"It's December 30. I need to catch transportation to the Aijin Continent on January 1, and the exam officially starts on January 7. I'll also need time to find the exam venue once I get there..."
"So I can't spend more than five days traveling. In this world, which is faster, ships or airships?"
The blue-eyed, white-haired boy walked to the center of the fountain plaza and sat by the fountain. He tilted his head slightly to watch the seagulls flying overhead.💢♣ 🐺👍
The gray-white seagulls streaked across the sky, like trails left behind by dissipating clouds.
Flying does seem faster.
He'd never ridden a ship or an airship in this world. A ship wasn't anything special, but an airship...
Back when he'd watched the original anime, he'd really wanted to try one! He'd even tinkered with making one himself, and in the end, he'd managed to build a fairly convincing airship model.
He could control it to take off, just like a remote-control plane.
But he never made a full-size version. Building one would have cost a fortune, there wasn't much demand for it, and every part and component had to be custom-made, which doubled the price.
Even though he'd never been short of money as a grade-schooler, he still couldn't afford that much.
Afterward, the first airship model he'd made sat in his display cabinet and never flew again.
"An airship, probably." As Su Wu tossed away the skewer he'd finished eating, he noticed the redness and swelling on his arm.
As time passed, the swollen area kept spreading.
"A pharmacy. Come to think of it, I think I just saw one..." Calm and expressionless, he got to his feet.
"How do you ask for allergy medicine in this world? They'd better have ebastine, loratadine, or fexofenadine..." Stroking his chin, he headed toward the pharmacy he'd noticed earlier.
It was a shop tucked into a corner at the very edge of the road. The storefront was cramped, the interior dim, and even the entrance was so small and low that you could easily miss it if you weren't paying attention.
It was like a shop run by dwarves. The dwarves in Snow White were all at least five foot three, after all.
But there was a little... mark on the door.
A mark so faint you'd miss it if you didn't look closely—something like a diamond between two Xs.
It looked very familiar to Su Wu. It was exactly the same as the emblem on a Hunter License.
Six Eyes also detected someone inside the pharmacy whose life energy was stronger than an ordinary person's.
He immediately strode over, pushed the door open, and stepped inside without pausing.
The first thing he saw was a bizarrely dressed figure wearing a black hooded robe, standing before a cauldron and waving both hands as if performing a ritual.
Inside the cauldron was a mass of black-purple, viscous liquid, sending up thick black smoke. As Su Wu watched, bubbles burbled up from it.
It looked exactly like... a wizard hiding in a dark corner, brewing poison or putting curses on people.
"...Voldemort?" Su Wu stopped a short distance away, his voice uncertain.
Were there wizards in the Hunter World, too?
"What's that? Some new kind of magical beast?" the black-robed figure replied in a slow voice, turning around as he spoke.
The oversized hood concealed most of his face. The half that showed was extremely pale, and even his lips were grayish-white.
Great. That pale complexion made him look even more like Voldemort. All he needed was to be missing his nose and hair.
But he did have hair: long black hair tied into a braid on one side. At a glance, it was hard to tell what gender he was.
"Pretty much." Su Wu answered the question of whether Voldemort was a magical creature.
"I've never seen one. I wonder if it has any valuable parts that can be used in medicine." The dark figure's voice was gloomy and a little weak, as if he were short on blood.
"Welcome, sir. What medicine are you looking for?" he asked in a somber voice, as though he'd only just remembered to greet his customer.
"I'm allergic to seafood. Do you have anything for that?" Su Wu was a little curious about the shop and its Voldemort-like shopkeeper... ahem.
It was like encountering a strangely dressed, mysterious NPC in a game. Any player would guess the NPC had a quest or some plot hidden away.
"Food allergies are a minor problem..." The gloomy Wizard Shopkeeper put out the fire, leaving the black-purple liquid in the cauldron to cool on its own, then came over to Su Wu.
He grabbed Su Wu's arm and raised it. Lowering his own head, he examined it for three seconds before letting go.
Su Wu uncomfortably patted the spot the other man had touched.
He'd almost used [Dismantle] on him, but he'd managed to hold back.
"That'll be 10,000 Geni." The black-clad shopkeeper turned around and rummaged through the shelves for medicine as he spoke.
Geni was worth about the same as yen in the real world. Ten thousand Geni was nearly five hundred yuan, so this medicine seemed a bit expensive.
Perhaps he'd been questioned about his prices more than once. The gloomy shopkeeper spoke slowly. "All the ingredients come from Magic Plants. They're the real deal."
"You're not an ordinary customer, are you? You should understand what they're worth." He spoke evenly.
As soon as the white-haired boy entered the shop, he sensed the other's Nen. The boy didn't seem to be hiding it, openly displaying his unusual abilities. That made it easy for him to realize that the child before him, despite his young appearance, was stronger than he was.
"I'll take one." Su Wu gave a slight nod, without directly answering whether he understood what the ingredients were worth.
After paying, he began looking over the ingredients in the shop.
The wooden shelves were packed with all sorts of strange things: animal horns, black sand, milky-white jelly-like solids, faintly glowing red powder, and even things that looked like fruits or vegetables.
"They all come from Magic Plants and magical beasts? What's this?" Su Wu pointed to a red strawberry in the cabinet.
It looked exactly like a strawberry! And a big, plump one, too—one that would surely taste delicious.
"Strawberries that grow on the backs of Strawberry Turtles from Mishiru Wetland. They're sweet and mild, and they strengthen the body. They can be added to most medicines to improve the flavor." The gloomy shopkeeper answered seriously, ready to explain anything he was asked.
Got it. Add one, and you get strawberry-flavored medicine.
"What about this?" Su Wu pointed to the red powder beside it.
It glowed in the dim light and looked beautiful.
"Powder from the scales on a Vampire Butterfly's wings. It helps replenish what the body has lost, and it can also be used to make certain medicines..."
"Certain medicines?" The blue-eyed, white-haired boy seemed curious.
"Medicine adults sometimes use for their nighttime activities. Of course, it can also be used to commit crimes. Vampire Butterfly scales are a main ingredient in knockout drugs, too." The shopkeeper discussed the subject without the slightest change in his voice.
"I see." Su Wu nodded thoughtfully.
But as for replenishing what the body had lost... He'd lost a lot of blood through his nose. He probably needed that, right?
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