The Flying Emporium

They quickly bought the potions and paid the 180 gold coins accordingly, of which only 18 made it into Severin’s own pocket.

After that, they continued to exchange pleasantries and the representatives of the Lion’s Head guild promised to soon return for more business. There was nothing more for them to do here, and Andreas really felt the need to report back as soon as possible.

Expecting to become a regular customer in the future, though, he didn’t want to seem rude and took his time to get acquainted with the owner.

Pleased by his behavior, Severin thought it only appropriate to see them outside.

He wouldn’t have any reason or desire to stay inside anyway.

Restocking his wares could wait for a bit.

Once they left the store, they found that the owners of the three tents had woken up in the meantime.

Two of them could be seen in an animated discussion while heading over to the area that almost seemed scorched.

“Oh. Seems like the boy got a hold of some nice looking upgrades since last time.” Xander recognized the young adventurers even if he didn’t personally talk with them at his last visit.

The person who accompanied the two was more than enough reason to not forget them.

Failing to make out any sarcasm in his tone, Severin was close to spitting blood, hearing that remark.

‘What’s wrong with you? Damn. Of course, such an attention-seeker like you would love such a loud outfit.’

At the same moment, the third person, who was left behind, sitting at the small camp, seemed to notice Severin and the others; He stood up and made his way over.

In reality, Samuel had already known about the recent arrivals the moment they set foot on the ground. An adventurer didn’t become old or high-leveled by being careless. And Samuel was both of these things.

“Hey! Xander, was it? How have you been?” The people quickly exchanged greetings.

“So, came back for the potions?” This time Xander wasn’t caught off guard by the appearance of the old man, but he was still just as impressed and intimidated as back then.

‘I really can’t read this guy in the slightest. I’ve never come across something like that. Even the bosses I’ve fought so far never gave of this much pressure.’

“Actually…we originally came for the weapon oil.” In front of this man, Xander dropped his usual attitude and even admitted his blunder.

“Last time, I didn’t pay any attention to the potions…”

Andreas and Lynn momentarily were at a loss for words. It was very strange for them to see the [Duelist] behave so reserved. But they understood the reason behind it. Even without Xander’s heightened senses that allowed him to evaluate a person’s strength more accurately than others, they could still easily tell that the man before them was not someone to be offended or taken lightly. He clearly wasn’t an ordinary old man.

“Oh?” Samuel got curious when he learned the reason for their coming. He remembered that he had judged the product to be way too niche for regular use and so neither he nor Miriam had actually tested the liquid enchant even until now.

So when this group of, obviously, somewhat experienced adventurers returned for more of the stuff, and so quickly at that, he was a bit taken aback.

‘I wonder if they got it for any specific boss.’

At that moment he suddenly had to think back to when he first read the tooltip.

He had thought that the wording was rather unusual. He also remembered that he had quickly dismissed the notion.

“Don’t tell me...” A gleam of understanding lit up in his eyes.

There was no need to hide anything, as the man before him seemed to have already made the connection, and Andreas knew that it could only be in the guild's best interest if this veteran adventurer had a good impression of them. Therefore, he quickly decided to recount everything he had observed in the battle with the iron golem. Including the appearance of the black light. Xander instantly involved himself as well and described the lack of resistance he felt with his last attack against the boss.

Lynn even felt he was more detailed with his recount than when he reported back to the guild.

Hearing this, the [Berserker] came to the same conclusion as the other three and their guild’s higher-ups.

“So, it’s really not limited to the basic elements.” Samuel found himself once again deeply impressed with the Emporium and its wares.

Unlike its basic counterparts, not every being had resistances against the advanced magic elements. In fact, none of the humanoid races had any innate resistances towards them. There might be the occasional perk or passive skill, but in general, adventurers who were in need of those resistances would have to find special gear.

This kind of gear was usually either very expensive or had little to no other stats on it. Most of the time, it was both.

The situation wasn’t much different for most monsters either, but there were exceptions. The demon-like species’ tended to be born with a natural resistance against dark element attacks, for example.

On the flip side, magic damage belonging to one of the advanced elements was pretty rare, to begin with, and mostly restricted to very high-level monsters or certain classes.

Holy element healing or buff effects were much more common in comparison, albeit still rare, but those wouldn’t be influenced by resistances, anyway.

“Hmm. That should indeed expand its area of use. But it still requires relatively specific encounters for it to truly shine. I guess it would be useful if both the physical- as well as the elemental-damage-reductions are around the same level. If it doesn’t matter what kind of damage you deal, you might as well go for a lucky hit.”

Andreas and the others had come to a similar conclusion. There wouldn’t be many chances to take full advantage of it, even if it was very powerful. There were usually simpler ways to deal with such problems. Therefore, they deemed a stock of 15 of the damage conversion oils to be sufficient for now. That being said, while they were by no means a small guild, they weren’t one of those who could always challenge a dungeon or a raid with the perfect setup of classes.

Sometimes they would have to improvise. And they would only have more options to do so with this oil in their arsenal.

Still, this wasn’t something Andreas would advertise.

“If only there was a non-random variant,” Xander said what everyone thought and wished for.

Everyone subconsciously looked towards Severin.

The latter could only awkwardly shrug his shoulders and said, “Who knows. Maybe in the future.” He wasn’t fully aware of how big of a deal such a product would be, but based on the reactions his crafted consumables had evoked so far, he had no doubts that the future products would be on an even higher level that should leave nothing to be desired.

With that comment, Severin’s customers became excited at the prospect of new items and started to sound him out.

When the [Shopkeeper] only kept a stoic face and seemed adamant not to reveal anything, the group soon discussed between themselves what kind of items they would like to see the most.

Even Samuel joined the fun when Xander and Andreas started to request seemingly unrealistic creations from Severin.

In reality, the latter enjoyed the boisterous atmosphere and had to stop himself from not joining himself.

He had missed this kind of company. It almost felt like he was among friends.

‘Well, I can hardly tell them that I’m just as clueless. Maybe even more so than them.’

“What are they…?” Suddenly Lynn, who had been rather reserved the whole time, involuntarily spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention.

When she noticed that she had just spoken out loud and felt the questioning looks on her, she hesitated a moment before nodding in the direction of the two youths, who had started their routine spars.

“They are obviously fighting, Lynn.”

“Fuck off.” She couldn’t help rolling her eyes.

“There, again! Look! In the beginning, I thought they’re just using potions. But…”

tzz

“What are you talking about? Doesn't it look more like they’re eating…? “Xander’s voice drifted off as he said that. Speaking it out loud sounded even more ridiculous than Lynn’s conjecture. Continuously eating while in combat wouldn’t make any sense.

“Right, they’re just having a snack. Thanks, Xandi.” Lynn glared at him, while Xander’s mood took a hit, realizing that he might very well be stuck with that name.

Andreas quickly intervened before things escalated any further.

“Look at the shape and the colors! Doesn’t that almost look like…?”

He instantly summoned a jelly cube from his inventory.