Chapter 36
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Not Pitiful
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I stood in front of the workbench.
The cave coral peeled from the troll's back still reeked with a foul stench.
Even Chun-sik, who would normally stick right by my side to watch the alchemy, pinched his nose and fled to the far corner.
"Ugh..."
I held my breath and pulled out a wide plate made of moonlight stone. Then, I carefully engraved three runes onto its surface.
Gather. Guide. And stop.
It was the core circuit for refining mana, directing it in the desired direction, and halting the reaction at the precise timing.
Scritch scritch.
As the faint sound of the moonlight stone being carved rang out, the rune was complete. Without delay, I took out the remaining ingredients.
Finely chopped vitality stones.
And.
- Kue?
One slime in a hungry state.
I placed the moonlight stone plate on the hot plate and set a piece of vitality stone right in the center of the precisely engraved rune circuit.
"Hoo..."
With a short deep breath, I turned the hot plate's dial to raise the temperature. At the same time, I thinly infused my mana toward the vitality stone.
Viiiing—
The circuit reacted immediately, drawing out the inherent life force from the vitality stone. As the hot plate's heat transferred through the moonlight stone plate, the thermometer's numbers shot up rapidly.
'The recipe says just to leave it alone.'
But what I was making now wasn't a standard growth accelerator. It was a custom version tailored only to that troll. I had to twist the recipe my own way.
"Exactly 30 degrees..."
I finely adjusted the hot plate's dial. The moment the thermometer hit exactly 30 degrees, the light emanating from the vitality stone flickered most brilliantly and unstably. Now was the time.
"And... right back to 29 degrees."
I turned the dial slightly in reverse, and the temperature dropped minutely. At that exact instant, the hot plate's heat and the mana I infused meshed perfectly with a specific wavelength inside the vitality stone.
Plop.
A tiny sound, like steam escaping from the vitality stone, rang out.
'Got it.'
The mana processing on the vitality stone was perfectly complete.
I carefully picked it up with tweezers and fed it to the slime waiting blankly beside me.
- Kueulp
After the slime swallowed the vitality stone, its jelly-like body began to faintly glow moments later. The vitality stone's life force had stabilized using the slime's body as a medium.
I picked up the softly glowing slime. Then I placed a beaker underneath.
- Kuaaaang...!
Without hesitation, I squeezed it hard.
Squish.
A drop of slime mucus glowing with bright light fell to the bottom of the beaker.
"Good."
Main ingredient preparation complete.
I mixed distilled water and the broth from ogre bones that hadn't been fully processed in the storage shed, in precise proportions, into another beaker. Then I carefully poured in the freshly squeezed slime mucus.
As I stirred lightly with a rod while trickling in mana intermittently, a satisfying sizzle sounded, and the smell of wet earth subtly spread through the workshop. The foul stench was gradually neutralizing.
"Next..."
I put chunks of cave coral into a mortar and ground them up.
I picked up the granulated pieces with tweezers and slowly sprinkled them one by one onto the surface of the prepared liquid.
Thin bluish lines thinner than hair rippled across the liquid surface and vanished.
"Bind."
I swung the rod through the air a few times, infusing it with mana, then began stirring the beaker again.
The right speed, the right strength. Purely guided by sensation.
The naturally flowing mana began weaving the disparate ingredients in the liquid together, and soon the beaker turned a clear, pale greenish hue.
Finally, I slowly poured weak saline solution around the edges of the beaker.
"...Phew."
Done.
Rapid growth accelerator complete.
"You're gonna feed this to that thing?"
Chun-sik, who had sneaked over now that the smell had subsided, asked while peering in.
"Injection might be better than feeding."
"Does Master know how to give shots?"
Well, it wasn't human anyway—just a monster. I could probably find something like veins roughly and jab until it worked.
I filled a syringe with the finished pale green growth accelerator and headed back to where the troll was isolated.
The troll knelt powerless in one corner of the cave. It was still huffing roughly, and the nauseating stench seeped through my mask again.
- Grrrrowl...
It bared its teeth upon spotting me, but that was it. Unable to move at all, it just seemed like a big, smelly sandbag.
"Haa."
Harvesting the remaining cave coral from its back had been even more grueling.
Clang! Clang!
Dull hammer strikes echoed through the cave. Each time, the troll reacted in all sorts of ways, but I just gritted my teeth and kept hammering mechanically.
Even this kind of work gets familiar.
Now, even the unpleasant, sticky sensation at my fingertips felt routine. The troll's back was too vast to react to every piece.
A while later, its back was bare, all the coral stripped away.
"Now then..."
I took out the syringe.
But could I really just jab anywhere?
"Vein... vein..."
As I examined the troll's log-like forearm this way and that, Chun-sik, watching from the side, tapped one spot.
"Try poking here."
"Here?"
"Even a troll's humanoid, so it should be roughly like a human's, right?"
"Oh."
Sound reasoning. I didn't hesitate and plunged the needle into its forearm.
Poke.
- Kraaaagh—!
The sensation of piercing tough flesh was different from harvesting coral from its back. More viscous and chilling.
"This is right, yeah? Tell me it is."
"Seems like it?"
The moment Chun-sik gave the OK, I pushed the syringe's plunger all the way and quickly backed off.
Right as the troll blinked in confusion at what this was.
- Grrrk...!
Crack. Craaack!
Accompanied by grotesque sounds like bones breaking and regrowing, bluish cave coral began sprouting wildly from its bare back.
"Whoa..."
- Kraaagh...!
In just a few seconds, the cave coral on its back had perfectly restored to its original size.
Success.
- Grrowl...
But the troll's face looked noticeably gaunt. The price of literally burning its life force to grow the coral.
"......"
It did seem a bit pitiful. The thought crossed my mind briefly, but I shook my head.
"Who told you to barge into Earth so carelessly?"
I was just using a nasty monster for humanity's peace and my own growth. It was a form of legitimate self-defense.
"Now just grab one more and breed them, and we're done?"
"Yass?"
Chun-sik, beside me, widened his eyes and echoed. Where did he even pick up words like that?
"...Chun-sik."
"Yeah?"
"How about we use wholesome words?"
"Yass just rolls off the tongue so... Ack!"
I lightly pinched Chun-sik's soft cheek and turned my gaze to the remaining ingredients.
Flicker mushrooms and mana dew grass.
These were also key ingredients for new recovery potions. To complete the self-sufficiency system, I needed to cultivate these too.
'Can't just grow these like the troll.'
Trolls were tough enough to roll anywhere, but mushrooms and grass needed specific environments. Humidity for flicker mushrooms, mana density for mana dew grass.
I started adjusting the cave's environment to suit the ingredients, with Chun-sik's help.
We found spots where water seeped from rock crevices and made humid shaded areas ideal for mushrooms. Near the mana reactor, we set up a mana dew grass colony and fine-tuned the incoming mana density.
"This is fun, Master."
Chun-sik, carrying equipment beside me, called out brightly.
"...I'm dying here."
I grumbled, but my hands didn't stop. After a long session, we finally divided the areas and finished the environmental setup.
I immediately harvested samples of both ingredients and synthesized additional growth accelerators tailored to their properties.
Sprinkling the accelerators, the flicker mushrooms in the humid shade emitted blue phosphorescence and multiplied exponentially.
Near the mana reactor, the dew grass gave off a fresh grassy scent, with mana-condensed fruits beading at the leaf tips.
"...It's complete."
I looked around in awe.
In just a few hours, one side of the barren C-rank gate cave had transformed into an entirely different space.
Choi Yuna stared intently at the shuttered hospital through binoculars from the rooftop of an abandoned building opposite.
"......"
For a closed facility, the security level was suspiciously high. This confirmed it.
"Found it, Guild Leader."
- Please confirm the location once more.
"A-04 shuttered hospital. Underground."
- ...Don't get caught. Guild Leader Choi. Don't push yourself, and if you need backup...
"Don't worry. I work better alone."
Choi Yuna replied curtly and ended the call.
She immediately began circling the hospital perimeter. She heightened all her hunter senses to the max.
'Patrols: two per team. 15-minute intervals. Route from A-3 to B-1.'
'CCTV: 32 cameras. Including infrared detectors. But blind spot between cameras 7 and 8, near the vent.'
'Internal layout. Central elevator and patient emergency stairs available, but too risky.'
Not just visible physical info—she mapped the optimal infiltration route in her mind, grasping subtle mana flows and the guards' tension levels.
And finally, darkness fell over the city.
She meticulously checked her stealth suit to prevent mana leakage.
Click.
The mana compass strapped to her wrist still pointed to the hospital basement.
Staring resolutely at the shuttered hospital, she whispered softly into her earpiece.
"Commencing."
With that, Choi Yuna kicked off the air without hesitation. Her figure melted into the darkness in an instant.