Morissa and Donis went to the morning market the very next day. Morissa was already told by Donis of his little plan to make money for himself, and she was all for it. Donis though knew that technically the money was unnecessary because Corvig told him that they'd provide him with the required materials, but this was a matter of a young mans pride.
He wanted to prove to himself and to everyone who'll doubt him, that he is a self sufficient man. Not that he actually has anyone to prove anything to nor the fact that he's not a man yet either. But the pride remains, however unbased.
The streets were filled with the shouts and screams of kids, the forging of metals, the bartering of the locals and the ever so present stink of the locals.
'God, I can't believe this place actually stinks so bad. How in the world does the food not get tainted by that horrendous nose-vomit,' thought Donis.
The two looked around for a place that sold potions, pills, or reagents, or any sort of alchemical ingredient. They even looked around for an adventurer or two just in case they'd find someone injured. Yet that day seemed to be entirely empty of those merchants and wares.
An idea popped into Donis's mind, as he was still unshaken in his quest to scam some old tools. He looked around for any sort of old man, or woman that he could walk up to and offer them his [Pill of Healing – Level-0].
He saw them. His prey.
'Nine o'clock, a man and a woman, presumably wed, late 70's visually. Shallow wound on the mans leg. Seems to be healing well already, maybe this can help close it up further. Must investigate further, suspect moving, continuing pursuit,' thought Donis to himself, impersonating an agent he'd seen in his past life.
His mother noticed him moving with weird motions, and facial expressions. She decided to let him off and enjoy his youth, she knew kids loved playing dumb scenarios out in their heads. To her Donis's antics were just that, antics.
"Si- Sir! Sir, may I take a moment of your time sir! I'm trying to sell this pill here, but none of the vendors here deal with pills or potions, so I thought maybe you'd like to buy it off me? I think it might help your leg sir," said Donis with the cutest and most shy expression he could muster.
The mans heart melted right then and there. This youth was out here trying to sell this pill, and yet here he saw his wound, and immediately ran over to help.
'Youth these days are definitely not all bad, god how I wish my shitty child were like this one here. So selfless, no greed in their eyes at all!' thought the old man.
'Oh god I'm going to scam him fucking good. He's so fallen for these puppy eyes,' Donis laughed mentally.
"Sure kid, how much are you charging for the pill?" said the man.
"Uhh.. well it cost me uhh.. 10 Erzi to make this, so how about 14 Erzi sir?" said Donis in a very uncertain tone.
"Hmm, that's pretty cheap if it can heal this leg! Sure, I'll make it 15 Erzi, just to round it out for you kid," said the old man with a smile on his face.
"Thanks sir, here, I hope it helps you!" said Donis.
As the two finished their transaction, Donis skipped away, entirely overjoyed with his encounter. He knew he scammed the man, but he was glad that he could at least help a little, while also helping himself a little.
Donis made his way over to his mother, while the old man spoke to his wife.
"Why did you buy that fake pill off the boy for 15 whole Erzi? That's a nasty dent in our budget for food for the day, you know that Kevin!" scowled the woman.
"Yes, yes, but look, the kid seemed so genuine, maybe it's actually a real healing pill. Lord Drayvus knows we need a healer in this place," said Kevin while laughing a little.
He threw the pill back and swallowed it dry. As soon as it entered his body, the pill immediately took effect and healed the wound on the mans leg. The two looked at each other in actual shock, unable to comprehend that a child just sold them a real healing pill. A real healing pill.
They ran after Donis and Morissa unable to believe what they had just experienced. Donis was busy buying more materials with the 15 Erzi he now owned. He wanted to check out how much money he himself could make if he tried to do this from scratch and not just with the materials provided from the Academy. It was a sort of personal goal.
-Ding!-
-[Growth-Quest]: Make 5,000 Erzi.
Reward: [Title – Choose One] + [300SP]
'Huh, a growth quest for setting personal goals? Interesting. Maybe I can use and or abuse this sort of thing? Make a hundred personal goals and watch the system rake in the SP for me... Hmm... What if I-' his thoughts were cut off as the old couple caught up.
"Young lad, were you the one that made that pill?" wheezed out the man.
"Uh, yes? I was," answered Donis meekly. He was actually slightly afraid that the pill was defective, or he overcharged them for what they got and they came back seeking some sort of refund.
Morissa gave Donis a look of uncertainty before answering, "Yes, he did. Is there something wrong? We can give you compensation if the pill was defective."
"Wrong? No Lord Drayvus no, it's but a miracle! He charged only 15 Erzi for a pill that actually healed my wound! It would have taken me another week to heal this, or it may have potentially even worsened at my age!" beamed back the man, clearly impressed by this child.
Donis's face lit up at the comment, he knew that this was his ticket.
"I would have been charged an easy 80 Erzi for that pill at my local healers! 15 Erzi is nearly a steal! Thank you so much young lad, if we ever have troubles again, do you mind if we come to you?" said the woman this time.
"Of course! But I'll still have to charge you!" beamed back Donis with the cutest smile he could.
"No worries young man! We'll spread the good word too if you don't mind," said Kevin to Morissa.
She just merely nodded, confused by the whole interaction more than anything. Donis then went on to explain to his mom about how he initially thought he was scamming them, but it turned out that he actually sold them something so expensive for so cheap.
She at first was angry at Donis for trying to cheat old people, 'they're such sweethearts' was her argument, but eventually she calmed down. Deciding to tell Korrin about this and discuss further ideas with the whole family.
***
At the Laurents home.
The family had sat around the table and Morissa had just finished explaining what had happened at the market in the morning. Korrin was ecstatic at first about the revelation that his son is actually practicing [Alchemy], even if it was level-0. The notoriously difficult job had an incredible payout, which was already seen by Donis.
The family knew that if Donis wanted to make money out of it, he couldn't be the one selling it. He'd be ripped off, stolen from, or worse they'd threaten him. He's 10, and not some intimidating figure people couldn't push around.
Donis tried to propose a plan where Korrin would go in and sell the pills he'd make at the Academy. Morissa was all over the idea because it would give her some mornings to actually rest, and allow her husband who never does the morning shopping to actually go out and FINALLY do it for her.
Korrin agreed, although with his usual sour face plastered on well. Donis knew he'd have to make plenty of these pills, and if the quest is truly linked to his personal ambition, then he couldn't use the ingredients the Academy will provide him. He hoped he still would be able to use the equipment there, as that was never a part of his initial ambition.
He hoped at least.
***
At the Academy, later that day.
Donis was on his lunch break once more, pressing pills like there's no tomorrow. Well, there was a tomorrow, and he only had enough to Erzi to buy the materials for 3 more pills. It wasn't much, but with exponential growth of the pill cost requirements, and the selling price, he'd make enough money for lots of pills soon enough.
He didn't even know how much of a market there was for these pills. He knew next to nothing about what's the status of healing in this world. If he had anything to go on, it was the fact that the old man had told him that normal pills like this cost at least 80 Erzi. It gave him hope that such a low level pill would be easily accessible to the masses.
After lunch, Donis went to his usual evening classes of Physical Training, and Weapon Class. Nothing overtly exciting happened in these as the physical training was just that, and the weapons class was currently in the process of furthering the knowledge of weaponry in the world and their uses. It was definitely an interesting class, as they opened up Donis's mind on how this worlds combat worked.
All of this was nothing compared to the excitement Donis felt when walking into the Genius class though. He had barely had a nibble of it, yet he was ravenous beyond belief.
Corvig was already seated when Donis arrived, and without waiting too long, the whole class had gathered. There were papers already waiting for everyone on the desk in front of them, the same ones as the previous class. They were still reading what each job did, and what people should be looking at for their potential futures.
Corvig explained that the process of each class will be to currently understand what each profession did, and what their base uses are. Only moving on once the whole class has a deeper understanding of these professions will they move on.
Donis had begun eyeing the [Runeforger] parchment, as his dad was supposedly a relatively accomplished one.
It didn't so much as go into further detail as to what a [Runeforger] is, but more so into their differences between things such as [Spellwriter] and [Enchanter]. He found out that the key differences were actually pretty minute, but very important. Runes aren't the same as enchantments, and they're even more different to spells.
Runes are the conduits to the power behind spells on physical objects but are not spells themselves. They're like the mana pathways that are carved and forged into objects that create effects or skills when imbued with mana, or a power source, such as a mana-crystal.
Enchantments are spells that bolster the stats, or attributes of items. They can also create some special effects, but they mostly deal with just raw stats. They're a specific subset of skills and abilities that are hard to make, because of their non-intuitive nature.
[Spellwriter] on the other hand, they craft understandable spells. They either spend their lives on creating a series of spells, or translating the language of mana into common tongue, or create talismans and tomes as a profession. Tomes and talismans fetch a high coin, but the people who tend to be [Spellwriters] seldom care for Erzi, their real passion lays in the beauty and art of a carefully written tome.
Feeling somewhat more knowledgeable on the whole subject, Donis felt somewhat proud of his old man. He knew his dad was cool, yet it still surprised him.
The class had ended, and Donis this time was first in line. He had one question he needed answered and he could wait no longer.
"Sir, I have had a burning question in me since the last time. What do you mean there are trillions of worlds and how have none of them reached the [Origin] Mana State?"
Corvig smiled at Donis's inquisitive nature.
"I meant that there are so many trillions of worlds blessed by the Mana Star, that not even those closest to it have achieved the [Origin] Mana State. It is so notoriously difficult, that even with all those people, being so close to the Origin of Mana itself, no one has yet achieved that."