Chapter 19: Level 3 Monster

When Mely entered her room, her friends were curious about where she had been.

"Mely, you've seemed distracted lately. Are you okay?"

Mely snapped out of her thoughts at her friend's voice and turned to her.

"Yes, I'm fine."

Although her friend knew Mely had been acting differently than usual, she didn't press the matter. Mely lay down on her bed and thought about her conversations with Ersa. Normally, she wouldn't have accepted such a deal. She wouldn't have even engaged in such a long conversation with a boy.

She wasn't sure why she had accepted Ersa's offer. What she was sure of was that Ersa had no ill intentions toward her. He simply wanted to improve his skills on the path of the sword. She could tell this from the way he spoke and the expression on his face. Throughout her life, she had met thousands of people. She could read them, at least a little.

Ersa was different from the others. He wasn't insincere like her friends. She could joke with him and speak freely.

***

Ersa entered the training grounds early in the morning. He had no doubt that hunting with poison would make things much faster. When he spotted a level-seven monster, he stopped.

The monster was of the *Malvia* type. *Malvias* were known for their strength and speed. Keeping a fifty-meter distance, he prepared his bow and arrow. He had already coated the arrows with poison in advance. Aiming at the monster's neck, he released the arrow, which sailed through the air and pierced the monster's neck.

Ersa quickly drew his sword and charged at the monster. Before the monster could react, it had already died. Ersa stared at its body in surprise. Although he expected it to be easy, the fact that it had been *this* easy left him shocked. He extracted the monster's core and searched for another.

After a while, he encountered a *Meriop* monster, which had good defensive abilities. He drew his bow and fired an arrow. The arrow embedded itself in the monster's abdomen. Ersa swiftly attacked the monster's vital points. Even though it was a defensive-type monster, its reaction speed had slowed considerably, making it an easy hunt for Ersa.

At this pace, Ersa thought he could kill as many monsters as he had arrows. Of course, that would only be true if he used one arrow per monster. The monsters fell quickly under Ersa's speed, and soon, his bag was overflowing with cores. When Ersa had collected ninety-six cores, there was no more room in his bag.

Fortunately, the cores weren't too large. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to carry them with his backpack. With almost three hours of hunting time over, Ersa stopped hunting and returned to the shop where he had sold his cores the previous day.

The woman working at the shop thought Ersa had brought in about the same number of cores as yesterday. But when Ersa emptied his bag into the box in front of her, she looked at him in shock. How had the boy who brought in only seven cores yesterday managed to collect dozens today?

After counting the cores, she was astonished once again.

"Ninety-six cores at fifteen brown coins each comes to fourteen blue coins and forty brown coins."

Ersa took his payment and headed to the market. Yesterday, he had only bought materials for alchemy. Today, he would make medicinal pills. He entered a shop selling herbs and medicinal materials, listed off the names of dozens of plants, and, after some tough bargaining, bought them for ten blue coins and sixty-four brown coins. He packed the herbs and medicinal materials into his now-empty bag. Since he was almost out of arrows, he stopped by a weapons shop and bought two hundred more.

Once he was done in the market, he returned to his room. Taking his alchemy set, he went to an empty spot in the academy's forest. Pill-making also fell under the field of alchemy. Medicine and alchemy were two sciences that progressed together. He pulled out the herbs and refined them one by one. He planned to make endurance pills, healing pills, and energy pills.

Endurance pills delayed the onset of fatigue. Healing pills helped with recovery, and energy pills provided a temporary boost of energy, making the body more active and energetic.

The market values of these pills varied depending on their quality. Quality was determined by factors like the degree of fusion, the quality of the ingredients, and whether the medicinal properties had been preserved.

All three pills had good market value. Endurance pills sold for around twenty brown coins, healing pills for thirty-five, and energy pills for around forty brown coins.

Ersa lit the flame of his one-eyed stove and began making endurance pills. His first attempt produced a low-quality product, but Ersa wasn't discouraged and continued making pills.

Three hours later, he had made fourteen endurance pills, twelve healing pills, and eleven energy pills.

By the end of his endurance pill-making, his success rate had increased, allowing him to make higher-quality pills. As he gained experience, his success rate improved. The quality of the healing pills and energy pills was also better.

After making dozens of pills, Ersa was exhausted. He stretched his body and lay down on the ground, holding the highest-quality pills from each category. A satisfied smile spread across his face.

Making pills was a task that required patience and attention. Therefore, he hadn't expected great results on his first try. But after making dozens of pills, Ersa had become faster and gained a broader understanding of alchemy. Learning something theoretically and putting it into practice were very different.

Ersa packed the pills into his bag and went to the cafeteria for dinner. He wanted to practice swordsmanship and archery. This time, he was worried he might lose track of time by becoming too focused, so he went to the meeting point with Mely.

He took out his bow and practiced archery for two hours. His accuracy was much better than the day before. Feeling that he had spent enough time on archery, he drew his red-sheathed sword and began practicing the basic movements of swordsmanship.

Unlike yesterday, this time he was fully aware of what he was doing. However, the basic movements were much easier to execute than they had been the day before. Without knowing how much time had passed, Ersa repeated the basic movements over and over. What set Ersa apart from ordinary people was his willpower.

Once he set his mind to something, he saw it through to the end. The reason he could keep repeating the same movements without getting bored was because of this. In fact, as he progressed, his face reflected the satisfaction of someone making steady improvement.

"Ersa."

The soothing voice that reached his ears made him stop mid-movement with his sword.