It was a glorious afternoon.
The tournament selection for Ironmountain is about to begin this day. Everyone in the city was excited to watch it all unfold.
But for experienced people who had a keen sense for opportunities to make money, bets were starting to happen behind the scenes. Vendors and merchants decided that it was the best time to sell their products.
However, a certain duo named Chrysos and Meiros didn't pay any attention to it. They spent all day brewing potions. Meiros didn't get why brewing these strange "potions" was such a big deal.
As Meiros mixed the potions and finished each of them one by one, he spoke with a hesitant tone. "Master Gerald, I don't think these are potions." Meiros remembered that the ingredients weren't there to achieve a specific effect, so he was wondering what he actually just brewed.
"Of course not, they're called smoothies." Chrysos laughed with a very proud tone. "Only the nobles get to be under the shade when spectating the tournament. But I have a plan." Chrysos continued mixing more and more ingredients. "You probably noticed that I bought strange ingredients and that Scarlet Diamond Mushroom Pig in the backyard."
Meiros scratched his head. "About that.. I really don't get what the point is." Meiros looked at the window leading to the backyard only to see a pig rolling around playfully.
"You see Meiros, the mushrooms on that pig can be used to create cups. And the best part is that they're biodegradable." Chrysos explained.
"Bio- Biodeger-? Biodegradable...?" Meiros recalled this word from his memories. "So, does that mean that these cups can rot? Meiros asked for confirmation.
"Correct." Chrysos then pointed to strange iron casts next to them. "And these are iron casts that I ordered specifically for one thing. Wanna know what that is?"
Meiros shook his head.
"The recipe for the plastic substance is easy to make. And when we pour it into these metal casts, it will solidify and become plastic cups when we open the iron casts." Chrysos demonstrated by plucking a mushroom from the cute fat pig outside and using the mushroom to make the plastic substance that he invented.
The brewing process looked simple, but for Meiros who knows a bit about alchemy, he gulped because Chrysos' method was extremely risky and skillful. His hands moved as if they had a mind of their own, and it's like they instantly knew what to do and place in different containers.
"Ah, so it's simple... right...." Meiros looked at the complicated brewing procedure with eyes of indifference. "I should've known."
After Chrysos finished brewing the mixture, he poured the substance in one of the iron casts and used his Divinious and used his unique ability 'refine' to obviously refine the substance inside the metal cast. Once this was finished, he opened the metal cast and a clean white cup with a simple structure and shape appeared in their view.
"Woah.." Meiros took out the cup and examined it. "It's light." Meiros squeezed the cup and it got compressed. But when he loosened his grip, the cup returned to its original shape. "And durable.."
"Not only that, if you pour hot or cold beverages in it, it doesn't affect your hand." Chrysos poured hot water and was about to remove his glove until he remembered that his fingers aren't a good idea to show Meiros. "Hmmm, when I think about it, my hand is more heat resistant than the normal human. Meiros, why don't you test it?"
Meiros didn't find it suspicious since he saw his master destroy almost an entire greenflesh beast village all by himself. Of course hot water wouldn't be able to affect a man who fought in a flaming forest and lived.
Meiros held the cup and wasn't surprised. His hand only felt a little warm but it wasn't hot enough that it would be harmful.
"Master Gerald is amazing as usual.." Meiros complimented Chrysos.
"Hah, wait till we sell the smoothies. It will sell amazingly." Chrysos continued brewing more potions. "Now, just keep pouring the plastic substance in the casts and I'll refine them."
"Yes master!" Meiros began filling the casts with the substance and the production of cups began.
Chrysos wasn't planning on selling premade smoothies at the tournament. He only brewed a few smoothies to familiarize Meiros with them.
And with Meiros' perfect memory, he only had to do each flavor of the smoothie once.
Chrysos wasn't expecting the tournament at all. But when he heard the announcement about it, he thought about how it could affect him at the moment.
At first, he didn't see a need to dabble in things related to the tournament until he realized that many people would use it as a chance to earn a quick buck.
With this business idea in mind, he then bought a magic metal plate that can produce ice when Divinious is used on the magic plate. When Divinious energy gets absorbed by the magic circle inscribed in the plate and converts Divinious into pure ice.
It was convenient and cheap to use since low tier Divinious-I crystals actually fit the job perfectly. Chrysos estimated that he could use one Divinious crystal for fifty cups before being completely used.
And as for the smoothies, Chrysos just made potion recipes that appeals to human taste and it mainly came from fruit, so it's a good drink from the hot sun.
The potion recipes came with lime flavor, strawberry flavor, banana flavor, mango flavor, orange flavor and coconut flavor. And the taste is actually amazing. Especially since some of these fruits aren't available in Ironmountain.
Chrysos absolutely admired his work. He even made the cups biodegradable so that he wouldn't trash the area like how humans back on earth did, because that would be absolutely terrible and he obviously didn't want that.
Now since everything's ready, he packed the sacks of ingredients in a wooden wagon and brought the necessary tools in the wagon.
...
Ironmountain Arena…
It was a good thing that they started out early since merchants and vendors were still setting up their stalls near the arena to sell their goods since people would be swarming here later.
Chrysos and Meiros set up their own stall somewhere outside the main event since all the nearby areas are already taken and waited for the sun to fully rise. They prepared everything they had for this.
Unlike earth, there was no need for a permit to sell your goods here. You can sell your stuff during events like this anywhere unless you're blocking the road, trying to sell in places where it could affect security, etc.
You just have to pay for the area where you will start your business from the event organizer, which in this case, is the Arlangier himself.
When the sun finally hit its peak, people were waiting outside the closed arena and wandered around.
...
Not too long after, the arena's gates were finally opened. But of course it didn't mean that everyone could finally go inside. It was just preparation for the event. There were guards stationed outside while people cleaned the seats for the nobles and prepared the necessary rooms and special spots saved for spectating the matches.
And one by one, nobles with their carriages entered the arena one by one. The bystanders watched in awe as they saw these untouchable figures so close to them.
"Look! Isn't that Silvian Erqin? I can't believe I'm seeing the Lightning Swordsman in person!"
"Oh oh, that's Nicai Lightfeather! Ahh, she's my goddess.. She's the daughter of viscount Narvon Lightfeather, and she's already so powerful when she was still young. Imagine how much she grew after all these years."
"Haha, there's Divira Xangis! She's an eight unique talent awakened one. And as a magic caster with 15 unique abilities and her teacher being Klorias Menendim, her Divinious techniques are top notch!"
The crowd spoke proudly about their favorites and their idols. It was very lively. If this was back on earth, it would be something like a red carpet premiere where there's paparazzi everywhere and fans flocking just to meet the celebrities in person.
While the nobles were still making their entrance, a certain noble was enjoying himself.
Lourne Carver is the son of Baron Luis Carver who just lives his life happily. He has ten unique abilities and his Divine Path is a Warborn.
He has brown hair and a hazel colored eye. It would be eyes if his left eye wasn't prosthetic. Because of a dangerous attack when he was traveling to another city, he was attacked and lost his eye in the incident. From then on, he realized how short life was and decided that he would always spend his life to the fullest while doing it happily and peacefully without harming others as he did so.
Lourne peeked out his head from the wooden carriage supported with iron and steel. "Whoa! There's a lot of energy coming from the people today." Lourne laughed merrily.
"Young master, please do not peek your head out of the carriage." Hesmann, Lourne's butler, sighed and pulled Lourne's jacket.
"Hehe." Lourne entered the carriage and when he saw the food stalls, he ordered the carriage driver to stop. "Hold on, stop here, I'll be right back." Lourne hopped out of the carriage and went to the food stalls.
"Young master-" Hesmann reached out his hand to stop him, but Lourne had already left the carriage.
"My goodness.." Hesmann looked at the guards behind him and signaled for them to follow Lourne.
As soon as Lourne left his carriage, he wandered around the food stalls.
Lourne looked around and bought some food from the vendors. He ate tasty seasoned fish slices, sandwiches, and strange food being covered in flames in front of him that looked visually appealing before being served to him. He munched on it after it's cooked and it tasted great.
While Lourne was eating, he happened to look at a specific food stall and saw a man with a strange mask. The stall had no customers.
Curious, he approached the stall and asked the man.
Lourne didn't know that he was about to talk to the one and only, Gerald Greenwood.
At his stall…
Chrysos was about to go mad. Why aren't there any customers coming? And the worst part was that Meiros was looking at him as if he expected that his plan would fail. Just watching his smug face made Chrysos feel like he was punched in the gut.
Until suddenly, someone actually went to their stall and asked Chrysos.
"Hey, what do you guys sell here?" Lourne looked at Chrysos and asked with a curious tone. He held a fried squid on a stick and he was still eating it.
Seeing his first customer, Chrysos acted calm and cool and he responded with one word.
"Smoothies." Chrysos said simply.
"Smoothies? Interesting.. show me how one is made." Lourne watched him closely.
"You got it. But before that, pick a flavor there." Chrysos pointed to a piece of paper attached to the stall.
"Hmm... Coconut. It sounds interesting so I'll take it." Lourne wasn't picky so he made a choice very quickly.
"Alright." Chrysos took his equipment and began brewing a coconut flavored smoothie. Meiros helped by using the Divinious crystals to make ice and used a grinder that was bought to originally grind meat, but Chrysos repurposed it after reforging some of the components.
Lourne watched the process and was amazed. This guy was an alchemist for sure, but the way he's just flipping around ingredients, mixing them and picking the correct ingredients to use was very nice to watch. The movements aren't amateurish and Lourne enjoyed the show.
It didn't take a minute for the smoothie to be finished. Chrysos added the ground ice and the coconut mixture together in a plastic cup.
"Here you go." Chrysos gave Lourne the smoothie. "It's ten silver."
"Thanks." Lourne paid Chrysos the right amount and walked away.
Lourne returned to his carriage with a worried Hesmann.
"Young master, where have you been!?" Hesmann wiped his forehead.
"I bought some food." Lourne shrugged and tried the coconut smoothie.
The moment Lourne tasted the smoothie, his eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, this is amazing! I've never had these before." Lourne enjoyed the cold drink.
The milky and creamy flavor wrapped itself on Lourne's tongue, giving him his brain a new sensation that it never received before. And with the thickness of the smoothie with the crushed ice, it relieved the heat of the sun while the coconut taste spread everywhere like a bomb being set off in his mouth.
Seeing Lourne's fixated look on the smoothie, Hesmann looked at the smoothie as he held his chin. "Young master, what is that drink?" Hesmann asked curiously.
"An alchemist said that it's a smoothie. Don't worry, it's not poisoned and it doesn't have Divinious in them. It's just pure deliciousness." Lourne laughed and drank more of his coconut smoothie. He couldn't get enough of it.
"Young master, you should be more mindful of the time. The selection is about to begin after all. You mustn't be distracted at this time." Hesmann reminded him.
"Yeah, but... it's delicious though." Lourne took one more sip. He really couldn't help it.
Meanwhile, to a certain alchemist…
Chrysos grinned the silver he received. All the ingredients he had only cost him fifty silver coins or half a gold coin. And he made ten silver just because of that.
Such a cheap investment with big rewards. Who wouldn't be happy at this?
After Lourne bought one from him, a person who recognized the baron's son decided to visit Chrysos' stall.
"Hey, can I also get what sir Carver got?" The man wearing black pants with holes in the knee area asked Chrysos.
"Sure, pick a flavor." Chrysos tapped the paper on the stall's table.
"Let's see.. How about mangoo?" The man settled on this choice. He also mispronounced "mango" because it was a peculiar word for him.
"It's mango, also you don't need to wait for long." Chrysos corrected the man's pronunciation and brewed the mix for the mango smoothie and gave it to the man within 40 seconds.
Once he finished, Chrysos asked for payment, "Ten silver only."
"Awesome." The man paid ten silver and walked back to his friends.
When the man left, Meiros could feel that Chrysos had a smug face under his mask despite not being able to see under it.
It was all his imagination.
Chrysos saw the man take a sip and freeze momentarily. From afar, he saw that the man urged his friends to try it. And when they did, they seemed to be asking him where it came from.
The man pointed to Chrysos' stall.
Seeing this, Chrysos knew he was about to make some money.
"Meiros, we got customers." Chrysos wiped his hands. He could smell massive profit.