Three days passed.

Grisella finished processing all of the Troll blood. She exceeded her overall estimations. In total, she ended up making two-hundred fifty potions.

She had the potential to make close to three-hundred forty-something potions. Of course, that was only under the condition that she did everything perfectly. Naturally, that wasn’t possible. Three-hundred forty perfect executions all in a row was an improbable feat that bordered on the impossible.

Still, Grisella was satisfied. According to her, a seventy percent success rate already put her close to the top in terms of alchemical prowess. Only literal gods could possibly do better than her.

Ellis did not know whether she was telling the truth or if she just inflated her numbers like she usually does.

Amidst all two-hundred fifty bottles, there were thirty bottles with a noticeably darker shade of red. These were the potions created from the male Troll, the same one that Ellis subdued. According to Grisella, these potions were roughly 1.25 times stronger than the normal version.

Ellis and the solitary witch were currently standing in the middle of the kitchen. With a wave of her hand, exactly 125 potions suddenly appeared onto the table.

“I said I’d give you half, right? So, here, take it.” She stated firmly.

“This is a bit…” Ellis hesitated. He had seen how hard Grisella worked to make these potions. Every batch mutilated her hand and transformed it into something that resembled burnt charcoal. Even though the injuries were not permanent thanks to the potions, the pain and experience still existed. It felt almost wrong to accept her generosity.

After some hesitation, he said, “I only subdued one Troll. At most, I should only get half of the potions you made from that one Troll.”

In response, Grisella faintly smiled.

“Think of it as a gift,” She stated, “Like you, it’s been a long time since I’ve interacted with anybody in this forest. Although the person that I met happened to be a homunculus, well, it doesn’t really make much of a difference. In fact, you don’t really seem all that different from a normal person.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Besides, this is just this year’s haul. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for close to fifty years now. On good years, I can get batches of up to three hundred bottles, easy. I have over ten thousand of these things stored away in here.”

As if to make a point, she patted her spatial artifact. “I have so much that I don’t think I can even finish it all in one lifetime.”

“Then… if that’s the case, I’ll begrudgingly accept.” He eventually said. A soft sigh leaked out from his lips. Ellis had been defeated by her generosity.

He grabbed one of the potions on the table and brought it close to his face. It was larger than he originally expected.

A bulb-shaped glass bottle with a width comparable to a baseball. The mouth of the bottle was sealed shut by a wooden cork. When he tried shaking the bottle, the water did not swish around. Instead, it moved slowly. The liquid inside had a viscosity comparable to watered down maple syrup.

If it wasn’t so big, then it would have looked exactly like an HP potion from a videogame.

“I call it a Troll Potion.” She explained with pride scribbled across her face. “It’s not a very fancy name, but I’ll come up with a better one if I ever go public with it. Right now, that’s not important. As the creator of this particular potion, I can assure you that it's even more effective than the Holy Tear Ambrosia that the Church produces.”

Ellis did not know how strong the Ambrosia or whatever was, so he had no point of comparison. Just that… Grisella often liked to boast about her own accomplishments, but she was the type of person who backed up her words with results. He had a fair bit of confidence in this potion.

“So, do I just drink all of this and I’ll be back in tip-top shape?” He asked somewhat disingenuously. In truth, Ellis did not really think he was ever going to need it. After all, his insane healing factor could cure fatal injuries in a matter of minutes.

He was probably the last person that needed a potion.

“No, of course not!” Grisella hurriedly shook her head. “Drinking one bottle is too much! You only need five drops to regrow a lost limb and ten to twenty drops to cure fatal injuries. If it’s an extremely old injury, then you might want to up the dosage.”

“Really?” Ellis subconsciously widened his eyes. Just how many drops were in this bottle? He did some quick math. Considering the fact that this glass bottle was roughly half the size of a normal 16 oz. water bottle (if not a little bigger), then there were about five thousand drops in a single potion!

Five thousand! He was seriously shocked. Essentially, this thing was like a bottle of Pepto Bismol, where one bottle contained numerous doses. The only difference was that instead of a stomachache, this potion could outright regrow limbs and cure fatal injuries.

If something like this had been released back on Earth, then it would have been really expensive. So much so, that his poor little eyes probably wouldn’t even get the chance to catch a glimpse of the sheen reflected off of its bottle.

Even on this world, this bottle was probably… no, definitely expensive.

The more he thought about it, the heavier his hand seemed to get. In his eyes, the red liquid inside the bottle had magically transformed into liquid gold.

Seeing his surprised reaction, silent tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. It was a bitter battle, but for the first time, Grisella’s talents had finally been acknowledged.

“Didn’t I say it before? I’m the absolute best damn Alchemist on this side of the continent.” She spoke rather smugly. Ellis did not mention the fact that her wording had changed from ‘one of the best’ to ‘the absolute best’. “Making potions is the perfect way to make a living.”

He couldn’t help but nod along to her words. He did have to admit, she truly was amazing.

After some time passed, Grisella eventually managed to calm down.

She stared at Ellis for a long time. He naturally noticed. There was something peculiar about her gaze, but he couldn’t quite point it out.

“What is it?” He asked.

“… Now that I’ve finished with the potions, you’ll be leaving soon, right?”

“That’s right.” Ellis nodded. He had already imposed on her for so long. No matter how eagerly he craved human interaction, he could not bear to stick around like this.

“Then… you, what are you planning to do from now on?”

Her words echoed through his ears.

Ellis mulled over her question. In the past, he had followed along the river because he had hoped to reach civilization. Now that he knew that was impossible, what else was there left for him?

A long silence soon enveloped the entire cottage. Not a single person moved or spoke.

After a while, he finally looked up. With a cloudy gaze in his eyes, he solemnly said, “I want to follow the river upstream.”

****

Later that night.

The surroundings were dead silent. The darkness of night was even darker underneath the shades of the forest.

Inside Grisella’s straw cottage, the only source of light came from the flickering embers inside the brick oven.

The solitary witch stared at the ceiling with half-closed eyes. Right now, she was lying in bed. Her bed was located in the den, above the rest of the house. Ellis and his group slept in the living room. They were piled up into two distinct clumps.

One clump comprised of the wolves, while the other was made up of Ellis, the fox, and the small wolf with a white discoloration on her ear. Grisella did not know why they had separated themselves into such a formation, but that was none of her concern.

At first, she had felt awkward sleeping above such dangerous strangers, but as time passed, she gradually got used to it. Grisella was always someone who adapted quickly to her surroundings. This was no different.

Usually, she would be asleep by now.

Grisella had developed a habit of sleeping early these days. This was primarily because the wolves snored. They snored rather loudly. If she did not go to sleep within the first ten minutes, then there was a good possibility that she would not be getting any sleep at all for that night.

Today happened to be different. She tossed and turned in her bed. Although her eyes were closed shut, her brow remained creased.

Various thoughts flowed through her head.

Should I do it? Should I not? Argh, this is all so irritating!

After their conversation, Ellis and his group had decided to leave tomorrow. They planned to continue their journey upstream. Their goal was to see whether or not the legendary world tree really existed. Although it had sounded like a casual decision when it first came out from his lips, strangely enough, Grisella had some confidence in their group.

After a while, she sat up.

“…”

Grisella left the bed and carefully crawled over to the edge of the den. She peeked down into the living room. The cottage was dark and silent. Her eyes drifted over to a certain someone. Ellis was fast asleep.

His normally dull grey hair seemed almost translucent as dim firelight reflected off of it. At first glance, Grisella had thought him a monster. That skewed perception of hers eventually changed. For a short while, she thought of him as nothing more than a pervert. After spending some more time with him, her outlook once again changed. Now, she saw him as a bit naïve and a bit dumb.

In truth, he was nothing like the scary monster that she had originally imagined.

“Still, if it’s him… if it's with him, then I might be able to…” she did not dare finish her words.

A long time passed. Eventually, she subtly nodded to herself. Grisella quietly crawled back into bed and slept.

The night quietly passed. The last flickering embers of tonight’s fire eventually died down, submerging the cottage into a deep darkness.