Arcane Innovator

The morning after the chancellor's brief visit was a grim one. During breakfast, nobody has uttered a single word.

Theo didn't even show up at all, instead choosing to remain holed up in his room, probably still mourning his once bright Alchemist career, which was so abruptly snuffed out before it even had time to properly start.

Helga was quite uncharacteristically quiet, too, as she still avoided eye contact ever since we returned from the Harvest Festival.

Not that I was in a talkative mood myself. I uninterestingly nibbled at my food, frowning gloomily. After a while, I set my plate aside as I had little to no appetite today.

I then stood up and decided to find some quiet place to think. When I was leaving the dining hall, I couldn't help but sigh as things were not going as I imagined at all. The only person totally unfazed by everything was Lily.

She just kept eating, pretending to be oblivious to all this drama. I chuckled to myself, looking at her indifferent face. 'Well, even if I suddenly went bankrupt, she would have no trouble finding another job...' I thought as I went to the basement, where I planned to hole up until I figured out what to do next.

The chancellor's poisonous words still echoed loudly in my mind. I didn't think the Guild would react so harshly, and it surprised me. I thought they would simply ask for a portion of the profits or, at worst, the disclosure of my production methods. Still, I severely underestimated the other Alchemists' close-mindedness.

Although it was not too shocking as I understood that the powers that be always feared any sudden change, and instead of seeing any new revolutionary inventions as the incredible opportunities they rightfully are, they chose to see it as a threat to their established order.

'Good thing I haven't yet shipped my new potions to Dominic's gang as I still had some remaining leftover stockpile of my original potions. I'm pretty sure that they would now be able to quickly identify that the potions came from me thanks to their unmistakable fizziness.

If my original plan had worked, it wouldn't have mattered whether they found out about my potions circulating around the black market.

I was, after all, only selling healing potions, not poison or any forbidden drugs. If I sold them on an open market, I could simply feign ignorance to any allegations of cooperating with criminals as they could merely acquire them through some intermediary without my knowledge.

But now that was no longer possible, and I was back where I started. However, now, I was in an even more precarious position as the Alchemists were closely watching my every step, so even if I reverted to my original recipe and sold it only at the black market, it would be just a matter of time before they would find out about it.

Nonetheless, this little experiment of mine was a glaring success. Not only was I able to secure enough funds to get me through the winter, but I also forced the Alchemist's Guild to show their hand.

Not that I would back down in the first place. I will see this through to the end one way or another. And I might already have some hints about how to circumvent their authority.

I smiled as I remembered how the chancellor said we are forbidden to operate anywhere within the boundaries of Ereneth. This statement alone already strongly implies that outside of Ereneth, they have little to no authority and wouldn't be able to meddle with our plans.

And I don't mean it just in terms of setting up shop in another city as they, too, would have their own Alchemist's Guilds, which wouldn't look too kindly on our shenanigans. No, I was thinking of something much more straightforward.

We could, for example, simply set up a stall outside the city's gates, and they wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. The Guild's jurisdiction didn't span there, and we wouldn't be bound by any of the city's laws...

But after I entertained the idea for a brief moment, I quickly discarded it. There was a very good reason no merchant ever did something like this despite the apparent benefits and instead opted to suffer through the regulations and whims of the city's authorities.

Unsurprisingly, such a workaround worked both ways. We wouldn't be subjected to the city's laws but also be deprived of its protection. So, any common rabble could simply assault us or rob us, and the city's guards wouldn't lift a finger to help us.

I could, of course, protect our stall with my magic if any dangerous situation occurred, but I wouldn't be able to stand there all day long as I now had many other duties to attend to, not to mention any such situation would force me to display my powers in the open for anyone to see which was the absolute last thing I wanted right now.

No, a much better thing would be to simply stop selling it as a potion altogether and sell it as something else. Something which was outside of the purview of Alchemist's Guild.

It was already somewhat different as I didn't use the alchemical formation in the first place, not to mention the added fizziness. And now that we were forbidden to use Theo's mark, it bears little resemblance to the original potion.

Of course, just changing its name wouldn't do us any good as it still looked like a potion and functioned as a potion, so simply changing its name wouldn't be nearly enough. I was sure the Guild had some other secret directives addressing this very issue.

But if we changed its appearance and taste enough so that it couldn't be mistaken for a regular potion at all, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

We could then simply sell them as a different form of elixir, which was just a category of an herbalist's medicine.

I couldn't open a real herbalist's store as I hadn't finished my apprenticeship. Still, there wouldn't be anything stopping us from selling them through the already existing herbalist's stores within the city.

The best part about it is that the herbalists don't have any herbalist guild, so there is no quality control or any standard practices herbalists must adhere to.

They are free to operate their stores as they see fit, so there would be nothing stopping us from supplying our product to them despite neither me nor Theo being actual herbalists.

However, each herbalist had their own reputation on the line, so it would take some convincing. Still, compared to all the other challenges I overcame till now, it wouldn't be anywhere as tricky.

I think the best way to start would be to approach my former master, Isadora. During my time in her shop, I discovered she was quite a pragmatic and profit-seeking woman. She already had her fair share of dealing with alchemists, so I presume it wouldn't be too hard to convince her.

'Alright, this could work...' I thought with a subtle smile playing on my lips as any traces of my former gloom quickly dissipated.

However, the main issue still remained. How to go about altering the potion itself?

Luckily, I might already have some ideas in this regard. During my tenure as Isadora's apprentice, I learned almost all there is to know about virtually every herb growing near Ereneth. And one of them especially stuck in my mind.

It was no rare, valuable plant. Not at all. It was just a plain common herb - a Wormvine. Really, it was treated almost as a weed. It grew everywhere around Ereneth. Its only useful ability is that it somehow helped alleviate stomach aches, so it was part of a recipe for a common digestive herb mixture.

However, Elena and I absolutely hated dealing with it as it also has one incredibly unpleasant property. It dirties everything it touches, so we had to treat it extra carefully to not stain our clothes as it was extremely difficult to clean them afterward.

Back then, it was nothing more than a glaring nuisance, but now it might prove to be the perfect solution to my current problem.

I smiled as it was all coming together. Of course, it would take some experimentation to make it just right, but I was on the right track.

Contrary to the standard way Alchemists make their potions, I have the amazing ability to add things to them after the potion is enchanted, which is not quite possible when the enchantment is done over a sealed vial.

It's also impossible to add anything before the enchantment, as it must be a pure solution for the enchantment to work correctly. Magic is a finicky thing, and it works in mysterious ways, so any substance present in the elixir before the infusion of essence could alter the resulting enchantment in unpredictable ways.

That is why it has to be pure. However, when the enchantment is set, if you have a way around the degradation issue, nothing prevents you from adding more things to it afterward.

Sure, every additive will dilute the potion, making it less effective. Still, a few percent drop in effectiveness would be virtually unrecognizable for an average person, so it should be fine.

Alright, so I guess it's off to the garden to help my gardeners with weeding... I can already imagine their surprised faces when they see me there.