Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 109
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 109
The reason I’d been pleased to see moonstone with such poor durability was exactly this.
After all, Lion had planned to crush this moonstone into fine pieces anyway!
The very thing that had made Lion a 1st Circle Master here: the fish pill.
That special pill I’d created by blending the essence of the fish dwelling in the Labyrinth with a Fish Eye!
Lion recalled a recipe that properly combined a nutritional supplement with that fish pill.
‘I can definitely make this work.’
The lunar energy contained in the mana stone would more than suffice to fill the role of the fish essence.
With a few strikes of the pestle, the moonstone quickly crumbled.
The outer shell of the mana stone, which contained the energy, was finely ground like stardust, while the energy held inside poured into the cauldron and soon rose, swelling and brimming.
The amount was so vast that the alchemy cauldron filled completely, to the point where it nearly overflowed.
It looked exactly like the moonlit lake I’d seen just a little while ago.
The star-like mana stone particles flew and swirled with that energy, making it resemble a night sky thick with stars, and yet, trapped inside the round alchemy cauldron, it also gave the impression of a moon in its own right.
As if creating ripples upon that sky, Lion withdrew the pestle and stirred slowly with a rod.
Even without lighting a fire under the alchemy cauldron, the surface steadily sank lower.
In its place, the smoothly stirring rod began meeting a peculiar resistance.
They had started to condense into one another.
‘This is…’
It felt exactly like simmering down grain jelly.
Lion kept stirring the cauldron in silence, checking every corner to make sure nothing hardened.
When the liquid level had dropped by half, everything except the lunar energy began to clump together on one side like impurities, hardening and rising to the surface.
Lion strained out the lumpy crystals and discarded them onto the ground, where they disappeared with a soft dissolve as though absorbed.
Once he had filtered out every last impurity so none remained, he placed the concentrate into a distiller, purified the raw lunar energy, and poured it back into the cauldron.
Slide.
From within his coat, he drew out the Minor Lunar Essence Varg had made.
‘Minor Lunar Essence.’
This would be what took the place of the Fish Eye.
Lion gently dropped the small essence Varg had created right into the center of the thickened mixture.
The lunar essence, which had looked pitifully tiny and light compared to the enormous cauldron…
Slip.
Contrary to expectations, the moment it touched the surface, it plunged straight down to the deepest spot.
A small rippling swell. The sight made him feel as if he were gazing at the moon inside water.
“Now, what’s left is…”
Lion raised his head.
The moon, which had briefly faded, was rising once more.
When making the fish pill, he’d had to seal in the energy and condense it into the Fish Eye.
To prevent the escaping force,
he’d been forced to press down on the cauldron with all his might, but…
Now it was the opposite.
Because the nature of the ingredients was different.
A fish leaps with vitality. It swims freely and darts through the underwater world, striving to feed.
But the moon is calm and subtle.
So he had to leave it to slowly simmer down for its nature to properly infuse.
Lion took his hands off the cauldron and stepped back slowly.
So that the small moon Varg had made and the large, round moon floating in the Labyrinth could overlap each other.
‘I hope it turns out well.’
Lion flopped straight onto his back on the ground and gazed up at the sky.
It felt as though the white moon was gazing back at him.
“Peep.”
Then, right in front of that moon, Nature filled his vision completely.
Its fluffy yellow form and round body looked so much like the moon itself that Lion snorted a laugh.
“Yeah. It’ll turn out well.”
Lion lifted Nature and settled it atop his chest, then waited.
Only once the night had grown deep…
“…”
Lion sat up on instinct.
Nature fluttered up and perched on his shoulder.
Lion checked the cauldron, then smiled so broadly that his eyes curved like crescent moons.
“It worked!”
Inside the cauldron…
[Lion’s Moonlight Pill (★★★)]
-You have created an object that did not exist in the world, using a wholly original recipe!
-You have processed moonlight through alchemy and formed it into a pill. Its effect is superior to the lunar essence that beastfolk can produce!
-When used by beastfolk, it permanently increases their stamina. (However, it causes adverse effects if the user exhibits Eclipse symptoms.)
-Crushing it into powder and applying it seems likely to make it an excellent fertilizer for special flowers.
[Progress toward ‘Lost Puzzle (2)’ achievement completion: 2/5]
The cauldron was full to the brim with round, moonstone-like pills!
‘To think it yielded this much.’
If used well, it would be enough to plant the moonflowers in their entirety.
‘Now that I think of it…’
Hk.
Lion urgently looked up at the sky.
“It’s the full moon, right?”
“Cheep!”
There was one thing Lion had completely forgotten while making the nutritional supplement.
Namely, that moonflowers had to finish their growth on the night of a full moon in order to gain their special properties!
Fortunately, the moon was still firmly hanging in the sky.
“Let’s move right away.”
Lion headed toward the area near the lake.
As it happened, the surroundings had been shaken up by the mana stone, so the soil was nicely churned for planting flowers.
‘Last time I planted the banana sweet potato slips, they also grew incredibly well.’
The Labyrinth’s mana was probably thoroughly mixed into the soil as well.
In that case, if he sprinkled a nutritional supplement imbued with lunar energy on top of that…
They would certainly grow well.
They might even undergo explosive growth like the flame grass had.
Lion crushed a single Moonlight Pill in his hand and sprinkled it lightly over the ground.
Then he brought out the moonflower seeds Rickshel had given him.
‘The seeds themselves are small, and they need to catch the moonlight properly, so I shouldn’t plant them too deep.’
Lion dug the soil only a little, planted the seeds, and covered them with care.
He also left generous spacing between each plant.
Now it was time to water them, but…
‘Wait, rather than watering them…’
After a brief moment of deliberation, Lion drew up the mana within his body and concentrated it in his hand.
Then, as if scooping up water, he cupped both hands together, gathered the mana…
Slide.
And poured it over the spots where the moonflower seeds were buried.
At that, a soft glow rose from beneath the earth, as if the mana had seeped in.
Soon, pale, milky-white sprouts slowly pushed through the soil and emerged.
Then they grew rapidly, as though time itself were fast-forwarding.
The speed of it…
Was far faster than the flame grass!
“Wh-whoa?”
Was it all right for them to grow this fast?
Was it because the Moonlight Pill’s grade was high?
‘If they’re growing this quickly, doesn’t that mean I need to give them more mana?’
If they were sprouting this fast, they would have absorbed all the mana already.
Just as expected, the moonflower stems shot up and up before gradually slowing.
The soil also seemed somewhat dry.
Lion gave them another handful of mana and crushed several more Moonlight Pills to sprinkle around them.
And so, just as the moon was fading and before the sun rose…
Transparent petals, as though steeped in moonlight, unfurled in full bloom!
[Labyrinth Moonflower (★★★)]
-A flower that has grown precious, having richly received the Labyrinth master’s magic. Its growth was completed while a full moon was present, making its efficacy even more outstanding!
-There is nothing to discard! Not even the stem! Even a small amount produces a tremendous effect.
[Applications — Alchemy, Cooking, Beast Taming]
[☞Click to view recipe.]
Lion clicked and checked the recipe.
It was exactly as he’d expected.
“Excellent.”
Lion shook the moonflowers clean into alchemy bottles.
Pollen like specks of moonlight or starlight fell free, but there was not much of it.
But…
“Good thing I planted so many.”
Lion had sown roughly half of the flower seeds Rickshel had given him.
In other words, he could obtain as much of the pollen as he wanted!
Lion put that into practice straight away and managed to secure a nicely substantial amount of pollen.
He also plucked several blossoms and squeezed out the nectar-producing parts in a long strip; the honey dripped out in globs.
It was considerably more than expected, enough to fill one of the thin alchemy bottles.
Lion held up the golden, sticky liquid and grinned broadly.
Morning had broken before he knew it, and the crisp, bright sunlight reflected off the potion bottle, making it sparkle.
Lion shook the collected honey with a bartender’s flourish—fwish, fwish.
For quite a long while.
Once the honey had frothed and turned an opaque pale yellow, he opened the lid and poured in all the pollen.
Then…
Shaaaa.
The honey that the pollen touched turned transparent again, and all the bubbles vanished.
In the places where the bubbles had been, golden pollen remained, glittering splendidly.
[Moonflower Honey Potion (★★★)]
-An agent for alleviating and treating ‘Eclipse symptoms,’ made from moonflowers.
-The method of creation is simple, but the flowers used must be ‘moonflowers that bloomed under a full moon.’
[Cautions for use.]
-Must be used on a rampaging beastfolk and must be applied directly onto a wound so that it seeps in.
-The intense pain may cause the beastfolk to become more violent, so use it in a location with multiple people present.
-When limited to bear beastfolk, oral administration is possible. That is, if you can survive it.
“…”
That last part was a little terrifying, wasn’t it?
I wasn’t sure whether to say it was a relief that Varg was a wolf beastfolk,
or to say he’d lived because there were plenty of people around to help.
“Anyway, let’s get out of here quickly.”
A considerable amount of time had already passed.
“Still, this much should be fine.”
I had deliberately skipped sleep and concentrated on blooming the moonflowers and crafting the potion.
That meant I would surely be able to take action right around the time he rampaged.
With fairly light steps, Lion exited the Labyrinth.
And then he realized that
something had gone deeply wrong.
“No way…”
Lion saw Elvia’s expression as she came out to meet him and grasped the entire situation in an instant.
“Where is Varg?”
“Currently, he is being subdued by Sir Rickson and Young Master Rickshel in Mimir Forest.”
“How long ago?”
“It has not yet been a full day. There is still time.”
Lion gave a nod and headed immediately for Mimir Forest.
* * *
Craaack!
With a deafening noise, a thick tree toppled.
A heavy thud sent dust flying and shook the ground.
In the midst of it all, a beast flashed its eyes and snarled.
Grrrrr…
A bone-chilling sound that no human mouth could produce rang out.
Rickson’s brow furrowed.
He had known that rampaging made their strength even more immense, but he had not realized it meant a single swipe of the claws could bring down a tree that sturdy like a straw.
“Varg.”
Rickson called the name of the one who had lost his reason, his voice tinged with regret.
Trees were cleaved apart, and attacks of both magic and sword were sheared away by fingernails, claws, and teeth.
And indiscriminately, he rampaged in every direction, lashing out.
But no matter how reinforced the body was, the recoil would inevitably come.
Indeed, Varg’s nails were already stained with blood, and splashes of it dripped in every direction.
“At this rate, he won’t last, due to blood loss.”
Rickshel, who was restraining Varg’s movements with magic, spoke calmly.
“Can you further reduce his radius of action?”
“I can, but if I do, you will be placed in greater danger.”
“That’s fine. We have to reduce his injuries.”
“Understood.”
Without another word, Rickshel narrowed the range of his magic. The instant Rickson pressed Varg harder—
Flash!
Varg vanished in an instant.
The speed was so terrifying that even Rickson, the knight commander, could not track him for that split second.
‘Where did he go?’
But Rickson was a veteran knight.
He was well-versed not only in combat against people but also in battles against monsters.
‘Right now, it feels as though I’m facing a monster.’
Even as he thought, Rickson’s eyes moved rapidly.
Above.
He was moving on instinct.
If so, he would surely attack the individual with the weaker body.
That meant, the mage.
The young master.
Rickson read the direction of the dust cloud, stepped in front of Rickshel, and blocked the front with the flat of his sword.
Clang!
Two sharp, hard objects collided, producing a tremendous noise.
And then, thok.
Rickson’s sword was pierced clean through by the claws and dropped to the ground.
‘Well, this is a problem.’