Poverty Doesn’t Make You Good
Successfully created a basic health potion.
Poison Herb and Troll Blood combined. New catalyst combination succeeded.
Poison Herb and Essence of Mana combined. New catalyst combination succeeded.
Poison Herb and an Orc Fang did not react properly.
Alchemy wasn’t all that difficult.
Of course, it wasn’t a field where raw technique had no place at all. The timing of the refinement magic circle, the type of circle used depending on the ingredients and catalyst, the amount of mana fed into the circle, the compatibility between catalysts and materials, and so on. You had to consider everything before you even started.
In that sense, it was closer to experimentation.
The kind of experiment where failure carried catastrophic risk.
That was why alchemy demanded caution.
Given how expensive the materials themselves were, and how much gold could go up in smoke with a single failed attempt, you had to study the theory behind potion-making and catalyst combination, then build a series of hypotheses before you even began.
Then, based on those hypotheses, you ran simulated experiments, and only after that did you move on to the real thing.
That was the basic way other alchemists approached the craft.
Of course.
None of that applied to me.
Why?
Because I’m rich.
I could throw simulated experiments to the dogs and keep throwing myself into catalyst and potion combinations. Theories and hypotheses were tossed aside for now; I focused only on the results of experiment after experiment.
In other words, I found the conclusion first and only then thought about why I’d arrived there.
My efficiency was obviously going to be different from that of the other alchemists, who would tremble over a single rare-grade catalyst and spend a month preparing for it.
Failed.
Failed.
Failed.
Doesn’t work?
I didn’t waste time hunting for reasons.
I just changed the method a little.
Success.
It was money-waving in its purest, most excessive form.
I couldn’t say for sure, but over the past week alone, I’d probably burned through around a thousand gold.
Still, it wasn’t as if I’d gotten nothing out of it.
There hadn’t been any obvious results yet, but the basic potion recipes sold in the market were already stored in my head, and more importantly, my intelligence and mana stats were going up.
In other words, I was buying stats with gold.
Just as I was about to pour even more gold into the alchemy kit, I heard a voice outside.
“Hyungnim!”
“Ah. Come in. And don’t forget to disinfect yourself with an artifact first...”
“Understood.”
As the door cracked open, the person who appeared was, naturally, Park Deokgu. Jung Hayan was standing beside him too.
Seeing the bundle of luggage in his hands, I could roughly guess why they’d come.
“Why are you the one bringing it? I told the other Blue Guild members they could help with the moving. I also told the lobby attendant, so you don’t need to carry things yourself from next time on.”
“Hngh. If I don’t do even this much, it ain’t easy to see your face, Hyungnim. I don’t know how we can live in the same house and still have such a hard time seeing each other. Should I just set the bags down here?”
“Just put them down anywhere. Thanks, Deokgu.”
“Heh. This much is nothing.”
“Oh, Oppa. Have you eaten?”
“Ah.”
When I glanced at the time, quite a bit of it had already passed.
I’d been so focused I hadn’t even noticed how long it had been.
“I, I made a little something...”
“Ah. Then let’s eat together.”
“That’s right!”
Seeing Park Deokgu and Jung Hayan both almost deliriously happy made me smile despite myself.
After checking inside, I saw the ordered supplies had all arrived properly.
“By the way, what are you planning to use all those things for?”
“They’re all catalysts for alchemy.”
“Hah. So this is the potion Hyungnim made... Could it save someone who’s practically dead?”
“No. It only heals basic wounds. Ah, Hayan. Don’t touch the things over there. And don’t even think about drinking anything if you find it.”
“Y-yes!”
“I don’t really know much about this stuff, but I can tell Hyungnim’s planning something big. What are you trying to make?”
“Well... for now...”
“Yes.”
“Something that makes money.”
Park Deokgu and Jung Hayan both stared at me with slightly dazed expressions.
I almost laughed out loud.
But I wasn’t saying it lightly.
Money was, quite literally, the most important thing to me. If I was going to spend money, then it stood to reason that I needed income to match.
What I invested had to come back as money.
In other words, I was becoming Kim Hyunsung’s patron.
Of course, that meant I had to keep producing results worthy of Cha Heera’s investment.
I’d already handed over a rough list, but I also had to keep proving that I was useful.
As for what I was making, that was a secret. There was no need for Park Deokgu or Jung Hayan to know.
“So what’s Kim Hyunsung been up to these days?”
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen him in a while either.”
“Well, he’s about the same as Hyungnim, I suppose. We do train together in the practice hall, but once training’s over, doesn’t he always run straight over to the Slums? And hauling food with him in both hands, too.”
“Hm?”
“I already knew he was a good man, but he’s such an angel that there’s no other word for it. I don’t know if he’s doing volunteer work or what, but he’s been like that for a full week now... Ahem. Well, I can’t help but respect it.”
“Really? Every day?”
“Probably. Ah! I also heard something about a new dungeon or something like that... Anyway, he’s been wandering around the city like he’s looking for somebody or going to gather information or whatever... One thing’s for certain, though: Kim Hyunsung is really a good guy.”
Volunteer work?
It did fit.
I’d wondered if he might be bringing in some new talent he knew about, but it looked like it was taking a little longer than I’d expected.
Since he kept coming and going from the Slums, it seemed like something was there, but things didn’t appear to be going smoothly.
If he’d been able to recruit them quickly, there’d be no reason for him to still be doing volunteer work there.
“I don’t know how much he’s thinking about the people there, but he keeps frowning every now and then, so I reckon he’s worried about them quite a bit.”
What’s going on?
Maybe some kind of problem had come up.
Should I go take a look?
That didn’t sound like a bad idea.
The thing I was making was almost finished anyway, and I was also curious what kind of talent and temperament the colleague I’d have to grow close to possessed.
After casually swallowing the food Jung Hayan had made, I found her eyes lighting up with happiness.
“I think I should go there once...”
“Huh? Really?”
“I’m a little curious. I want to see what the Slums are like too...”
“I-I’ll go with you too, Oppa.”
“Shall we?”
“Y-yes!”
Park Deokgu looked like he wanted to go too, but apparently he had no intention of wedging himself between me and Jung Hayan.
In fact, he seemed to think it was best to make himself scarce, and hurriedly started finishing his meal.
“Then should we go now, Hayan?”
“Y-yes!”
It was good to put thoughts into action right away.
Leaving the guild with Jung Hayan was no trouble at all.
At first, the scenery had seemed novel, but after staring at it long enough, it started to feel familiar.
Until now, I’d never gone outside the plaza, but it looked like we’d have to walk a fair distance.
Since I wanted to save time, I flagged down a carriage and climbed aboard. Jung Hayan, who immediately gripped my hand tightly in return, looked absolutely delighted.
It felt a little like we were on a city tour.
The scenery passing by was actually rather interesting.
As the carriage rolled on slowly, the atmosphere itself began to change.
From bright and clean to dark and filthy.
The coachman, too, looked less than pleased.
He seemed to think the air itself was unpleasant, maybe even damp and suffocating.
What stood out most, though, was how different the people looked and how they wore their expressions compared to the western district.
“Why are you headed all the way out here, anyway?”
“It’s nothing serious. I actually only arrived in the city not long ago, so I was curious what this place is like.”
“Ah. So you were offered a place in a guild under good conditions.”
“Haha. It’s embarrassing, but yes.”
They looked like a textbook picture of losers.
Walking with their heads bowed, they wore expressions that asked whether I might hurt them if I got too close.
People who had no confidence in hunting, and who were afraid even of joining a guild or clan.
I didn’t know each person’s circumstances or how they’d ended up here and begun taking root, but at the very least, the atmosphere was far from positive.
“This place does feel a bit different from the western plaza, Oppa.”
“Yeah. You can tell, can’t you?”
I’d worried for a moment that it might be dangerous, but now I felt a little foolish for even thinking that.
Jung Hayan and I, riding through the Slums in a carriage, were basically the upper crust of this place.
Those people had neither the power nor the money to do us any harm, and they certainly didn’t have the nerve or the grit.
At most, they’d fight among themselves.
The situation was the same even after we got out of the carriage. Afraid to even approach and beg, they stayed far away and watched Jung Hayan and me with wary eyes.
That was when I spotted a crowd gathered together.
Among the shabby figures, one woman dressed neatly stood out in my field of vision.
Huh...
After brushing past the familiar overall evaluation, I looked at the woman once more.
Holy hell...
If my eyes weren’t just decorative ornaments, that woman had to be the real thing.
Legendary-grade holy power...
She looked like she’d only recently arrived here, but her potential strangely reminded me of Jung Hayan.
Kim Hyunsung wasn’t making himself obvious.
But around that woman, other people were gathering.
Not vagrants, either. They were dressed neatly in the same way she was.
They didn’t seem to belong to the same organization, though.
Their clothes and banners were different.
One thing was clear, though: they were all clustering around that woman, Sun Heeyoung.
Every last one of them was shamelessly flattering her.
The reason was obvious enough.
Recruitment war?
That was probably it.
The talent Kim Hyunsung wanted to bring in didn’t seem to be known only to Kim Hyunsung after all.
The kind of talent everyone wanted.
The kind of talent whose future was already guaranteed.
And yet, a talent who still hadn’t committed to any faction.
Now I understood why Kim Hyunsung had been coming here so often, and why so many people from clans that had nothing to do with volunteer work had gathered here too.
Everybody was busy pretending to be good people.
The sight of them all volunteering together just to get on that woman’s good side was pretty ridiculous.
The Saint of the Abandoned?
To my eyes, she looked more like a sucker all the lazy pigs were trying to swindle.
The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.
There was only one thing I hadn’t anticipated: Jung Hayan’s desperate need to agree with me.
“She looks like a pig.”
“Yes, Oppa. They do look like pigs... p-pigs!”
She must have been anxious after the conversation suddenly cut off, because she threw herself into agreement with frantic haste.
Unlike my voice, which had come out low and almost slithering, Jung Hayan’s slightly louder one drew every eye in the area toward us.
What the hell...