“I just finished making two more kinds of potions.”

Severin was slightly embarrassed by the lack of variety he had to offer.

Also, the new recipes really were just too similar to the old ones.

‘Well, the pots can’t be too shabby if he’s back already.

Then again, I’m probably the only one who has a shop in this godforsaken place.’

Newest creation? More Potions?

That naturally drew everyone’s attention.

Severin pointed in the direction of the new jello assortment.

The group became tense. They only had one thought:

‘What color?’

…

Both kinds were different shades of purple.

The first one leaned more towards magenta.

The other one had more of a blue tint to it.

Close enough! It might as well be…

All three held their breath while Samuel revealed the tooltips for everyone to see.

[Small Resource Potion (20)

Restores 400 of all Resources when consumed.]

‘Eh?’

[Small Alternative Quality Resource Potion (20)

Restores 20% of all Resources when consumed.]

It’s not mana pots?

The two youths were disappointed and confused. What resources? Especially the mage felt cheated once again.

Only the old Berserker stood there like he was petrified.

It couldn’t be.

He slowly turned towards the shopkeeper.

“ ’Resources’ means…?”

Now Severin looked confused as well. What a strange question.

Was something not right with the potions? Personally, based on his gaming knowledge, he thought universal resource potions didn’t sound too bad. Especially compare to rather boring health potions.

“‘Resources’ refers to the stuff that fuels certain spells and abilities. Like a caster who uses Mana to cas…”

“I KNOW WHAT ‘RESOURCES’ ARE!”

…

ahem

Everyone decided to ignore the outburst and instead focused on the important parts.

Severin, for one, wasn’t offended at all. He quickly realized the implications.

‘My stuff doesn’t suck! The System isn’t useless! They didn’t just come here out of a lack of alternatives.’ He felt a huge mental burden being lifted.

He wasn’t aware of the consequences his products might have, nor did he care. All he cared about, for now, was to not be sitting all lonely and forgotten on a shitty mountaintop. And for that, he was dependant on the quality that the System provided.

It was a huge relief.

The two mentees had already learned their lesson with the health potions and tried to think about more than just their own interests. But in the end, they still took them for more like a glorified mana potion.

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They were still too inexperienced. Too naïve.

And their knowledge about other classes and their mechanics was too shallow.

Samuel decided to educate them on the spot. Which coincidentally also profited Severin.

“Listen, you two. These pots here are even more impressive than the previous ones, assuming these also have their own separate cooldowns.

How much health did the red ones restore? 200? Sure, that’s impressive in comparison to regular potions, but that’s it. No one is fully healed by that. Besides some squishy low-level casters with no gear, maybe.

“Now, when it comes to mana, obviously 400 isn’t that much either. But.

There are actually classes out there that have a fixed amount of resources that doesn’t increase with level or equipment.

Some of those are capped at 100 or 200.

Do you understand? A [Monk]’s focus would be fully replenished with only one use.

That’s unheard of!

And that’s not even the end of it. Not even close.” His face grew solemn at his point.

“Have you forgotten my recent lesson about [Paladins] already? What did I tell you about their particularities?”

After a moment of contemplation, an expression of understanding dawned on their faces.

Miriam was the first to answer.

“They...Some classes use multiple resources!”

“That’s right! And those people would normally have to meticulously plan ahead when and what kind of potion to use, requiring training way beyond leveling. You know how much Tim has to plan around his mana usage. Image this times two. Not even to mention the cost of specialized potions, like those that replenish Holy Power and that no one else can use.

“Those are only some of the reasons why you would usually see [Paladins] only in the service of rich and influential groups, but it might very well be enough to change things up. And [Paladins] are just one of the more common cases. There are many more and extreme examples out there.

All that for just 1 gold per potion…and with the other benefits…”

Everyone hearing this felt enlightened, including Severin himself.

‘So I’m basically running a p2w store!?’

Samuel looked at the Shopkeeper with a gaze full of respect, wondering what other products he would come up with in the future.

‘We’ll definitely have to stay on his good side.’

“Mind if we set up camp here? We had planned to stay in the area for the time being. So if we have to come here to restock every so often anyway... ”

“Sure! Be my guest. Please.”

The moment he said this, he feared that he might come across as a bit too eager. Instead, he realized that his patron seemed rather pleased with that answer if anything.

With that out of the way, Samuel handed over a bunch of coins, reminding everyone to get their potions.

At that time Timothy interjected:

“Get the whole 20 of everything. Especially you, Miriam, get the purple ones as well!”

The annoyance about having the situation reversed on her was written on the woman’s face.

‘Since we use our HP for some skills, shouldn’t that count as a resource as well?’ She grumbled.

***

The group of three had set up their makeshift campsite on the very same day.

As far as Severin could tell, from inside his little store, it consisted of three tents, arranged in a half-circle, and a small fireplace in front of them.

He was not impressed.

But with everyone having an inventory, it made kind of sense.

What he was impressed with, though, were the daily sparrings between Timothy and Miriam that served as his new entertainment. It looked like everything Severin could have imagined when dreaming about magic fights in a different world.

Barrages of magic missiles flying. People leaping and teleporting for tens of meters at a time. Magic shields blocking, what looked like, little projectiles of blood. Stomps that would make the nearby tents fall over. And wounds that should kill any human being in an instant just being ignored.

Severin never grew old of that sight and became a bit jealous while he stared out of his wooden cage.

On some days, that’s all they would do. They would fight from morning till noon when Samuel would come back from who knows where and give them some lessons himself.

On other days, all three would be gone for half the day, but even then, the two of them would still challenge each other in the evening.

It was their daily ritual.

‘Yeah, no way there is a stamina stat.’

What he noticed was that while Samuel might leave on his own from time to time, it was never the other way round. The two mentees would never split up, and if they left, it was only when they accompanied Samuel on his flying artifact.

In those days, Severin’s wealth quickly multiplied, and he got to a point where he seriously had to start pondering over his soon-to-be-made investments.

At the same time, he learned some common knowledge from Samuel, who, ever so often, came by just to talk.

Apparently, this place was a neutral zone between the Kingdom of Rhenia in the North and the Kingdom of Malcos in the South.

It was actually a very wide land bridge that was colloquially called ‘The Golden Mountains’, owing its creative name to the hundreds of mountains that offered many opportunities for adventurers to acquire loot.

As Severin understood it, each mountain was a separate entity, not forming a mountain range with each other, with many of them housing either dungeons or raids. That resulted in the establishment of several guild outposts and makeshift villages either on top or around these mountains. Every aspect of these settlements was based on the needs and wants of adventurers.

He wasn’t really clear on the specifics, and he didn’t want to ask. After all, even if he was a foreigner, that wouldn’t explain why he didn’t know what his surroundings look like.

Most of these things took place at the western side of the Golden Mountain, thanks to the amount and the quality of the dungeons there. Leaving the east in a more untamed state and therefore making it, in the eyes of Samuel, a perfect training ground for his mentees.

That’s also where he found Severin’s shop, almost bordering on the Great Sea.

So, while it was indeed a somewhat desolate area comparatively, the situation wasn’t as bad as Severin feared. Sooner or later, more people like Samuel were bound to come across his store.

It even made the existence of his shop, at such a location somewhat plausible.

One side effect of those communities near the west was that the immediate surroundings were pretty much cleared of monsters, opening up a route for those unable or unwilling to go via the seaways on either side of the land bridge.

Portals between the two Kingdoms existed but were not accessible for the common folk.

It was said that while the two kingdoms were on friendly terms on the surface level, they each sponsored one of the bigger guilds competing for resources in the area, basically fighting a proxy war in the shadows.

Severin wondered if it was more of an open secret, or if Samuel was that well connected.