Chapter 164: Food and Friends - Markets and Multiverses

Over the next hour, I made my way towards Sallia’s house. I also periodically used my rune ability to scan the area around me, to check if someone was following me. I had already realized that asking people in this area for directions was unlikely to be productive - after all, the people in this neighborhood seemed afraid of interacting with strangers.

Even if I didn’t understand why they were afraid of other people, if everyone else was afraid of talking to strangers, there might be a good reason for that. So I followed suit.

Even so, after an hour, I noticed someone following me. They were wearing gang insignias, so after some hesitation, I decided to hit them with a non-lethal extinguish. Just big enough to wipe out a good chunk of their life force, but not strong enough to kill them. I didn’t know why someone wearing a gang sign was following me, but I suspected I didn’t want to find out, either.

I didn’t know if anyone could trace my extinguishes back to me in this world, since I didn’t understand the local magic system very well, so for now, I avoided killing the gangster. I didn’t think I could fight an entire gang at once, and it was best to be cautious.

The extinguish hit the gang member without any incidents, and a moment after my extinguish hit him, he doubled over, as if he had suddenly caught the worst case of the flu ever. Which was interesting. I had never seen something react like that when I wiped away a large chunk of its life force. There was clearly something a bit unique about how my extinguish worked with the local laws of physics, but I didn’t have time to study that right now.

I also felt a little bit bad about hitting someone with an extinguish when they hadn’t directly attacked me or tried to hurt me, but a gang member following a child was probably a bad sign already. I had taken a few turns, but they had kept shadowing my footsteps, so I was pretty sure they weren’t just walking in the same direction as  me or something.

It took another hour after reaching the area where Sallia lived before I found her house, even with Sallia doing her best to guide me. Many of the streets of the slum looked similar to each other, and while some streets had street signs that clearly labeled them, there were also plenty of unlabeled streets that made navigating a huge trial. Luckily, Sallia’s mother had at least taken her out of the house a few times, so Sallia was able to help steer me in the right direction.

Eventually, I managed to find her house, and a few moments later, Sallia came out to meet me.

“Miria!” she said, giving me a huge grin as she ran out to meet me.

A few passersby gave us strange looks, but nobody paid us much more attention than that.

“Sallia!” I said, before giving Sallia a proper look.

It was my first time seeing Sallia’s body in this world. Instead of her characteristic red hair, Sallia’s hair had become a bit more copper-colored - something that she shared with many of the other passerby in this country. Copper and gold-blonde seemed to be the two most common hair colors in this area.

But even though her hair color and facial features had been tweaked a bit compared to her Market body, she was still unmistakably Sallia.

I walked up to her and gave her a huge hug.

A few moments later, Sallia pushed me back, and then took a look at me.

“You’re way too skinny,” she said. “Also, why aren’t you wearing your dress?”

“I have it dematerialized for now,” I said. “It looks way too fancy for this area, even after I tried to mess with it a bit. Also, I noticed that the bottom part of the dress started out a bit messed up. Did you have that issue as well?” I asked.

Sallia nodded.

“It was actually much worse for my robes. I looked at the item descriptions, and I noticed that our items state that they repair themselves when we return to the Market - not when we exit the Market. Your dress might have just looked a bit weird, but my swordsman’s robes still have a massive hole near the stomach where I got stabbed during the fight with the giant spider,” said Sallia. She sighed. “I just wear them underneath my regular clothes. On the bright side, their defensive properties weren’t that useful in this world anyway. I care much more about the other effects.” Then, she sighed, and shook her head.

“Anyway, you really need a good meal. Here, take the noodle bowl.” A moment later, a bowl of noodles materialized in her hands, before she gave it to me.

I didn’t say a word before I started gulping down the food in Sallia’s noodle bowl. It was only now that I appreciated how much better Sallia’s noodles tasted compared to the rotting apples and mushy grain porridge I had been eating before. Unlike the half-spoiled food I had eaten until now, Sallia’s noodle bowl tasted delicious and salty, with just a hint of spiciness. I normally didn’t care very much about the flavor, but now, it tasted simply divine.

“Here, take this package too. My family isn’t wealthy this life, but we aren’t struggling with food, at least. We struggle with clothes though,” said Sallia, as she chuckled and handed me a white package. It was small, but I could see a few packs of the weird grain inside. It was probably enough for a few extra days worth of meals.

There was also a fresh fruit of some kind. Unlike the apple, I had no idea what it was - but it looked nice and crisp.

“Go ahead and take the noodle bowl with you. You definitely need it more than me right now. Do you have a plan for a more long-term solution to your situation?”

“I do! Currently, I plan to pretend that I’m an alchemist, and start selling healing potions,” I said. “My healing spells are a bit different from a proper healing potion, but I can probably sell my abilities as a healer as long as I’m careful.”

Sallia paused, as if mulling over my plan for a while, before she nodded. “That could probably work. Just be careful of the gang that runs your area. They will probably demand some money from you, if you start succeeding. They might also demand to know where you’re getting potions, or something. Do you have an idea for how to handle that situation, if it comes up?”

“Fight them head on?” I asked.

Sallia rolled her eyes. “We’ll need to talk about how to handle gangs later, then. It might come down to a fight, but there might be ways to avoid one, too. We’ll think about what works later. Also, how do you plan to actually sell the potions? I don’t think most people will be willing to buy potions from a four year old.”

I nodded. “I’ll probably pretend to be selling them for my ‘master’ or something. And I’ll need to find an opportunity to show off the effects of one of my ‘potions,’ to convince people that it’s a real healing potion.”

“That could work, but…” Sallia’s voice faded for a moment. “What happens if a person buys a potion from you and then tries to save it for later? All of your healing spells only work if you directly heal the person, right? Is it actually possible for you to create a bottle of water that ‘saves’ a healing spell for later? Also, how effective are healing potions in this world? If your healing spell is way stronger than a potion, or way weaker than a potion, things might get dangerous.”

I paused.

I could use general shaping to bend the way rules worked a little bit… but I had never tried doing any sort of long-term essence preservation using the shaping magic system. I strongly suspected that it would take months of trial and error to turn Renewal into a healing-potion producing spell. In fact, months might be a massive underestimate.

And during that time, the food problem would still be unresolved. Sallia’s ramen bowl could fix some of the food shortage issue I was facing, but I needed more food than that if I wanted to remove the impact of malnutrition on my body. My mother sometimes brought back food for me to eat, but she was wildly inconsistent about it. The fact that I had lived to the age of four was already something of a small miracle. Sallia’s noodle bowl could probably keep me alive, but I wanted more food than just one meal a day.

“Hmm… do normal alchemy potions have expiration dates?” I asked.

“I… don’t know,” said Sallia, as she frowned. “We should ask Anise. My family is too poor to afford using healing potions.”

<Hey, Anise or Felix, do you guys know if Alchemy potions expire? Also, how effective are healing potions in this world?> sent Sallia.

There was a pause for a few moments, before Anise replied.

<They do. My mom has a potion for healing broken bones and another for injuries that she keeps in the medicine cabinet for emergencies, but she says that she’ll dump them out if two more years pass without using them. The potions only last for a decade, and then they start to turn bad and no longer heal,> said Anise. <The potions can do a decent amount of healing once they’re consumed. A disease-removing potion will nearly instantly remove whatever disease it’s supposed to cure, and broken bone mending potions can mend a smaller bone break instantly as long as the bones are aligned correctly. Why?>

<I’m thinking about how to sell potions and create a source of income for myself,> I said. <I’m currently thinking that I’m going to pretend that the Renewal spell is actually a potion, and then just manually heal people. But I’m also trying to figure out how to handle people taking the ‘potions’ away, since, obviously, the potions won’t work if I don’t actually heal people.>

<Maybe you could disguise yourself as a doctor instead?> sent Anise. <And just include potions as part of the healing process? Healing potions aren’t omnipotent - they can cure most diseases, but most healing potions only address specific issues. A healing potion that heals the flu won’t do anything to heal a broken bone or a common cold, and a healing potion that heals ripped flesh won’t mend broken bones. So most healing potions that are sold for general consumption are either very generalized, or used by a doctor during treatment.>

I thought about it, and then nodded. The fact that I was four years old still posed a huge problem, of course. Who would believe that a four year old was a competent doctor? But at least it would solve my other problems if I could somehow pull it off. Maybe I could disguise myself as an old lady with height problems?

I frowned.

Alteration essence was supposed to be good at shapeshifting, and the Orukthyri from our previous life proved that shapeshifting and even permanently altering body shape was possible using the shaping magic system. But I had no idea how to do it, and I was very worried that I would mess up if I tried to shapeshift myself into looking older than I was. I was pretty sure messing up a shapeshifting spell would kill me or seriously injure me, so I wasn’t eager to experiment on myself. Not to mention, learning shapeshifting would also require years of research, and I needed a solution now.

I sighed. Maybe I could get around the problem of looking young if I deliberately disguised myself to look mysterious, and then proved my ability by healing a few people for free when they were hurt? I could use that to spread word of mouth, and if I wore clothes that covered my entire body, it was possible that I could pretend to be older than I was. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but if I got chances to prove my skills, I figured that people living in a literal slum wouldn’t be too picky about what their doctor looked like.

It was an idea, and it was the best one I had for now that didn’t violate my morals.

I was hungry, and I needed a source of income. I couldn’t just keep leeching off of Sallia. Healing would give me a source of income, and also help me farm Achievement for curing people’s injuries. I also felt good about healing people, so it was the ideal profession for me if I could pull it off.

As I was thinking about ways to disguise my healing spell as a potion, I came across another idea.

Perhaps I could pretend that I had drunk one of those ability potions that someone had mentioned earlier, and gotten a healing ability? It would be closest to the truth. Of course, it would also raise questions about what I was doing in a slum. Ability potions were rare and expensive, so the idea that I was wealthy enough to afford an ability potion but poor enough to live in the slums definitely raised some questions. But it seemed like the least problematic option overall, since it was the closest to the truth. There was a possibility that a local gang might try to kidnap me and force me to work for them, or threaten to hurt my mother… but at least when it came to upfront combat ability, I could handle most things besides guns already. With Sallia’s help, I felt that the two of us could probably handle a normal gang as long as we were careful. We just needed to make sure to avoid guns. And if I pretended that I had just gotten lucky enough to steal a potion and drink it, it would make far more sense than most other ideas I had.

“I think I’m going to see if I can make myself look mysterious, and then go heal people as an ‘ability user,” I said. “It has some hidden long-term risks, but I think it’s actually the least problematic development plan for myself in the future. And I think we can handle the risks involved. Are you willing to help me later on?”

“Absolument!” said Sallia. “If you need me to help beat up some local gangsters or something, I can take them on. If you give me another couple days, I can probably handle guns pretty well, too. Are you planning on starting right now?”

I nodded. “I need a way to deal with food. I can’t just leech off of you, so I plan to get working on the problem right now. It’ll take some time for word of mouth to spread, and I doubt a gang will act so quickly that we won’t have an opportunity to build our second runes first. And with two runes we should be able to handle gangsters with guns.”

“Then let me come with you,” said Sallia, materializing her sword before twirling it around a few times. “I have my swordsmanship back up to intermediate grade, so I can definitely help in a fight if one breaks out. I got metal control built for my first rune, and I’m a good chunk of the way towards completing my second rune. I don’t want to leave you alone when you’re at your weakest.”

I thought about it for a few moments, before I glanced at Sallia’s house. Her home was also dilapidated and rotten. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as my house, but it was obvious that Sallia also wasn’t living very well. She could definitely use some supplementary income too.

I nodded, and grinned.

“Let’s go!” I said.

The two of us set off towards the deeper parts of the slums, to look for people in need of healing.

Author’s Note:

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