Being such a huge building, it was seen from every corner of the street attracting attention from everyone. Countless people were flooding in and out of the store. There were as many normal people compared to cultivators coming in and out that surprised Enas.
'Normal people need potions as much as cultivators? I mean, sure they might have amazing effects but how can they afford it? This is place is more interesting than I thought.'
Entering with the swarm of people to the first floor, she was surrounded by tonics, pills, and other miscellaneous items aligning the walls like items in a grocery store. Amazed, Enas quickly went to the nearest one to inspect it.
Beautifying Potion:
Drink this potion to extend/regain your youthfulness appearance for the next 5 years!
'Taser's Potion Shop is not responsible for any everlasting damage upon consumption of this item.'
Price: 25 Silver
She saw why even normal people would come to what would be considered a cultivator exclusive shop. Five years for a cultivator was nothing, but to a normal person, it was a good chunk of their short lives. Moving her gaze, she observed the next potion.
Vigor Potion:
Drink this potion to attain your youthful 'vigor' with this potion for the next 8 hours!
'Taser's Potion Shop is not responsible for any everlasting damage upon consumption of this item.'
Price: 15 Silver
Laughing at the absurdness of these potions, she saw all the normal people looking it like it was their lively hood. The price tag attached to these potions was around 20 silver coins each. Not an expensive price, but not one a middle-waged person can spend freely.
'No wonder why people come to this shop! This is like normal people tasting the lives of cultivators for even just a day! Although the effects would lessen enormously if a cultivator drank such a tonic.
Seeing the stairs in the back that led to the second floor, after looking around for a bit more, she headed upstairs to where the more expensive items laid.
Rising upstairs, she was once again greeted with shelves upon shelves of various elixirs and drugs. The second floor was a bit more refurbished and 'exquisite' but ultimately catered to non-cultivators making it seem a bit dull.
The items on this floor usually ranged around 1 gold coin, 5 times more expensive than the floor before with effects doubling and sometimes tripling.
Seeing that there was nothing interesting on this floor, she made her way to the next floor. From the outside, it looked like there were 6 floors in total so she assumed that there were more items on the higher floors.
When she was about to climb once again, the security guard that was stationed on the side of the stairs stopped her with his hand.
"Cultivator?"
Enas nodded at the reasonable question. Going higher upheld more expensive items and probably catered to cultivators so it was natural that it was only limited to them.
The guard stared at her for a bit measuring her aura to see the natural aura that cultivators held, he nodded for her to go up even though the aura he felt was weak. Asking was just a courtesy.
In this world, cultivators couldn't see into other's cultivation levels unless given permission via reading crystals or directly. Even the world's strongest with a limit-breaking technique can't bypass this natural law. At most, one can guesstimate depending on one's energy intensity, but such a method was flawed as one can hide one's strength.
This is why even in reading crystals, it isn't to read a person's actual stage. In replacement, it will shine how bright one's star is, and with that people can ascertain the stage.
'I guess no matter what cultivation level you are, any cultivator can access the third floor and probably the highest I'll go. After all, I am only at the first stage of the Power Realm.'
Reaching the third floor, there are exponentially fewer people on this floor all being cultivators of various power. And as she suspected, the potions on this floor were made for cultivators and priced accordingly.
Power Tonic:
Drink this tonic while at the Power Realm to increase your cultivation speed by 50% for the next 24 hours!
Price: 10 Gold or 1 Star Fragment
Trading Negotiable.
Seeing that the warning label at the bottom was no longer there, she could reasonably conclude that the potions in the lower levels were more unstable or dangerous to normal people. Despite this, they sold like hotcakes despite people knowing about the risk they are taking.
The next staircase also had a guard but she didn't pay any mind to that one and instead went straight to the attendant that was behind a desk in the corner.
"Hello! Did you find everything you are looking for?"
Enas responded with a smile on her face to the friendly female attendant.
"I am sorry, I am not here to buy things. I would like to speak to your alchemist for him to inspect a potion for me."
"Oh, I see! Allow me to see the potion you need an assessment on."
Such an occurrence was not uncommon for people to seek out an alchemist to evaluate a potion that they have found in the wild. But as an employee, she still needed to make sure it wasn't a fake and waste the alchemist's time.
Revealing the velvet potion bottle to the attendant, she didn't even need to inspect it to see that it was indeed a potion although not knowing the rank as she wasn't an alchemist.
"I'll notify him right away."
As the attendant left to find the alchemist, some of the other cultivators noticed the event but few took an interest. Those that did were curious teens or young adults who wondered about the contents.
After waiting for a moment, a young man with glasses and a wrinkled shirt came into view. He was clunky in his steps and didn't seem too confident making it seem as if he wasn't the main alchemist.
"Good evening, my name is Yong and I am the assistant alchemist. If you allow me, I'll be able to identify your potion and put a reasonable price on it if you wish to sell it.
"Mmm, here is the potion."
Enas wanted to have her potion inspected to make sure it was safe to drink directly. She didn't know much about the cultivation world and maybe the potion needed to be digested a certain way for its maximum potential? Just imagining needing to put the potion in a needle scared her beyond imagination but if that's what she needed to do to gain all of its power then that's what she would do.
For not a single second did it cross her mind about how dangerous such a situation was if the humans succumbed to their greed and steal the potion. Even if they are cultivators, they were one that was high in reputation. If they just stole a young girl's potion she had found, why would their customers and partners continue to shop if they can just do the same to them?
Retrieving a microscope-looking object from his shirt, he couldn't help but gape at the potion that he has never witness before.
"W-Wait here, I'll go get my master to identify it for you, ma'am."
The young man scurried off while Enas took the bullet at being called ma'am. She was hunched over like she was punched in the gut with the formal talk.
'Do I really look that old? Do they think I'm some old geezer that looks young? So mean...'
After waiting for a moment, a tall but hefty person guy followed the apprentice down the stairs. He looked pleased to see that another customer required his service and hoped that coming down to this floor wouldn't be a waste of time. After all, if what he inspected was a valuable potion, his gains would be enormous.
"Hello, young miss, my name is Traser, the alchemist, and owner of this shop. I heard you have a potion you want me to identify for you.
"Mmm."
"No problem, hand it here and let me take a look."
After getting the same device, he started to inspect the vial in earnest.
She looked expectingly at the man while the potion that she got from the mysterious man was being observed. No matter what, it didn't feel right to just consume the potion without any knowledge over it, especially considering that man's eccentric character.
With this well-known alchemist of this town, he could identify it and maybe even offer the best way to use it rather than just consuming it.
"Amazing! This is something I have never seen before! The light properties infused with the liquid are astounding! Miss, may I know if you are willing to sell this a potion to me?"
Enas reached out and grabbed the potion much the Traser's dismay.
"I am sorry, I just want to identify it before returning it back to my master who is awaiting my arrival."
Pulling a story out of her butt, Traser looked flustered at the new information.
"Of course! However, with such a potion, I need to use my more advanced tools to really identify it. Doing it during business hours would be inappropriate, would you mind coming here after hours?"
'After hours?'
Hesitant at the offer, after all, she couldn't defend herself if things went haywire. The alchemist was undoubtedly a realm or two higher than her because of the nature of the job.
However, after hearing about the good reviews of his character that she has heard from people around town when asked, she decided to trust him. If not, she could still fall back on her imaginary master. Not to mention that murder/fighting is illegal in this town with harsh punishment, even for a known alchemist like him.
"Sure. I also want to be here to buy potions at the same time tomorrow if all goes well."
This time, she made sure everyone around her heard her. Everyone in the room understood what she was doing and went along with it. As naive as she was, she knew that she had to have some failsafe in case things went wrong.
"Of course, we welcome your patronage."
After those parting words, Enas went to leave the shop. Looking back at the tonics and pills displayed on the shelf, she inwardly snorted.
'Being an alchemist, learning plants and herbs...doesn't sound very interesting...'