Chapter 3: The Volatile Market

  The countdown timer on the upper right of Yuta’s vision was a relentless, silent pressure. Rental Time Remaining: 38:12.

  In a standard game, thirty-eight minutes would be an eternity. You could clear a dungeon, finish a quest line, or travel across half the map. But in Elixir Online, time flowed differently—or rather, the tasks demanded a level of focus that made minutes evaporate like water on a hot skillet. Yuta stood over the cracked stone mortar, his avatar’s hands steady, but his mind racing with calculations that had nothing to do with damage per second and everything to do with thermal dynamics.

  He had two Silverleafs left. He had one Fire-Cap mushroom.

  The Silverleaf was a cooling agent. The game description said it "soothed burns and lowered body temperature." The Fire-Cap, a bright red fungus with gills that seemed to pulse with a faint inner light, was described as "inducing heat and sweating."

  In a fantasy novel, mixing fire and ice might cancel each other out. But Yuta remembered Mr. Sato’s lecture on exothermic and endothermic reactions. If you mixed a rapid cooling agent with a rapid heating agent in a confined space without a stabilizer, you didn’t get water. You got a pressure variance. You got instability.

  "If I drink this," Yuta muttered to himself, picking up the mushroom, "it’ll probably tear my stomach lining apart. High toxicity, conflicting status effects."

  He looked at the mortar. "But what if I don't drink it?"

  He placed the Fire-Cap into the bowl. The stone hissed slightly upon contact. Yuta didn't add water this time. He needed the concentration to be high. He began to grind, the pestle crushing the fibrous red cap. A smell like burning sulfur and pepper filled the small shop, stinging his nose.

  System Alert: Minor Respiratory Irritation. Stamina regeneration reduced by 5%.

  Yuta ignored the debuff. He ground the mushroom into a coarse red powder. Then, working quickly, he took the two Silverleafs. He didn't grind them separately. He tore them into small strips and dropped them directly onto the hot red powder.

  Then, he added a single drop of his water flask. Just one drop to act as a catalyst.

  Ssssssss.

  The reaction was instant. A thick, white vapor began to curl up from the bowl. The temperature in the mortar spiked, then plummeted, then spiked again. The physics engine was struggling to calculate the thermal conflict, causing the texture of the paste to bubble violently.

  "Easy," Yuta whispered, his hand cramping as he worked the pestle. "Don't explode."

  Old Man Hobb, who had been reading his book, suddenly sniffed the air. He lowered his thick glasses. "Boy," he warned, his voice low. "If you stain my ceiling with soot, you're scrubbing it."

  "It's under control," Yuta lied.

  He grabbed an empty vial and scraped the bubbling, grey-red paste into it. As soon as he corked it, the glass vibrated in his hand.

  Item Created.

  Item: Unstable Thermal Paste

  Rank: D

  Type: Thrown / Utility

  Effect: Upon impact, creates a cloud of "Thermal Fog" (Radius: 3m). Disrupts visibility and inflicts "Minor Burn" and "Minor Frostbite".

  Toxicity: N/A (External Use Only).

  Durability: 10/10 (Degrades over time).

  Rank D. Not D-minus.

  It wasn't a potion to make him strong. It was a chemical grenade. But as he watched, the durability ticked down to 9/10. Hobb was right. The chemical reaction was still ongoing inside the sealed container. It was a ticking time bomb.

  "I need to sell it," Yuta realized. He turned to Hobb. "Will you buy it?"

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Hobb laughed, a dry, raspy sound. "Me? Buy that volatile trash? I run a respectable establishment. I sell cures, not hazards."

  "It's a tactical item," Yuta pressed. "Players get surrounded. They need an escape."

  Hobb looked at the vial with disdain. "I have no use for it. However..." He walked back to the counter. "I suppose I could take it off your hands for... parts. The glass is recyclable."

  "How much?"

  "2 Copper."

  "2?!" Yuta exclaimed. "The empty vial costs more than that! That's robbery!"

  "The empty vial was clean," Hobb retorted smoothly. "This one is filled with corrosive sludge. Cleaning it will cost me soap and water. 2 Copper. Take it or leave it."

  Yuta grit his teeth. It was brutal. It was capitalism at its finest. But he had no choice.

  "Fine," Yuta snapped. He placed the Unstable Thermal Paste on the counter.

  Hobb swiped it, and coins clinked into Yuta’s inventory.

  Transaction Complete.

  Current Funds: 2 Copper.

  "Pleasure doing business," Hobb smirked. "Your rental time is up in ten minutes. Clean the mortar before you go."

  Yuta spent the next few minutes scrubbing the stone bowl. It was mundane work. In any other game, you’d press a button and the crafting station would be clean. Here, he had to scrub until the red stain faded.

  When he finally stepped out of the shop, the sun had fully set. Riverwood was transformed. The bioluminescent lanterns were in full bloom, casting an ethereal blue glow over the cobblestones.

  Yuta pressed his back against the wall of the inn as a group of six players marched down the main street. They were different. They didn't wear the ragged brown tunics of level 1 scavengers.

  The leader wore armor made of boiled leather and iron plates. A massive sword—likely Rank C—hung on his back. But what caught Yuta’s eye were the vials on his belt. Golden light (Regeneration). Angry orange (Strength).

  "Did you see the drop from the Alpha Wolf?" one of the party members asked.

  "Trash," the leader scoffed. "Rank C-minus. We need to hit the Copper Mines tomorrow. I heard a guild found a vein of Volatile Ore."

  Yuta watched them pass, clutching his meager 2 copper coins. That group had just walked past carrying probably 500 gold worth of gear.

  Yuta looked down at his own hands. They were stained slightly red from the Fire-Cap dust. He was a bottom feeder. A scavenger.

  "Hey! You!"

  Yuta jumped. A player was running toward him—the guy from earlier, looking battered.

  "Do you know where Hobb's shop is?" the player panted. "I got poisoned by a snake. My health is ticking down!"

  Yuta pointed behind him. "Right there. But he charges a lot."

  The player didn't listen. He sprinted into the shop. Yuta heard the bell jingle, followed by Hobb’s voice: "Antidote? 50 Copper. No credit."

  "50?! I only have 20!" the player screamed.

  "Then die quietly, please."

  The player came out a moment later, looking dejected. He sat on the steps, his health bar blinking red.

  "I'm gonna die," the player groaned. "I'm gonna lose 10% of my XP. This game is sadistic."

  Yuta looked at the player. He looked at his inventory. He had the Unrefined Silverleaf Extract (Rank D-). It healed 15 HP.

  "Hey," Yuta said.

  The player looked up, eyes glazed. "What?"

  Yuta pulled out his cloudy, green swamp-water potion. "I made this. It heals 15 HP. But it numbs you for 30 seconds."

  The player looked at the vial suspiciously. "That looks like vomit."

  "It's Rank D-minus," Yuta admitted. "But it's better than dying."

  The player checked his health. 5/100.

  "How much?"

  Yuta paused. Hobb sold professional antidotes for 50. This wasn't an antidote. It was a band-aid.

  "10 Copper," Yuta said.

  "Done." The player transferred the coins instantly.

  Yuta handed over the vial. The player uncorked it and downed it in one gulp.

  "Urgh!" The player gagged, sticking his tongue out. "What the hell is that?! It tastes like rotten grass mixed with socks!"

  System Alert: Target Healed for 15 HP.

  Status: Target Agility Reduced by 1.

  The player stopped shivering. His health bar stabilized. He was going to live.

  "Disgusting," the player wiped his mouth, still making a face. "But... thanks. You saved my run. I'm Kenta."

  "Yuta."

  "Add me? I'm trying to be a Beast Tamer, but it's hard starting out."

  Yuta accepted the friend request. Friend Added: Kenta (Level 2).

  Kenta limped away toward the inn, still muttering about the taste.

  Yuta stood alone. Current Funds: 12 Copper.

  He had started with nothing. Now, he had 12 copper. It wasn't enough to buy a sword. But he had proven a concept. There was a market for the desperate.

  Yuta smiled. He opened his menu. Log Out.

  When Yuta pulled the helmet off, his room was pitch black. He walked out to the kitchen. A plate of cold curry sat on the table.

  Yuta put the plate in the microwave. As he watched the turntable spin, his mind drifted.

  He took a bite of the hot curry. It was spicy.

  "Capsaicin," he whispered, smiling as the heat spread through his chest. "Irritant. Increases body heat. Accelerates metabolism."

  He looked at the spoon, impressed.

  "The devs are geniuses," he thought. "The physics, the chemistry... it's all consistent. No wonder the Beta reviews were insane. I missed out not playing the Beta, but maybe that's a good thing. I'm seeing it all with fresh eyes."

  His thoughts wandered to the vast map he had seen on the forums. He had heard rumors of the Northern Tundra—a land of eternal ice and snow. He had never been there; he hadn't even left the starting village's outskirts yet.

  If the heat mechanics are this detailed here, he wondered, taking another bite, what happens in the freezing zones? Standard clothes won't work. Potions might freeze in the bottle. Maybe... a warming draught? Something that raises core body temperature without burning the user from the inside out?

  He shook his head, chuckling.

  "I'm getting ahead of myself," he said to the empty kitchen. "I can barely afford a mortar. But one day... I'll see those snowfields."

  For the first time in his life, Yuta wasn't just consuming the world around him. He was analyzing it. And he couldn't wait to get back in.