Lee Se-ah
Lee Se-ah
On top of the small table sat a stoppered glass bottle.
It had a long neck, its body was decorated with a gold rim, and green liquid was inside it.
It looked just like an elixir from a video game.
[Zero-Calorie Elixir of Agility]
Slightly increases movement speed and attack speed.
Capacity Consumed: 0
Right after moving from his studio apartment to the place next door to Lee Sol, he tried making the Elixir of Agility.
Through information gathering, he had already figured out what kind of item an elixir was.
Evaluations of elixirs were generally unanimous.
'Practically a white elephant.'
Potions could at least be drunk, even if the quantity was limited.
On the other hand, most agreed that elixirs were items that couldn't even be drunk.
Because they consumed more than double the Capacity of a potion.
Generally, even rankers with high Capacity could drink a low-grade potion twice, but could not drink an elixir.
On top of that, the mana consumption was so overwhelmingly inefficient that even an alchemist with considerable experience wouldn't have enough mana left to craft another potion that day after making a single elixir.
Even Doyoon was unable to keep his footing for a while after making this Elixir of Agility just once.
Therefore, no matter how good an elixir's effects were, alchemists didn't give them a second glance and only made potions.
This was also one of the reasons why the market price of potions was excessively low.
'But the elixir I craft is different.'
However, Doyoon was free from such circumstances.
Because the elixir Doyoon crafted didn't consume Capacity.
The difference between him and other alchemists was that while other alchemists could also make drinkable potions, Doyoon was the only one who could make drinkable elixirs.
Doyoon pondered for a moment.
'Should I just sell it on the exchange?'
He no longer had worries like 'What if I get caught?'.
As long as Lee Sol had promised to protect his personal safety, there was no need to worry about such things.
Even right now, next door, Lee Sol was probably monitoring to ensure no one approached Doyoon.
...She's actually monitoring, right?
The thought crossed his mind that if he went to see Lee Sol right now, she might just be sleeping, but he shook his head to brush it off.
'Still, the Elixir of Agility must be the key to clearing the 58th floor. It's a waste to just sell an item like this on the exchange.'
Unlike potions, there were no listings of elixirs for sale at all, making it difficult to estimate the market price.
To sell such an item at the highest price, it was best to sell it to someone who understood its value.
'For example, a ranker.'
Doyoon looked at the wall beside him.
Beyond that wall was Lee Sol.
'Lee Sol-ssi might give me a fair price.'
Lee Sol was also a ranker attacking the 58th floor.
If she saw the elixir, she would recognize its value.
And although he had no concrete grounds, it didn't seem like Lee Sol would deliberately try to lowball the price.
'Yeah. Let's sell it to Lee Sol-ssi.'
If he was going to sell it anyway, it would be better to sell it to a ranker.
Even better if it was someone he knew.
Having made up his mind, Doyoon put the elixir in a small bag and left his home.
In front of Lee Sol's door, he took a deep breath.
Even though it wasn't his first time coming, thinking about meeting Lee Sol made him naturally nervous.
Dispelling his nervousness with a deep breath, Doyoon puffed out his chest.
Now was the time to focus on the deal.
Composing his mind, he pressed the doorbell.
At the same time, he placed his hand on the door lock.
That was because he thought there wouldn't be any response from inside anyway.
"Yes. Coming out."
However, contrary to his expectations, a voice came from inside.
While that fact itself was surprising, Doyoon felt a strange sense of incongruity.
Something felt different.
Soon, along with the sound of the lock unlocking, the front door opened.
"Yes. Who is it?"
He thought it was Lee Sol, but the person who appeared beyond the door was another woman.
The woman was wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt.
Her hair was pinned up above the nape of her neck, wrapped around the base with braids, giving a neat impression.
At a glance, she almost looked like an office worker working at a company.
However, Doyoon knew who this woman was.
Hadn't he just seen her on TV not too long ago?
Lee Seah.
'Why is that Lee Seah here?'
Doyoon was bewildered.
Why on earth was Lee Seah coming out of Lee Sol's house?
It seemed the other party was equally flustered, hesitating without saying a word.
Like that, the two stared at each other and stood in a standoff for a while.
How much time had passed?
A familiar voice was heard from inside.
"What are you two doing?"
Yawning, Lee Sol approached from behind Lee Seah.
Snapping back to his senses, Doyoon looked at Lee Sol and asked.
"Lee Sol-ssi. This person is...?"
"Lee Seah. You don't know her?"
"No. I do. What I mean is, why is she here..."
Looking back and forth between the two, he suddenly realized.
Although their atmospheres were completely different, Lee Sol and Lee Seah's faces looked strangely similar.
Yeah, this was just like...
"She's my eonni, Lee Seah."
Lee Sol said with an indifferent face.
Lee Sol and Lee Seah are sisters.
Having blurted out a fact that would have been splashed across the front pages as a massive exclusive scoop if revealed to the media, Lee Sol dragged the stunned Doyoon and Seah into the living room.
On the living room table sat two luxurious teacups.
Following that, Lee Sol set down a new teacup in front of Doyoon and sat on the opposite side.
"Here, take this."
With that, she poured cider into the luxurious teacup she had set before Doyoon.
"Thank you."
Since he wasn't bold enough to question her peculiar taste in front of the homeowner, Doyoon couldn't bring himself to say anything and took a sip of the cider.
'Still, it tastes good.'
While having such silly thoughts, Doyoon looked at Seah.
"Um, Seah-ssi."
"Yes? Ah, yes."
"Are you really Lee Sol-ssi's eonni?"
Doyoon asked Seah.
Seah shrugged her shoulders.
"Yes. That's right. I'm Lee Sol's eonni."
"Honestly, I had no idea."
"Because we've never really revealed it."
Doyoon nodded.
At least, Doyoon had never heard that Lee Sol or Seah had a sister.
Let alone being ranker sisters.
"Still, looking at you like this, you really resemble each other, so it's amazing that it hasn't been revealed that you are sisters until now."
And for good reason, because even though their atmospheres were vastly different, looking at their faces, they resembled each other enough that the fact they were sisters made convincing sense on its own.
Why hadn't it been revealed until now?
"We've deliberately hidden it until now. Even if we received similar questions, we avoided answering them."
"Why did you do that?"
"Even now, there is so much attention it's burdensome, so if it were known we were ranker sisters, there would be even more."
She added a word while saying so.
"And mostly in a pretty bad way."
Hearing those words, he understood.
As a matter of course, rankers in modern society were popular figures surpassing most celebrities.
As much as there was positive interest, there was just as much negative interest.
There were plenty of people who compared rankers to put one side down or drive a wedge between them.
And ranker sisters were optimal for attracting that kind of interest.
Malicious people who disparaged Seah, whose skill was relatively lower than Lee Sol's, or exaggerated minor squabbles to slander the relationship between the two, would surely multiply.
Doyoon had also seen many of that sort in the comments on Nertube, so he could relate.
Seah glanced at Lee Sol.
"To be honest, I never even imagined someone would come visit Lee Sol's home. At most, I thought she had ordered food delivery again."
Indeed, looking at the state of cleanliness in Lee Sol's house, it was hard to see it as a place where someone frequently visited.
Though it was quite clean right now, perhaps because her eonni nagged her to clean up.
Just then, Seah looked at Doyoon and spoke.
"Um, well, your name is...?"
"Ah, I'm Doyoon. Kang Doyoon."
"Yes. Doyoon-ssi, you're Lee Sol's friend, right?"
"Pardon?"
"I was surprised. For Lee Sol to invite a friend to her home. My younger sister normally had no interest in that sort of thing at all."
Apparently, she didn't know that Doyoon was a tenant living next door to Lee Sol.
While he was hesitating on how to explain this, Lee Sol, who had been quietly drinking cider, spoke up.
"Doyoon lives next door to me."
At those words, Seah's expression hardened.
"Next door? Didn't you say you bought this entire floor, Lee Sol?"
"That's true, but there are circumstances."
"Circumstances? What in the world kind of circumstances?"
At that, Lee Sol stared intently at Doyoon, as if asking if it was okay to tell.
Anyway, living next door to Lee Sol, it would be discovered soon enough.
When he nodded to convey that she could say it, Lee Sol continued.
"Zero-Calorie Alchemist."
"Huh?"
"He is the Zero-Calorie Alchemist."
Seah, who tilted her head as if trying to figure out what that meant, turned her gaze toward Doyoon, her eyes widening.