Volume 4 - CH 34

Chapter 4-34 : Rescue Request Ⅲ

「Say, Nord-san, if we happened to have to use these potions and stuff, would you pay for them?」(Iris)

「I’m responsible for our situation right now, so I’d like to pay for them, but… These are quite expensive…」(Nord)

「So it really is expensive stuff, huh?」(Iris)

「Yeah. General-purpose potions and medicines are usually a few times more expensive than potions and medicines that can only deal with specific diseases.」(Nord)

General-purpose potions and medicines are less effective than those for specific purposes, but they are useful in situations where you don’t know what kind of disease you have. Moreover, making potions and medicines that are effective against many symptoms is very difficult, and for that purpose, their price is relatively high.

「Uhh… I really hope we won’t need to use them…」(Iris)

「You never know. There might be poisonous snakes or insects if we go deeper. We don’t know where this tunnel leads.」(Kate)

They were trapped inside the cave and there was no other way but the tunnel that had never been explored before.

The probability that they would encounter dangerous creatures was not low.

「You may be right… If by any chance we have to use these potions, I think we should negotiate with Store Owner-dono. I believe she will lower the price for us. Anyway, let’s see what else we got here… Oh, this is…!」(Iris)

Iris rummaged through the wooden box and found a familiar artifact.

「A Spring Water Bottle! Store Owner-dono showed me this artifact once. Now we don’t have to worry about water.」(Iris)

「Really? That’s great! None of us can use water magic. We still have some water for now but it will run out eventually.」(Kate)

At first glance, the artifact looked just like a white normal water bottle but it was a very convenient artifact.

Spring Water Bottles can convert magical power into water. If you are a person with an average amount of magical power and don’t want to bring water on your travels, then you may like this artifact.

Spring Water Bottles are convenient. However, they cannot produce water continuously. There’s a limit to the amount of water they can produce at a time.

That means, people who have a lot of magical power like Sarasa, can’t use Spring Water Bottles to produce water infinitely.

「Oh? There’s another one, but why is this one orange?」(Kate)

Kate found another Spring Water Bottle in the wooden box but unlike the white one that was held by Iris, this one was orange.

「Ah, this one also produces water but it’s sweet and delicious.」(Iris)

「Sweet water…? But why?」(Kate)

「I don’t know. Perhaps it’s for the people who like to drink fruit juice or something.」(Iris)

Iris looked a bit troubled by Kate’s question. On the other hand, Nord looked a bit surprised when he saw the orange Spring Water Bottle.

「Don’t you guys know? The orange ones are pretty rare.」(Nord)

「Is that so? Store Owner-dono said that she made it since she still had the remaining materials from making the white one.」(Iris)

「Really? That’s impressive. The orange one is way harder to make than the white one, you know? Moreover, it requires more magical power to use. If you just want to drink sweet water, you can just use the white one and mix the water with sugar or syrup, right? That’s why not many people want to buy the orange one.」(Nord)

To be exact, orange Spring Water Bottles require ten times more magical power than white ones. That’s too inefficient.

However, the water produced by orange Spring Water Bottles contains sugar. It’s helpful to overcome headaches or stress when your body is low on sugar.

「I once tasted the water produced by this orange bottle, and it was as sweet as syrup, but I think we have to save our magical power for more useful things.」(Iris)

「Yeah, I agree. Do we have anything else in this box?」(Kate)

「Let’s see… Oh, there are some magic stones…」(Iris)

Iris found things that looked like magic stones and picked them up.

「Wait, Iris. They’re not magic stones. I think they’re like the stone-like artifact I used to make an ice wall earlier.」(Kate)

「Ah, you’re right. They are artifacts that contain spells. That means…」(Iris)

「…They are expensive… Say, Nord-san, would you…」(Kate)

「Alright, alright. I’ll pay for them, so please don’t hesitate to use them when we’re in danger.」(Nord)

「Thanks. We would end up using all the money we would get from you if we had to pay for them.」(Kate)

After confirming the effect of each stone-like artifact, Iris shared some of them with Kate, and then they put them in their pocket.

The number of the artifacts was not many, but for Iris and Kate who couldn’t use powerful spells, those artifacts could be very useful.

「Next, we got… Paper boxes?」(Kate)

Kate found three small paper boxes and opened one of them.

There were many 1cm x 1cm white cubes arranged neatly in the paper box.

「What are these? Candies…? No, hold on. Could it be that they are portable rations…? I remember I’ve seen them once but I’ve never eaten them.」(Kate)

「By the way, Store Owner-dono let me eat one back then. It seems that you will feel full for an entire day after eating one or two of these cubes.」(Iris)

「Really? That’s awesome! We don’t have to worry about starving to death then. I wonder how many cubes we got.」(Kate)

Kate counted all the small cubes in the paper box. There were three hundred of them.

「Let’s see what’s inside the other two boxes…」(Iris)

After Kate was done counting, Iris opened the other two boxes.

「They’re in different colors, huh…?」(Iris)

The paper box Kate opened was filled with white cubes, but the other two boxes that Iris opened were filled with yellow and green cubes.

For some reason, Iris looked disappointed when she saw cubes with different colors.

「What’s wrong? Are they different from the white ones?」(Kate)

「Yeah. According to Store Owner-dono, the white ones are the best among these three. They taste good after all. The yellow ones don’t taste bad either but if you eat them on a daily basis, you will eventually get sick. I don’t really understand why, though.」(Iris)

「Perhaps it’s because the yellow ones have low nutrition. It’s the same as eating bread without meat and vegetables. It’s not healthy for your body if you only eat bread every day, right?」(Nord)

Seeing Iris and Kate’s confused faces, Nord explained.

「Ah, I see. As expected from a researcher. You know a lot. So, the white ones are more nutritious than the yellow ones?」(Iris)

「Exactly. That’s why white portable rations are very expensive.」(Nord)

「Ahh… I knew it… They are expensive…」(Iris)

「Specifically, white portable rations are five times as expensive as the green ones.」(Nord)

「Five times… Are green rations worse than the white and yellow ones?」(Iris)

「Yeah. After all, they don’t taste very good, but at least they fill your stomach just like the other two. However, it doesn’t mean that green portable rations are cheap. The price of one cube of green portable ration is twice as much as the cost of a commoner’s meals for one day.」(Nord)

「Seriously…? That means… The price of one of these white cubes is the same as the cost of my meals for ten days…!? That’s insane!」(Iris)

「That’s why people don’t eat portable rations on a daily basis. Proper meals are cheaper and more delicious. Well, portable rations are emergency food, so you don’t eat them every day.」(Nord)

「Makes sense… If we take the price into consideration, I think we should consume the green ones first. What do you think, Kate?」(Iris)

「I agree. They might not taste good but at least we can survive for a few months.」(Kate)

When Kate said that as she closed the paper box in her hands, Nord looked at them with a serious expression.

「…Certainly, we don’t have to worry about water and food, but do you guys really think we can survive for months in this cave? I’m not really sure about that.」(Nord)