A Profitable Day

"Dammit, Thaylen! What in the gods are you doing?!"

Bonnie, an adventure knight in charge of a group of beginners, was yelling at Thaylen for pushing forward into the wildlands without permission.

To be frank, Thaylen was the most powerful out of Novius and Emery. Weaving through the ditches, hills, and small groupings of trees was a boy unleashing spells that decimated anything upon reacting with its counterpart.

Over the course of barely escaping with their lives, and a full fortnight passing within their new lives, Theon and Raylen had become quite familiar with the feeling of sharing a body. However, Theon was suffering with the guilt that came with his twin brother sacrificing his life for him while also knowing he is still alive. This caused Theon to lack on his creativity and spells while leaving most of the work for Raylen.

Orc's were in great abundance within the wildlands, which were known as a mixed biome that bordered the nearly endless body of water. The place was riddled with caves, and to the west — across a violent vast water canal, was an even denser population of caves filled with ominous beasts that did whatever they could to get their next meal.

Even when it meant their sacrifice paved the way for their brethren.

While Thaylen was being yelled at by the supervisor of the caravan, Emery and Novius stayed within the group of fourteen people who slowly but surely made their way through the array of beasts.

Small and large blazing lions, orc's, and a beast called a zebrith.

Zebrith's were similar to a zebra in the sense they had black and white stripes all over its body. The difference lay in the fur coat around their chest, and the horns of a ram that would shatter any bone it came into contact with. They were a menace to the adventurers of this area with speed that even rivaled shadow panther's.

Over and over again, a thick and constantly warping white energy came from the fingertips of Novius, and traveled nearly instantly to any beast that was posing a problem. The moment a medium-sized orc froze from paralysis, Emery shot a hole through its brain from a condensed beam of fire. 

Three days ago, they each received their adventurer titles that were engraved underneath the name of their emblem. Now, they were doing everything in their power to make as much Genny as possible, even when it meant death blows to the chest were avoided from the chance of destroying the beast core.

Two days ago was their first group mission, and resulted in them profiting 240 Genny.

A total nowhere near enough to support the group for time to come…

"THAYLEN! PULL YOURSELF BACK!!" Bonnie yelled once again while watching a swarm of orc's begin to surround the area.

"Theon… we have to stop! We are almost out of mana!" Raylen struggled to express.

Not a single soul was able to stop Thaylen from destroying the beasts one after another besides from the loss of mana. What brought the caravan of adventurers an easy rest of their mission was nearly at the cost of a life, or two…

Once the onslaught had finished, Thaylen joined the three resource gatherers in the back of the caravan — hidden from any danger. Thaylen's breath was filled with exhaustion and emotion, and even a smile that only stretched halfway across his face.

What was the most challenging mission they had taken part in turned out to be their most profitable. Between the 15 adventurers, three resource gatherers, and the split of the adventure guild…

Today, Novius, Thaylen, and Emery were able to profit a total of 541 Genny.

Once the caravan had returned to the adventure guild, the trio had been brought into a meeting room meant for private conversations.

"This is the second time you have disobeyed an order, Thaylen. Jarth told me about your group's situation, and while I am entitled to do everything that man says, he did speak a word to me about revoking your adventure license if any of you were to fall out of line." Derrick, the Adventure Guild Master of the Southwestern Hunting District of Coriad, sat on a tall wooden chair with Bonnie to his side.

"I don't know if you can tell, but there are an uncountable number of beasts within the wildlands. Beasts that come from barely explored cave systems. Even with Coriad's population of 650,000, roughly 4,900 of those people being Adventurers, it seems they still have more to do than they can handle. Please, this will be your last warning. In these trying times, we cannot be losing a single person with the potential for greatness, even if you come from neverland…"

"I understand, please forgive me, it won't happen again." Raylen was the one to speak, which when he did, made Novius and Emery believe it was Theon. This entire time, the hoarse actions of Theon had been thought to be Raylen, when the truth was the complete opposite.

…

Within the Southern Market District of Coriad, is Don limping with every stride while leaning on a rather smooth wooden cane he had received from a health clinic.

Inside a large leather bag strapped around Alexia's back, was a large number of full glass vials full of an assortment of potions they crafted in their kitchen. Don had spent a decent amount of Genny totaling to 1,200 Genny on the most basic items a potion maker would need, or what the people of Coriad would call an apothecary.

Orange beast cores bought within the range of 100-110 Genny each was their source of mana when combined with the many herbs and niche compounds Don had never seen before. Knowing there would be far more possibilities here, he chose to pick the compounds that would have the most popularity.

Potions related to healing and aphrodisiacs were what he saw the most of, but also decided to make energy potions using ginger, green tea leaves, and coffee beans.

While setting up an empty stand he had purchased for 200 Genny for the day, he received many interesting looks when the simple parchment signs for energy potions were placed in front of the bottles.

Alexia grew a mean face as she had suspicions about the product being stolen. However, those interesting glares quickly turned into buyers for some odd reason. The price for each energy potion was 70 Genny each. In total, Don had made 45 potions, with 15 being the energy potions. 

With each potion costing only 10-15 Genny each to make, a large profit was made. Although, Don feared that something was amiss considering that within thirty minutes, all of the energy vials had been bought with haste.

While watching the people of Coriad pass by, he couldn't help but deeply stare at every child with black hair — reminding him of Elijah, the son with a past far more complicated than he could imagine.

"Excuse me, do you have any more of those energy potions?" Asked a man who specifically walked up to their stand in the midst of the chaotic and busy day.

"I'm very sorry, but I have sold out for the day. Although, if you tell me why my product has caught so many people's attention, I'll be glad to guarantee you as many as you want tomorrow!" Don replied with a smile.

"Hmm. I suppose I could let you in on the secret. But… only as long as you allow me to purchase the energy potions at the price of 70 Genny for the time being."

"I knew it. It has something to do with the price, right?"

"Yes. Although your aphrodisiacs and healing potions are a little under the average market value, your energy potions are far below, which is why a bunch of resellers likely bought your product instead of people who would actually use them."

What the man explained allowed Don to make sense of the situation. But… he was already making a huge profit as the way things were. The only reason why he priced the energy potions at the price he deemed fair was because he saw not a single one being sold near him.

If every single product were to be sold today, he would make a profit of 2550 Genny, which is not including the cost for the equipment and beast cores that the pure mana was extracted from. 

Don's estimations then became a profit of 1050. Which is not too shabby for a day's work. Unfortunately, Don cannot make 45 potions every single day as the effort and organization required of such a task is something too overbearing. 

This got Don thinking… 'Dandelion for mana extraction, herbs from the local markets and picking them myself, and the glass vials… Could my mana extraction process somehow be different? Could it be the Dandelions? They are known to be toxic to humans, stripping everything from the body… I did have to get Novius and the others to pick them for me as not a single person sold them in the local herbal markets… Hmm… that has to be it. I've seen several people using these odd devices that pull the mana from beast cores, and into the clear crystal bricks…'

'Perhaps Gion avoids dandelion because of the potential dangers when mixed with potions? That problem can easily be avoided by straining the water through stale soil.'

Don suddenly thought of something. Stale soil can only be made by earth mages. Any soil that is taken from the ground automatically has life. However, when intentionally creating a stale soil void of intention to grow anything inside of it, it becomes the perfect filter for mana dense water.

He knows by now that earth affinities are far more valuable than the other three basic affinities, not even thinking about the fact that less than one percent of the people in Gion even have a chance at getting affinities from the unimaginable price.