The Flying Emporium

Two weeks had gone by since then.

Severin was sitting on the wooden chair and was sleeping with his head on the counter.

In the beginning, he spent his time crafting. But since then, the System-provided supplies had run out.

A good portion of the previously empty displays and shelves were now filled with potions.

Of the two varieties, one had the bright red color expected of a health potion. The other kind turned out to have a slightly more brownish color to it. More interesting than the color, though, was their consistency. Instead of bottles full of magic juice, they looked like little jello cubes.

They could hardly be called potions anymore. But when Severin tested their effect and put one of them into his mouth, it quickly liquified. And when swallowed he noticed that the majority had already been resorbed before even reaching his throat.

Crafting these potions awarded him with experience points and after producing a hundred of them his [Alchemist] subclass leveled up. Sadly, the level-up didn’t come with any new recipes.

Instead, his mastery went up increasing Severin’s crafting speed.

In hindsight that change wasn’t too welcome. Reducing the time it took to craft the potions also meant increasing his time of idleness afterwards.

A more welcome bonus, however, was the fact that a part of the subclass’ earned Exp was also awarded to his main class, [Shopkeeper]. But even after using up all the provided materials, the increase was very minuscule.

Since then, Severin mostly spent his time sleeping on the chair, staying away from his so-called ‘bed’ as far as possible.

His sleep at this moment was rather shallow since it was owed more to his immeasurable boredom than to actual sleepiness.

Therefore, the moment the door opened he felt a shadow looming over his head he started to wake up; Albeit slowly.

“Don’t get much business up here, huh? You must be Severin.” A deep weathered, voice sounded.

That got him moving faster with his thoughts now in a mess.

Between waking up and processing what the voice said, there was a short moment of excitement to finally meet another living soul.

That moment was very short-lived though and gave way to confusion about being called out by his name.

‘Maybe my coming has been prophesied!’

All stupid jokes got stuck in his throat once he got a good look at the first other human being he came across.

Human? Beast?! Savage!

It took him a moment to make sense of the sight before him.

The creature that talked to him was indeed a human, but well over 2 meters tall and wearing the pelt of what might have been a bear, or some other similar-sized monster.

The chest was exposed, revealing a toned body that was on large parts covered with scar tissue.

That intimidating combination demanded Severin’s attention, taking him quite a bit of effort to tear his eyes away, up the face.

It looked like it belonged to someone way older than one would have guessed based purely on the looks of the body. It was surprisingly scar-free. Relatively speaking.

‘Around fifty, I guess? He is surprisingly amiable looking.’ Severing concluded.

‘Still doesn’t take away from the ferociousness, especially with that bear.’

“So, what are you selling here?” The mountain of a man looked around curiously but seemed to be more interested in the counter and the hut itself than in the red and brownish cubes.

“Eh. Yeah. Severin. That’s me. Potions. For now, I only sell health potions.”

“Those are potions?” That got the man to shift his attention onto the cubes.

He poked at one curiously.

“Interesting. But eating during a fight…”

Severin tried his best to explain the cube's properties of changing their state of aggregation once ingested and concluded that it seemed more practical to him than to open a bottle and then drink from it in the middle of a fight.

The man got convinced enough to summon the potions tooltips.

[Small Health Potion (20)

Restores 200 Health Points when consumed.]

“Hmm. Not too bad for a small one. Normally small Pot would heal 150 at most. Having them limited to 20 at a time is a bit annoying as well, to be honest. Well, let’s check out the brownish ones first.” The savage-looking man mumbled more to himself than talking to Severin.

[Small Alternative Quality Health Potion (20)

Restores 20% of Health Points when consumed.]

“Haha. I’ve never seen percentage-based healing potions before. That’s great. I want them.”

The man was visibly elated.

“You don’t seem to come from around here, so let me tell you. These are just made for a [Berserker]. You see, we are usually locked out from equipping any real gear onto our chest slot. So, while we are missing out on the defense and stats that come with a good chest piece, we are blessed with bigger Health Pools than others. Way bigger actually since it also serves as a kind of resource for us.

“Usually, I would need at least a Big Potion for a similar effect, just considering the raw healing. Not to speak about the convenience of it being exactly 20%. Makes infight planning way easier I assume.

I think I know someone who might appreciate them even more than I do.”

Giving it a quick thought, the man added:

“You know what. Give me the regular ones as well.

What a strange place to set up shop but I’m sure glad you did.

You can call me Sam. Be sure to remember it. I’ll come back.”

The Berserker left 40 gold coins on the counter and left.

…

Once outside, Sam pondered what he had seen inside the shop.

‘That guy sure looked wimpy. Then again, he made it up here. Also, judging by all the Alchemy gear laying around in the corner it’s very likely he made those cubes himself.

And everything was made out of Mystwood...

Really can’t afford to underestimate someone like that just based on looks.’

***

Severin stood there not quite sure what to think. But he was mostly angry at himself.

“I didn’t ask anything! I just stood there like an idiot. I should have thought of some questions to ask beforehand. Then again, should I even ask questions…might just look too suspicious?

How the fuck did that guy know my name anyway?”

After recovering his senses, he proceeded to open his System-interface and looked at the experience he gained from selling the potions as well as from completing his first quest. While compared to earlier the bar indicating his experience points moved quite a bit, it was still quite a bit from being completely filled.

But besides the experience from completing the quest, another unlocked menu option seemed to be Severin’s real reward.

After opening it he was greeted by what looked like a system store. Actually, the menu was split into two different pages. The first showed a balance of 4 gold coins and only seemed to sell items and upgrades for personal use. For example, there were some more refined-looking sets of clothing, some even with stats and perks on them.

What really caught his attention though was a bed. A real bed. Sadly, it was unaffordable to him for now. Additionally to its prohibitive cost, it also required to first unlock a private-use-only room, which, of course, would require an even greater amount of gold.

Similarly, the other half of the shop menu showed a balance of 36 gold coins, adding up to the 40 coins he just earned with his first sale.

It offered all kinds of upgrades directly affecting the store and its capabilities.

Enlargement of the current shop area, new rooms, or new stories. Magic artifacts, offering a multitude of different services. A huge collection of interior and exterior decorating options. Even whole new buildings, which were obviously not intended to just be a simple extension to his little shop.

Some blurry images hinted at even more large-scale installations.

‘Saving up for the bed is a no-brainer. But I’m not so sure about the shop expansion. Buying just a bit of the land outside is really tempting but a straight-up shop expansion would probably make more sense for now...not that I will be able to afford any of those anytime soon anyway.

But if I can’t leave this place, then I have to find ways to make people stay instead.’

Sigh

The thought of being able to leave the shop, even if only a few steps, was really enticing to him. In the beginning, Severin put his chair up to the open door to enjoy some fresh air. But quickly realized that the invisible wall that kept him from leaving seemed to separate the shop from the outside world in a more fundamental way, keeping the temperature constant while letting not even a breeze of fresh air through.

It wasn’t that the air inside the shop was stuffy, he just wanted to feel the air on his skin.

“That is not how transmigration is supposed to work.”