VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

Yumir didn’t seem to have noticed so I checked my friend list, it seems like it was Philia-chan.

Albert seems to be logged out, could it be that she had come alone?

Our guild home is set so that friends are free to enter, so she was already inside.

I sent her a short email telling her that we were working and that she could go ahead and wait in the lounge.

When me and Yumir kept sorting the items, Philia-chan showed her face through the entrance.

Could it be that she couldn’t wait?

「Good evening, Philia-chan.」(Hind)

「Nuoh, Philia! When did you get there!?」(Yumir)

「…Good evening.」(Philia)

After giving a bow, she calmly entered the storage.

Then she just stayed silent as we placed the items from our inventories into the boxes…

「Are those, medicinal herbs?」(Philia)

「Umu. They are the first batch from our field! Oh right, Hind. Can we share some with Philia?」(Yumir)

「Of course. If you use them as is, they would only have the effect of a beginner potion, but it’s not like it hurts having them.」(Hind)

It’s not like medicinal herbs can only be used as ingredients, it’s also possible to use them as low grade restorative items.

Yumir took a bunch of medicinal herbs from the box and placed them on Philia-chan’s hand.

「…Thank you. However, I haven’t done any compounding.」(Philia)

「We’ll teach you that! Hind will, that is!」(Yumir)

「Hey.」(Hind)

「Isn’t that fine? We don’t have anything else to do today right?」(Yumir)

I mean, it’s true that since Selene-san is not here, we won’t make progress on our blacksmithing.

Riizu is not here so we can’t make progress in making healing items and Since Tobi is not here either, we don’t have enough people to do anything.

「Well, if Philia-chan is not against it, I’ll teac-」(Hind)

「Please do.」(Philia)

「She didn’t even let him finish talking!? You sure are eager, Philia!」(Yumir)

After that, we made Philia-chan wait until we had sorted out the items.

We planted several Adeniums in pots and placed them down in the hallways and the lounge.

Philia-chan looked at the plants and murmured 「So beautiful」, it seems like she has taken a liking to them.

The places we placed flowers on, looked a bit more lively…

Since this was supposed to be a residence for nobles, the rooms had splendid ornaments and the flowers matched them well.

Then, we arrived at our long awaited compounding room.

Mortar, pestle, beaker, bottle for when we finish the product and the medicinal herbs we were going to use. I finished preparing these things.

「Well, while we are at it, Yumir can also give it a try.」(Hind)

「I’ll give it a try!」(Yumir)

「Philia-chan too, are you ready?」(Hind)

When she heard my question, Philia-chan, who was holding the pestle, started nodding.

Fundamentally, to refine a HP potion, you need: medicinal herbs, nourishing plants and some other things.

In reality, these nourishing plants have many uses in TB.

「…These yellow ones are…」(Philia)

「Yeah. These nourishing plants that look like leaves of a yellow Indian Lotus. They look like the leaves of an Indian Lotus, but instead of growing in water, they grow on the ground.」(Hind)

「They are plants that don’t exist in real life?」(Philia)

「Obviously. They sprout all year round and anywhere after all.」(Hind)

Unlike the medicinal herbs, they can endure the heat of Waaha and we harvested them without any issue, they are an all purpose ingredient that can be used in compounding without much trouble.

Apart from HP potions, they are a must when it comes to MP potions and status ailment ones.

「So, we’ll start with a normal potion. You just mash the medicinal herbs and nourishing plants together and add water on top.」(Hind)

「*grinding grinding*..Uoh, it smells like grass!」(Yumir)

「…」(Philia)

Right after they grinded the medicinal herbs, their smell started to permeate the room.

However, after they grinded the nourishing plants, something weird happened.

「Oh…the smell disappeared?」(Yumir)

「It not only disappeared…there’s a sweet smell?」(Philia)

「That’s right. Furthermore, if they are sepa-」(Hind)

「So bitter! It’s not sweet!」(Yumir)

Disregarding my explanation, Yumir took a bite of the nourishing plants and had a wry expression on her face.

Silently, Philia-chan saw that and she looked a bit exasperated.

「…Hear me out until the end. Nourishing plants are bitter by themselves but they turn sweet if you mix them with medicinal herbs. If you mix detoxification ones they increase in bitterness, you should know about that right, Yumir?」(Hind)

「Umu…」(Yumir)

As a result, if you drink a HP potion, they taste good.

Though I have already said before that there’s no need to directly drink them.

「So, after you grind them sufficiently, it’s fine if you just add water directly.」(Hind)

「There’s no need to filter them?」(Yumir)

「In that regard, it’s a game. It’s simplified.」(Hind)

「I see. In that case, here we go.」(Yumir)

Once you add water, in an unusual way, the paste made from herbs disappears and only a blue liquid remains.

All that was left to do was to use a funnel to pour the liquid into the bottle.

「There, congratulations on finishing one. As you already know, HP potions are blue, MP potions are green, make sure to not mistake one for the other.」(Hind)

「Ooh…it’s easier than I thought?」(Yumir)

「Yes. But, it makes me a bit happy that I made one myself. It feels special.」(Philia)

Yup, I get what she means.

The potions sold in stores are the mass produced types, so you can see that the ones you make yourself are different.

The two of them observed the liquid inside the bottles.

「Well, these are normal potions after all. They start getting annoying from intermediate onwards, there are a lot of additional ingredients after all…

With traditional Chinese medicine types, there’s information that says you have to add things like: honey, garlic and even soft shelled turtle’s blood and the like. Once it gets to intermediate and higher, the effects are all over the place and it depends on the crafter.」(Hind)

「…A while ago, we bought some intermediate potions from the trading BBS and their healing effects were only a bit higher than normal potions.」(Philia)

「That’s because you bought failures then. You have to choose if you want to buy them from NPCs since those have a fixed effect, or buy them from a crafter you deem trustworthy. Though, the best option would be to craft them yourself since that’s the safest.」(Hind)

Philia-chan eagerly listened to my explanation.

Once I taught them the basic recipes, Philia-chan bowed down and thanked us.

Since they have no intention to cultivate themselves, they plan to buy the ingredients from the trading BBS next time.

Even then, it’s cheaper than buying the finished products directly.

「Hind…the truth is, I have something I want to ask you.」(Philia)

「「?」」(Hind and Yumir)

Once we reached a stopping point, Philia-chan said that.

Yumir and I tilted our heads wondering what it was about.

「Does it have anything to do with why you are not with your dad today?」(Hind)

When I asked her that, Philia-chan nodded once and started to explain in detail.

We readied ourselves wondering what sort of serious talk she wanted to ha-

「Philia-chan you sure are admirable…」(Hind)

「Maybe I should do something to show my appreciation to my dad too…」(Yumir)

「…Why are you both…patting me?」(Philia)

It was something really light. Me and Yumir proceeded to pat Philia-chan’s head.

You could say that it was an issue because who we were dealing with was Albert. You could also say that it was a problem this little girl would likely have because she was dealing with him.

「So you heard from your classmates that they had rubbed their parent’s shoulders-」(Hind)

「Or that they put a wet compress on them and they were happy, and then you got jealous. I think it can’t be helped when you have a dad that’s so macho and usually goes to the gym.」(Yumir)

「Yup…dad, he has never said that he’s hurting somewhere…」(Philia)

Even if she wanted to show her appreciation to her dad, who was always going to work, there was nothing to heal with that iron body of his.

However, wouldn’t just having this adorable and admirable daughter be enough to heal that old man?

「So, you think that there’s a chance inside the game if you make a wet compress as a healing item?」(Hind)

「Something like that…? What do you think…?」(Philia)

After hearing her request, I went to the storage and returned to the compounding room with ingredients.

What I brought with me was: healing type medicine herbs, cloth, lead tetroxide, oil from pig’s fat and cayenne.

「For the time being, let’s experiment. In other words, testing.」(Hind)

Until a certain point, the process was the same as when making healing items.

Stopping when the medicinal herbs and the nourishing plants turned into a paste, we then made an extract from the lead tetroxide, pig fat and cayenne.

Another thing we needed was to mix lead tetroxide with the oil extracted from pig fat and mix them. Then we took both the extract and the mixture and pasted each one on one side of the cloth.

With this, the cloth had one warm side and another cool side.

「Then, we register the product…ohh!」(Hind)

「How did it go!? What did it become!?」(Yumir)

「…」(Philia)

Both of them peeked at my menu window from each side.

It’s so cramped…I moved the window so they could see it and both of their eyes started sparkling.

「Ooh!! It actually registered as a healing item! It’s a success!」(Yumir)

「Hind, are we going to try it right now…?」(Philia)

While showing her doubt and releasing an aura that wouldn’t let you say no to her, Philia-chan approached me with a wet compress.

Though, these Shinto Priest’s robes don’t really have much exposed skin.

In that case, guess I should pull up my sleeves at lea-

「Take it off.」(Philia)

Then, she let out those coldhearted words.

I stood there dumbfounded and the upper half of my body got exposed in the blink of an eye.

Even the underclothes you started out with got removed.

These actually came off…now that I think about it, there are players out there that run around half naked so I guess it makes sense.

I tried to run away from reality while having those thoughts.

「Hind, you have more muscle than I thought…」(Philia)

「T-That’s true! That seems to be the case, yup! Good job Philia!」(Yumir)

「Wait a mom-」(Hind)

While I was confused she touched me all over and plasted the wet compresses on my shoulders and waist in succession.

Yumir was unable to look at me directly but she took some side glances…wait, don’t stand there looking and stop her!

I was so embarrassed that I wanted to just immediately log out.

However, the girl that had taken a liking to us was moving her hands carefully and I could feel how earnestly she was sticking those compresses.

Yeah, I can feel myself being healed…as if the fatigue from doing household chores is disappearing…

Forgetting how embarrassed I was from being half naked, I unconsciously started to relax.

At times, the face of Rise, who would be furious if she were to see this current situation, flickered in my mind.

When I thought about that, it felt as if I was being pierced by nails.

I couldn’t resist…forgive me.

「Muh, it doesn’t seem to heal that much.」(Yumir)

「It’s a shame…」(Philia)

Hearing them, I took a look at the amount of healing that was displayed, it’s true that the amount wasn’t even ten percent of my full HP.

Isn’t that low for a healing item? When that thought was crossing my mind, for some reason, it showed that it healed again.

Then a second time, and it continued to a third time at a fixed interval…

Hmm!? Don’t tell me, this is-

「Isn’t this a continuous healing item?」(Hind)

When I said that, both of them looked at me with surprised faces.