Seeing that everyone was distracted by the health potions, Feng quietly slipped away in the commotion and made his way over to Kuron (Head Trader Steele) to talk about the plan’s progress.

“That was a smart way to draw them inside the library!”

Kuron was in high spirits and greeted Feng with a friendly wave and a compliment.

“It was just a tactic that wouldn’t have worked if you hadn’t co-operated with us, the crowds would have dispersed long ago if not for the merchants.”

Feng waved off Kuron’s compliment with a smile and redirected the praise to the merchant’s efforts instead and the two men looked at each other for an instant before breaking out into grins.

“I see you know how to play the game well despite your age. All things considered, this is good business for all of us. As for your share, one of my men will be dropping off today’s take by tomorrow which judging by the size of the crowd and the rate at which more people are coming should be quite siz-”

“No need for that. It would be simpler to keep a running account with you, I’ll withdraw extra funds as necessary but I would much rather utilize those funds to more mutually beneficial ventures…”

To Kuron’s surprise, Feng interrupted him and rejected his offer of a daily revenue split.

“So you not only flatter me and trust me with your money to work with but in the process gain my expertise in managing investments in further ventures for free? Masterful stroke Feng, as with most of the deals you propose despite the massive gains for you, the upside for me is considerable as well and I see no reason to turn you down.”

Kuron laughed merrily and accepted Feng’s offer and clasped his hand for a firm handshake, bringing Feng closer and enthusiastically patting his shoulder.

“Keep an eye out. Crimson cloaks like the ones we had to clean up at Alicia’s have been spotted. My men have yet to find any leads but they are definitely a large group so watch your back…”

*DING*

Feng smiled and pumped Kuron’s hands up and down vigorously with only a quick squeeze of Kuron’s hand to acknowledge the ominous whisper and said cheerfully.

“Good working with you, if you hear of any more possible opportunities you wish to explore together, please do send a messenger to the library. I will be keeping an eye out as well for such. Thanks for your help; I’ll catch up with you later? I still need to oversee the proceedings at the library.”

Feng headed back into the library to help out with the extremely crowded potions stand set up inside, but also surreptitiously read the notification.

Secret Quest Update: Eyes On You

Feeling like you are constantly watched? Well perhaps you are, try to find out more if you dare…

Prerequisites:

*Hidden* Conditions

Difficulty:

*Hidden*

Objectives:

1) Discover more about the watchers and their objectives

2) Investigate the Red Cloaks *Unknown Faction*

3) *Hidden*

Rewards:

*Hidden*

Failure:

1) Death

*Hidden*

Quest cannot be declined.

‘… This does not bode well.’

The table was heavily laden with a variety of food given to them by some of the happy food vendors due to the massive deluge of customers they enjoyed due to the library’s opening.

However, the two females were eating sluggishly despite the delicious aroma while the only male was happily devouring everything in sight.

Rania sipped on a glass of milk and perked up slightly with a smile on her face as she thought back to the success of the library’s opening.

“Thank you Feng! I think the whole TOWN came to the library at some point today; there must have been at least a thousand people who came here! We got huge number of sign-ups for classes and a long list of willing teachers. We even had about forty people, mostly craftsmen paying the one silver entry fee to enter the second floor to check out the trade-skills section… All this wouldn’t have been possible without your brilliant plans!”

Rania blushed lightly and added shyly.

“I’m glad you are my partner…”

*DING*

Quest Completed: Reviving The Library

You have undertaken the great task of reviving the library and gaining Rania’s favor. Be warned, the Church of Light seem to have some sort of agenda against the library’s revival.

Grade: C

Objectives:

1) Re-open the library

2) Get at least fifty people to use the library within the first week of re-opening

Bonus Objectives:

1) Get more than a hundred people to use the library within the first week (Completed)

2) Complete first bonus objective within three days of re-opening (Completed)

3) Restore the library’s reputation to at least 20 (Completed)

Rewards:

1) 50% ownership of the Library

2) Increased Relationship with Rania (+50)

3) Decreased Relationship with Church of Light (-20)

4) Gain Enemies: Red Cloaks *Unknown Faction*

Bonus Rewards:

Tyward Library gains 25 Reputation

Title: Keeper of Knowledge

New Title Obtained: Tyward Library Co-owner

Congratulations! You have been officially recognized as the co-owner of Tyward Library.

Free access to all library materials and rooms

+250 Fame (Gain 10 Fame for every Reputation point of Tyward Library)

New Title Obtained: Keeper of Knowledge

Congratulations! For saving and reviving the library to its former glory, you have preserved priceless knowledge passed down through the ages.

Trait: Accelerated Understanding (Passive)

+10% Increase to learning speed

+20% Increase to reading speed

Warning: Relationship Change with Church of Light

Your relationship with Church of Light is now at -100 (Despised)

All [Church of Light] faction members will refuse to associate with you and will be extremely hostile to you.

Feng stared at the notifications he received for a long moment before he gulped down the roast chicken drumstick he stuffed in his mouth and replied Rania along with a quick pet of her fluffy ears.

“I’m happy to work with you too Rania! I’m glad we managed to get the library up and running, plus you can get to learn reading and writing from the classes once they are set up too!”

Turning his gaze over to the blonde slumped on the table slowly nibbling on some buns, Feng prodded her gently and said.

“Hey Alicia, are you feeling alright?”

“I’m bushed… There were so many people who were clamoring for the potions; we sold out the first batch within two hours. It was a good thing you took over early and sent some players back with me to create a larger batch… and even then all the potions were cleared out despite being nearly thrice the amount… I think we sold more than 3000 vials today.”

Alicia shook her head in disbelief and said.

“I still think I’m dreaming, you managed to modify the basic healing potion recipe to be twice as potent, require less than a tenth of its original ingredients and figure out a way to create batches of hundreds so quickly… Although we literally worked through the night and day.”

“So that was the errand you ran?”

Rania interjected as she looked between the two curiously.

“Yup, it was a pain getting Alicia to believe that I’m actually alive and well at first though. After that, it was a getting down to work…”

*Flashback*

“FENG? You are alive!”

Alicia shrieked and dropped the vials she were holding at the sight of Feng entering the backroom, only his improved speed saved them from the possible alchemical disaster which might have occurred as he dived to rescue the vials before they shattered against the floor and mixed.

“Yup. I’m fine and back to fulfill my end of the partnership. We need to rush though. The library is opening tomorrow and there’s no better time to market a new line of potions for the people.”

“Wha-“

Alicia stood gaping like a fish for a moment as Feng placed the vials carefully on to a table while he spoke and begun moving around gathering tools and clearing a workspace.

“Can you bring all the ingredients which are ideal for healing potions? And tell me the different methods of preparing them? Then, the different ways of mixing them and what is the current recipe to heal illnesses and diseases with potions?”

Feng began arranging the tools across the workbench with purpose as he barraged Alicia with questions.

With the help of Alicia, the duo set up many differing samples of ingredients in each preparation method, combined them in different permutations and observed the results to select the best performing ones before creating another run combining the ingredients and methods which produced the best performing potions…

After nearly fifteen hours of work into the early morning with only barely four hour left before noon, they finally created an excellent grade healing potion which could be easily mass-produced with minimal ingredients.

Through hours of trial and error, they have discovered that powdering blood leaf and mixing it into water boiled with willow bark strips created a large quantity of weak healing potion base which can then be further enhanced with the addition of extracted lotus root essence. Thereafter, a mana-stone is placed into the mixture and left to stand for an hour before it is separated into small corked vials.

Feng even created an assembly line approach to mass produce the potion, greatly enhancing their efficiency enabling them to churn out nearly eight hundred vials in the few hours with only the two of them. By the end of it, Feng gained several notifications which pleased him greatly.

Congratulations! Your efforts have earned you:

Achievement: Potion Refiner

+6 Intelligence

+3 Dexterity

Alchemy has leveled up to Intermediate 2

Observe has leveled up to Basic 4

Concentration has leveled up to Basic 1

Achievement: Potion Refiner

You have successfully refined a potion recipe to previously unheard of levels.

+50 Fame

+10 Intelligence

+5 Dexterity

*Flashback Ends*

“So… what are your plans next?”

Feng snapped out of his thoughts at Rania’s question and wrinkled his brow for a moment as he considered the question seriously.

“Hmm… I’m thinking of continuing my training before trying to find out more about the Red Cloaks. I have a bad feeling about them so I would rather be more prepared before I investigated further. As for my training, I took some books about magic to read… Unless you two know of anyone who can train me?”

“Nope.”

“I’m afraid not…”

Both girls responded with a helpless shrug and negative answer which garnered a sigh from Feng.

“Ah well, I’ll just go find a quiet room to read in while you two go ahead and rest then. Both of you look really tired.”

“Umm.. shouldn’t you rest first too? There’s enough space in my room…”

Rania looked down, hiding her blushing face as she shyly invited Feng.

“Well in that case, Alicia can just rest here then! Don’t worry about me, I’m still feeling fine.”

Completely missing Rania’s hint, Feng cheerfully invited Alicia to stay over instead and trotted off to find a quiet room to delve into the magic of Athal.

Alicia looked at Rania with eyes filled with sympathy and said.

“He can be really dense at times…”

The petite cat-girl with her ears drooping sadly, puffed up and pouted at the other’s words.

“YEAH! … But Feng is wonderful and understanding, if not for his help, all this would have never happened and there is no way the library will be like it was today.”

“Mm.. Yeah. I know, he did that for me too…”

Hearing her agreement, Rania glanced over at the blonde and narrowed her eyes slightly.

“He’s mine. You can’t have him.”

Alicia spluttered and blushed as she replied.

“Wha- I don’t feel anything for him…”

Rania narrowed her eyes further and stared at her unblinkingly and nearly a minute passed before Alicia finally ducked her head away and responded in a small voice.

“Okay.. fine, maybe just a bit.”

The awkward tension in the room thickened as the two grappled with their budding feelings for the dense male before Alicia finally broke the silence.

“Um. I’m tired, maybe we can go to rest?

After some washing up, the two girls headed to bed and shared the large double bed with a lingering awkward tension between them but after the excitement and bustle of the long day, they soon fell asleep.

*BANG*

Rania and Alicia sprang awake as the loud noise interrupted their rest, with equally shocked expressions which soon melted into looks of worry as they realized it originated from Feng’s direction.