After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

The other main ingredient was no less challenging.

"It's called Moonlit Sea Dew," he said, making another pastel drawing (he was even smudging it for effect). "It can only be gathered specifically by coastal cliffs."

"Coastal cliffs abutting the sea," he paused, looking at her. "The sea is a massive area of water, much farther than one could see."

Her lips twitched upwards. "I am aware of what a sea is, Master."

"Well, that's good."

As expected of his apprentice, Hoffen thought proudly, she was so well-informed!

Althea smiled, seeing his thoughts despite his bearded face. It was definitely normal to assume that she—or anyone else—did not know what a 'sea' was.

The thing was, most people in-land would not be aware of what an ocean could be because it was too far away.

It was so far that even if they had Class C mercenaries, who could travel up to 10000 kilometers, it would still be beyond their scope. Coming from Alterra, they wouldn't be able to reach even the closest point of the sea, which was apparently the one up North.

Basically, the Xeno continent was a single large continent (with the exception of a few segregated land masses) that magically flourished due to an abundance of aether or life force.

This knowledge was something only Hoffen seemed to know in their area, and many city dwellers weren't aware, nor did they care. Zaol seemed somewhat privy, but it was too far for him so he didn't register it much either.

In normal cases, like in magic-less planets like Terra, such a massive landmass would have a lot of desert in the inner land. After all, if the region was too deep inland, the cool and moist winds from the seas would have already fallen on the edges as rain, leaving minimal precipitation in the middle.

The fact that the deserts in this place were limited to certain areas was already very amazing, though this meant that—in many senses of the word—it was truly the aether that was keeping this area alive.

Anyway, that wasn't her concern at this time. She was more concerned about the materials they needed.

"So this moonlight sea dew itself is not too difficult to obtain. One just had to time it well and find the correct location. However, its handling is a bit sensitive.

"The essence of it had to be retained via a specific magic tool bottle," he said. "The toolmakers for that would be in the same line as the toolmakers of the Token box, which I know you're familiar with—because it's the box that could contain the Lord Token without it being merged by force with someone."

Because of the lack of knowledge sharing in this continent, the specializations for each item seemed to be really concentrated in certain places.

Tools like that would come from distant cities and would only get to them after many changes of hands and caravans, adding a lot to their original price—perhaps much more than it was actually worth.

For this material, they not only had to travel a long distance northward, but also find and purchase this special container.

And even then, even when they got all the ingredients, there was a chance of failure in creating the potion.

Ugh.

It really was difficult. Not only was the process itself cumbersome, but the ingredients were too challenging.

Hoffen had discovered the potion nearly two decades ago, and he had only managed to create 10 of it. Each one—a small vial that could heal a couple of fingers—cost a whopping 10,000 gold each, and sold for even more at auctions.

Of course, most of that money had gone to buying odd ingredients that he may or may not have wasted in his experiments already. So… while Hoffen was indeed rich, he was definitely not extravagantly wealthy.

Fortunately, Hoffen naturally had sources to buy these materials from (there were only a few people he could count on with certain ingredients, and they could be different groups) and he had actually contacted them via the Post office.

The Post Office could trace where the letter came from, so he had asked favors from trusted individuals from other territories to send several of the same letters on his behalf.

Bleumrick was bound to discover the house was empty soon enough, and he didn't want that brat going after his tail.

Even if the Golds were traced here, he was pretty much a hermit. He rarely went out in Bleuelle, and in Alterra he spent most of his time in the Research Lab. It was estimated that only the people he poisoned directly right in front of his face could actually recognize him.

That said, maybe he should ask favors from the Golds, too. He knew they did some misdirection somewhere, so that even if acquaintances saw them there and reported to Bleulle, it would take time for the latter to actually come and make trouble.

Anyway, the people he asked favors from had not yet responded so they had either refused to take on the mission or they were in the midst of one. Regardless, it was doubtful they'd gather enough for everyone who needed it, so Althea had decided to create a mission via the Ferrol Mercenary Hall.

Anyway, with this, Althea could only regrettably tell Eagle, Eugene, and Chris that the potion would take a while. They didn't seem too disappointed though.

"Well, our engineers are geniuses, we're not too worried about ourselves."

Fortunately, Eugene and the others had never stopped developing artificial limbs. They were really good and could even assist in battles up to a certain level. Still, Althea thought they should be getting their limbs back, if possible.

In the end, the human body was still the strongest and most versatile weapon—especially the higher the level they had. This was also very important if they'd be going against fellow elementalists, who naturally had the ability to weaken materials.

In any case, the items were not cheap and the process was long, but—for her people —it'd be worth it.