It wasn't even one tenth of the size of the Lockheart impact, and the building was only three storey high. William looked at Thomas in doubt, and the latter felt what his master wanted to say.
"I told you; they aren't that big compared to the Big Seven," Thomas said in his defence, "this place… It's the best place here in the entire fort."
"You got to be kidding me," William returned to look at the building which had a sign with a name: The Seven Heaven.
"It's indeed the best place to buy potions and pills in the entire Scorching Lands!"
Just as William was a bit hesitant, a middle-aged man approached from within. He was slim, with a head that had almost no hair at all. He moved out from the building, while wearing a white coat with a stigma on his right chest.
William saw a big silver cloud, with the number seven in the middle of it, made with golden threads.
"Is that so?" William felt more unsure about this, "how about elixirs? Do you have lots of it?"
"Well…" When William said his piece, the face of this dude changed slightly, "we got enough to supply the needs of a hundred men if that's what you are after."
"A hundred? Only a hundred?" William was taken aback by this.
"We sell them at a high price," the middle-aged man sighed, "and there isn't that much demand for them. So, it's a waste to just overproduce them. However, if you sir needs any pills or potions, we got as many as you want."
"Hmm…" William looked at the place, as if he was weighing it again, before returning to the middle-aged man, "is it just this place? Or you got other branches around?"
"No, this is the only branch we got."
"I see…" William started to have a certain idea in his mind. "I never thought alchemy was this ill-treated in this place…"
William got a point here. After all, this place wasn't the academy, but the main fort of the Scorching Lands. Lots of merchants passed through here, and lots of forces took this place as their base.
So William couldn't get why alchemy here looked this bad. But this wasn't a bad thing to him. In fact, he even hoped the same situation would be the same for artisans.
But he doubted this would be the case.
"Sigh! People here… They either come from distant places with their own supplies, or they just look down on our craftsmanship. That's why our business sucks, and we can't even hire more talents or keep the ones we have from leaving."
William's eyes shone when he heard that, a sign that Thomas noticed and couldn't help but roll his eyes in response to it. He felt like a fox just got invited into the farm of sheep.
And that made Thomas give that middle-aged man a look filled with empathy.
William entered the shop of this place, and there he found many items offered on five different counters, with only three customers there.
Just seeing this told him how bad the alchemy in this place was.
"How can I help sir?" the middle-aged man stopped by William's side, while feeling little pride in the collection inside this place, "as sir can tell, we got lots of potions and pills…"
"I only want elixirs," William repeated his request again, "tell me, what elixirs do you have?"
"Well…" the man seemed a bit hesitant, before he went to one counter, got a scroll from it, and returned to William, "everything we got is listed in here, with the amount we can deliver."
"This… Only this?!!" William knew it was bad, but not that bad. When he opened the scroll, he got to see just seven names, with two digits beside each name.
"Ahem, aren't they enough?" the man in front of William felt weird. If not for him catching the news that spread like wildfire, the news about an eleven years old kid and what he did back at the nearby fox cursed residence, then this dude wouldn't have taken the initiative and went to meet William up.
"Well… I want one of the elixirs in the list, however…" William wanted to say that these elixirs, despite covering up all the essential needs of any spirit masters, were a disgrace for the reputation of elixirs.
Elixirs were supposed to be a higher-grade form of alchemy, one step higher than potions and pills. They weren't the best out there in the outer world, but they got their reputation regardless.
Elixirs were famous to cover up areas where human strength lacked. For example, there were elixirs that would grant anyone powers that he'd never be able to get by normal means.
Be it spirit elements, spirit affinities, and even spirit power… Elixirs were just the first magical product alchemists managed to produce in the spirit masters' long history.
And this… Whenever he saw the list, and no matter how hard he tried to give reasons for the alchemists here, he couldn't help but feel pathetic and disdainful.
Even he could do much better than this, if he got enough time and resources indeed.
"Then why are you speaking like this list lacks a lot?" That dude didn't want to kick such a fat customer away. But at the same time, he didn't like the attitude William showed.
"Because it's lacking a lot," William's eyes turned fierce.
"Speaking as someone who knows alchemy," the man scoffed, "this is the fort, a place where people love to train and learn fighting techniques, but no alchemy! Do you know how hard it is to nourish just a few disciples? Just to hire a few masters? If we got the ability, then we'd have done more than this!"
"I agree," William knew all these reasons made sense, "but that isn't enough as an excuse," he paused, looked around, as the little customers here got attracted by the discussion that was going on here, "if it was me, I'd have turned this place into a truly formidable and wealthy place, one that can rival any of the Big Seven."
"Empty words!"
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel