BXBX NOVEL Chapter 100: Revealing the Goods
Chapter 100: Revealing the Goods
『Hmm, it looks like it’s locked.』
「Nn.」
We were currently inside the room we’d rented.
There was a treasure chest in front of us. Needless to say, it was one of the ones we got from the pirate’s base. Its body was made of a blackened iron, and it had the Alchemist’s Guild’s crest inscribed upon it. We had planned to figure out its contents, but it didn’t seem like would immediately be able to get our hands on the chest’s insides because of the mithril padlock attached to the its opening.
『I don’t feel any magic coming from the lock itself, but the box has got a spell woven into it. It seems like it’s preserving whatever’s inside.』
「Then… cut open?」
『I don’t think that’s a good idea. We don’t know what the box contains, so we might end up messing the the contents up if we just hack it open.』
I literally had no idea what was inside. It could be medicine, some sort of raw material, treasure, or maybe even just plain garbage. There was a chance that the items contained within could be really fragile too, meaning that the shock resulting from us breaking the lock open could end up destroying the box’s contents.
The other treasure chest we picked up was the type that contained exactly what you’d think it to contain. It was full of all sorts of jewels and accessories. The most expensive looking, and therefore, most interesting of the bunch was a bracelet with a massive gemstone embedded inside of it.
The second box probably contained something just as expensive as well.
「Then what?」
『It might take a while, but my suggestion would be to use Fang of Decay and Fang of Corrosion. That way, we should be able to slowly melt the lock down without damaging the chest’s contents…』
「Nn. Sounds bothersome.」
「Whimper…」
『Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’ll do it, so you guys can go eat or something.』
「Nn. Got it.」
「Woof woof!」
Wait, wait, isn’t this where they’re supposed to cut in and say something like, “Let us help, we can’t just take it easy while you do all the work?”
Apparently Fran didn’t even consider the thought, as she’d already began stuffing her cheeks with the hamburg steak she grabbed out of the dimensional storage.
Well, I guess it’s fine. It means she doesn’t really need to hold back around me, and I really do kind of like doing this thing anyway. Plus, doing it by myself lets me focus and relax more.
And so, I began the boring task of melting away at the mithril lock whilst watching over my two companions as they hungrily devoured their lunches. I transformed myself into a saw blade and slowly began to carve away at the padlock while also simultaneously activating both Fang of Decay and Fang of Corrosion.
Soon, the room was filled with not but the sounds of chewing and sawing.
The atmosphere lasted for about ten minutes. It came to an end right when Fran and Urushi were about to go for their fourth helpings; the rhythmic sounding saw noise was disrupted by a loud clink.
『I did it!』
I finally managed to break through the mithril padlock. Man, that was exhausting, I had to be really careful. But who cares! I managed to get the box open!
「Treasure?」
「Woof?」
『Huh, a bunch of bottles with potions inside them.』
「That’s it?」
『Oh come on, why are you already disappointed? This stuff is actually really amazing, you know?』
「Nn?」
I picked up one of the potions and handed it to Fran. At first glance, it looked like any other Life Potion, but it was a bit more than just that.
「What is it?」
『Apparently it’s the highest grade Life Potion out there.』
「Oh?」
『It’s some really effective stuff. It can even restore missing body parts so long as you don’t get mangled too badly. Apparently people even go as far as to call its effects miraculous.』
「Ohhhh. Sounds amazing.」
「Woof woof!」
They were so potent that you could basically call them elixirs. I remember High Grade Life Potions costing thirty thousand gold apiece, I can’t actually put my finger on exactly how much each of these Highest Grade ones would cost, but I figured it was safe to assume that they were at least a hundred thousand Golde each. We’ve got three bottles in total, so I’d say we raked in a pretty damn good profit.
「Rest are?」
We’ve still got another 17 bottles left in the chest. I hoped that the other potions would be just as high quality as the first ones we picked up.
「What’s this?」
『That’s a Full Heal, it removes any and all abnormal status conditions.』
Yeah, that one seemed incredibly useful too. Like the Life Pots, they came in a batch of three.
『Let’s see, we’ve also got some high grade mana potions.』
「Total three bottles.」
『Let’s put one of these in each of our dimensional storage boxes. Put the last one in your potion holder.』
「Got it」
Man, we seriously did strike gold here. These potions could be really useful if we ran into any sort of emergency.
The next three identical looking bottles were apparently Highest Grade Alchemy Potions. I didn’t really know what they did, so I guess we should probably ask an alchemist or something later.
I grabbed a black, suspicious looking bottle after putting the Alchemy Potions away.
「Dangerous item?」
『Yeah, make sure you don’t touch it.』
「Nn. Got it.」
Fran replied with a rare, serious expression on her face.
My Sense of Danger had been going off nonstop for quite some time now, and hence, I didn’t even need to appraise the black liquid to know that it was something that shouldn’t be touched.
「Woof?」
『Stop that, Urushi.』
「Urushi. Down.」
We didn’t manage to stop Urushi in time, so he ended up giving the bottle a sniff with an intrigued look on his face.
「Whimper!」
A single whiff of the substance caused him to quickly recoil his nose before scratching it nonstop with his front paws. It looked as if the stuff in the bottle stank like hell, hence Urushi’s strong sense of smell had only worked against him.
「Whimper whimper!」
『Well, that’s a Poison Mixture of the Highest Grade for you. Urushi’s more or less down and out just because of its smell.』
We won’t get in trouble just by carrying this around with us… will we? I’m pretty sure it’s more potent than any sort of poison produced through magic. Either way, best thing to do is to just seal it away by putting it inside the dimensional storage. I’m actually kinda glad that we’ve only got one of these.
『Alright, next… Woah! This some pretty nice stuff!』
The next potion I grabbed was a Potion of Repair, it was capable of fixing whatever equipment it was poured on. We could use it on either me or Fran’s Black Cat Armour depending on our needs. Too bad we only got one bottle of it. I really wish there was more.
Man, all these decent potions are making this whole thing pretty exciting, it really makes me wonder what’ll come next.
「Pretty.」
『That one looks more gaudy than it does pretty to me.』
Fran had picked up a potion with a bottle slightly more narrow than the rest. Its interior was filled with a sort of sparkling, rainbow liquid. It looked nothing but flashy, however, its effects were pretty damn good. Its name was the Potion of Rising Skill, and as implied, it had the ability to raise the level of one or more skills upon its consumption. The user had no way of choosing which skills would gain levels, and the precise number of skills that did gain levels would also be subject to random chance. We decided to save it for when Fran trained up her skills a bit more, as higher level skills took more effort to level up.
The Potion of Rising Skill was undoubtedly of extremely high value, but even it was considered fairly insignificant when compared to the next thing we identified.
『Holy sheet.』
「Nn?」
The next item was called the Anti-Side Effect Potion, and it had the ability to mitigate any negative side effects caused by spells and magic. In other words, it could counteract the backlash that came from skills like Latent Potential Release and Doppelganger Synthesis. If I used it on a clone, then I might even be able to actually eat.
Given its effects, we could probably actually just flat out use it as a trump card. Moreover, it was classified as a “magical medicine” and I didn’t even know those existed. Either way, I want more of these, so I should probably level up Alchemy and Medicine Creation some more. I should be able to make these myself one day if I get both those skills high enough.
There were only two bottles left in the chest, but both were so rare that I couldn’t actually figure out what they did. Appraisal refused to tell me more than just their names.
The two bottles were identified as the Drug of Reversed Attributes, and the Root of Arcane Souls respectively. The former looked like any other potion, so we might’ve actually just accidentally downed if not for appraisal.
The latter looked just like an empty bottle, but the fact that a name showed up when I appraised it meant that there was definitely something inside. Was it gas or something? I didn’t really think opening it was a good idea, so we refrained.
Oh well, whatever. Either way, that was it. To sum things up, the results were as follows.
Highest Grade Life Potion * 3
Full Heal * 3
High Grade Mana Potion * 3
Highest Grade Alchemy Potion * 3
Poison Mixture of the Highest Grade * 1
High Grade Potion of Repair * 1
Potion of Rising Skill * 1
Anti-Side Effect Potion * 3
Drug of Reversed Attributes * 1
Root of Arcane Souls * 1
Wow, we really struck it rich. The potions looked to be worth more than a million Golde in total, and we could actually put most of them to use if we wanted.
We should probably get the ones we didn’t know much about checked out. Barbra was a pretty big city. Naturally, it contained a fair number of alchemists therein, so we should be able to find someone that knows all our potions’ effects.
That said, I couldn’t help but feel as if asking around about this stuff would stir up a huge fuss, so it’d be best for us to be prudent. It’s not like we’re in any sort of rush here anyways.
「Then, ask adventurer’s guild?」
『Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good idea. We need to sell all the magic beast parts we dismantled on our way here too, so yeah, let’s head right on over.』
「Nn. Wanted to see city anyway.」
「Woof woof woof!」
「Urushi. Want to walk around town too?」
「Woof!」
The first thing he wanted to do after going somewhere new was to go out on a walk. That’s a dog for you I guess. Well, it’s fine though. I kind of wanted to see the city’s sights myself, so we might as well just explore the place while looking for the Adventurer’s Guild.
『Alright, a walk it is then.』
「Nn.」
「Woof woof!」