I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash - Chapter 18
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- I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash
- Chapter 18 - Danger Zone
If only he had entered the brush a moment later, he might have been able to notice the Blood Wolves first.
That was what Raith was thinking as he started running for his life. He moved his legs as fast as he could, heading towards where Laffy had been, but it was an obvious fact that they would quickly catch up with him if he simply ran straight ahead.
Since he was slower than them, the only thing he could do was make use of the trees to run away.
“I mean, how many even are there, shit…!”
Laffy had been up against quite a lot of Blood Wolves. Even Raith himself had thought that was all of them, but he still wanted to complain about it.
Every time he narrowly avoided a claw or fang, he felt a chill run down his spine.
“Guess I’ll use it…!”
Raith reached into his bag as he ran, feeling around for a monster repellent potion. There were a limited number of them, but this wasn’t the time to worry about things like that. The fact that he would exhaust his stamina and get eaten at this rate would have to take precedence.
Raith tightly gripped the potion as he glanced back to check the distance between himself and the Blood Wolves. Then, after estimating the timing, he threw it at them.
The potion bottle smashed open in front of the Blood Wolves and emitted its unique odor.
Having successfully hit his target, Raith’s expression relaxed for a moment.
However–
“…Why are they still chasing after me?!”
Contrary to Raith’s expectations, the Blood Wolves unfalteringly continued running towards him. They showed no sign of being bothered by the smell.
It should work extremely well on beast-type monsters, but it had no effect.
Nevertheless, since the Blood Wolves weren’t stopping, Raith had no time to rest. After momentarily letting his guard down, Raith refocused his mind and resumed the escape scene.
But even if he kept running away haphazardly, there was nowhere to run to. Raith tried to work out a way to somehow shake them off.
“Since the monster repellent potion didn’t work, does that mean they lost their sense of smell…? In that case…”
Potions that targeted the sense of smell were the only ones he had brought. It was natural, then, to think that, for some reason, the Blood Wolves had lost their sense of smell. If that was the case, there was still a way to escape them.
Raith shoved his hand into his bag once more and found what he was looking for.
“If their noses are useless, how about this!” Raith said, dumping the contents of a bottle behind him, and a red liquid burst out of it and into the air. The red liquid then landed a direct hit on the Blood Wolves’ faces.
Then, the Blood Wolves suddenly stopped moving. As if annoyed, they shook their heads side to side, trying to clear away the liquid stuck to their faces. However, they could not restore their vision, which had been dyed bright red.
“That dye is my specialty, made from cora fruit and hakra grass mixed together. Your vision won’t return so quickly. And–”
Cora juice tended to stain easily. Mixing that with hakra grass, which had a high level of absorbability, and making it into a liquid created a powerful dye.
Raith threw the emptied bottle with all his strength in the opposite direction to the one he was headed. It hit the ground and, naturally, the noticeable sound of glass breaking echoed.
The Blood Wolves, who couldn’t see anything, reacted to the shrill noise with alertness. In unison, they rushed in the direction of the noise.
“…If their noses don’t work, I just have to do something about their vision and hearing.”
If the Blood Wolves’ sense of smell had been working normally, Raith’s location would have been easily exposed by now. Though, in that situation, he would have been able to get away after throwing the monster repellent potion. At any rate, the fact that he had just survived the threat to his life was something to be happy about.
Thanks to the dye, he was able to buy time.
“Still, that was exhausting…”
As Raith distanced himself from that area, he let out a sigh.
Raith had good stamina, but after running for so long, he amassed quite a bit of fatigue. He wanted to rest his body a bit, if possible.
“Oh, I know.”
Raith struck his palm with his fist, as if to declare that he had come up with a brilliant idea. Then, he looked around at his surroundings and approached a tree.
“Hup!”
Without hesitating, Raith climbed the tree and reached the top of a thick branch in no time.
“Phew… I should be able to rest here.”
Since he had lived in a forest, he had climbed trees many times before. If he stayed in the tree, he wouldn’t need to worry about encountering monsters like he had a little while ago.
He’d be able to rest his body while feeling relatively safe.
“I hope Laffy’s okay…” he mumbled, leaning on the trunk of the tree. It had been long enough that he wouldn’t be surprised if Laffy had finished the fight by now.
“I’ll wait a little longer and then go look for her.”
Raith let out a deep sigh and tried restoring his stamina.
It was then that his body was struck by a sudden vibration.
***
“Hmm, the sudden appearance of monsters, huh…”
With great interest, the man narrowed his eyes at the information in the report. He was the current head of one of this country’s four great noble families.
His name was Willus Ledium. He was one of the many people who had asked for one of Raith’s elixirs.
Although, Raith had firmly denied him the purchase of an elixir, so all he’d been able to do was meet him.
Nonetheless, Raith was not related to what was afflicting Willus’s mind right now.
It was about the incident where monsters had appeared in a forest near the capital just recently. Even though the damage started being reported immediately after, there were quite a few injured people.
Most likely, that meant there were just that many monsters.
“Good grief, the royal family is having difficulties, and now there’s another troublesome issue,” Willus said with an uneasy sigh.
Ordinarily, it was a general rule that, for issues like these, the royal family intervened and approved the method for dealing with them.
However, the royal family was busy with something right now. For that reason, this incident had been left entirely for Willus to deal with, since he was available. Willus would prefer that the damage did not increase any more than this.
“Be that as it may…”
If this sudden appearance of monsters had been a simple gathering of low rank monsters, it would have been fine. If it was only the Blood Wolves and the other D-rank and C-rank monsters in the reports, dealing with them would be simple.
However, there was one report that a B-rank adventurer party had been taken out. If they had reached B-rank, they were in the realm where they could be called veterans. They wouldn’t get taken out so easily.
“At worst, we should anticipate at least an A+.”
A+ meant that the monster was stronger than A-rank, but weaker than S-rank. Recently, an A+ monster that had appeared outside the kingdom had been defeated by five A-rank adventurers.
If it could be defeated by five people, it would seem that they would be able to manage, but two among them were dead. Even when it was challenged by 5 A-ranks who possessed overwhelming strength, it had produced casualties.
“I’ll send out a designation request, and… Worst case scenario, I’ll go.”
Willus decided to send requests to several A-ranks and S-ranks. If eliminating the monster still proved difficult, going there himself was one method he would consider.
Though he normally avoided combat entirely, Willus could fight. His ability was on the level where he wouldn’t be outdone by even S-ranks.
Due to his position, he hadn’t had a good opportunity to demonstrate his ability. Even so, he never missed training.
“And now, it is time to move with haste.”
Willus began preparing request forms for the designation requests.
…Unaware that an alchemist was, at this very moment, in a forest somewhere.