65 Power Up (1/2)
The next day, Li Wei went back to see Moody Writer in the afternoon. Although he had collected the Goblin Blood he needed, he went to the dungeon to hunt goblins as usual to get some experience. At the end of the day, he was not too far from leveling up again when he received a message from Moody Writer, telling him to come to take his Grade 1 potions.
Li Wei was delighted to hear that and chose to return earlier than usual today. Before going to the Alchemist Association, he went to the Martial Bank at the Trade District to set up and account. All he needed to do was to present his identity crystal and fill in some papers. He needed to make a deposit and chose to put in the minimum amount, that is 10 gold. Now, he was left with only 40 gold but that was not alarming since he would soon have an influx of gold from Moody Writer.
Professions were a very lucrative business. As long as they had a good reputation, players would naturally buy their products even at high prices. The profit made from alchemy, blacksmithing and such professions exceeded 200% of their original cost and that was when taking into consideration the probability of failure.
The NPC that took the gold from Li Wei displayed a gloomy expression for a moment but politely accepted the deposit and issued a bank card to Li Wei. In his mind, he was thinking that the customer in front of him was just some poor peasant trying to boast by having a bank account.
The bank card was similar to the ones in the original world and could be used for transactions. On top of Li Wei's Bronze card, a ”10” was displayed showing the amount of money he had in his bank account. It sounded useless to have this card since players could keep their gold through the system's inventory as it did not take any inventory slot but had a separate one allocated to it. But that was only for now! Updates would come in the future that would change everything.
With his bank account settled, Li Wei went to the Alchemist Association and was promptly given access to Moody Writer's room. Today, he was renting a different room. It had the same effect as the one of yesterday. Moody Writer liked to take weekly leases of a room and so, would have to often change room.
As soon as he entered, he was greeted by Moody Writer who was lying on the carpet wearing a tired expression. As he saw Li Wei enter, he quickly tried to stand up and adjust his posture.
”It's good that you came! I just finished this Mind Strengthening Potion!” said Moody Writer. He spent most of the day refining the potions he needed to give Li Wei. He was lucky enough to successfully concoct the first two on his first try but the remaining three ones took at least 2 tries each to complete. Refining this type of potion could take from 30 minutes to one hour but even refining just one was taxing to the body and mind. The potion needed to be kept at a high temperature for the ingredients to dissolve properly; it was like staying in front of a strong kitchen fire for hours.
He quickly took out 5 bottles from his inventory and placed them in front of him before initiating a trade with Li Wei. The bottles each contained a different potion of different colour, namely: a Body Strengthening Potion, a Body Cleansing Potion, a Body Refining Potion, a Mind Strengthening Potion and finally a Spirit Strengthening Potion. All of them were grade 1 and gave 1 Strength, 1 Vitality, 1 Dexterity, 1 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom respectively.
Li Wei naturally accepted the trade without hesitation and looked at the 5 potions closely. He quickly placed the Body Strengthening Potion in his inventory; he did not need it since he already consumed one at Elder Jari's place. Its effect would only work once, drinking more of it would only be a waste but he could sell it to someone else for 100 gold later on.
Following that, he grabbed the Body Cleansing Potion and took off the cap. Technically, the potion would remove part of the impurities and unwanted residues from his body allowing him to improve his vitality. He quickly downed the bottle and a system prompt came up:
[System prompt: you have consumed a Body Cleansing Potion, your vitality has increased by 1]
Li Wei smiled, these 4 potions would boost his power to some extent. He really envied the rich who could easily afford these potions and obtain free stats points.
Seeing Li Wei's action, Moody Writer, who was watching Li Wei carelessly drink, said: ”This is just a piece of advice, but you should be careful in the future and not carelessly drink potions like that!”
”What do you mean by that?” asked Li Wei while curiously looking at the alchemist.
”Although most alchemists are honest, some of them might tamper the potions. For example, even if the name looks the same, the effects might actually be slightly different like having some additional negative effects due to the poor manufacture of the product. But the more sinister alchemists might go as far as alter the description of the product or create placebos. This is mainly done by poison masters but there are some alchemists that do so and in the end, players would consume these fake potions. You should be careful! Some might be harmless and only look for your money, but some might have other intentions so be careful whenever you consume a potion!” explained Moody Writer.
Hearing that, Li Wei froze for a moment, only one month went by since the start of the game and people were already finding ways to do shady businesses. He needed to be more careful from now on, ”then how can I trust people?”
”The best solution is to naturally become an alchemist yourself, but you can go and ask other alchemists and appraisers to examine the products! There is naturally a small risk and fee, but these things are inevitable! You can also write a contract every time so that the alchemist won't actively try to scam you”
Li Wei held a suspicious look and nodded. After a few seconds, he chose to trust Moody Writer and drank the Body Refining Potion. This potion technically tempered and improved his sensory system as well as his nervous system resulting in better body coordination and reaction time.
[System prompt: you have consumed a Body Refining Potion, your dexterity has increased by 1]
He drank the potions one by one in front of Moody Writer and his Intelligence and Wisdom also increased by one.
...
After leaving the Alchemist Association, Li Wei decided to go to the Colosseum and increase his win streak a little more. He left Moody Writer's room after leaving behind his bank account number and sort code so that he could directly deposit the money into his bank account. The two had more trust in each other after Li Wei drank the potions, he was glad to see Li Wei drink his potions even after he warned him about possible scammers.
Over the past few days, Li Wei came back to the Colosseum twice and pushed his winning streak count to ten. For each of his wins, he climbed up one rank and was now at Silver 5. With a 10 win streak, he was rewarded with 20 gold but that money was quickly used at the Prosperity Hall to lower Li Wei's fatigue level.