Overlord Volume 2 Chapter 1 Part 3

Part 3

Sensing something like a color upon the wind, Britta sniffed several times, like a dog.

She was not mistaken — the air contained a greenish scent. This odor came from mysterious drugs and crushed plants. The smell told Britta that she was at her destination.

Britta continued forward, to a place where the smell was stronger than just now. Peering left and right, she walked on until she was in front of the largest house.

This house was different from the others around it, which were designed with a shop area in front and a work area in the back. It seemed to have been built from the ground up as a workshop.

She knew that she had arrived from the sign that hung above the door and outside the place.

The bell mounted on top of the door rang surprisingly loudly as she pushed open the front door.

After she entered, she found herself in something that looked like a guest lounge. There were two facing benches in the middle of the room, cabinets of books on the walls, and ornamental plants in the corners of the room.

As she stepped into the lounge, a voice called out:

"Welcome!"

It was a male voice, though it sounded too young to belong to a man.

Looking around, she saw a teenage boy standing before her, dressed in a beat-up set of old work coveralls that were stained with juices from crushed plants.

His blond hair covered half his face, so it was hard to guess his age, but from his height and his voice, he should be in puberty.

Although he was a teenager, Britta could still guess his name. Apart from the fame of his grandmother, he had become one of the few notable people in E-Rantel by virtue of his innate talents.

"...Nfirea Bareare-san?"

"Yes, that's me."

The boy — Nfirea — nodded and asked:

"May I know what business you have here?"

"Ah, yes. Hang on a bit."

Britta retrieved the folded slip of paper the innkeeper had passed her and gave it to the boy.

Upon receiving the piece of paper, Nfirea opened and read it.

"I see… so that's what's going on. Then, can I see the potion?"

Britta took out the potion and handed it to Nfirea, who brought it so close to himself that his hair covered it.

The atmosphere changed.

Nfirea swept his hair away, revealing a handsome face, which would surely break the hearts of many girls.

However, within that youthful face of his was a pair of steely eyes. It was hard to imagine that someone who spoke and acted like he did could have eyes like that. Those eyes sparkled with excitement. Nfirea shook the potion bottle several times and nodded.

"Forgive me, it's not convenient to speak here. Could you follow me inside?"

Britta agreed, and under Nfirea's guidance, she soon arrived at a messy room. Still, she thought that way because she lacked professional experience.

On the table were round-bottomed flasks, test tubes, distillation equipment, mortars, funnels, beakers, alcohol lamps, balances, a bizarre-looking pot, and various other items. The shelves on the walls were filled with mysterious herb and mineral samples.

An acrid odor hung in the air. It seemed potentially dangerous to one's body.

The person who was already within the room stared at the two people who had barged in.

She was a very old woman, and both her face and hands were heavily wrinkled. Her hair, which reached to her eyebrows, was pure white. Her work clothes were stained with even more green residue than Nfirea's and she smelled heavily of grass.

Nfirea, who had just entered, called out to the old lady:

"Granny!"

"What is it, what is it, I can hear you even if you don't shout. My ears are sharp, you know."

Nfirea only had one grandmother, who was renowned as the greatest herbalist in this city, Lizzie Bareare.

"Come take a look at this."

Lizzie accepted the potion Nfirea offered her. As she studied it, her gaze was so focused and keen that it unsettled Britta. She looked like a grizzled veteran of many battles.

In this, she was not wrong. Herbalists needed to use magic when making their potions and medicines, and the more famous the herbalist, the higher the tier of magic they could use. Therefore, the greatest herbalist of E-Rantel, Lizzie Bareare, was a much better combatant than Britta.

"This potion… did you bring it here? ...A legendary potion? No, could it be… God's Blood? What on earth is this potion?"

"Eh?"

Britta's eyes went wide, thinking That's my line.

"Impossible… this potion. Where did you get it from? A ruin?"

"Eh? Ah, no, that…"

"What a shrinking violet you are. Just give me a straight answer — where did you get it from? Did you steal it? Hm?"

Britta's shoulders shuddered in surprise. She had done nothing wrong, yet she felt like she was being rebuked.

"...Granny, don't scare her."

"...What are you saying, Nfirea? I didn't scare her at all… right?"

No, you did. Britta wanted to say that, but instead she gulped and simply told Lizzie the full story about the potion:

"Ah, er, someone else gave it to me as payment."

"...Hah?"

Lizzie's eyes became even more stern.

"Wait a minute, Granny. Britta-san, could you tell me who gave it to you? And why was it given to you?"

With Nfirea's help, Britta explained simply that she had received the potion from a mysterious man in full plate. As Lizzie heard it, more furrows sprouted on her wrinkled face.

"...Did you know that there are three kinds of potions?"

Without waiting for Britta's reply, Lizzie continued:

"The first kind are potions made from herbs alone. Those potions act slowly, and all they can do is improve a person's natural recovery. While they're not very effective, they're very cheap. The second kind of potions are made with herbs and magic. These potions take effect faster than the first kind, but they still need some time to work. Most adventurers use these potions to recover after a battle. The final kind of potion is made solely from magic. Essentially, one infuses a spell into an alchemical solution and it takes instant effect. These potions are functionally the same as a spell, but they are correspondingly more expensive. Then, which of these three kinds does that potion of yours belong too? I can't see any traces of herbal residue, so it should be a pure-magic potion, but—"

Lizzie pulled out a potion bottle filled with a blue liquid and held it before Britta's eyes.

"This is a basic healing potion. The colors are different, right? Recovery potions turn blue during their manufacture, but yours is red. In other words, the process by which that potion was made is completely different from the way normal potions are made. In other words, your potion is pretty rare, and for all we know it might end up revolutionizing modern potion creation methods… well, you might not realise it for a while."

After saying that, Lizzie cast a spell:

"「Appraisal Magic Item」."

"「Detect Enchant」."

After casting the two spells on the potion, a look of shock and anger appeared on Lizzie's face.

"Kuku. Fuahaha!"

—Suddenly, crazed laughter echoed through the narrow room. Lizzie slowly raised her head, a terrifyingly mad smile on her face. Britta was so frightened by the sudden change in Lizzie that not only could she not speak, she could not even move.

"Kukuku! Is that what it is!? Look closely at this potion, Nfirea! This is the perfected form of all potions! It's right here! We — herbalists, alchemists, everyone in the business of making potions — have studied for so long and accumulated so much experience, but yet we have not been able to achieve this idealized form!"

Lizzie's cheeks were red from her excitement and she was huffing and puffing. However, she maintained her death grip on the potion bottle as she brought it before Nfirea's eyes.

"Potions will deteriorate over time, am I right!?"

"Of course, that's common sense."

In stark contrast to Lizzie's excitement, Nfirea was calm. However, Britta could sense hints of anticipation within him.

She had no idea why they were so fired up about this. She keenly felt like she had been swept up into a storm that shook the heavens and the earth. To think she had brought a potion here that could put such an excited look on the face of E-Rantel's greatest herbalist!

"Pure magic potions are made from alchemical solutions. Those solutions are refined from a mineral base, so it's only natural that the quality of the solution will degrade over time. That's why you need to cast the spell 「Preservation」 on it."

Lizzie paused, and then spoke again.

"At least, until now."

Britta seemed to understand a little of what Lizzie was saying. She looked at the red solution, her eyes wide with surprise.

"This bottle! This potion! This bottle of potion! It doesn't deteriorate even without preservative magic! In other words, it's a perfect potion! Nobody's done anything like this until today! According to the ancient legends, the original healing potion was made from the blood of the gods."

Lizzie shook the bottle she was holding and the bright red liquid swirled within the glass.

"Of course, they're just legends. It used to be a joke between herbalists that the gods had blue blood."

After another brief pause, Lizzie looked at the bottle of potion she was holding in her hand. It was trembling in her excitement.

"This potion might well be the true God's Blood!"

Nfirea kept patting Lizzie's back as she panted heavily. Britta was struck dumb by surprise. The silence between them was broken by Lizzie:

"...You must have come here to learn about this potion's effects, right? This potion is around the level of a second tier healing spell. Not counting the added value from its rarity, it would fetch around eight gold pieces. That said, once you factor that extra value in, the price is enough that people would murder you for it."

Britta's body trembled uncontrollably.

To an iron plate adventurer like Britta, the potion's base value alone was already very high, to say nothing of the added value. Lizzie had a gleaming edge in her eye, and she looked like she was looking for any opportunity to take it from her.

Even so, Britta had her doubts. Why would that man in full plate armor give her that potion so easily? What sort of man hid under that armor?

Just as countless doubts appeared in her heart, Lizzie asked:

"How about selling it to me? I'll give you a good price for it. How about thirty two gold pieces?"

Britta's eyes went even wider.

The price Lizzie had just quoted was a staggering sum. Frugally used, it was enough for a family of three to live on for three years.

Britta was confused. She knew the potion was incredibly valuable. Then, was selling it for thirty two gold pieces the right thing to do? It seemed unlikely that she would ever be able to lay her hands on another potion like this again.

But if she refused, would she make it back alive?

After seeing Britta's hesitant face, Lizzie shook her head and proposed another deal—