Chapter 67: The Root That Answers

A mana potion that tastes like mint chocolate.

What kind of horrifying hybrid is this supposed to be?

I quietly closed the lid and looked at Hong Soo-jung.

She met my gaze with a faint smile.

You force-fed me mint chocolate without a word and have the nerve to smile about it?

“…Don’t you think this could be a problem?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

She tilted her head exaggeratedly, pretending not to know.

She knows exactly what I mean, yet acts clueless….

“It’s a taste that really splits people, isn’t it?”

Hong Soo-jung raised her eyebrows.

Pointing at the healing potion, she asked,

“What about Solxnun, then? You’re fine with that?”

“That one tastes good.”

“Mint choco is tasty too.”

“……”

Fine, I suppose that’s possible.

Everyone’s tastes are different.

I liked Solxnun, but Taecheon spat it out the moment it touched his tongue.

Dohee also said she liked it, but couldn’t hide her habit of biting her lip when she lied.

I recognize that people have different tastes.

I guess there could be people who like that feeling of eating chocolate while brushing their teeth.

So I don’t think too badly of a mint chocolate-flavored mana potion.

But only if it wasn’t the flavor of the mana potion I personally requested.

I don’t want a taste that mixes toothpaste and chocolate.

Never. Absolutely never.

“…Well, I do admit there are poor souls out there who can’t appreciate the taste of mint choco.”

Is it because my expression was less than pleasant?

Hong Soo-jung hurriedly added.

Not as an excuse.

After all, she just called me a ‘poor soul’.

Who are you calling a poor soul?

The real tragedy here is your tongue, which actually enjoys that taste.

“Do you remember? When you opened the lid, a chocolate piece fell out.”

“Yes, I remember.”

It was brown and oval.

If I’d realized it was chocolate, I probably wouldn’t have drunk it.

Then again, even if I had known, I might have drunk it anyway.

Who’d have guessed a green liquid would taste like mint?

“You can actually open the lid without the chocolate falling in.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Just now, you pressed down and twisted the lid, right? If you just twist it without pressing, the chocolate stuck to the lid won’t fall off.”

“Ha, clever.”

I tried it out with the glass bottle I was still holding.

I closed the lid again, pressed and twisted it.

There was a slight resistance as the lid opened.

That must be the mechanism that causes the chocolate to fall.

I closed it again and tried opening it this time without pressing.

It opened smoothly, with no resistance at all.

“Ohhh.”

“If you open it like that, the chocolate will stay attached to the lid. Then you’ll only get the mint flavor.”

“That’s not bad.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Honestly, I don’t actually dislike the taste of mint.

And I don’t really dislike chocolate either.

If anything, I enjoy both and often eat or drink them.

What I dislike is the mingling of the coolness of mint and the sweetness of chocolate.

If it’s mint, it should taste like mint, and if it’s chocolate, it should taste like chocolate.

Why mix them together and cause chaos?

“Since you can pick the taste according to your preference, I think this is fine.”

“Hehe, glad I went for a custom lid.”

“Custom-made? You had it made on purpose?”

“Yes. I asked Jae for it.”

“Jae? Yoo Jae?”

“Yes.”

I looked down at the lid in my right hand.

There were no initials, J.Y., anywhere on it.

Well, I guess you wouldn’t engrave initials on the lid of a mass-produced bottle anyway.

Hong Soo-jung remarked offhandedly.

“By the way, Jae likes mint choco.”

“…I respect people’s tastes.”

“Oh, is that so?”

She looked at me with one corner of her mouth quirking up.

Not wanting to dwell on this awkward topic, I decided to change the subject.

So you like mint choco, huh.

I wonder how you feel about Solxnun.

I hope you like that too.

“Oh, right. Would you mind selling the potions for me?”

I figured it would be better for her to handle the sales than for me to do it directly.

Even if I have a certification from the Food and Drug Administration, it’s best for an expert to sell them rather than a layman.

And since she works as a potion maker, she could sell them herself.

“Ah, customer~ Of course I’ll do it.”

Hong Soo-jung beamed and bent forward slightly.

This time, it wasn’t just a sly smirk.

It was a bright, businesslike smile, likely meant to look friendly.

After all, she could pocket a commission from the sales.

Since she could sell them for a high price, she’d make a tidy profit.

Ah, I should ask what kind of price to set.

“What do you think is a fair price to sell them at?”

“Healing potions should be about 30 million won per bottle, and mana potions around 15 million won each? That seems just right.”

“That expensive? Will they sell?”

Normally, a lower-grade healing potion is 500,000 won.

Mid-grade is 2 million won, and high-grade, being rare, usually goes for around 20 million.

Mana potions go for 250,000 for low, 1 million for mid, and 10 million for high-grade.

But Hong Soo-jung named prices 10 million and 5 million higher, respectively.

She nodded.

“Of course they’ll sell. A-rank Hunters can’t even get high-grade potions and are buying up mid-grade ones.”

“Well….”

The current potion market is a mess.

There were even news reports of A-rank Hunters hoarding mid-grade potions.

That misinformation led to all kinds of bullying from A-rank Hunters.

Certainly, it was not a situation where I had to worry about potions not selling.

Let’s see.

With 50 bottles of each, if I sell them all….

2.25 billion won.

Two leaves turning into that kind of fortune.

Even I, who doesn’t put much importance on money, had to admit that was a huge sum.

Almost unconsciously, I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket.

Then I opened my mailbox, received two leaves, and handed them over immediately.

“Please make more.”

“Haaang.”

Hong Soo-jung let out a strange sound.

I stared at her in surprise, but she was focused solely on the leaves in my hand.

She didn’t care at all about my gaze.

I’m not the type to care much about how people look at me either, but….

If anything, Hong Soo-jung is even more extreme.

She hugged the two leaves I gave her with great care.

Since she’d already appraised them before, she didn’t do it again.

“Ah.”

A sigh slipped from my lips.

I remembered something at the mention of appraisal.

The stinger I took from killing the bee-human, and the Morning Dew I received from Saessakyi.

I took both out of my inventory.

The Morning Dew, about the size of my pinky nail, was in an orphanage glass cup.

“What’s with the cup?”

“Could you appraise this for me?”

“Huh? The cup? Looks like a cheap one from the supermarket.”

“No, I mean the dew inside.”

“Dew?”

She approached, clutching the leaves, and peered into the cup. “Ah!”

She’d found the Morning Dew inside.

“Huh! Dew from the World Tree? How could you just carry something so precious in a cup like this?”

She shook her head and left the cold storage.

“Come on, follow me. I’ll give you a proper container.”

“You really don’t have to—”

“No. I don’t want to see that thing kept in there.”

“……”

As she closed the cold storage door, she held out her hand to me.

She even called the Morning Dew ‘that thing’, so I couldn’t refuse.

I handed over the cup and she walked off briskly.

She led me to the sterilization room.

Various glass bottles and tools glowed blue under UV lamps.

She took out a long glass vial, like a test tube, and poured the dew into it.

“This dew contains pure mana.”

She pressed the cap firmly on and continued her explanation about the Morning Dew.

“That mana has a calming effect on the mind of anyone who drinks it.”

“The mind?”

“Yes, if you take it, I think you could resist most mind-related skills pretty easily.”

Saessakyi had said she was sending it to comfort me.

I had no idea it would have such an effect….

She handed me back both the test tube with the Morning Dew and the glass cup.

At the same time, I handed her the bee stinger.

Hong Soo-jung flicked the stinger with her finger, listening to the faint sound it made.

“Hm, this might take a while. I’ll appraise it together with the pinecone and contact you.”

“Thank you. By the way, how’s the Violet Violence coming along?”

“I still need more time. Give it about two days, just to be safe?”

“I see. Please let me know as soon as the results are in.”

“Sure, I’ll do that.”

With that, Hong Soo-jung stared intently at me.

Knowing exactly what that look meant, I quickly left the Crystal Workshop.

Closing the iron door—which was green like a mana potion—I checked the time.

11:15 a.m.

I was supposed to meet Kim Jae-sik for lunch, around noon.

I still had 45 minutes to go.

“……”

It’s about time to check.

I got in the car and opened my skill window.

A new S-rank skill marked with “NEW!” caught my eye.

Caretaker’s Manual, Volume 2.

It was a skill I’d obtained after helping Saessakyi grow into a sapling.

To be honest, I’d been avoiding it until now.

Because the contents of Volume 1, Pruning, were so shocking.

Surely, Volume 2 wouldn’t be normal either.

“Caretaker’s Manual, Volume 2.”

When I activated the skill, a blue-glowing book appeared in the air.

I felt the rough texture as I turned the pages.

Like Volume 1, Volume 2 was written in an unwelcome tone.

[Greetings, new caretaker of the World Tree.]

[And congratulations on fulfilling two conditions to obtain Caretaker’s Manual, Volume 2.]

“Two?”

Wasn’t it just about growing the sapling?

It seemed the manual anticipated this question.

The next paragraph listed the two conditions.

One was, as expected, to nurture the World Tree to sapling stage.

The other was to perform pruning at least once.

[Having achieved these two, you can now truly call yourself a ‘real caretaker of the World Tree’.]

[Of course, you’ve only just taken the first step, so don’t get conceited.]

[The world is full of dangers that can’t be overcome with the World Tree’s power alone, so going forward even more….]

“Yeah, yeah. Enough with the lecture.”

I skimmed and turned the pages quickly.

The front was mostly warnings not to get arrogant.

Seemed like the author’s real goal was character education for the reader.

Naturally, reading this gave me one insight.

That the one who gained the World Tree’s power and got arrogant—was the author himself.

Dissing na Thor, that guy. Even in Volume 1, he’d said not to treat the World Tree as a tool, then told me to make and sell beauty products out of it.

It must’ve been him who got full of himself.

He probably didn’t want the next caretaker to make the same mistakes.

[As stated above, the world is full of dangers that can’t be overcome with the World Tree’s power alone.]

[Sooner or later, you’ll face things even its regeneration can’t withstand.]

I agree.

My regeneration is second to none.

But it isn’t all-powerful.

Even the previous World Tree knew this, which is why, when fighting Skeleton Lord, he sent a log and even adjusted the quest difficulty.

If not for that log, I’d have died that day.

I would’ve been left a pile of bones by the Skeleton Lord’s power.

[That’s why I thought up a way to reinforce that regeneration….]

Reinforce regeneration?

So he wanted to strengthen his strengths even further.

[And finally, I found the only method.]

[It is—]

“Oh?”

[The skill ‘Root of the World Tree’.]

Root of the World Tree?

What’s that?