As the sun rose through the sky and eight o’clock neared Arthur awoke from his bed and sat up. He looked around the room and smiled, it wasn’t just a happy dream, it was real. ‘I know this is real, but every time I see it I am still surprised. It feels like it was just yesterday I entered the city for the first time.’
Arthur quickly put on a clean set of clothes and made his way into the kitchen/living area and took a seat at the table to prepare a proper breakfast and eat it. While he ate he looked around the room trying to think of what else he could add.
‘A shelf or cupboard would be a nice addition for any plates or eating utensils, I could have it right next to the fireplace, it would clear up a bit of space from my bag. I should have somewhere to keep my food, that takes up even more space. But if I want that I would need a cellar of sorts in the floor to keep it both out of the way and the food cool.’
Arthur spent the rest of his time eating thinking of what else he could put in his new home and how much those might cost. ‘A shelf for my book might go well in the spare room with all my alchemy equipment. But that might be nicer in the bedroom, I also have more space in there to fill.’
Soon Arthur was finished with his food and went into the spare room with all his alchemy equipment to brew a few potions and other valuable alchemical creations to sell at the alchemy club. This way he would build up some nice savings and be able to buy all the furniture and decorations he wanted.
As Arthur entered his new alchemy room he took out all the ingredients and containers for the end results and placed them at the other end of the room. But he noticed that his supply of bottles was starting to run low. ‘I will need to buy some of those soon, and I only know of one place that sells glass work. Ice Wares Glass Smiths, I wonder how much they will charge me, I hope it won't cut into my profits too much.’
After making a mental note to visit the Ice Wares Glass Smiths when he had a chance Arthur continued with his alchemy and managed to brew himself a handful of decent potions for an alchemist of his skill. ‘These should sell for a decent amount, but I used up almost a quarter of my glass bottles for his batch.’
Arthur then left his new home locking both doors behind him and started his way towards the mages guild up in the western district. It was quite a long walk and the stretch of land in the southern district in which Arthur did not see anyone around his home was a bit unnerving. He knew most people did not want to live there especially after the attack, but it seemed a bit excessive.
When he finally started getting closer to the western distinct, more and more people could be seen wandering the streets, and they were far more inviting than the few people that still wandered the streets in the southern district after it went dark. Arthur also passed by a small market area that popped up after most left the southern district. It wasn’t all that large but it made Arthur happy to see more people pushing past the tragedies of the past and trying to move on.
The mages guild on the other hand was just as crowded as always with several lines reaching to the outside. Arthur managed to squeeze on by and walked down into the alchemy club. The inside of the club was quiet as most of the young members haven't arrived yet, most would usually join after any classes they had at around 10:30 or 12:30 and since it was only 9:00 it would still be quite a while before most members would join, but that was quite good for Arthur since now he didn't need to wait to sell his products.
“Good morning Lydus.” Arthur called out to the man steadily chipping through all the paperwork on his table.
“Good morning Arthur. Do you have more to sell to the club again?” Lydus Looked up from his work to look at what Arthur might have brought today.
“Yeah I did. Today I have some more basic healing potions, more fire seeds, smell nullifiers, and some phantom ink.” Arthur said as he placed samples of each product on the table.
Lydus picked up each of the items and took his time inspecting them with his singular eyeglass. When he was done he returned them to their original position and turned to Arthur.
“I can give you the usual price for each of these, I just need to know how much of each you are willing to sell.” Lydus said as he pulled a piece of paper out and placed it before Arthur.
In response Arthur took out all of the basic healing potions, more fire seeds, smell nullifiers, and phantom ink he was willing to sell and began to count them up and write down the numbers of each. When he finished he returned the paper to Lydus who then wrote down the price for each and the end total, the end total being twelve silver coins for the week's worth of products.
Although it was most definitely a reduced price Arthur was quite happy with it, as this way he did not need to go out of his way to find someone looking to buy them from him or go through the hassle of setting up a stall in the marketplace. Most people wouldn’t buy potions from a no name alchemist unless they received certification through the guild.
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“Do you want the money deposited to your bank account again or do you want to receive it in person?” Lydus asked, it was not uncommon for an alchemist to receive their money through their bank account.
“Yes that is fine, when should I expect the money?”
“If all goes well you should have it by the end of the day. Do you want to keep the paper?” Lydus offered the paper with the products and prices to Arthur, it was a common practice to have evidence of agreements and deals in the event of one party attempting to back out or not pay.
“No need, I trust you to deliver.” Arthur knew the guild and by extension the clubs would pay, it wouldn’t look good for either the guild or the people running the clubs if it got out they were not paying their members for their work.
‘Now with that all sorted out I can see about acquiring more glass bottles from Ice Wares Glass Smiths. Since I have met the foreman before he should be more willing to help out and perhaps give priority to my requests.’ Arthur smiled to himself as he exited the guild through the crowds that had only grown since he arrived.
***********
The walk to the Ice Wares Glass Smiths was quite long as it was on the opposite side of the city in the eastern district along with most of the other manufacturing that was done in the city. But since Arthur had been there before he had little trouble aside from travelling workings blocking his path.
When he arrived he went straight to the foreman who was handing out assignments to his workers. “Filus, Jorrack, and Helmec, you are working on the Monrant order with all the windows. Nurreck, Bungegit, and Thivelda, you are working on the new monastery job. If you have any questions regarding what you need to do just ask me. Now are there any questions?” A short silence followed with none of the six working saying anything.
“No question? Then you all best start getting to work, I have work to do.” Just as he finished speaking to his workers he noticed Arthur walking towards him and smiled, he remembered the young mage who collected the alchemy appliances roughly two months ago.
“Why hello again young mage, how might I help you today?”
“Do you do any custom orders? Because I am in need of some glassware.” The foreman and Arthur took a seat at a nearby table as they spoke.
“We do, depending on the size. What exactly do you need?”
“I need glass bottles along with corks to keep them from spilling. The amount I received from my previous master is starting to run out, and I would like to continue with my trade.”
“Oh a trade, that's good. What trade is it?” The foreman accidentally wandered out loud, but Arthur did not seem to notice the worry and regret on his face.
“I am an alchemist. I was trained under Georgius Calvus, the man who ordered those glass appliances for his work. He offered me an apprenticeship and I accepted, just about a week ago I finished and I work on my own.”
The dwarf relaxed seeing Arthur simply explain what happened and he returned to business matters. “How many bottles do you think you will need? If you want we can make them for your weekly or monthly needs.”
Arthur took a moment to think about the number of potions he would brew in a week. ‘Accounting for the days I spend collecting ingredients and not brewing as well as things that are not potions, the average amount of bottles I would need in a week are about fifty, give or take a few.’
“About fifty bottles a week. Is that manageable for you?”
“That's it? We could easily do that within a day if everyone worked at the same time.” Arthur was surprised by that answer, so much so that he blanked for a moment.
“Now if you only need 50 bottles a week we should move onto price. All of our bottles of this size will cost you a copper coin each.” The foreman handed Arthur a glass bottle of the exact same size as the ones he always used.
“The corks to close them are a different matter as we don’t sell them, but I can recommend you someone else who does sell them for a decent price.”
***********
After a brief discussion regarding the glass bottles and corks they came to the conclusion that Arthur would arrive at the last day of every week to collect and pay for his glass bottles, and the person selling corks owned a store called “Magnus General Store” located in the eastern district, a general store owned by a Cassius Magnus.
Since he currently had the time Arthur decided he would also try to work something out with Cassius Magnus as it would make buying corks from him faster and possibly get him a discount in the future.
When he arrived in the area described to him by the foreman he found an older building with an old wooden sign hanging outside with the words Magnus General Store written on both sides. Most of the people walking around ignored the store as if they haven't seen it, this confused Arthur a bit as it was the only general store in the area so it should be quite popular.
Regardless Arthur entered through the front door ringing a bell tied to the top. “Just a moment!” The voice of a man roughly in his mid thirties shouted out from in the back of the store.
Soon a middle aged human man with brown hair and eyes walked out in front of the counter. He looked quite tired with his posture and the light darks spots under his eyes. “How might I help you today sir?” Yet he spoke with little sign of either.
“Are you Cassius Magnus?”
“Yes I am, do you need something from me?” Upon that question Cassius looked a little worried and stood up straight.
“I was recommended to you for buying corks in bulk. I wanted to get a price on that.”
Cassius alamo sighed in relief at those words, but he stopped himself and instead gave his newest possible client the prices for his corks. “Depending on how many you want to buy at a time I can sell them to you 50 at a time or 100, just be sure they don’t dry out because if they do they are useless.”