A Proposal to Cooperate

Nfirea took the potion, which filled only the bottom of the bottle. Hades had expected him to at least make a few sarcastic remarks about how little they had managed to produce after all that work. He had even planned how he would respond.

But to his surprise, the young man's expression turned grave. Under the dim light, he carefully examined the red potion at the bottom of the bottle.

"Th-this... could this be the legendary Blood of God?" Nfirea's eyes, partly hidden by his hair, showed a look of astonished uncertainty.

He had once heard his grandmother Lizzie say that there was a kind of potion that wouldn't deteriorate even without the "Preservation" spell. It was red, and according to his grandmother, such a potion might exist in ruins from long ago.

But now he had seen this potion made with his own eyes, and it felt unreal. Potions always turned blue during preparation, and alchemical solutions weren't red, either.

But the solution had already been red when Sir Jimi extracted it. Wait...

"Item Appraisal."

"Magic Detection."

Nfirea hurriedly cast spells to appraise the potion at the bottom of the bottle.

As the seconds passed, Nfirea's breathing grew more and more rapid.

There was no doubt: this was the kind of healing potion that didn't deteriorate. Since it had happened right before his eyes, Nfirea found it hard to believe. He didn't think he could judge it by color alone, so he had cast appraisal spells.

But when the appraisal spells ended, his eyes widened. This really was a potion of Blood of God. It wouldn't deteriorate even if left untreated.

And the technique for making this potion had just been demonstrated right in front of him. Yet the materials Sir Jimi used were ordinary; only the steps were different.

It seemed that when extracting the alchemical solution, he had used a spell Nfirea had never seen before.

"Blood of God?" Hades asked, puzzled.

This was a low-tier healing potion that could restore 50 HP. He still didn't know whether the volume of a potion in the New World was connected to how much HP it restored. If it was, this tiny amount probably wouldn't even restore 50 HP.

"That's right. It's Blood of God!"

Nfirea was so excited he could barely contain himself. He hadn't expected that, while simply hoping to see a type of potion the workshop didn't have, he would witness the creation of Blood of God.

"Fine, whatever you say." Seeing his reaction, Hades realized that the blue potions must have been far inferior. Otherwise, Nfirea wouldn't be this excited.

That was a relief. Hades then asked, "How much do you think this potion could sell for?"

"Sell it?" Nfirea's excitement faltered, then surged again. "Sir Jimi, are you willing to sell it?"

"To be honest, I don't need potions. I'd like you to help me sell these from now on. What do you think?" Hades asked.

"I..." Nfirea suddenly hesitated. It wasn't that he disliked the proposal. If he could get the rights to sell this potion, the workshop could make even more money by marking up the price a little.

But he and his grandmother Lizzie weren't short of money. More than money, he wanted to learn the technique. But how could that possibly happen?

"Is something wrong?" Hades asked. Judging by the young man's excitement, this potion was definitely rare. Even if Nfirea took a share and added a markup, it would still be a highly profitable partnership.

"N-no, there's no problem. It's just..." Nfirea hesitated. His obsession with potions had reached the point of being almost fanatical. Apart from one person, the thing he loved most was researching potions.

And now he had suddenly come face to face with someone who could astonish the entire potion-making industry...

"I wonder how Sir Jimi intends to sell it?" In the end, Nfirea gave up on asking to become his apprentice, at least for now. Besides, he wasn't sure whether he had the talent to impress a master capable of making Blood of God.

"First, tell me how much this stuff can sell for. But I should warn you: the ore you provided isn't very good. We got only this tiny amount of solution from such a huge chunk. I don't know how much ore it'll take to make a whole bottle.

"And I don't have any materials, either. If we make more, you'll have to provide them. But don't worry; I'll just deduct the cost of the materials from my share."

Hades explained it to Nfirea. With ore from YGGDRASIL and the Advanced Extraction spell, he should have been able to extract at least a large basinful from such a huge chunk.

But he had gotten only a single drop. At this rate, making one bottle of potion would probably take more ore than could fit in half a room.

"Although I don't know why you use Nuran ore to make Blood of God, that kind of ore isn't the best material for making alchemical solutions, at least not for us. But perhaps Blood of God requires ore like this. Please forgive me if I'm mistaken."

Nfirea even addressed him as "you" in the respectful form, despite the fact that the other man looked about his age.

"Oh, is that so?" Hades was taken aback. In the game, different ores didn't vary much in how much could be extracted from them. The only thing that affected the quality of a healing potion was the quality of the ore itself.

"You didn't know?" Nfirea suddenly found it a little strange. Judging by Hades's reaction, he didn't seem to know much about this.

"Ha, tell me how much the potion can sell for first." Hades gave an awkward laugh and moved on.

"Hmm, there's too little of it to fetch much if we sell it as is..." Nfirea looked troubled, then continued, "A normal-sized bottle could probably sell for eight gold coins. That's already equivalent to a second-tier healing spell."

"Eight gold coins?" Hades was surprised. The money he had borrowed from Nigun had only amounted to about ten gold coins, and Nigun had seemed reluctant to part with it. That meant it was a substantial sum.

This one bottle of low-tier healing potion could sell for eight gold coins?

"Eight gold coins is just my estimate. Its rarity could drive the price even higher. If we want to get the best price, we could auction it." Seeing that Hades didn't seem satisfied, Nfirea hurriedly added.

"An auction isn't necessary. It would attract too much attention," Hades immediately refused.

He did want to dangle bait, but he didn't want to draw too much attention. And once an auction was held, there would be too many people around. It would also be inconvenient to identify Nazarick's members, and if a fight broke out, innocent people might get hurt.

His plan was to let the news spread slowly, drawing Nazarick's members out to investigate in secret. He would plant an informant at Lizzie Workshop and identify them there.

Once he had confirmed his targets, he could find the right moment to assassinate a few NPCs. Those NPCs wore divine-class items, and no matter how wealthy Nazarick was, it couldn't possibly give every NPC an ultra-rare Resurrection Ring, could it?

If it really had, then he had nothing to say. He'd just have to accept his defeat.

His only concern was that, out of caution, Momonga might have those NPCs take off their divine-class items. But if Momonga wanted to use himself as bait and came in person, Hades would just kill him again.

And this time, it wouldn't matter even if he was seen. After all, he had plenty of identities.