The next morning, I beat Milia to waking up first, but not because I wanted to. A prompt from the system jolted me from a dream.
[You must be one step ahead of your apprentices. Aside from your power, your only advantage is the ability to create unrivaled potion quality. However, a master must actually teach his students, therefore, you must drill them on the importance of creating a potion properly, timing mana insertion, and whether to turn the base into a sap to add purified water or not. The path of the potion master is not an easy one. Bright and early, teach your eager students. Perhaps you may add another. Where does your future lead? Well, you certainly shouldn’t gamble on it as a Rookie Potion Maker.]
[Make potions utilizing your Heavenly Potion Making Set to progress.]
You have no idea how close I was to sassing the system with, “I could’ve told you that.” The amazing hint it gave stopped me, bringing a smile to my face. The system actually told me something helpful, holy macaroni!
I seriously needed to progress my class and as quickly as possible, but not too quickly. A master would be worthless if he didn’t actually study the goddamn craft. Fortunately for my little munchkin students, I wanted to know everything pertaining to potions. Magical liquids doing incredible things—I needed to truly know how the hell something like this was even possible. How could I push the limits of reality? Without the whole losing myself part. I’d soon have a wife and family. I was sure the Peace Spawner guy went nuts with whatever he was trying to accomplish as the world’s villain.
Being careful not to disturb Milia, I crawled out of bed. Wolverine accompanied as usual for the morning routines, some quick stretches, and then to the kitchen. Cheetara hopped onto my shoulder and meowed.
“Good morning to you too, Cheetara.”
I first cooked breakfast and fed all the spirit beasts, including Beakwing. In fact, we all decided to eat with him.
After that, I tried to clean up, but Milia wasn’t having it. We sort of had an unspoken rule. Chores were shared. The dryad refused to let me do everything, stating that one shouldn’t run headfirst into burnout.
In the lab, I review the description of my potion making kit.
[Heavenly Potion Making Set. Item rank: S. Item quality: Superior. Excellent quality bottles and linked to the MMABS for more production at the cost of gold and spirit coins. With substances packaged in this set, you may find it easier to work with exotic materials and even monster samples. It is recommended to use a magic cauldron.]
The last sentence made me narrow my eyes. Did the system tell me all of this just to lead me to yet another goddamn wall? But I quickly slapped away that silliness because, for one, I didn’t have time to whine. The magic cauldron was only a recommendation, not a requirement.
My grin felt a little giddy to the point of excitement oozing into my companions. Both Cheetara and Wolverine wanted to hang out with me today and if you thought I was going to reject them, you’re out of your mind. They were spirit beasts, but I still had masks I bought painfully from a store in Kyushu, set aside just in case I needed to attempt something a bit on the risky side.
“So what I plan to do today is make new super versions of the health, energy, and speed potions,” I told my pets. They nodded and, at that moment, I mentally begged God to spawn me a camera. They didn’t have such things in this town; I checked in the general store. Recording spheres did exist, but they were not only ridiculously expensive but only sold at the capital and in cities of the Astral Empire. There was no way in hell I’d put my griffin through a flight like that without any planning, tons of treats and rewards for him, and maybe camping gear. That or perhaps locate towns with inns to stay in at night, and maybe adventurer hangout spots for information.
Preparing a cauldron with standard health potion ingredients, I carefully instructed the spirit beasts from start to finish how to make the potions.
When the health potion neared completion, I added a tangy-flavored potion to it just to see what would happen. I made the tangy flavor through using an orange-like fruit from the garden, some of its peels, and various herbs we had available, according to its instructions.
Thankfully, the system actually showed me the new effects of the health potion. And holy shit, the results of the Flavor ability went way beyond my expectations.
[Heaven’s Tears. Item grade: SSS. Item quality: Extraordinary. Effect: Rapidly heals and also repairs damaged mana channels within the body.]
I stared at the potion for minutes, almost in a trance, seriously thinking about the effects the things I made had on reality itself. Should I really play with forces like this? What were the consequences of stepping a little too far out of line?
As if someone splashed warm healing water on me, I… had what one could only call an epiphany. An insight.
Suddenly, a burning pain erupted on my hand, almost causing me to yelp. Instead, I hissed, allowing out a short stream of curses. Accompanying the pain was a nearly blinding light. Wolverine and Cheetara went nuts in worry, ran out, and brought back Milia, but by the time they returned, the pain had subsided. On the top of my right hand was a tattoo of a dragon wrapping itself around the sun.
“What the hell,” I said softly.
[Congratulations. Somehow, you have tapped into the Dao of Creation. The heavens aren’t sure how to feel about a human gaining access to a power that no human should have. Charging headfirst into your dangerous class without thinking about the potential damage you could do to reality or the nature around you is a play from the book of foolishness. Despite the intensity of your amazing gifts, you considered all of these things, lining your mind with an insight that could only ensure a bright future, should you continue to care for things around you.]
[Dao of Creation. Rank: Divine. Stage: Awakening. This is an early stage. It is unknown how to progress a Dao of this magnitude, except by the heavens themselves. Good luck! Unknown boosts. Beasts or beings that harbor darkness may feel a subtle danger from you. Darkness mana can no longer affect your heart.]
“Nate… You have a Dao embedding,” Milia said, her voice awed. “This… this is amazing! You’re a never-ending stream of unpredictable.”
“I… Man, it fucking hurt,” I said, chuckling. “I honestly don’t know what a Dao is, other than that it’s tied to meditation; I think monks practice it. I was just… thinking, you know, about the consequences of my actions before my hand decided to go haywire.”
“You may not have known it, but you were in a meditative state, your mind and thoughts aligned with whatever Dao this is,” Milia said. She held up her hand. “Keep it a secret. It’s more fun if I can guess it.”
“Meditation, huh,” I said. “My arch nemesis.”
“You are perhaps the only one who does not need meditation to pull in ambient mana,” Milia said. “Even I must meditate every morning in order to work toward the next level with my realm. I’ve tried to keep up with you, but you’re a speeding Thunder Beast.”
I shrugged. “A freak of nature, I am. But at least this wasn’t all for naught. Check this out.”
I showed the dryad the cauldron containing the Heaven’s Tears health potion. The red color shimmered, emitting just a faint haze of concentrated mana of an unknown element.
“Not only does it heal you, but now it repairs mana channels,” I explained, causing Milia’s eyes to widen.
“Repairing mana channels is said to have been impossible,” she said softly. “If you overexerted yourself to the point of destroying your channels, not even the mana core potion we made for Harmony could fix the problem. You’d essentially be crippled.”
“Well damn, you know what that means,” I said, smiling.
“What?”
“We’ve got our first item that will be sold for spirit coins only.” I picked up Cheetara as she rubbed against my leg, meowing, her aura seemingly worried. The kitten immediately examined my hand. When she was satisfied, she took her place back on my shoulder, rubbing against my neck. I crouched down to let Wolverine inspect my hand as well.
“You’ll run into the first issue,” Milia said. “And that’s attracting anyone with spirit coins.”
“That’s fine with me,” I said. “I have a few ideas. But the idea is that this potion will be the rarest in my shop. We’ll only have it on display when I’m here just in case some crazy magician walks in and overpowers our brats.”
As if on cue, a knock on the front door and Mandi’s cheery voice greeted us.
“It’s unlocked, come in,” Milia called out.
She wasn’t alone. “We have guests this early,” Mandi said. Following her in were three members of the hero’s party. Ronica, a short and petite dark-skinned, black-haired woman with a cheerful, perhaps bubbly personality that was more worrying than it let on. Iris, a pale white-haired elf of average height, and served as more of a team leader than the hero himself, though she had a tendency to complain a lot. The last person with them was Kelvin, a dark man who looked to be at least in his thirties, rocking his trademark buzz cut, though he only wore a simple tunic and trousers today instead of fancy armor straight out of a JRPG.
“Can’t you read the sign?” I quipped. “We’re closed.”
“Good morning to you too, grumpy pants,” Ronica said.
Kelvin offered his hand, which I shook. “They told me your place was nice, but this is far more impressive than I imagined.”
I chuckled. “There’s still a long way to go. I’ve got a few plans for improvement later.”
Iris bowed. “We missed your departure yesterday. Your apprentices were really good shopkeeps.”
“You actually let others run the shop?” Mandi asked, her voice a playful level of surprise, which did get a shrug out of me. And maybe a micro glare.
“Just a little test run,” I said, then turned my attention back to the hero’s party members. “What brings you out here this early? I don’t mind social visits late in the day, but…”
Ronica shrugged. “We could be here just to pay our respects.”
I waved off that comment. “Then you would be contradicting my request to keep this all under wraps. If you’re here for any training or wise advice, I’m going to have to disappoint you right here.”
Iris sighed. “No, we’ve already promised not to pester you with that.”
“We were kind of hoping you could put in a word for us, for jobs,” Kelvin said. “Or if you’ve got any open positions.”
“I’m certain the mayor doesn’t mind helping you out there,” I said. “I don’t mind asking Harmony to put in a word or two. You’ll owe her later. My apprentice isn’t everyone’s pack mule.”
“But what about you?” Ronica asked, pouting.
“What about me?” I asked.
“Are you not hiring for your shop?” she asked.
“Nope,” I replied. “I’ve got no open positions at the moment, thanks to my three apprentices and my betrothed.”
Iris seemed to wilt, but it wasn’t as if I had infinite money to pay out to everyone that asked to work at the shop.
“What if we worked for free?” Ronica asked. “In exchange for—”
“Nope,” I countered. “I don’t do slave labor.” I bonked the petite young woman with a rolled-up piece of paper, very, very lightly. Winds still blasted, but she didn’t feel a thing.
Kelvin’s eyes were wide. “I’ve never seen such control.”
I sighed, but there was nothing to say there or bullshit about. I wanted to bonk the bubbly girl on the head without hurting her. The desired comedic effect would’ve worked better if I had a newspaper.
“Anyway,” I continued. “I hate to run everyone away like this, but we’ve got batches to create and chores to do. The shop will be open in a couple of hours. I’ll be sure to let Harmony know about your situation. Assuming you’re actually serious about getting jobs. I can’t imagine nobles like you needing them.”
“Nobles? Ha!” Ronica shook her head. “The Lord Ruler barely pays us for our work, if we’re lucky. We have to take jobs from adventuring den boards just like any average adventurer out there. Since we left the capital, we’ve forfeited any allowances.”
“If it weren’t for us saving, Ramon especially would be in a world of trouble,” Kelvin said with a laugh.
Iris shook her head in disgust. “He’s regretting his party hard, sleep with everything that moves lifestyle from back in the capital. They accuse me of complaining, but I rather enjoy it here. This town is in touch with nature and is quite peaceful. Ramon’s whining daily.”
“Out of curiosity, how many of you actually have jobs?” Milia asked. She and Mandi were already setting up the cauldrons.
“Nuwa wanted to set up some kind of chapel at first, but we shut that idea down,” Ronica said. “We’re also not trying to attract that much attention. If the church finds out she’s here, they’d move in and take over the town, practically force or demand everyone attend their services. So instead, she’s now working as a clerk at a general store.”
I blinked twice but nodded. Sure, finding humor in a heroic figure working a standard low-paying job appealed to me, but that had to be par for the course.
“Maxus got himself a restaurant job,” Kelvin said. “I’ll be with the woodworker. It was Ronica that wanted to try here. I followed mostly out of curiosity.”
“You were going to ditch the woodworker faster than the time it took Ramon to reject Princess Ling,” Ronica countered, arms folded. She harrumphed, turning her head to look away from the big man.
I sighed. “Remember what I said. Customers, nothing more.” I walked past them.
“You don’t have to tell Harmony about our problems,” Iris said as they started for the door. “But, you know… it was worth a try.” She smiled, shrugging.
“He’s just playing hard to get,” Ronica said, dropping her pouting attitude in favor of her cheerfulness.
I actually rolled my eyes. “What a bunch of pains in the ass.”
Mandi laughed. “They really seemed to like you, Nate. What happened when I was away?”
“Nothing much, except trying to survive a ruthless dungeon,” I told her as I stirred the cauldrons. Milia had already added the ingredients. Sure, we had plenty of potions stockpiled and soon would be setting up cold storage for the warehouse, but nothing hit like a fresh potion. Plus, keeping the supply above the demand prevented us from running into a situation where we had to shut down early due to selling out completely.
While the cauldrons were simmering, I created a new label and description for our newest product and set it on a shelf. Harmony and Lucas arrived, greeting us. Everyone returned it.
“We probably shouldn’t have Mandi making us look bad,” Lucas quipped, smiling at the redhead.
Mandi giggled. “I… was kind of overexcited to be back at the shop again. I also have some gadget ideas, but can’t really do anything on my own. I have no mana.”
“Hmm, maybe I should’ve hired Ronica to be your personal battery,” I joked, but everyone gave me a strange look.
“Battery?” Harmony asked. “Does that have anything to do with… batting her? Ew.”
I facepalmed. This fucking world! The lack of technology was indeed a pain in the ass, especially when modern words slipped from my tongue.
“It’s just a word for power storage device,” I said. “Don’t mind me, my homeland’s accents will slip from time to time.”
They all bought that, even Milia. Well, Milia had a knowing look, but didn’t say anything further. It was a reminder that the dryad did witness me appear out of nowhere right as she did a routinely forest patrol.
“Never mind,” I said with a sigh.
I headed outside with the spirit beasts following. “Beakwing.”
The big griffin rushed from around the corner, excited. Wolverine, Cheetara, and I hung out with him for half an hour until it was time to go back to work.
If we didn’t have a full house, Milia and I would’ve certainly found a corner to kiss each other’s faces for a while, during some downtime. For some reason, it became a game to not get caught by Harmony. Sure, we could go upstairs, but that kind of humor was too vulgar, even if they were seventeen and eighteen-year-olds.
“What’s with the Heaven’s Tears?” Mandi asked when I entered the shop.
“A new… super potion,” I replied. “It’s got the capability of not only healing you, but also restores damaged mana pathways.”
The teenagers grew silent, eyes wide.
“Isn’t that kind of impossible?” Lucas asked after a few seconds.
“I’m not an expert, but even I’ve overheard talk from my siblings,” Mandi said. “My uncle was sent away from the family after overexerting his pathways. He scared off an aggressive wyvern that wandered into the kingdom.”
“And for his hard work, he received the boot,” I deadpanned, though I didn’t make an offer to ship my newest product to some dude I didn’t know. With how Mandi’s family treated her, they weren’t getting shit from me without paying for it.
“Sure did,” Mandi said. “But he’s living with his family in the countryside and has enjoyed life outside of politics.”
I nodded. “We’ll keep the supply of these things low. Not because I want to inflate the price, but for everyone’s safety. It’s best to act as if the Heaven’s Tears came from a dungeon, alright?”
Everyone nodded.
“That’s a brilliant idea, for now,” Milia said. “But eventually, the world will need to hear of your talents.”
“They can also hear about the many, many times I wasted ingredients by burning them, blowing up mixtures, the works,” I said, but Milia only smiled, squeezing my arm.
“Success can be obtained through failures,” she said.
Abruptly, the sound of horses caught my ears.
“I think the kingdom soldiers are here to pick up that Drew guy,” I said, peeking outside, eagle sight engaged, to take notice of the familiar carriages that always came to pick up the criminal magicians. When a red-robed figure with a very strong pressure stepped out of a carriage, I frowned. “Goddammit. Corrupted officials are playing games with people’s lives.”
