During the three days it took for the seeds to become full grown plants, Alex had been exploring the town of Everwinter. The name suited it, considering it was cold year round. Luckily there was rarely clouds, meaning his plants could still get sunlight. If he decided to set up full farms then he would either need to use greenhouses or Magic to keep them from dying in the frigid temperatures. That was another thing he had learned about, Magic. This world was full of it, around 45% of the world could harness magic. However only around 8% of those were combat magic users. Everything from butcher, tailors to even farmers used magic in their professions. It's unfortunate he didn't have the ability to use magic yet. Why? Simple he was reborn in his body from his past life, only deaged to around twenty.
During his discovery of magic he found out something that would greatly benefit him. There are very few ways to regenerate magic outside of some artifacts that only the top 1% of Magic users could pay to use. Even then those artifacts are owned and controlled by the Church of Life. What does this mean? It means Alex would end up having a monopoly on mana potions, these would be available to the masses unlike the artifacts. Of course this would also make him an enemy of the CoL. He would need to be careful once he started selling. Currently he was sitting in his room at the inn, staring at the four fully grown plants. The mana plant was roughly two feet tall and had dozens of stems coming out of it. From those stems grew a flower on each, and each flower had five petals. Oh and of course the petals are blue. The health plant was about a foot tall with only six stems, from those stems is of course a flower, however these flowers had a dozen petals but they are much smaller. And the petals are red. Now why was he staring at the plants? Well he is trying to figure out exactly how the hell to turn them into potions.
[Ah host well done on growing your first plants without me having to hold your hand! For this I will reward you. And your reward is: System Potion Creation!]
[Due to you being broke and not having the money to buy the required tools to make potions, I the system have decided to be generous and create them for you. Now do remember this will only be for a short time until you have enough gold to buy the required tools.]
[SYSTEM QUEST 001: Sell 6 Mana Potions and 6 Health Potions!]
[REWARD: 100 System Credits, 25 Gold, Random Pack of Seeds!]
Well that is helpful. Another this he had learned in the three days was the monetary system in this world, it pretty simple.
100 Copper = 1 Silver
100 Silver = 1 Gold
1000 Gold = 1 Platinum
Most everyday items could be bought using silver. So getting 25 gold for his first quest seems pretty good. Alex didn't know what the system credits are but figure his system would tell him when the damned this wanted to. Now time to make some potions, he already had a potential buyer in mind. A mage named Ailas who he met while explore the town. He met the Elf man in the bar where he and some other mages were complaining about running out of Magic to fast. And since they were young they hadn't built up their reserves from years of use like the more experienced mages had. Of course Alex didn't speak to the mages at all, he simply listened and took mental notes.
{System create 1 mana potion} Alex thought.
[Creating one mana potions. Requires: 6 mana petals. Shall I proceed with creating the potion?]
With only requiring 6 petals he could create a couple dozen right now if he wanted. However that wasn't the smart thing to do. If he pick say one petal from six different flowers on the plant, then the flowers wouldn't die and could regrow the petals he harvested. After thinking this he did exactly that. Taking a petal from six different flowers on the plant and holding them in his hand.
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{System create the potion using the petals I'm holding.} He thought to his system.
[Confirmed. Creating. Created. Check your inventory.]
And he did just that. Seeing a blue potion in his first slot in the inventory. He needs to now by a hood or mask to conceal his identity.
{System you wanna help me here? I kinda don't have money and it would be bad for both of us if everyone knows we are the providers of the potions. We don't want the church knowing who I am until I have great influence in this world.} He thought to the system.
[Hmm…very well your suggestion makes sense. However I will deduct 15 system credits when the first quest is complete.]
After the system said this a black cloak with a hood appeared in his inventory. Taking it out he inspected it.
'Cloak of Shadows: Prevents others from seeing your face and dilutes your voice.'
This would do. Leaving the inn he went to a nearby alley before putting the cloak on and throwing the hood over his head. It was only midday so chance are Ailas was at the store his family owned. A bookstore. Walking quickly to it he entered and saw Ailas was indeed behind a redwood counter, looking bored while reading.
After walking over to him Alex said, "Ailas do you by chance have a back room where we may speak?"
Ailas jumped slightly before looking at him with narrowed eyes, "And why would I take someone hiding themselves under a cloak anywhere private?"
"I have an item of value I believe you will be interested in purchasing. An item that can help with your magic."
Thinking on in for a minute Ailas finally decided to humor him, he couldn't feel any magic coming from the cloaked stranger. Even though he himself was not skilled in combat magic, he knew enough to defend against a non-magical. Standing and motioning for the stranger to follow he opened a door leading to a hall before walking down and opening the second door on the right, which lead to his current bedroom.
"So what is this item stranger?" Ailas asked.
Alex put his hand in his cloak, so Ailas didn't see the potion appear out of nowhere, before pulling out the potion. "This my magic friend is a mana potion. Something only I can make. It doubles your mana regeneration for six hour."
Ailas stood still staring at the potion in shock, this was impossible. "Do you really think you can fool me? Clearly this is a scam. Now leave."
"Not so fast Ailas. You are a decent magic user. Can you not sense it? The magic flowing through it? Here drink some and then you will know I speak the truth." Alex said before grabbing a nearby clay cup and pouring an ounce of potion into it. Each potion had around eight servings or eight ounces. Meaning an ounce of the potion would double magic regeneration for six hours.
Handing the cup to Ailas he gestured for him to drink. Ailas sniffed at it for a few second before taking a sip. His eyes flew open in shock before he drained the rest of it. Ailas looked up at Alex in greed. He was going to just rob this non-magic user of the potion, however if only this person could create the potions then he should buy as many as possible.
"How much for each of these potions? I want as many as you can get me!" Ailas said in an excited tone.
"Calm yourself. Each potion has eight servings, you just took one so buying the rest of this potion would allowing you to have seven more. Enough for a week if you take one serving a day. However these are not the only potions I have. I also have healing potions that increase your healing by twenty five percent for six hour. Now the price for the mana potions is 5 gold each. The price for healing potions is 2 gold 50 silver each." Alex explained to the Elf.
Ailas thought for a few moments, he makes around 40 gold a month from his bookstore and another 15 from adventuring. However he could make triple or more gold from adventuring if he had some of these potions. Currently he had 355 gold saved.
"I want to buy 10 of each potion!" Ailas told the stranger.
Alex thought for a moment, he definitely had enough for the mana potions. However he doesn't know how many petals are needed for the health potions. However 50 gold from the mana potions is a good start.
"I will sell you this potion now for 5 gold. In seven days I will return with 10 more mana potions. However I may not be able to make 10 healing potions in that time. I will bring what I can make." Alex told the man.
Ailas nodded before reaching into a pouch on his waist and pulling out five gold coins. The two exchanged coins for potion and then Alex left quickly. Stopping in an alley way to take off the cloak and to put the coins in his inventory. Luckily they only took up one slot.
[Congratulations host on becoming a dealer.]