—–

“It is only a D Rank Potion but it heals five thousand HP?!” Emeraldine cried. “If I drink three of these my entire HP would refill easily! This is insane! Potions are usually used so you can close some wounds or stop bleeding, they’re not really capable of completely healing someone to full unless they’re made by someone incredible…” Emeraldine said. “W-Well, this is a monstrous Beginner Potion, I can make better ones but even then… Maria, you got a monstrous talent for Alchemy!”

Emeraldine patted my shoulders as she seemed rather shocked about my Alchemy Talent. I guess I really had it within me. I am what they call a Clandestine Brewer too… Whatever that even means.

“Is that so? Heh, I guess I could make more potions from now on…” I said with a smile as I rubbed my chin. “But more importantly, let me taste it.”

“Taste it? Sure…” Emeraldine said, as I extended my finger into the potion and saw no pain or anything bad happening.

Then, I directed my finger to my mouth and licked the potion off. It had a slightly citric flavor, with nothing sweet to it at all, but that was rather alright. The most shocking thing was, however, that it had an amazing floral scent. It really calmed down my mind the more I smelled it.

[Your HP has been restored by +500]

Oh! A mere lick of it restored 500 HP?! And it didn’t damaged me as I thought! So in this world potions really don’t damage Undead, huh? Unless it is a potion imbued with Holy Water, maybe… If those that have it can heal better and are more widespread, then they might be effective against Undead.

But as of now, this one seems to be alright to drink! A mere lick of it restores 500 HP as well, a small finger sized bottle should be more than enough to restore +5000 HP like the description said. But what if I make bigger bottles, will it restore more HP? A small lick was 500, so I can’t imagine what is to drink a whole cup of it, it might as well restore more than 5000 HP.

“I am alright! Undead seem to not be affected by healing items as I had imagined.” I said, ending my experimentation and analysis.

“Oh? Of course they don’t. After all Undead still have HP, as long as something can restore HP, they will restore HP. Of course, magic is more limited. Because most magic that heals wounds is light or holy element, which deal damage to Undead, it is believed that Undead can be damaged with anything that restores HP.” Emeraldine explained. “However, there are still potions that can double as projectiles against Undead, those are the ones made with Holy Water.”

“Holy Water! I see, I had assumed that as well…” I said while sitting down.

“As you know, the Church of the God of Light is the one the most widespread in this continent. They made the recipe for potions with Holy Water widespread, which is the one they produce the most as well. It is sometimes forced for alchemist to use this recipe because it can even damage Majin, apparently. However, farther away places from their influence, such as in here or other neighboring countries seem to not obey their rules. Also, Holy Water is expensive because the Priests that make it ask for ludicrous prices for it. This pretty much forces any Alchemist to give the church a ton of money just to be allowed to make potions. They’re really detestable sometimes.” Emeraldine began to rant for a bit.

“Huh, they really suck. Did you experienced something similar?” I wondered.

“My uncle, the brother of my father is an apothecary. He taught me everything I know about Alchemy. Our small village was invaded by people from the church and ended making their own small temple. They began asking for donations almost forcefully, and also forced my uncle to change his recipes.” Sighed Emeraldine. “It has been years since I’ve seen him, I wonder if he’s alright…”

“I-I had no idea you had a family member waiting for you there…” I said. “Hey, how about we go to your village after we are done with things in the dwarf territory?”

“R-Really?” Emeraldine asked in disbelief.

“Yeah! I want to know your uncle and see how’s he’s going. If he’s someone that helped raise someone as lovable as you, I am sure he’s a good man.” I said with a nod.

“M-Maria… You’re saying embarrassing things again…” Emeraldine said while blushing a bit. “And well… About my uncle… Well, he’s actually kind of… Err, slightly strange. But I guess you’ll see him when we go there.”

“Strange? Like what?” I asked.

“It would be better if you saw him by yourself… W-Well, it still some time until we go there. So for now, how about we go eat?” Wondered Emeraldine.

“Well, I would rather eat this adorable girl in front of me~” I said coquettishly, as I approached Emeraldine.

“M-Maria… You’ve gotten bolder…” Emeraldine said, as she received my lips and we began kissing rather passionately.

“Hahh~ W-Wait a bit… Someone could enter here…” She muttered.

“I’ve grown quite addicted to those soft lips; I really can’t stop myself now…” I admitted.

BAAAM!

“Uwah!”

“Eh?!”

As we were about to kiss again, someone slammed the door open.

“Master, Emeraldine, I brought some snacks for- Eh?!”

Partner entered bringing what looked like small cookies made by herself, she found us red handed.

“P-Partner! Those cookies look so nice, did you cook them?” I asked while trying to be nice.

“So this is what you do in here, you are not even doing alchemy, you come to kiss for hours and hours, don’t you?! …Ah! I-I bet you use this place to do lewd stuff too! Emeraldine, I never thought you would be that type of person that liked the thrill of doing it in an open place!” Partner said while blushing a bit.

“P-Partner this is a misunderstanding…! W-We were just kissing right now after we finished… N-Nothing much, I am Maria’s lover as well, am I not allowed?” Emeraldine sighed while slightly feeling a bit irritated with Partner’s words.

“Girls please calm down…” I sighed.

—–