I Became the Drug Master the Hunters Adore — Chapter 1: Why Am I the Head of Team 1?
Han Sia’s eyes sparkled with pure, unfiltered delight as she watched Song Ji-soo’s team leader scrutinize the samples one final time.
“Can’t you just make them all at once?” she asked, the words tumbling out in her usual cute, slightly slurred tone, cheeks still puffed with half-eaten chocolate like a mischievous squirrel.
Song Ji-soo paused, expression unreadable at first, then replied in her crisp, professional voice, “It’s not impossible… but any resulting disadvantages won’t be considered. Are you certain you’re comfortable with that?”
The question landed like a pebble in still water. Sia blinked, head tilting cutely to the side, and wondered aloud, “Isn’t medicine supposed to be made all at once anyway? What disadvantage could there possibly be?”
A soft sigh escaped her. The thought drifted away, only to be pulled back by the gentle glint of something at the edge of her vision.
Glancing sideways, she spotted the snack corner tucked neatly inside the appraisal room. Especially the mountain of chocolate piled high on the shelves.
From the tiny, candy-coated pearls wrapped in gold to the smiling-child-shaped ones and the expensive imported bars of her childhood. Her mouth watered instantly.
“……”
She swallowed hard, cheeks puffing out again as if to hide the sudden urge.
Every corner of the room overflowed with tempting snacks. If they made the potions separately, surely they could enjoy more of these delights in the meantime, couldn’t they? And eating so many would fuel her energy, right? She’d feel even happier and more focused while crafting the medicine.
Or at least it would give her a little extra breathing room. She hadn’t felt much difference between leisurely work and rushing to meet deadlines before, but the truth was, taking her time had led to small, embarrassing mistakes—overfilling a potion bottle, forgetting to tie a ribbon…
“Haaam…”
Now it was late at night, and honestly, she wanted to stuff herself silly. But her head was foggy, and her eyelids were fighting a losing battle.
Song Ji-soo, her team leader, had volunteered to oversee the inspection with her, so at least she wasn’t working completely alone. Still, it would be better if the leader went home early, right?
She nodded vigorously. “Yeah, definitely making them all at once was better in every way.”
The chocolate could stay right where it was. She had earned enough money lately; once she memorized the names, she could buy and enjoy them at home later.
“Neng! It doesn’t matter!”
“Understood. Then at 8:48 a.m., we will begin the manufacturing verification procedure for grading and secondary effect verification on the junior Red Potion, junior Blue Potion, Patch, and Menstrual Relief Medicine.”
Song Ji-soo locked the door without a second question, signaling the start of the crafting process.
Do do do—
Sia was off like a shot the moment the words left the leader’s lips, racing toward the inner room where ingredients and equipment waited.
Two cauldrons—one large, one small—and a single mixer.
Hmm…
They didn’t really need to make a lot for the test anyway.
The mana herbs and troll blood had been sitting for a while, so their quality wasn’t perfect, but adding extra purified water should fix that easily.
The ingredients felt familiar—small amounts of everything available in the market, plus the rare Melania flowers and Herosul she needed.
Time to wash her hands!
Hap—!
But first, just one… or two… or three chocolates before I start.
Nam nyam nyam.
Afterward, she scrubbed her hands all the way up to her wrists, then began the longest and most important process.
First up was the chromatography beads for filtering impurities from the Red Potion.
“Ingredient preparation! Water cannon!”
She used her skill to refine the stems of the mana herbs that filtered impurities, then poured troll blood into the small cauldron along with purified water and began boiling.
Once the flames caught under the mana cauldron, she blew mana into the prepared stems until they turned perfectly round.
Then she transferred half the quantity of mana herb leaves into the large cauldron with purified water, saving mana by avoiding the mixer for the rest.
“Huuuung—”
For the remaining half in the mixer, she added the Melania flowers and finished mixing, creating the Patch dough.
“Fabric… ah, there you go~”
She spread it on fabric, added protective film, and the Patch was basically complete.
“Water cannon!”
She blasted it clean with high-pressure water, and the mixer whirred to life.
Druruk—whiiiiiiiiiing!!!
Aw, that sound was satisfying.
Next came grinding the Herosul for the Menstrual Relief Medicine while the troll blood boiled.
She stirred the small cauldron with her skill, and the color turned a deep, almost violent red—ready once the impurities were filtered out.
“Um. Maybe I should age the beads too?”
She tapped them with a stick, and the soft texture dried out into hard little spheres.
The only problem? No proper cylindrical column or filter for the beads.
“I can use this, right? …Nam nyam nyam~”
She solved it with a two-liter plastic bottle from the snack corner.
Too-ck, too-ck—the red liquid filtered through the bottle column and was poured into the prepared vials.
They had plenty, but since the front and back impurities were complicated, she just submitted the middle ones.
She also spread the Patch dough on fabric, added the protective film, and completed that too.
“At-cha-cha!”
She cleaned the small cauldron that had been boiling the Red Potion with water cannon, refilled it with the mixer contents.
Now all that remained were the Blue Potion and Menstrual Relief Medicine. These two—
“Hup!”
Ultimate, dual-handed skill!
Shu shu shu, shu shu shu—
She applied the Aging skill to both cauldrons at the same time and stirred each with both hands simultaneously.
Because the quantities were small, the mana consumption was lower than at the pharmacy, and the potions deepened in color with every stir, glowing with a beautiful light until they shimmered with familiar brilliance.
“Drug appraisal!”
Yes! The results were perfect.
She nodded confidently after checking the seals, then—
“Nyam.”
“Etu etu~”
She finally realized she couldn’t taste anything without syrup at all.
So far she had the Patch, Red Potion, Blue Potion, and Menstrual Relief Medicine. Was there anything else?
Ah—
Do do do—
Nam nyam nyam—
It wasn’t because she particularly loved sweets, but because she’d worked so hard and used skills that her calorie intake had been lacking.
…Whoa. Her cheeks in the mirror above the sink looked extra chubby.
“Hweup~”
A light pat on her cheeks and they felt a tiny bit less puffy.
Now everything was truly finished, right?
She arranged the potion bottles beautifully in the submission basket and turned toward the leader’s side.
“It’s all done, Team Leader-nim!”
“……”
But Song Ji-soo’s expression looked odd.
“…9:16 a.m. The manufacturing procedure is complete.”
The leader sounded like a broken robot, gears creaking. Was Sia imagining things?
***
After the manufacturing verification ended, the artisan followed the usual routine to the waiting room.
“This is impossible. There must have been an error!”
However, the appraisal team’s conference room on the same floor was far from quiet that day, echoing with cries.
And in the highest seat facing the large screen sat Song Ji-soo, who had been in the appraisal room for less than an hour instead of the usual week, staring at her wristwatch with a dazed look.
“Less than an hour… no, even thirty minutes?”
Beyond her hazy eyes, the scenes she had witnessed replayed in perfect, slow-motion detail in her mind.
The plastic bottle filled with beads, filtering impurities in a method she had never seen before.
The water cannon blasting from her hands, poured freely to clean the cauldron.
The liquid inside the cauldron deepening layer by layer as the girl’s eyes glowed blue.
And the entire process linked together with machine-like precision and practiced skill.
She had come to this appraisal room for the first time, yet the girl moved through it like the space itself had been designed for her—efficient, flawless, endlessly skilled. She never wasted a single second, rushing from task to task.
- Nam
- Nam
- Nam nyam nyam
Oh, and of course she had stuffed herself with chocolate like a winter-sleeping squirrel right before going to bed in the middle and at the end.
“…9:16 a.m. The manufacturing procedure is complete.”
Yet at the time she hadn’t processed the information properly. She had simply mumbled that the procedure had ended.
Song Ji-soo pinched the bridge of her nose with the back of her hand.
“No, how can four different potions be made in less than thirty minutes? The potions deepening in color with every stir—that’s normal. You must have used a skill to swap or exchange pre-made potions! Head Appraiser Song, please explain!”
Her head throbbed even more from the complaint of the 2-team leader who had come in for sample appraisal after hearing the news, but she answered without hesitation or evasion.
“Upon direct appraisal, the skill used by artisan Han Sia while brewing was the Aging skill.”
That was why the appraiser had accompanied the artisan and the process as a supervisor.
Not just potions, equipment, and skills—up to the person herself.
A truly outstanding appraiser’s insight wasn’t limited to items alone.
Of course, that didn’t make the results any less illogical.
“No, aging only speeds up the extraction of potency. There’s no way that could be—”
“Does that mean you’re accusing me of forgery, Team Leader 2?”
“It’s not like that… but still—”
“Everyone, take a moment to calm down and look at this objectively again. On the CCTV, was there any angle that could suggest forgery?”
“……”
“…None.”
Someone shook their head, another muttered the facts as if they were being dragged in.
Yes. It was really none.
Not a single thing—purified water, the unheard-of filter called chromatography beads, or the Aging skill.
And Song Ji-soo herself, who had witnessed and appraised every step, knew it better than anyone.
“Then we can simply evaluate these potions according to the manual, complete the inspection, and send the little artisan in the waiting room home. The main evaluation criteria are the quality of the potion, with secondary factors being time required and the artisan’s skill level. …According to these standards—”
Yongyong-i Pas
Patch – A
Medicated pain relief patch made from mana herbs and Melania flowers that releases congested mana and maximizes self-recovery.
Menstrual Relief Medicine
S – Extraordinary secondary effects attached
Using Herosul and mana herb stems to create a menstrual relief medicine. Maximizes the potency of Herosul to provide perfect pain relief during menstruation, while the mana herb stems help expel waste from the body, making the user’s system cleaner than before menstruation.
Blue Potion
S – Weakened secondary effects of an upper-grade potion attached
A blue potion refined from mana herbs with pure water. Extracts maximum potency from one mana herb. Restores mana when consumed; overconsumption grants +1 maximum mana capacity per bottle.
And…
-[Grade-less] HP
Red Potion
Out-of-Grade – Complete removal of impurities from troll blood and maximum extraction of potency. …Heals fatal wounds. Overconsumption grants troll-like strength for one hour.
Lips pressed tightly together, neck damp with sweat.
She was the team’s most senior member and knew the industry inside out.
When this decision came down, she had known exactly what it would mean for the appraisal team and for her—better than anyone else in the room.
Song Ji-soo truly understood the weight of the situation more than the 2-team leader next to her, who seemed to be only rejecting reality with common sense and suspicion.
“Damn it… why am I the head of team 1? Wait, I’m the head… should I just quit and handle the repair myself? Then the final approval goes to 2-team leader…”
Too well understood—too much like a problem.