50 healing potions, nice. Rob smiled as he soon arrived in front of the Alchemist Guild’s entrance. The amount of materials I bought back then should have only produced 40 normally, but I can perfectly utilize the ingredients to the last bit and get more bang for my buck!
He pushed open the door and looked around the surprisingly lively guild lobby. Many of the people inside were of, as expected, noble descent or belonged to rich families. They wore expensive clothing and magical trinkets that Rob would look at and roll his eyes.
It was your typical rich-kid behavior with a crippling need for social recognition since they had a severe lack of self-esteem and could only receive an ego boost from their peers. Rob ignored those rich kids, tuning them out of his mind. He grabbed the strap of his bag and walked toward a certain part of the lobby, toward a marble counter that had a beautiful woman standing behind it.
“Good morning, ma’am.” Rob smiled and stopped. He glanced at the young woman ahead of him.
She had long black hair and emerald-green eyes. She wore a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt and a vest that further accentuated her well-endowed badonkers, and behind the desk, Rob saw with his divine sense that she wore an equally fitting skirt.
“What can I help you with, Mister Fortune?” The glasses on her eyes blinked with a flash of blue light as Rob sensed traces of mana moving around the lenses of the glasses.
In her field of view, the woman saw a series of texts appear in the air beside Rob, displaying all of the public information he had shared with the guild, along with his rank and noteworthy traits.
Within the Alchemist Guild, alchemists were ranked into five different levels. An Apprentice, an Alchemist, a Master Alchemist, a Grandmaster Alchemist, and lastly, a Supreme Alchemist.
In the world of Tyr, alchemists hold great value, with a majority of them possessing greater worth than most mages. They’re a rare profession to be in because in most cases, to be an alchemist means one needs to have an aptitude to be a mage, and the funds needed to even begin practicing alchemy.
Mana is an important part of this world’s development. Alchemists also utilize mana to help in their alchemy, from creating potions to synthesizing new metals or replicating magical substances such as the poison of fearsome beasts or their precious fur.
But, even with the high requirements needed to be one, there were still plenty of aspiring alchemists within the guild, and there was one simple reason why. Money!
Money makes the world go round. Birds die for food while men die for wealth.
Alchemists have high worth as individuals, and that’s because they can earn a ton of cash with enough skill. For example, all of the ingredients needed to create a single Health Potion, sometimes called Healing Potion, is a single silver coin, but its market price is five silver coins!
With just a couple of minutes of their time, and having the right equipment, they can sell the most common potion and earn four silver coins! And the demand was as high as the supply!
Health potions, Mana potions, and Energy potions; they’re all sold like hotcakes with a demand that only continues to grow the more prosperous life became in the world. Training was endless when one realizes that they can acquire power that can rival entire nations with just their own strength.
Adventurers traveled the world in search of treasure, noble children worked hard in pursuit of fame and glory, commoners trained with all their might to turn their lives for the better, and what better way to increase the speed of their training than with magical drugs?
Health potions can heal wounds and significantly reduces the risk of dying while exploring dungeons. Mana potions can allow one to replenish their used mana and train their spells. Energy potions can allow one to continue training their swordsmanship without rest!
Potions came in all kinds of appearances and effects. Some can heal sickness, others can deal with dark spots or acne, and others can even increase one’s height during puberty!
This is what it means to live in a world that revolves around magic!
Rob smiled at the lady and opened his bag. He pulled out a wooden crate he created through alchemy magic, opened it, and revealed the 50 healing potions he made in less than an hour. With the current market price, minus the tax of 5% for income gained from alchemical products, Rob would earn a grand total of over 2 gold coins, that is 200 silver coins!
Minus the initial price of 40 silver coins, I’m still just a couple of coins below 2 gold coins in terms of total profit. Setting aside one gold coin, I’ll double my investment and buy ingredients for Mana potions as well!
“This… You created all of this, sir Fortune?” the lady was surprised to see the amount of healing potions that was presented to him. While this wasn’t an impressive amount for higher-ranked alchemists, the boy in front of her had just recently joined the alchemist guild and had almost zero experience with alchemy = according to the information provided by her glasses.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Mmm.” Rob nodded his head and went on to explain. “You can use a Lie Detection Spell to verify whether I’m telling the truth or not.”
The lady obviously understood what Rob wanted to say. Once she verified it, his rank would automatically update from Member to Apprentice Alchemist. And, once he produces products of higher difficulty consistently, he’ll also automatically rank up to an Alchemist, Master Alchemist, and so on and so forth.
While the lie detection spell placed on the glasses might not produce a perfectly accurate result, if the target doesn’t put up resistance and repeats the test multiple times, it would give a result that has enough credit for someone to gain a higher rank.
So, the lady asked one time, two times, three times, until she asked for the fifth time and stopped. Rob answered with a simple yes to her question over and over, and when she stopped, Rob smiled as his mind started to wander.
“Congratulations, sir,” the lady wore an amicable smile as she tapped the side of her glasses to update their current database. On the floating text beside Rob’s figure, his rank changed from Member to Apprentice Alchemist, while the permissions that were granted to him increased.
Now, Rob could buy materials he previously couldn’t buy, and receive services that were only given to those that are Apprentice Alchemists and above.
Rob felt his membership card buzz inside his pocket, confirming that the update process has finished. He then waited for the lady to give him his money, and after a while, she returned with his wooden crate and a pouch full of coins.
“Thank you, ma’am.” Rob placed the wooden crate inside his bag, stored the pouch full of coins inside his pocket, and headed out of the guild with a big smile on his face.
He grabbed his mouth and yawned, then walked out into the crowded street with a slight hop on each of his steps.
This life is finally going places. Steroids, alchemy, money… Sigh, the only thing left is to get my personal Botanist to preemptively deal with the supply of materials and save on cost. Rob scratched his chin as he created a rough draft of his future plans.
Once I officially become an Alchemist by selling Greater Healing Potions, I can move on to selling larger batches and increase my profit margins to tens of gold coins per week with enough credibility. I’ll also introduce the Muscle Hypertrophy potion and use the Alchemist Guild to spread the potion’s name, then use that as a springboard to establish myself as a Master Alchemist and start selling more expensive potions.
But the Muscle Hypertrophy potion would definitely sell like hotcakes once I expose it to the market, and people would try to replicate it. Heh, don’t even dream about successfully creating your replica of my potion! I’ll add some useless chemicals into the mix that would slightly weaken the effects and would increase the difficulty of discovering the ingredients required for the potion by many folds.
The only thing stopping me from doing that is a Botanist. If I continue to buy my materials from the guild, people will deduce the ingredients I would need, but if I had a trusted source of materials, then there won’t be any problem.
Tomorrow… A flash of excitement appeared in Rob’s eyes. Let’s just see how helpful S Rank luck would be in this situation.
Rob stopped in his tracks as he stared at the restaurant ahead of him. It was a fancy restaurant with food pricing tens of silver coins. For noble heirs, it was mere peanuts, but for Rob, it was a luxurious treat.
He entered the restaurant with slight excitement. He deserved a treat after all of his hard work. If he didn’t take action back then and failed to connect his luck with Annabeth Auburn, then with his B Rank Luck, he would have been suppressed by Anna’s continuously rising luck and would have never received any benefits from the trip at all.
But he did, and now his rank had changed a lot. From its C Rank state, it had soared into a majestic S Rank!
How? It was through Luck Connection!
After I connected my luck with that abused girl, deepened my connection with Anna, and reestablished a connection with the Crown Prince, my luck has soared to S Rank! Even without those connections, my luck would sit at a comfortable 50-A!
It seemed my Opportunity - Oscar Vane’s notebook - has caused my luck to increase naturally and it would only continue to rise the more fortune I acquire from alchemy. Heh, if I created a complete connection with all three, my luck would have soared to at least 5-S!
Rob inspected his luck as he sat down on his chair. On top of the white cloth covering his table, a red leather-bound notebook floated on top of a pile of gold coins as vials containing colorful liquid hovered around the notebook like the Earth and Moon.
A stable progress in alchemy, a stable source of wealth, and a stable source of overall progress in life. Although… Rob squinted his eyes as he observed the trace of crimson gas hovering a distance away from the leather-bound notebook. This crimson gas had appeared out of nowhere after the fire, and he could already guess that this luck might be connected to the strangely lucky girl from back then - ignoring that he did create an actual luck connection back then, but this is a different thing.
Is she going to be a source of good luck? Or maybe it’s because she’s nearby? Our luck is connected after all, no matter how shallow that connection is. My understanding of luck is still growing. I still need to understand the secrets of karma, probability, uncertainty, and miracles. There’s still so much room to improve on!
Fortune Stealer… Kukuku, later on, it would grow to be my most fearsome ability! Hehehe, it truly suits my style, forcefully stealing the fortune of others, including their lives!
Rob chewed on a mouthful of meat and deluded himself in his thoughts for the faraway future that was in store for him.
…
He soon arrived back home and greeted his parents with a tired tone. He walked up the stairs, entered his bedroom, and plopped himself on his bed with a yawn. Soon, his eyelids started to feel heavy and he began to feel drowsy.
But, he held on. There was still one last thing he had to check. He pushed himself up from his bed and walked to the full-body mirror inside his bedroom. He slowly took off his shirt and stared at his body with an ecstatic smile.
At a glance, he could tell that his belly fat had been shaved off by a whopping ten percent, while a slight amount of muscles had already formed all throughout his body, ranging from his arms to legs, back, and core.
Sigh, I love abusing drugs.