Chapter 15: A Thought

Seeing Luca use Ki outside his body with such precision, Kai had already made up his mind; everything else Luca said was just icing on the cake.

However, there was still one thing he needed to confirm: Can the D-rank Gift [Ki Control] extract the essence of herbs?

If the Gift couldn't do that, wouldn't he be going down the wrong path?

After all, he still had a long way to go before he could undergo his third Heavenly Trial. If he spent all his time increasing his Ki reserves without gathering any Honey Points, and [Ki Control] turned out to be unable to extract the essence of herbs—what would he do then?

"So, what do you think? Isn't [Ki Control] great?" Luca asked, noticing Kai lost in thought.

"It's good, but I need you to confirm something. Can you help me?" Coming back to his senses, Kai responded and made his request.

"Sure thing. What do you need my help with?" Luca readily agreed. Since he knew Kai was an Alchemist, he was much more tolerant—after all, being friends with an Alchemist could bring many benefits.

"It's like this—I need to be sure that this Gift can help me extract the essence of herbs. Unfortunately, I don't have any herbs on me right now. If you have time, you can come with me to the shop. But if you're busy, we can meet up in the evening instead," Kai explained.

"Right now, it's difficult. However, we can meet up at 5 inside Cherry Inn." When Kai asked him to go with him immediately, Luca looked back at his teammates. Seeing that no one was willing to let him go, he decided to meet Kai in the evening instead.

"5:00 p.m. is good." After finalizing the time, Kai signaled to Alex.

"Okay, guys, see you around." Saying goodbye to the members of Goblin Destroyers, Alex and Kai headed back toward the town.

As they neared the town gate, Kai noticed the Town Board—something he hadn't seen when they first left.

[Blue Wing Town]

Rank: Mid

Residents: 74,521

Highest Combat Power: Level 5 (2)

Specialty: None]

"What's that?" Kai asked Alex. He had never left the town before and didn't know what the board meant.

"That's our town's current stats. It's like our own stat panel," Alex explained.

"So no one put it up there manually?" Kai asked, stepping closer to the board to better understand what was written.

"I never knew our town had a name. Currently, the population is seventy-five thousand. If I remember correctly, the population was one hundred thousand when we first arrived, right?" Kai asked, recalling that Leo had once told him the town housed a hundred thousand people.

"That's right. However, in the past three months, we've lost around twenty-five thousand people," Alex said, pouring cold water over Kai's thoughts.

"You're telling me twenty-five thousand people died in just three—" Before Kai could finish, a terrifying thought emerged in his mind.

"That can't be right… there's no way so many people could've died," Kai mumbled under his breath, trying to suppress the dreadful realization.

"According to some experts, around half a billion humans might already be dead," Alex said casually, understanding the look on Kai's face.

At first, Kai thought Alex was joking. But as he did the math in his head, he realized that Alex's casual comment wasn't far from the truth.

As the realization dawned on him, a look of horror spread across Kai's face, and cold sweat formed on his skin.

"You can't say something like that," Kai said to Alex softly, regaining his composure.

Although Kai didn't know what kind of experiences Alex had gone through as a hunter to say something so terrifying so casually, he knew Alex was still young and didn't fully understand the weight of his words.

"Did you say something?" Alex asked, not having heard Kai.

"Nothing. Let's head inside."

Upon entering the town, Alex headed back to Kato Bakery, while Kai made his way toward the Honey Pill shop.

Along the way, Alex's words kept echoing in Kai's mind.

"Did you run a lap around the town?" Miya greeted Kai as he entered the shop, noticing the stench of sweat coming from him.

"Something like that." Taking the brewing list, Kai headed to his Alchemy room.

"Get it together," he told himself, calming his nerves as he looked at the brewing list for the day.

[Brewing List]

Name: Kai

Date: Year 0, Month 4, Day 12

Task: 8 Essence Boost Potions]

"This is easy enough," Kai said, scanning the list before starting the task.

Following the usual procedure, he spent less than four hours refining 8 Essence Boost Potions.

After completing the batch, Kai cleaned the Alchemy room and made a list of all the herbs he had used.

He walked out of the Alchemy room. Before leaving, he didn't forget to take a few common herbs with him.

"Did you encounter some problem?" Miya asked as she saw Kai leaving his Alchemy room early. Wasn't he hellbent on earning Honey Points to buy the broken Knowledge Sea?

"Nothing like that. I completed my task," Kai replied, handing over his brewing list along with all the potions and the list of herbs he had used.

"As you say." Miya put away the Essence Boost Potions and marked his employee card.

However, she couldn't help but wonder to herself—what had happened to the human? Yesterday, when she didn't let him earn any more Honey Points, he had left with bitterness in his heart. But now, he only completed the necessary task and didn't bother to make extra potions or refine pills for additional points.

"Also, I would like to exchange these herbs," Kai said, taking back his employee card and placing the herbs he wanted to use to test Luca's [Ki Control] Gift.

"I can do that, however, that would cost 1 Honey Point. Are you sure?" Miya asked, as the value of the herbs was far lower than one Honey Point. However, the rules of the shop clearly stated that one can't exchange anything worth less than one Honey Point.

"Can't I just buy them with copper and silver instead?" Hearing that the herbs would cost one Honey Point, Kai thought for a moment. Even if the D-rank Gift [Ki Control] could indeed replace Soul Power in using the Herb Weaving skill, he still wasn't willing to waste a Honey Point.

If the D-rank Gift [Ki Control] could save him from the fate of becoming a slave, then he could use those Honey Points to buy something precious, like a Knowledge Sea—an intact one this time.

"If you wanted to buy the herbs with money, why did you say you wanted to exchange them? You should have just said you wanted to buy them." Miya was surprised that Kai had tried to exchange some cheap herbs for a Honey Point; she felt like something might be wrong with the human's brain.

Only after hearing that he wanted to buy them did she realize he hadn't lost his mind.

"All these will be 57 copper coins," Miya said, calculating the price of the herbs and giving Kai a special discount.

"Here," Kai said, handing over the money. After paying and receiving the herbs, he left the Honey Pill shop.