Completing my morning routine, I went to check on my garden and the spirit trees. The garden was doing well, the new sprouts had already opened their leaves and were growing strong. The Spirit trees were already a bit taller than me, so there wasn't much I could do for them anymore. I ended up having my slime excrete its fertilizer, mixing some into the garden and the rest near the roots of the spirit trees.

Next, I made a small box and transferred some soil, water, and two Golden Vine Snails into it. Then, leaving my slime in the kitchen so that my mom could give it any food scraps from cooking, as well as food that had gone bad, I left the house. It was still fairly early in the morning, and the merchants were just starting to set up their stalls and such in the market. I passed through without even glancing at the goods this morning, heading straight towards the merchants guild.

Once I had arrived, I gave my name to the receptionist and asked if she could pass a message to the Guildmaster, telling her that I had come to report as previously agreed upon. Livia would probably remember that she had asked me to inform her when I could make high-grade potions. Though the receptionist looked at me a bit dubiously, she did go to pass along my message while I waited on a nearby chair.

When the receptionist came back, she led me towards the usual reception room, not able to completely hide her surprise that an apprentice merchant child was being seen by the Guildmaster without an appointment. When I was in the room she asked me to wait for a little bit before she left to prepare tea and cookies. I had to hurriedly stop her, telling her that the cookies were not necessary, and just the tea would be fine. She looked at me oddly before nodding and leaving the room.

After tea was brought in, I pulled out my own cookies that I had prepared in advance, remembering the abomination I was served the previously time. In the baker's defense, it was probably only me that had a problem with them, and that was only because I knew how cookies were supposed to taste. My knowledge of cookies was hundreds of years more advanced than what this world has to offer, it would take tens of years, if not more, after transportation methods are improved, for this world to catch up with the food culture from my previous world.

After waiting for a few minutes, while sipping on the tea and eating a cookie, the door opened. To my surprise, it wasn't just the Guildmaster that showed up, but also a guy around my dad's age with black hair and rust-red eyes.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. This is Marco, a food merchant I have known since is father still ran the company." Said Livia as she walked into the room.

"I'm Marco Yamada, owner of the Yamada company, nice to meetcha." Marco greeted me in a very friendly and casual way, not what I would expect from a merchant.

"Don't pay him any mind, while he acts like this and has inherited his company, he is a very skilled businessman." Said Livia, obviously used to how Marco talks.

"I see, I don't particularly mind, I was just a bit surprised by his greeting. What brings you here, mister Yamada?" Not minding his friendly nature, I asked Marco why he was in Gale.

"You mean Gale or the guild? And no need to be so formal, call me Marco." He responded jovially, "I came because I heard rumors about a fluffy bread, and I was here looking for information, of course."

"You don't have to pay him any mind, he always jumps at any rumor he hears, hardly ever taking the time to substantiate the first. Even though he could have easily checked and found out that no such product has been registered at the guild, meaning it is probably just that, a rumor. Anyway, based on the message I was given, I guess you're here about getting materials for high-grade potions, am I right?" Livia was treating Marco like an impertinent child, believing anything he hears.

While Livia was speaking, the two of them sat down, and Marco poured tea for the two of them before grabbing a cookie and tossing it in his mouth. As soon as he bit down on the cookie, his eyes shot open, and he stared at the remaining cookies on the tray. He chewed while savoring the taste, looking between the cookies and the Guildmaster with obvious question marks in his eyes.

"The hell Liv? When did you start making such good cookies, and why didn't you serve them to me earlier?" He asked in an accusatory way.

"What are you talking about? Have you gone senile that young? We have the same cookies as always." She replied, looking at him with exasperation.

"Um, actually those are my cookies. I didn't care for the ones served last time I was here, so I tried making my own. Now, to answer your question, getting the materials for advanced potions is just one of the reasons I came here." I said, placing the box on the table with obvious intent, but before I could continue, Marco spoke up.

"Yours? You made these?! Tell me, do you know anything about that fluffy bread too?! Also, are you willing to sell me the recipe for these? They're damn delicious!" He had apparently shifted into high gear hearing what I said and was about to blow his top in excitement causing Livia to bash him over the head with a short staff that she pulled from somewhere unknown.

"Calm the hell down, will ya? Even if you're excited, there is a proper way of conducting business, and he was in the middle of something when you interrupted him." Scolded Livia, beating him over the head a few more times.

"It's alright, I can sell him the cookie recipe after I finish what I came here for, so if he can wait until then…"

"Deal!" Marco shouted before I could finish and sat back eating another cookie.

"Well, anyway…" I said as I moved the box closer to the Guildmaster and gestured for her to look inside, "I managed to find something a bit special on my trip, and thought you may be interested in them."

I then got to see Livia's expression go from a bit dubious as she moved to open the box, to one of extreme shock as soon as she lifted the lid a little bit.

"Are you serious?! How?! Where?! Are you wanting to sell these?! Do you have any idea how much they're worth?!" It was her turn to shout, causing a guild employee to come to check in on us. Livia just waved her off though.

"Sorry, I'll put up a sound barrier before we cause any more of a fuss," I said, setting up a sound barrier around the room, "I'm sure you've heard by now, but there was a large-scale orc subjugation in Reginston while I was there. On the morning of the subjugation, I snuck out through the gate with everyone and went off on my own to gather local herbs and other plants. It was during that time that I managed to find a few of these, though I had to use one to produce an elixir at the request of the adventurers guild Guildmaster, in exchange for the ingredients I was missing and some other materials."

"Does that mean you have an elixir, or were you only able to make one?" She asked, holding her breath for my response.

To her question, I pulled out a medium-quality elixir from my item box and set it on the table, "I was able to concoct a total of 5, one low quality, three medium quality including this one, and one high quality. I gave the one low quality and a medium quality to the Guildmaster there, sold a medium quality to Jay, and still have the high quality in my item box."

"Hah… You really do bring the biggest surprises. So? What do you want to do? Do you want to sell these, just one of them, and keep the other, or are you just showing them to me, wanting me to get you more materials to make more elixirs?" She asked, understanding those were the only reasons I would show her such a valuable ingredient. "How about the elixir? Are you willing to sell? I can tell that you don't want to sell the high-quality one."

"I'm willing to sell those two if you want them, since I still have the ones I tamed. I do want more Moonlight Lily and dragon scale powder as well. I am also willing to sell that medium-quality elixir, and you were right that I don't want to sell the high-quality one." I replied to her, meanwhile Marco continued nibbling on cookies and drinking tea, patiently, no wait, excitedly waiting for his turn to talk business.

"Alright, I'll buy these snails from you directly to keep your name off of the records about it. We can provide the materials you need, and the guild will buy your elixir." At that, she gave me a fair price and went out to have the materials prepared. We then proceeded with the payment transfers before I looked at Marco.

"Ooh, is it my turn? A'ight, I'll give you two small gold for the cookie recipe, what do you think?" He said, assured that he had offered a fair price, though I thought it was a bit high.

"Alright, I can agree to that deal. Now, to answer your question from earlier, is this the bread you were talking about?" I asked, taking out a small round of fluffy bread.

He picked it up and pinched part of it, tearing it off, and giving it a taste without any hesitation, "Mm~ Delicious! This is it! This has to be it! Where did you get it?! Was it you after all?!" He asked fervently, making it obvious just how much he enjoys good food.

"Calm down, if you're going to act like this, I'm not going to introduce you to the person who bakes this fluffy bread. I won't introduce people I like to weirdos who scream about every little thing after all." I said, looking at him like he was some disgusting creature.

"Guh!" He cried out, taking severe emotional damage, "I'll behave, I promise." Causing me to stare at him disbelievingly and Livia to laugh at him hardily.

"He may be like that, but you can trust him when he makes a promise," Livia said, coming to his defense.

"Hm… Alright, I'll set up the meeting. How long will you be in town, and where are you staying?" I asked him, still not telling him about Maya or the fact that I'm the one that taught her how to make it.

He told me that he would be in town for a week, and which inn he would be staying at. I told him I would set up the meeting and stop by his inn to let him know the result. Once I had finished my talk with Marco, I turned back to Livia.

"I almost forgot, are there any buildings for sale in a good location, preferably closer to the southeast residential area? It's fine if the building is in disrepair, it could even be in shambles as long as the location is good and the property is of a decent size. Preferably keeping the budget below two small mithril." I asked her

"What, are you planning to open a store now or something?" She asked while getting up to grab some documents from the shelf.

"Not exactly, no, it's more like an investment," I responded without giving her any real answer.

Thumbing through the documents, she stopped on one, thinking for a moment before showing it to me. "I think this one matches your requirements, it's a lot cheaper than your budget as well. It used to be a tavern before some drunks got into a fight and ended up destroying most of the building, with the second floor collapsing due to the damage. If you truly don't have an issue with the building not being usable, this one will only run you 6 Large gold. It is located a little south of the main East-West street in about a third of the way to the east gate from the town center on a major street."

Looking at the information about the place, as well as the map showing where the lot is located, I noticed that it wasn't too far from Jay's shop and overall in a good location. The lot size seemed slightly larger than Jay's, which means that it has plenty of room for my purpose.

"It looks like the perfect location, can you have someone mark the lot border? I'll take it." I replied, not wanting to waste time.

"Alright, with first-year taxes, the total will come out to 6,150,000 Lorn. From the next year on you will have to pay 20,000 Lorn for property tax. Business taxes are separate, make sure to keep this in mind." She was telling me while she prepared the documents for the purchase. After the documents were filled out and signed, I paid using my guild card, and she sent someone to mark the lot for me.

I left the guild shortly after receiving the potion ingredients we had talked about and paying for them. Then, I walked over to the property I had just purchased, and by the time I got there, the guild employee had already marked the lot and had left. Looking around the lot, it truly was a good size and location, but the partially collapsed building was simply a hazard.

After making sure there was no one on the lot, I put up sound-blocking and concealment barriers around the whole lot. The concealment barrier makes it so that people don't notice what is beyond it, as if it were just another pebble on the side of the road that no one cares about. Once the barriers were up, I began cleaning up the wreckage.

It took me about 4 hours, using up all of my mana, and a considerable amount of physical strength and stamina, but I was able to get the place torn down and the reusable materials were stored in my item box. I had separated the remaining materials that I wouldn't be able to reuse and went looking for someone from the poor part of town. When I found someone, I explained that the remaining materials were free to anyone who picked them up today and that anything left when I showed up tomorrow would get disposed of and showed him the lot and materials in question.

I also explained to one of the neighboring stores that I would have poor people gather the remaining debris so that there would be less I had to dispose of myself. The people I spoke with, not only didn't mind, but they were also happy that someone was finally cleaning up the lot that had gone unsold for six years. I realized then that I had not asked about how long ago it had gotten destroyed, figuring it had only been a year or two at most.

After that, I went to talk to Maya about Marco. At first, she was against it saying that I was the one that came up with the idea anyway, so if someone was going to sell it, then it should be me, but I managed to convince her otherwise. In the end, what convinced her was me saying, that although I taught her the basics, I couldn't even hold a candle to what she did with those basics, plus I wasn't the one who would be losing out by selling it to someone else. A sale should be an equal exchange, where both parties are losing one thing while gaining something else in return. Although, I was going to be the one doing all the negotiations.

The meeting was set for three days later in the late morning, a bit before lunch. Maya would be preparing some different kinds of bread and such, and I gave her more recipes, I figured three days would be enough for her to turn those recipes into something delicious. I also gave her some paper and a pencil so she could write down any recipes she was confident about using.

I then stopped by the inn to let Marco know when the meeting would be taking place, and he was happy to hear I had already set it up. Once I got home, I went out into the back and used my recovered mana to dig a pond and fill it with water. I then transplanted some aquatic plants into it and checked with the spirits to make sure it was good to go before placing the 17 remaining Golden Vine Snails I had in it and adding in some extra stuff for them to eat at their leisure. I also learned what was needed to get them to reproduce, so I prepared for that as well.

The following day, I went by the property I purchased and found it empty, the poor people didn't spare even the weeds, not that I would complain about that. With the lot emptied out, I set up the barriers again before making a plan for the new building. There was already a well on the lot, and after checking, it seemed to be in good condition, so I designed the building around that. First I dug out a half basement with earth magic and hardened the walls and created pillars to support the first floor.

The basement ended up being somewhat oddly shaped because I had to work around the sewer connection. Once that was done, I used brick-shaped stones made from the dirt that I dug out for the basement to mark the perimeter of the store, compacting the dirt in the area where the building was going to be built. I then built the stairs leading to the basement and covered the basement so I could begin working on the main floor in earnest.

For the main floor, I began by building up the exterior walls, using earth magic to connect the bricks together. I then built the load-bearing walls using the same method and went back around double-checking the window and door dimensions before going to purchase lumber, lime, granite, crystal, and a bunch of magic stones. On my way back I grabbed some food from a stall, not wanting to waste the short amount of time I had available.

When I got back, I built a path from the street to the front porch using stone and the front porch using the stone and reclaimed wood from the previous day. I also made pillars on the front of the porch using granite to support an overhang for rainy days. Then I got to work on the hard part, I carefully carved out magic circuits on the inside of the exterior and load-bearing walls, continuing them into the window and door frames.

Then I powdered the magic stones I had purchased yesterday, mixed them with some powdered crystal quartz, and filled the magic circuits I had just carved with the mixture, melting it in to make it permanent. After that, I started building a wooden frame to cover the interior of the building, thinking that having it be all stone would make the place seem cold and unwelcoming. When the basic framework was up, it was time for me to head home, so I drank a low-grade mana potion and recast the concealment barrier before heading home.

The next day, I finished filling in the wooden frame of the main floor, built the staircase leading to the second floor, and began working on the large front windows and the doors. I first had to build a wooden frame for each, very carefully etching magic circuits into the wood so that they match up to the circuits on the stone. Next, I installed the hinges and doors, again carving and matching the magic circuits. Lastly, I used magic to make windows out of crystal, carving thin magic circuits on the window to match up with the frame.

After the doors and big windows were finished, I installed smaller windows and frames, completing the magic circuit covering the entire main floor. The magic circuit, I installed was a strengthening circuit I designed based on Barrier Magic, combined with a mana-gathering circuit. With the melted crystal and magic stone powder filling the circuits, it should be able to draw enough mana to keep the barrier running practically indefinitely.

To end the day, I built the ceiling for the first floor which doubled as the floor of the second. Thinking about it, I also carved circuits into the top of the ceiling and connected them to the circuits on the walls. I planned to make wooden flooring for the second floor, which will be a residential space, so the circuits will get covered up anyway. I then recast the concealment barrier again and went home. I had the planned meeting with Maya and Marco the next day, so I wasn't going to be able to do much construction tomorrow.