ALL NOVEL Unexpected Encounter
I had arrived back at Old Man’s shop and walked in.
“Welcome to my…Ah! Gwyn. Nice to see you again.”
“Hey, Old Man. I’m here for some more training.”
“Good, come, and let me see how your harvesting skills are.”
I follow him out to his garden again. I spend a few minutes harvesting different plants using some of the techniques I know.
“Good. Now I can teach you the [Apothecary] skill. Follow me to my lab.”
We walk through a hidden door in the shop and walk down a flight of stairs. We come to another door with several locks on it. Old Man pulls out a key and unlocks each lock. I step into a large room filled with all kinds of contraptions, even what looks like the thing blacksmiths use.
“So our first lesson today is on preparing the ingredients for making a potion. We will start with a minor health potion.”
“First step is to take this red cap mushroom and grind it with this mortar and pestle. For this particular potion, we need the mushroom to be fresh and not dried.”
I spent some time practicing with grinding fresh mushrooms into a paste. It was a lot harder than I would expect.
“Good. Next, we will take this square cloth and place our ground mushroom inside of it. Next, we will take some white lotus petals and tear them up and add them to the paste.”
“After that is done, we will fold the corners together and tie it. We will then add these bags to our boiling water and brew it for about a half-hour.”
We had about five bags in a large pot, just floating there. While those were brewing, I followed Old Man around the lab as he explained some of his equipment. Once the tour was done, we came back to the pot.
“Looks like everything is done here. Now we take the bags out and skim the top of the liquid to get the foam and other impurities out of it.”
I help in scooping up all the stuff floating in at the top, and once we are done, we then pour the potion into bottles.
“Here you go. I’ll give you five bottles for your help in making these. Since you are my pupil, you can come here and use the lab for yourself. All I ask is you use your ingredients as that will be more productive in your training.”
“Thanks, Old Man. I will take you up on that offer.”
“Your Welcome. Once you have gained more experience, I will teach you some more advanced things.”
I leave the shop around the afternoon and check out the notification I received.
You have learned a new skill!
Apothecary [Rank E] (Passive) Make potions of the same rank with 40% success. Potions of higher rank at 10% success.
(Now I just need to figure out how to sell things.)
I look at the potion I made and view it with my [Analyze] skill.
Potion of Minor Health: Heals 5% of max HP. Stops bleeding.
I decided to go to the Adventurer’s Hall and see what kind of jobs they had there. I walk up to the building and realize it is quite large. I walk in and see lots of other players around, noted by the green sphere above their heads.
Using [Analyze], I find some of the other players have interesting names. I catch a few in a conversation, and I listen in only because they mentioned potions.
FAHQ iOnly PVP: “So I heard that the NPCs that sell potions have only limited stock, and once they are out, they won’t be sold anymore.”
Lord Dingus: “I heard the same thing about blacksmiths and other types of NPCs that sell goods.”
Thor237: “What! Why is that?”
FAHQ iOnly PVP: “It’s to promote the player economy and simulate the NPCs going out of business because of the crafter type players.”
Looking at all the names, I laugh to myself as I guess I was too serious with my name. Well, there was Lenora as well. I think some people are different. I heard Yuki say NPCs before, from what I understand NPC are the people who are not players. If what those three said is true, I could make some money by selling my stuff once they go out of business.
I walk up to what I think is a receptionist and ask him about jobs.
“Excuse me. I’m kind of new here. How do I take jobs?”
“First, you need a certificate from one of the three schools. You will then be given an Adventurer License.”
“I got a hunter certificate here.” I pull the certificate out and hand it to the man.
He looks over it before pulling out what looks like an electronic tablet and handing me my certificate.
“Everything looks to be in order. Just fill out the form on this device. Also, if you would scan your certificate, so we have it on file.”
I fill out the form, which is pretty basic. It asks for my name, race, gender, and profession. Confused by what profession means, I ask the attendant.
“What is a profession?”
“That is something like your job; I have heard some of the other people here refer to it as a ‘Build’ whatever that means.”
“Can this be changed later?”
“Yes, it can. Seeing as more and more ascended are arriving, and how they can change races quite easily, we have changed our policies.”
I nod my head and complete the rest of the form. I had decided to put ranger as my profession since Lenora told me that my current build is like a ranger. Once I got to the gender section, only a small part of me was crying as filled that out.
Name: Gwyndolyn (Gwyn)
Race: Elf
Gender: Futa
Profession: Ranger
“I’m done, here you go.” I had said as I hand the man back the tablet.
“Wait here a moment. I will have your license ready in a few.”
Shortly afterward, I had my license. It looked very similar to government IDs in real life. It even had my photo on there too. Next to my picture was a large letter E.
“As you can see from the license, you start at rank E. As you take more jobs, that rank will increase, which will allow you to take the harder requests. The higher your rank, the higher the rewards you can get.”
“To apply for a request, simply go over to one of our terminals over there. You just need to swipe your card and select one. You can post your own request as well. You will also be required to deposit the reward and fees at the same time.”
I thank the attendant and walk over to a terminal. I was browsing through the menu and noticed there were various options besides requests. I could cash my gold out from here as well as put items up on auction as well.
I decide to cash out my gold to real currency. I find out that the ratio has changed to 12 gold to every dollar. I dump in 700 gold and get back about 58 dollars. I need to find a way to make money quicker.
Browsing through the jobs, I hear a familiar voice call out to me.
“Hey Gwyn!”
“Ah! Lenora, what are you doing?”
“I got my Fighters Certificate and decided to come here and take requests.”
“That’s great! Want to join me?”
???: “What about me? Cant I join you”
Hearing another voice, I turn around and see the catgirl I had the bath encounter with standing next to me.
“Ahh! It’s you!”
“Well that’s rude, you know. I was so heartbroken after our fun in the bath when you ran away, you know.”
Lenora, looking confused, spoke to me.
“Who is she?”
“Ah well…you see…she, uh.”