Adventurer of Many Professions

After leaving the first pharmacy, he quickly entered the next one and repeated the same process. He continued this throughout the morning, visiting nearly every pharmacy in the East District.

As expected, his panel updated with all the primary and intermediate potions available in Wittes Town's market, detoxification, healing, stamina recovery, and mana recovery potions. However, when it came to advanced potions, the list was limited to the 'Advanced Detoxification Potion', 'Advanced Mana Recovery Potion', and 'Strength Potion'.

"It's clear now. There are very few pharmacists who can make advanced potions. No wonder they're so expensive," Raymond mused.@@novelbin@@

He had also taken note of the prices for each potion. Raymond wasn't interested in learning every skill related to potion-making. He knew that he didn't have enough skill points for that. The cost of learning each potion was significant: 1 skill point for primary potions, 2 skill points for intermediate ones, and 3 skill points for advanced ones.

But that wasn't the whole story. The price of potions varied greatly. The primary 'Healing Potion' and 'Mana Recovery Potion' sold for 20 silver coins each, while the 'Stamina Recovery Potion' and 'Antidote Potion' were only 10 silver coins each.

The price reflected not just the cost of ingredients, but also the difficulty of gathering them and how many pharmacists had mastered the recipes. And most importantly, the price was controlled by the 'Alchemist Association', preventing pharmacists from unfairly raising or lowering prices.

Intermediate potions were more expensive: 'Healing' and 'Mana Recovery' potions were priced at 80 silver coins, while the 'Stamina Recovery' potion cost 50 silver coins and the 'Antidote Potion' went for 30 silver coins.

Advanced potions were even more expensive, with the 'Advanced Antidote' costing 1 gold coin and 50 silver coins. The 'Advanced Magic Recovery Potion' was an eye-watering 2 gold coins and 50 silver coins. And the 'Strength Potion'? It was priced at 2 gold coins.

"Unfortunately, I only have one skill point right now," Raymond thought to himself. However, he wasn't planning to rush into making advanced potions. After his experience the previous day, he realized that the ingredients for intermediate potions were already being bought up by market pharmacists, making it even harder for underground pharmacists to collect them. Advanced potion ingredients were out of reach entirely.

So, for now, Raymond planned to focus on learning the 'Basic Healing Potion' and 'Basic Mana Recovery Potion'. With those skills, he could start making potions and making a profit.

The next thing he needed to figure out was who could help him gather the herbs. Finding someone trustworthy wouldn't be easy, but Raymond already had a plan.

He chose a pub with a good view, opening a box on the second floor where he could watch the street below. From there, he observed the bustling activity for hours, moving between pubs and coming back to his spot.

Using his sharp hunter's instincts, Raymond quickly pieced together the scene. He noticed that there were many buyers on the street working for "underground pharmacists," and they were all competing with each other. The buyers who bid low often had to wait until the ones bidding higher had collected enough herbs before they could get theirs.

Raymond had a keen sense of the situation, and now he just needed to figure out how to use it to his advantage.

Raymond observed the street scene with a knowing smile. Like Manik the other day, many buyers lurked in the shadows, waiting for adventurers who were struggling to sell their herbs. These buyers often waited for the adventurers to give up and then swooped in to make their purchase.

However, these were typically low-end buyers, offering prices so low that they were only able to buy when other buyers had failed to make a deal. The higher-end buyers, who were willing to pay more, didn't need to worry about missing out on herbs. They were the ones who stayed in taverns, waiting for adventurers to come to them with their goods.

"It seems Manik really did offer us a good price yesterday," Raymond thought, watching Manik from across the street. "If he had offered the same low price as those buyers, he probably wouldn't have had to work so hard."

Raymond watched as Manik, still chatting with adventurers, was struggling to complete his herb purchases. Soon, Manik led them to the same pub Raymond had visited the day before. However, it didn't take long for the adventurers to come out, shaking their heads in refusal. Manik tried to follow them, but the deal clearly hadn't worked out.

As a new buyer on the scene approached the group, offering a better deal, Manik could only watch helplessly. Raymond smiled slightly, realizing that it would be much faster to find his own buyer than try to steal someone else's.

Raymond wasn't in a hurry, though. He knew patience would serve him well.

---

Over the next two days, Raymond continued to gather information about Manik through various channels. He learned a lot about Manik's past, how he had been the only survivor of a mission that had wiped out his entire team. After that, he retired from adventuring and started working as a buyer for the underground pharmacists.

Manik had been doing this job for three years, buying herbs and selling potions. However, during that time, he had gone through two different underground pharmacists, both of whom had been replaced after being caught by the Knights. The first two pharmacists had been reliable, and Manik didn't need to work the streets to recruit sellers. He could offer good prices, and adventurers were happy to sell to him.

But the current pharmacist Manik worked with had set the prices far too low. As a result, Manik had started roaming the streets, trying to find adventurers willing to sell. Unfortunately, many of the old customers and adventurers refused to sell to him when they found out the price had dropped.

"Another failure," Manik sighed, watching adventurers leave in frustration after failing to reach a deal with him.

It wasn't that Manik didn't want to offer better prices, but if he did, he'd be losing money. That's because the price at which the pharmacist bought the herbs from Manik never changed. No matter how much Manik paid for them, the pharmacist still paid the same amount.

The pharmacist cared only about gathering enough herbs, not the profit or loss made by the buyers. If a buyer frequently failed to collect enough herbs, they might be replaced. Unfortunately, that was exactly what had happened with Manik's current pharmacist, the low prices just weren't cutting it, and adventurers were losing interest

In order to gather enough herbs, Manik often had to pay more than the pharmacist's set price, hoping to make up for it by earning a commission from selling the potions. Buyers like him usually made their money by taking a share of the potions' sale profits.

It reminded Manik of the two "underground pharmacists" he had worked with in the past. Back then, they had paid him well, offering some of the highest prices in the market. Manik didn't have to deal with the awkwardness he was facing now. Unfortunately, those two had been captured by the Knights, and now he was stuck working with a new, less generous pharmacist who set much lower prices.

"The sun is setting, and we're still short of half the herbs," Manik muttered to himself. "I'll have to raise the price."

Just as he was about to search for more adventurers to buy from, someone suddenly stopped in front of him. Discover stories at My Virtual Library Empire

"Your name is Manik?" The voice was rough and low, almost as if the person was deliberately trying to make their voice sound dull.

Manik raised an eyebrow and looked up. Standing before him was a figure cloaked in a shawl, a hood pulled over their head, and their face covered by a veil. Only a pair of narrow eyes peered out from beneath the fabric. The appearance was odd, even a bit suspicious.

"Who are you?" Manik asked, his guard immediately going up. If anything seemed off, he was ready to run, this was how things worked in their line of work. When something felt wrong, you didn't hesitate to bail.

"You can call me Rose," the stranger replied calmly.

Manik studied him for a moment, still uncertain. But then, the stranger raised his arm, revealing the symbol of a 'pharmacist' on his wrist.

Seeing that, Manik's posture relaxed slightly. Pharmacists were not known for their combat abilities. He wasn't facing a threat, at least not one he needed to worry about right now.

Manik cleared his throat. "Mr. Rose, what can I do for you?"

Raymond, disguised as Rose, smiled under his veil. "Actually, I have something to discuss, but I think it'd be better if we talked in a more private setting." He glanced around the busy tavern, scanning the room.

Manik nodded and led the way to a private room.