Ritak Methyl was an NPC who had existed since I first conceived Weapon of Infinity.
A genius pharmacist who had single-handedly established all manner of theories in pharmacology and alchemy, and for whom there was no medicine he could not make.
With materials obtained during adventures, he could make all kinds of medicines, and even counting only their types and recipes, the number easily surpassed several hundred.
But was it because I had put too much care into a character who was not even the protagonist?
At the time, my advising professor suggested greatly reducing Ritak Methyl’s functions.
-This is a combat game, not a potion-making game, isn’t it? I think focusing on the combat elements would be more interesting.
The role of the extra who had lost his system and been left floating became simple.
In the early story, he would be murdered by the villains, leave behind a clue leading to the next quest, and that would be the end.
‘That’s a role I absolutely don’t want, you know?’
I clutched my head and screamed soundlessly.
That was when it happened.
Ding!
The door to the recovery shop opened.
The moment I snapped my head up, I saw someone entering.
A man with a dull-looking greatsword on his back and a drab cloak around his shoulders.
Between his pitch-black hair, beast-like eyes gleamed.
“Ritak. I want to request an appraisal.”
The voice that slowly lodged itself in my ears was cold.
They were not difficult words, but my head became complicated.
Because an adventurer whose face I had never seen before was calling my name familiarly, as though he knew me.
Thanks to that, it was easy to guess his identity.
‘If there’s someone who would request an appraisal at this timing......’
John Doe.
The protagonist of WoI, who would confront the calamities that would appear in this world from now on.
“Ritak.”
I abruptly raised my head.
Bright yellow eyes were staring straight through me.
“Ah...... Right. A request?”
“Right. There’s something I need you to look at.”
“Wait!”
I thrust one hand forward and stopped him from moving.
John Doe froze with his hand still inside his cloak, as though he had been about to take something out.
“I’m pretty exhausted right now, you see? I think I might have a fever too? And earlier, who was it, some strange old man left a request with me!”
“......So?”
“Oh, I’m saying I need to rest today?”
I knew what item he intended to leave with me without even looking.
It was the Seed of Calamity, which contained energy from another world.
It would be a jewel never before seen in this world, so he must have come to have it appraised.
‘But if I take that request, I die, you know?’
The future in which a bandit gang stormed in after the jewel appeared clearly before my eyes.
There was only one reason the recovery shop NPC had an appraisal ability that did not suit him.
So that the jewel he had been asked to examine would be stolen by a bandit gang, and he would leave a clue at the murder scene.
He was nothing more than a device to guide John Doe toward the calamity.
‘Now that it’s my situation, it feels seriously shitty.’
I swept back my bothersome hair and let out an irritated breath.
Who cared whether the game story needed an incident or not?
Thanks to it, I was the one about to die right now.
“I understand. I hope your condition is better tomorrow.”
John Doe placed a few blades of grass on the table, then backed down readily.
I used Appraisal on the items lying there.
-Sourgrass. It is bitter. Can be used as an item crafting material.
Whatever the purpose of the setting, Appraisal was useful.
Because I could know the exact facts without wondering whether it was the item I knew.
Ding!
John Doe left the shop.
As soon as the door closed, I leaned my body against the bar counter.
I had only postponed it by one day, but in any case, I had bought time.
“......Whew. So the protagonist is here too.”
The place where I had opened my eyes was undoubtedly the world of Weapon of Infinity.
A world with a clear protagonist.
‘Well, reality isn’t any different.’
There was no need to go as far as presidents or actors.
Even in the company office right away, there were people like protagonists, and ordinary people became extras.
Maybe that was why, after opening my eyes in the game world, the fact that I was an NPC itself did not feel bad.
‘Rather, it’s great.’
To have become a character in the world I created—if I were honest, I wanted to run out into the street and kiss the ground.
But this world was not kind enough for me to simply be happy.
Because the guy whose body I had taken over would soon be brutally murdered in the story.
‘I was lucky enough to survive. I can’t die again.’
I had opened my eyes in the body of someone who would soon die, but fortunately, there were two good points.
One was that I already knew how Ritak Methyl, the NPC I had possessed, died.
The other was that I was not the protagonist.
‘That means if I avoid the bandit gang for now, I’m safe.’
The bandit gang was one thing, but I had to avoid the main story entirely.
If I tried to face monsters or calamities or whatever, no number of lives would be enough.
‘It should be fine if one NPC is missing, right?’
I decided to leave the fate of this world in the hands of the game’s protagonist.
He was a guy created from birth to save the world.
He had extraordinary physical conditions from the moment he was born, infinite growth potential, and could skillfully use any weapon?
His setting was so grand that comparing him to a mere extra was embarrassing.
‘So I’m leaving.’
If I just left this village, I should be able to live for now.
If I made and sold potions, I probably would not have trouble making a living either.
Ding.
When I opened the shop door, I saw a street with few people.
The lined-up buildings were modest, and the village was so peaceful that I could even hear the yawn of an old woman sitting on a tree stump.
This was Root Village, where the protagonist’s journey began.
‘It’s well implemented.’
Regrettably, I had no time to look around.
If I took it easy, there was no telling when the bandit gang might rush in.
I hurried toward the village entrance, following the signpost.
But the entrance was strangely noisy.
“To think a brown bear would suddenly attack the village......”
“Ugh, it must have been disoriented because it had just woken from hibernation. We gave it a sound beating, so it should stay quiet for a while.”
“Oh dear! Don’t get up. Stay still. We’ll bring a healer soon.”
People wearing cloth armor were taking care of someone who had collapsed.
Judging by their appearance, they were members of the village watch.
‘A brown bear attacked?’
It was definitely the content of an early-game quest.
After stopping by the recovery shop, John Doe returned to the place where he had found the jewel.
This was a mandatory quest that blocked the way there, but......
‘Where the hell did this bastard go instead of doing the quest?’
If things had flowed according to the story I knew, the protagonist should have resolved this incident.
But he had not appeared, and thanks to that, the village watch seemed to have taken the whole burden.
‘He’s fairly badly hurt.’
The village watchman lying down had one side of his face stained scarlet.
Should I call it fortunate that his head had not been sent flying?
If left like that, he might die of excessive bleeding.
“Let me take a look at the wound for a moment.”
I pushed my way in between the watchmen.
Then, though they blinked in confusion, they made room for me.
“Ritak Methyl? What’s he doing all the way out here......?”
Is this your first time seeing an NPC walking around?
I seized the canteen hanging from the watchman’s waist.
Splash, splash!
“Ugh!”
When I washed his face with water, the injured man bit his lip.
Each time the watchman grimaced, the long slash running from his forehead to his cheekbone twitched, and before long, blood soaked out heavily once more.
Because the wound had been inflicted in a place where the skin was thin and there were many blood vessels, the amount of bleeding was no joke.
‘Still, fortunately, the wound itself isn’t deep.’
Click.
This time, I took out the Health Recovery Potion I had made.
But when I was about to use it, a question abruptly raised its head.
‘Can this kind of potion really heal a person?’
The hesitation did not last long.
Because one of the watchmen naturally took the potion and poured it over the wound.
“I’ll inform the lord so the payment can be made later.”
I never said I was giving it to you yet?
Well, I had already decided to treat him anyway, so it did not matter.
More importantly, the watchman’s wound was the issue.
Sss......
The blood that had kept soaking out began to stop visibly.
Then, before long, the wound closed, leaving only a red trace behind.
Was this not basically a revolution in medicine?
The watchman, who had been touching his own face, lowered his head.
“Thank you truly.”
“It’s fine.”
If anything, I was the one relieved that the village watch existed.
I might have been the one to run into the brown bear instead, right?
‘It’s a minor detail, but the game story is already twisting from the very beginning.’
The moment I thought I should hurry up and leave before things became more dangerous, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
‘......What if the situation doesn’t develop according to what I know from here on either?’
If I left this village, I could avoid my immediate death.
But after that?
‘What happens if the protagonist dies?’
The enemies John Doe would have to face from now on were truly calamities.
Disasters that did not follow the laws of nature and destroyed the world.
It would be difficult to overcome them with only outstanding skill or good items.
‘There’s no guarantee John Doe will save the world.’
This calamity might be only tutorial-level, so perhaps he could get past it.
But the calamities he would face from now on were fiendishly difficult.
Would John Doe really be able to overcome them on his own?
“We’ll support him. One, two!”
I watched the watchmen move away while supporting one another.
To avoid dying, I should have left the village, but my feet would not move at all.
After all, the Seeds of Calamity existed all over the world.
Even if I left the village and avoided the dog’s death right in front of me, would danger not be lurking everywhere in the end?
Now that I had fallen into the game, it was too late to run, and there was nowhere to run to.
‘I need a fundamental solution.’
In order not to die in the game?
I had to become strong.
‘......Of course, there’s some risk involved.’
I knew better than anyone the path to becoming strong in this world.
I clenched my fist tight.
‘There’s no need to be scared. Who made this game?’
***
The Root Mountains, located right behind the village.
Because this was the game’s starting area, the path was reasonably flat.
But I had no intention of going deeper.
My business was at the mountain’s entrance.
“Found it.”
At a glance, it looked like a dead-end wall, but if you looked closely at the part hidden by the tree leaves, you could find fine cracks there unlike the other parts.
“Let’s see......”
As a test, I knocked on it a few times with my fist.
Naturally, there was no response.
‘If it were a wall that would collapse from knocking like this, someone would have found it long ago.’
Originally, after the story progressed a little further, a nearby earthquake would occur, and only then would the wall collapse and reveal a hidden cave.
But there was a way to open this place before then.
Destroy the wall’s durability in a single blow.
‘If you don’t deal damage above a certain amount all at once, you can hit it as many times as you want and it still won’t open.’
Even edged weapons, which carried the early-game play, did not work.
You had to bring something like a giant hammer to even have a chance.
But I did not need to go through that trouble.
“It should be nearby.”
When I looked around, I quickly spotted a tree laden with bright yellow fruit resembling lemons.
-Passion Fruit. Temporarily increases strength by a very small amount when eaten. Can be used as an item crafting material.
I plucked a Passion Fruit and held it in my hand.
“Use Medicine Crafting skill.”
Ding!
Along with the sound of the skill activating, a voice that I was now gradually getting used to rang out.
-Medicine Crafting skill activated. Please select materials.
The medicine I was making this time was a Strength Increase Stick.
Of course, I knew the recipe too.
“One Passion Fruit, two Sourgrass.”
The fruit and grass in my hands broke down into tiny pieces and mixed with a whir, and in the blink of an eye, a finished product in the shape of a long stick was in my grasp.
The dull yellow stick, about the length of my palm, looked like jerky or jelly.
‘It could’ve just been a potion with a slightly different color.’
In the early stages of development, when I had packed Ritak with all kinds of settings, I had put effort into each and every medicine.
It was truly nothing but a waste of planning ability.
Had the medicines and their recipes not been buried somewhere in the back end of the game as lumps of code?
‘After all, the player can only select combat classes.’
It did not really matter.
As long as I was using it usefully now, that was enough.
I used Appraisal.
-Strength Increase Stick Lv1. Increases the strength stat by 10 for 10 minutes when consumed.
A strength stat of 10 was enough to produce enough damage to blow away the wall’s durability even with bare hands.
Because it produced damage similar to when someone with 1 stat equipped the lowest-grade weapon.
Chew, chew.
The moment I chewed the Strength Increase Stick, my brow furrowed hard.
It tasted similar to the red ginseng stick I had accidentally eaten as a child.
It was even more bitter because a subtle sourness was mixed in.
‘But the stat increase should be sweet.’
Flash.
A faint yellow light hovered around my hand, then vanished.
It was hard to tell whether the effect was being applied.
There was not even the common buff duration icon, for heaven’s sake.
“Hmm...... status window?”
Only a cold wind blew.
I decided to abandon pointless lingering attachment.
‘I have no choice but to check directly.’
I stood before the cracked wall with my legs spread wide.
When I thrust out my fist, there was a sharp sound of wind.
BOOM!
Was it because I had received the strength stat correction?
My fist did not hurt at all.
Rather, a heavy and pleasant impact rang thrillingly all the way to my shoulder.
Rumble......
“This actually breaks.”
I clenched and unclenched my fist, which brimmed with strength, several times.
I composed the corners of my mouth, which were rising on their own.
‘I only opened the door. It’s too early to be happy.’
I looked at the entrance of the cave that had revealed itself.
The most efficient shield in Weapon of Infinity was inside.
For now, I had to obtain that thing first.