Chapter 252 - Freshman!?
Hearing Roy's blunt assessment of his condition, Ikki could only shut his mouth, feeling a wave of embarrassment.
He wasn't someone who didn't know good from bad. He just felt that what Roy was giving him was too precious, making it difficult to repay.
Ikki stood quietly to the side, watching Roy prepare the potion.
Roy's technique was incredibly skilled. He poured the materials into the crucible one by one. Then, reaching into his Gluttony Space, he drew out a portion of cadmus spring water. This was from the 51st floor.
Once everything was prepped, Roy began to simmer it slowly over a controlled fire.
What surprised Ikki the most was that, in addition to the normal brewing process, Roy seemed to be using magic to refine the potion. For a moment, Ikki guessed that Roy's Noble Art might be related to healing.
Half an hour later, the potion was successfully refined.
Unlike the dark, sludgy brown of typical brews, this potion was a highly unusual, transparent light green.
Ikki assumed this was the result of Roy's special abilities.
"Try it," Roy said.
He poured the potion from the crucible, filtered out the impurities, and handed a small bowl to Ikki.
Ikki didn't doubt him. He took the bowl and downed the liquid without hesitation. To his surprise, the potion had no bitter taste, it went down smoothly.
The moment he drank it, the potion took effect. A warm, soothing sensation flooded his limbs and bones.
"This is... incredibly comfortable," Ikki breathed out. The lingering fatigue and deep seated aches from using Ittou Shura that morning vanished rapidly.
"This potion will eliminate the hidden damage left on your body from using Ittou Shura and replenish the life force you've been squeezing out," Roy explained with a smile. "Just take the rest back to your dormitory, store it in the refrigerator, and drink a small bowl every day."
Roy added, "Although the immediate effect won't be as dramatic after today, this thing will permanently improve your base physical fitness to a certain extent."
Relying on the pharmaceutical skills copied from Miach, combined with his own Development Abilities like Mixing and Mystery, brewing a potion of this caliber was child's play for Roy.
"Isn't... isn't this very expensive?" Ikki's eyes widened, and his grip on the bowl suddenly turned rigid.
He understood basic medicine well enough to know just how precious the two effects Roy had casually mentioned truly were.
"The sip you just drank? It would easily sell for hundreds of thousands of yen on the market," Roy said after a moment's thought.
Ikki's hands went completely stiff.
Although he was born into the noble Kurogane family, he had been disowned. His standard of living was modest at best. That half bowl of potion was undoubtedly the most expensive thing he had consumed in his entire life.
Roy handed the rest of the potion, sealed in a glass jar, to Ikki. "Since you know it's expensive, don't waste it."
Ikki hurriedly put down the empty bowl and accepted the glass jar with both hands, holding it with extreme reverence, terrified he might drop it. If this jar, worth tens of millions of yen, smashed on the floor, he felt like he would have to lick it off the tiles.
After leaving the pharmacy, Roy and Ikki headed toward the station to return to Hagun Academy.
"Hey! If it isn't our dear Kurogane!"
As they walked through the commercial street, an arrogant, grating voice suddenly sounded from behind them.
Roy noticed that the moment Ikki heard the voice, his body stiffened. A trace of gloom and apprehension flashed across his usually gentle face.
"What is it?" Roy asked, turning to look in the direction of the voice.
Walking toward them was a handsome, albeit incredibly smug looking boy dressed in the Hagun Academy uniform. He exuded the aura of a preppy delinquent.
Flanking him were two pretty girls who looked at him with undisguised admiration.
"Long time no see, Shizuya Kirihara," Ikki turned around, his greeting cold and distant.
"I knew it," Kirihara sneered. "I haven't seen you for almost a month since the holidays started. But I definitely didn't expect to see you still wearing the Hagun Academy uniform."
Kirihara feigned a look of extreme confusion. "If I remember correctly, with your grades last year, you should have been expelled, right? Why are you still wandering around in our colors? I'm genuinely worried that a weak, F-Rank piece of trash like you is going to tarnish the reputation of our academy!"
"I hate to disappoint you, but I haven't been expelled. The Chairwoman has agreed to let me continue my studies," Ikki replied indifferently.
Kirihara was stunned for a moment. Then he walked up to Ikki, looking him up and down with a sneer.
"The new Chairwoman must be a bleeding heart if she's willing to take in an F-Rank failure like you."
"However," Kirihara sighed dramatically, "if it were me, I would have the dignity to leave. The Chairwoman is being so generous. How could you stay and embarrass her? Don't you agree? Hahahahahaha!"
Kirihara laughed ruthlessly, and the two girls beside him chimed in with mocking giggles.
"Roy, let's go," Ikki said softly.
Although Ikki was angry, years of being treated as the Worst One had given him an endurance few ordinary people possessed. Instead of arguing with Kirihara, he planned to walk away.
"Oh? Is this also a student of our academy?" Kirihara, however, was relentless. He stepped in front of Ikki, blocking their path, and turned his gaze to Roy. "Could this be a freshman?"
"What about it?" Roy raised an eyebrow, a dangerously calm smile on his face.
"You can't seriously be friends with this guy, can you?" Kirihara asked in pretended surprise.
"Is there a problem?"
"You must not know. He is a famous piece of trash at Hagun Academy. People who hang around him tend to get very... unlucky," Kirihara said maliciously, leaning in. "You can ask the second years. The few who used to stay by his side all suffered terrible misfortune. But funny enough, once they left him alone, their luck turned right around!"
Kirihara stared at Roy, his tone playful but threatening. "Don't you think that's strange?"
"So, are you threatening me?" Roy asked, his smile widening.
"How could it be? I'm just kindly reminding a freshman to stay away from garbage like Ikki Kurogane, otherwise, you might run into some bad luck."
Kirihara reached out, intending to pat Roy on the shoulder to assert his dominance.
Ghk!
Before his hand could even touch Roy's shoulder, Roy moved. Faster than anyone could process, Roy shot his hand out and seized Kirihara by the throat, lifting the arrogant archer off his feet.
Kirihara gasped, his eyes bulging in sudden terror as his air supply was cut off.
[Congratulations Host! Obtained 40,000 Dimensional Points.]
BOOM!!
Kirihara didn't even have time to struggle. Roy casually, yet brutally, slammed him face first into the concrete pavement.
The impact echoed sharply down the street, knocking the former rookie of the year out cold instantly.
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