Chapter 32 | Rivalry

The Felinia extract boiled. It churned and dripped into the little flask. Theo carefully watched the process, his eyes narrowed. Sweat dripped from his forehead, his body working in overdrive to keep him homeostatic.

Mr. Filip watched along with a serious expression, a couple of paces away. His arms were crossed as if he were scrutinizing Theo’s work, though his face occasionally betrayed the truth that he had no idea what the hell was going on.

After the day he received the quest, Theo had woken up in a trance. He had a clear goal at hand, with numerical values, and tasks to be completed. And he was good—scratch that, he was a genius at it.

It was practically the same thing as reading garbage, cookie-cutter web novels, after all. Something he was grossly familiar with.

He had headed immediately for Mr. Filip’s place and was busy readying himself for mass production. The resources and equipment in the lab were nowhere near enough to start mass production, so he had to find a roundabout way.

And find he did. His mind was a library of undeserved knowledge. So much so that he worried it would somehow badly affect his mission rewards. After all, ‘narrative efficiency’ was shown to be the deciding factor in how many rewards he got.

He really had no idea how narratively efficient it was to ass-pull some potions.

I guess I will learn once the quest is complete.

As the dripping stopped, Theo picked up the flask with his bare hands, the boiling liquid’s heat barely stinging him. Mr. Filip watched him with amazement, muttering something about Star Lady under his breath.

Theo poured the red liquid onto some sort of starch paste he had made from a mix of potatoes, seeds, and a grass called glueweed that released an adhesive substance once heated up.

And when he did, the liquid immediately mixed into the paste, perfectly at that. There was no need to mix it. The catalysis rate was so high that the entire thing had reacted in a split second, his skill feeding Theo a vague understanding of the chemical reactions’ true nature. A simple one, barely scientific.

Once the paste changed colors, Theo took off the mask on his face and placed aside the flask. He took the bowl, walked up to a water-filled barrel by the side of the room, and poured the red paste in.

The red paste dissolved in water, giving it a faint red hue.

“Mr. Filip, could you test it out? I’m not tired yet, so I can’t tell its effects.”

“Mhm.” The alchemist nodded. He stepped forward hesitantly and dipped a spoon into the barrel. He took a sip. And as soon as he did, his eyes shot open in awe. He looked at his own hands, clenching his fists for a moment. “This is simply a miracle. A single sip is enough to revitalize me. And my migraine is gone.”

“Mhm. It’s a stamina and health potion paste. I am thinking of selling it to the knights.”

“How much are you going to sell it for?”

“I was thinking a silver per vial, so about a gold coin per barrel?” Theo estimated.

“That’s ridiculously cheap for a potion of this level. It should be useful even for the best knights.”

Considering that the best knights of Vandreth were first-rate warriors, these potions were invaluable. He could wait for things to go south and demand something outrageous like a gold per vial, but there were a couple of reasons why he didn’t do that.

The biggest was that he didn’t know if it was okay for him to actually sell the thing. The quest he had was “Provide Supplies,” not “Swindle people of their money.” Not to mention, it would leave a bad taste in his mouth. He wasn’t quite the ruthless businessman type.

On the other hand, he couldn’t just show up and hand over free supplies to the knights. It would both be very suspicious and cause many complications.

Just being a kind-hearted alchemist willing to sell his stuff for cheap during war times was enough.

“Let’s produce a couple more barrels. I’ve heard from the pastor that the knight force being sent is quite large. Numbering in the hundreds. They might be expecting a large-scale conflict against the bandits.”

Mr. Luis did tell him that the knight force was large, but the ‘numbering in the hundreds’ part was made-up. He didn’t know how many there would be. Theo just wanted to make as many potions as possible to farm the quest, as it was the least dangerous and best method of farming points.

“If you say so. Not like it uses many resources,” the man said. “I doubt even the royal alchemists have such potent potions. You would become famous overnight. Maybe the village will finally get an official name.”

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“An official name?”

“Mhm. Officially named villages get many benefits. Tithe reductions, more protection, investment opportunities, and considering our village is pretty close to The Dragon’s Rest, we might even get a resident knight for protection.”

Theo considered the implications. That was practically a one-way ticket to becoming an actual city down the road. And when a city was built around such a village, the initial residents would find their life status elevated, most being upgraded from farmers to average citizens, working trades or clerk jobs. For many people in the countryside, that was practically a dream.

Not to mention, they would be much safer surrounded by city walls and soldiers. They wouldn’t have to hide from bandit raids every other day.