'After all, I need to start becoming independent, so each one of those people is a potential customer.'
'You're finally going to start selling your inventions to people? I thought I'd never see the day.' Spirit's goal was always to get my inventions distributed.
'Oh shut up, you knew it would happen when I was ready.'
I landed at the classroom for alchemy, and for once, there was no "you're late" or "you're early" I walked in and took my seat, no dialogue at all occurred until all of the students were seated.
"My name is Professor Kesde, Ingen. I will be your instructor and you will not miss a single class from now on or you will face harsh consequences."
There was a subtle power behind each of his words, like he was a mountain and you were but a pebble, yet not a shred of conceit plagued his voice.
"It won't happen again, sir," I said in my 'innocent pebble' voice.
"Good, now let's begin. The process of alchemy combines the physical properties of the two substances used, however, you must infuse your will into the process to decide which properties win over the others. For example, if you were to combine water and tree bark, your will would be what decides whether the final solution will be solid or liquid."
"Interesting, I wonder what happens when one of the ingredients is a solution." I thought out loud, forgetting I wasn't in my lab.
"Ahem, Ingen, keep your musings to yourself." It felt like the professor was going to kill me.
"Yes, professor." I heard a faint sniggering fall over the room.
"Although your thinking is that of an alchemist, so I'll let it slide. The rest of you shut your trap, your thinking is that of the humans, brutish and dumb." Professor Kesde let his beliefs spill into his class for a second.
'I thought I was going to get another teacher who I could trust, but this guy is so going to be on the other side when we take over this country.'
'When? Not if? You seem sure of yourself.' Spirit tried to ground me, but I wanted to fly.
'Well we either win or I die, and if I die, nothing matters so I may as well bank on winning.'
'Fair point, but you could always go the route of not overthrowing the government.'
'Ah sorry got to get to class.' I avoided Spirit for the rest of class
"Now we turn on the burner and then we..." Kesde continued
'This is the only supernatural process I've learned here that isn't connected to Eneru, you only need will-power to change the properties, adding Eneru while doing the actual alchemy ruins the concoction.' I thought while he explained how to use the tools we were given.
The lesson went on, and I learned a bit about alchemy, it was time for me to go to my workshop and begin making my inventions for the public.
"First on the ticket are the Airstep Boots, I'm sure that people will appreciate the 'double jump' function of those. Next is the Windcutter Glider, with enchantments for safety and comfort, I could confidently sell them to anyone without worrying about them breaking their neck. After that, we have the Icebox, an invention that keeps food from rotting. Finally, I've devised a set of Golem-strength Gloves that can enhance the user's strength a bit."
The pen I enchanted to transcribe what I say lay still on the page, its task finished.
"Maybe that too, hmm... Scribewrite? Nah, Autoquill? Nah, I got it, Speakwrite! Write that down." The pen animated itself and wrote its name down with impeccable accuracy.
With a flick of my wrist, a section of my workshop became a storefront, and I got to work, mass-producing the products that would decorate it. After ten minutes, people started to take notice of the new storefront, and soon they formed a line.
The sign in front read
INGEN'S INGENIOUS INVENTIONS
Windcutter Glider: 1 Gold Coin
Airstepper Boots: 2 Silver Coins
Icebox: 6 Copper Coins
Golem-Strength Sleeves: 1 Gold Coin and 4 Silvers
Speakwrite Quill: 3 Copper Coins
Within the next hour, I was 10 gold coins richer and had sold out. I reverted the storefront to be a wall again, walked out to my main room, and found Headmaster Larry in my workshop.
"You need a permit to sell things, and you can't do it on school grounds without special permission from me."
"You're out of the loop if it took you this long to hear about my shop."
"First, don't be so casual. Second, I knew about it the second you built the storefront, I just wanted to see if you would send me your paperwork like a responsible natural."
"I'm only 10, you can't expect that much from me, I have no idea about the laws."
"Then allow me to educate you, just because I'm the headmaster now doesn't mean I've stopped being your teacher."
"Well then start, I've got three hours for this legal lesson."
After three hours I had learned all I needed to start a business and got the unfilled permit application forms I needed. Needless to say, my afternoon was boring and filled with paperwork and accounting.
"I got ten gold coins and I spent nine on all the materials and spirit paper with a loan from dad that I'm going to have to pay back, not to mention the fee for the forms being five coppers each and I have to send in six forms bringing the total to thirty coppers or three silvers." I rambled about math for another twenty minutes and in the end wound up with a profit of a total of:
"Six coppers? Really?! I need better margins."
"You did have to pay a bunch of one-time fees." Devin came to help me with math.
"But once everyone has the product they wanted from my store, they'll not have to buy another for a long time."
"Ok, then set your prices over, then come out with a better version that comes out less expensive so that they think it's worth it despite its marginal improvements."
"Devin. When did you become such a brutal capitalist?"
"In my old world, this was normal."
"I hate it here, in my old world we had super lax trade laws, so you could run a store anywhere and I hadn't heard the word 'permit' till I got here, plus, the only advertisements were billboards and fireworks."
"That's awesome, I wish companies in my old world would have advertised with fireworks! We had this thing called the internet that I don't really understand, but you could watch moving pictures. play games, and advertise on it."
"Hmm, I'm hearing a lot of good ideas."