*ding* *ding*

The shop’s bell rang as Satoshi opened the door and entered. The shop was decrepit with little light. There were only two lamps in the room, both on the shop-owners table, a goat man from what Satoshi could tell.

“Here to buy or sell?”

The goat man asked his hooded guest.

Satoshi took some time to look at the shelves in the shop before answering. He had come here having heard this area was famed for alchemic potions and entered a couple of wrong shops before finding this one. Admittedly, he did find some shops that sold potions but he only went inside the ones that looked like he could talk in there undisturbed and the others had customers.

He briefly wondered whether the reason why this shop doesn't have so many customers was because it was so rundown. Or it was run down because it didn’t have enough customers. Answers to questions like this might help him understand more about the culture among the beastkins. Unfortunately, he still didn’t have many answers.

The potions in the shop were few leaving most of the shelves empty. Each shelf had a small piece of wood below it with some letter engraving but Satoshi couldn’t see it in the dark. Not that he would have been able to read them even if he could. Thankfully, he had learnt enough of their language in the last few weeks to not raise suspicions otherwise.

“Buy.”

His main aim was to gather information so claiming he was here to sell wouldn’t work.

“What do you n-heed?”

Satoshi had been in the beast kingdom for a while now and was used to the way different species had certain quirks in their speech and the goat people had trouble with their n's.

“What do you have?”

“Feel free to browse.”

Okay, that was a problem. Satoshi had a hood on so the goat man couldn’t see his animal species (not that Satoshi had one, but there was no way the goat man would expect a human in his shop). Most of the species could see in low light and the ones that didn’t, had speech quirks that Satoshi couldn’t replicate.

“I can’t read.”

The goat man seemed annoyed at that.

“Do you even have any mon-hey?”

His doubt was understandable. Literacy on basic script had been made accessible to the common folk a few centuries ago and now if one couldn’t read, they were most likely from the slums.

Satoshi took out a pouch and jiggled it in response. He didn’t have much, since it came from stealing from petty thugs, but it was enough from him to buy a few luxury items. And potions were one of the top items when it came to luxury.

“The cheapest potion I have is a Dry Potion for 5 small silver.”

The goat man didn’t take the bait though. For all he knew, the pouch could be filled with small copper coins. To make 5 small silver coins, it would require 500 small copper coins and no way did that pouch have 500 coins in it.

Satoshi took out a small gold coin, the only one he had, worth 100 small silver and placed it on the goat man’s table to get his attention.

“What does Dry Potion do?”

Satoshi asked, picking up the small gold and placing it back in his pouch.

“It preven-hts you from sweating for a day. Lasts about half a day lon-hger on herbivore species. It is good to use for when-h courting a woman-h and don-h’t wan-ht to smell like a pigperson-h, n-ho offen-hce to pig people. N-hehe.”

The goat man’s attitude changed when he realised Satoshi was a potential customer.

(Pretty sure that was offensive to pig people.)

In his time in Domania, Satoshi had picked up these derogatory jokes about several species. Satoshi didn’t care for the goat man’s manner of speech but still chucked a little for pretenses. He knew to indulge the other person if he wanted to get something out of them.

“What else do you have?”

“May I kn-how what Mr. Customer’s occupation-h is?”

“....Adventurer.”

Satoshi wasn’t sure how the goat man would target his products to him and went with what he thought would be the most suitable.

Unknown to Satoshi, the goat man came to his own conclusion for his customer’s illiteracy when he heard of his profession for it wasn’t completely unheard of for someone from a secluded tribe to leave in hopes to make it big in the kingdom.

“I don-h’t have an-hything for adven-hturers but I can-h procure it for you in a week’s time if you order beforehan-hd. I will give you them at a cheaper price than-h other places due to the wait.”

“That’s fine with me. What all can you get me?”

“Basic healing potion-hs for 485,000 per bottle, compared to the guild’s stan-hdard 5 small gold. Mon-hster repellents for 150,000.”

The currency went like this:

1 large copper = 10 small copper

1 small silver = 10 large copper

1 large silver = 10 small silver

1 small gold = 10 large silver

There were currencies above that as well but Satoshi had yet to see one.

The basic unit was small copper. So 485,000 was equivalent to 4 small gold, 8 large silver and 5 small silver. 150,000 was 1 small gold and 5 large silver.

“Man-ha recovery potions for 985,000 compared to guild’s stan-hdard 1 large gold.”

Satoshi’s ears perked up at the idea of a mana recovery potion. From what he understood, mages used ‘mana’ to fuel their spells. If he could get a recovery potion, maybe it could alleviate his headaches from when he overused his abilities. There was a tiny problem with that thought though; he had nowhere near enough the money that the shop-owner quoted.

“What else?”

“Umm.. Would you like n-hight vision potions? Those are made custom to the species so I cann-hot get all of them. Could Mr. Customer tell me his species?”

“I don’t need those.”

Satoshi denied the inquiry. The goat man accepted the response with the smile, not wanting to offend a potential customer. It only strengthened his misunderstanding of Satoshi belonging to some secluded tribe, which he assumed was why he had a hood on and was hiding his species.

“I also have an-htidotes. Those are to cure poison but there’s n-ho one-for-all an-htidote. If you have to fight a poison-hous beast, you should get the an-htidote for it before leaving. Poison-hous species seem daun-hting but are actually very easy to subdue if you take away their poison-h so I definitely recommen-hd taking subjugation-h requests for poison-hous beasts and ordering an-htidotes for easy guild points.”

“I see.”

“Umm.. I have color potion-hs, growth potion-hs, mutation-h potion-hs, iris potion-hs but I don’t know if it will be useful to an adven-hturer. If Mr. Customer has any special requests, I can-h try to obtain it, though it may take a while to get. If Mr. Customer can-h provide me the materials as well, I can have the potion-h ready in under a few days time depending on the type of potion and would also give 60% discoun-ht on the origin-hal price.”

Satoshi asked the shop-owner what those potions he mentioned did.

“Color potion-h can change your skin color, growth potion-hs can make you taller or thicker or shorter or thinner. Mutation-h potion-hs are also species specific and can be of many types for the same species. I curren-htly have available horn-hs for cow people and beards for goat people. If you n-heed anything for a certain species, you can-h let me kn-how.”

The goat man indirectly asked Satoshi his species again. But this time, without expecting an answer, the man continued.

“Iris potion-hs can-h change the shape and size of the iris. Though these won’t give you n-hight vision.”

“Hmmm…”

It was good information he had managed to get.

“How can I order a potion?”

“Which on-he would Mr. Customer like?”

“I don’t have the money for it now but I would like to get the mana recovery potion in the future.”

The goat man’s expression brightened up as Satoshi mentioned wanting to one of his most expensive potions. And with expensive potions, there was a greater profit.

“Mr. Customer can deposit 2 small gold as security. The rest can-h be paid when-h I procure the potion-h for you.”

(2 small gold upfront and 8 small gold later. Seems reasonable. Even if for whatever reason the buyer doesn’t show up again, he can sell it to someone else.)

“How long till the potions expire?”

The goat man smiled.

“They don-h’t.”