Chapter 5: Alchemists (1)
Beelzebub didn't want to lie right off the bat to the person that was potentially his only saving card.
Fabricating some fake village name or stating one of the beginner villages from the game wouldn't have been a smart move, as David didn't know his exact location. It would only raise suspicions and problems instead.
David also wanted to form a normal business relationship with Bruno, who didn't seem to mind David's mysterious origins. If anything, the young man should be a little suspicious of David's survival skills.
'He doesn't feel any threat from me.' Beelzebub inwardly assumed, glancing above Bruno's head. 'I can't see any status window, just like with the monsters.'
In the game world, NPCs and players could have seen the power gap between themselves through inescapable status windows displaying level, health and mana points, and also guild. That wasn't the case in David's new predicament, which was quite worrying.
He needed to learn a skill to see through others' strengths…
'It comes with experience… he sees that I don't have any equipment, breathe irregularly, and sweat like a pig. But I still survived in this forest without anything at hand, so he must be wary.' Beelzebub calmly started his adaptation to the new world, carefully thinking of his next question.
Since Bruno thought of him as a person who had never left his house, David casually pointed at the chasm. "It doesn't seem natural."
The crack in the wound was like a wound to the world. It expanded across four hundred miles the least and was as thick as a mouth of a demon… David didn't doubt it would have looked like a monster's jaw from the bird's view from above. It was that thick, after all.
However, even a normal human would notice that this precipice wasn't native to this expanse. It looked off into the vista of the dense forest.
Monsters didn't come here, too, from what David had observed. If it weren't for that crack of darkness, the monsters attracted by the green flames would have arrived here after Beelzebub's trial.
Bruno nodded to Beelzebub's judgment. "The legend says that a terrifying battle had happened in this place around seven hundred years ago. It was a battle between demons, humans, and heavenly lineage. Two years ago, my friend saw a heavenly lineage's descendants flying across this chasm to check on it… some say that those sacred people turned this chasm into a prison for the lost demons, trapping them in eternal darkness. Well, for us, it's a good harvesting ground."
It happened so a long time ago that David should know about this battle. After all, he was familiar with demons, being one of them now after his class turned legendary — but he did not. He couldn't recall any battle between demons, humans, and heavenly lineage.
'What is a heavenly lineage to being with? Was there a patch to introduce angels?' David thought with apprehension reminding him of his grim thoughts.
What if this world were the real world?
It would have explained a few things…
"Heavenly lineage?" David masked his feelings in his soft tone, sounding as calm as usual.
Bruno, who had opened his pouch, fished out a jar of water and poured the cold liquid down his throat. He then loudly moaned as if he had been dying to drink. For some reason, he hadn't done that from the start… David noticed another bag carefully nested on his lap, which should have been the cause.
Bruno chuckled and passed the jar to Beelzebub. "Heavenly lineage came to our world thousand years ago. Right, they had their thousandth anniversary four years ago! We saw many beautiful people flying across the skies as all of them descended onto our continent. You would have seen them had you not stayed all the time in your house."
"You mean players?" Beelzebub carelessly muttered that term out, only to regret it as Bruno's face paled.
"Don't call them that! Their descendants don't like it!" Bruno twisted his neck left and right, up and even down, only to see whether no presence with wings stretching from their back flew past them!
He was that frightened by David's careless move.
On the other hand, Beelzebub knew he was more than fucked.
His worst thoughts were real — he was in a real, fantasy world. Worse, he was thrust thousand years ahead, so a lot of stuff have happened in his absence. He didn't even know whether his maids were alive, let alone any of his potential allies. Moreover, demons and players had fought against each other.
And the chasm before him suggested that at least one demonic army lost.
"My bad… excuse my ignorance, Bruno." David drank the cold water off Bruno's jar, then passed it back to him, sighing with heavy pressure, which pressed his shoulders low. "Harvesting ground, you said? Is that your occupation, to risk a life for some resources?"
To change the subject and see more of the native world, Beelzebub asked rather a normal question, to which Bruno grinned, his mood back.
"We alchemists can only risk our lives to progress!" Bruno proudly stated those words.
In the meantime, Beelzebub's eyes widened in shock. "So alchemists have muscles now?"
"What?" Bruno couldn't understand David's expression.
Things seemed to get worse and worse for the new legend…
-
"No, no, no! That's the highest-class alchemist, you know? There's only one alchemist like that in the Williard Village! His skills are unmatchable, so everyone risks their lives to make him concoct potions and pills! Like Mr. Wetherell is the only reason people no longer die of diseases!" Bruno waved his hands frantically upon hearing Beelzebub's view of alchemists, which in his mind were people similar to him, focusing on their mana and intelligence growth instead of muscles.
Beelzebub was like a statue, gawking at the young man. "You're saying that every other alchemist in your village comes to this chasm and risks their lives for resources?"
"Well, I have experience, skills, and even equipment! It's much cheaper this way… and no, Mr. Wetherell has students under him that are personally taught by him. So not everyone is risking their lives or buying resources through inflated prices on the market…." Bruno sighed without hiding a note of jealousy.
Having more information about his situation, Beelzebub formed a few scenarios in his mind in which he thought of the best possible route for himself.
He looked at Bruno, who was getting ready to stand up and leave the chasm. "Show me what you've picked up from the chasm."
Bruno carefully eyed the slender man before opening his precious bag, where three blue flowers and their stems were tightly tied together.
Beelzebub peered into the content, scrutinizing it with his experienced eye... "Elimafarede, or for new alchemists, Elim Flower. What do you use it for?"
Bruno replied like a good student, for Beelzebub's soft voice became sharper now that he spoke about alchemy which he was passionate about. "I… I use them to make pills to cure a cold… once, I successfully concocted a low-grade ice resistance pill of it. But it was a fluke…."
"Fluke is twenty percent of luck and eighty percent of skill." Beelzebub stated those words with his chin high, sounding too confident of his words.
And those were words that won over Bruno.
In his eyes, Beelzebub wasn't a sick and weak man.
He was similar to Mr. Wetherell.