AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 5, Summer, First Month, Third Week.

“I’m not gonna pay you anything, your ungrateful bastard…”

Mason didn’t try to evade the punch as he knew by experience that it would only make the other party beat him more. Fortunately, the Adventurer left after knocking him down and didn’t pursue the matter any longer.

Two weeks after arriving at AP, Mason decided to do the craziest thing he could think of, make a group of Adventurers mad and abandon his Kingdom to work on a hamlet in the middle of the Eastern Forest.

His parents would probably try to stop him, but he couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. When he stepped on the boat, he could already tell this place wasn’t ordinary, but after seeing the extent of their uniqueness, his notion of the world changed completely. AP defied everything he knew, how such a place existed and was managed by only ten people?

Even though his group only gave him one portion of the cheapest meal on the menu per day, it was the best thing he had eaten in his entire life. The second most wonderful thing of AP was how much money circled here. Being it the local currency (crystals) or the Kingdom’s coins, he saw more money being exchanged daily than he could count. The services here were super expensive, but the Adventurers paid happily.

Last week, for example, the Adventurers almost fought for the right to buy the expensive AP potions. Actually, from what Mason heard, the potions were less expensive than the ones sold by the Sacred Order, but that was still a lot of money for him. Starting from the detoxifying potion that was sold in two qualities for 10 and 20 crystals, the wound healing ointment that cost 30 crystals, and the vitality potion, which many called life-saving, sold for 50 crystals.

The potions sold out as soon as they were announced. Strangely, nobody hesitated or questioned the authenticity of the potions. After experiencing AP’s mighty, they wouldn’t dare to do it. Fortunately, the manager gave every Adventurer a chance to get one of each potion before allowing others to buy more. But, of course, this was only a one-time thing, next time, they would need to get the potions by themselves.

Mason was very curious to see the potions in action. Four days ago, when he accompanied the Adventurers group for the last time, he secretly wished for someone to get at least a cut. Thankfully, wounds were common amongst Adventurers, and someone had to use the wound healing potion. The results were better than they expected and shocked everybody. So, when they heard another group telling that the vitality potion brought one of them back from the death’s door, they believed.

Initially, he was only fascinated by the place and didn’t dare to do something about it. Although his group was earning three to four times more than they were used to, his payment as a porter would stay at 20 silvers, which was a lot for the old Mason. But new Mason was hoked by the amount of money passing in front of his eyes every day. So, he started to think about how he could get at least a small part of this treasure.

That’s when he realized something fundamental about AP, putting aside the fantastic food, any other typical service, being it lodging, repairs, entertainment, was overcharged. The Adventurers weren’t paying for a beer and soft bed. They were paying for all of these in the middle of the forest. So, as long as he could offer a service the Adventurers wanted, he would be able to overcharge them too.

Then, he observed that very few groups had porters, probably because it wasn’t easy to find people resistant to poisoning and poor enough to accept such a dangerous job. So in those groups, the weakest person would carry the menial tasks, like cleaning their gear and clothes, getting them fixed, organizing their stuff, and other dozens of small but annoying small tasks.

In fact, AP could earn some good extra money if they offered these additional services, but they probably didn’t have the numbers to do it. So Mason started to wake up earlier to finish his group’s tasks fast and later offer to take care of other groups in his free time. In one month, he managed to take extra work eight times and save 23 crystals. Although he was almost working himself to death, he got more than he would earn with the regular porter job.

If he focused on offering the services full-time, he would earn more than 150 crystals per month. Of course, he would need to pay for his lodging and food, but that would cost him less than 100 crystals. So, he would be saving 50 crystals every month, which was more than a city Guard earned.

Mason brood over this for a week until he finally worked out the courage to look for Keller. He took the risk of being denounced to his group and asked the Merchant how much he would charge to bring his parents from Hurricane City. Keller got curious about the porter’s motives and said that he would only do it if Mason explained his reasons. After hearing about the boy’s endeavors in AP, Keller made a mental note to keep an eye on the boy before promising that he would bring his parents for free.

The boy only believed when the Merchant explained that AP needed capable workers. So, he was actually doing it for the place and not to help a stranger. Now, Mason could only wait to see if his parents would believe in Keller and chose to come. To improve his chances, he told the Merchant about some personal events that only his family knew. He also bought two detoxifying potions and asked Keller to give them to his parents if they decided to come.

Only after the deal with the Merchant, Mason decided to break ties with his group. But, of course, they didn’t react well. Although they would save some coins, it couldn’t compare to the convenience of having someone to exploit. So, the boy accepted the punch and the humiliation but was finally free to earn money.

If his family came, Mason would rent a small hut just for them, but he would be renting a room in one of the shared huts until it happened. After buying the potions, he only had three crystals, which would only be enough to pay for two days of rent and a simple meal. Even so, he wasn’t afraid, now he only needed to work hard, and the crystals would start falling on his hands.

And that’s what he did. Mason would wake early every day to clean equipment or take it to get fixed, wake up some clients, sometimes even bring them food, prepare their things for a hunt, deliver messages, clean their huts, and finally wash their clothes at night. Soon, he became known by all Adventurers, and most would request his services. He would earn no less than three crystals on a bad day, but he could make as much as ten crystals on busy days.

The future was still uncertain, but Mason was sure of one thing. AP was now his home, and he would never regret coming here.