CHAPTER 114: ALCHEMIST-CHAN

"Pandora, weren’t you going to do something even more terrible?" Violet asks as we’re in a room after our victory.

"I was going to, but I changed my mind." It’s not like I was really going to kill Sakura with the mana collar, it was just to scare her. Besides, I discovered Tsubasa’s ability it’s more powerful than I thought.

It’s similar to Hana’s, but in a much better version, since as a hero he can save people in masses, which can literally give him a huge army.

’I have to be careful not to get caught for this...’ I don’t want to become a puppet of others.

’How does it necessarily work? Is it like it gets recorded in the brain? If I kept destroying and regenerating my brain, could I get out of the effect?... Anyway, heroes have an average of 40% of the maximum level... It’ll take a while...’

Most heroes have stagnated at the level they’re at, because there’s no place for them to get stronger at the academy, only in dungeons.

"The church... Maybe it’s a good idea for me to go to the church..." If I go to the church, maybe I can find where the papers with each hero’s unique abilities are.

Elena sent reports about this but without success, entering the church is practically impossible for a demon.

"Pandora, why go to the church?" Violet questions when she hears me murmuring.

"For nothing special, anyway we have to prepare for the third phase." Luckily I only had one fight and passed the second phase, I heard Celeste had 6 fights to pass.

"Pandora, why do you seem so excited for the third phase? Normally you wouldn’t care since it’s not important."

"Hehehe, I’ve played a few ’pranks’ and I have some things prepared."

"Really? Like what? Now I’m curious... I mean, I don’t care, it’s probably nothing big." For a moment Violet stepped out of her arrogant self, but soon returned.

"You’re right, it’s nothing big, I just did 5 little things. The first one is to rig explosives in the stands, nothing like a little act of terrorism to liven up the audience."

"!!! You did... Hahaha, that does sound fun," she says with a laugh.

"Another thing I did was... rig explosives in the principal’s office, since she won’t be at the academy she won’t be able to find out it was me, and the reason for that? I just thought it would be funny, especially because the explosive sprays slime everywhere when it goes off."

"Another thing I did was learn some different textures for certain uses... Like in the competition where the arena is made of slime, I’ll do some little things, if you know what I mean."

"The fourth thing I did was learn some questionable magic spells," I say with a mischievous smile.

"And I’ll clearly use those spells in the competition... and the 5th thing? Well, that’s a secret." I keep talking to her while I have time, I’ll make this third phase something exciting.

...

...

...

"Hello, alchemist-chan," I say as I see the great demon alchemist, he’s always such an incredible sight to see, his appearance has changed again.

"What do you want?" He speaks without much interest.

"Curt and serious as always, you should be more lively, you know?" I say jokingly as I sit at the table he’s at without even being invited.

’Lucky I ran into him at some random bar.’ He stares at me without saying anything, waiting for me to say something.

"You’re always so anticlimactic, come on, I want a damage absorption relic, it should absorb damage and convert it to mana." I need this for some things.

"...Any good alchemist can make that, why ask me?" He questions while drinking a glass of beer.

"Why? Isn’t it obvious, alchemist-chan? Because you’re the best of them all," I say with a smile.

"Why would a human want to negotiate with a demon?"

"...Business is business, I don’t think race matters when we’re after money and power, do you agree?" I say to him as I pull the beer glass from his hand and take a sip.

"..."

"You’re right, especially for someone like you, who is known as the king of thieves..." He speaks to me, but his tone is scornful.

"...That’s because..." My vision completely blurs, I jump off the table to distance myself.

’Blood...’ A drop of blood trickles from my nose.

"It’s not very polite to drink someone else’s drink," he says as he picks up the glass I left on the table.

’When did he poison the drink? Or was it poisoned from the start?... Tsk.’

"Okay, okay, my bad, alchemist-chan, could you give me the antidote?" I say, trying to maintain the same image as before.

"...Hmm... I want 50 kilograms of Stardust Iron." I grit my teeth hard, the sound of grinding is audible.

’Greedy bastard.’

"Of course, alchemist-chan, anything..." I approach and sit at the table again, handing him what he asked for, the ore was taken from a small bag that is a separate space to store things.

’50 kilograms of Stardust Iron... A huge loss.’ Magical ores have a lot of value, this amount was very expensive, but my life is worth more.

I soon drink the antidote he gave me.

"So, alchemist-chan, could you tell me if you accept my request?" I say a little harshly, this meeting has already cost me dearly.

"I accept, payment will be made before delivery," he speaks without much interest as he drinks the rest of the liquid in the glass.

"Alchemist-chan, I heard you’re making items for the current Demon King... Are you interested in selling me that information?" Something like that is worth a fortune on the black market.

I could make astronomical gains if I could sell information about the Demon King’s orders to the alchemist.

"Sell you that, huh... 20 tons of Quintessentium in exchange for that information."

"..."

"..."

"I didn’t really want to anyway," I say angrily, that amount is impossible, no one in the world should have something like that, in fact, this greedy old man probably has an unimaginable amount of magical ores.

’Looks like I won’t have much success...’

"Is there anything you can sell me about the Demon King then?" There are many buyers interested in anything about the Demon King.

Besides, there are some perverted maniacs who would even pay to get the Demon King’s corpse just to keep as a collection... or for other uses.

’It reminds me of Grinn... that perverted psychopath... I feel disgusted every time I remember, I regret accepting Grinn’s request, he bought the corpse of the last demon king who was defeated by the heroes.

The body was in good condition and since the Demon King’s body never decomposes, it was a great find, so it was possible to deliver without many problems, we were lucky to get something like that, but what Grinn did disgusts me.

’I can’t believe he didn’t even wait for me to leave to do that.’ I shudder just remembering.

"You shuddered, remembered something disgusting?" The alchemist asks with slight interest.

"...Just an old client... Anyway, do you have it or not?" I ask impatiently, remembering Grinn irritated me.

"...I do have it... but I’ll charge a lot."

"Of course you will... I’m willing to pay for anything."

"...Okay, first put what you have on the table, then I’ll tell you based on what you gave me." I take out many different types of magical ores and put them on the table, and of course the bar is empty since I made sure of that by killing everyone.

He soon stores everything in a magic bag similar to mine.

"Okay, where do I start..." He mumbles as he places the drink glass on the table.

"The Demon King... is childish... wears cute printed panties... likes to eat humans... prefers girls’ breasts as food... smells like strawberry and bitter chocolate... is sexually active... is very possessive and obsessive..."

"..."

’Is this serious? I paid for this piece of crap information?’ Fortunately, some perverted fuckers will pay for this, but not enough to match the value I paid.

He continues to talk this nonsense and I listen and memorize everything.

"Oh, and the Demon King is currently out of their castle."

"...Wait... did you say they’re out of the castle?" This information itself is not that useful to sell, but if this information comes with the location where they are currently, then this information becomes valuable.

"Ah yes, they are, but I won’t sell the information of where they are located, if you want something like that, look for an informant, after all I’m just a humble alchemist."

’If you’re humble, I’m a goddess.’ There’s no way this greedy bastard would be humble.

"Tsk... continue." It’s a shame, the information that they’re out is not that useful because they can teleport back easily, what would really be useful is knowing where they are.

"I think the most relevant thing is that the Demon King entered the ocean and came out alive."

’Oh... that’s worth a lot... the goddess of the mermaids is quite tyrannical, for the Demon King to have come out alive, something must have happened...’ I can sell all of this.

"I think we can end it here." I tell him, because I know he won’t give me anything else, I see it in his gaze that he doesn’t seem to like me very much.

"Already leaving?" He asks.

"Yes, you’ve extorted enough from me for one day." I soon leave the bar, getting away, being around this demon for too long can be dangerous, he might end up extorting even more from me.

’Interesting things are happening... first, there are several demons making suspicious moves in the main kingdom... and there’s that girl who recently entered the black market looking for me, and offered Quintessentium.’

’I wonder if the kingdom will finally be turned upside down... and more importantly... how many profits will I make depending on which side I help?’

"I hope things get really chaotic..."