Chapter 48 - 47: The Alchemy Shop

Chapter 48: Chapter 47: The Alchemy Shop

Chapter 47: The Alchemy Shop

Another week of seclusion passed in the blink of an eye, and Noah’s grasp of the two techniques reached a point very close to perfect.

The Silent Frost Arrows weren’t far from the way he’d fought from the start, and it already felt familiar. Shaping the ice into a fine form, then pressing the mana inside it, then striking a fixed point, was closer to refining his old style than to learning a new technique. Sky Step was a little harder, but in the end it came down to one main thing. Mana control.

And here Noah’s advantage was far greater than he’d expected.

Years of steering mana between the blood and the Magic Marrow had let him control mana efficiently and naturally, without even feeling it. He didn’t know exactly how precise a high-grade mage’s control was, but he didn’t rule out that his own precision now was better than some of theirs, even if the gap in mana quantity and destructive power stayed vast.

But after he left, Noah was worried about having enough resources.

Only ten mana stones were left with him, while his estimate for reaching the third gate was now measured in the hundreds, maybe the thousand. He remembered what Charles had told him about the students who worked with the traders and the labs, and for a while he thought about starting as an assistant. The profit wouldn’t be large, but it would give him a spot to watch the flow of materials and the market from the inside, an early read before he made any moves. Extra channels to sell through would spare him a lot of trouble and investigation, given his current strength.

He opened the Academy map. There were many shops, some selling beast materials, some metals and weapons, before his eyes settled on a shape like a cauldron. The Main Alchemy Shop.

After about an hour a five-story stone building appeared in front of Noah, its walls covered in fine beech wood, a sign on it reading in green: Main Alchemy Shop. It was bigger than the small shops he’d seen while passing through some areas, and inside it, shelves were spread out full of flasks, dried herbs, and small boxes. Behind the counter sat a middle-aged man holding a cloth, wiping the dust off several bottles set in front of him.

Noah didn’t go to him directly.

He let out his mana sense for a short moment.

The mana inside the man was stable and dense, far higher than a low-grade mage fresh off a breakthrough. Noah couldn’t see his gates or read the state of his marrow the way he knew his own body, but from the pressure and the density of the mana he could place him very close to the peak of the low grade.

Close to the middle grade.

He drew his sense back with a slight surprise before the man noticed anything, then started looking at the goods.

He’d meant to ask about work, but the numbers written under a set of potions stopped him.

Fifty mana stones.

Sixty-eight.

Eighty-five.

One of the higher-quality bottles went a little past a hundred.

Noah raised an eyebrow.

All of them potions meant for a low-grade mage.

He’d walked into the shop thinking about working as an assistant for a few crystals, while buying the cheapest product here cost about a year of that work.

It reminded him of American imperial exploitation from his past life, where workers at huge luxury-goods companies like Rolls-Royce and Mercedes felt like important, wealthy people just for being there in the suit, standing in front of the expensive cars, when in reality they couldn’t even afford the cost of a wheel.

He picked up one of the flasks and looked at it without opening it.

From behind the counter, the manager caught his expression, then went back to polishing the bottle in his hand. A familiar trace of disdain showed on his face. A new student seeing the price of potions for the first time and thinking the traders were trying to rob him.

Noah didn’t care about the look.

He focused a little on the potion.

After reaching the middle grade his sense for mana had become far sharper than before. He couldn’t break down the ingredients just by looking, but he could estimate the amount of stable mana inside the liquid.

He remained silent for a few seconds.

Three... maybe four stones.

He looked at the price again.

Seventy-two.

He lifted the flask a little, and here the manager looked at him a second time, meaning to tell him not to handle the products carelessly, or he wouldn’t be able to pay for them.

But before the words left his mouth he felt a pushback from Noah’s mana sense, and his eyes opened in shock.

A low-grade mage.

His eyes held on him a moment longer. Noah’s appearance didn’t let him pin down his age exactly, but he put him at around seventeen or eighteen. Reaching the low grade at that age was rare even inside the empire, but it wasn’t something that had never happened, especially among those of high bloodlines.

Then he looked at his clothes and the way he stood.

The son of a Platinum house.

His look changed a little.

Maybe one of the children of the Platinum houses or their strong branches, or even a direct member of the imperial family. This kind of student could turn into a better customer than dozens of ordinary ones.

The shop owner set the cloth aside and came closer to Noah with a fawning smile.

"Young lord, have you found anything of interest?"

Noah looked at him.

"Yes, but the price is a little high."

This time the man smiled instead of ignoring him.

"This is your first time seeing real training potions, isn’t it? Perhaps potions aren’t very common in your noble house, but they’ve started spreading fast in the last few years, and the young lord will hear of their benefits sooner or later."

Noah put the flask back in its place.

"From what I sensed in the potion, it barely holds magical energy worth a few stones, yet you’re asking a price dozens of times the cost."

The man’s smile stopped for a moment.

Then he looked at Noah with more interest.

"It seems the young lord has a sharp eye and some knowledge of alchemy."

The manager pulled a small chair from behind the counter and sat, lighting his pipe.

"All right. Since you can notice that yourself, I can at least explain a few things about alchemy to you."

Noah brought his eyes back to the flask.

He’d walked into the shop looking for work, nothing more. But since the owner wanted to offer some useful information, better not to ruin his image as a wealthy noble.