Episode 10 — Recovery Potion
Where Nada was headed was a large residential district made of brick.
One of the houses there—
Compared to its surroundings, its brick-red color was especially striking.
That was where Nada’s friend lived.
He climbed up to the rooms on the second floor and knocked twice on a wooden door.
“Comiiing.”
A slightly high, drawn-out voice answered from inside.
“It’s me. Nada.”
Nada replied curtly.
“Got it! Just wait a sec!”
A few minutes after that voice, the door slowly opened.
The person inside was, first of all, short. Compared to Nada, he looked almost like a dwarf.
Even though they were the same age, his face looked somewhat younger—almost childish.
A tiny face sat atop a body wrapped entirely in a white robe. His prominent fangs and big, double-lidded eyes made him look like a cat. Standing next to Nada, whose features were on the mature side, they looked as though their ages were vastly different.
His hair reached his shoulders, but no matter how you looked at him, he could only be mistaken for a woman.
And a cute one at that.
“It’s been a while, Dan.”
“Sure has, Nada.”
But despite the way he tilted his head and smiled, Dan was a man.
Dan told him so himself.
Every time Nada saw Dan, he wondered if he was lying about his gender—but he never pried.
Whether Dan was actually a girl or truly a boy, the kindness he had shown would remain unchanged.
If so, then there was no problem at all.
Nada and Dan’s first meeting was five years ago.
At that time, Nada had just entered the academy, looking around nervously like a country bumpkin.
His eyes were stolen away by the grand buildings of Inferno, something one might call a city, and he was intimidated by the overwhelming number of people passing by.
He entered the academy under those circumstances, but aside from being a country boy, there was one more problem.
Nada had no basic education.
He was born in a rundown village. Naturally, there were no schools or temple classes. He had never learned reading, writing, or arithmetic. He had never written a letter in his life, nor read one. As for calculations, he didn’t even understand addition.
His enrollment paperwork had been handled with the help of an older student who looked after him at the time, so there had been no issue. But Larva Academy, though a training facility for adventurers, was still a school. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were all part of the curriculum. Especially for adventurers, literacy was essential. If you couldn’t read, you couldn’t accept written requests, and arithmetic was mandatory for efficient dungeon profit.
But that entire area was a blank for Nada.
First-year students also learned how to explore dungeons, but time was equally devoted to general education.
Being unable to read, write, or calculate was a life-or-death issue for Nada.
It was around that time that he met Dan.
He didn’t remember the exact beginning well.
Their classroom seats were close, and as they saw each other more often, they naturally became friends—that’s how he remembered it.
When Nada consulted him about his lack of academic ability, Dan readily agreed to help him study.
Apparently born to a merchant family, Dan had strong academic performance even among their fellow first-years.
To be taught personally by someone like that—Nada’s abilities didn’t skyrocket, but they steadily improved.
Dan had his own training and studies to handle, yet he taught Nada simply because “we’re friends.”
Nada still felt indebted to him for that.
They joined different parties in their first year due to being invited by different people, so they never formed one together—but the one constant was that Nada and Dan remained friends.
And that relationship—Nada still maintained to this day.
“Since standing around chatting out here is pointless, come inside. You want that again today too, right?”
“Yeah.”
Accepting Dan’s suggestion, Nada stepped into the room.
The two of them walked down the wooden hallway, heading toward a specific room—not the living room, not the bedroom. It was a special room found only in Dan’s place: the dispensing room.
Inside, a large desk and a single chair were set facing the window in the back. On top of the desk were bottles of various sizes filled with liquids of dubious color. Not only that, but the room was lined with shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling, neatly filled with measured quantities of medicinal reagents.
Dan sat down on the chair toward the back and gave Nada a slightly worried look.
“Nada, aren’t you looking kind of worn out?”
“Is that so?”
Nada sat cross-legged on the floor and rubbed his chin with his right hand.
He hadn’t been aware he was tired.
“Isn’t it because you got kicked out of your party? Have you managed to form a new one properly?”
“Unfortunately, I’m on my own.”
When Nada said that, Dan let out a small sigh.
“Sigh… you’ve always been like this… isn’t that what’s making you tired? Your complexion’s bad, and you rarely come this early to restock on ‘healing potions.’ You’ve definitely been chugging them and brute-forcing your way through the dungeon, haven’t you? That’s not good. Really. Healing potions put a strain on the body.”
“…Yeah, I know.”
After a long moment of inner conflict, Nada nodded.
He understood what Dan meant, but he simply didn’t have the luxury to take it easy right now. Solo dungeon exploration was hard on the body; that much was true. And the reason he burned through healing potions like water during the last dive was that he got caught in an internal labyrinth shift. He was just unlucky. Normally, Nada also tried to minimize potion consumption—not for the sake of his health like Dan said, but to save money.
But when it came to his pale complexion, there was one thing Nada could think of.
—Nightmares.
Lately, he dreamt of them often.
Dreams where he was alone in total darkness.
No help coming, no allies, no weapon—and then he would face that gargoyle. Today’s nightmare ended there, but he’d seen the continuation before: he would fight the gargoyle, get overpowered without a chance to resist, flee through the dark water that slowed his steps, run and run and run, only to be torn apart by the gargoyle’s arms in the end. Luckily, just as he lacked a weapon in the dream, the gargoyle also had none.
But the gargoyle had wings.
Nada trudged through water; the gargoyle soared through the air.
The faster one was, of course, the gargoyle.
Whenever Nada thought about it, a tight pain squeezed his chest, and he gripped his left breast hard with his right hand.
“Nada, what’s wrong?”
Dan looked at him with concern—Nada’s breathing had grown rough for just a moment.
“…It’s nothing. Anyway, thanks for the warning. I’ll try to move carefully in the dungeon so I don’t go through potions too fast. And I’ll work on finding a new party.”
Nada spoke as if making an excuse.
“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll ask around too—see if any frontline spots are open. Honestly, I’d love to have you in my party if we could…”
“I know. But you guys run an eight-man party, right? You don’t need to bother adding a new, hard-to-use frontline like me.”
Nada spat the words.
He knew perfectly well what position he held in this academy.
“I don’t see it that way. You’re one of the most reliable frontliners I know.”
Dan said it playfully.
“Sorry, but that’s not convincing. You’ve never actually been in a party with me, have you?”
Nada gave him a tired laugh.
“Haha. You caught me?”
“Of course I did.”
“Hehe. Well, enough small talk—tell me what potions you need. What kind are you looking for today?”
Dan finally steered the conversation back to the main point.
Nada took out a slip of paper from his pocket, listing the names and quantities of the healing potions he required, and handed it to Dan.
“Give me this.”
“Got it. I’ll prepare it right away.”
After taking the slip of paper from Nada, Dan began carefully selecting each listed potion from the shelves.
Even if you call them all “healing potions,” there are all sorts of kinds.
For instance, among the essentials for adventurers, healing potions that treat injuries are crucial. They don’t work instantly, but drinking them speeds up recovery. There are also potions you pour directly onto a wound to stop the bleeding. The inside doesn’t heal, so the pain stays, and the skin can split open again with just a light touch—but since you can jump right back into battle, those are popular too.
Besides those, some potions temporarily reinforce stamina, ones that induce short bursts of excitement to boost attack power, and even stimulants meant to help endure pain. Adventurers must master this knowledge and use these items effectively if they want to avoid dying.
Normally, you’d buy such things from a pharmacy, but Nada had a reason for asking Dan to make them.
Dan possessed the Gift of the Healing God.
The greatest feature of that Gift is that, among the Twelve Gods, it’s the only one incapable of activating any offensive ability. In exchange, it can heal allies’ wounds and restore stamina—far beyond anything a healing potion can do.
And there’s another trait: potions created using the Healing God's Gift work better than normal ones.
Nada himself could tell that the potions Dan prayed over always seemed to work noticeably better, so he regularly got his supplies from him.
For a normal adventurer, a prayer-blessed potion would sell at more than double the usual price—and availability would be unstable. Dan apparently received plenty of requests from acquaintances wanting him to make some, but since praying into each potion takes time, it doesn’t function well as a business. He only gives small amounts to close friends.
Among them, Nada receives large quantities at almost normal prices entirely thanks to Dan’s goodwill. And of course, only for Nada’s own use—he never shares them with others. That’s part of the agreement. Dan isn’t doing this to make money; he genuinely wants his friend to stay alive, so he gives them at cost. Nada understands this very well, and although he’s been asked to resell them before, he has never done so—not even now when he's strapped for cash.
Because of all of that, the weight of past debts—and Dan’s ongoing kindness—still leaves Nada unable to act high-handed with him.
“Nada, I’ll put everything into this bag, okay?”
“Yeah, I’m counting on you.”
Dan gently placed the potions into the bag Nada had brought.
While doing so, Dan suddenly remembered something.
“Right, right. Have you heard the news? Apparently, a new type of monster has appeared in Podie.”
“No, I haven’t. What kind of monster?”
Nada normally kept up with dungeon information through newspapers, but he was short on money recently and hadn’t been able to afford that, so his info was behind.
Hot topics were usually spread through friends, too—but Nada didn’t have many.
“—They say it’s a Guardian.”
“A Guardian?”
Nada couldn’t grasp what kind of monster that meant.
“Yeah. It’s a gargoyle, but unlike normal gargoyles, it supposedly stays in a single room. That’s why adventurers started calling it a Guardian. And even though it walks on two legs, it has wings.”
Something about the gargoyle Dan described caught Nada’s attention.
Gargoyles show up often on lower floors. They’re normally stone statues that transform into their true form when an adventurer approaches, and their shapes vary wildly—some look like oxen, others like birds.
But… among them, there are rare types.
“…Tell me more.”
“Hm? Sure. You’re interested?”
Dan found it strange that Nada—who usually wasn’t fixated on dungeon talk—asked for details.
“Yeah.”
“That gargoyle is apparently really strong. Several parties lost to it. One party was nearly wiped out. Some people have even died. It shows up on a layer that isn’t that deep, so a lot of groups are going to fight it just out of curiosity. Also—it carries a spear, and its eyes are said to be red like a demon’s.”
“…I see.”
Nada felt as if his heart had been seized in a fist.
A powerful monster with red eyes.
Of course he remembered.
That monster.
That gargoyle.
Nada felt his breathing go uneven. He exhaled slowly to steady himself.
Every time he recalled that gargoyle’s eyes—every time he even thought of them—time seemed to stop, and he felt as if he were being slowly crushed.
“What's wrong? Your face just got even paler all of a sudden. Did you catch a cold? Should I prepare medicine for that too?”
Dan leaned in toward Nada, worry written all over his face.
“No, I’m fine. I just… remembered something about that gargoyle, and it made me feel sick.”
Nada’s voice was faint—fragile, almost as if it were fading away.
Just thinking about the gargoyle threw him into a state that felt close to death.
“…Did something happen?”
Dan looked at him nervously.
“…No, it’s nothing. Anyway, here’s the usual payment. Take it.”
Cutting the conversation short, Nada grabbed the bag Dan had prepared and placed a coin pouch in Dan’s hand. Then he turned away, preparing to leave.
Staying here any longer felt dangerous—he could feel the fear of that gargoyle rising up again.
“Nada!”
Dan called out loudly to his retreating back.
“What?”
When Nada turned around, Dan tossed something toward him. Nada caught it.
“That! It’s medicine! I think you’ll calm down if you drink it. I’ll put it on your tab. So make sure you come back later and pay me for it!”
Touched by Dan’s kindness, Nada’s expression softened just a little.
He downed the medicine in one go, then tossed the now-empty bottle back to Dan.
“I owe you. Yeah, I’ll come again—”
With that, Nada left Dan’s house.
His heart felt just a little lighter.
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