‘Come to think of it, I need to consider potion cooldowns too…?’
Given the worldbuilding of this novel, for a potion to fully take effect, at least 24 hours must have passed since the last dose.
But as you, dear readers, already know, Reysir was rescued from the demonic realm less than 12 hours ago, let alone 24.
‘It’s a small mercy that cooldowns apply per potion type, but…
Even if you keep drinking healing potions, there are no side effects,
but by the third bottle, only a quarter of the original effect remains.
That means even a highest-grade healing potion cannot fully cure severe injuries.
At best, it’s just emergency first aid.
Wounds treated so shoddily won’t recover even after 24 hours when you take another potion.
To make matters worse, even healing skills won’t work,
so you’re forced to rely on natural recovery—a shitty setting if I ever saw one.
The same goes for antidote potions.
That’s why it’s recommended not to drink a third bottle unless absolutely necessary
and instead wait until the cooldown ends.
Or chug it immediately if the poisoning symptoms are mild.
Ether potions drastically increase the risk of qi deviation from the second bottle onward,
so unless it’s a real emergency, you should avoid extra doses entirely.
’There’s no helping the ether side, but for both healing and detox, I’ll need a healer character to join quickly…
The ‘Saint’ mentioned in chapter 143 is too big a deal and belongs to another country,
so the chances of them enrolling at Valhalla Academy are slim.
The ducal daughter of the Sudri family mentioned in an earlier chapter is only 15 now,
so she won’t be able to enroll until the year after next.
For a while, I’ll have to fight while keeping potion cooldowns in mind.’
“……”
Dyuf glanced at Fjodra, checking her reaction.
He seemed to hope she would postpone the demon realm conquest in consideration of Reysir’s potion cooldowns.
But Fjodra showed no response and silently kept walking, eyes fixed ahead.
“Rei, be careful not to get hurt or inhale any poison.”
“Yes, I’ll be careful.
Thank you for worrying.”
Dyuf spoke to his ward with a stiff expression, offering words of concern.
Reysir smiled reassuringly at his guardian and expressed his gratitude.
Then,
“Hey, Karbaldr?”
-He addressed me with an overly cautious attitude.
His hesitant demeanor was so sudden that I couldn’t help feeling puzzled.
I shot him a questioning look, and he explained why.
“You were asleep, so you probably don’t remember, but you got poisoned too.
I covered your nose and mouth with a handkerchief, but it didn’t fully filter out the poison powder…”
He must have thought I’d be shocked to hear I’d been poisoned without knowing.
Well, Reysir had picked up false info about me suffering from poison trauma, so I suppose the misconception was understandable.
“I figured as much.
If you inhaled the poison powder and got poisoned, then naturally I did too—since you were carrying me.”
“That’s not necessarily true!
You were…”
“Let’s skip the pointless talk.
Anyway, the point is I already drank an antidote potion, so just be careful not to get poisoned again, right?”
Reysir was about to mention how, back in chapter 335, I had hugged his head to prevent him from inhaling sleep powder.
I quickly cut him off and hijacked what he was about to say.
“Uh… yeah.”
“Got it.
I’ll be careful.”
“…Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
That wasn’t an empty statement.
I had been sound asleep at the time, so I didn’t even remember suffering from poisoning symptoms.
Besides, just surviving was a blessing in itself.
Even though I was now walking back into that same demonic realm…
‘Still, I don’t think I’ll get poisoned again this time.’
In chapter 341, I said there was no perfect way to block the pollen.
Suddenly changing my tune like this might confuse many readers.
But back then, I didn’t know.
‘Who would have thought KF94 masks existed in this world…!’
Since we already proved that handkerchiefs don’t filter out the pollen properly, we had to get proper masks.
So before setting out, we stopped by the underground shop in the dormitory—
and that’s where we found them.
For the record, since it’s the break period, the shop was closed with the door locked, but we just broke the lock and went in.
After all, all facilities at Valhalla Academy belong to the imperial family, and the imperial princess, Fjodra, had given permission.
And as for ‘KF’ being short for ‘Korea Filter’—let’s just move past that.
In a world full of students drinking Americanos and eating Dubai fudgy cookies, a Korea Filter mask is hardly out of place.
“We’ve arrived.”
When we reached the boundary of the demonic realm surrounding the academy’s back mountain, Fjodra, who had been silently walking at the front, said this and stopped.
Then she scanned the professors with a measuring gaze and spoke again.
“Now I need to open the entrance to the demonic realm…”
“Why hesitate?
Obviously the guy with the shield should do it.”
The one who stepped forward and said this was Bjorn.
I haven’t had a chance to mention this until now, so let me say it:
Bjorn’s main weapons are a sword and shield, and his position is tank.
During this break, he’s been helping train Reysir, but usually, the student he’s in charge of is Liolikin.
“But before that, Lady Fjodra, haven’t we skipped an important step?”
“An important step?”
“Monsters could be waiting for us beyond this.
We need to be fully prepared before opening the entrance.”
“I suppose we should consider that possibility.”
My readers probably found that conversation rather redundant.
In chapter 299, when I entered the academy demonic realm with Valtraus, we already talked about the same thing.
But since the original novel was remade, this is the first time the original protagonist, Reysir, is trying to enter the demonic realm from the outside.
That’s probably why Bjorn and Fjodra had that info-dumping dialogue just now.
Anyway, we took out the KF94 masks we’d gotten from the shop earlier and put them on.
The chemical smell from the mask rushed in, unpleasant and out of place with this pseudo-medieval fantasy setting, but there was no way I was going to wear some other mask when a performance-verified modern mask was available.
“This smells toxic…”
“No, Your Highness.
The material does produce an unpleasant odor, but it’s perfectly safe for use.
Among the masks in the shop, this one has the best performance.”
The imperial princess, whose sense of smell was as sensitive as her taste, complained.
But I firmly and stubbornly denied her words, then took out medical tape from my inventory.
I was going to attach this to the edges of the mask to seal it completely without any gaps.
After that, I layered a handkerchief on top.
It felt very stuffy and made breathing difficult,
‘But this should be enough to block the pollen, right?’
I found out later, after some research, that these disposable masks with modern filter technology could only be obtained from the academy shop.
Just like how no store sells Korean food, and it can only be ordered from the academy dining hall.
“Karbaldr, tape me up too.”
Because the baby dragon’s facial structure was different from a human’s, the mask didn’t fit well.
I had to carefully apply the tape.
After helping Yor get his mask on and taped up, the protagonist of another novel shoved his face in front of me.
There was only one thing I could say to him.
“Do it yourself.”
I said that and tossed the medical tape to Reysir.
It passed through his hands to Dyuf, then to someone else, and on and on, until finally everyone had their masks fully sealed to their skin like I did, with an extra handkerchief on top.
“This…
I feel like I’ll run out of breath just by moving a little…”
“Looks like you need to exercise more, old man.”
“……”
Seeing Dyuf already panting and complaining about the stuffiness, Bjorn dropped a short comment.
Dyuf looked slightly shocked—though whether it was because of the unfamiliar term ‘old man’ or the jab about being out of shape, I wasn’t sure.
“Since the pollen countermeasures are mostly done, now Karbaldr, please use your buff skill.”
“Yes.”
I replied to Fjodra and took out a whip from my inventory.
After using the [Encourage] skill on myself, I mentally recalled the keywords I could assign to me and Yor, and first applied the [Encourage] buff on both of us.
Then, using the common keyword ‘my acquaintance’ for the rest, including Reysir, I activated the [Encourage] skill once more, and simultaneously swung the whip to apply the [Elation] effect to everyone.
Afterward, I checked their reactions—no one seemed to notice that two buffs had been applied in succession.
Relieved, I said this to the faculty.
“If we fail this demon realm conquest with this many people, or if even one person gets seriously hurt, it won’t just embarrass the academy—it’ll be an international disgrace.
So please, don’t let your guard down, stay focused, and finish the conquest without mistakes.
For the record, I’m saying this only because it’s part of the procedure to activate a skill that enhances ether characteristic abilities.
I’m not questioning your abilities or trying to pick a fight.”
The professors’ expressions twisted strangely, so I hurriedly added an excuse.
But only Skati clapped her hands once and exclaimed,
‘Aha!
So that’s what it is~!’
The rest of the professors still couldn’t shake their dubious looks.
“Surprisingly, it’s true.
The effect is quite good.
You’ll feel it as soon as you use the skill later.”
Fjodra stepped in and tried to prove my words by saying this.
Feeling grateful, I immediately used the [Encourage] skill on her as well.
“If Your Highness the Imperial Princess gets hurt, we might end up executed for failing to protect you.
So if you didn’t come along to harm us, please take care of your own safety, as you yourself guaranteed.”
“……Karbaldr.
I’m just asking, but you’re not using the skill as an excuse to say whatever you want, are you?”
From the way she said that, it seemed even Fjodra had some guilty conscience.
I thought so, but shook my head to deny her words.
“No, I’m not.”
“Then is that skill of yours called [Denunciation] or something?”
“Would a buff skill really be called something like that?”
“Then what is it?”
“[Encourage].”
Obviously, that was a lie.