Elixir

Purification wrapped up in no time.

"Hoo."

Thick steam billowed upward, dispersing through the gaps in the ceiling.

Sylvia stared blankly at Ian as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

'......'

She had no room left for further astonishment.

"Why are you spacing out? Let's move. It should be nothing but water now."

"...Ah? Yes!"

The boss monster had likely absorbed all the mana, so there was nothing left to worry about — time to press on. Sylvia followed, trailing behind Ian without question as he spoke and walked.

By this point, imagining that this man could be wrong about anything was nearly impossible for her.

They waded through the lowered water and reached the clearing at the center.

The dense steam had rendered the landscape bleak and dreary.

That was when.

— Grrrrrk

A sound like something being crushed deep underground reached their ears.

"Ian, just now...!"

— Grrrrrrrrk

The ground trembled faintly.

The spine-chilling sound drew closer.

Something was rising from beneath the earth.

— KUGUGOOGOONG!

The ground shook.

And the presence swelled larger and larger.

Primal instinct screamed of endless danger and calamity.

— KWAGAGAGAK!

The earth burst open.

Amidst the scattering soil and gravel, an enormous monstrosity revealed itself.

A plant that looked like a Venus flytrap.

Except.

Its stem rivaled the pillars of a building, and its twin jaws were vast enough to swallow dozens of people in a single gulp.

— Gdrdrddk!

With a grating noise, the creature ravenously spread its jaws.

The sharp thorns sprouting from the edges of the leaves looked as though dozens of ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swords had been embedded in them.

At the hideous sight, Sylvia involuntarily stumbled back several paces.

"Ah..."

Her legs quivered.

All she could do was clutch at the strength in her buckling knees.

It wasn't the appearance.

It was the resonance with the mana she sensed inside the creature's body.

This thing had coiled deep underground and ravenously devoured mana.

The traces of countless forms of mana churning in its gut were enough to evoke the illusion of a mass grave of mages.

An instinctive revulsion, felt by any mage.

"Urghh..."

Sylvia barely swallowed her nausea.

And this was her reaction — despite her stomach and mental fortitude ranking among the top tier of the academy.

She murmured toward Ian.

"...That's a Grade 6 or higher monster. I can feel the threshold of Grade 5. This is not something two students can handle recklessly..."

Sylvia stopped mid-sentence.

Because ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ian, whom she had assumed would be tense, had the corner of his mouth curled ever so slightly upward.

'...He's not nervous?'

◆

'Ah. That looks delicious.'

Ian couldn't keep the corners of his lips from rising.

And honestly, how could he not?

That energy inside the creature.

All of it — refined mana.

There was probably a bit of demonic energy mixed in, but he could purify that.

'Hnngghh...'

Gulp.

Swallowing, Ian gazed at the boss before him.

[ Mana Hell (Grade 5 Threat Species, Giant, Toxic) ]

— A fiendish creature that ensnares passing mana entities with its vile jaws and digests them. In environments where ambient mana is plentiful, its leaves may atrophy while it sustains itself using only its roots. If properly processed, its byproducts could prove exceptionally useful.

If he were playing the game, that's the info window that would have popped up.

In short: a colossal Venus flytrap. It just absorbs mana instead of flies.

The reason he'd resolved to take it down was simple — it dropped a wealth of highly useful rewards.

And as long as certain conditions were met, the difficulty wasn't even that high.

The only concern was Sylvia being overwhelmed by the creature's grade.

"Sylvia. Like I said earlier..."

"Yes. I'll execute it precisely."

Sharpness had already returned to Sylvia's eyes.

As expected of someone from the Aether Class — she really was on another level.

Ian nodded with satisfaction.

In truth, Sylvia had simply resolved to trust Ian. After all, this was the man who had pinpointed the Frost Bear's weakness. If you could exploit a weakness properly, a monster's difficulty rating dropped by one or two tiers without fail. With that thought, Sylvia took her position behind him.

"Then here I go."

In an instant, Lunar enveloped Ian's body.

Surging forward with his enhanced physique, Ian closed the distance to the Mana Hell in no time.

The Mana Hell's leaves shifted with a grinding creak.

"Sylvia. The brightest light you can muster, please."

"Understood!"

— Fwoosh!

A light spell burst from Sylvia's fingertips.

In an instant, the surroundings blazed bright as midday.

— GrooooOOOOAR!

The Mana Hell erupted in luminescence, as though struck by sunlight concentrated through a magnifying glass.

Creatures that dwelled in such dank, sunless places were invariably saturated with demonic energy.

Holy power and light.

Those two specialized elements drastically impaired their judgment, vision, and reaction speed.

A perfect debuff.

This was precisely why Ian had gone out of his way to bring Sylvia here.

— KUUUUNG!

The creature's massive leaves slammed into the wrong patch of ground.

Ian swiftly leaped onto them.

The twin jaws parted, revealing the red flesh within.

Demonic energy billowed from inside.

The Mana Hell's primary attack pattern: acidic demonic energy eruption.

Under normal circumstances, it was a digestive fluid corrosive enough to melt a human body completely.

— Hssssss!

But with Lunar enveloping his body and the Authority of Dishwashing active, there wasn't a chance it could touch him.

"Not even close, you bastard."

The Mana Hell's leaves slammed shut again in an instant.

The sword-like thorns sprouting from their edges lunged sharply toward Ian, stabbing at him.

"Hup."

— Whoosh!

A pattern he had already anticipated.

He evaded it with a single step backward.

At the same time, he released Lunar's full-body armor mode, keeping only the essentials.

Lunar's magic staff shrank back to the size of a bat.

He swung it with full force.

— CLAAAAANG!

A crisp, ringing impact.

The creature's thorn-teeth scattered.

— KieeeEEEK!

The clenched jaws flew open.

The Mana Hell's weak point: the red flesh inside its leaves.

"Sylvia. Now!"

"Yes!"

4-Star attack spell: Light Reflection.

Countless beams of light converged upon a single point as if passing through a lens, then skewered straight down into the Mana Hell.

— KreeeeeEEEEK!

Its inner flesh sizzled and burned amidst a hair-raising shriek.

Ian launched himself inside without hesitation and drove his fist into the dead center of the creature's soft interior.

— KUUUUNG!

The Mana Hell went limp, crashing into the ground with a heavy impact.

Ian pushed open the creature's closed jaws and emerged.

Sylvia's eyes went perfectly round.

"Y-you caught it... A Grade 5 threat species."

"You worked hard, too. The situation was favorable."

Even with its leaves atrophied, a Grade 5 threat species was still a Grade 5 threat species.

Thanks to purifying the mana-rich lake, the Mana Hell had been preoccupied absorbing pure mana, and the process of digesting it had prevented the creature from bringing its full power to bear.

A clean, natural takedown.

The conditions had been that ideal.

"Favorable conditions? What does that even... Never mind that — Ian, just what are you..."

Sylvia muttered, her voice brimming with excitement.

But it was still too soon to be surprised.

Ian walked wordlessly toward the flytrap's stem.

Then he channeled his magic power and excavated the ground.

The flytrap's root came into view.

"Do you have a saw or a sword or something?"

"Ju-just a moment."

— Scrape. Scrape.

The sound of sawing followed.

Ian emerged from the root area, clutching several pearl-like orbs in his hands.

Sylvia's eyes rounded.

"...Th-those, don't tell me."

"Yeah. Mana Elixir."

Grin.

The corners of Ian's mouth curled upward as he answered.

A Mana Hell that had absorbed the mana flowing from the mountain range for hundreds of years.

Naturally absorbed and refined mana, coalesced into crystalline form — a truly natural elixir.

Ian extended one of the five spheres in his hand toward Sylvia.

"Here."

"...You're giving this to me? We agreed I'd only take the Mana Hell's stem and thorns. The rest was supposed to be yours."

"That was the deal, yeah."

But there was no way he could absorb all five elixirs himself anyway.

By orthodox standards, an elixir only exerted its full effect once per type.

He could brute-force it and choke down more, tanking the efficiency, but there was no reason to.

"Take it. You know how much this will help you."

Sylvia bit her lip.

"But if I accept this, how am I supposed to compensate you? I mean, I'm the successor and vice-leader of the merchant guild, but my personal assets aren't that substantial. The guild shares still aren't in a position to be transferred, either."

"Why are you worrying so much? Pay me in installments. With interest."

"Oh."

Sylvia's lips moved soundlessly before she nodded.

She was a student of Lichten Academy, after all.

She couldn't easily pass up an opportunity ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to grow.

Ian fully intended to collect the principal and interest — handsomely.

"Eat it as soon as we get back."

Sylvia gave a quiet nod, then spoke.

"Why are you being so good to me? Like last time, too... I'll repay you but what do you actually gain from this?"

A voice brimming with genuine curiosity.

At her question, Ian paused for a moment.

"What do I gain?"

"Yes."

Sure, at the end of the day, this was a transaction.

Ian was even making money off Sylvia while selling her things that didn't matter much to him.

In a word, it was a win-win for both Ian and Sylvia. ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

But that wasn't what her question meant.

Why was he treating her this well — that was the context of her question.

The reason he gave her first dibs on purchasing something this special. The reason he'd given her the chance to buy information during the Frost Bear incident.

She wanted to know the reason behind all that.

Ian answered Sylvia as she looked at him with earnest eyes.

Because what he gained was obvious.

"You."

"...Me?"

Items? Information? Money?

All of those mattered, of course.

But connections — placing someone who understood gratitude in your debt — that was far more valuable.

Even more so when that person was someone guaranteed to succeed in the future.

In other words, what Ian gained was a stake in the person named Sylvia Laurent.

"Yeah. You're what I gain."

Ian's answer was utterly sincere.

◆

The next day.

The morning of Act 1, the day the first curtain rose.

Hot steam billowed from Ian's body as he sat in the lotus position.

"Hoo."

Having fully assimilated one of the Mana Hell's elixirs, Ian rose to his feet.

The mana the creature had absorbed and refined over centuries had doubled the volume of pure earth mana stored in Ian's dantian.

It was now roughly the size of a child's fist.

If he processed the byproducts from the Mana Hell into weapons on top of that, would he really stand a chance against the one chosen as Act 1's main villain — that unexpected figure?

"Hmm."

Ian recalled the attack she had landed on him not long ago.
The attack that had completely neutralized even a fully charged Lunar in a single blow.