Arcane Innovator

"Muhahaha!" I started laughing crazily as soon as I was back in the safety of my apartment. 'This was the craziest thing I've ever done since I started living in the city...' I thought after a while when I managed to calm myself down and realized the implications of what I had just accomplished.

I still couldn't believe everything worked out fine. After the gang's leader, Dominic, agreed to the deal, we had a very intense round of negotiations. But in the end, we were able to settle on a price of 15 marks of silver per potion.

It was somewhat less than the current market price of about 20 marks, but nonetheless, I was extremely happy about it. The only thing I was adamant about during the negotiations was fixing the price per vial and preventing any changes later.

Dominic agreed to it, as he probably thought I would only be able to provide a few potions at a time, so it didn't matter too much to him, but the poor fool has no idea what I have in store for them... Not that I care about their profits. Besides, I'm sure they will be able to sell it for a much higher price on the black market given the scarcity and rarity of potions—for now, that is.

Just imagine it: for a single potion that takes me a few minutes to make, I get as much money as my father makes in a year working as a blacksmith. But that was, of course, only thanks to my unique circumstances. Any other alchemist, although rich, wasn't anywhere near as rich as I will soon be.

They had to first buy the ingredients and the vials, not to mention the special ink used to draw the alchemical formations themselves. They also had to pay wages to their apprentices and taxes to the city, plus any other living expenses they had. So in the end, I imagine their profits are a lot less than the price of the potion itself.

On the other hand, since I gather the ingredients myself and don't have any other expenses, almost all of the potion's price is pure profit for me. For now, I decided to sell them in batches of 10 every two days to not flood the market too much. However, I still got a huge pile of silver out of it.

I guess I'm lucky that the gang has seemingly no idea how many potions an alchemist can realistically make in a day; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to pull this off. Well, it's time to start making potions, then...

***

Absorbed in my new potion-making routine, time flew by quickly. It was now the end of summer, and I had finally run out of my huge herb stockpile. That is why I am now standing in front of Norbert, one of the few other herbalists in the city besides Isadora.

"Hmm? So, you want to buy my whole umbrifila stockpile?" He said incredulously. With furrowed brows, he observed me for a while before a sudden realization dawned on him.

"Wait, aren't you Isadora's new apprentice? Why do you want to buy herbs from me? Go ask your master for some, or even better, go gather them yourself..." He said dismissively.

I smiled innocently at him, "Please, Master Norbert, I need the herbs for my training. My master can't spare any more of them, and the forests are bare at this time of the year..."

"Hmm? But why do you want so many herbs?" He said, still not convinced.

"Well, it's difficult for me to admit it..." I tried my best to act pitifully. "But I seem to waste a lot of herbs while making elixirs. That is why my master told me to go practice and not return until I can brew the elixir perfectly..."

"Hahaha! "Alright, alright, I will sell them to you, but not all of them. I need to keep some for my own customers..." Norbert laughed merrily.

'Perfect...' I smirked in my mind as I walked out of the shop with a bag full of herbs. I repeated the same thing at every other herbalist store in the city, plus all the merchants I knew that traded in herbs, in the following days.

'I don't care that they think of me as a clumsy idiot who can't brew a simple elixir as long as I get my herbs...' I thought with amusement as I walked across the market square, carrying another bag of umbrifila back to my humble room.

But in the next moment, I stopped as I stumbled upon a commotion happening in front of me at one of the stalls lining the street. "What do you mean you are out of umbrifila?" A man clad in alchemist robes shouted angrily.

"My sincerest apologies, honorable sir, but someone is apparently buying out the whole city's stockpile. I'm unable to procure them from anywhere..." The portly merchant sweated profusely in front of the angry alchemist.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Who would even have the coins to buy so many herbs?" The man continued shouting.

'Ah, I guess that's it...' I thought somberly as I realized the possible implications of my shopping spree. It looks like I've already caused quite a commotion... I wondered why it was getting so much more difficult to come by umbrifila as of late. I guess now I have my answer. But I'd never thought there were so few of them in the whole city...

'Nevermind, what I already have should last me a long time...' I smiled as I exited the square without looking back at the squabbling merchants. Not many people knew me as Norbert did, so I gave the rest a fake name and told them a different story each time so that they wouldn't connect the dots.

'Hmm, I guess it's time,' I thought as I looked at the darkening sky behind the window of my room. I unloaded my latest haul, and now a significant portion of my apartment looks like a hoarder's dream.

Stacks on stacks of herbs piled up all the way to the ceiling. And the whole room was now permeated with a strong, heady smell of dried umbrifila. I chuckled as I imagined what my landlord downstairs must be thinking about it. But he didn't complain about it, so I guess he doesn't find it too annoying.

I picked up a worn-out-looking satchel and stuffed it with the batch of potions before exiting my room and disappearing into the dark alleyways of the Northern Quarter. I never met Dominic again after that day, when we struck a deal. Not that I'm complaining or anything; in fact, I'm more than glad for it, as that vicious grin of his gave me the creeps...

Instead, our exchanges worked in the same manner as with the rest of the gang's risky contraband—through their system of dead drops scattered across the quarter.

I was given a list of places where I periodically deliver my merchandise, and then I move to another location where I collect my money. The locations of the dead drops change quite regularly, following a specific pattern that I had to memorize.

'Why does it feel like I'm working for a cartel?' I thought amusingly as I placed the satchel with the potions at the designated spot while making sure nobody followed me. A few members of Dominic's gang tried to tail me to learn where I lived the first time I met with them.

And then they tried again when I visited one of the dead drops. But each time I managed to spot them without any trouble thanks to my magic sense. I'm forced to make a lengthy detour across the city every time something like this happens. But so far, I have been able to quickly lose them, as they seem to stumble upon a mysterious hole that opens right under their feet each time.

They seem to have stopped trying since then, but I'm still extremely vigilant just in case they want to try their luck again. So I quickly retrieved my money and hurried back to my apartment, as it was getting very dark outside and I still had potions to make...

***

'What to do... What to do...' One evening a few weeks later, I was sitting on my bed, scowling at the huge pile of silver in front of me. The situation has finally calmed down somehow, and I have found the time to count earnings from my potion-making business.

So far, I've just been stuffing them under my bed. However, when the pile became so big that the coins started falling out on the floor, I realized I had a problem.

I guess it was a different kind of problem than what I was used to until now, but a problem nonetheless. 'What the hell am I supposed to do with so many coins?' I couldn't possibly carry them around with me, and leaving them in my room unguarded was very risky.

Even after buying such an enormous amount of herbs and plenty of vials to last me a long time, I still had almost two thousand silver marks. It was a mind-boggling amount of coins that no normal person could make in their entire life.

Even the richest merchants in the city would instantly pale in envy if they saw me right now. There was a simple solution to this. I learned from Myra's uncle Alaric that there was something akin to a bank run by the Merchant's Guild where merchants could deposit their coins for safekeeping.

But I couldn't just walk in there with a cartload full of silver, as I wouldn't be able to explain their origins. I will first need to come up with a way to legalize my profits. 'How do people here even do something like money laundering? It's not like I could just go and buy a car wash or anything...'

Luckily, I might already know someone who can help me with this small problem of mine. I realized with a smile as I grabbed a pen and began to write a message to Alaric. He was very helpful to me the last time we met, so I was hoping he could give me some advice.

I won't tell him the true reason, of course. I will simply ask him a few hypothetical questions about how to appreciate the humble savings I accumulated during my apprenticeship...

Because what is it that rich people do with their money? They invest the money so that they have even more in the future...