I Just Traded in the Forest of Monsters, but the World Changed - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 12
‘Something’s off about this.’
Se Hui studied the old man, her thoughts churning.
‘Dangerous, maybe. Or maybe not.’
Without thinking, she shifted her weight onto the balls of her feet.
She hadn’t decided yet whether to run or stand her ground.
One thing was certain: the old man’s gaze was fixed on her.
Noticing her tension, the old man let out a short, dry cough.
“The name’s Erasmus. Just a wandering elder, nothing more.”
Se Hui nodded, though she couldn’t hide that the name meant nothing to her.
“Say, that thing in your hand—might I get a taste of it?”
Se Hui glanced down at the cup.
‘He’s asking for this?’
The man was a stranger, and moments ago he’d dropped an entire group of people with a single gesture.
‘…Still, he is a customer.’
Her hesitation didn’t last long.
“Of course. Just a moment.”
She poured hot water and stirred it slowly.
The Tent Utility made even this simple task remarkably convenient.
In that moment, Erasmus’s eyes changed.
Se Hui noticed and tilted her head inwardly.
Erasmus watched without breathing as the powder moistened, the color bloomed, and the aroma rose—every moment of the transformation.
His pupils trembled, ever so slightly.
He struggled to maintain his composure, but his gaze never left the cup for even an instant.
Unconsciously, he tightened his grip on his staff.
As the powder dissolved in the water, the color deepened gradually.
‘Heh… Even Alchemists can’t do this.’
Erasmus glanced briefly toward the fallen Mercenaries.
Then his eyes returned to the cup.
A smile threatened to break across his face, but he suppressed it.
This was not the time to smile.
There was something far more pressing.
‘My Mana reserves are dangerously depleted.’
There were methods to address such depletion, of course.
Mana Stones and Potions, for instance.
Unfortunately, Erasmus had neither.
But by good fortune, he’d stumbled upon this place.
It was far more than merely fragrant.
The empty reservoir within his body—it was stirring, faintly, unmistakably.
Erasmus kept his eyes fixed on the cup as he asked, “Is this powder roasted? Or dried some other way?”
The sudden question made Se Hui blink.
“Well… it’s just powder.”
She answered, but couldn’t fathom why he’d ask such a thing.
“Do you mean to say you prepared it yourself?”
Without realizing it, he took another step closer.
His question carried more than simple curiosity.
Se Hui hesitated a moment, then nodded.
“Well… not entirely by myself, but I can source the ingredients. There’s nothing particularly special about it.”
“I see.”
It was clear this was something apart from Mana.
“Remarkable. The aroma rises first, then the color follows. Usually it’s the reverse, you know.”
“That’s what happens when you add water,” Se Hui said, smiling ambiguously.
As the powder dissolved into the water, her body was reacting without any spell-work—a response that came before thought.
Not something learned from instruction, but something felt naturally.
Erasmus’s brows drew together, just barely.
This kind of intuition only grew more distant the more one tried to explain it.
“Old age has caught up with me, it seems. To stand frozen like this before something experienced for the first time in so long…”
Erasmus examined Se Hui briefly.

‘It’s been quite some time since I’ve met a young man so unperturbed in my presence.’
There was no wariness in his manner—rather, he seemed to accept this strange situation with a light, almost playful ease.
To Erasmus, this reaction was remarkable.
Se Hui, however, found herself at a loss for words upon hearing it.
‘Why is he making such a grand thing of it? It’s just coffee. Doesn’t this place have coffee?’
Se Hui stirred the cup once more, needlessly.
‘This man doesn’t look well. What if he collapses like the mercenaries did?’
If Erasmus collapsed the moment the mercenaries woke, it would be a complete disaster.
‘Why did I have to go stirring up mercenaries who were fine just moments ago? I only wanted to show respect to an elder!’
Se Hui swept her gaze across the surroundings once more, anxiously.
If those fallen mercenaries suddenly lurched awake, there truly would be no way out.
The cup in her hand felt heavier than it should have.
Imagining the worst-case scenario, Se Hui let out a quiet sigh and gazed down at the cup.
A faint wisp of steam rose from the coffee.
The grounds had fully dissolved, leaving only gentle ripples across the surface.
Se Hui offered the cup without ceremony.
“Try this. It should help restore your energy.”
Erasmus did not take the cup at first, only looked at it for a moment.
Then he reached out carefully.
His fingertips tensed as if handling something not to be treated carelessly.
‘Ah, it’s even warm.’
Warmth seeped into his palm.
In that instant, Erasmus understood instinctively.
This was not something to be drunk without thought.
The aroma did not assault his nostrils but wrapped around them gently, seeping in with soft grace.
He tightened his grip on the cup.
The fact that she had created such a combination so effortlessly was itself incomprehensible.
The corners of Erasmus’s mouth lifted, ever so slightly.
And in that moment, he became irritated with himself.
‘What am I doing? At this age, to grow so serious over a single cup of coffee.’
At this point, further scrutiny would only be absurd.
So he chose not to think any longer.
A brief silence fell.
That fleeting moment seemed strangely prolonged.
Se Hui held her breath, watching Erasmus intently.
Erasmus hesitated no further and swallowed a careful sip.
Before the aroma faded, the taste rushed in.
Sweetness and richness, and a flavor of inexplicable, perfect harmony.
He looked down at the cup as though to confirm what he had just drunk.
His reaction after tasting it remained unnaturally silent.
“This… what in the world is this taste?”
Erasmus brought the cup to his lips again without thinking, then stopped his hand.
His gaze fixed upon the coffee within the cup.
The way he looked at the liquid, steam rising faintly above it, was as though he were decoding an ancient incantation.
……
Another sip.
The coffee wet his lips once more.
“As I suspected, this is…!”
Erasmus’s eyes widened.
“I was not mistaken.”
It was as though a Mana Circuit worn smooth by ages had suddenly aligned once more.
Without thinking, Erasmus stepped back a pace.
His staff touched the ground with a sharp tap.
One of the sleeping mercenaries stirred faintly at the sound, but soon returned to steady breathing.
“Within this yellow powder…!”
His voice trembled.
“There dwells a celestial harmony that forcibly reconfigures the Magical Power Circuits!”
At the same moment, golden particles scattered faintly from his fingertips.
Erasmus stood frozen, as though unable to comprehend the words he had just spoken.
The conclusion had come too easily; he could scarcely believe it himself.
So he drew in another breath.
‘This can’t be real……’
The moment he inhaled, the sensation of air filling his lungs felt different from before.
Something deep in his chest loosened, and a leisure he’d forgotten long ago began seeping slowly through his body.
The definition of Coffee he’d always known flickered through his mind.
In this place, Coffee was closer to a stimulant—something that seized the mind with its bitterness and refused to let go.
‘Most would despise that bitter taste.’
Drink enough of it, and the mind grew sharp; but the price was always exhaustion.
Recovery was nowhere in sight.
‘Mana Potions are no different.’
A Potion could clarify Mana, certainly, but it could neither correct its flow nor repair worn Mana Circuits.
That’s what he’d always known. Or rather, what he’d always believed.
‘Yet this Coffee now…… what on earth.’
It felt as though ancient, broken Mana were being restored to its proper place.
Erasmus didn’t even notice the tension coiling through his grip on the cup.
‘The Coffee I knew was nothing like this.’
Everything he’d understood about Coffee shattered, and something entirely different slipped into the hollow it left behind.
Erasmus looked toward Se Hui, who held the Paper Cup in her hands.
“So this isn’t Coffee at all—it’s Alchemy that corrects the flow of Mana itself.”
In this moment, the Paper Cup felt like the Holy Grail of legend.
“Calling it divine Coffee would not be an exaggeration.”
Then it happened.
A pale golden radiance spread from Erasmus’s body.
A hue too warm and vital to be called the color of Magical Power alone.
As though Mana itself had taken shape, it seeped gently into the air.
The Tent canvas tautened slightly, and the hem of his robes stirred though there was no wind.
Erasmus’s white hair lifted into the air as though buoyant, then slowly settled.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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