19 Learn the ropes (1)

Herbs & Lotions, a small store offering premium potions and other exceptional products, had been opened for a little more than a month in Anspia. The store had enthusiastic regulars, and they had been visiting every day in the last two weeks, but they were not buyers, more like fans of the store's flavourful free cooking. Putting them aside, until this moment, the store had not welcomed any paying customers in its premise, and no sales had been booked, causing the store to experience nothing but unproductive expenses. At the same time, the remaining cash reserve was only enough to sustain its operational activities for another two months at best. Various reasons led to this unfortunate situation, however, the main cause was the young owner's immaturity.

For a business, having exceptional products were not enough, one must also actively promote them to gain recognition because customers would not magically come on their own. He did, however, advertise his store, though failed to inform his potential buyers of the store's location. A silly oversight.

Moreover, blinded by the allure of money he encountered for the first time in his life, the owner agreed to supply three-hundred-bottles of Greater Grade Potions in a mere week to the Association with total transaction value of twenty-four-million Rune. However, this kind of order could only be fulfilled when one had sufficient preparation and manpower beforehand to manufacture the rare products, and he did not have any when accepting the order.

That being said, he had learned his lessons, never again would he make the same foolish mistakes in the future. In the remaining two days, his focus was to perform the best he could to minimize negative blow to his reputation which had not even bloomed in the first place…

---Today, around at eight in the morning, the usually quiet Herbs & Lotions was already bustling with five people who were looking forward to work in days where other people generally took time to rest their tired bodies.

"…Ms. Elise and Ms. Lisa, do you have any question?" asked Alfraed after explaining details of their job once more to his two helpers, to make sure they understood their responsibilities, as well as their rights.

"No, not at the moment" answered Elise, the twins' mother. Before the explanation, she asked Alfraed to call her name directly. In her opinion, having her employer calling her 'madam' all the time felt awkward, and inflexible.

"I think, I understand, I think…" replied Lisa, a young dark skinned woman with voluptuous and athletic build who wore a sleeveless white dress. She had short bob brunette hair, dark brown eyes, and full lips. Lisa was Elise's friend, and like Elise, she encountered similar sexual harassment from her previous employer.

"Feel free to ask me anytime if you have any question" assured Alfraed.

Excluding those naturally gifted, most people, including him, unlikely able to perform new task well for the first time. To smoothen their learning process, Alfraed encouraged them to ask question if there was something they did not understand, no matter how small the issue. He wanted to avoid them pretending to know and made irreparable damage later on.

The cheerful little Emma and Evan were also present, and since both of them were such understanding children, the two would play by themselves in the store as to not disturb the works that would commence after this. Furthermore, Alfraed already prepared many reading and writing exercises that could last a day for them. So, they would definitely not be bored.

On the contrary, they could not wait to challenge those hill of exercises, and their motivation could be seen in their fiery wide eyes.

"Well then, let's move to the storage room…" prompted Alfraed.

The three adults head to the room located at the back of the store where all materials were stored. But, before they entered, Alfraed urged his pair of employees to put on a kind of goggles, three-layered masks, and gloves.

Inside the room, Alfraed started by introducing three ingredients needed to make a Greater Grade Health Potion, and the first material he presented was a one-and-a-half-meter mature plant bearing sweetly scented pink or white flowers. The stem, he said, was not needed, because what required was the flowers.

"They are pretty, it would be nice to use them for room decoration" commented Elise while staring fondly on the flowers.

"Yes, they are indeed pretty. However, even in this state, they often emit potent paralyzing mist which is capable to incapacitate a werewolf for a day, and caused tears to spill endlessly from one's eyes until it dried up compleyely. By the way, we need the flowers from eight plants" replied Alfraed with an apologetic smile.

""...…."" the two female employees did not know what to say as the disparity between the flowers' appearance and the danger they posed was too great. Reflexively, Elise and Lisa fasten their goggles and masks to ban the mist from entering.

The second ingredient was a two-meter plant with eighteen-centimetre ovate leaves. The bell shaped flowers it had were dull purple with green tinges and faintly scented, and the fruits were shiny black berries.

"These berries seem fleshy and juicy" said Lisa, trying to take a hold of the berries.

"...I suggest you don't eat it though, they are highly toxic and famous for causing ghastly hallucination. Normal person won't survive an hour after ingesting it. Moreover, if you touched it directly there is a chance liquid from the berries could seep through your pores. Oh, we need five" warned Alfraed.

""...…."" Again, the employees were dumbfounded by the shocking revelation, and made sure their gloves had no hole and properly wrapped their hands.

The last material was a one-meter plant. It was strongly glaucous, giving a greyish-green appearance, and the stem and leaves bore a sparse distribution of coarse hairs. The large leaves were lobed, the upper stem leaves clasping the stem, and the lowest leaves had a short petiole. The flowers are up to a hundred-millimetre in diameter. Normally with four white, mauve or red petals.

".…Is there anything we should be aware of.…?" asked Elise, bracing herself to hear another unbelievable truth from what seems to be harmless plant.

"Nothing in particular, and we need six"

""Fiuhhh"" the two adult women sighed in relieve after knowing that not all plants concealed unfriendly attributes.

For making a Greater Grade Mana Potion, two of three materials were the same as Greater Grade Health Potion. So, Alfraed introduced a fourth material, a one-point-eight-meter plant with erect purplish stems and rounded umbels of minuscule white or pale pink flowers. And, six were needed.

"...This too, is safe, no...?" asked Lisa reluctantly.

"...Yes"

"Yeeaahhhhh!" Lisa joyfully shouted upon hearing his answer.

Around eighty-percent of Greater Grade Potion production costs came from the materials. They were expensive due to their scarcity and difficulty in procuring it, not to mention the danger because they usually grew in hard-to-reach-land where beasts roamed. Most potion makers would employ the service of adventurers ro secure them, which cost a fortune, and if careful negotiation was absent it had the potential to wipe out ane of the remaining profit. Furthermore, there was no guarantee the materials were still in pristine condition when delivered to their store because adventures were not known for their expertise in herbs. Thankfully, Alfraed possessed more than enough ability to gather the materials by himself, eliminating these costs.

The remaining twenty-percent of the costs were salaries for the preparer and mixer. All in all, total production cost was approximately seventy five percent from selling price, at best. Thus, a buyer asking for a 20% discount was laughable, as the maker could only get a 5% profit out of their hard work.

'...So, the order I accepted was normally undesirable huh. Thankfully, I'm not like most potion makers, I can use this advantage…'