So I Became an Alchemist
So I became an alchemist.
The spiritual medicine I was making right now was a pill called the Fast-Breaking Pill.
The sudden decision to start refining pills traced back to the moment Ok Han-bing-hu first took an interest in the wild boars.
"Spiritual medicine?"
"Wild boa— wait, fiend boar? Are fiend boars that good?"
Even Hyeol-ha-no-jo, who normally couldn't stand her, was saying that — so it had to be worthwhile.
"Then what do I do?"
What followed wasn't anything particularly special. I poured spiritual energy into the Red Cloud Silk, and it slithered like a snake, binding the boar's legs and hoisting it up into a tree. Then I fed spiritual energy into the Three Sword Ruler, and it whirled about on its own — draining the blood, splitting the belly, stripping the hide.
Well. Hyeol-ha-no-jo was throwing a fit, but everyone else stayed quiet, so it didn't seem like a real problem. Besides, he was a demonic cultivator, wasn't he? Maybe blood was just his thing — some kind of devil-worship angle?
I ignored his grumbling and finished the butchering in a hurry. The rest of the ingredients I could buy easily enough through the Heavenly Dao Net.
And cheap, too.
Probably because it was the lowest-grade spiritual medicine. Most of the materials cost only one or two Spirit Stones apiece. Considering the pile of Spirit Stones I already had, the price was nothing at all.
Does that make me pretty rich among cultivators, then?
I'd thought they were just shiny little rocks you used as crafting materials. Turns out they were currency.
"Why don't people just use regular money? Why use these rocks as cash?"
Huh. When I'd browsed the Heavenly Dao Net earlier, I hadn't seen anything that expensive. The priciest stuff topped out around a thousand stones or so. Did that mean my viewers were loaded? Had they all been CEOs in their past lives?
Aigoo~ If these Spirit Stones were real money, I'd be calling myself a tycoon by now. Kind of a shame.
While I was lost in those thoughts, Ok Han-bing-hu pressed me again.
Honestly, I was getting bored of it. I had money now — I could just buy food. And the meals people had sent me were still piled up in my storage bag. But if I said I just wanted to buy my meals, I had a feeling I'd get scolded. The other viewers might be disappointed, too.
No — wait! A streamer's job is to do what the audience likes, even if you don't want to!
And so I stood before the pill furnace once more.
"Yes. Lay down the spirit charcoal, heat the furnace, put in the boar meat, and pour in Clear Spirit Water."
"Once the water starts boiling, I channel spiritual energy into the medicinal spatula and stir the furnace."
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
I had no idea what that meant. Every time I stirred too hard she chewed me out, so I just let my body remember the motion and went with that.
And so the work started over. A short while later—
"Can I just toss in whatever?"
"Got it."
Following Bing-hu's instructions, I tossed the spirit ginseng into the furnace.
Nothing but praise. To be fair, even I could tell it felt good this time.
That was when O-cheong-yo-wang spoke up.
"What do you mean?"
"A healing stream?"
Those people really did start fighting the second they saw each other. Still, O-cheong-yo-wang had given me some useful intel.
So my viewers' real lives are miserable, basically.
That meant I didn't have to force myself to show them combat. If I just did well at what they were teaching me, wouldn't my skills improve anyway?
No! Right now I needed to focus on this.
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
I grabbed another handful of spirit charcoal and threw it in.
"Yes!"
"Yes! Draw in the spiritual energy… like this?"
"Explode? Like last time?"
That was a little scary. From what I'd overheard before, a bad explosion could leave you seriously hurt.
At Ok Han-bing-hu's single command, the chat fell silent again — and in that very moment, the flames beneath the furnace surged up like mad.
— Fwoooooosh!!
With the extra spirit charcoal, blue-white flames now roared up like a rocket launch. The entire furnace glowed cherry-red.
— Shhhhhhk!
The steam billowing from the furnace shifted color by the second. First red, then yellow, then jade-green, and finally a deep brown.
Suddenly Ok Han-bing-hu's messages turned urgent.
I hastily withdrew my spiritual energy and pulled out the spirit charcoal.
— Sssssss.
The blistering furnace gradually cooled.
I carefully lifted the lid and peered in. Inside the furnace, something like brown clay was still giving off steam.
A single pill banishes hunger and restores physical vitality. The first pill successfully refined by the protagonist.
"My first pill…"
"But what exactly is a Fast-Breaking Pill used for?"
"Ooooh — so then… um… ordinary people! Can ordinary people eat them too?"
A pill you eat instead of rice. Was this technology or what?! Having emergency rations on hand was reassuring, too.
Come to think of it — when was I going to find a place to live again? I kept getting more and more optimized for the tower.
No, more importantly — I was curious about the taste of the pill I'd made. Curiosity got the better of me, and I was about to scoop up a spatula-full.
"Serious problems?"
"Ah…"
Heeding the warning, I pinched off a modest piece and tried it.
"Ah— hot."
I blew on it and carefully chewed. It was like chewing caramel…
"Om nom nom."
How to put this — it was definitely a flavor I recognized. A little nutty, a little bland, with just a hint of porky funk…
Dog jerky?
And if anyone ever asked how I knew what dog jerky tasted like… well. There happened to be some free sample dog jerky rolling around the house from a flyer promo at the new pet shop on the way home, and there happened to be no rice in the house, so I ate it instead. Not that I'd ever admit that.
But then… something… a feeling…
Suddenly my stomach felt full, as if I'd just eaten a proper meal, and energy surged through me. Like I'd mixed a bowl of rice into a can of energy drink?
And if anyone ever asked how I knew what that tasted like…
"Try again?"
"Yes…"
"Yes…"
Suddenly it felt exactly like finishing school and heading straight to after-school academy.
So boring…
A few days later. The 4th Floor Public Field.
"I don't think she's on the fourth floor."
Low-tier streamer O-tto was gasping for breath.
She was currently searching for an NPC on a mission. As a hunter, leveling up should have been the priority… and it had been… but the mission bounty her viewers had put up was too much money to turn down.
An NPC-finding mission — a full million won. And the content of the mission was tempting, too. Anything related to that NPC. Thanks to that NPC, her own tier had gone up. Her viewer count now held steady in the triple digits, and the video she'd uploaded before had hit five million views. Even though it was a Korean-language video, plenty of people from overseas were seeking it out.
Thanks to all that, she was maybe a mid-tier small streamer now? Either way, every entanglement with that NPC had turned out well, so she'd caved easily to the mission her viewers dangled in front of her.
More importantly, though, my wallet's in rough shape…
The public assumed every hunter drove a foreign car and lived in a Han River-view apartment, but that was the top one percent. To earn even a big-corp salary, you had to at least pull your own weight. Until then, weapon repairs, armor maintenance, potions — just breathing cost you fixed expenses. Streaming was partly a way to cover even a little of those upkeep costs.
"Haaah… Okay, I'm gonna eat first and then keep looking. I skipped breakfast."
She found a spot on top of a boulder where she wouldn't pull monster aggro, then pulled out her lunch box.
"My mom did not pack this, okay?! I got up this morning and packed it myself!"
"I'll have you know I'm a decent cook, okay?!"
She'd started packing lunch every morning just to shave a little off her food budget, and the skill had grown naturally from there. High-level hunters apparently bought hunter-exclusive instant meals — upgraded MREs — but those were insanely expensive. Low-tier hunters didn't have that kind of money. Most packed food from home or brought takeout. That was the unwritten rule. And even that only worked in low-level zones, because monsters would catch the scent and come running. Climb a few more floors and the second you cracked a lid, every monster in the area would swarm you.
It was only because this was the relatively safe fourth-floor plains that she could sit here and eat her lunch in peace.
After I eat, should I check the areas I haven't covered yet?
— Growwwl.
Her stomach was screaming for food already. And so the meal began.
"Alright, mukbang time starting now!"