I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash - Chapter 19

At the center of a pool of blood, Laffy slowly sheathed her sword. Surrounding her lay many torn up corpses of Blood Wolves.

Laffy herself didn’t have a single wound.

“That didn’t take as much time as I thought it would… Now then.”

She looked around. However, she couldn’t spot the alchemist she had come to this forest with.

“Did he get lost…?”

If he was lost, then that was a bit of a problem. Unlike Laffy, Raith had no combat ability. If a monster found him, he could only run away. Though he could probably use alchemy to buy time, at least.

“I have to find him, quickly.”

Hurriedly, Laffy took a step forward, when suddenly, there was a loud boom.

“Wha…?!”

Laffy, having reflexively stopped, quickly placed her hand on the hilt of her sword and surveyed her surroundings.

“That noise just now…”

She looked around, but there was no sign of any monsters nearby. The noise had probably come from somewhere further away. It sounded almost like something had used all its strength to chop down a tree in one strike.

Though she didn’t want to believe that there was a monster here that could accomplish such a feat.

“What do I do…?”

Her top priority was joining back up with Raith. Then, they would head to Raith’s house, retrieve the materials, and escape from the forest.

That was the ideal course of events, but things weren’t likely to go that smoothly. There were monsters in this forest, the source of that booming noise was one of them.

“What is going on…?”

Deciding that, for now, she would start with searching for Raith and investigating the area, Laffy began moving.

***

That was, right, when I was 14, I think? My teacher told(forced) me to collect alchemy ingredients, and I went to an old graveyard.

Then, I encountered them for the first time. The repulsive monsters known as the undead.

“AaAAAaaahhh!!!”

Raith ran. At full strength, in utter desperation, he ran like the wind. Even when his lungs began to hurt, he ignored it and simply ran.

“You gotta… be kidding me…! All I wanted was to go back to my house for the first time in a while, so why do I gotta be chased around this much?!”

Behind Raith was a monster made of human bones – a Skeleton. Clad in sturdy-looking armor, it held a rusted, gross-looking longsword in its hand.

The Skeleton’s height was well over two meters, and the sight of it hacking through the trees of the forest as easily as cutting paper filled him with terror.

Why was this happening?

The Skeleton had appeared suddenly. After he’d managed to get away from the Blood Wolves, Raith had been resting in a tree when, suddenly, it had come out of nowhere and chopped the tree down with its longsword.

Although Raith had been lucky and hadn’t been seriously injured when the tree fell, the Skeleton had been chasing him ever since.

“What do I do now…?!”

Behind him, he could hear the whoosh of the longsword being swung through the air with great strength, and a chill ran down his spine. If that hit had landed, Raith’s body would have been easily crushed.

Raith tried to think of a way to get away from it, like he had done with the Blood Wolves.

But, unfortunately, Skeletons had few weaknesses.

Firstly, they lacked the five senses. Therefore, monster repellent potions and dyes for restricting vision would have no effect whatsoever.

To be frank, Raith couldn’t expect his methods of buying time with alchemy to have much of an effect against a Skeleton.

In addition, the Skeleton chasing Raith was clearly strange.

Normal Skeletons didn’t have huge bodies over two meters tall. They were, of course, also incapable of cutting a tree down in a single hit with a longsword.

At that moment, he realized that this one was superior to the average Skeleton.

However, a Skeleton like this one had a single fatal weakness: a type of potion known as “holy water”.

Since its ingredients were a bit hard to obtain, there wasn’t much of it, but holy water’s effect on undead-type monsters was immense.

Raith had three bottles of holy water on hand. Even so, undead wouldn’t be defeated just by being hit with holy water. At best, it could confine them.

Therefore, Raith would have to get away from the Skeleton while he used the three bottles of holy water. Raith didn’t want to be turned into mincemeat in a place like this.

“Well, realistically, getting away seems like it’ll be tough, though…”

Perhaps because not much time had passed since the escape scene with the Blood Wolves, Raith was nearing the limits of his stamina. He was out of breath, and the Skeleton could catch up with him any time now.

As Raith moved his feet, he glanced down at his bag. Then, he calmly looked around.

“…Alright,” Raith muttered, as if he had made up his mind about something. Then, he took the first bottle of holy water out of his bag and threw it at the Skeleton.

Its face covered in holy water, the Skeleton suddenly stopped moving and appeared to writhe in agony.

“Now’s my chance…!”

Making full use of what little stamina he had left, Raith headed for a certain place. A place Raith was familiar with, due to having lived in this forest..

The Skeleton was released from the holy water’s effect and, as if to say it would never let him get away, swang the longsword around as it chased Raith.

Although there were several times when it seemed that it would catch up with him, Raith made full use of holy water and alchemy to buy time.

And so–

“Please work!”

The instant Raith arrived at his destination, he haphazardly sprinkled water on the weeds that grew there. It wouldn’t be long until the Skeleton reached this place, so his expression was that of desperation.

“Compress, Blend,” Raith said, activating two alchemical spells successively, then immediately distanced himself from the area.

The Skeleton, of course, continued chasing after Raith.

However, as soon as it raised the longsword high overhead, its stance was thrown off.

Watching the Skeleton dramatically collapse onto the ground, Raith let out a deep sigh. Looking at the Skeleton’s legs would reveal that they had gotten entangled in the mass of weeds that were on the ground.

This plant’s name was cucheena weed, and when mixed with water, a miniscule amount of adhesive liquid was created. With a large amount of cucheena weed, it was possible to intentionally make use of it for a powerful binding effect.

Exactly like what Raith did just now.

“It’s a good thing I remember everything in this forest that can be used as alchemy ingredients…”

Looking worn out, Raith breathed heavily.

Although it was impossible to restrain it indefinitely, this would buy time.

Now that he had the chance, he would try to meet back up with Laffy. Though, Raith would be happy if she had heard the sound of the tree being cut down and was on her way right now.

“For now, I guess I’ll do what I can.”