87 Monkey's Paw

Before long, time passed and the final day of the holiday break dawned. Ian set to work on alchemy with the materials he had prepared in advance.

As he had decided earlier, the first item he would make was the ‘Blood-Chasing Compass.’ It was better suited to tracking than to searching, but it had more uses than one might expect.

For example, say you lost a companion during a commission. Then you’d have no choice but to go look for the missing companion.

Then the compass would be an excellent tool. It could tell you not only whether the other person was alive, but their exact location as well, so there was no better tracking tool.

It did have the drawback of needing blood prepared in advance, but that was hardly a difficult matter.

Of course, not all partners would readily hand over their blood. But that didn’t matter.

If they provided it, he’d go look for them. If they didn’t, he’d leave them be. That was all there was to it.

“Uuugh…….”

Right before starting work, Ian sat in the chair and gave a long stretch. A cool, relieving sensation as his stiff muscles and joints loosened ran through his whole body.

Rubbing his stiff wrists, he stacked the materials neatly on the table. He placed the most important compass in a corner and carefully set the blood and leeches beside it...