Chapter 8: The Returning Owner
Elliott did not panic.
He carefully lowered the temperature of the furnace and adjusted his senses to the condition of the ingredients.
The second attempt began.
The resistance against his fingertips felt different from the moment the ingredients entered the furnace.
The herbs slowly dissolved under the heat. The impurities evaporated, and the remaining medicinal essence gathered together. Every step flowed naturally into the next.
The flames surged.
As the lid of the furnace opened, a clear red glow rose from within.
[Alchemy successful!]
[Blood-Staunching Powder has been completed.]
[Proficiency correction activated: Success!]
[Quality increased: Mid Grade → High Grade]
"Haha! That's more like it!"
It was a success.
The system's correction had also activated, raising the finished product from mid grade to high grade.
Once he found the proper rhythm, everything that followed went smoothly.
Elliott's hands moved across the Bronze Furnace as if they were dancing.
His Expert level skill and his willingness to act without fearing failure worked together with remarkable effect.
By the time the last of the ingredients had been consumed, a mountain of red medicine packets had piled up in front of him.
[Final Results]
[Mid-Grade Blood-Staunching Powder: 4 packets]
[High-Grade Blood-Staunching Powder: 8 packets]
Four mid-grade packets had been produced normally.
The correction had activated on another eight, raising them to high grade.
The high-grade powder was especially striking. Its color was as vivid as fresh blood, and its grains were so fine that anyone could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary product.
'Even those people at the Hundred Herbs Apothecary won't be able to dismiss this.'
They might do far more than simply acknowledge it.
They might cling to him and beg him to continue supplying them, or bow their heads and ask where such medicine had come from.
High-grade Blood-Staunching Powder was difficult to obtain because there was almost never enough stock.
Elliott gathered the packets with a satisfied expression and carefully stored them inside his clothes.
Pale morning light was already slipping through the gaps in the torn paper window.
"I'll go as soon as the sun rises."
His gaze sharpened as he looked toward the commercial district beyond the slums, where the Hundred Herbs Apothecary stood.
The atmosphere inside the Hundred Herbs Apothecary was different that morning.
A fox might rule the den while the tiger was away, but the tiger had now returned.
Arum, the owner of the apothecary, sat in the main seat. His sharp eyes moved between the sales records and inventory ledgers from the past several days while his fingers worked the beads of an abacus.
Click. Clack. Click, click.
The sound was quick and almost irritated, as though every movement of the beads was counting one of Shrank's crimes.
Standing nearby, Shrank naturally recalled what had happened the previous day.
An unknown Alchemist from the Consortium headquarters had suddenly entered the shop.
To calm his anger, Shrank had given away a bundle of Bloodwort and half a bottle of Clear Water without permission.
He could hardly record the transaction honestly as a bribe.
Telling the truth would be no different from destroying himself.
He would have to admit that he had failed to recognize an important person from headquarters, offended him, and then given away the store's goods for free to keep him silent.
The mistake itself was bad enough, but the person sitting before him was Arum.
That miser valued mana shards more than his own blood relatives.
Rather than listen to Shrank's miserable excuses, Arum was the kind of man who might skin him and sell the hide to recover the loss.
'Either way, keeping my mouth shut is safer.'
In the end, Shrank's chosen method of survival had been to alter the accounts.
He emptied the emergency savings he had secretly gathered and used them to cover the missing amount. He then recorded the materials as though an ordinary customer had purchased them at full price.
Watching his precious savings vanish was painful, but it was still far better than losing his job and ending up on the street.
Arum's rapidly moving fingers finally stopped.
The last bead settled into place.
He nodded.
"The numbers match exactly."
"Haha, that's a relief. You know I've always been reliable when it comes to calculations."
Shrank forced a cheerful tone while quietly breathing a sigh of relief.
After finishing his inspection of the accounts, Arum immediately rose from his seat.
The Hundred Herbs Apothecary was not his only business. He also owned three or four general stores, so he was not a man who remained in one place for long.
He was about to cross the threshold when Shrank hurriedly called out.
"Sir, there is something I need to tell you."
Arum's brow immediately tightened.
He waved a hand in irritation.
"You are not getting a raise. Do not even dream about it. You know better than anyone how poor business has been lately, yet you still dare ask me for more money?"
"No, sir! That isn't it. Someone from headquarters came here yesterday!"
"Headquarters?"
Arum snorted and gave him a cold smile.
"Whose headquarters? Your family home? Did your parents or siblings come from the countryside to borrow money? I told you never to bring private visitors into my shop."
"No, sir! What family could someone like me possibly claim? I am not talking about my relatives!"
"Then who?"
Shrank struck his chest in frustration and raised his voice.
"The Consortium! Someone from the Celestial Light Consortium headquarters came here!"
"What?"
Arum's eyes widened.
"The Consortium?"
"Yes, sir."
Arum stopped walking.
He pulled the chair back and dropped into it once more.
"Tell me everything. Leave nothing out."
Now that he had Arum's full attention, Shrank eagerly began recounting everything that had happened the previous day.
The man had worn filthy clothing, yet carried an air that no one could easily approach.
Without even opening the medicine packet, he had seen through the scorch toxin and the mistakes made during refinement.
His insight had been almost supernatural.
Then there was his arrogant attitude, and the way he had clicked his tongue at the poor quality of the shop's products.
As Shrank continued his report, Arum's eyes narrowed.
He stroked his beard and carefully considered every word.
"Hmm. That certainly is unusual."
Arum's instincts as a merchant sharpened.
Detecting impurities and scorch toxin without breaking the seal of a medicine packet was not something that could be explained by good eyesight alone.
Someone with that level of ability might truly be an inspector sent by the Consortium headquarters.
At the same time, another possibility entered his mind.
'Or he could be a spy from a competing business who already knows the weaknesses of our products.'
He might even have been a fraud.
Arum soon shook his head.
For now, whether the man's identity was real or false was not the most important question.
'What matters is why he came.'
Whether he was from headquarters, a wandering expert, or a swindler, no one entered a shop without a purpose.
Arum leaned forward and asked in a low voice.
"So he insulted our products and simply left? He had no other business?"
"He said he would return in a few days with a proper product."
'A product?'
At that moment, the clear ringing of the door chime broke the silence inside the Hundred Herbs Apothecary.