"So, I heard you met Alder again? How was it?" "She was just passing me 'advice on how to become an Alchemist ' " Peter said imitating air quotes. "I just wanted to let you know that my parents called me back for an annual meeting. I would like you to come as well. Alex will be present as well." "Alex?" Peter never knew Sicily's elder brother. "My elder brother. He is the guild master of Rising Sun. Remember." "Do I have to?"

Peter was reluctant to meet the rest of Sicily's family. But her persistent nagging eventually led him to say yes. Anya and Mary just got home from an overnight sleepover at one of their friends. Both of them had a severe headache and decided to sleep it off

"So, what plans do you have for today?" "Nothing much, I'm strapped for gold so unmade a few steel swords and placed them in the market. I expect at least 5 gold each or they won't be profitable in the long run. Then there's the alchemy stuff that I need to check out. I also promised Eric I will go with him to check out the new office space he bought." "Sounds quite busy. I'm starting to miss that grocery store clerk."

"You miss me?" Peter stared at Sicily for a few seconds. Sicily suddenly diverted her eyes, "I'm just kidding. Meeting my parents is getting on my nerve." "You aren't taking me as your boyfriend or anything right?" "Hell no." Sicily stomped out of the room and banged the door close behind her.

*****

"How do you like the place?" Eric said leaning against the wall. The windows opened to the street and were high enough to let one see the residential zone. "It has a decent view and it is much spacious than I expected. How do you plan on going forward?"

"The top floor can be made into an office. The ground floor can become an open reception or maybe a gaming cafe. We can use the two higher floors are guild base." Eric kept quiet for a few seconds. "The rest we can modify when the time comes. I hope you do plan to spread out. "

"Sound good."

*****

Peter made more steel swords to sell. The common swords had a strength boost of 200 and sold for an average of 15 gold each. He kept almost all of the afternoon smelting steel bars or crafting the sword. By the evening, he had made nearly two thousand swords.

The retainer contacted Peter by six letting him now that a total of 12 bundles of herbs were collected that day. Most of them were common herbs like aura herbs, asura herb and yellow lotus herbs. This was perfect for him to start levelling up his alchemy ranks.

There were no crafting areas for alchemy in the town. It wasn't safe to practice in the open. Peter chose to visit Alder for some help with his predicament. Soon he was back at the office door and the staff there informed that Alder wasn't in. After a few enquiries, he was allowed to visit one of the smaller guest chambers which were empty, perk to being the apprentice to Alder.

Peter took out the Cauldron, a common grade that he bought from the local store. Since he hadn't established a warehouse in the town, he couldn't transfer his stuff from the village. Peter had to spend a few coins in the auction house to get a bundle of aura herb. Aura herb was the main ingredient for healing potions.

'How am I supposed to make a potion?' Peter looked through the video and took a list of other stuff he needed. It included the herbs, catalyst, slow-burning fuel, glass container and identifier pill to check the quality of the potion made.

The common cauldron could handle up to 10 herbs in one session. The higher the concentration of the extract the better the quality of the potion obtained. An identifier pill help to identify the quality of the potion made with different colouring indicating different quality.

From the video guide, Peter was able to understand the gist of the methods and soon started burning the wood and preparing the cauldron by heating it. Followed by coating the inner surface with pig fat and letting it rest for a few minutes. The aura herbs were then added to the mixture followed by a glass of water and boiled. The cauldron was closed and kept aside simmering for a few more minutes. The herb started slowly displaying, turning the water into a musky green.

After letting the cauldron cool down, Peter added the pill in to check for its quality. A potion of quality one and two was sold for one to five gold depending on demand. The higher the quality was the greater the profit. The potion slowly turned blue indicating a quality of 3. Once the colouring was done, the potion felt edible, losing the musky feel.

Small Healing Potion

Quality: 3

Rarity: Common

Healing amount: 200

Cooldown time: 600 seconds

'Nice, this should fetch me some good money.'

He transferred the potion into the glass veils. There was enough liquid to fill 30 veils in the cauldron. The veils had a marking on them to represent the standards required for the product. Considering each normal potion sold for at least 1 gold, Peter knew he was going to make serious money with this. The only bad part was the inability to mass produce, unlike the other professions. Still considering that the whole process only took under half an hour it was still reasonably fast.

All the common potions in the market were of quality 1. Since there was fewer alchemist among the crafters, the higher quality potions should sell out for a much higher price. Peter kept the auction open for eight hours to test the market instead of a buy out price. The new swords were selling hot although the price dropped considerably over time. After checking for new recipes and blueprints Peter left went back to the office building dejected.

Peter had become a regular at the office since he became Alder's apprentice. The receptionist now recognised him immediately and was almost always friendly with Peter. "Vision? Do you need the room again? It's still free if you need it."

"No, I wanted to buy a warehouse and shop. Do you have any under 5000?" Attached warehouses were costly but there should be a few cheaper once closer to the slums. "There are a few shops with attached warehouses. The larger one's cost at least 5,000 gold and they are extremely closer to the slums for comfort. There is one, 100 meters close to the main street but it's not suitable for business."

"I'm not looking for one to sell stuff. I just need one to keep all my stuff and a private area to level up my crafting. As long as I can get it to work it's fine where it is."

"Then j would suggest the second one. It cost around 6000 gold but you won't have as many intruders as in the slum area. Especially if you want to keep the space safe from thieves. The warehouses can be broken into and you."

"I will take it. But I also need it repurposed for a crafting room and an office as well. The shop is not necessary. Also, can I get one retainer to maintain the inventory?"

"A retainer who can handle inventory management and office works is costly. You will have to pay at least 100 gold a month. As long as you pay it's fine."

"Thank you. I will see you later."

*****

After a small chat with the office staff, Peter returned to making steel swords and placed them back into the auction house. With more weapons he created, the higher his level went. Deciding to take a break, Peter went out to grab lunch and a movie.

Most of the superhero movies failed to meet the expectations after the release of the virtual games. It was almost sundown when he got back. Petered entered the building without disturbing anyone. The girls were all in their cabins.

After entering the game, Peter went to the new shop he just bought. It was secluded but easily accessible. There was a maid named Annie at the front who greeted Peter and welcomed him in. After arranging the transfer of herbs from Summerbrook with her Peter went inside his crafting area. There were an anvil and a smelting furnace. Seeing that he had everything he needed, Peter went out to buy more crafting materials and stronger herbs.

His alchemy had already reached level 3 from crafting the healing potion. Peter wanted to reach level 10 so that he can unlock unique recipes. From what alder told him, only finding unique recipes could help him make gold. The common recipes are all sold at the normal markets. Even if someone makes a higher quality product the base price is still too low for making large profit margins.

After a think about what recipes are cost-efficient peter chose the healing potion recipe again and started producing them. The best quality he could come up with was 5 after a straight 3 hours of mixing herbs.

As long as he didn't burn the herbs, the quality of the potion kept increasing over time. But the heat becomes too strong after 8 minutes of simmering. It could be because of the common quality of the cauldron or the cheap firewoods.

You have reached level 10. Please meet your job master to receive promotion quest.

By the time Peter reached leveln10 in alchemy, he had already created 300 potions. The further he levelled the better his yield became. Although the time required for it didn't change. Since alder wasn't in the town, all peter could do was wait for her. Peter went back to the market to place the rest of the potions for sale.

You received 320 gold for small healing potions x20.

There was still a few more swords that had to be sold. As the game further progressed gold will become cheaper. The swords still sold at an average 10 gold apiece. The potions were much more profitable compared to them. Although the time consumption was too high.

'I should level up my combat profession soon.'

Peter had plans to go for the underwater lake again but the requirements to complete the levels were too high. The level 2 boss had an attack strength over 3000 and it would be impossible for Peter to solo with the current armour. Creating new armour was a possibility, but Peter had his hands full with the swords and potions.

'Maybe I can search the auction house for good armours.' There were other blacksmiths in the game and Peter could contact most of the higher level crafters through the leaderboard. Peter hadn't used the Blackbeak's identity in some time and there were countless messages in that inbox. A few of them stood out due to the Golden fonts representing people with high fame. 'Maybe I can find a blacksmith here.'

*****

Sicily got out of the cabin to get dinner. Her two sidekicks followed her shortly. "Hey don't log out like that in the middle of a fight," Anya screamed at Sicily as soon as she saw her. "Relax you could have handled them. Did you die?" "That's not the same." Seeing Peter staring at them eased Anya a bit. "What were you up to?" Anya turned to Peter ignoring Sicily.

"Nothing I wanted to get a good armour. I was hoping to contact one of the blacksmiths in the leaderboard." "Just make one if you need. You are the best blacksmith we know so far", Anya said. "It's too much work. Armour are a lot harder I make." "Alex might have a blacksmith in the guild. I can ask him if you want." Sicily chimed in. "No need. I have a lot of contacts in my inbox. Should try and find one of them. I won't want to steal your guild blacksmiths." "I'm pretty sure a lot of them would jump at the chance."

*****

profile

Name: Vision

Title: Creative Artisan(R), Knight

LVL: 24

Gold: 11,295

Credit: 48,723,990

Available points: 9

STR: 25

VIT: 20

AGI: 10

AP: 2750

DF: 2600

HP: 200

Swordsman (C): T2 L14 (2855/7000)

Miner: T1 L10

Blacksmith: T2 L18 (2294/14,250)

Alchemist: T1 L10

Herbalist: T1 L1

World fame: 110

Blacksmith fame: 40

Swordsman fame: 10