Elixirs and Cookie Dough Are a Matter of Taste

"Two bottles of elixir? Of course I can spare that much! Is there anything else you desire?"

Victor nodded without the slightest hesitation.

Good. That confirmed one thing.

If he's willing to hand over two bottles of elixir for a single badge, that means it's still an outrageously profitable deal for Victor.

Had anyone ever seen a merchant who sold goods at a loss? They might talk about rock-bottom prices and taking a hit, but a merchant always found a way to turn a profit. So Victor cheerfully offering two bottles of elixir and even volunteering to throw in more made no sense at all.

"Why are you trying to give me more?"

I cut straight to the point.

"Because I, Victor, am a merchant of conscience."

He even placed a hand over his heart as he said it. With that frivolous attitude of his, taking the words at face value was difficult.

In that case, maybe I should push the limit a little further.

I needed to find out just how high the Greed Badge's value ceiling really went.

"Then can it be traded for a Unique-grade item as well?"

"Hmm. It is possible, though I cannot guarantee that whatever I hand over will be free of defects."

Good. Second confirmation.

A single badge could trade for a Unique-grade item. Judging by his reaction, though, whatever came out would almost certainly carry a vicious curse or penalty—something like the Demon Emperor Mask.

The Demon Emperor Mask was a custom-fit item made for me, so it was fine. Other items are a different story. Carelessly picking up a cursed object meant bearing the full brunt of the consequences with my own body.

"What if I put up two badges?"

"I have no need for more than one at the moment. My mind may change someday, but not today."

That settled it as well. If he had accepted two, I would have thrown in the badge I had been saving for the reward room later. Apparently only one could be used on the tenth floor. Thinking of it as a kind of balance patch made it easier to accept.

"So, what else do you want?"

Victor asked, looking at me.

Trading for Unique-grade means taking a curse with it, and settling for only the Sun Herb Pills is a waste.

In that case—

"If the customer were to add a little flesh or blood on top of the badge, I could readily provide a perfectly sound Unique-grade item."

I decline. No need to get myself killed.

"Of course, I would throw in recovery potions as a free service."

Obviously I refuse. Potions are not all-powerful. They dramatically accelerate recovery, but they cannot regrow a severed arm. In other words, they cannot heal fatal wounds. The brutal conditions Victor had just named would be as good as fatal for my current body. Proper recovery would require an elixir, not a potion.

"Well then, customer. What will you choose?"

Victor had somehow sidled up beside me and opened his mouth again.

"I've decided."

I spoke.

"One bottle of Sun Herb Pills."

"Yes. Will that be enough?"

Of course not. I had not been digging through martial arts lore for nothing lately. I had made sure I knew exactly which methods were effective for treating Nine Yin Blocked Meridians. It was not as if I had gone around poking at martial arts fans out of sheer boredom. There had been a point to all of it.

"Lesser Return Pill. Can I trade for that?"

I threw out what I considered a reasonable middle ground. With the character for "lesser" right there in the name, it should not be impossible. Even if he refused, I had a backup plan ready.

"A Lesser Return Pill… Hmm. The price comes out just about even."

Victor seemed to run the numbers for a moment, then nodded.

"One moment, if you please."

A racket of clattering and thumping rose from inside the carriage. After some time had passed—

"Here you are."

Victor held out a medicine bottle and a carefully wrapped pill.

"Hmm."

Once I got home, I carefully set Mr. Rabbit by the head of the bed, settled into a cross-legged seat, and sank into thought.

"All things considered, I squeezed a pretty solid haul out of the tenth-floor clear rewards."

The Greed Badge had stirred in front of the tenth-floor reward chest as well, but I had not used it right away. The way Victor had left me with that lingering "Until we meet again" as we parted suggested we would cross paths again someday. Better to save the Greed Badge for the next encounter. And even if it was not Victor, using it on some other floor might yield better rewards.

So yeah, overall not bad.

What came out of the chest was mana stones and a random skill book. Having already tasted the pure dopamine hit of a designated skill book, though, a random one failed to stir much excitement.

Still. I had gotten a reasonably useful skill out of it, so I should be content.

"Status window."

The newly added skill.

"Ice White Divine Palm, huh."

I remembered seeing this one while digging through martial arts lore as well. Something about a technique that shot ice from the palms?

It should be useful enough.

After Samadhi True Fire for fire, now Ice White Divine Palm for ice. A textbook combination—if you ignored the minor problem that Heavenly Demon-mode me barely used Samadhi True Fire or anything else.

There was something about Yin energy with this one…

Ice was the classic symbol of Yin energy, so supposedly only women born with strong innate Yin could learn it—and even then, side effects were common.

Then isn't this the absolute last skill I should have been given?

No matter how I looked at it, handing Ice White Divine Palm to someone with Nine Yin Blocked Meridians was wildly inappropriate. When I tested it, the way my hands turned pure white was interesting, sure—but my chest tightened. Like my breath had suddenly been cut off. So for the time being, I decided to hold off on using it. I did not particularly want to die from casting a skill.

Skills aside, what's left is this.

The medicine bottle and spiritual pill I had gotten from trading with Victor. How I used them might determine whether I could treat the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians. Honestly, I was not even hoping for a full cure. Just a little improvement would be enough.

They said to force in a strong energy first, right?

Feeble energy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would do nothing to melt meridians frozen solid. If I was going to do it, I had to drive a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sure, powerful force straight through them.

The Sun Herb won't mean anything unless I dump the whole bottle at once.

The Tower had even been kind enough to warn that overdosing came with side effects.

So eating this first is the right call.

The Lesser Return Pill. A spiritual pill one grade below Shaolin's Great Return Pill. From what I had casually picked up, it was one of the most famous elixirs in the martial arts world.

You could have mentioned the reduced performance up front.

Well, that was probably why it had ended up in my hands at all. Still, knowing the efficacy was diminished left a bitter taste.

Come to think of it, how did Victor even have this?

I was the one who asked for it, sure, but how was a merchant who looked like he belonged in a pure fantasy world selling martial arts novel elixirs?

Well. It's the Tower.

The thought did not last long. In a world where awakeners like me walked around draped in traits and skills straight out of martial arts fiction, a merchant peddling martial arts novel items was hardly strange. Truly an age of diversity. Narrow-minded thinking did no one any good.

Anyway.

Treating the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians meant I had to swallow this thing. A brown, round sphere. At a glance, it looked exactly like those cookie dough balls that had been popular a while back.

"It's going to taste awful."

It only looked decent. What hit my nose was the unmistakable musty smell of a traditional herbal pharmacy. It was definitely going to be disgusting.

"Ah, whatever."

Staring a hole through it was not going to make the Lesser Return Pill taste any sweeter. So I would just swallow it and deal. I already knew the digestion method.

Not chewing—more like slowly melting it.

If you bit into it like cookie dough, you supposedly could not fully absorb the energy inside.

After that, circulate the energy.

Steady the breath and send the energy from the dantian through the whole body.

Hoo.

The moment the Lesser Return Pill slid down my throat, a fierce energy like fire began to surge up from within.

Just how strong is the Great Return Pill supposed to be, then?

Even the imperfect Lesser Return Pill was pouring out enough force to melt frozen meridians with room to spare. The Great Return Pill was said to be twice—no, five times—more potent. I could not even begin to imagine it.

Slowly make this energy my own.

Of course, it was nowhere near as easy as it sounded. Fully reshaping foreign energy into something that belonged to me demanded intense concentration, and just when I thought I had it under control, it would go careening off on its own.

But the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was the divine art of one who ruled over ten thousand demons. Even the Lesser Return Pill's rampaging Yang energy had no choice but to submit before that iron grip.

Now use this energy to melt the frozen meridians.

I pushed the energy into the pathways that had barely been keeping a thread of breath open. Once. Twice. Each time the energy swept through, the blocked passages slowly widened—and in proportion, the Yang energy the Lesser Return Pill held dwindled at a visible rate.

"Hoo."

After circulating the energy maybe fifty times, the Lesser Return Pill's Yang energy finally hit bottom.

Still, the meridians definitely widened.

Where before there had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been gaps the size of millet grains, now there were holes about the size of rice grains. A long road still lay ahead, but this was a meaningful result.

"I should share the good news with the folks on the Demon Gallery."

Naturally I planned to leave out the petty details—swallowing a Lesser Return Pill, nearly losing my mind—and just drop the simple fact that I had cleared the tenth floor. And of course people would demand to know why I had kept Victor a secret.

"Alright, let's go."

In high spirits, I opened the Demon Gallery.

And then.

"What the hell is this?"

Why was my name coming out of that bastard's mouth?