Maybe it was the pleading look of desperation in Severin’s eyes that stopped Andreas from directly calling everyone inside.
But instead, when Severin immediately began crafting, prioritizing the potions over the oils, for now, Andreas and some of the others started to observe him. The guild officer and Samuel specifically began discussing what they saw. For the [Berserker], it wasn’t the first time to witness the whole process, but he wasn’t able to identify even a single one of the ingredients so far. Despite him being no crafter himself, there was no way for any self-respecting adventurer to not know the majority of ingredients typically used. Not that he would’ve been able to replicate the process even if he had all of the necessary tools and herbs and such available to him. In reality, even for a somewhat high-leveled and skilled [Alchemist], it would’ve been impossible to achieve a similar result. The techniques that were granted by the System itself were too advanced for all but the most exalted Alchemists to even understand. Naturally, though, this wasn’t something any one of the people present, including Severin himself, was aware of. So it wasn’t too surprising that Andreas couldn’t make sense of what he saw either. That still didn’t stop the both of them to discuss and admire the work in front of them though.
Xander on the other hand was nowhere to be found. After being frustrated of having run out of uses for the combinator a sly grin had appeared on his face. Just for an instant. The next moment when he inquired about the guild’s next steps, this expression was nowhere to be found.
“I have already informed the others so I might as well tell you. The plan, for now, is that we stay here until tomorrow. Till around afternoon. In the evening we’re to meet up with some representatives of the Society and with whoever else they have managed to gather in that amount of time.”
“So you signed us up for another round?”
“Of course I did. Don’t feel you’re up for it?”
Snort
“Yeah, I thought so. Well, I don’t have any clue who else will show up. Obviously a great opportunity for most guilds, but on such short notice, we’ll have to wait and see. Once we meet up, we'll have to figure out the individual groupings and responsibilities. Might need to help finish setting up a temporary outpost if it's not already completed by then, too. The actual subjugation efforts will begin the morning after.” Andreas expanded a bit more on the specifics. As he was previously personally involved with some of the planning, he already had a good idea of what to expect.
Xander though didn’t seem all that interested in what Andreas had to say and soon decided to leave, making everyone who listened wonder what this was all about in the first place.
Miriam and Tim soon left the store as well. Miriam had been bartering with the others and was able to trade one of her dual-conversion oils for one of the health leeching ones.
Now, with a new product to test and nothing better to do, as there were no more purchases to make for the day, the two of them might as well head out to their usual spot. Everyone else soon left as well, with Andreas and Samuel being the last to follow suit as they were discussing the upcoming undertaking.
Severin paid no attention to any of these things as his hands moved all over the place, concentrating not to mess anything up. No matter how broken any System-granted skills might be, if he rushed things like he did right now and wasn’t careful, he might still render a whole batch of potions useless and burn himself in the process.
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As it was still rather early in the day, on Andreas’s side of things there was no need to rush anything. Maybe he first planned out the exact amounts of every type of consumable he wanted everyone to buy. Maybe it was just in consideration of Severin. Only after almost two hours did he lead the first group of people inside of the store. With Andreas overseeing everything personally, things proceeded in a far more ordered and smooth fashion than Severin would ever have hoped.
As it turned out, most guild members were able to show an officer the respect he deserved. What also helped, of course, was the fact that everyone was forewarned by now. Everyone had seen the items, including the newly combined ones, by now and heard of the magical machine. The initial shock had already passed. Besides that, while until now almost everything Severin had seen of the guild seemed undisciplined and chaotic, with Xander being to blame for most of that impression, they still were a full-blown guild with an ever-present desire to push further and conquer harder and deadlier dungeons and raids. Nobody here wanted to only scrape by. There were no tainted silvers. A minimum of discipline could therefore only be expected. In fact, it was a requirement to guarantee everyone’s survival if things turned sour. If anyone truly didn’t listen to instructions, as some might expect of Xander, that person would be kicked out of the guild with no second chance whatsoever.
Organized like this, everything was handled without any hiccups, with only two, from Severin’s point of view, somewhat noteworthy occurrences.
The first was meeting Lynn again. The healer mainly remained in his memory because of her interactions with the loudmouthed [Duelist]. Besides being one of his earlier customers, of course. She was a [Cleric] as it turned out, which was insofar interesting to Severin, as he was pretty sure that one of the other people who entered his store, and who was also a [Cleric] according to the System, seemed, with the heavy armor the man was wearing, more geared towards close-range combat than her. Since everyone’s weapons were stowed away, though, it was hard to tell with certainty.
The other small surprise was meeting Harold, the [Barrier Mage]. Severin knew him to be formidable as he was the one who saved everyone’s ass by temporarily sealing shut the entrance of the dungeon.
The man seemed way younger than Severin would’ve suspected someone with that name to be. Only slightly older than Miriam.
At a different time, Severin might have bothered to become more familiar with the man and regard him with more than just a curt greeting, but this moment was not the right time for that.
Both of these things were of no real interest to him right now, as he labored to somehow meet everyone’s demands; Which was virtually impossible.
Fifteen people who all wanted to buy a full set of every single one of the base products he had to offer. No matter if they had any actual use for it, or whether it was to later trade them to the ones who had. Plus the combined items. Added up, everything amounted to roughly two thousand items in total. Two thousand items he needed to craft.
‘That can’t be right! Even with a helper that’s impossible. At least tomorrow everyone can only buy another twenty, at max. Still. In a few days, they might return…then what?’
At that point, Severin didn’t yet know that the majority of Andreas’s people wanted to try out their new consumables, with some of them going so far as to join Tim and Miriam in their daily sparring.
And while Andreas didn’t stop them, as it was only right for them to get comfortable with the things that were supposed to save their lives, after all, he was gracious enough to warn Severin bout it. In the end, both of them decided that there was no need to supply every single item on this very day, as they would only leave the next one anyway.
And so Severin pulled his first all-nighter in this world, ignoring the two level-ups he earned in the meantime.
“Yeah, no way I give them any more products to buy.”