Osvald smiled as Arthur looked over the list of materials and the prices he added on. For the time being buying even the lowest grade of mana stones would be out of his reach, but he could still acquire the ink and its recipe each for a reasonable price. The recipe would only cost him a single gold coin where a bottle of the magic ink would cost him a silver coin, he would pay for both today and after looking at what exactly was needed to create the ink he would decide if it was worth the hassle or not.
“I have enough money with me to pay for the other two items on this list. Would it be possible to buy and receive them today?” Arthur placed the list in his bag and fixed his seating position.
Osvald smiled. “I see no reason why not. Hey Loreia!” Osvald shouted out into the large crowd for someone. Quickly a human woman dressed in far more professional attire walked over. Her choice of clothes reminded Arthur a bit of the secretaries and clerks he had seen at the various establishments throughout the city.
“Is there something you need sir?” The woman Loreia said in a far more monotone voice compared to the jolly and happy tone of Osvald. The two were not something you would expect to be very close to each other given just how different they were, he was open and fluid whereas she was stiff and calculated.
“Could you show this young mage to the warehouse, he is interested in buying some magic ink and the recipe for his experiments.” Osvald said as he took another sip of his drink and finishing it off. The elf to his left reached over to her left and retrieved a bottle and filled his glass up. “I would normally do it myself, but I'm just swamped in work here.”
“Of course sir, I assume you have already discussed the prices of the merchandise.” Loreia looked to both Arthur and Osvald who nodded in agreement. “Very good then. If you would please follow me sir I will take you to the warehouse.” Loreia waved Arthur up and towards a nearby door. Arthur followed her as she knocked three times and the door opened leading to another hallway, but this one was less exquisite and more practical than the rest.
As the two left the room full of dancing and alcoholism Arthur let out a sigh of relief and managed to relax. “Not your type of place is it?” Loreia asked moments after she heard him sigh. “No it isn’t. It feels so… fast and erratic and sickening.” Arthur confessed to Loreia, he didn’t feel as if he belonged in such an environment and he had the feeling she felt the same way.
“I suspected as much, a good portion of our clients don’t like it. It was all Osvald’s idea, he said he was inspired by some dances from his homeland mixed together with the local culture, specifically the bright flashy colors, the alcohol, and the music.” Loreia sighed as she recalled several problematic scenarios that came as a result, yet the party continued on.
“And what about the choice of clothes? Several of the men dancing around were almost indistinguishable from the women, several more I wasn’t even sure about.” Arthur said as he thought back to several of the men and women that tried speaking with him. Unfortunately he knew he would likely never forget such memories ever due to his photographic memory.
“Oh that, that came from the rich and powerful that started to spend a lot of time here. As it turns out when you have all the money you could ever use you tend to get a little bored and you start wanting things you normally wouldn’t, even if it is only one time. As such, this became a hot spot for rich and powerful men to try spending an evening with other men, many ended up catching a taste for those that dressed up like women, and it just sort of evolved from there.” Arthur could feel the awkwardness in her voice as she spoke and once she finished he did not have the nerve to carry on the conversation resulting in the rest of the walk towards the warehouse to be in silence.
About a minute more of walking the two reached another door, this one made from iron with another two guards standing and keeping an eye on things. As they got close the guards with the key nodded to Loreia and unlocked the door allowing them to enter. On the other side was a very large room that was practically filled to the brim with labelled crates and boxes. The paths that did exist were only large enough for at most two people walking shoulder to shoulder to pass.
Arthur’s eyes lit up at the sheer amount of stuff in a single room, so much so that he just stood there for a moment. But Loreia brought him back from his daydreams and took him towards the back of the warehouse. “The magic ink and the copies of the recipe are towards the back of the warehouse, if you see anything else that catches your eye just let me know and we can take a peek.”
Arthur did look at several of the time as they passed by, he noticed several staves and swords and many other interesting weapons that looked to be magical in nature, but he didn’t say anything at the moment as he likely didn’t have enough money to buy even a single one. ‘I need to focus on making more bottles of alchemist embers and sell them to the club, assuming I create one a day and sell it I would have a net profit of five silver coins a day. After a week of that I would have thirty five silver coins or one gold coin and fifteen silver.’
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Then suddenly Loreia stopped abruptly and was looking at several crates stacked to the side. She ran her finger along the writing and when she found what she was looking for she waved Arthur over. “This crate here is full of the ink you need, the little one on top has several copies of the recipe for it.” Loreia said as she took the left side of the box and gestured for Arthur to take the right side. The two slowly lifted the box up off the bottom box and carried it over to a nearby clear area towards the back with a large table. They placed the box next to the table and opened it up revealing the bottles of ink that filled it to the brim.
Arthur took a single vial of the ink and looked over it, as far as he could tell it was legitimate. But unlike what the guild sells it did not have an official label from the company or individual who made it. Instead it was simply labelled ‘Magic enchanting ink.’
“So how many bottles do you need? Most enchanters don’t even go through a whole bottle a day, and they do that for a living. So whatever you need this for won't require bottles amongst bottles, at least for now.” Loreia said as she pointed to the bottle of magic ink Arthur held in his hands.
‘Yeah, she is probably right. For the time being I won't be using a lot of ink since I am just creating tiny golems out of dead rats. But I should buy more than one, because knowing my luck I will forget to buy more when this one runs out, or I won’t even notice that I am running low and I will need to cut my experiments short.’ “These are a silver coin each right?” Arthur asked as he placed the bottle on the table.
“Yes, that is correct, and the recipe will cost you one gold coin.” Loreia said as she retrieved a piece of paper from the small box. The paper was wrapped up like a scroll with a thin piece of string keeping it bound together.
Arthur took a second bottle of ink from the crate and fished out a gold coin and two silver coins from his bag and placed them on the table before taking the two bottles of ink, then Loreia handed him the recipe which he quickly unbound and took a look at. It was a rather simple recipe with the main ingredient being normal ink, but the spell required to bound everything together and allow it to function properly was a tier two spell and something Arthur hadn't had the time to learn yet.
“If that is everything you need the exit is just over to the far right. And if you need anything else from us, use this to get in contact with us, we can schedule a proper appointment and help you find just about anything.” Loreia handed Arthur a small piece of paper that had a ten number code divided up into two groups of three and one of four. Below were the words ‘Osvald’s collection of merchants and wares.’ Loreia quickly left the same way she came from.
‘This must be the actual name of the company, but I have no idea what this ten digit number means. When I get a chance I will speak with Georgius about it, he will probably know since he has been in business with him before.’ Arthur placed the paper in his bag and walked down to the right side of the room, the door was made up of metal like the one he and Loreia went through to enter the room, but this one was a little different. There was no handle that opened the door, instead there was this metallic bar thing made up of two parts. It reminded Arthur of a button and its outer shell thing, so given its size he used his hand to push it and when it was pushed all the way the door was easily pushed open. Arthur marveled at the engineering and exited through the door, he noticed that the outside of the door did not have any similar contraption and was intended for one way travel.
‘This is good for deterring thieves, they would need to pass by all those doors that were guarded and then convince either Osvald or Loreia to let them in. But I seriously doubt that they don’t have any sort of magic item that would protect them in that situation.’
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Although Arthur was not exactly sure of how to get back onto the main road he just decided to follow the alleyway towards the left until he eventually found himself on a proper road. It was only a matter of looking around for something familiar to reorient himself and find the way to his home.
Once Arthur returned to home he quickly put the recipe and the magic ink he bought away in the spare room and started to collect the various flammable plants to produce more alchemist embers. ‘I need a lot more money to buy that mana stone, I already used up a good portion of my savings for that ink and recipe and I still need to learn how to cast tier two spells to make the ink by myself.’
The best way he had to make money was to create as many bottles of alchemist embers as he could and sell them to the alchemy club. While Arthur didn’t exactly know what they were used for he suspected it was either for other alchemical reactions or as a heat source for blacksmiths given how hot they are just on their own, he could only imagine just how hot they would get with proper fuel.
Arthur filled a box with all the flammable plants he had with him, it was about double of what he had the last time he tried it. Arthur placed the box by the back door and counted out thirty silver coins from his bag, once he had it he left for the same store he bought the special bottle from last time. Since alchemist embers were so hot they required a special container that was resistant to the heat they produced. The one bottle Arthur bought ended up costing him fifteen whole silver coins, and now he suspected he had enough plants to produce two this time.
The merchant at the counter happily counted up the coins and handed Arthur the two heavily enchanted bottles. ‘If I ever learn anything about enchanting it will most certainly be how to do this, then I can just buy the glass bottles and inscribe the enchantments myself and save so many silver coins.’