Chapter9-Business is Picking Up!

Flora and Alice walked hand in hand toward the largest, wealthiest city nearby. The city was home to many mercenary groups, a mage tower, and countless people seeking ways to enhance their abilities.

For the next while, the two sisters focused on promoting Owen's pub. Thanks to their relentless efforts and the appeal of two powerful beauties, customers began trickling into Owen's pub!

This made Owen incredibly happy.

"Welcome to Red Spark! What would you like to drink? We have a variety of delicious cocktails and some special fruit mocktails for minors," Owen said, smiling warmly as he greeted a customer who had just entered, now dressed in slightly more formal attire.

"I'd like to have—hmm? Wait a minute!" The young warrior who had entered the legendary pub stared wide-eyed at the drinks on the bar.

There, several brightly colored cocktails were lined up.

Owen had made these during his free time, hoping to entice new customers with a display of options.

"Are these your drinks?" The young warrior's demeanor changed as he pointed to one. "How much for this one?" he asked, nervously squeezing his coin pouch, which contained only three hundred gold coins he had painstakingly saved up. He wasn't sure if it would be enough.

"That one has a low alcohol content and is pretty simple to mix, so I'll charge you three gold coins," Owen said, only to see the young warrior freeze in place.

"Three gold coins?" The young warrior nearly screamed.

"Uh, yeah," Owen responded, a bit uneasy. Was the price too high?

Lately, not many customers had been buying the drinks. And when they did, it was usually only the lowest-alcohol options. The drink this new customer had picked was the most alcoholic anyone had chosen so far.

"Here! Take it—three gold coins!" The young warrior quickly stuffed the coins into Owen's hand as if afraid he'd change his mind, then swiftly took the drink. "You sold it to me, so no take-backs!"

Owen watched as the new customer retreated to a corner, cradling the drink and sipping it slowly. With each sip, he closed his eyes and shivered, as though savoring the ultimate pleasure.

This gave Owen a great sense of accomplishment.

But the patrons sitting nearby clearly noticed the surging mana radiating from the young warrior.

"Lucky guy, he can actually handle the impact of mana liquid," the patrons whispered to one another.

"I can only handle the fries. Those things are amazing—not only delicious but they leveled me up from Base to Mid."

"That makes me want to cry," said an elderly man with graying hair, who glanced gratefully toward Owen at the bar. "I thought I'd never break through Tier-2, and when I heard the rumors about this pub, I came just to give it a try."

"But after eating a plate of fries, I actually became a Tier-2 mage! Owen is a god to people like me!"

"Too bad my level is too low to drink the mana liquid cocktails. I heard the strongest mana liquid only costs ten gold coins."

Owen didn't hear their conversation. As a proper pub owner, he wouldn't eavesdrop on his customers' private discussions.

But despite the increase in patrons, Owen still had some concerns.

After cleaning up the bar, he sat down, petting his cat as he mumbled to himself, "It's so strange. Why doesn't anyone seem to enjoy drinking?"

Most of his customers would pause to stare at the cocktails, then hesitate and end up ordering the weakest one. No one showed any interest in the stronger drinks, the ones Owen took the most pride in.

This worried him a little.

"Maybe in this world, the custom is that people just don't like to drink?"

Fries, on the other hand, were unexpectedly popular. Everyone seemed to love fries without exception.

"I guess it's because of the sisters' promotions," Owen mused, scratching his head. "Maybe because I only gave them fries, they focused on promoting that."

As a result, everyone who entered asked for fries first.

Owen found it a little amusing but also a bit frustrating.

"If I had known, I would've given them a wider variety of food to try," Owen sighed. "I'm a pretty good cook, but now I don't have the chance to show off."

Opening a drawer, Owen counted the gold coins inside, and his mood lifted.

Not bad, not bad—this is just the beginning, and I've already saved up around eighty gold coins! He lovingly stroked the shiny coins, his mind drifting off into fantasies.

Since customers didn't seem to like high-alcohol drinks, he'd focus on making low-alcohol ones instead.

He'd serve them alongside fries.

Occasionally, he'd host tasting events with new foods.

"Hahaha, at least every customer leaves with a satisfied smile. That means they'll come back again—and maybe even bring friends and family."

"With things going like this, I'll make more and more money."

"Soon, I'll expand the pub, build a nice mansion on the mountain, and open branches in all the major cities."

"If people don't like alcohol now, I'll gradually cultivate their taste for it. Just like introducing cola to a new market, I'll become the greatest liquor merchant in this world!"

These sweet dreams were too intoxicating.

Owen felt his future was dazzlingly bright.

With a large fortune, he wouldn't need to be a mage or a warrior. He could hire the best bodyguards.

Then he'd travel the world, enjoy the best food and drinks, and throw parties every day, living the life of a wealthy tycoon.

"Meow!" The Siamese cat nipped at Owen's hand in protest.

It turned out that he had been so caught up in his daydream that he'd drooled onto the cat's fur. If the cat didn't love Owen, it probably would've smacked him with its tail.

And so, Owen continued to enjoy several good days.

Most of the customers who came had recently awakened their mana cores. They came hoping to improve their abilities, had small savings, but didn't know any powerful figures, so they took a chance.

Little did they expect that the legendary pub actually had magical items that could help them level up.

And the owner, just as the rumors described, clearly possessed immense strength yet was down-to-earth and content with being a simple pub owner.

This was also the real reason why Owen's stronger drinks weren't selling.

The customers were mostly low-level. It wasn't that they didn't want the stronger mana liquid cocktails—it was that they couldn't handle them. Even a low-alcohol cocktail was the limit for most of them.

However, not long after, Owen started to notice something strange.

"Avel, something's weird," Owen muttered as he stood in the doorway of the pub, staring down the road. "Why are fewer people coming lately?"

The Siamese cat meowed a few times and lay down at Owen's feet.

The road ahead was completely empty.

For some reason, fewer and fewer people had been visiting the pub lately. Starting two days ago, no one had shown up at all.

"Did I do something wrong?" Owen wondered, deep in thought. "No, everyone liked the fries, and they said the price was very reasonable."

"And that old man with the white beard—he promised to bring a few friends."

"Ahhh, what's going on?!"

Owen stood there from dawn until dusk, his neck aching from all the waiting, yet not a single customer showed up.

He slumped into a lounge chair, suddenly losing his motivation.

Running a business was harder than he thought.

He didn't even know what had caused this sudden change.

"I've decided! Sitting around doing nothing won't solve anything," Owen declared, grabbing his adorable cat and burying his face in its soft fur, inhaling deeply. "If no one shows up tomorrow, we'll go for a walk."

Maybe something was happening nearby that he didn't know about.

Going out would not only lift his spirits but also give him a chance to gather information.

And who knows—he might even find something valuable.

Yawning, Owen felt exhausted after a whole day of waiting. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep in the lounge chair.

As his gentle snores filled the air, the Siamese cat slipped out of his arms.

It fetched a soft, warm blanket, gently draping it over Owen before curling up under the blanket and resting its head on Owen's arm, drifting off to sleep as well.

But what Owen didn't know was that, beyond the mountain, a terrifying rumor about him was spreading like wildfire.