“Are you bored?”
“Uh... no, keep going.”
“Yes. This potion is the [Potion of Lava Crystallization]. It’s a special-function type, so it doesn’t have multiple grades, only one size. Its effect is to lower the boiling point of lava...”
Recently, Suho had asked Ravi to give him lessons.
Compared to the fact that fewer than ten types of potions had been discovered on Earth, Ravi said there were a total of 2,713 kinds of potions in this universe, so it seemed worth learning about them.
In truth, even when he dug through the auction house’s transaction records, there were almost no high-grade items, only miscellaneous junk for the most part, which made it difficult to do any meaningful shopping.
He figured it would be better to ask Ravi and study the universe-wide materials that had yet to appear on Earth, then acquire those instead.
A whopping 2,713 kinds of potions.
Who knew? Among them, there might be some incredibly good and useful ones.
Suho brought a large solid-wood table into the house he had designated as the reading area and sat down.
Then, using his newly purchased laptop, he diligently took notes while listening to Ravi’s explanations.
Ravi flew here and there, projecting hologram-like three-dimensional images into the air as he continued his explanation.
He modestly called it a trivial little trick, but to Suho, it was an astonishing ability.
A level-up from warehouse keeper!
When given the role of teacher, Ravi seemed somehow excited,
and because his passion was excessive, the way he obsessively explained things made him feel like a fussy research lab assistant.
Judging by Ravi alone, the Blue Dragon race was definitely an academic race.
According to Ravi, there were also quite a few “spiritual elixirs” that had never once been discovered on Earth, with a universe-wide total of 243 kinds.
So they decided to learn about roughly 100 potions and 10 spiritual elixirs a day.
“Spiritual elixirs are unfamiliar to me since not a single one has been publicly revealed on Earth yet. What’s the decisive difference between them and potions?”
“First, their functions themselves differ from potions, but the most prominent common difference is the scope and duration of their effects.”
“Duration?”
“Yes. Most potions provide one-time effects, while spiritual elixirs manifest permanent, semi-permanent, or other long-term effects.”
“Hooh...”
In truth, one of the reasons he had wanted to learn about potions and spiritual elixirs was because he’d been greedy to take various kinds and experience a great physical transformation,
but that did not seem as easy as he had expected.
“When I took the [Elixir of Anti-Aging] last time, I definitely felt different. I was full of energy. Couldn’t I just try taking every type of spiritual elixir first?”
“That would be disastrous!”
“Why?”
“The Elixir of Anti-Aging is a simple spiritual elixir, so its usage conditions are not strict, and its resistance factors are low, meaning it does not require a consumption base. That’s why it’s considered a universal spiritual elixir that any race can take. However, other spiritual elixirs cannot all be consumed unconditionally.”
“Then what do I need to consider?”
“First, the vessel that will contain and digest it is important. In the case of humans, that would be the body.”
According to Ravi’s explanation, some spiritual elixirs were simply impossible for the human body to digest,
while others could only be endured once a certain basic foundation had been established.
And if some spiritual elixirs were taken incorrectly, they would clash with several other types of spiritual elixirs and shatter the vessel meant to contain them,
while others would have their effects drastically reduced or vanish altogether if taken together with certain types.
There were many diverse and complicated variables.
“Tsk... What the hell. It’s just medicine. Medicine. You can’t just take any Western medicine or herbal medicine on Earth either...”
“Exactly. That is why they are spiritual ‘medicines.’”
There were many good medicines in the world, but that did not mean you could take all of them, and even if you did, they would not all have only beneficial effects on the body. Spiritual elixirs were exactly like that.
There were also an absurd number of potion types,
and what Suho realized while learning from Ravi was that there were truly many potions that were utterly useless.
There were so many bizarre ones.
For example,
[Potion of Tail Enhancement] low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade
- Dramatically increases tail function.
[Potion of Electric Horn] low-grade, high-grade
- Wraps the horn in lightning-attribute energy, which can be deployed at will.
How the hell were you supposed to use something like this?
On top of that,
[Potion of Toxin Neutralization]
- If you consume food with strong toxicity, drinking this within 5 minutes will neutralize up to 80% of the toxins.
No, why would you eat something toxic? Just don’t eat it.
Aside from someone who accidentally drank pesticide thinking it was water, how many chances would there really be to use this?
[Potion of Deadly Poison Mist Neutralization]
- Allows you to secure vision even within deadly poison mist.
What the hell is deadly poison mist......
And countless resistance potions.
Cold resistance, fire resistance, darkness resistance, paralysis resistance, curse resistance, explosion resistance, poison resistance... resistance, resistance, and more resistance!
Wait, sleep resistance? What the hell is this, a stimulant?
In any case, there were an incredible number of potions that seemed completely useless.
Of course, there were also some novel ones.
“Oh, that one’s good. Ravi. Explain that one in more detail.”
“Which one do you mean? This [Potion of Calorie Consumption]?”
“Yeah, that one!”
Lowest-grade instantly consumes 2,000 kcal in the body when one bottle is drunk,
low-grade instantly consumes 5,000 kcal in the body when one bottle is drunk,
mid-grade instantly consumes 10,000 kcal in the body when one bottle is drunk...
A potion with such an explanation.
“But... this is a representative trash potion even on a universe-wide scale...”
“What? No. How is this trash!”
Suho marked it with a red star in his notes.
“If someone does mukbangs, wouldn’t it be good to keep this around and drink it like a digestive?”
“......”
“What happens if you drink the highest-grade one?”
“It instantly consumes 40,000 kcal.”
“Uh... wouldn’t that kill you if you messed up?”
“It can lead to death through elevated body temperature, tissue damage, blood sugar imbalance, and so on.”
“Hmm......”
He would have to be careful with the bigger ones.
In any case, it was interesting.
He had no idea why such a potion existed, but then again, who knew?
Somewhere out in the universe, there might be a diet planet or something.
When Suho showed enthusiasm for studying materials, Ravi, who was teaching him, also seemed to get excited and asked if he would like to learn about minerals, gems, wood, leather, fabrics, medicinal herbs, and the like that did not exist on Earth.
According to him,
there were 58,321 types of minerals that did not exist on Earth,
13,211 types of wood that did not exist on Earth,
24,044 types of medicinal herbs that did not exist on Earth,
and things that did not exist on Earth...
There were so many it was enough to make him faint.
Of course, among them there would be transcendent, important, and powerful metals, rare and outstanding woods, and mystical medicinal herbs.
But far more of them—in other words, most metals, woods, medicinal herbs, and the like—were nothing special.
Even just among minerals, there were an enormous number of materials on the level of aluminum or iron, or below that.
After all, just because something did not exist on Earth did not mean it possessed amazing abilities.
In the subspace warehouse, time was practically eternal anyway.
If he set his mind to it, there was nothing he could not learn,
but it was too tiring and annoying.
Forget it. He would rather just not know.
When in the world would he learn all that...
* * *
Whiriririk... chak— chak— chachachachak...
This time, a flat-cut diamond skimmed across the surface of the highest-grade healing potion.
He had also spent a while skipping EX-grade, SSS-grade, SS-grade Ethereum and diamonds across various highest-grade potions.
But after doing that over and over, it became boring too.
“This kind of thing is only fun when you do it with someone else. You can make bets and all.”
When he glanced at Ravi, the little guy avoided his gaze.
“Tsk.”
Lakes of spiritual elixirs and potions where not even a single fish lived,
mountains of gold, silver, treasure, and Ethereum where not even a single rabbit lived.
It was a little desolate, but it was quite nice to look at in its own way.
The land he had asked Ravi to raise was now divided into a total of three areas, and since it had become quite a large zone measuring 450 meters across and 150 meters deep, running or walking everywhere was a hassle.
So he had brought in a bunch of different electric cars and motorized vehicles from outside and placed many of them here and there.
Wiiiiiiing—
Riding an electric kickboard through the village, Suho asked,
“Ravi. How long has it been since I came in here? I feel like I’ve been here quite a while.”
“In this space’s time, it has been a total of 19 days and 8 hours.”
“Aha, then not much time has passed outside?”
“That is correct. By the outside standard, it has not even come close to one second.”
It felt strange.
To possess time close to eternity.
“But before, when I had to prove Admiti, you said you could adjust the time ratio for me. Right?”
“That is correct. Fundamentally, the ratio between this space and the outside is 10,000,000 to 1, but it can be adjusted.”
“Oh...”
“Shall I adjust it for you if necessary? It can even be adjusted to 1:1.”
“No, it’s fine. Why bother? If I’d been missing for 19 days, there’d be an uproar.”
His family would be shocked, and the Administration Bureau would be flustered,
but Joshua Evans would probably be the first to turn pale.
Come to think of it, considering this space where time was practically stopped...
“Ah, that’s right.”
“What is?”
“Sometimes I request and manifest items from the subspace while I’m outside. Without coming in here, I mean. Then you gather them and send them to me.”
“That is correct. You have done that several times.”
“But now that I think about it, doing it that way is a huge loss in terms of time, isn’t it? Outside, time just flows normally, so I have to think of something, recall it, request it, and receive it. No matter how fast I do it, it still takes time.”
“Of course.”
He had been doing something stupid. The realization hit him belatedly.
Ravi, too, wore an expression that said, “You idiot, you only realized that now?”
Ugh, the more he looked at him, the more he realized this dragon bastard had subtle changes in expression too.
From now on, he would always enter the subspace, leisurely choose and select the items he wanted to take out, then bring them back outside.
“I should head out soon. I need to live my real life too.”
After parking the electric kickboard, Suho stopped by the treasure chest area and took 5 bottles of the labeled [Highest-Grade Regeneration Potion].
* * *
He listed the [Highest-Grade Regeneration Potion] on the Global OnTower Auction House, then checked the points that had accumulated.
The previous 5 bottles of [Highest-Grade Healing Potion] and 5 bottles of [Highest-Grade Disease Cure Potion] had sold for a total of 390 million points.
Money approaching 4 trillion won.
And that was after all taxes had been deducted.
“I’ll leave half in case I need to shop at the OnTower Auction House, and the other half... should I withdraw it?”
In Suho’s subspace warehouse, treasures that could not be converted into value by Earth’s economic standards were piled up like mountains,
and there was already a great deal of money in his account as well,
but when he thought about it, there was something he barely had.
It was none other than cash.
Suho decided to convert a considerable portion of his assets into cash and put that decision into action,
but this was not as simple as he had imagined.
He had to consult with the bank to schedule a large-scale cash withdrawal, give the bank time to prepare the cash, go through anti-money laundering laws and other related legal documents and reviews, contract a cash-in-transit service, receive consulting on contingency plans, and so on...
Seriously, I’m just trying to receive my own money. Why are the procedures this complicated and difficult...?
It wasn’t as if he had stolen it. It was money he had rightfully earned by selling items,
and every bit of tax had been faithfully deducted,
yet the procedure for converting it to cash was so strict and complicated that it gave him a headache.
Fortunately, the Administration Bureau and Manage gave him a great deal of help in this area; otherwise, he might have had to wait indefinitely.
Beep— beep—
“Keep coming~! Keep coming!”
“This way! This way!”
Cash neatly packed in units of 25 billion won in 50,000-won bills came in by the pallet.
The site was crowded with people: large trailers and forklifts, bank officials, armed security personnel, Administration Bureau staff, and even the security groups attached to Suho.
Suho had requested that all the pallets be placed on the concrete floor of the open lot he had made for moving, assembling, and installing the modular homes,
but when they arrived at the site, the officials’ eyes widened and they protested.
“N-n-no, not even in a vault—you want us to leave this much cash here? What on earth are you talking about?”
“I have a secret vault of my own, you see. One that only an S-rank Admittee ability user can use.”
“Huh...”
“Don’t worry. You can just leave it there.”
“But even so, I can’t possibly...”
Sssst—
When Suho stored away an entire pallet,
the head of the cash transport operation simply blinked, mouth hanging open, and only then did he nod.
“As expected, the abilities of you Admittees... transcend common sense...”
He shook his head.
Once the unloading was finished,
eighty pallets—two trillion won in total—were left on the empty lot, and all the personnel departed.
Only Suho, Minsu, Minji, and Joshua Evans remained.
Whoooosh—
With a single gesture from Suho, all the cash amounting to two trillion won vanished. In the blink of an eye, in a single instant.
Joshua, who had been staring blankly at the sight, opened his mouth.
“D-does the ability called Item Collecting normally include something like this?”
“I think so. There’s a subspace where the collected items are stored. It might be a set ability that comes with it.”
Suho gave a casual explanation, and Joshua looked genuinely awestruck.
“Let’s head back. Oh, Joshua. Don’t you need some cash? Should I put a pallet at your place?”
“Pardon?! What do you mean? I already receive more than enough salary...”
“Come on, salary is just salary. How can a person live on salary alone? Let’s just call this a bonus! What do you think?”
“No! No, absolutely not. I’m fine. Truly... I’m fine.”
Joshua hurriedly waved his hands, then quickly got into the car and started the engine.
The scale of Suho’s flexing was truly too much to handle.
Cold sweat broke out on him.
* * *
Two trillion won in bundles of 50,000-won bills.
Eighty pallets, each bundled at 25 billion won.
Suho lined them all up neatly in one corner of the subspace warehouse, the Village of Dreams.
Seeing the brand-new money still wrapped and sitting on pallets gave him a strange feeling.
“I’ve only ever seen stuff like this in movies...”
“Is that Earth’s cash? It just looks like paper.”
Ravi flew over and asked.
“That’s right. It’s just paper. Paper, but... paper with power. It’s your first time seeing it, isn’t it?”
“I know. An agreed-upon tool serving as a store of exchange value.”
“...You know it well. Aren’t you something.”
Now that he had a mountain of currency stacked up, it felt a little more real.
The reality that he had truly become rich.
In truth, even if he put all this money together, it wouldn’t come close to the price of a single EX-grade Aetherium,
and yet, even when he tossed EX-grade Aetherium around like pebbles and played with it, he had never felt like this...
How ironic.
Ravi, who had perched atop a bundle of bills and was sniffing at it, asked,
“But what are you going to use this for?”
“Well... honestly, I don’t have any particular purpose. I just collected it. Just... for the feeling. The feeling of having a lot. The mood. That’s all.”
“......Hmm... Suho, you seem to have many moods where you try to gather small things and feel something from them.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. You definitely seem like the type to be satisfied by very, very small things rather than great ones.”
“Haha! Hey, Ravi. This isn’t small. It’s a lot. Good grief, if someone else heard you, they’d faint.”
“Mm...?”
Ravi tilted her head and flew around Suho.