Chương 97: Prelude

Stretching, I turned off my phone and tossed it onto the couch. That's about enough internet for today, I need to actually be productive.

"Well, more productive…Actually, not more productive but like…Bah!" I just want to brew potions! Everything else can wait! I've already sent inquiries to the offers I'm interested in but further discussion can be delayed until I'm ready! If they don't like it? Hmph, not my problem! Huh? Am I getting egotistical and is the fame getting to my head? No! I'm smack-dab in the middle of my right mind!

"Hehe." I giggled. Anyways, I purchased the materials needed for my next batch of potions. My next potion? Ironskin potions. … Hm… I looked at my ironskin potions in thought. I definitely got the result I wanted: Ironskin Potion Grade - D+ Creator: Raccoon Toughens your skin. Slightly increases your resistance to harmful magic Slightly increases your resistance to toxic fumes Despite the simple description, an ironskin potion works wonders.

When I tested it earlier, pressing my dagger lightly across my skin didn't make any cuts. I had to use a bit of force to finally draw blood. So, it's effectiveness is definitely confirmed. But, the only thing I wasn't satisfied with was the amount of time it takes to make a batch. Three hours! A full thirty minutes more than the agility potions! I absolutely need to cut it down! Those thirty minutes add up! Especially when I'm creating hundreds of potions per day! Hehe, but, that can wait. I need to make money!

Purchasing materials for a batch of mana potions, I got to work. … I decided that I'd make 50 mana potions per day to sell, gaining a steady 700, 000 points every day. If I really wanted, I could do more, but, it wasn't necessary. I'd rather allocate my time to finishing the stockpile first, and then, I can focus on mana potions or perhaps, something more expensive. It took me three days to finish the ironskin stockpile; In the end, I managed to cut the time of creation down to 2 hours and 15 minutes per batch.

After the ironskin potions, I moved onto making strength potions. Again, the time had become too long, so, I had to work to cut it down. Honestly, it's kind of like a game if you think about it. The goal is to make the creation process the shortest amount of time I can before the stockpile is complete. Thinking about it like that made every batch a bit more enjoyable to create. I was always thinking about what I could do better. My skills were improving at a slow but steady rate as well.

Manipulation, strength, external projection; I was getting better in all of it. Recently, I've found my mana projection becoming more detailed.

"Hehe," I giggled, wiping the sweat off my forehead. I had just finished a batch of calming potions. Looking at the bottled potions made me smile. But, an inexplicable unease also found a corner in my heart. The more potions I create and the closer to finishing the stockpile I get…The closer that time to confess draws near.

"Haah…" I sighed, shaking my head. Don't think about it yet… As I went to purchase another batch of materials, I was suddenly embraced from behind tightly. I flinched as the voice came,"S-Stop!"

"H-huh?" I let out, "M-Mouse? Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Y-Yes!" She said, taking a deep breath. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. What…? Something's actually wrong? My mind started to move a thousand miles a second; What's wrong? How can I help? But before I could come to any more conclusions, Luna continued to speak,"You… You haven't taken a single break!" She exclaimed. … Huh? That's normal though?

Luna inhaled another deep breath before continuing,"After the fifth floor, you said that you were going to relax… That you were going to play games with me or watch movies or go shopping… But, we haven't done any of that…" She said. Ah… Thinking about the past few days, all I could think was that she's right. After we started living together again, I completely focused on alchemy so I could distract my mind. Haah… This is my fault.

"…I'm sorry." I said.

"…Are you okay?" Luna asked, "For the past few days, you've looked like you had something on your mind." Luna said. How did she…? Was it really showing?

"Mm…" I replied, thinking of my words. Should I just say it now…? No…I'm not ready yet.

"You can tell me later…" Luna said, "I'm always here for you, you know."

"Mouse…" I started and turned around to look her in the eyes. We were close—extremely so, our breaths almost touching.

"Y-yes?" She replied, a red appearing on her face.

"Thank you…" I said.

"Of course…"

"After I finish the stockpile, I'll confess to you." I said without missing a beat.

"W-W-Wha…" She let out, malfunctioning and unable to speak coherently.

"So, for today, let's hang out. I'll go shower now." I said, heading to the bathroom. Ah…I feel a bit better. Right, let's clear my mind with today's date. …

"Aba…A-aba…aba…w-w-w…" Incoherent noises flowed out of the silver-haired girls mouth.

'C-Confess to me!?' Luna thought in a daze, 'W-What does that mean?'

'…It can only mean that, right? Right? Is she really gonna…' Recently, Luna had gotten in the hobby of reading romance books so she could understand it better. And in scenes where they confess…

'It's always 'that' isn't it?' Luna's face became as red as a tomato.

'I-is thats what's been on her mind for the past few days?' Luna bit her lip and curled her toes. She could suddenly understand Stella's problem a little better. After taking a deep breath…

"Hah…haha…Okay, I'll wait…" She mumbled to herself, quietly smiling. … Luna and I decided to go to the arcade—one of the places we went to on our first date.

"Oh! Remember this game?" I asked, leading her to an arcade cabinet"Zombie survival." Luna smiled, "Wanna duo?" She asked.

"Hehe, don't die to skeletons this time."

"As if!" … [Game Over!] [You Died!]""Ah…"" We both let out.

"Pfft! I'm getting deja vu!" I laughed.

"Haha," Luna laughed, "Me too." She smiled, "Let's just move onto the next game."

"You got it." We took a seat next to each other; The game we decided on next was a racing game!

"I'm an expert driver, you know? Are you ready to get destroyed?" I asked with a smug smile.

"You? An expert driver?" Luna replied, "Says the passenger princess. Do you even have a license?" She retorted.

"Hmph, I've played farming simulator for over 200 hours! I'm a pro."

"Pfft! You drive tractors in that game!"

"Tractors are just heavier race cars." I proudly said.

"Fine, let's see your driving skills, Ms. Expert Driver." I nodded and picked my car.

"Manual? Can you even drive manual?" Luna asked.

"Of course," I confidently said, "A lot of tractors are manual drive!"

"Hm…" Luna let out curiously and picked her car.

"You're going down!" I exclaimed. [3…] [2…] [1…] [GO!] As the timer reached 'go', I slammed down on the gas pedal. The speedometer reached red and I shifted up- CRASH! I drove straight into a wall. Thankfully, racing games don't have realistic physics! So, I simply acted as if nothing happened and turned the steering wheel left- CRASH! Straight into another wall. Okay! It's because I'm in the second gear for some reason. Let's just reverse and- CRASH! Straight into a pole.

That's fine, I wanted to stop here anyways. Forward!! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

"Pfft!" A chuckle came from next to me, "Oh my goodness! Never touch a steering wheel in your life for the safety of others!" Luna exclaimed, bursting with laughter. In the top right of my screen was a smooth 12/12 signifying my position in the race. I stayed silent and quietly reversed- CRASH! At this point, I simply stepped off of both pedals and let go of the steering wheel. On screen, I saw Luna's car smoothly drive pass me. Did I just get lapped?

In the end, I ended up with a big, fat 'DNF' on my screen and Luna had a '1st place' on her screen.

"Do you want to talk about it, Ms. Pro Driver?" Luna asked teasingly.

"If this game was realistic, I'd have gotten first place." I replied, biting my cheek.

"Pfft! You sore loser~!" Luna laughed, "Just accept the fact that you suck at driving!"

"Hmph," I turned away with a pout.

"Hahaha," After Luna wiped away her tears, she continued, "It's okay though! You can just stay as my passenger princess." She chuckled.

"Whatever." I grumbled, should I buy a racing game later? The next game we went to was stacker—a game where you stack blocks.

"I bet I can stack higher than you." I challenged.

"Oh yeah? What're we betting?" She replied, confident.

"One 'Stella Token', when you get to 10 you can make do whatever you want!"

"Hm…Only one? Are you not confident?" She provoked.

"Hah! A flimsy provocation! Fine, two Stella Tokens!"

"Good!" Luna smiled, "Then, I'll be two 'Luna Tokens'."

"Deal." I nodded, "I'll go first!"

"Be my guest." On screen, a three-cubed horizontal rectangle moved from one side of the screen to the other quickly. I held my breath and leaned forward; As the rectangle appeared in the middle of both walls, I hit the button. [Woo!] Good! Perfect positioning! Now, I need to stack everything on that rectangle. I waited and then… Hit the button! [Woo!] Perfect stack! This repeated itself until the fifth rectangle where the moving rectangle become only two cubes instead of three. A difficulty increase…

Exhaling a deep breath, I licked my lips as I waited for the moment to strike… [Woo!]"Heh, simple." I snorted, easily stacking it a few more times. Then… [Woo!]"!" I tensed, "Gah!" I overshot it, losing one cube, leaving with only one left. Now, I had to stack the remaining cubes on this single one!

"Uh oh, you're in danger now." A teasing voice came from behind me.

"Shush!" I turned to glare at her before refocusing on the machine, "You're distracting me."

"Pfft, alright." Taking a deep breath, I watched the cube intently move back and forth…Then! [Woo!] [You lost!] I missed.

"GAH!" I clutched the back of my head.

"Wow, only eight stacks? That's not a lot at all." Luna teased.

"Grr!" I turned to her, "It's cause you distracted me!"

"Sore~ Loser~""Hmph! Fine! Let's see you do better!"

"Alright, watch and learn." Luna cracked her knuckles, confidently stepping up to the machine. I crossed my arms and watched, ready to tease back at any moment. [Woo!] [Woo!] … [Woo!] [Woo!] [You win!] She reached the top within a minute.

"Heh," Luna turned to me with a smug expression, "So?" I stared at her blankly.

"Two Stella Tokens for me~" She said, "Unless…You'd like to go two out of three? Maybe it's my fault for distracting you." She rubbed salt into the wound. I bit my lip and glared,"No…You win this one." I replied through gritted teeth, "I choose the next game!"

"Fine, choose whatever." Luna smiled. …

"Hey…Can we pick a different game?" Luna hesitantly asked as we stood in front of the machine.

"Nope~" I replied with a smile, "How about it? Two token bet?"

"…" Luna didn't reply for a moment, staring at the game. After a few seconds of silence she finally replied quietly, "…Fine…Two tokens…" Hehe! The game we stood in front of was: Graveyard Bash—a 2d game where you fight against undead creatures, trying to get a high score. And! Coincidentally! Totally not intentionally! Skeletons happen to be an undead monster that appear in this game.

"How about you go first?" I asked, grinning.

"…Okay…" [Game Start!] [You Died!] [Score - 0] Wow…That was bad. How could someone be so weak against a specific type of monster? This has to be a curse at this point.

"T-That was a warm-up!" Luna said.

"Sure." I nodded. [Game Start!] [You Died!] [Score - 10] Oh, she killed a zombie this time.

"…" Luna stared at me in silence as she quietly stepped back from the machine.

"I guess I'll give it a try. This game must be hard." I said. [Game Start!] [You Died!] [Score - 20]"Oh no! I messed up!" I said with intentionally bad acting, "Well, at least I killed two zombies before I died."

"…" Luna's stare turned to a glare.

"Let me try again." [Game Start!] [You Died!] [Score - 30]"Agh! This game is just so difficult, thank goodness I could barely kill three monsters before I died though."

"…Shut up and take your two tokens." Luna pouted.

"Bahahaha!" I burst out laughing. … The rest of the day, Luna and I continued to hangout and have fun. After the arcade trip, we went to dinner at a steakhouse and had a nice meal. By the time it was time to sleep, I ended up with three L-tokens(Luna tokens) and Luna ended up with four S-tokens(Stella tokens). The next day, I felt refreshed. That weight on my heart wasn't as heavy today. And it seemed like Luna had a good time too. In fact, she was urging me to finish the stockpile sooner.

Standing in front of my cauldron, I got to work.