9 「Braggart」 (2/2)
With a smug look on her face, the old woman seemed to calm, ”Well... I have another, alternative, offer for you.” She was using the suspense as a weapon against the poor adventurer who had been starved up until she was fed some delicious preserves by a stranger no less. ”Find and tell me the one who made it.” Her eyes moved to her Grandson, ”And Nphir--”
”What exactly are you planning?” Cipher asked with a laugh of his own, though his tone was relatively serious despite the little giggles between words.
”And who are you?” The Old woman smiled look at the man, how he was dressed. She could only assume he was rich or of some noble status. That was until she saw the copper piece hanging from his neck. An adventurer?
”My name is Cipher. I made the potion you just appraised.”
Her plans to covertly learn the refining process of creating red potions went out the window. The man who had made it was standing right in front of her.
Grinning ear to ear, he still laughed at her speechless face.
”How'd you do it?”
”Why do you want to know? What if I want to hold a monopoly over 'Gods Blood' or something like that?” Cipher was teasing the old woman, he had no reason to give the process to her.
”Then how can you prove you made it?” She squinted at him suspiciously.
Rolling his eyes, he opened his inventory, revealing the spatial storage skill as he pulled out three different grades of healing potion. He then proceeded to put them back into his inventory and smile smugly at her.
”...So there's more...?” Her eyes were wide open, her eyes shaking in their sockets.
Cipher stared through her, his grin slowly fading. ”You really like potions.”
”I'm a potion maker, and your craft... It's beyond what I've ever seen!”
”You must've seen a lot.” Cipher chuckled with a smug look on his face again, as she was much older looking than everyone else in the room. ”Though am I to talk... I'm an Arch Mage over two hundred some years old.” He laughed, reciting part of his character's background.
”...Two hundred years old...?”
Lizzie and the rest just looked at him as if he was bullshitting them. In a way he was, but it was in his file. If they were to use magic to identify his origin, it would say he was a human Arch Mage over two hundred years old. Though in reality he was just a really powerful Arch Lich who managed to keep his skin and humanly appearance.
”I was Acquainted with the Black Knight before their joining of the Thirteen Heroes.” In a way he was lying and again, in a way he wasn't. He had met the Black Knight, but not in this world, but in the game world.
Lizzie couldn't believe what she was hearing. This man knew the Black Knight? He was surely lying. He didn't look a day over twenty! Even someone who had obtained functioning immortality through their connection to magic was sure to appear older.
”Do you have an apprentice?”
”One of the members of the Swords of Darkness,” he was referring to Ninya as his apprentice even though it was a short tutelage.
”Ah... The one with the Magical Aptitude.”
Smiling faintly as the woman could recall the person who was his student.
”For the time being though, my lessons are on hold. My magic training regiment is rigorous,” he said pridefully boasting the fact that he would give just about anyone an aneurysm by teaching them magic the way he did.
”Oh?”
”In a span of three days, they learned nine spells. They were so exhausted... Their Party Leader banned me from continuing to help them in that manner so to speak.” This roughly meant that she learned years of spells in a matter of days.
Brita nudged him with her elbow.
”What?”
”What are you doing?”
”Giving her my life story.”
”What's the point of that?”
”To get my name around? Start Rumors? Make things a bit more... Exciting?”
”What, next are you going to tell us that you wiped the floor with the Black Knight.”
The man laughed a bit when she asked this question. He actually had considering that the Black Knight had only been level seventy come the end of the game. They were acquainted because they had sparred one another in a friendly duel. However the correspondence between the two was much like him and Momonga. It was brief and didn't last.
”...”
”You're starting to sound delusional...” Brita confessed as she sighed hearing his silent words.
Holding out his hand in front of himself with his palm facing the ceiling, he spoke ”「Create Greater Item」,” In his palm would form a Holy Grenade, a weapon which was filled with holy energy and would detonate in five seconds after pulling out the cross shaped pin at the top.
This alone made all their jaws drop. He had created a weapon out of thin air with a simple spell. Considering what it had done and the stats of the weapon itself, it had to be well above fifth tier magic.
It was seventh tier and he was just showing it off like it was nothing special.
”I... Take that back.” Brita could only stare at him for a few moments before glancing over towards the potion. If he could do something like this, was that potion even worth anything to him?
Walking over to the table, she picked up the red potion the man had given her and tucked it into her pouch. ”Thank you for the potion, Cipher. I'll see you around.” Brita said abruptly, as she planned to leave him be for the time being. ”Maybe I'll buy more of them off you.”
”Hm...” The monopoly idea was definitely going to his head pretty quickly. There were multiple ways to make health potions. He himself used magic spells and alchemy skills to do so, with the combination of ingredients that promote healing.
”In that case, I'll come with you.” He said as he followed her out of the back room.
The grandmother reached out as if wanting to stop him, before sighing in discontent. While she had finally seen the legendary red potion, she couldn't obtain the way to make it. However, that didn't stop her from thinking of ways to reverse engineer the red potion.