Rieko and Kofi came to Yasuo's room with two large sacks full of the items he requested. After that, Rieko left for her own room while Kofi stayed.
Yasuo took out the small cauldron that Rieko and Kofi bought and began adding ingredients.
Kofi sat on the bed and watched.
After some time, Yasuo had created an elixir. "There it is! A saint-realm elixir!"
"This takes a long time though." Kofi said.
"No worries, watch this." Yasuo held his hand over the bottle. "Skill: Duplication!"
The bottle of elixir split into two. Then two split into four, then eight, then sixteen, and so on.
Soon the entire room was filled with the saint-realm elixir. Yasuo put them all inside of a storage ring.
Kofi wowed in amazement.
Yasuo started laughing like an evil mastermind. "This is almost too easy!"
"So what now?" Kofi asked.
Yasuo tossed him an elixir bottle. "First you can drink that."
Kofi held the bottle out in front of him. "A-Are you sure?! Isn't this like, s-super expensive?!"
Yasuo nodded. "Yeah, I would think so. But it's worth little to nothing to me since I can always use duplicate to keep myself in stock." He started rubbing his hands together. "And since I'm the inventor of the Duplication skill, I am the only one who can use it! Which means..."
"You're way ahead of all the other alchemists!" Kofi exclaimed.
Yasuo crossed his arms and nodded confidently. "Right you are, pupil."
Kofi drank the elixir. "Oh, it's sweet! I thought elixirs were bitter."
"They are. But who wants to drink something if it doesn't taste good?"
—
The next morning, Yasuo woke up early to initiate his plan.
Kofi groggily opened his eyes. "Yasuo? Where are you going?"
"To sell some stuff. Make sure you do three hours of meditating like I told you! You'll hit the Basic Earthly Realm in minutes!" He shut the door.
Yasuo found his way to Alverus' auction house. It was still empty on the inside, as there was no audience, only some people working to get everything ready for the auction.
Yasuo walked down the aisle of chairs over to the main stage. The working men looked at him. "What do you want kid? The auction doesn't start for another hour."
"I'm here to sell some items."
"Sell? A kid like you? Heh, well if you want to sell something then you should talk to the auctioneer, Munan."
"Well where is he?"
The man nodded his head towards the back.
Yasuo walked in that direction to find him.
Munan was standing with a group of nobles going over the list of items for auction.
"Excuse me, are you Munan?"
Munan turned around. "Hm? Oh, yes. Did you need something, young one?"
"I have some items that I would like to be put up for auction."
The nobles behind Munan laughed to themselves. So did he. "Items? I don't know if you can tell, but only premium premier items and artifacts are sold here. This is no place for toys." He started laughing in an uppity manner.
Yasuo sighed. "I'm selling saint-realm elixirs."
All of the men stopped laughing.
Munan's eyes narrowed. "Saint-realm? How can a runt like you possess such a rare item? Are you pulling my leg here?"
Yasuo took one out. "Here, see for yourself."
Munan cautiously accepted the bottle. He motioned for one of the men to hand him something. It was a small crystal shot glass. He opened the bottle and poured out a single drop into the crystal glass. It started glowing a soft blue color.
Everyone gasped.
Munan was bewildered. "It's the truth! A saint-realm elixir! Are you an alchemist?"
Yasuo had a smug look on his face. "Yeah, and a hell of a good one if you ask me."
"Just one of these can go for over 1.5 million gold...!" one of the nobles said.
Munan looked at Yasuo. "How many of these are you selling…?"
"About four hundred."
Munan and the others' mouths dropped.
Munan quickly put on a convincing smile. "Such a gifted alchemist as yourself is always welcome here! Just come find me after the auction and you will receive your cut. How does thirty percent sound?"
Yasuo folded his arms. "Thirty? Do I look dense to you? I want eighty."
"E-Eighty?"
Yasuo nodded firmly.
Munan knew that he couldn't let this alchemist walk out the door without reaching some sort of deal. After all, saint-realm elixirs were almost never seen on the market, and Yasuo was selling in bulk. He didn't want to accept Yasuo's demand, but he had no choice in this situation.
Munan slowly nodded his head. "Um, eighty percent it is then."
—
Soon, people began flooding into the auction house to sit down. The nobles sat at the top while commoners sat in the floor seats.
Yasuo was one of those commoners.
Yasuo watched as people bid on the various weapons and artifacts that were up for sale. Nothing really caught his eye. He yawned.
Then some men rolled in a large table with a pyramid of something covered with a red velvet blanket.
Munan stepped up to the stage looking proud. "Ladies and gentlemen! I hope you've still got room in your wallets for more! Because under this cloth, is undeniably a most valuable and desirable item." He snatched the blanket off to reveal all of Yasuo's elixirs, stacked up nice and neatly.
The entire audience let out a gasp of excitement.
Munan smiled slyly. "What you see here, is a supply of 400 saint-realm elixirs for cultivating strong and powerful warriors! That's right, these elixirs are indeed of saint-realm quality! Each one is sold separately, with the bid starting at 400,000 gold!!"
The auction house became live with chatter and eagerness. Yasuo sat back and watched as noble families fought to gain the top bid.
Munan held up a hand towards a noble man sitting in the V.I.P. section. "The Northwind family bids a grand 3 million!! Do I hear anything higher? Going once, going twice, sold!!"
Yasuo looked up at the man who bought the elixir. He remembered meeting Galand Northwind back at Uwibami's cave. But there was another elderly man from the same family there instead.
Yasuo smiled in his seat. "Just one bottle sold for 3 million...! This'll be great!"
The rest of the elixir bottles all sold at similar prices. Each one going for at least one million gold.
After everyone left, Yasuo went to find Munan for his cut of the profits.
Munan handed him a white card with gold trim. "As promised, here is your cut. Eighty percent. 640 million gold."
Yasuo's eyebrows went way up. "That's a lot."
Munan rubbed his hands together. "Yes. I hope you will continue to do business with us in the future, mister..."
"Yasuo. Oh Yasuo."
Munan nodded cheerily. "Oh Yasuo. Fantastic."
Yasuo left right after.
Munan dropped the friendly act. He pulled one of his men aside. "Have you ever heard of the Oh Family?"
The man shook his head.
"That's what I thought. Send someone to follow that child. He's suspicious. I don't know where he's getting those elixirs from, but we're going to find out!"
—
Yasuo got back to his room at the inn to find Kofi still meditating.
"You're still at it?"
Kofi opened his eyes. "Yasuo! You're back. I've been doing this all day. I can feel my soul force expanding. It's a feeling I've never had before, so I don't wanna stop now!"
Pixie appeared out of nowhere. "It's true, your presence is a little stronger than before."
Kofi fell back. "Wah!! What is that?!"
Yasuo looked at Pixie. "You mean Pixie? She's a fairy."
Kofi stared at her. "A-A fairy? But I thought fairies were extinct..."
"They are... technically. Pixie's the last one left."
"What does she do?"
Yasuo grinned. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
Pixie started hitting Yasuo on the head repeatedly. "Hey!! I told you stop treating me like a burden!! I can be useful too!! Don't forget that I'm your guide!!"
Yasuo playfully shrugged. "It's a shame that Jishi is much more efficient at guiding me than you are."
Pixie fumed. "Jishi?! That lazy excuse of a spirit doesn't even have a body!! All she does is linger around in your head!!"
A chime sounded. Jishi's voice echoed inside of the room. "For your information, Pixie, at least I have an actual purpose as a spirit. YOU on the other hand, were turned into a mere fairy simply because you have no talent otherwise. I would prefer if you refrained from speaking about me."
Yasuo put his hand to his mouth, holding in laughter. "Pfff~"
Pixie started flying around the room in a flurry. "I AM A HEALING SPIRIT!! IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT YASUO WAS ALREADY GIVEN THE ABILITY TO HEAL HIMSELF!!"
Yasuo looked at Kofi. He was frozen from shock with his mouth hanging open.
"Oops." Pixie said. "He heard everything."
"W-Wha-W-W-What's going on here?!!" Kofi exclaimed.
Yasuo scratched the back of his head. "To put it simply, I'm a god."
Kofi burst into laughter. "A god?! Yeah right! Stop joking around like that!"
"He's telling the truth you know." Pixie said.
Kofi abruptly stopped laughing. "For real?"
Yasuo and Pixie nodded at the same time.
"A god?"
They nodded again.
"A deity?"
Another nod.
"A supreme being of all living things."
Nod.
Kofi sat there for a second. "Then why are you a master?"
Yasuo was hit with a wave of depression. "I know. Pathetic isn't it?"
Rieko knocked on the door and walked in to find Yasuo on all fours. "Did I come at a bad time?"
Yasuo jumped up. "No, not at all!" he said hurriedly.
"Oh... well, how did it go? Did you use the ingredients?"
"Yup! I sold a good amount of elixirs this morning!"
"How much did you make?" she asked.
"640 million."
"REALLY?! That's so much!!"
"It's only the start. I've only given them saint-realm elixirs. Now that I've gotten more money, I can buy more expensive ingredients, which means I can make even better items. But for now, I want everyone to think that I'm a saint-realm alchemist. The next auction is in two days."
Yasuo's dragon egg wobbled back and forth.
"Look! Yasuo, the egg!" Kofi pointed.
Rieko and Yasuo looked at the wobbling egg.
"Looks like it's about ready to hatch." Rieko said.
Tapping could be heard from inside of the shell.
Then a crack formed.
Yasuo's eyes gleamed with excitement. "It's here!!"
The eggshell broke apart, revealing a small, white, slimy baby dragon. It was about three feet long.
"Ew." Rieko said.
"A dragon!" Kofi said excitedly.
Pixie found it cute.
The baby Uwibami crawled out from the shell. It sneezed. The tiniest wisp of white fire came out of its nostrils.
Yasuo fell in love instantly. "He's so... COOL!!!"
Rieko stuck her tongue out with a gag. "I'm gonna puke. He smells. It's just a tiny monster."
Uwibami crawled out onto the floor, feeling out its surroundings. Both of its wings unstuck from its back and flapped a few times to dry off. It slipped its tongue around its mouth. The dragon had two small fangs and the rest were gums. It smacked its mouth a few times.
"He's gonna say something!!" Yasuo exclaimed.
The dragon looked up at Yasuo blankly and took a deep breath. Then it made its first sound.
"rawr~"
Yasuo shrieked with joy. "Rieko! How can you not say that baby Uwibami is the cutest thing you've ever seen?!"
Rieko looked away. "That thing tried to kill me. I don't see what all the fuss is about."
Uwibami crawled up Yasuo's back and sat on his shoulder. "rawr~"
"Looks like he doesn't have any previous memories. He's real friendly." Rieko said.
"You should take him outside." Kofi said.
Yasuo nodded. "I was going out anyway. Gotta get more ingredients."
"I'll come too!" Kofi hopped off the bed.
"Right. Let's go then."