Last time on Rise of the Cheat Potion Maker, our potion-making hero, Nate, found himself thrown for a loop upon discovering that his shop was nothing more than an E-ranked hopeless establishment at best. It turned out that the ranking system was all run on a gift from Wanda and observed by the appropriate governing forces, likely for tax purposes.
He, Milia, the pets, and his apprentices were forced to devise a solution to rank up both the town and the shop to get the benefits all while dealing with problems that appeared, such as the scheming minor nobles, an assassin, and even the legendary Black Knight. All of this led to them completing a trial from the heavens themselves! Master and Apprentices. The mystery to why this trial spawned in the first place has yet to be seen.
They’ve made new friends along the way, including Chenzu, who’s serving as their new farmhand, Opal the gadget pixie, Alexander the newest apprentice and his pet fox, Mazu. Wolverine even gained a nemesis! Nate and his pets have discovered the shocking talent of Cheetara. Nate is now wondering just how overpowered his pets are.
The cultivating saga of the potion maker continues! Will he touch the heavens? Upgrade the town, adapt to the wider world and his shop’s new ranking, prepare for customers, and deal with the reality of being a potion maker. That is, it can attract far more attention than he originally intended. Having a philosopher’s stone fragment may or may not make him a target. The super item itself is said to be the end game or pinnacle of all alchemy.
Nate Sullivan
Class: Potion Maker. Secondary class: **Divine Master Magician**. Third class: Unknown.
Magician rank: 1st realm of the Saint.
Class rank: Established.
Ability: Can make up to SSS, divine-grade potions, and blighted potions.
Power: Low World-breaking Strong.
Defense: Low Absolute Titanium.
Dao of Creation. Rank: Divine. Stage: Awakened. This is a middle stage.
Physique rank: C.
Primary quest: Purpose. Progression: 16%.
Shop Rank: D.
Heavenly attunement rank: E.
On a rainy and windy morning, I found myself in the lab after a kissing session with my fiancée that threatened to go too far. What? We were allowed to mess around. Cheetara eventually released her massive aura, yanking our attention. The kitten wanted her food already. Had I mentioned the kitten and my sunlight wolf cub, Wolverine, had titanic auras? I didn’t even know how the kitten had gotten so strong, as she only participated in our training sessions if she felt like it.
Two days passed since we warned the hero’s party of Ripley, the son of the legendary Midnight Dragon. If he grew hostile, especially while I was away, they were as good as dead. Fortunately for them, the mystery man didn’t seem that interested in fighting. He didn’t mention a thing regarding his purpose, nor the hero’s party. Not that the hero’s party could let down their guards.
“Let’s see, twenty thousand spirit coins and a new option,” I said to Cheetara as I gazed at the interface projected from the red metallic cube, also known as a Magical Master Area Building System or MMABS. This was the first supreme S-ranked item I received as an award from completing a dungeon that should’ve killed us. The fallen angel, Atsuki, still represented a challenge that I knew I’d have to overcome. She only had one weakness. Holy magic, which I lacked.
[Magical Master Area Building System. Item rank: S. Item quality. *Supreme Extraordinary. You may keep track of your buildings, gardens, projects, and systems through this artifact. However, to upgrade anything, you will need spirit coins and meet certain requirements. This is a direct gift from Wanda, only capable of being handled by a master magician and anyone he designates.]
[Congratulations for upgrading your shop! You took a significant step toward being the best shop out there. Can you truly climb the entire ladder?]
[Current options. Buildings. Tools. Garden. Forges. Equipment and Devices. Farm. Shop. Structures.]
Seeing the new option made me do a little dance. Cheetara stared at me for a bit before seeming to mentally shrug and joined in with me. Despite having limited movements, she was probably a better dancer than me, if I had to be honest.
A laugh snapped us out of our improvised routine. We turned to see a starry-eyed Milia staring at us. She gave a thumbs up.
I cleared my throat. “Anyway, let’s see what we’ve got.”
Milia pulled both of us into an embrace, kissing us both before leaving us to our devices, her parting words being, “Let me know if you purchase anything extraordinary.”
“Of course,” I replied.
[D-ranked shop requirement met! You can now access the Structures option.]
[Structures. Currently unlocked:
1. E-ranked Refreshing Fountain. Price: 2,000 spirit coins. A fountain that releases the purest waters. Attuned with water and ice aura. Will remove impurities.
2. E-ranked Observing Orb. Price: 150,000 spirit coins. Range: you can only observe your farm, the forest toward the deep east, and the grasslands west of your home.
3. E-ranked Battle Arena. Price: 400,000 spirit coins. Not necessarily needed for battle, but a perfect training ground for anything. Reaching a high enough rank will change it into a stadium. Perhaps you will find yourself hosting events someday.
4. D-ranked Mana River. Price: 600,000,000 spirit coins. A river of mana-enriched water, stretching for three miles. A personal river like this will no doubt be a symbol of superiority.
5. D-ranked Holy Mountain. Price: 10,000 heavenly spirit coins. A large mountain filled to the brim with special energies. Creatures of darkness will not be able to come near it. What will happen if you meditate in such a place? Would make one interesting sect, clan, or academy-exclusive structure should you manage to rank it C or higher.]
Holy shit! An entire fucking mountain. Just like that, the system could sell me such a thing? I wanted it. Sure, it could probably do irreversible damage to the environment if I wasn’t careful where I put it, but a personal mountain! It even came equipped with a hallow-proof, fallen angel-proof mechanism. Meditating there would likely be the key to me breaking into the gold core if I cared about such a thing. But given my pride urged me to keep ahead of my students, I wanted to at least try. Besides, the system turned me into a saint because it felt like it. Unfortunately, that price made me wonder if that last option was actually a joke. I would never be Saint Nate of the Holy Mountain or something like that.
The other options were quite good too, making me wonder about the things sold to the S-ranked shops. Not that any existed, according to the top five list.
[The top shops in the world.
1. Matriarch Aria’s Repository. Rank: A.
2. Alexander the Magnificent’s Hall of Treasures. Rank: A.
3. Muddy Waters. Rank: A.
4. Rip-off Gary. Rank: B.
5. Western Dungeon Store. Rank B.]
The fountain was the only thing I could buy off the list. At first glance, it wouldn’t seem that interesting; however, the words ‘purest waters’ couldn’t be a coincidence. The water breathing potion wasn’t that big of a deal to make, other than my pride as a potion maker and getting to whatever treasures lurked beneath the waters of that C-ranked dungeon. In fact, we didn’t get the chance to wipe the boss yet. I needed to get that out of the way. Even if the items wouldn’t be so amazing, they could at least be sold to adventurers in the shop. After all, only a few brave souls would dare to traverse anything beyond a C-ranked dungeon. Even the most powerful adventurers struggled in any discovered A-ranked dungeons, many of them not making it past the first few floors or simply dying, slain by something unexpected.
Milia herself had been in A-ranked dungeons as an adventurer, but preferred to avoid them entirely if possible.
Eventually we’d have to defeat the world’s only known S-ranked dungeon and neither of us were looking forward to it. However, this forest wasn’t big enough for the two of us. I’d have to face the Axem, the dungeon’s boss, sooner or later. I’d rather take it down before the super monster grew stronger. He could be an SSS creature, despite the extreme rarity; there was simply no other monster like the Axem, according to Milia.
Deciding to move forward, I opted to purchase the fountain. With plenty of spirit coins left, I searched for more things to purchase.
[Shop. Currently unlocked:
1. F-ranked Physical Building Upgrade. Price: 100 spirit coins.
2. F-ranked Messenger Spirit Bird System. Price: 2,000 spirit coins, D-ranked shop.
3. Apprentice Rank System. Price: 8,000 spirit coins, D-ranked shop.
4. Mana-Powered Vending Machine and System. Price: 20,000 spirit coins, C-ranked shop.
5. Remote Debt Collection System. Price: 50,000 spirit coins, C-ranked shop.
6. Mana-Powered Vending Machine Network. Price: 55,000 spirit coins, C-ranked shop.
7. Platinum to Hybrid Spirit Coin Conversion System. Price: 5 heavenly spirit coins, B-ranked shop.
8. C-ranked Mana Potion Recipe and Liquid Mana System. Price: 50 heavenly spirit coins, B-ranked shop.]
I purchased the physical building upgrade as well as the messenger spirit bird system. With that, I could send messages to future contacts, perhaps over business deals, or inviting them to Kyushu when it was more presentable. I glanced at the apprentice rank system, debating on whether to buy it or not. Eight thousand spirit coins. Fuck, that was a lot to spend, but I couldn’t buy anything else from this category without upgrading the shop again. It didn’t come with any kind of description. The system was basically telling me, “Trust me, bro.”
Fuck it. Saving was for the weak. I purchased the apprentice rank system. Before confirming things, I headed outside to search for a decent spot to place the fountain. A decent number of meters in front of the house later and eventually, it constructed itself.
“Where will the water come from?” I asked, but decided questioning things such as physics and logic was pointless. Glancing at the options, I noticed there didn’t appear to be an obvious upgrade path that one could find on the menu for the new purchases. I had to assume they’d appear eventually.
The fountain itself looked quite nice and something one would see at some of the wealthy noble houses, or maybe a city center on Earth.
“There’s going to be a crimson second moon tonight,” Chenzu said, his eyes on the sky. He patted my shoulder. “Just one crimson moon means that it’s going to be a prosperous night, as the legend says. Two crimson moons, however, are a sign that nobody should be outside.”
“I guess many people plan to make the best of tonight if they believe in the legends,” I replied.
I turned to our house right on time to see it… grow wider. However, there didn’t appear to be any chaos inside.
I thought about buying the upgrade again, but understandably a cooldown timer of a week prevented me from going crazy. The price increased to one thousand as well, which made my eye twitch a bit.
“What did you do?” Chenzu asked, eyes wide. “Or were my eyes playing tricks on me?”
“It really did grow,” I told him. “Also, the cube, as usual, is the cause of this.”
“One of Wanda’s gifts,” Chenzu said softly. “You’re a lucky man.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you saw these prices,” I told him, but left it at that, snorting at his questioning look.
The interior, to my surprise, was noticeably wider, but just around the shop section. Once again, I wasn’t about to be the guy questioning physics, layout, measurements, and anything that the system may or may not have done. I only had twelve thousand, three hundred fifty-one spirit coins remaining. Despite making everything bigger, it really wasn’t all that impressive, which really dug in the F-ranked feeling. That or the system preferred to be as dickish as possible, like usual. Cheetara meowed, echoing my thoughts.
“I know, right?” I said to the kitten.
Finally, my best buddy ran into the house, tail wagging as he dove into my embrace. “There you are, my best buddy. Let’s go hang out with Beakwing for a bit, before the brats come in.” I turned to Chenzu. “We older folks need some coffee. Any idea where to get some?”
He gave me a skeptical look. “Sir Nate… you don’t have to brag about how much money you have.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
He stared at me for a moment, probably searching for something. When he didn’t see any bullshit, he continued speaking. “You really don’t know. Now I’m curious about your homeland. Coffee is one of the most expensive luxury goods in the Kingdom of Merridon. Unless you’re some kind of noble in disguise, you’d be better off not dreaming of it anymore.”
I facepalmed softly. “Coffee too? Fuck, this is not happening. Is there a noble family controlling everything, like the trees?”
“They grow only in a few areas and really could probably grow here too with Milia’s help and maybe an upgraded garden,” Chenzu continued. “The main supply of coffee is controlled by House Starrigon.”
“Well, fuck,” I said, feeling deflated. “Are they all as dickish as Drew? Maybe I’ll have to sic Cheetara on them.”
Cheetara meowed her agreement. I started walking outside, the pets and Chenzu following. “Coffee and also some kind of grinder.”
“Also controlled by the Starrigon family,” Chenzu said, dashing my hopes any further.
“Well, it’s not like they know us or who took out their son,” I said, allowing my hope to return. “How much are we talking?”
“You don’t want to know,” Chenzu said. “Let’s just say for one small bag, half of your safe.”
“What in the fuck?” I said, nearly falling backward. “That’s daytime robbery. Are they related to the shop called Rip-off Gary’s?”
“No,” Chenzu said. “They mostly sell coffee to nobles only. Mostly high tier nobles, at that.”
I waved at Beakwing who was landing from the air, likely after some morning exercise. We went out of way to feed the griffin every morning, noon, and evening, made sure he knew we always appreciated him. Of course, he made sure to let us know when he was in a hunting mood, setting off miles away for any prey.
“I feel like something has to be done,” I told Chenzu. “There’s seriously nothing like a good mug of coffee before starting the day’s workload. Hell, I’ll take the cheaper stuff.”
“There is no cheaper stuff,” Chenzu said with an amused snort. “All of it is controlled and priced by the family’s elites. Trust me, I would know. A lovely beastkin woman once made me coffee. She didn’t tell me where and how she got it, but that was the best damned breakfast date I’d ever had. Too bad she was a traveling merchant. A good one I let go.” He played a few sad notes on his lute, prompting a blank stare from Cheetara.
After spending some time with my magic giant bird, I spotted all four apprentices approaching. I pulled a scroll out and set it on a table in Lucas’s forge, indicating my test order. New knuckles, of course. Despite being only seventeen, he was trained by a master blacksmith named Nia.
Seeing Opal, Mandi’s pixie assistant, fly toward me with speed that almost broke the sound barrier, I dodge the six-inch-tall woman. She stopped, creating a shockwave, her overexcitement still flowing with the weight of a city pool. Or at least it felt that way.
“Sir Nate! We made a breakthrough! Nate! Sir Nate-Nate—”
“What’s the breakthrough already?” I asked, voice tired. Fortunately, she didn’t smash into my face. Earlier, she was like a bullet.
“It’s still incomplete,” Mandi said after glaring at Opal a bit. “We’re trying to make a false core.”
Chenzu looked at her, eyes wide. “That’s going to be quite the undertaking. Shouldn’t you try to upgrade the pixie, first? A magician’s core is a complex thing.”
“We’re not going to fully imitate it,” Mandi continued. “We need a way to store mana on the go. And not only store it, but replenish the container over time. Opal’s a bit excited that we managed to get a little of the pull force to work, but it’s far from finished.”
“Every day you continue to impress me with how you make the best of your situation,” I said. “You’re taking the gadgetmancer thing to heart, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know about that,” Mandi said, “but it does sound like an interesting idea. Perhaps even romantic. The world’s first gadgetmancer, desired by every prince in the world.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Chenzu said with a chuckle.
“I’m certainly not wishing for that,” Mandi said. “I don’t have time for relationships and people. Aside from you all, of course.”
“People are annoying and often in the way of greatness, masses of space that produce heat and feelings,” Opal said.
“I’m not going to try to decipher that,” I said, even though I knew exactly what she meant. Even the damn pixie understood how people sucked.
I watched Cheetara follow Wolverine to the cow pasture. Beakwing joined them moments later, and as much as I wanted to know what they conversed about, there was work to be done. So I turned to the kids.
“Let’s start today’s first batch and build upon the stockpile,” I said. “After that, work on your secondary skills. Let me know if you need any help.”
I took the time to admire the beautiful day and a mild temperature I wouldn’t get to enjoy any further as it was time to go back inside to be cooped up like a bear during hibernation. The eager feeling of creating a new potion flooded through my veins like rivers of energy drinks. The complex potion, Potion of Minor Luck, shouldn’t be too difficult, right? There seemed to be three categories of difficulty from what I gathered. Simple, complex, and advanced. It shouldn’t be too bad.
Famous last words, I know, I know.
My eyes landed on glowing blue pigeons that looked like holograms standing stock still, waiting to be used.
I should probably test the apprentice ranking system before entering the lab. I had a feeling the name was misleading, or the cost wouldn’t be so high.
