The Flying Emporium

Samuel shot a quick glance towards Severin.

The shopkeeper obviously hadn’t told his newest group of customers about the potion’s properties of its non-shared cooldown. Samuel couldn’t understand why he would choose to do so. It was such a massive selling point.

Disregarding any of its other properties, that aspect alone would guarantee vast numbers of sales even if the potions didn’t have any other outstanding effects.

‘Those things could be sold even if they only healed 50 HP. And for more than just one gold coin. Easily. Even if they were bottled up like regular potions, instead.

‘That reminds me. Back then, he didn’t tell me about it either.’

As much as he thought about it, Samuel couldn’t think of a reason for Severin not to advertise this very unique effect.

He considered for a while whether he should tell the Lion’s Head guild representatives or not. On the one hand, he didn’t want to go against Severin’s wishes if it turned out that hiding that information was a conscious act on his part.

On the other hand, the cat was basically out of the bag right now. And Severin didn’t seem like the scheming type to him anyway. By now the both of them had spent quite a bit of time together allowing Samuel to have a certain understanding of Severin’s personality.

‘Maybe those things are so common where he is originally from that he doesn’t even think it’s worth mentioning.’ He couldn’t quite believe those thoughts himself, but it was the best guess he could come up with at this moment.

Samuel liked the strange guy, and he wanted to help Severin out. But so far there hadn’t been a real opportunity to do so.

He could’ve easily promoted Severin’s Emporium to the other adventurers he and his two proteges met on their trips. Then there were Samuel’s connections to some very influential people.

It would’ve been an easy thing for him to spread the word.

But the reason he had refrained from doing so was very simple.

He wasn’t sure that this would actually be in Severin’s best interest. His wares were just too unique, too powerful. The moment this became public knowledge it would attract all sorts of people and obviously not just the well-meaning kind. It was just a matter of time until people learned of this hidden store.

But until this day arrived Samuel felt that not advertising on Severin’s behalf was actually the biggest favor, he could do for him. If Severin knew of these thoughts, he would’ve probably cried out.

Now with the Lion’s Head guild finding out about this store, said day came closer and closer.

While the guild would surely try to keep the benefits for themselves for as long as possible and try to keep it a secret, it would obviously be impossible to do so for an extended period of time.

Once they started climbing the rankings tracked by the Adventurer’s Society people were bound to become suspicious.

So now Samuel decided that a little nudge on his part would change anything.

Andreas was closely observing the potion in his hands. He slightly squeezed the jiggling cube with an incredulous expression on his face.

“It really looks similar, but there is no way…”

Ahem

Samuel’s next words nearly made him drop the consumable.

“Actually, you’ve guessed it right. Their cooldowns are independent of other potions; Even of the other variants. Each kind of those jelly-pots has its own cooldown.”

Xander was stopped only by his strong survival instincts from acting on an impulse to start laughing and insulting the man.

Andreas and Lynn fared slightly better as they already harbored those suspicions themselves. But when actually hearing it out loud, it was still difficult for them to believe.

The one who was the most surprised was probably Severin himself.

This described characteristic was neither stated in the tooltip nor mentioned by the system.

And no matter how astonished Samuel was when he first learned of the unique property, he never discussed or explicitly mentioned it.

Therefore, for Severin, this had always been something normal.

Since the first time he had watched Timothy and Miriam fight, they had always been using his potions, chugging them one after the other. He didn’t know it any other way, and he was more concerned with the profit the potions made him.

In his eyes, the actual cheat and selling point of these consumables, bestowed by the System and the magical recipe book, had always been the special jelly consistency as well as the comparatively good restoration values.

Now he had to pretend to be calm and nonchalant as he could hardly show excitement or even surprise towards his own products and reveal his ignorance. It made him feel like a fraud.

‘Damn. In hindsight, I should have at least thought about the possibility myself. In games, it’s very common that different types of health potions share the same cooldown. Even mana and health potions would usually share the same CD between each other, most of the time.’

What bothered him the most about this current situation was that it served as a reminder to him that he didn’t actually know anything about this world. What he learned from Samuel were mostly recounts of glorious adventures or descriptions of faraway places. It was very interesting and entertaining, sure, but Severin didn’t even know what the nearby places looked like. Or even the mountain he was on. Not to mention all the things that were ordinary in this world but actually made it unique in Severin’s eyes. Some bits of knowledge could still be deduced from those stories, but the more basic and generally known a piece of information was, the harder it was for him to learn about it, he felt. It also made it harder for him to ask certain questions, without being looked at like some sort of alien. Some things could still be explained by him being a foreigner. Like him not being as familiar as one would expect with some of the more common classes around here. But there was no way to ask any fundamental questions regarding the whole class and level setup in this world, for example. Then there were things like the churches and religion in general. Based on his previous consumption of novels, books, and games, Severin didn’t want to exclude the possibilities of the gods being actually real. Maybe even able to manifest themselves. Especially after being moved to a fantasy world, he was more open-minded towards such ideas. But depending on the answers to those questions, he felt that it might be more prudent not to ask them in the first place.

At times he had even thought about revealing that he was a transmigrator. Ultimately he decided against it. No matter how frustrating his circumstances were, it was still better than being taken as someone insane. Or worse.

“Just test them yourself. Hahaha. Aren’t they only a gold coin each? It’s better to be familiar with any new products before bringing them into battle anyway.” With this last part, Samuel referred to the unusual shape and consistency of the potion.

Consuming them was as simple as it could get, really, but one couldn’t discount the force of habit.

For years, the moves required to take out a potion and consume it in the midst of combat had to be arduously refined and honed by each and every adventurer who didn’t want to die an unnecessary death. Summoning a small bottle out of ones inventory. Open it. Drink it. It seemed straightforward enough. But with a group of enemies leaping and stabbing at you, and with both hands occupied, by weapons or shields, it was an image to behold, if done skillfully.

Or a gruesome one, painted with blood, guts, and entrails, if not.

Sure enough, all three took out two cubes each. As they were fully rested, it didn’t matter which ones they tried, as long as they were of two different types.

Soon they all had an astounded look on their faces once they consumed the first potion and noticed how it melted in their mouths.

“It’s so simple! No more balancing acts required.”

The group exchanged some incredulous looks and almost forgot their real objective. But not quite.

They quickly confirmed Samuel’s claim. After standing there dumbfounded for a moment, Andreas swiftly took out the third kind of potion he bought and also consumed it. He, for the third time, felt the unmistakable feeling of a potion doing its work. Even if he were at full health, he could feel that the thing didn’t just fizzle out.

Lynn and Xander immediately emulated him, followed by Lynn going so far as to take out a regular potion she carried in her inventory, as well. The [Duelist] however made a move to sprint back into the shop, all but pulling Severin along.

“I need to refill. And give me the 20 of the other health potions as well!”