Before you raise your eyebrows and declare this a story of debauchery, while Milia did agree to live with me, she still held her purity at the moment. We had a long, somewhat awkward discussion, but one that couldn’t be held off. The amount of flirting we’d done over the past month and a half kind of became the talk of the town, aside from my potion shop.
This world had customs, traditions that even a modern brain like me couldn’t help but respect. Also we were talking about a dryad, a being that was fairly close to divinity in comparison to anything else on the planet.
Living together while courting was allowed, even encouraged. On Earth, there were girlfriends and proposals, you know, standard things. Here, the rules were kind of all over the place and depended on the kingdom or empire.
Living together aside, because technically this could be viewed as employer providing living arrangements as a part of the job, the first step was courtship. If it worked out, then the second step came along, which was dependent on the living location. In this case, Harmony had already begun that based on assumptions. A town leader or any of their family would begin to arrange the marriage after investigating the relationship between a couple, asking them both similar questions. Whether they get the compatibility right or not was either left up to interpretation or they simply didn’t care. Arranged marriages were a pain in the ass and I still thought people of this era moved too fast.
The third step was meeting the woman’s parents, not the man’s, which was kind of lucky for me in that regard. I didn’t have family here. Now, let me make this clear. I was aware that transmigration was a possibility like in stories or TV shows. I didn’t look like my old self, but also had all of my memories, not someone else’s. The system would’ve likely told me, even given me the name of the prior body owner.
Now, here was the interesting part. Milia had parents, even siblings. Yes, that was right. Dryads were not born from trees like most legends stated. They were beings created just like humans, likely from mana and whatever lies above. No one here truly knew. Any answers or clues were probably lost time or burned in the terrible fires of war.
So yeah, around the time of any wedding, Milia’s mother and her siblings were going to visit. Now, dryads may be closer to divine beings, but they were also related to mana and even demonic creatures too. Perhaps so were divine beings. As a result, Milia warned me that her siblings, all female obviously, would be overly familiar. They’d want what she had, and their presence served as a test of temptation for any male. Even worse, deprived dryads could get aggressive. Milia said she trusted her family and they were truly good people. Finding a mate, however, was quite difficult for their kind.
There were no such thing as male dryads, so they mated with male fairies, which held the power to keep the bloodline pure. If Milia and I had a child, it would be human with dryad powers. Half human, half dryad. Sometimes they’d be completely normal humans. For some reason, our genes dominated the mana genes.
After those three steps came the fourth, the ceremony. Thankfully no speeches were required, the family and organizers would handle everything. But what went on in these events, well, I could only hope to find out. Until the ceremony, we couldn’t sleep together.
That was tradition, though Milia boldly stated that not everyone followed it to the exact degree.
Yes, asking her to live with me brought out a hell of a conversation, something that couldn’t be held in slow motion in this world. Dryads, as well as other mana beings, actually mated much faster but they also respected the customs of others. So me being one hundred percent human and a powerful magician, as well as the suitor, meant we were going with how the people of this town did things.
There was going to be a lot of drinking and headaches, that was for sure. Nothing was final, of course, but that was the gist. A talk between adults without the pretense. Once again, this world moved fast. But I did like Milia a lot. With time, it could become something much more. And no, I still didn’t plan to suddenly hop on some BS adventure, saving the world, and defying the heavens.
I woke early that morning or rather was awoken by Wolverine’s tail slapping against my arm. He barked, then panted, excited. Since there was a doggy entrance, he likely already did his business out in the forest. That or refused to allow me to sleep in as a little petty revenge about the prior night’s bath.
My plumbing system allowed everyone to bathe with fresh water every time. We heated things with mana, so there wasn’t a need for smoking up the place. Yes, we still had a chimney for the fireplace and a smaller one for the kitchen, but that was that.
After washing up, I set up two cauldrons to get started with today’s first batch, while Milia, to my surprise, prepared breakfast. Without meat included.
If I weren’t so tired last night, I may have considered boosting our stock. Today, I hoped to create something new. I’d be… a magician that mostly used just potions, for selling and for defending myself and my loved ones. That and this town’s inflation still needed to go down. Hopefully the blacksmith and the village would spread the word. Bring in business, not just for me, but the entire town of Kyushu. As if confirming my resolve, the system flashed a prompt into view.
[You have doubled down on your ambition to stick to your class time and time again. You will continue to unlock potions; however, it is recommended to search for additional means to find recipes. Whether discovering them from fellow makers or alchemists, to inventing them, to conquering dungeons. Dungeons will only drop a class chest, once and once only, after you defeat its boss. However, you may still run the dungeon twice a day for lesser loot. You can only run an S-ranked dungeon once a day or even in some cases, once a month or year.]
“Ah, I see you’re using my hashbrown recipe,” I quipped as Milia set the table. She drizzled a little honey over her own. I chose not to. For Wolverine, I had a smoked mutton mix ready for him.
“They’re quite addicting,” she said. “A part of me knows they should be eaten in moderation, but the other part would eat them all day. Like your burger recipe.”
“What can I say?” I said as I took my first bite. I couldn’t help but be impressed and slightly jealous. These hashbrowns were actually better than mine. I ended up gazing at my empty plate sadly. I thought about asking for more, but with the potential rush of customers on their way, I had no choice but to call it a morning with a fresh glass of cold water.
“I’ll clean up,” Milia said. “You start the morning batch.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, then I leaned in, kissing the dryad. She pulled me in strongly, almost causing a blast of passion as she kissed back, my breath vanishing, until we knocked over a glass of water. Wolverine barked once, shaking his head. We burst into laughter.
I started with the general medicine potion, before brewing the health and energy potions. Having gotten the hang of things by now, the creation of each didn’t take anywhere near as long. Milia helped me bottle each batch and then put them on a labeled shelf. Each bottle was already pre-labeled with an ink brush. H for health potion, E for energy, GM for general medicine. I’d return to writing out the entirety of potion types whenever I added new things to the menu.
I made a ‘Don’t Overdose’ sign to help with the backdrop of the shop. On it also included general instructions for taking a potion.
“I’ll be back in a bit, I need to check on the garden,” I said. I considered acquiring cattle and other things again, perhaps flood up the market with supply, bringing down prices. For now, I’d continue to be the potion maker, not a farmer.
The garden was as vibrant as ever and yeah, people would certainly call it cheating for having a dryad take care of it. However, it still required my mana to grow as rapidly as it did.
As I picked herbs and fruit, I wondered seriously how far I could take my potion making. What kind of crazy concoction could I cook up? Could I gain flight? Speaking of which. I hurried back into the house, grabbed some mutton and fruit, then hurried to where Beakwing currently rested, followed by Wolverine.
“We’ll get started on your barn soon,” I told the griffin. “In the meantime, you’ll have to take refuge in Milia’s forest.” It devoured the food I brought it. “Adding your expenses to the balance sheet.” I grinned at the magical creature while petting it. Seeing Wolverine making noises, I pet him too. I certainly wouldn’t neglect such a good boy.
I turned to the forest, feeling just a little adventurous, perhaps curious. Could I create a potion that allowed me to shapeshift into critters?
“Dammit! Fine!” I sat on the ground. “If it means I’ll advance this class and bring in the gold, I’ll put more effort into leveling it. System, what should I do to unlock the next potion?”
Wolverine tilted his head, curious about what the fuck I was talking about. The system did not respond, so I closed my eyes and for the first time since I’d been here, separated myself from the turmoil of my thoughts, relaxed, and meditated.
After about ten minutes, I grew bored.
“Yeah, fuck this,” I said. “Meditation, my ass cheeks. How do people sit through this?”
Standing, I dusted myself off and headed back inside, followed by Wolverine.
“I think we’ll have to run the dungeon after all,” I said. “Maybe a weaker dungeon, just so I can get the hang of things.”
“Hmm,” Milia tilted her head. “Actually, there’s an E-ranked just an hour northeast of here.”
I nodded. “Alright then, after we close shop for the day, we’ll take a look at it.”
I flipped the shop’s sign to OPEN. A few minutes after I made my way behind the counter, we waited. I turned through a small history book, trying to learn as much of the world as possible, while Milia read what I thought was an action-adventure novel. I don’t know how it started, maybe a poke on the shoulder, but somehow she ended up in my arms as we laughed and joked around.
Harmony’s throat clearing brought us back to earth. We tried to play it off, but by the raised eyebrow, the cheeky teenager was not having it.
I coughed a few times. “Uh, the shop could use a light sweeping. A few green mints and salamander herbs will need harvesting before the noon.”
Milia giggled at my failed attempt at covering up our tiny moment of romance. Harmony tapped her feet just a bit longer, before relenting and smiling at us.
“What took you so long?” she said, walking and grabbing a broom. The shop wasn’t dirty, but Harmony humored me anyway.
“We’re thinking about tackling an E-ranked dungeon today,” I said.
“Really? But why? I thought you weren’t interested in combat,” Harmony said.
“I’m not,” I told her, “but I’ll need materials and even ideas to make new potions. I’ll likely find inspiration at some point.”
“You could order a book,” she said.
“And,” I said, gesturing for her to finish the sentence I already knew.
“They’re terribly expensive,” she relented, wilting a bit. “It’s even more than what we can afford.”
“Even the most basic potion making book costs at least a small bag of gold,” I said. “If I want trusted delivery, it’s more gold to sign up to some noble’s band of bootlickers.”
“Bootlickers?” Milia and Harmony asked, which only solicited a sigh from me. Some sayings from our world made it, others didn’t.
“Anyway, books are a no-go,” I said.
Half an hour later, some customers trailed in, buying a few health and energy potions. I wondered on a daily basis how the people dealt with the town’s inflation while still being able to purchase potions from me. Then again, given the nature of accidents in small towns far from any city tech, a magical health potion with the capability of miraculously restoring someone was a fair balance to the issue.
“Will… you teach me magic?” Harmony asked me during a lunch break. I stared blankly at her. “I want to go to the dungeon as well. I—I’ve meditated and can feel my power growing.”
[Ally analysis.]
Harmony, your Disciple.
Magician rank: 2nd realm of the Mortal.
[Harmony can bypass the mortal realm through your acknowledgement. Simply calling her your disciple will do the trick.]
At first, I was about to dismiss the entire thing, let her learn this magic thing on her own, go through the hardship. Then I decided, fuck it. Skipping the first realm may somehow be useful to the shop later down the line. She may not gain the superstrength right away, but if we could teach her properly, then I could have her paint the roof someday. What? Don’t judge me. I’m not above making a teenage girl on the payroll do her job.
“Since you’re my disciple,” I said without being sarcastic for once, “I’ll try to help you the best I can, just this once.”
Suddenly, Harmony’s eyes widened, then went out of focus for roughly ten seconds, then she smiled.
“The insight… Master Nate, what did you do?” she asked, twirling a bit of her hair in one finger.
“Just Nate,” I deadpanned. “Or Boss, or Nate-sensei, or Churro, or—”
“Okay, I get it already, boss,” Harmony said.
I considered pestering my new publicly official girlfriend… fiancée for a lap pillow to save me from the headache of the mayor’s daughter, but her situation couldn’t be put off any longer. At last, I finally decided to be her goddamn master I guess.
“You’ll be learning the art of potion making, of course,” I said, grinning evilly, but she seemed unperturbed.
“That’s fine,” she said. “I don’t want to hurt people anyway. Besides, potions are the strongest weapons of combat.”
“You sure about that, kid?” I asked. “If I found myself facing a man with a magical flaming sword capable of incinerating its foes in just one strike, well… Wait. I’d just drink a fire resistance potion.”
Harmony laughed. “As expected of a master magician potion maker. You may be a goof, but truly, thank you for accepting me as your disciple.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. Wolverine barked twice at Harmony, almost as if in greeting.
“Hi Woofy,” she said cheerfully.
“Wolverine,” I corrected, but the blue-haired teenager ignored me. Milia shot me somewhat of an apologetic grin, but I could feel the aura of victory flowing beneath her like the caress of a warm summer day.
Not making much sense with my thoughts aside, I ordered everyone back to work. We worked together to pick more herbs, create the second batch of potions, as well as brew a little tea on the side.
There were people trying to order tea, but I had to be a little assertive, letting them know it wasn’t for sale. That decision belonged to Milia alone. After all, she showed me her secret brew, herb mixtures that got us some seriously tasty tea. It had a natural sweetness that made it require no honey. You know who you are, honey tea lovers. Okay, I was somewhat one of you, but the dryad gave me the eye once, daring me to violate the sanctity of the special drink. I didn’t challenge her.
I analyzed Harmony again and sure enough, she jumped from the mortal realm to the beginnings. It went without saying that a ton of magicians would probably kill to be in her position. Now the problem laid with actually teaching her magic. How the fuck did one go about such a thing?
“I wasn’t lying when I said I knew nothing about magic,” I told the eagerly awaiting blue-haired menace. “How do I go about teaching something that I myself wasn’t taught?”
“By asking me,” Milia said.
“Are you okay with that?” I asked her. “I… feel like this would be taking advantage of your generosity.”
Milia suddenly gave me a quick kiss, which only gained the scandalous stare of the mayor’s daughter.
“First off, I’m glad you ask me of things,” Milia said. “You’re not trying to run headstrong into everything with a stick of pride up your rear.”
Now that got a laugh from me.
“You are correct about that,” I told her. “In that case, may you instruct both of us? I’m… oddly attuned to magic and have a different way of doing things.”
Milia gazed at me a bit. “Are you able to explain how you do it? That can serve as a baseline for what I’m going to teach.”
I nodded. Showing my hand, I explained things. “First, I gather mana into my hand. Really, it’s strange to admit this, but I only know one spell. I have ridiculous strength, speed, stamina, you know, all the mundane physical superhuman shit.”
“Mundane,” Harmony deadpanned. “I saw some of your jumps and how you carried at least one hundred times what the other men could carry.”
I shrugged and then proceeded to demonstrate the basics to my disciple. After an hour, she finally managed to stabilize a little mana in her palm. Overexcited, she played around with it until accidentally snuffing it out.
“Let’s just finish the workday before we go to the dungeon,” I told them, voice tired.
