Let me see, an old man is dissing me right from the start.

The guild master intervenes.

"Now, now. No need to doubt him that much. He's simply here to appraise the rocks."

"*Snort* What good is he if that's all he can do?"

I want to refute that, but he has a point.

All I really have going for me is X-ray vision.

I have no idea of the exact market rate or anything.

Still, I'm able to judge by the look.

I can just describe everything I see to them worst-case haha.

They'll be able to tell me the price.

[What good? I can tell you what anything contains with a look. If that is worthless to you then I may as well leave.]

"Can you really do that?"

[Yep.]

He takes a ring he is wearing and puts it in one of his hands.

"Which hand?"

Are you kidding me?!

This is his test?!

I point to the right one.

Then he does it a few dozen times mixing it up every time before finally nodding satisfied.

"Sorry about earlier, kid. I'm the official appraiser of this guild Alright, at the very least you can see through the deception."

Wait, was he using magic during that or something?

Judging by the impressed expressions of the others I'd say yes.

I'll have to figure that out soon.

Right now I have no way to know if there are any illusions involved.

I just don't see them, at all.

[Is it that useful?]

"Well, from time to time there are people that will falsify the appearance of the items they are selling. They get punished if someone realizes it but…"

[They'll still try to make a quick sell and run?]

"Precisely."

[So during the auction I describe the true appearance of items and you appraise it?]

"That works!"

Somehow, he's super friendly now.

Guess there is no way a skilled appraiser would be dumb enough to burn all bridges with me out of arrogance.

We talk a bit.

Mostly about how I came to be here.

About my life experiences, or more accurately lack off.

He's extremely surprised when I tell him that I never properly learned any techniques.

He even starts to teach me a few things.

Nothing big, just a few tidbits.

For example how to judge the price of a magical gem based on the luster.

Seems my instinctual approach was somewhat accurate.

The cooler it looks the better.

In most of the cases anyway.

Simply because the gems with the most mana are the most awesome looking ones.

Then the auction starts.

There are tons of products being displayed.

Weapons.

Armors.

Jewelry.

Books.

Gems.

Then finally rocks.

Every time something comes up, I describe its true appearance to my colleague.

Then he gives his professional advice.

The merchants actually know about most of the items themselves.

Still, this kinda seems boring.

Usually, in such a thing you'd expect magical weapons and wondrous treasures.

Nope.

Just really good quality products and rare and expensive crafting materials.

I guess I should have expected that when I saw that "awesome" dwarven sword.

A piece of junk if you ask me.

It was so easily destroyed too.

As a reward for my efforts, they give me 20 gold and I am free to leave.

Somehow this is way less profitable than me gambling.

Then again, I guess it's because there is no risk whatsoever.

Also if I go to the Mystery Gems place and keep winning, they may just kick me.

That would be lowering the victory odds for their other customers.

*Sigh* Life can be difficult at times.

No matter.

I go back and rest.

The first thing I do in the morning is to take possession of my new place.

Then I install all the material I bought.

The warden keeps complaining about all the flaws in the equipment and the lack of diversity in the herbs.

So instead of arguing with him I simply bring him directly to the merchant.

I gotta admit it is fun to see the guy at a loss.

Trying to note all that the warden is telling him.

He has all kinds of specific criteria for what we need.

Then we head back and I officially start my first alchemical potion.

I try to make a medicinal salve and I successfully make a poison.

Then I try making poison and successfully make a healing salve.

That is when I realize the issue.

I've been confusing most of the herbs all along.

My teacher leaves me with a few recipes to train and tells me to keep going.

But how the hell am I supposed to do this?

That is when I get a genius idea.

I try tasting an herb, then the other.

Two that look exactly the same have very different tastes.

Hell, one tastes like cinnamon!

This is amazing!

I'll be able to cook with that and…

Ah crap, that's the extremely poisonous one.

Still, if it's for self-consumption or for my Gluto friend I could use that in pies.

Hell yeah!

I wonder if that is what is included in the spices the other guy had?

Maybe it's based on poison and modified in a way that it isn't dangerous?

How would one do that without compromising the taste?

That is a very profound question.

I put the thought aside and I keep practicing.

The general process is pretty simple.

Extract the essence of every plant, then mix them according to certain ratios.

Sometimes there is a specific order to do things.

Sometimes just changing the order gives an entirely different result.

This is complex but worth it!

Ah, but I need a way to test my creations.

I do have a plan for that.

I head to the nearest butchery.

Then I ask the owner where he gets his livestock.

At first, he thinks I'm trying to bypass him to get meat, but when I tell him that it's to test healing salves he cooperates.

Apparently from a ranch at the outskirts of the city.

I head there and I am met with a pretty impressive scene.

There are tons of pigs and chickens.

All having contraptions that automatically feed them.

Now, I have no clue what they are using but they are all huge and fat!

By that I mean the chickens are bigger than normal pigs.

The pigs are the size of horses.

Then again, I did see many overgrown creatures in the forest.

Would make sense that they domesticated some.

Now, where is the owner?