I Shall Survive Using Potions! Volume 1

by Funa

  “You stupid! Dumb! Dummy! Why did you have to go and die like that?! You big! Stupid! Idiot!!!” I kept crying my eyes out.

  “Calm down, Kyoko. It wasn’t like Kaoru wanted to die. It doesn’t seem like we have much time, so let’s just listen to what she has to say.”

  Reiko was acting like she usually did, always keeping her cool... Though this was my dream, so that was probably only because that was the type of person I saw her as.

  Well, that aside, I finally got a chance to talk to Kaoru, even if it was only in a dream. I’d probably never get another opportunity to meet with her in a dream as vivid as this.

  “Kaoru...”

  “I’m sorry. It seems like the reason I died was because God kinda screwed up...”

  “Huh? Then they can bring you back to life!”

  “Yeah, they can...but not in this world though. They said they were going to bring me back to life in another one, some place that’s kinda like medieval Europe.”

  “Why?! Why can’t you come back to this world?! Why not...?!”

  Reiko got up and patted me gently on the back, but I couldn’t stop sobbing.

  “Ah, sorry girls, I don’t really have that much time... Anyway, I died because God made a mistake, but he’s going to revive me in another world with all my memories intact, so I plan on living a happy life there. Thanks for always being with me since middle school, I’ll never forget you two. Be happy!”

  “Kaoru? Kaoru! Kaoruuuuuu!”

  “Do you have anything you want to tell your family, Kaoru?” Even in my dreams, Reiko kept herself calm and collected.

  “Oh, it’s all good. I already made sure to say my goodbyes to them. See ya, you two, and farewell!”

  Kaoru vanished into thin air, leaving only Reiko and I left. After making sure that I had finally stopped crying first, Reiko burst into tears herself.

  “Ahh... Aaaaaahhhhhh!” She bawled her eyes out as she clung to me. “Waaaaaaaaaaaah!”

  As I watched Reiko cry, I finally understood. She was just that type of girl, always holding herself back, putting others before her...

  “I’m sorry, Reiko... Even though I knew we didn’t have much time, I went and wasted it... Even though this should have been valuable time for you to talk with Kaoru more...”

  I held Reiko tight, and the two of us just kept on crying...

  ...Morning. My alarm clock was ringing at the usual time, waking me up just like always. As I got up, I noticed my pillow was soaking wet with a mixture of tears, drool, and snot. Even in my dreams, Kaoru was Kaoru, and Reiko was Reiko. My best friends...

  Then my phone began ringing on the side table next to my bed. My closest friends knew I would wake up at 5 a.m. on the dot on weekdays, and if they needed to get a hold of me first thing in the morning, they would call between 5 and 5:01 a.m. Anytime after that and I’d be busy going to the bathroom, washing my face, or cooking or something. It wasn’t like anyone would call me that early more than a few times a year anyway. Today just happened to be one of those few times. But who could it be this early in the morning?

  Reaching for my phone, I had a feeling I knew who it was. Even though I thought it couldn’t be possible, part of me was still half-convinced I was right.

  Picking up my phone, I pressed the call button and placed it against my ear.

  “Hey... Yeah. Huh? Settle things with God? How though? Wait, punch them? Like, but how? No, I’m totally on board! Do you wanna go to a shrine and kick around their donation box? Yeah? Got it. We’ll head over to Kaoru’s place for a bit of information gathering then. Yeah, sounds good! See you Saturday!”

  Pressing the end call button on my phone, I sat myself down on my bed.

  Heh...

  My face broke into a grin.

  Ehe, eheheh. Eheheheheh...

  I hugged my pillow tight. Eugh, it’s all sticky...

  Kaoru didn’t tell her friends about the whole “being younger again” thing. Somehow, just imagining what their reactions would be like was a terrifying prospect for her...

  Chapter 2: Potions

  The next thing I noticed, I was in a white space. This was the second time it happened, so I was kinda getting used to it now. Turning around, I found myself face-to-face with a cute girl with blonde hair and blue eyes who looked around fifteen to sixteen years old. She froze on the spot, a look of surprise on her face.

  ...Jackpot.

  Wait, what did I even think I won in the first place?!

  “Are you the goddess in charge of watching over this world?”

  After asking, the girl who looked like a goddess finally broke free from her stupor, answering gleefully.

  “Yes, that’s right! I’m Celestine, the supervisor in charge of this world. Welcome to Verny! We’re happy to have you!”

  She seemed pretty excited about all this. I thought it would have been more trouble to have a burden like me pushed onto her...

  “Um, I think you’ve probably already heard from the God in charge of Earth, but I’ll be in your debt as of now...”

  My future was riding on this, so I had to be humble... Wait, she was a goddess, so of course I would be humble in front of her! Jeez!

  “Yes, yes, yes, I’ve heard! I’m truly grateful to you!”

  ...Wait, why was she grateful? Shouldn’t this be more of a pain in the butt for her? I couldn’t see what she was getting at, so I tried asking her directly.

  “Um, why would you say that? Shouldn’t I be a bit of a nuisance for you?”

  “N-No, not at all! I really am grateful!”

  After taking the time to listen to the details, I got a rough idea as to why. It seemed like little Miss Goddess here really put the God in charge of Earth on a pedestal. He seemed to be a pretty famous person... Well, a famous “God” even among the other supervisors, and was popular with the other young goddesses.

  Wait, so that guy’s a friggin’ normie!

  Well, anyway, though she was ecstatic to be in charge of a world similar to his, whenever they had their “analogous world supervisor get-togethers” (They actually have those?!), she was always left behind by her senior goddesses and didn’t have a chance to talk to him directly. She could only stare at him longingly from a distance.

  And that’s where I came in. Not only did the person—er, God—who she had admired so much come to see her directly, oh no, not only that! He bowed his head and asked for a favor, for her to let him know how I was doing from time to time! To apologize for the trouble, he said to ask him anytime if there was something he could do for her! Oh, what good fortune! Oh, what bliss!!! She was ready to throw in a little extra service for me it seemed. Well, as long as she was helping me out, I guess that was a good thing...

  And so, the two of us got into the nitty-gritty. My life was depending on this, so I was dead serious.

  “In any case, the things that God promised me went like this: One cheat power, the ability to communicate, read, and write in any language here, and to bring me back to life in a younger version of my current body. Oh, and is there anything that’d be inconvenient about my old body? Anything that makes me stand out too much, or get me discriminated against, or that I couldn’t have children... Anything like that?”

  “Oh, no. Black hair and black eyes are a bit unusual, but it’s not like there aren’t any people with those traits, and discrimination is practically nonexistent. There are no differences between your body and the other people here, so there won’t be any problems concerning you having offspring.”

  All right, that’s one load off my shoulders.

  “Then let’s get to deciding that cheat. A question before that though: Does magic exist in this world? Like, are there monsters here, and people who hunt said monsters as a job?”

  This was an extremely vital question. Depending on the answer, it could change what type of cheat I would pick and what sort of life I would try living here.

  “I’m not too sure what this ‘cheat’ is supposed to be, but the othe
r God requested I give you one superior skill that would help you live in this world. Also, everything you just asked about does indeed exist here: magic, monsters, hunters, and the like.”

  Aw yeah, all according to plan!

  “Understood. Then, as for my cheat, I’d like to request the power to create medicine that has any effect I want it to have.”

  “...Huh?”

  Ever since the God back on Earth promised me that I could have a cheat power, I’d been wondering what I should choose. If I could only have one, what should I use it for? For fights? Yeah, right. I was a girl with sticks for arms, so I wouldn’t be able to do much with that. Even if I made myself the strongest there was, if I were to get famous because of it, then that’d be the end of me. Game over. Surprise attacks, huge groups of people coming to fight with me, getting poisoned, traps being laid for me, being taken hostage... You name it and it could happen to me.

  It would be a similar story if I went for magic. To make matters worse, there could also be people who would want my powers to run through their family’s veins. It might be all right if I was married off in some sort of political marriage, but there was the possibility they would just treat me like livestock or something... Brrr, scary!

  In the end, both those abilities would probably just be used for fighting. I’d like to avoid putting my life on the line everyday fighting monsters, and I didn’t want to kill people fighting in wars with other countries, so I’d take a hard pass on those skills, thank you very much!

  Anyway, I didn’t want any special powers that had a chance of being passed down genetically. I was going to do my best to keep my abilities a secret, and even if people did find out about them, I wanted my power to be something that was limited to me and only me. It had to be something that couldn’t be used for evil deeds or to hurt anyone, so as to make people think it wasn’t worth threatening me or holding me hostage. Above all else, there was no point if it didn’t meet my original goal of “an ability that lets me live a safe and happy life.”

  Question: What was the most dangerous thing in a less civilized world? Monsters? Bandits? Wrong. While they were dangerous in their own ways, they could be avoided as long as you had the cash to do so. You could move to one of the safer areas of a big town, for example, and hire a bunch of guards to protect you.

  I wasn’t talking about that sort of danger, but one that couldn’t be avoided:

  I was talking about injury and disease. In modern Japan, illnesses that could easily be solved with a single shot or a surgery would be fatal in this world. The same went for injuries. You could make a complete recovery back in Japan, but living the rest of your life with the after-effects of an injury, or if the wound got infected, was a no-go here. Being prepared for those things was probably the most crucial for me to do.

  Another important thing, of course, was being able to make money. It wasn’t going to be easy for a young girl like me to save up money in an unfamiliar parallel world, which was why a power I could use to turn a profit would make everything perfect. That was how I came up with the idea of “the ability to create any medicine with the effect I want it to have.” That way I wouldn’t have to worry about getting sick or injured, and I could open a little potion shop or something and live a life of leisure. Since it cost me nothing to make, it should be a cinch to save up enough money to live on my own until I could find my spouse-to-be. There were people out there fighting monsters for a living after all, and I wouldn’t have to worry about my potions losing to any of my potential business rivals... I mean, I could make potions for free with any effect I wanted them to have. There was no way I could lose. And that was why I’d decided upon “medicine” as my cheat power.

  “As I said, I’d like the ability to create any medicine with the effect I want it to have. Since the civilization of this world is far behind compared to that of Earth, diseases and injuries are terrifying to me. I could end up unable to use a hand or leg ever again just because I broke a bone, or die from a sickness that could have been fixed with a single shot back home. It’s all the more reason I wanted to make this my request. I’m being sent to this world because God made a mistake and now I can’t live on Earth anymore... I’m trying to cover for just a small fraction of that disadvantage with this power, but is that selfish? Would God say no to that, I wonder?”

  “...I-It’s all right, it’s all right! I understand! I was just confirming what kind of ability you wanted, that’s all!”

  All right! Let’s keep this ball rolling!

  Breaking eye contact with the goddess, I looked down and pretended to be deep in thought.

  “Oh, I guess it’d be pretty inconvenient to not have some kind of container when I create the medicine. What would be good, I wonder... Maybe something small and easy to carry, like mini test tubes or something... Or maybe it’d be better to have them in drinking bottles so I could line them up how I want to in a shop? What should I do about the caps, I wonder? It might be a problem using aluminum because of how this world’s civilization isn’t too far along, but using corks would mean I’d have to worry about things like leakage or it going stale. What to do, what to do...”

  I stole a glance at the goddess. Yup, that was the sort of face that said she had no idea what I was getting at.

  “It’s all such a hassle...so could I just have it so the medicine appears in whatever container I’m thinking of?”

  “Y-Yes, I suppose anything is fine if it’s just for containers...”

  Yesss, I got her to give me her word!

  “Then that sums up the things God had promised me.”

  “Is that so? Then let’s get started with creating your body.”

  “Ah, hold on a second please!”

  I reigned the goddess back in. I did this to God too, huh...

  “I may be able to live a little longer with this, but it certainly seems like I would end up living a life of discomfort at this rate. This place is so far behind compared to Earth, and not exactly safe either...”

  “W-Well, yes. But that’s just the kind of world this is, so I’m afraid you’ll just have to put up with it...”

  The goddess seemed troubled as she said that, but I was going to give her another push.

  “Yes, I’m fully aware of that... However, the God of Earth said he would ‘ask you to take care of me.’ You yourself even talked about how you would give me some ‘extra service’ earlier.”

  “Mmgh... T-True, I did say that... Very well then, what else would you like?”

  Aw hell yeah!

  “An Item Box.”

  “...What?”

  “An Item Box.”

  “And what would this, um, ‘Item Box,’ be?”

  I thought you’d never ask!

  “For someone as lacking in strength as myself, it’d be impossible to carry the items, equipment, water, food, and whatever else that may be necessary to travel in this world. Not only that, but if I were to carry all my money and valuables with me all the time, I’m sure to be attacked by pickpockets or bandits. The same goes for leaving my belongings at an inn; this is a world where I can’t even trust the people working at the inn, let alone the other patrons staying there. I just wouldn’t feel safe about that. No matter how hard I work, I’d never be able to save any money, which would make moving to another town of my own accord extremely difficult. How exactly would I be able to live a happy life like this?”

  “Mngh...” The goddess winced.

  “That’s where the Item Box comes in! It’s a storage device connected to an alternate dimension with infinite capacity, and because time is frozen inside it, anything put inside will never deteriorate. I can take things out or put things in whenever I like, and it’s impossible to be used by anyone else. If I put my money and other belongings in it, then I don’t have to worry about anything being stolen, or having luggage so heavy I wouldn’t be able to move anywhere. This power is the bare minimum that is absolutely imperative for my day-to-day life, wouldn’t you agree?
”

  “I-I see... This ‘Item Box’ seems to be quite the convenient object. Did everyone use one back on the world the other God oversaw?”

  “Oh no, it was pretty easy to carry luggage around back on Earth, and you wouldn’t really have to worry about your stuff because of how safe it was back there. Ahaha...”

  I managed to play that off pretty well, I think.

  “Then I will begin the final checks: Your body will be the same genetically, and back to how you were at fifteen years old. Earth’s supervisor provided your genetic information, so there’s no need to worry about that. The people of this world are said to come of age at fifteen years old as well, with the marriageable age for aristocrats between fifteen to eighteen years old, and fifteen to twenty-two for commoners, so I believe that will be a suitable age for you. Oh, and aristocrats are usually quick to make marriage engagements, so them getting married as soon as they come of age is actually quite common. Once you pass eighteen, you’re considered ‘late to the marriage party,’ and going past twenty means you’re in trouble. As for the commoners, people from more rural areas usually marry earlier for various reasons, such as to lower the cost of food, for more manpower, or because they want to hurry up and have a child. In the city however, the average age is generally somewhere between seventeen and twenty-two. Around twenty-three, they start getting really desperate; at twenty-four they’re at the end of their rope; and by the time they reach twenty-five and twenty-six, they have this dead look in their eyes.”

  Well, crap, that’s pretty harsh... Gotta do my best getting married!

  “Continuing on... As per your request, you will receive the ability to understand, read, and write in any language; the power to create any medicine with the exact effect you imagine it to have, in any container you are thinking of; and finally, an Item Box spell that connects to an interdimensional storage with unlimited space, where time doesn’t pass inside of it, you can access at anytime, anywhere, and it cannot be used by anyone else but you. I don’t really understand what this Item Box is, but I’ll make it so it reflects whatever you imagine it to be, so be sure to keep a clear image of it in your head and how it functions. Now, is there anything wrong with what I just said?”