Sleepless Paralysis disease, many people thought this disease was a curse from the gods, a disease that caused those who were infected to be unable to fall asleep or move their body no matter how hard they tried. Despite the popular belief claiming that it was a curse, scholars and alchemists found that it was curable with medicine, thus making it not a curse, while curses are real, it cannot be cured by medicine alone, and instead had to be baptized by holy magic.
Holy magic, or by its other name, light magic, is the only magic element that can fight the influence of spirits and demons, it's an element that act as the absolute counter for dark magic, focusing on healing and helping others, those who have the aptitude for light magic mostly became a priest or a healer. While light magic still has some offensive spells that can be useful in a fight, its usually only affect supernatural beings such as undead, wraiths, ghouls, and spirits.
Only a high-tier light mage can shatter the barrier between the spiritual and the living in their spells, making their attack both effective towards living creatures aswell. And as for the cure to the Sleeping Paralysis, its recipe was created by the effort of multiple alchemists in the past, it is said that there was once a princess in a certain kingdom long ago that fell ill to the disease, and since no one can figure out how to cure her, they resorted to calling a priest for an exorcism, only for it to fail as it wasn't a curse.
The princess unfortunately died after suffering for almost a month, despite being fed daily, her body couldn't endure the lack of rest and her brain eventually shut off completely.
That's when the research for finding the cure for the disease started, at first, the cure recipe required more than 6 ingredients, but as time passed, its recipe was simplified while still having the same effect.
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5 days ago—
At the south district of Beakwood, there's a house among the many others across the street, while many of them only had one floor, some was tall enough to fit two floors inside. One of the building which had two floors was a potion shop, its interior was styled to mimick the atmosphere of a forest, with its shelves being decorated with vines and leaves, the ceiling having multiple hanging lanterns that act as the source of light when night comes, and each corner of the floor having a clay pot with small plants.
There was no one in the shop, no customer, and not even a cashier, the entire first floor looks empty, while the outside was bustling with people walking like a metropolitan city, the potion shop feels like a mysterious place that no one in the town even realized that it existed.
That is, except for one person. From far in the distance, a boy was seen holding a pouch in his hand, that boy was Seth, and he was looking at the mysterious potion shop intensely, he seems to be hesitant as he took one step forward before stopping for a few seconds, he saw how everyone on the streets avoided the potion shops, even the adventurers doesn't looked bothered, but as if driven by some sort of worries and fear, Seth gathered his courage to walk closer.
He arrived infront of the potion shop and observed the building from close, the windows were closed except the ones on the first floor, where Seth could see the interior inside that was filled with vegetation.
After standing still infront of the door, and having some people staring at him from behind, Seth gulped down his saliva and held the door handle, opening it as he entered the shop.
Creak!
"H- Hello.." He said nervously.
1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, Seth waited for an answer that never comes. Even though the door was clearly unlocked and the shop sign saying open was hanging at the door, Seth didn't see anyone that could possibly be the shop's owner or cashier. He looked around the shop and saw the many potions that were displayed on the shelves, some looked normal, while some looked like they came straight from a devil's ass.
'There's so many..' He said to himself.
"H- Hello!?" Seth tried to call again, this time his voice was louder than before.
Thud!
Suddenly, Seth heard a noise that seems to have come from the second floor, it sounded like a hard object just fell to the floor, initially startled by the unexpected noise. Seth didn't expect the noise to be followed by a footsteps moments later.
The footsteps grew closer, and Seth realized that it might be the shop owner coming to greet him, his palm was sweating, mostly from his thought that he might be greeted by a wretched old lady or some bandit-looking man. When Seth finally saw the legs of the person that came to greet him, he was surprised to see a young girl wearing flimsy clothes that looked she just woke up from a deep sleep walking down the stair infront of him.
"H- Hello?.." Seth tried to talk again for the third time.
"A- ahh.. Welcome.." The girl said while rubbing her eyes, her short blue hair and yellow eyes was familar enough, she was Verima. And this building was her shop and also her brewery station.
"Huh?.." Verima noticed that the customer infront of her was a kid, unlike what she had expected when was coming down from the second floor. "H- hello.. Are you lost? This isn't a playground you know.."
"A- are you a healer!?" Seth abruptly said to Verima.
"Healer!?– Ah.. uhh, well i can treat some disease.. But i can't heal wounds or anything like that." Verima responded while occasionally stuttering.
'What the hell is a kid like him doing here.. Ugh, if he wanted to buy something.. Just say it now.' She thought as she tried to not twitch her eyes. "D- do you want to buy something?.. I- uhh.. I can recommend you something, h- how about a health potion?"
"Can you give me a potion that can cure my mom?" Seth said, he was on the verge of crying as he gave Verim the pouch that he was holding in his hand.
"Y- your mom?.." Verima replied before she looked at the pouch. "What is this?"
She accepted the pouch from Seth and opened it, only to be shocked by how much copper and silvers were inside, she was flabbergasted on how a small pouch could hold that much coins, it felt like the fabric itself could tear apart at any moment.
"T- This is.. Hey kid, can you explain your mother's situation to me?" Verima asked, she momentarily ignored her shyness and changed her tone to a more serious one.
She then crouched and tapped both Seth's shoulder with her hands.
"What happened to your mom?" Verima gently asked as to not frighten Seth.
"M- my mom.. She, she can't move her body.. And- she hasn't slept for more than a week now, i- i don't know why.." Seth explained, his tears rolled down his eyes as this was the first time he asked someone that was willing to help.
"...Sleepless Paralysis.." Verima whispered, she knew what happened to Seth mother, and coincidentally, she also knew how to make the cure. "What's your name?!"
"S- Seth.."
"Okay, Seth.. I'll help you, please wait here." Verima then turned around and ran to the second floor, when she arrived there, she immediately goes towards the countless wooden box that was placed on a big shelf, each wooden box had a paper and a text written on it, the text being ingredients and materials that was needed for potion making.
There were almost a hundred of the same box with different ingredients written on the paper, Verima searched around the shelf, rummaging through every boxes and checking their name.
"W- where is it.. D D D D.. Ah, there it is!" She said as she grabbed one of the wooden box with the words Drowsy Edelweiss.
Verima opened the box and what awaits her inside the box was nothing but disappointment, she only had one Drowsy Edelweiss inside, and obviously it wasn't enough to make the potion to cure Seth's mother.
"DAMNIT!" She shouted before placing the box back to where it was and searched for another one. "P P P.. Pacifying Orchid.."
Another box was taken, and Verima opened it just like before, this time however, there was even less than what she saw before, she had ran out of Pacifying Orchid, or maybe she just never restocked it. Whatever it may be, Verima knew without those two ingredients, she won't be able to make the potion.
THUD!
"UGH! I forgot to restock these! Damnit all!" She slammed her hand on the table in the middle of the room and furrowed her eyebrows.
'Seth's mother has been awake for a week, if i remember correctly.. Those who are infected with Sleepless Paralysis usually died around 2 or 3 weeks.. But if she have strong will to live, she can go even for a month.. No no– I need to assume its the worst case scenario, she'll die in a few days.. How do i get everything? and still has the time to make the potion?..' Verima was deep in her thought, her face began to sweat as she had never dealt this close with the death of someone before.
'Requesting help from the adventurers guild?!.. No no, not many adventurers are interested with gathering quests, especially for Drowsy Edelweiss which are rare around here.. It'll took more than a day for someone to even accept the quest, and then it'll be another few days before they completed it and gave the materials to me.. By that time, Seth's mother would have already died!—
'Then.. Buying it from another alchemists? But that'll cost me extra money.. My shop is already short on customer and now i have to spend gold coins to get my hands on a Drowsy Edelweiss and Pacifying Orchid!?—
'If that didn't work, then.. Ah— Mercenaries..'