Awakening the Great Chapter 22

Ch.22: Body Enhancent Potion

Hadiya reaches the riverbank faster than anyone else. The traces left by the warhorse were so clear that tracking posed virtually no difficulty.

In front of the riverbank.

She spots Calix lying on the muddy ground and finally lets out a sigh of relief.

"Calix! Are you okay?"

"...Yeah."

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine."

Despite the reassuring answer, the youth from the desert feels around her companion's body, checking once more for injuries.

"I told you I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"Hold still. Right after combat, you might be too excited to notice if you're hurt."

For Calix, this is quite an awkward mont.

[Reality Acceleration 1.0x]

[Physical condition is stable]

He learned from the neural accelerator that he hadn't suffered any serious injuries. Even so, figuring that it's better to be safe than sorry, he doesn't push away the hands examining his body.

Just then, Captain Royce appears with Gregor.

"Hadiya. How is Calix?"

"No major injuries."

"Hmm... Did you confirm the knight's whereabouts?"

Only one person knows the answer to that last question.

"He's in the water."

"In the water, you say..."

"About fifteen steps in a straight line. The current isn't fast, so he couldn't have drifted far. Plus, there's the weight of his armor."

"Hmm..."

"Captain, I'll go check."

At this, Hadiya taps her chest as if ready to dive, but the rcenary captain shakes his head and steps forward himself.

"Calix is tired too, and soone needs to look after Gregor. You stay here and guard them both. I'll go in."

"Uh... You'd be better at guarding than , Captain."

"True. But soone who can swim needs to go in, don't you think?"

"Ah, yes."

Thud!

Splash, splash-

As Royce throws off his leather armor and heads into the center of the river, Hadiya finally shows a mischievous expression as if she can breathe easy.

"Just like the perfect partners we are. What am I supposed to do if you two handle everything together?"

"I didn't handle it. If the Captain and you hadn't arrived in ti, things would have gotten complicated. The knight... He was strong."

"Strong indeed. And you cleanly killed that strong opponent. Gregor, you must be proud, right? You really chose your partner well, didn't you?"

At Hadiya's praise, the old rcenary, who had been staring at the river, slowly turns his head to respond.

"Ah, my partner? You an my sturdy plate?"

"...Gregor, I was talking about Calix."

"The cook comrade?"

"..."

Sadly, it seed that Indomitable Gregor had already lost his mory.

***

After dozens of dives, rcenary Captain Royce discovers the Baron's corpse and erges near the riverbank.

Splash!

"...Hadiya. Help

pull him out."

"Yes, Captain! Calix, you just stay put!"

Since the iron armor wasn't light enough for one person to pull up, they tied a rope to the corpse and pulled from land.

Scrape, scrape scrape-

The Baron's corpse no longer retained any trace of noble dignity.

The helt that had once been decorated with hawk feathers was now covered with tangled water plants, and water seeped out from various joints in the armor with drip drip sounds.

The four rcenaries looked down at it with serious expressions.

"Captain, now... What do we do?"

"Nothing changes. Capturing him alive would have been best, but the choice was his. He chose death over the path to life."

"Aha, you're copying what my cook comrade said! 'The choice isn't ours to make~ They chose first~' You were quite impressive back then, comrade!"

"..."

Is it just imagination that Calix and the Captain's faces seem slightly flushed?

At this, Hadiya desperately holds back laughter while searching through the corpse's belongings. As expected, no evidence remained.

"There's a command letter, but it got wet and sared. There are so readable parts, but... Even those don't contain anything significant."

"That's fine. No matter what we show, we can't escape responsibility."

"But-"

"We only have one choice anyway. We must inform the Marquis Hoover family of the facts and put them at the forefront. That's the only way we can survive."

"Can't we inform the rcenary Guild?"

It was a foolish question.

"Mouse comrade, unless the rcenary Guild is braindead, would they side with the rabbit? They'd just stick to the predator's neck and wag their tail."

"I suppose so... But Gregor, I told you not to call

Mouse. I asked you to call

Mountain Rabbit, too!"

"But didn't you co from the desert anyway?"

"Well, that's true, but..."

"Then Mouse is correct. The forest belongs to rabbits, and the desert is the land of mice. Yes, absolutely. One mustn't forget what they were born as."

"..."

Anyway, the cleanup is quickly finished. The horse was buried under the river water, but one corpse of noble blood remained intact.

"All the cleanup is done. We can load the body onto the cart and take it with us. It's getting warr, so we'll need to think of ways to prevent decay."

"Good work. So we've gathered everything worth taking?"

"Yes."

"No."

"...?"

And right then, Calix suddenly interrupted the conversation. In his outstretched hand was a glass bottle.

***

For Calix, trust and faith were values that couldn't be exchanged for anything. However, there was another reason why he readily handed over the treasure called the body enhancent potion.

He still didn't know the world.

He didn't know how precious this was, how to use it, or what price he would have to pay for keeping it hidden alone.

'It's better to reveal the truth and earn the Captain's trust.'

And this was a very wise decision.

"...Captain, this is going to cause an uproar. Judging by the color, it's definitely a high-grade enhancent potion. Only nobles can obtain sothing like this. rcenaries like us never get to see such a thing in our entire lives."

"..."

"Damn... Sorry for swearing. But this definitely seems to be genuine."

Hadiya searches through the baron's corpse again as if realizing sothing, and soon pulls out broken glass fragnts from his inner pocket.

The Baron had prepared two body enhancent potions.

One lost its value when the glass bottle broke during combat, and the other was the one Calix had retrieved.

"Now that it's co to this, how about we stop by a city and dispose of it-"

"Impossible."

Captain Royce shakes his head firmly. He knew well that 'treasures beyond one's station are worse than not having them at all'.

"Just revealing its existence would create countless enemies. It would be tantamount to suicide."

"That's probably true. Then how about secretly handing it over to the Marquis Hoover family and receiving compensation?"

"They're a family renowned for their fairness."

"Right?"

"But I don't trust them. They're not family. Friendship and trust are different things. I can't put the entire rcenary company at risk for money."

"...Then what do you intend to do? Destroy it here?"

"No, it might be worth presenting as a bargaining chip when we face a crisis soday. For now, let's hide the fact that we have a body enhancent potion. It must be kept secret even within the rcenary company. Is that possible?"

At this, Hadiya responds by looking at soone.

The mory-lost old man, Gregor, was passionately lecturing Calix about body enhancent potions, who looked clearly exhausted.

"Cook comrade, this is truly the essence of mana. While neural accelerators could be crudely copied, enhancent potions could only follow the exact formulation thods of mages. The ingredients that go into this are so precious."

"I see."

"Of course! This is so precious that it's divided into high, dium, and low grades depending on the degree of dilution. Since they don't know the thod, they have no choice but to dilute it like adding water to alcohol!"

"Have you ever tried it, Gregor? I'm curious."

At Calix's question, the old man laughs heartily enough to make his shield rattle, then approaches Royce and naturally takes the glass bottle from his grasp.

"Comrade, this isn't sothing you drink. In fact, even this glass bottle has magi-tech engineering applied to it. Look here. If you press the top with your thumb-"

Click!

"A needle cos out from the bottom. If you stick this into the neck vein like this-"

Prick!

Gurgle~gurgle~

"The essence of mana flows in through the needle. Then explosive chain reactions occur within the body. It strengthens the flesh and increases the flow and rotation speed of mana, enabling higher levels of neural responses. There's a similar item called 'Bone Enhancent Potion' that magi-tech engineers like to use, but this has effects on a completely different dinsion. How's that, do you understand now?"

"Ah..."

It was far too sudden.

The old man stuck the needle into Calix's neck and kept babbling until all the liquid inside was emptied.

What on earth just happened? The confusion was brief,

Looking around, it seed Calix wasn't the only one shocked.

Hadiya's mouth was hanging open as if her jaw had disappeared, and the Captain stood frozen with one arm extended forward.

His trembling fingertips were a bonus.

"Gre, Gregor-! You crazy old man... No, sir! Do you know what that was that you just injected!"

"A body enhancent potion. Does Mouse comrade think I don't even know that?"

"No, no... Oh my goodness, Kriya!"

"Do you believe in the Kriya faith? The priest's wife would be pleased. Her na is..."

"She's not a wife, she's Lady Ella! Ah, ahhhhh! What do we do about this! How are we going to handle this... You heard everything the Captain and I were discussing!"

"I did it because I heard."

"What? What do you an-"

"You said we had to hide it, right? Ta-da! Look here. I hid it tightly inside cook comrade's body~! We're family after all!"

"..."

Hadiya opens her mouth once more, which seed like it couldn't open any further, then lies face down and pounds the muddy ground thud thud thud.

She couldn't bring himself to utter harsh words.

Thunk.

Then, a little later.

When the completely empty glass bottle fell to the ground, Captain Royce raised the corners of his mouth and suddenly began laughing snicker snicker.

"...Captain? Why are you even acting like this? Get a hold of yourself!"

"Kehehehe. Thank you, Gregor. I showed an unsightly side of myself. I was so busy calculating this and that that I couldn't think of sothing so simple. I owe you again."

"Don't ntion it. This is why I like my leader comrade. Anyone can be stubborn, but not everyone can acknowledge things!"

Subsequently, he passes by Hadiya, who is holding her head with both hands, and approaches Calix, who has a sowhat dazed expression.

"Sit down comfortably. Turbulent waves are probably raging inside your body right now. Don't panic and keep your mind calm. There's plenty of ti. Just wait."

The reward for his achievent was confird, so now it was Calix's turn.

***

Calix had already begun experiencing strange phenona.

[Foreign substance injected into body, analyzing]

[Analysis complete. Mana essence, confird as Grade 2]

[High-concentration mana detected]

[Please rest]

Though he couldn't fully understand everything the neural accelerator conveyed, he could imdiately feel that the body enhancent potion Gregor had injected had extraordinary effects.

Thud!

Thump, thump, thump thump thump thump thump.

When he sat down in place as the Captain instructed, his heart already felt like it would burst.

[Blood flow increased]

[Physical recovery rate increased]

[Additional bone and muscle tissue generation in progress]

anwhile, the high-concentration mana spread throughout his body through his blood vessels.

Despite consuming various foods since joining the rcenary company, the accumulated damage from his mine slave days was significant, and cells throughout his body voraciously devoured this thing called 'mana'.

Using the high-concentration energy source as fuel, they divided, multiplied, healed wounds, and filled deficient areas to make them stronger and more robust.

It was an act close to reconstruction.

Hisssss-

[Blocking all five senses due to internal heat generation]

[Neural network and brain protection necessity recognized]

[Discharging heat through a magic stone]

Due to injecting an excessively high-level body enhancent potion, Calix, who was nearly exposed to great danger, closes his eyes and falls into the abyss.

However, even the neural accelerator of the hero Ashapel Raimund couldn't fully process all the high-concentration mana, and soon, warning sounds rang out.

[Heart rate has reached dangerous levels]

[Determined that the user's body has exceeded manageable levels]

[Recalculating mana distribution thod]

ssages that the unconscious Calix could neither hear nor see.

Fortunately, the ans to overco the crisis had been inherited from the woman who was Ashapel's partner.

[External discharge of mana is determined inefficient]

[Activating bloodline ability, 'Lanita's Heart/Source of Mana']

[Accumulating mana in the heart]

Whoooosh.

And thus.

By having compressed mana gather near his heart, Calix was reborn anew without even knowing it.

This was different from his diving days, when drinking mana-rich muddy water had healed his sickly body.

For the first ti since his life began, his 'physical condition' had surpassed his 'ntal condition'.