Finn gulped, patting his backpack, but he didn't really leave the barrier just yet. He just felt there was still more preparation he could do.

"You're still here? So dramatic," Pang mumbled at the side, sitting on the small and comfortable rocking chair Tumble made for him. "You're stalling, aren't you?"

"I'm not!" he said, raising the map up high to show he was planning, not procrastinating.

He needed to make sure his stocks and supplies would last the entire trip!

Anyway, according to the map, the Eastern dungeon would take a few days on foot, though Pang said it'd be much faster for him as an Awakened.

That said, since he had been awakened, he had indeed felt the difference. Even if he did much heavier tasks and took on more monsters, his stamina would barely be nipped compared to how it was in the previous level. He was excited to know how it would be now that he had upgraded to Tier 2.

Of course, upgraded or not, Awakened Tier 2 could only survive in Level 1 zones of the Beast Forest. Fortunately, he didn't have to go to the dungeon itself. He hadn't forgotten what Syl said that Toughened monsters would be fairly common around 20 to 30 kilometers from the dungeons!

Brootrats were only awakened rank, so he doubted he had to go that far. The fact that the brootrats were appearing fairly commonly around the inn also meant that there were mobs nearby. He just had to find them.

He should also be faster as well. He only had a few days in this mission, so the maximum distance should be 10 kilometers away.

As long as he found the general direction, he would (hopefully) find a way to get through this mission in time.

Anyway, it would be safe to assume that he'd be traveling for a few days. He only had a few beast-repelling potions left, that'd each last 10 hours. Would that be enough?

He didn't know about others, but he didn't fancy himself a fighter. In his mind, he didn't want to encounter monsters if he did not want to.

He'd like to have the beast repellent on as much as possible. He was alone and without a party. He could already see himself drowning in mobs.

"The sir is still here?" Tumble asked. He had just gone out with some water to tend to the garden.

"Oh, does he still need something?" Ranran asked. Pang shook his head.

"He's scared."

"Oh. It's okay. Everyone gets scared."

"Yesyes, Ranran gets scared often."

Finn's eyes twitched. "I'M NOT!"

His yell made him embarrassed, but, at the same time, it got him inspired about something.

There was actually a way to prolong the effect of a liquid. Assuming it would not alter its effects too much, of course.

He had many businessmen, politicians, and other influential figures as customers during his Open Kitchen days, and he also encountered a few more as he entered the borders of the showbiz industry.

He could even get inside information while eavesdropping, which got him a bit of money when he invested. Not too much as he didn't have that big capital nor did he have the sense about stock market stuff, but it was not bad.

One of these businesses was a perfume business, and that business had subsidiaries also handling repellents. Despite his appearance of not listening to chatter, he could actually afford to listen while cooking.

This was because he was already so practiced, and many of the dishes he was cooking had been done thousands of times. He really didn't have much trouble listening to conversations around his table.

He might not be traditionally educated, but he remembered a lot of these things, though in his case, it was to make sure he had conversation topics with anyone, anywhere.

Who'd have thought it might actually save his life now?

From there, he learned that he could add substances that would slow down evaporation and degradation.

For perfumes, the way to do this was glycerin, castor oil, or musks. For repellents, it was vanillin or essential oil fixatives. There were also stabilizers or antioxidants that could slow down the degradation of active ingredients.

His [Appraisal] Skill could give him a rough description of most items as long as they were lower than him in level. As an awakened, nearly everything non-ambulatory was below his level.

However, even on Earth, he didn't really know how to extract the needed compounds, did he?

He spent an hour that morning experimenting with what he had within the territory, though he heard a few mumbles from the Panda about him just delaying the inevitable.

Finn gritted his teeth as he continued with his trials. This had to work, if only just to not be mocked for being scared!

He vaguely recalled something in bitter herbs (he couldn't remember the exact compound), and resin could do something similar.

He chose a random bitter herb—the sapsurge fern—from the [Appraisal] skill and added it with the tingle sap to experiment on. The repelling potion came in a bottle, and he had to assume that for it to work maximally, he'd have to use the entire thing.

But what if he used it bit by bit? What if he didn't need the monsters 10 meters away? Just one? His rough, amateurish experiment started in this way.

He didn't know how it would affect the potion, so he didn't dare use too much initially. He also planned to apply it to his clothes so it would evaporate more slowly.

He also used what he knew to have slight repelling effects: the sapsurge sap.

Soon, he got the results he wanted.

[Diluted Beast Repellent]

[Information: Can keep monsters in awakened rank or below approximately 1 meter away.

Duration: Can last for 5 hours in normal conditions]

As for how he packaged it, he could only borrow a few bowls from the kitchen and place them in his space.

He smiled, the original potion could be divided into 3. This way, he multiplied the effectivity of the potion.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.