Chapter 15: ?Chapter 15- Potions
Potions wasn't an unfamiliar term to Talon. Potions existed in games and fictional stories and were pretty common. However, in this situation, he didn't know if these potions were like the ones he knew of or a completely different thing.
Acrypha noticed the confusion on his face and continued explaining. "Potions are consumables that can leave instantaneous or slow effects on your body depending on what which one you consume."
"Oh, so basically like the potions I know of."
"They exist in many dimensions but are more uncommon in advanced societies in many other dimensions so that makes them very rare to come by. Not to mention some of them are extremely strong and could easily change the tide of whole wars." Acrypha explained.
In her lifetime, Acrypha had witnessed potions changing outcomes of battles in a matter of moments. The loser would be on the brink of death and then out of nowhere, they're winning.
"Potion makers are one of the most sought-after individuals in every dimension, including the core dimension itself. They're extremely important people." Acrypha added.
"So potions are this important, huh?" Talon nodded his head as he finally looked at Soomin. "Ok, let's start opening these stones and splitting the treasures."
"Splitting the treasures?" Shin-Il asked. "But, I didn't do anything to deserve getting a share of this."
No one spoke for a few seconds as they looked at Shin-Il. They couldn't really disagree with what he said, especially Soomin since she also didn't really kill Dimension Walker.
"Yeah, everyone will get their fair share. We need to get stronger if we want to survive and weapons and skills are crucial for that." Talon explained.
"I see... Thank you, Talon!" Shin-Il replied with a small, touched smile.
After that, Talon looked at the pile of stones and grabbed a random stone from it. The one he got was blue which meant that it was a weapon. So, Talon simply crashed it under everyone's gaze.
Immediately, the stone turned into shiny shards before it suddenly elongated and changed quickly to form a beautiful black katana.
Its handle was all black and its blade was a very dark grey which gave it an ominous vibe. However, the details on it were still fascinating.
[Black Smog Katana: A Katana created by an unknown blacksmith in the lands of the black smog. Its blade never dulls and can kill any creature under level 10. Gets stronger in cloudy weather.
+5 Strength, +5 Agility.]
"Interesting weapon..." Talon murmured as he read the description of the sword. In terms of bonus stats, it was similar to his spear. However, where they differ is the level of monsters they can kill.
'My spear is better in that regard.'
"Who's good with a katana between you guys?"
"I know how to use it," Chin-Hwa said. "I have trained under a dojo master when I was young."
"You did? That's really cool." Talon said as he blinked quickly.
"Chin-Hwa is very good when it comes to any form of martial arts," Shin-Il added with a proud smile.
Chin-Hwa didn't say a word but there was a subtle change in his eyes. Seeing Talon impressed by it, he felt superior to him. His eyes eventually wandered to Hyun-Jae expecting to see a reaction from her too. However, she didn't seem to be focused on the conversation as she grabbed another stone and crashed it.
Immediately, the stone turned into shards as it completely vanished instead of forming into a weapon.
Her eyes then changed to look ahead of her as if she was reading something no one could see.
"I've got a skill." She said.
Everyone looked at her curiously. Hyun-Jae went silent again for a while before she added. "For now, let's keep our skills secret. We can reveal them once we need to." She said.
Everyone looked at each other confusedly. Everyone except for Talon who seemed to realize what Hyun-Jae meant.
'She still doesn't trust me and knows that I don't trust them either.' He thought to himself.
Talon didn't forget that he really didn't know this group and neither did they. So, telling crucial secrets to each other like skills or things like that would be foolish.
"Good idea. Let's keep it a secret for now." Talon said. "Let's continue opening these stones."
After that, Talon and the others started breaking all the stones. In the end, they ended up with two more normal-looking swords that didn't have any special effects one of which was given to Hyun-Jae and the other was kept alone for now, a long combat knife that looked rather futuristic and had the ability to retract the blade and make it vanish allowing the user to surprise attack anyone which was given to Soomin. And finally, they found a red old bow.
When Shin-Il saw it, he was very excited. The bow was rather old but still considerably bigger than a normal bow. It also had a rather special ability that Talon didn't expect to see.
The bow didn't require arrows and instead would use Aetheris from the user's body to create arrows. The more Aetheris the user imbues it with, the stronger the arrow is.
'That's a nice ability.' Rubbing his chin, Talon looked at Shin-Il.
"You won't need arrows to use it. Though you will need to practice using it first." He said.
"Mmm, I will do my best!"
Finally, they crashed the last 4 stones and got two skills and two viles with unknown liquid inside them.
Talon grabbed one of them which had red liquid inside.
[Healing Potion: Heals 20% of the consumer's injuries. Side Effect: Exhaustion.]
"What's that?" Soomin asked curiously.
"Here. Check it out." Talon handed her the potion.
Reading its description, the girl was surprised.
"Oh, this is really good. A healing potion could really save one of us." She said.
"We need to find more of it," Chin-Hwa added.
"We will once we kill more of those things outside. But for now, let's check the last potion and rest for the day. I'm really exhausted." Hyun-Jae added.
Picking up the last one, Talon noticed that the potion had a purple color.
[Core Potion: Increases the chances of gaining a monster core by 15%.]
"Hmm, interesting..." Talon rubbed his chin as he read its effects. Then, he handed it to everyone else to check it and they had the same reaction.
"Speak of the devil. I guess Chin-Hwa's wish was accepted." Shin-Il said with a small smile.
"..." The latter averted his eyes for a moment.
"Oh, he's feeling embarrassed," Soomin said with a playful tone. "What a rare sight."
"I'm not embarrassed," Chin-Hwa replied coldly.
"Sure~" Soomin replied as she whistled quietly.
"I'm not."
"Say what you want, dude."
As the two bantered, the others watched with smiles. The tension in the place lessened considerably which was a good thing. Everyone was still devastated, but deep down, they didn't want to crush the morale of the group.
After that, Talon stood up slowly and dusted his clothes off.
"I'm going to excuse myself. My eyes are barely staying open." Talon said.
Everyone was dead tired after what happened today so they also wanted to sleep. It was still barely 1 or 2 pm in the afternoon and yet they felt as if days had passed with how many things happened in those few hours ever since things went out of control.
Talon slowly walked away from the group and chose a nice quiet area of the warehouse where he sat down and rested his back against the wall. He exhaled a long breath as he closed his eyes.
Meanwhile, Acrypha simply sat on top of a crater really close to him. Her eyes kept looking outside from a small window near her. Her eyes were directed at the huge gate that was still floating in the earth's mesosphere.
For a moment, Acrypha's eyes flashed with a complicated glint before they returned to normal.
"I forgot to ask, what made you come to earth?" Talon asked.
This was a question Talon wanted to pose to Acrypha ever since they met and yet didn't have the opportunity to till now.
Where was she from? Why did she fly through the window and smash into his room as if she was hit by something? And why can't she help him kill monsters?
All these were questions that Talon wanted answers to.
Acrypha looked down at Talon for a moment before she replied.
"Do you want to know why all of this happened?" She asked back. "The appearance of that gate, the monsters, and the talk about dimensions and other worlds?"
"Yes, I want to." He replied with a serious look. "Why? Why did we end up like this?"
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