Damon didn’t wish to speak to this noble who didn’t even tell him his name. He’d accomplish his mission then leave.

The two black mages walked towards the exit of the inner city. Damon could now have a look around the first proper city he’d visited in this world. The noble’s houses were made of brick and stone. They didn’t have the air of wealth and nobility one would associate with fantasy worlds. There weren’t any pearly white mansions nor elegant fantasy clothing. Noble men wore thick fur and leather clothes, and noble women wore long and heavy robes with embroidered flowers. Damon did wonder how everyone’s teeth were clean and aligned, although it probably involved a bit of healing magic and teeth pulling. Still, he hadn’t brushed his teeth since getting here, and at best he had twigs to pick at his teeth.

Next, Damon noticed a smell in the air. He didn’t smell diseases, but the sweat of the working people in the commercial district. Animal feces littered the streets, the smell here was much stronger than in the inner city. And although he wanted to leave the city, he knew most cities would be similar. Tamed beasts pulled small carriages. There were four-legged lizards, oxen, and beasts with the body of a tiger, the head of a frog, and the feet of salamanders.

The black mage alchemist I followed entered a shop next to a butcher. The shop’s exterior wasn’t much to run home about. There was a wooden sign of a sun and vial hung on the wooden door, with walls made of untreated wood, no doubt causing the many fissures which ran across the building’s exterior.

Inside wasn’t better, in the back of the small room a wooden counter sat in front of the entrance. On the front of the counter, a large wooden panel with engravings illustrated the different potions being sold and their prices. Combining the fact potions weren’t on display and the appearance of the store, he wondered if the potions existed at all and whether anyone ever came.

The man went behind the counter, opened the door, and entered the back room which lead to a hallway with three doors. He didn’t know with the people of this world, no, the people of this kingdom made houses in such an odd way.

“The one on the left is your bedroom, there’s a latch to the basement where you should sleep.” The man finally spoke.

The secret room didn’t surprise Damon since they would probably be targeted at some point.

“The door in the middle leads to the store’s alchemy lab. To your right is my room. The latch to the black magic alchemy room is under it.” He entered his room, Damon followed. The man pushed aside his straw mattress, took a key in his key ring, and unlocked the hidden trap door. They descended a small ladder and there, one found saw a small alchemic lab with rows of organic material. In the corner the salamanders and ox cerebellum, he gathered were placed in glass jars.

“In this town I’m a level four fire mage who works as a low-end alchemist. My name is Alesterone from Dwogino City.”

Damon nodded.

Alesterone continued, “Your name is Gorgino and to the public you are an apprentice alchemist of earth magic, to Dandalone you are Gorgino the apprentice black mage.”

Damon nodded.

“Upstairs you will find instructions on how to make everyday potions. When you’ve made enough. Store them in the receptionist’s counter. Place a bell there as well, if anyone rings it, you’re in charge of the counter. That’s all for today.”

“Yes,” said Damon. Alesterone seemed like a concise, but not a bad person. As such Damon decided to keep his sentences short as well. “When does the shop open and close? And do I have a key to lock the door?”

“Between an hour after sunrise till supper.” Alesterone took three keys from his key ring. “This is for the front door, the second is for your room, and the last one is for the store counter.”

Damon thanked him and left for the store’s alchemic lab. On the other hand, this lab felt vapid and too clean. You’d think it was the cellar for a high-class restaurant. On the shelves there was goblin blood (a base for many potions), holy water (used to make recovery potions), various herbs, and flowers as well as oils and acids.

Damon walked over to the work bench, sat down, and looked over the five papers laid on the table. Apparently, the most sold potions were basic recovery potions, aphrodisiacs, soporifics, stain removers, and animal sedatives.

All of these didn’t require any special spells and could be made without the use of magic. The difference is that Damon could use the preservation spells to make them last longer. Non-black mage alchemists would normally use ingredients to simulate preservation spells. This would obviously lead to an increased production cost.

Damon started to make batches of potions, enough for ten vials each, except for the aphrodisiacs for which he made twenty.

He brought the potions to the counter, unlocked the cabinet, and stored the merchandise.

The next morning Damon woke up in the underground room and went to open the store. Since he didn’t have anything to do, he spent his time making a stock of potions, and used preservation skills with a high concentration of mana to keep increasing his level. When he finished that, he sat in a chair and use his dark magic spells to mana depletion. This routine went on for three days before the first customer appeared.

#

In the alchemic lab, Damon was practising his shadow meld skill when he heard a ring from the store front. He immediately ran to the counter; he didn’t know why but he wondered what kind of people lived in this world since he'd never interacted with anyone else other than shady characters or priests.

When he entered the store area, he saw a lanky kid in a worn-out brown tunic.

When the kid laid eyes on Damon his eyes widened. Damon wondered if he’d never seen a sun elf.

Since Damon still hadn’t spoken, the kid took the initiative. “Oh, hi elf. I’d like to buy all the aphrodisiacs you got here.”

Damon looked at the kid who was around thirteen or fourteen years old. He didn’t mind selling the aphrodisiacs to the kid if he paid, but he still wondered why he needed it.

“It’s one large silver per bottle and we have fifty of them. Do you have the cash for that?”

“The kid pulled out a pouch and handed Damon four gold coins and two large silvers. Damon didn’t know how to verify the coins; however, it didn’t really concern him. He’d rather want to know why he needed the vials.

While Damon pulled out the tray filled with aphrodisiacs he asked, “Why do you need so many? Or do you go through them on your own?”

The kid laughed, “Nah, you must be new. That’s right this’s a new shop. I’m a porter for the budding flower, in the red district. We have the best women; you can count on my words. If you ever go, there. Say that I recommended the place.” He gave a big thumbs up.

Although Damon appreciated his enthusiasm for his job, he didn’t want to catch syphilis. More importantly he didn’t get the answer to his question, “Why does a whore house need to buy out all the aphrodisiacs in town, something’s going on, no?”

“Oh. Sorry mister elf, I didn’t know you were new to town as well. The lords second son’s coming back from an expedition from some dungeon up north’ a here. They’d conquered the thing or some so the soldiers are going to be spending big.”

Damon took the coins from the boys’ hands and handed him the potions in a wooden crate.

“Thanks mister elf,” said the boy before taking off.

Damon still didn’t understand the value of money, so he didn’t think much of it and stored the cash in his hidden room. Stolas had told him to just keep whatever cash he made at the store since it wasn’t worth anything to the sect and he’d be the one manning the store anyways.

He went back to the lab to make more aphrodisiacs. For the next four days, various people entered the store. From adventurers, to merchants, maids, and young men. In total he sold two gold coins worth of potion this week if he excluded the sales to the whore house.

On Monday a merchant came by and delivered alchemical ingredients to restock the store. The sect had paid for everything in advance, and he came by weekly with the products. If he wanted anything else, he’d have to place an order or come buy it himself at one of their stores. Damon guessed that he could probably make a request at the guild as well.

The next day he heard a commotion outside. He learned his lesson as such he didn’t activate his dark magic and opened the door like any other person.

A large crowd of people had formed on both sides of the dirt road. There were a couple of men and women in front of his door, but since the people of this world weren’t tall; either due to malnutrition or other factors, Damon could see the scene without any issue. In the front of large military parade, a young man, perhaps eighteen or twenty waved to the crowd atop his lizard mount in full plate armour. On the man’s breast plate, Damon saw a crest with a snake entwined with a stick.

Ah fuck. He thought. Did their target have to be so charismatic. He probably wasn’t weak either unless this demonstration was a propaganda plot. Well, a noble’s child raised to become a military man from birth could probably be at the fourth or fourth or fifth skill level at his age. His level shouldn’t be lower than twenty either. This really was a problematic target.

Perhaps Damon had stared too long at the young man, but the noble’s son looked in his direction and waved. Damon decided to act the part and wave back with plastered a smile. Seeing this the young man smiled back and kept waving till he advanced far enough that people noticed the interaction. Damon continued waving at the other soldiers to brush away the suspicion.

When the procession ended, he closed the door and sighed. He told Alesterone about the arrival of their target, went to sleep, and prayed for an easy job.