bit.”
Ark comforted Ronnie and left the shack. Ark had treated the Galgin’s food poisoning using a different method. The method Ark used then was to investigate the area for the source of poisoning and then produced an antidote.
‘Normal NPCs wouldn’t go around picking and eating strange ingredients like the Galgin. But they’re poor so there is a possibility of eating some strange ingredients. That is also the reason why only the residents of the slums are sick. It is impossible for the rich residents of Ciel to eat strange ingredients. I have to investigate it.’
The first place Ark visited was the river by the slums. If something was contaminated in the area then the river would have the most significant impact. As expected, he found suspicious information when using Ingredient Identification on the river water.
-Common water from the unclean river flowing near the Ciel slums.
It is able to be applied to food.
* Advanced Additional Information: It seems like ordinary water but when looked at closely, the water from near the slums seems quite unclean. The unclean water is caused by serious pollution. Fortunately, there are no signs of serious pollution just yet but the descendants will need to be careful. Less than 1 year of damage will take decades for nature to recover.
‘There’s no doubt, this is the cause!’
After confirming the information about the river water, Ark picked the surrounding ingredients. Since there was no household water, environmental pollution seemed to be a real problem in New World. And the first ones damaged by environmental pollution was the poor. Although the information window said the contamination wasn’t at a serious level yet, he didn’t know what happened to the ingredients affected by the unclean water. An ingredient might react with the pollution to cause a poison. In reality, weren’t there instances of carcinogens detected in food grown in polluted areas?
‘There might be a special hidden element in the ingredients that is activated by the contamination. If I find the right ingredient and use the drug extraction properties of Food Worshipper then I can make a simple antidote. But if I want to use the Food Worshipper technique then the survival pot is necessary……’
Ark looked at the ingredients with an unbearable expression. Currently Ark had left the pot with the Magic Institute. Even if he wanted to treat the residents of the slums, he couldn’t possible abandon his immortality pill that would be completed in 40 hours. However, 40 hours in real time was 120 hours for an NPC. That was five days. If Magaret had another seizure then he couldn’t guarantee she would live.
‘Ah, that’s right!’
Ark was worried for a while before he thought of a method. Tarun was a pharmacist for the slums. Even if he didn’t know about the contaminated river water, he was still a pharmacist. He should be equipped with appliances to handle herbs. When Ark returned to the slums, Tarun immediately gave permission. His character was straightforward.
“If you can cure the residents then I will help however possible.”
“Thank you, then please assist me.”
Ark arranged the medicinal herbs at Tarun’s house and started actively working. Unlike the automatic function of his survival pot, he had to manually use Tarun’s tools but he was somehow able to examine the ingredients.
-The ingredients do not match!
“Damn!”
However, the task was not as easy as he thought. Although he tried to extract various elements from the plants, none of them matched with the river water.
“Maybe there are other ingredients around?”
“Let’s see? That seems like all the tolerable ones…..”
Tarun scratched his head and replied. Of course, there might be some ingredients Tarun didn’t know about. However, if most of the slum residents were poisoned then it would have to be a common ingredient. If there was no other ingredients……
‘Wait, Magaret was the first one to show symptoms 1 year ago. If the ingredients were the cause of the disease then shouldn’t it have been around then? The surrounding ecosystem can’t just change in 1 year.
Ark suddenly had a thought and asked Tarun.
“Was there anything that changed around 1 year ago?”
“Something that changed? Again, I can’t think of anything big.”
“Anything is fine.”
“Ah, I think the ‘Seirun Workshop’ started in Ciel at that time.”
“Seirun Workshop?”
“Yes. The Seirun Workshop is the biggest alchemy workshop in Ciel. It is among the top 5 in Bristania. Various potions that are supplied throughout the country is made in Ciel.”
Ark’s eyes flashed at Tarun’s words. ‘Job Then Ronnie’s mother caught the disease after her job was over!’ It was something he hadn’t considered. If it wasn’t a problem with the ingredients in the slums then it might be something they passed on the way to work. And it is the place where various herbs and alchemy potions are handled! So Ark’s investigation reached a turning point thanks to Tarun’s information.
—————————————————————————————————
-These advanced recovery potions are created using a special technique that combines 10 different herbs.
And the Seirun workshop has made a special high density product. It is an essential item that can treat any injuries received in a battle.
Once used, it will instantly recover +650 health. However, it will have no effect on abnormal states such as poison or disease.
“Hmm…..”
Ark shook a bottle containing a deep red liquid. After receiving the information from Tarun, he visited the Seirun workshop and bought a potion. The different areas in New World had specialty products. Then so-called brand name items existed. Simply speaking, iron goods created by dwarves were traded more often. That was because they were specialists with iron so their products had better performance. The NPCs who had mastered techniques would produce items that were brand named. Just like in reality, the branded goods were slightly more expensive but the performance was good. And the city of Ciel in the magic kingdom of Bristania was known for producing brand name potions. While Seirun’s potions had a similar price to others, it recovered 100~150 more health than the other potion so it was considerably famous in Bristania. They also significantly reduced the labour costs by hiring residents of the slums.
‘Then the people who went to the Seirun workshop became ill?’
It was doubtful. However, there might be a problem among the herbs in the potion. Even if there were no problems with the herb, he couldn’t be relieved. Since the herbs might be a fairly unique ingredient, sometimes combining the ingredients will cause toxicity. In fact, thieves often used ‘Poison Manufacturing’ to mix herbs together to make poisons. However, it was already a liquid mixture so there was no recognisable ingredients.
‘As expected, is it impossible to investigate the ingredients in the potions?’
When buying the potion, Ark had politely asked for the herb combinations. That was the reason why he bought the potion. However, it was a brand name item so the herbal formulation was top secret. They wouldn’t teach it just because he asked. Therefore Ark was misunderstood as an industrial spy and kicked out.
‘But if it’s not the river water and plants around the slums then this must be it. Is there any way to check the ingredients in here?’
Ark shook the potion and thought until a fact he forgotten popped into his head.
‘Wait? That reminds me that there are a lot of transporters here. And the potions sold by the Seirun workshop was the centre of Ciel’s industry. So there should be a lot of goods transported to and from the Seirun workshop.’
So Ark visited the Twilight tavern where transporters frequented a lot.
“That is correct. We deliver goods there and the finished products created by the Seirun workshop.”
The old man Ark previously helped nodded and replied. Ark showed great joy and asked.
“Can you tell me what type of ingredients you delivered to Seirun?”
“That’s a bit…..”
The old man scratched his head with hesitation.
The Seirun workshop supplied various potions to the entire southern area of Bristania. In order to maintain that type of market, it was necessary to defend the recipe. There were a lot of regulations that forbade the transporters and regular customers from mentioning it. However, Ark now had their full trust.
“Please just a little bit. I absolutely don’t have any bad intentions.”
“I know you’re not a bad person. But my company takes care of all the transportation around here. Rather than directly purchasing things and delivering them, Seirun just moves things around the head office. The boxes are already sealed up so I don’t know the contents. Besides, if they ever know that I let such information loose then I’ll be fired. I also have a wife and children.”
“Indeed…..”
Ark nodded his head although his gaze lingered on the old man. Then the old man made an inconvenient expression and sighed before muttering under his breath.
“Phew, it really is difficult…… Even if I don’t tell you, there is a method to figure it out……”
“Huh? What is that?”
“If you think it over then there is a way. Didn’t you accept my request before? Yesterday I was transporting something and received a surprise attack from kobolds, making me lose some luggage. I need to find it. It is materials urgently requested by the Seirun workshop so they are pressuring me.
“I’m sorry, but this time…..”
Ark was about to answer when he suddenly raised his head. Then the old man smiled and winked. Now Ark could understand the old man’s intentions. The lost luggage was supposed to be delivered to Seirun workshop. In other words, it contained the information Ark wanted to know. Of course, the items were related to the quest so Ark wouldn’t be able to handle it freely. When receiving a quest, there was some kind of contract