He gave him a suspicious look at the suggestion that they go somewhere.
“Hmm. Where do you mean?”
“The 1st Battalion of the 99th Regiment. So I think I’ll have to be discharged first.”
Only then did Lucien take in Sinhyeok’s condition. His anger subsided, and clarity returned to his mind.
“Absolutely not! Are you trying to have someone carry out your corpse?”
“Then tomorrow, not today.”
“Now see here! You are a patient!”
“You were just arguing with that patient, though?”
“Ahem, hem! Even so.”
Sinhyeok pointed at the red potion and said,
“I’ll drink that for twenty-four hours straight. Then won’t I recover quickly?”
“Hmm?”
Sinhyeok immediately began pouring down the highest-grade red potion.
“If I’m completely fine by tomorrow morning, I’m getting discharged and going.”
“Good grief! What kind of man are you?”
* * *
The next morning.
Lucien stared at Sinhyeok with a look that said he was utterly tenacious.
His body was still thin, but vitality had clearly returned to him.
With his body now fairly lively, Sinhyeok smiled brightly.
“Let’s hurry and go! I’ll prove it to you right away.”
“You’re relentless. Truly relentless.”
Sinhyeok laughed and tapped on the hospital room door.
“Come on~ Let’s go already!”
When they left the hospital, a vehicle had been sent to support them.
The senior instructor had come in one step.
“Trainee!”
He looked at Sinhyeok with a worried face.
“Are you hurting anywhere?”
“I’m completely fine. I did lose quite a lot of weight, but I’m all right for now.”
Sergeant First Class Lee Junho let out a hollow laugh.
“You were unconscious for over a week, and you say you’re fine. Good grief.”
Sinhyeok shamelessly climbed into the car and shouted,
“Instructor, let’s roll!”
“Y-you……”
Behind him, Lucien followed with a sullen expression.
Sinhyeok tapped the car and said,
“Hurry and get in, sir!”
Remembering what he had been told in advance, the senior instructor saluted.
“Loyalty! It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Ah, likewise.”
Lucien got into the car for the moment, still looking sour.
“We are going, yes, but where exactly are we going?”
“Our unit. What we need right now is there.”
Sinhyeok hurriedly asked the instructor,
“Instructor, what’s on the schedule this morning?”
“Individual training for specialties.”
“Oh! That’s a relief.”
As soon as they arrived at the unit, Sinhyeok went looking for Baek Arin first.
‘I’m sure there was light in her aura.’
Arin, who had been training her aura in a private training room, nearly fell over in surprise when Sinhyeok suddenly barged in.
“M-mister!?”
“Yeah! Hi! But I’m kind of in a hurry!”
She was horrified by his withered state and worried at the same time.
“Mister! What happened to you! No…… you got even uglier!”
Throb.
At her comment that dug into his heart, Sinhyeok nearly had a heart attack.
“You, you…… you’re really mean.”
She smiled brightly.
“So what do you need?”
“Hey! Just hurry up and give me some aura.”
“Wow, the guy who was a vegetable for over a week suddenly comes in talking about aura?”
“Just hurry.”
Grumbling, she let a faint aura flow out.
Farrell, holding his sword, found his gaze drawn to the black bob-haired girl emitting a faint light.
‘Beautiful.’
“But, mister, who’s that real mister over there?”
When Lucien’s eyes met hers, he stepped forward politely, took her hand, and said,
“My lady. I apologize for coming here so rudely. Might I have the honor of learning your name?”
For the first time, Baek Arin experienced the feeling of goosebumps rising all over her body.
“Whoa. Seriously?”
Without a word, she popped her fingers free.
‘Who is that guy?’
She asked silently with her eyes.
Sinhyeok only mouthed the words.
‘My lifeline.’
Baek Arin, wary for the moment, emitted a powerful aura.
Light bloomed along the blade.
“Thank you.”
Farrell found it strange to see him thanking her while looking at the aura.
‘No, what is he trying to do?’
Sinhyeok swept the light blooming on the blade into his hand.
“Huh?!”
While sweeping up the light, Sinhyeok turned around at the short, scream-like gasp that came from behind him.
Farrell tried hard to act as if he had not been surprised.
“It is nothing. I suddenly had to sneeze.”
“Ah, yes.”
After finishing gathering it, shining particles rested in Sinhyeok’s hand.
Holding the fingernail-sized grain, he immediately dropped it into his canteen.
He added purified water and crushed blue mana grass into fine pieces as well.
“Huh? Mm!? No?!”
At the exclamations that kept coming from behind him, he turned around.
Farrell, who looked somehow frustrated, was forcing his mouth shut.
“No, just, haah, just continue.”
‘Who in the world handles mana grass like that!? That—! Hoo.’
He calmed his own anger and waited.
‘Even if he does that, it absolutely won’t work. It’s impossible. How does he plan to mix them without a catalyst?’
Shake, shake. Scrape, scrape, scrape.
“Hmm?”
Sinhyeok shook it excitedly as if he had entered a trance.
Farrell eventually could not hold back and burst out angrily.
“You human insult to alchemy! You slander the ingredients! Potions are not made by just throwing them into river water and shaking them—!”
He froze.
Light was leaking from the canteen Sinhyeok had opened.
When he poured it out, it floated into the air on its own and scattered light like a flashbang.
“Agh!?”
“Agh!”
Everyone covered their eyes at once.
[You have created a Light Potion with a new recipe.]
[Light Potion has been added to the crafting list.]
[Due to the influence of your trait, the potion transcends its limits.]
[Highest-Grade Light Potion][Rare]
================================
A potion containing excessively pure light.
A being of corruption may be burned away by the utterly pure light.
※ You may be blinded by the excessive light.
================================
‘This is a complete flashbang!’
Even though he had made it himself, Sinhyeok frowned at its power, which exceeded his imagination.
“Now, do you see?”
Lucia Farrell, too, had his eyes shut and was groping around like a blind man as he shouted,
“Enough. Enough, so put it away at once!”
Sinhyeok opened his eyes slightly and said as he hurriedly gathered the traces of the Light Potion back into the canteen,
“You definitely saw it.”
Now that it had worked, Lucien felt empty inside while anger surged up at the same time.
“You alchemical delinquent of a human! Why does that work!?”
Sinhyeok shrugged and replied,
“I don’t know either. It just did.”
“Aaaaargh! How on earth does it work without a catalyst?!”
Having lost the bet, Lucia Farrell followed behind Sinhyeok with drained steps.
“Let’s just do it here.”
“Very well. I’ll hurry up and hand over the knowledge of alchemy, though only a very small amount.”
They went into the private training room. Sinhyeok locked the door tight and said,
“Then I’ll be in your care.”
Farrell glanced at Sinhyeok and let out a deep sigh.
“I never imagined I would experience such a bizarre thing.”
He fixed his gaze on Sinhyeok and first asked about the knowledge he possessed.
“First, tell me what you know. I will start from there.”
Sinhyeok told him what little he knew.
“It’s a field of study that synthesizes substances, and the results are potions and enchantments.”
He answered in a slightly nervous tone. Farrell nodded.
“That is correct. You understand it accurately. Then the issue seems to be what comes next.”
Farrell took a blue mana grass from his clothes and shook it.
“I was certain you would not be able to make a Light Potion.”
Sinhyeok tilted his head at the puzzling statement.
“Pardon?”
“Because you had no catalyst.”
At the word “catalyst,” Sinhyeok fell into even deeper confusion.
‘You need something like that? It wasn’t in the book.’
“Most Earthlings likely do not know. In our world, it is common knowledge.”
There was a gap in information.
“Think about it yourself. Alchemy is the creation of something new by fusing two substances. Why would that be possible?”
At the question Farrell posed, Sinhyeok’s thoughts came to a halt.
“Every object with mana is unique and tries to preserve its own form, nature, and characteristics. Do you think such things would mix?”
Now that he thought about it, it was not something that should be possible.
They were not substances like those on Earth that caused chemical reactions.
“That’s true.”
“Furthermore, things that contain mana are even more so. They preserve their uniqueness through the process of breathing in mana and releasing it.”
Farrell took a glowing blade of grass from his clothes and placed it on his hand.
Holding the mana grass and the luminous grass on his palm, he showed them side by side.
“Do they mix just because they overlap like this?”
“No.”
He crushed the two grasses and clumped them together in his hand.
“Do they mix because I mash them together like this?”
“No.”
“Correct.”
Farrell took a small pouch from his clothes and shook a small amount into his hand.
When the blue powder touched them, a change occurred.
They began emitting their original mana.
As Farrell crushed and mixed the three ingredients in his hand, he said,
“The easiest way to make unique things mix is this catalyst. A mana stone.”
“Ah, that mana stone.”
It was disgustingly expensive, not used much on Earth, and more than 99 percent of it was exported to the Alliance.
“An important strategic asset.”
He had heard that they used it to make and stockpile weapons.
“This fellow has an extremely unique nature. Ordinary objects circulate mana. Even humans do so.”
Farrell took out an unprocessed blue stone from his clothes and showed it to him.
“This is a mana stone. Have you seen one before?”
“Ah, yes. A few times.”
Inside the blue mana stone, the mana existed in a hardened state, just like Sinhyeok’s constitution.
“This fellow goes against the law of circulating mana. It makes things solid and static.”
‘Same as me.’
Farrell put the mana stone away.
“When this fellow is inserted between circulating objects, the two natures collide, and fusion begins.”
He scattered the juice of the Light Potion that remained in his hand into the air.
The Light Potion sprinkled into the air floated there, giving off light.
“This is the foundation of alchemy, and its entirety.”
Lucien clearly remembered that Sinhyeok had said he would buy the knowledge.
“You said you would buy it. What will you pay with? The knowledge of an alchemist is very expensive.”
Sinhyeok smiled kindly.
“Do you accept potions, by any chance? Red ones, blue ones, or the purple stuff.”
With a bright smile, he pulled out a dangerous-looking scarlet potion from his pocket.
“What do you take me for! Let us all just die together! You damned human!”
“Hahaha!”
Sinhyeok fled the unit like a madman.
“Come here!”
“I’ll repay you later!”
“You, you……!”
While running, Lucien stopped and caught his breath.
Sinhyeok stood some distance away and said,
“I apologize for what I said. But I also don’t really want to have another master.”
“That…… such impudence.”
After catching his breath sufficiently, Lucien straightened his back.
“Very well. In that case, help me with one thing.”
Sinhyeok’s expression turned strange.
“Yes?”
Lucien could not forget the scene from when he made the Light Potion.
‘That peculiar body.’
“I will research your transmutation method.”
“Ah? I’m sorry, but that’s just my constitution.”
“I know. That is why I am saying I will research it.”
The alchemist mad for knowledge looked at Sinhyeok with eyes stained by anger and greed.
‘I feel like I’ve gotten myself into something bad.’
For the sake of survival, Sinhyeok nodded for now.
“V-very well.”
“Good! I will report to the Magic Tower at once and obtain permission to stay. Wait right here! Do not go anywhere!”
Watching him run out of the room in a hurry, Sinhyeok was bewildered.
“Still, things worked out pretty well.”
He returned in less than five minutes and declared out of nowhere,
“Good! From now on, I am an instructor here!”
Soon after, the battalion commander came in with a bewildered expression and asked,
“What’s going on?”
With a dignified face, Farrell answered confidently,
“Commander. I intend to put my talents to use here. With my abilities, I will turn them into strong soldiers.”
Captain Kim Chanyeol smiled awkwardly and first asked about his specialties.
“Well, what are your specialties?”
“Magic and alchemy.”
“Oh, that works out perfectly.”
He smiled, pleased at the word magic.
“We were short on instructors in charge of magic.”
“Very well. Bring them all to me. I will lay their foundations properly from the beginning.”
Captain Kim Chanyeol ran off happily.
“Looks like everything worked out.”
Farrell shouted at the battalion commander, who was running with burning enthusiasm,
“Commander! Show me to my room first!”
“Ahhh! This way, sir!”
Farrell excitedly followed the battalion commander, then stopped for a moment when he saw someone.
The battalion commander, who had been walking ahead, looked back.
“Mm? Sir mage?”
“Ah, my apologies. I spotted a boy who piqued my interest for a moment.”
Captain Kim Chanyeol looked to see who it was.
He saw Hong Ichan walking side by side with Baek Arin to eat.
“Do you mean Trainee Hong Ichan?”
“It seems the artifact is not functioning properly. It is one of two things. Either it is overflowing, or the artifact is broken.”
“Pardon?”
“It seems likely to burst at some point soon. Someone should warn him or take measures.”
Hong Ichan turned his head because his ear itched.
“Mm?”
“Hey, you dwarf sack of crap, why?”
“Seriously! I’m only ten centimeters shorter than you!”
“And your age?”
“……”
“Tch! I’m not eating with you!”
“Pfft!”
Baek Arin laughed as she chased after the sulking Hong Ichan.
“Hey! Are you really sulking?”
“Go stuff your face by yourself!”
“If you don’t come, one hit! Uh-uh, two hits!”
Ichan, who had been walking away, flinched and stopped.
“You ignorant thug.”
“Yeah, and without that thug, you’d have to eat alone.”
Ichan fell silent.
Then he sighed and turned his head.
That was when he met the eyes of Lucien, who was dressed strangely.
“Mm?”
Baek Arin turned in that direction with him.
“Ah? That mister. He came with Mister.”
“Huh? Who?”
“Bu Sinhyeok. That mister got discharged.”
“What!? Hey! Why are you only telling me that now!”
He threw his meal aside and ran.
“Hey! He’s going to come eat anyway!”
He screeched to a stop mid-run.
Ichan quietly headed toward the dining hall.
“That’s true, yeah…… Food comes first.”