Interlude: Big City Merchant

Nicolas Chapman hated the winter season with a passion. The snow always made it difficult to convince anyone to transport goods from place to place. Yet the need for potions, especially in a city as large as Bramouth, would only increase. He had been fortunate enough to get a few crates of herbs from his daughter, Elivyre Nightstar, before the snow had fallen, but he was steadily running out and would need more before the season was over.

As such, he was currently in the middle of writing a letter to his daughter to inform her of his plans to send a wagon to collect more herbs from her within the month. It always felt a bit odd having to sign the letter with a different last name from his daughter's. However, his wife had insisted it was better for their daughter to take her last name to help her fit in. Apparently, a half-elf with a human last name, like his, was more likely to face scrutiny when visiting elven cities than those who could easily be identified as one of their own.

Nicolas was, honestly, quite pleased with his investment in his daughter already. The plants she had sent him thus far were of excellent quality and variety. Apparently, the local dungeon even had more of an abundance of plants than either of them had hoped for. So, once she was done sending him the free crates full of plants, she would be able to supply him with a good deal on herbs in the future as well.

As for why Nicolas had ever thought it a good idea to start an alchemy business in a place without abundant resources for such a thing, that was another matter. The dungeon in Bramouth was a well-established one with twenty whole floors, which meant that there were a great deal of adventurers who passed through the city. Combine their numbers with those of the local residents and those who had moved here to start businesses of their own and you'd end up with quite the market for potions.

His shop front was quite large and they boasted the best potion selection in the entire city. Craftsman classes weren't entirely rare, but they were certainly uncommon. Since he had been gifted with an alchemist class himself, he didn't even have to worry about finding someone to work for him, much less negotiating wages. All of his staff were purely there for organizing stock and managing the shop side of things. They'd buy herbs at the current market price, always careful not to buy too much of any one thing, and then he could work his magic, turning them into potions that could be sold for a profit.

Of course, as even his daughter knew, an alchemist class wasn't necessary in order to be capable of brewing potions. However, the types and quality of the potions would be quite limited. That was why his business had been able to thrive all this time thanks to his rather high-level alchemist class. It was only a B-rank, but that was still better than the other alchemists in the city. Anyone over C-rank weren't exactly willing to work for someone else, after all, and there were too many dungeon-based cities out there for all of the high-level alchemists to be in the same place.

There was also an additional bonus for living in a city with a dungeon that tended to focus on magic crystal mines rather than plants. While he had to pay a rather high fee to have herbs shipped in from elsewhere and to pay adventurers to collect herbs from the forest a half day's travel from the city, he could also charge rather high prices for the potions he was selling.

The value of goods were often decided in such a way. If something was in abundance, but had very few willing people willing to buy it, the price would naturally be lower. If something was difficult to get ahold of and everyone wanted to buy it, then the price would skyrocket. As cities tended to be built around dungeons, which could create an abundance of whatever it specialized in, that meant the price of goods were often decided based on what was available in said dungeons.

Setting his pen down, Nicolas went to fetch some candle wax and his seal. He would have to pay a small fee to have someone with the appropriate magic send this letter off right away. That would have to wait until the next morning, but it would still be guaranteed to get there far sooner than any wagons he might send. That was a good thing since he wanted to make sure his daughter had sufficient time to prepare the goods. He didn't want to inconvenience her, after all, as he did love her quite a bit.

He'd likely have to include some specialty potions for her as well as whatever her siblings or mother wanted to include. However, those could be sent with the wagon. Perhaps he would also include another letter for her. It would be good to have one where he could include more personal notes, unlike this one which was almost purely business. Nicolas also hoped that his daughter would send him a letter in return.

It hadn't been very long since Elivyre had arrived in Millstone, so he had only received one letter in the month or so that she had been gone. That one had mentioned that she had found somewhere to live, but that she'd have to open up shop early in order to afford the monthly rental costs. Once the shop was built, the upstairs would include a separate living area, so he knew that wouldn't be an issue for more than a year, at worst.

The more interesting bit, of course, had been just how many different plants had been available in the local dungeon. It sounded like the main issue was the lack of adventurers to collect and sell the herbs rather than any lack of abundance. She had also mentioned that she planned to take a few trips to the dungeon herself, which worried him to no end.

While he had gone into dungeons himself in order to gain the necessary experience required to increase his level and unlock more valuable class skills, he still worried for her. She was his daughter, after all, so this was only natural. Still, Nicolas was sure that he'd support her endeavors so long as she was happy.