"W-Wait, can't I join first then pay you later?"

"Eh? Do you I look an idiot? If you don't have money please get lost, I don't have time to deal with broke adventurers." Right after saying that with a disgusted look on her face, she turned to the adventurer who she was talking to before. He was wearing gold armor and had blonde hair, his sword was clean meaning it hadn't been used before, and the sadistic smile on the receptionist's face seemed to mean that she picked up on this.

"So there is an additional fee of 1 gold that you will have to pay before you can become a full member…"

People from my old world often said that money was power, I guess they were partially right. Anyway, it looks like I'll have to get a job before I can join the adventurer's guild, maybe I can even find a way to learn magic some other way.

After leaving the Adventurer's guild I began searching the city for a job, but most people seemed a bit skeptical about hiring me, in hindsight I probably shouldn't have walked around in this clothing. Anyway, after walking around for a bit I came across a shop with a herb sign hanging on top of its door. Something about the herb sign seemed to draw me in, perhaps I could find superior herbs to the ones I was currently using for my god-substance, but anyway I just had to take a look.

"Hello there, are you perhaps in the wrong store?" asked an old woman at the back of the counter. The store was rather small, with just enough space for 10 people to squeeze themselves in. The space was made even smaller by wooden shelves lined with herbs and bottled paraphernalia. A strange odor emanated from every direction, and a few of the items looked like human body parts, however, in my experience, powerful reagents could be found in the weirdest places.

"Hmm, interesting herbs you have here," I announced after inspecting a familiar herb. Of course, it was one I had used when I was still a child, but the fact that it was in a store made me feel a bit proud of my handiwork.

"A youngin with an interest in herbs? You don't see that every day. Are you searching for something in particular?" asked the old woman, still fiddling with a weird stick as she spoke to me.

"I'm looking for a job."

"Sorry, can't help you. I hardly get enough customers as it is," replied the woman, finally splitting the stick in half.

"Then perhaps I could become your sales agent." During one of my summer vacations, I had to save up money to buy more "supplements", so I had gotten some experience as a salesperson.

"A sales what? Listen, I  already told you, I don't have enough money to pay you. So unless you're buying something, please leave."

What a difficult old woman.

"Look, if I can help you sell a few herbs, will you hire me?"

"Sell a few herbs? Are you a magician? Using hypnosis is against the city laws, I don't want to be involved-"

"Just watch." With that, I took a few of the best-looking herbs in the store and placed them on the counter.

"What are you doing with those? If you ruin them, you'll have to pay for them."

"What does this herb do?" I asked. Although I had a background with herbs, I had never seen the ones I had just placed on the counter before.

"You don't even know what the herbs do and you think you can sell them?" asked the woman, an annoyed look on her face as she tried to grab the herbs off the counter.

"Do you have anything to lose by letting me try?"

"Hmm, you have a good point. However, I'm sure you've heard of the saying 'time is money', so for every minute you waste you'll have to pay me one bronze coin."

What a greedy old bitch, but it's not like I have much of a choice anyway. Unless of course, I kill her, but again, I'm not an indiscriminate killer. I only follow the laws of the blessed fantasy material, and from all the stuff I've seen, the main character always has to accept the stupidly unfavorable positions.

"Deal."

With that, the woman quickly explained to me what the herbs did, and to my surprise, they were… absolute bullshit. I mean, one of them made the air you breathe out smell like flowers, while the other ones either had some sort of superficial effect like changing the color of your skin for a few seconds, or some stupid effect like making you talk backward.

"Say lady, why don't you mix the herbs and sell potions instead?"

"Eh, do you have any idea how hard potion making is? You have to test them multiple times or you'll have an angry horde of people knocking down your doors."

"I see." To be honest, I could've told her I had some experience in potion brewing, but there was no way I was going to show her my god-substance in case she wanted some proof. So an idea hit me at that second, perhaps instead of money she could tell me where to get the herbs and I could start a potion-making business. I mean, of course, there are probably other potion-making stores close by already, but I'm sure none of them can create a lowered-down version of the god-substance.

With this, I'll be able to amass a bit of money, and as the saying goes 'money is power', I can feel it, the true meaning of power is close by. Perhaps I won't even have to learn magic. Hehehehe, but sadly I still have to sell this old bitch's herbs.

"Wait… old bitch, huh…"

"What did you just say?"

"Do you have any herbs that help stimulate erections? Like men who can't get it up anymore? Or perhaps some aphrodisiacs?"

"Eh? What are you saying, w-why would I have something like that? W-Why would you even ask for that right now?" asked the old woman, blushing as she looked at me with somewhat innocent eyes.

"I'm not going to have sex with you lady,"