit me: Druid really was going to travel with me.
“Now, we should head back to Flame. After you, Ivy.”
“Oh, no, after you, Mr. Druid.”
The reason we were both reluctant to take the lead was the “pong-pong” noises in the distance. Just how many magic stones had Flame made? I was scared to check. Druid and I looked at each other and smiled awkwardly. Then we walked over to Flame side by side.
“I’m really glad that we’ve found out Flame’s new power,” Druid said. “But it’s hard to celebrate, knowing Flame is even rarer now.”
I nodded in agreement. I was happier to find something else Flame could eat than to learn about its new power. But if Flame could make magic stones…what exactly did that mean?
“A slime that can regenerate magic stones…that’s really amazing.”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Hm? Yeah, and Sora is a slime that can regenerate potions.”
“Huh?”
“When you hand Sora the used potion bottles, wouldn’t it be funny if it could actually refill them with the highest-level potions?”
“Puuu!”
We both fell silent. Druid’s brow wrinkled as he processed the words he’d just said. He’d said it on a whim, but he just realized how significant that would be if it were true. And, as the icing on the cake, Sora was singing in a very confident tone.
Sora enveloped wounded people and monsters and healed them with potions it created, or at least that’s what it seemed like. What if Sora could excrete these potions—potions strong enough to bring people back from the brink of death—and we could fill bottles with them? We’d have to keep them sealed up in a magic bag forever. If even one of them got out, people would go nuts over it. But still…
“Should we…test out that theory?” I asked, looking up at Sora on top of Druid’s head. It was jiggling merrily.
“That’s probably a good idea… Then again, from the way Sora’s acting, I think we already know the answer.”
Druid was right. Judging by the way Sora had been behaving the last couple of minutes, it was easy to imagine the slime filling bottles with potions.
“I have always wanted to analyze the quality of Sora’s healing potions.”
The thought had crossed my mind that one time Sora healed my wound, but that was before I knew just how extraordinary its healing ability was. A part of me was too scared to find out…but Sora was my friend, and I wanted to understand everything I could about it.
“If we want an analysis, my old master’s friend could probably help.”
His old master’s friend…he means Marual or Tombas. “What kind of things do you need to analyze a potion?”
“You need the appraise skill.”
Oh, the appraise skill! That’s the one where the more stars you have, the more things you can learn about a substance, right?
“His friend has that skill? I’m impressed.”
“Yeah, and he’s got four stars in it, too… Oh, right, the friend I’m talking about is Tombas.”
Four stars! Wow. So Tombas has four stars… Wait, what? I can’t remember what he looks like.
No matter how slowly we walked, my eyes were stuck on the ground beneath Flame. I wasn’t surprised by what I saw, since it had been like that a little while ago…but all the trash around Flame was peppered with magic stones…magic stones…and more magic stones.
“I’ve never seen so many magic stones buried in a dump. But you know what else I’ve never seen…?” Druid looked at Flame with a perplexed look. I was a little confused, too. Flame had a rock stuck in its mouth—it had probably fallen asleep mid-bite. That would have been enough of a puzzle already. But since the rock was in Flame’s mouth, there was drool…such an extraordinary string of drool hanging from it.
Mrrrow. Ciel sounded a little pitiful. Maybe the adandara had tried to wake Flame.
“Ciel, thanks for watching Flame.”
Mrrrow.
“Flame, um, time to rise and…yeah, no. Not happening.”
I carefully removed the rock from Flame’s mouth. Urk…drool. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t avoid touching all that saliva. I gently picked up Flame…and there was a long string of drool connecting it to the ground.
“Pfft! Ha ha ha.”
“Pu-pu-pu-pu-pu.”
Druid burst into a chuckle. Sora seemed to be laughing as well.
“I don’t think Flame can help it,” I said.
“Sorry, ha ha. Anything I can do?”
“Um, there’s a cloth in the slime bag. Can you get it out for me? I need to wipe Flame dry first.”
I couldn’t put it back in its bag when it was so slimy. Druid handed me the cloth, and I wiped Flame clean. Thank goodness the drool hadn’t gotten all over Flame’s body. Once it was dry, I put the slime into its bag.
“Okay, we can’t leave the dump like this.” I looked at the magic stones scattered about us, wondering how many there were. Druid and I picked them up together.
“I found twelve. What about you, Ivy?”
“Um, I found fourteen.”
Counting the first green magic stone Flame had made, we had twenty-seven of them in all. We left the dump and sat in the shade of a big tree. Then we lined up all the stones on a cloth.
“Agh! No…I don’t want to see it.”
“Ha ha ha. Come on, Ivy, let’s face reality together. Boy, they sure are pretty, though.”
The moment I saw the neat row of magic stones, my eyes were drawn to two of them because they were transparent. When we’d collected them from the trash, I’d thought they were all pretty, but I hadn’t noticed just how pretty they were.
The more impurities magic stones had, the opaquer they were. This meant the magic inside them was of lower quality and quantity. These were everyday magic stones and were sold at comparatively cheap prices.
On the other hand, transparent magic stones had very few impurities and were said to charm those who looked at them. And it was true—the moment I saw the clear gems, I held my breath in awe. They were just so different from all the magic stones I’d seen thus far.
“How extraordinary…” Druid marveled, holding a stone in his hand.
“Um…”
“Hm? What’s up?”
“That magic stone…it’s extremely rare, right?”
“Yeah…this is my first time seeing a magic stone this transparent. It’s the rarest of the rare.”
I knew it. Yeah, I definitely saw that coming…
“Puuu!” Sora suddenly squealed, breaking the silence.
I shivered intensely. “What’s wrong?”
Sora looked angry. But why was it so mad?
“Puuu!”
“Do you think it wants some empty bottles?” Druid asked.
Sora began to bounce in reply. I guess that’s a yes.
“Okay…I guess the sooner we settle this, the better,” said Druid. “I’ll go look for some bottles.”
“The sooner we settle this, the better”…what did he mean by that? I curiously looked over at Druid as he picked up an empty bottle from the dump. He returned with it and rinsed it clean with some drinking water we’d brought along.
“Here you go,” he said, handing Sora the clean bottle…which it promptly chomped down.
“Okay, so I guess it can’t put a potion into the bott—oh, wait, it’s done it.”
Sora had produced a bunch of bubbles like it usually did during a meal, but they quickly dissipated, and a bottle plopped out of the slime’s mouth. And, naturally, it was filled.
“Wowee!” It was a clear blue potion, and it was even sparkling a little. I’d never seen or heard of a sparkling potion before.
“It’s so pretty, but it’s the sort of potion we could never use in front of anybody.”
“True,” Druid agreed. “We’d be shining a beacon on ourselves.”
Between the sparkling potion and the transparent, bewitching magic stones…nobody would blame us if we wanted a little escape from reality.
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