Danmachi: Is It Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon - Chapter 5.2 (Patreon)

When I left the ruined church behind, I didn't head immediately to the dungeon. Rather, I headed to a small out of the way place Hestia had introduced me to the other day.

It was a small run down building, located behind a general market area. The Blue Pharmacy it was called, a building even smaller than the church I currently lived in and just as decrepit.

The home and base of the Miach familia.

I entered the building, finding himself in a cramped main room lined with old wooden shelves, mostly barren with sparse vials of different potions lining them here and there.

I found Naaza, the only member of the Miach family behind the counter, pouring over a small cauldron. The furry brown canine ears atop her head twitched as I entered and she looked over at me, an impassive look on her face, "Ah, Caelan." she greeted simply.

"Yo." I greeted the chienthrope, approaching the counter.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked, bored purple eyes staring straight into my own.

"Yeah, I need to buy some potions, specifically antidotes, let's say five of them and five mind potions while we're at it." I replied.

Naaza blinked and just stared at me for a moment, and it took her a second to get her bearings properly, "Alright." she nodded and turned around, bending over at the waist and reaching into a small storage chest.

I took the time to admire her full backside stretching out the confines of her long blue skirt like a shelf while she was at it, fighting off the grin that threatened to spread across my face as I noted her tail swishing back and forth excitedly.

It was too bad she was in love with Miach who would never return those affections. I definitely wouldn't mind making her lose that impassive look she always had and putting a delirious smile in its place.

A second later, she was done and stood back up, turning around and placing ten vials down on the counter, five of them a light green and the other five a light blue, "The green ones are the antidotes," she informed, while running a hand through her short light brown tresses and giving me a bit of a deeper frown, "Not sure why you would want them, or mind potions. You've only been an adventurer like a week and you're human while poisonous monsters don't start appearing until the seventh floor."

"Which is where I'm going before, and let's just say I'm a little special." I winked at her.

"It usually takes an average adventurer over a year to reach the seventh floor," she replied, voice monotone, "Don't over reach, you'll die, once something is taken down in the dungeon, won't get it back." she warned, eyes briefly flickering to the one long sleeve her top had, over the only hand wearing a glove.

"Don't worry, I won't die," I shrugged, "So how much do I owe you?" I asked.

"Three thousand valis." she replied blankly, not missing a beat.

What a scam. Most potion places sold them for one fifty to two hundred and healing potions for a hundred since they were the most common. And that wasn't taking into account that I know Naaza waters down the potions she makes so she can get more from each cauldron.

Not that I really blame her, what with her familia being massively in debt to the Dian Cecht Familia and Miach always giving out free stuff…and the debt being because she lost her arm and Miach begged Dian Cecht to make her a silver arm to replace the one she lost.

…Dian Cecht who kept adding on to their debt because they were having trouble paying it.

Honestly, without any help they really were fucked. And not in the good proper way I'd like give Naaza.

But while I don't blame her, it doesn't mean I won't take advantage of it, "That's way more than most places," I pointed out, "And from the looks of it, these potions are weaker than average, the colours are too light on them."

Naaza froze.

That was all the tell I needed, "A scam huh?" I raised an eyebrow at her, "You don't give off that incompetent feel, so did you water them down then?"

"…Yes…" she admitted, grimacing, showing off the first glance of emotion I'd seen out of her, she sighed in defeat.

"Where's Miach?" I asked, looking around, "He's too kind to scam people like this, so I'm guessing this is all on you."

Now Naaza scowled, "He's out and that's exactly why," she replied, clenching her one normal fist, "We hardly make any money because he's always giving stuff away."

"Which doesn't help your debt at all." I pointed out knowingly.

Her purple eyes widened, "…You know?"

"I heard some people talking about it at the Dian Cecht familia's store," I shrugged, "It's why I decided to come here instead, figured you guys could use the business and our gods are good friends, course I wasn't expecting you to try and scam me."

"…Sorry, but this is one of the few ways I can help make a little extra for us," the dog woman apologized, "If you're unhappy with me that's fine, but please don't tell Lord Miach."

"Hmm, alright," I shrugged before leaning over the counter and grinning at her, "If you do a little thing for me, I'll keep quiet about this."

She stilled, looking at him warily before swallowing heavily, "…What kind of thing?" Naaza asked.

"How about giving me a smile?" I smirked at her, "You've got such a pretty face but it's dragged down by that frown you always have on your face."

Naaza blinked, "…A smile, that's it?" she asked slowly, confused.

But there was a slight dusting of red on her cheeks at my request.

"That's all I want," I confirmed with a nod, my smirk growing, "Beautiful sales clerks are supposed to be eye candy you know, so you can drag in easy idiot guys."

Naaza's cheeks grew ever so slightly redder and she sighed, "…If that's all, fine." she agreed, and her lips quirked up into a smile. It looked good on her.

Her eyes were still blank though.

"Yeah, we'll have to work on that." I snorted, before reaching for my valis pouch and taking out three thousand and placing it on the counter, before gathering up my potions.

Naaza blinked, "…You're still paying for them?" she asked, looking confused.

"They'll do, I'll only really need the antidotes this one time anyway I think," I shrugged, the mind potions were another story for now, "Though, sell me proper ones next time, I don't mind paying the same price."

Her smile returned, a soft genuine thing now and gratitude shone in her purple eyes, "Thank you." she bowed her head lightly.

"…See, now that's a killer smile, get a shop out on the front streets, a smile like that and a bit more revealing clothes and you'd have guys coming in by the bucket loads," I laughed, shaking my head, "But say, let me ask something."

"What?" she asked.

"The drop items for the Purple Moth's and Blue Papillo's, they're worth a decent bit because they have some of their powders in them, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, you can make about twenty antidotes for poison from the amount of powder in a single Purple Moth wing, and you can make around ten or so high potions from the powder of from a Blue Papillo's," Naaza replied and explained, "It's why the guild generally buys the Purple Moth wings for a thousand five hundred each and ten thousand for the Blue Papillo's."

Damn, that was pretty good.

And it could work out well for me.

According to the book my advisor Ron gave me, Purple Moth's were were just really big purple moths with large wings about a foot and a half in height. Blue Papilio were basically the same in every way…except being blue in colour.

Going by their sizes, if I can gain their abilities, producing their powders in much more abundance will be much easier.

"Why do you ask?" Naaza questioned.

"If things go right for me, I'm gonna be in a position to get a ton of their powders," I explained, "How would you feel about making a deal with me?"

Naaza blinked slowly, "…What kind of deal?" she asked.

"A deal that will make that debt of yours a thing of the past," I grinned widely, "It'll take a little bit to get everything ready and you'll need to talk to Miach about it first, but how about you guys work for me?"

I really couldn't care less about the Hestia Knife. I don't really need it. But, it was priceless, worth much more than say…a store in Babel store.

"What do you mean?" Naaza asked, the confused look she was giving him becoming deeper.

"I've got plans for getting a store in Babel Tower, and it'll be selling a bunch of things, one of those will be potions," I explained, "I'll be able to supply tons of powders daily from both Purple Moth's and Blue Papilion's, I'll have you guys work for me to turn them into potions and sell them."

I'll have them selling not only Antidotes and Hi-Potions from the powders I'll be able to make, but also tons of ready made Crystal Armour. And leave most of the sales up to Hestia and Naaza, get them in some cute outfit and boom, they alone as salesgirls will draw in the sweaty meat heads all around.

And Miach, I'll put him in some butler outfit and put that bishonen face to good use, make him draw in the females.

"…That's quite big talk, but an enticing offer, depending on the pay." she replied simply.

"Fifty percent of the profits from all the potions." I offered.

Her mouth dropped low and I got to see the usually impassive dog eared beauty gape at me.

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It took a while for Naaza to regain her bearings at my offer. After all, what I did offer, was a premium sales location, free access to materials needed for potion creation and fifty percent profit on the potions themselves.

The amount of valis she would make then would blow what she was making now out of the water and off into the horizon never to be seen again.

I left not long after she did go back to normal. She was all for the offer, but needed to run it by Miach first.

And before all that, I needed to see about getting that store in Babel Tower. And I would need to rely on Hestia using her friendship with Hephaestus for that.

That would be something to discuss with her tonight.

For now though, it was time for me to put into action what prompted me to buy mind potions in the first place.

Once I left the Blue Pharmacy, I made my way through Daedulus Street and down into an empty alleyway.

Once I was there, I stopped and took a deep breath, before focusing. Moments later, thick crystal plate armour formed over my body, not only over my feet and arms like before, but this time, forming into a full set of body armour that covered me from head to toe.

When I finished, I almost toppled over, my head feeling a bit light. 'Nearly hit mind down.' I grimaced.

Despite my magic stat now being in the D-tier, it took pretty much everything I had to form this set of armour.

Exactly why I bought mind potions in the first place.

I popped the face guard on the full crystal helmet open and wasted no time in downing one of the mind potions. It wasn't the nicest tasting out there, almost like a mint that had gone off, but I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt my magic reserves fill back up by nearly a half.

And then I downed another bringing me back to full magical capacity. 'Three left.' I noted.

That should do me well enough.

I grinned as I looked myself over. It was a bit rough, but it looked good. Shiny and impressive looking and would draw many an eye. "Free advertisement, heh." I chuckled.

I was confident and cocky, not stupid.

Any singular monster I come across, won't be a problem for the floors I'm going to. But Killer Ant's could be a problem. They could form swarms of hundreds thanks to their pheromone generation ability.

They were known as the rookie killer. They tended to kill more early adventurers than any other monster.

With this armour of mine, even if that many formed, they would have a heal of a time actually damaging him.

"Now let's go have a party." I grinned excitedly and made my way out of the ally, my crystal blue armour gleaming brightly under the shining sunlight as I did.