Ten minutes after creating his first elixir, Arthur was ready to start pulling his hair out in frustration. Putting a product on the System store for sale was proving far more difficult than buying something. For starters, he'd had to make a basic seller account, which cost a flat fee of 1,000 credits. That was easy enough. The mandatory questionnaire that followed wasn't. Why were his personal tastes and hobbies relevant to his seller profile in any way shape or form.
He'd had half a mind to just stop at the fifty-third inane question and call it quits, but sunk-cost fallacy and sheer spite had kept him going. Six minutes and ninety-two questions later, Arthur was finally finished. Next came the thing Arthur would quickly come to hate with every fibre of his being.
FEES
It was the single most aggravating thing he had encountered in the last decade of his life, topping slow walkers and drunk driving to take the top spot on his list of things that pissed him off most. There was a fee for everything. He'd have to pay seven before he could even list his item for sale and then came the daylight robbery they'd inflict on the meagre credits he'd make from his elixir. Selling a consumable elixir meant he needed to be a ratified alchemist with an official licence. Paying a fifty credit fee because he didn't have one was annoying but palatable. The thirty credit fee he had to pay on top of that to have a System employee check his goods because of his lack of licence was where things became disagreeable. A twenty-credit fee he had to pay because their freshly evolved planet hadn't been integrated completely into the teleportation network used for delivering was just rubbing salt in the wound and the additional fee of fifty credits because Earth hadn't established a global trading network or obtained an official trading licence was where things started entering the realms of the absurd.
In total, Arthur would have to pay 270 credits just to get his listing online. He hadn't been pleased with things but had reluctantly conceded and forked over the money. That's when he'd run into his second problem; naming his store. His first choice, The Dragons Emporium was not only taken already but locked behind a patent and unable for selection. Arthur quickly learned that anything with the word dragon in it was locked behind similar measures.
Anything grand sounding, be it the Heavenly Emporium or Ascendant wares was also patented. Three dozen patented names later, Arthur eventually attempted something simple out of sheer frustration. 'Arthur's Shop' was still available for use, though the System informed him there were 3,236,737 other stores with the exact same name. Of course, using his own name on his store wasn't the brightest idea and it was dull to boot, so Arthur discarded it for something better. Eventually, Arthur settled on the name Rize's Apocalyptik Wares. For starters, the store name was entirely unique with no duplicates and it paid homage to both his sister and his apocalyptic origins. He was quite pleased with it.
If he changed his mind in the future, it would only cost him 10,000 credits to rename his store but he didn't see that happening. Now that he was finally allowed to list his potion, he had to settle on a price. Massive corporations had cornered the market with their mass-produced elixirs and they'd set the price of a 100%efficient strengthening elixir to a flat 1000 credits. With his less-than-perfect product operating at a 39% reduced rate on top of the fact that he had no official licence or reputation backing him, Arthur realised he could price his product at no higher than 500 credits, the value that sellers in a similar situation to him priced their wares at.
With the final 15% fee they'd take from his sale, Arthur realised it was quite literally impossible for him to recoup the 2,000 credits he'd put into buying the five sets of ingredients. Even with magic at their fingertips, sapient-kind hadn't found a way to escape the insidious grasp of capitalism. Arthur sighed. Unfortunately, it looked like he'd be taking a loss on his first ever sale, Arthur priced his elixir at 390 credits, about 30 less than the rest of his competition was doing, and he was surprised when the elixir sold in less than a minute.
There was a light chiming sound he hadn't heard from the System before that notified him of the sale before a green prompt appeared before him.
Congratulations on making your first sale Mr Ward. Buyer Peugong 107 has purchased Elixir of Strength Enhancement for 390 credits. The elixir has been delivered from System storage.
A 15% fee has been deducted. 331.5 credits have been deposited in your seller account.
Note: Withdraws are only available on sums exceeding 5,000 credits and will be taxed with a 250 credit fee. We wish you continued success in your business.
May Rize's Apocalyptik Wares Prosper.
Arthur didn't know whether to laugh or cry by the time he finished reading through the System prompt. His profits barely covered the costs of the fees he'd had to pay to get his listing online. Arthur quickly did the maths. After deducting his operating his operating costs, he'd earned a measly 61.5 credits. With ingredients for only three more elixirs, Arthur highly doubted he'd be getting his 2,000 credits back. Forget this bullshit, Arthur mentally cursed. Why was he struggling so much trying to turn a profit when he knew how to cheat. I've established a baseline already. Let's see how my blood affects the remaining three elixirs.
Once again, Arthur arrayed all the ingredients before him. He glared at the acorn as if it would heed his desire and become more malleable this time around. Before anything though, Arthur needed to get his blood ready. For once, he didn't attempt to cut himself like a barbarian, nor did he try to contain the explosion of a shadow bomb in the palm of his hands. No, Arthur had become more refined as of late and left his beastly ways behind. He'd found himself civilisation.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Focusing intently, Arthur summoned his most prized purchase from his storage ring. It was a small thing, barely seven inches in length, but it looked incredibly intimidating nonetheless. In Arthur's hand was an Elite-ranked metal syringe.
Doctor's Orders (Elite)- The perfect tool for any doctor to deal with unruly patients, be they stubbornly shelled or covered in scales.
Effect: Keeps blood extracted in an optimal state and bypasses a portion of the target's innate defences if permission is obtained
Syringes had always scared Arthur and becoming strong enough to shrug off military-grade missiles hadn't changed things. There was just something viscerally off-putting about them, literally designed to penetrate human flesh in the most efficient way possible. Whoever invented them must have been a real psycho. If Arthur wasn't so uncomfortable with the idea of drawing his own blood, he would have found it amusing that he had less of a mental block when it came to willingly holding the equivalent of a live grenade in his hands.
Thankfully, being an elite-ranked item for medical use, Arthur didn't even feel it when the syringe cut into his flesh. Though it didn't mention it in the description, Doctor's Orders contained strong anaesthetic properties. If he couldn't see the massive syringe plunged into his flesh, he probably wouldn't have even realised it was there. Arthur carefully measured out ten millilitres of his blood. It glowed a dark red and appeared like a bright beacon of energy to his more esoteric senses. As an epic-ranked fluid that doubled as an incredible alchemical catalyst, Arthur was quite literally sitting on a fortune if he ever decided to sell his blood. At the rate his body regenerated, he could sell hundreds of litres every day without hurting himself. If he went by the rates other similar liquids were priced at, that translated to profits measured in billions of credits.
Every. Single. Day.
It was a shame Arthur would never sell his blood on the System market. The risks it posed were too great, especially when you considered the existence of curse and blood mages. Who knew what type of nefarious magic they'd cast on him if they ever managed to get their hands on it. Arthur squeezed the syringe out into his trusty bowl and analysed it.
Perfect Homunculi's Blood (Epic)- Blood extracted from the perfect Homunculi, an Originator of great power and potential. The liquid produces its own variation of soul affinity ether which makes it an incredible catalyst for craftsmen of every profession.
Extremely potent. Handle with caution. Consumption will boost heal regeneration by 1500% for 13 hours but will make you incapable of consuming any other beneficiary items for 300 hours. Not recommended for those with less than 500 Constitution.
This was the first time Arthur had gotten a complete description of his blood and the results left him a little shaken. He'd be in less danger if he had literal diamonds running through his veins. Still, isn't 1,500% a little too much. It was a shame drinking his own blood provided no benefits or he would have been truly unkillable by now. I guess I'll just have to be content with how tanky I am already.
He'd detoured long enough. Arthur quickly prepped his second set of ingredients, The second time around, he knew what to expect. Even a little experience made a world of difference when you'd been operating blind before and it showed in his work. It took him half the time his previous attempt had taken and he was far more successful in extracting the beneficial product from his ingredients without contaminating his elixir with anything extra. Three minutes of work later, Arthur was done. Even without his blood augmenting the elixir, he was certain he'd increased its efficiency by at least 20%.
It just went to show the massive difference a little experience made. With his blood added, Arthur... honestly had no idea what would happen. He was just happy he didn't make the mistake of saying merge aloud this time. Focusing his ether, Arthur allowed the ingredients' extracted essence to finally mix together and watched with rapt attention as his blood acted as a catalyst and empowered the reaction. Even with the entirety of his perception brought to bear and the enhancement his eyes had gone through following their mutation, the magic taking place before him eluded his vision.
His blood dissolved and perfectly integrated with the molecules that made up his potion, completely disregarding everything he'd learned in chemistry class. He could sense the pseudo-soul-affinity ether his red blood cells generated enhancing the elixir, making it far greater than the sum of its parts. Arthur knew he was witnessing something special, he just didn't know enough about alchemy to realise how miraculous it was.
Forty seconds later, the elixir was done, only this time, a System notification was the one to declare the process complete.
Congratulations Arthur Ward! You have created your own branch of unique Alchemy, As the creator, you may name it with a personal modifier and attach a catchphrase to your products.
Arthur grinned. If that didn't tell him he'd succeeded, he didn't know what would. He already had the perfect modifier ready and it fit well with his store's name. The catchphrase, however, he wasn't too sure of. He read through the new elixir's description and came to a decision. It wouldn't always fit, but it matched the theme of his blood strongly enough that he didn't think it'd ever be out of place on his creations.
Apocalyptik Elixir of Strength enhancement (Unique, Common)- An elixir created using new innovative methods, most would go green with envy if they ever figured out how it was made.
Effect: raises strength by 15% for 3 hours and 7 minutes
Raises maximum health by 5% for 3 hours.
Remember, you can never have too much health!
Arthur was no master alchemist, but he had a feeling that one day, his items would become some of the most coveted in the entire universe. He read through the description a second time. Yep, that catchphrase fits my philosophy to a T.