How to Make Money Fast

Fran went to the Pharmacist Association and handed over her letter of recommendation.

After taking it, the receptionist slowly read its contents aloud.

"Recommended by member Rita... Fran, as a new member, you must be Fran."

Fran nodded, then filled out a form. After the receptionist collected it, she said:

"Welcome to the Pharmacist Association. Would you like me to introduce the association to you?"

"Yes."

"The Pharmacist Association is responsible for managing all Apothecaries under its jurisdiction. All members must observe the following:

First: You may not disclose potion-making methods to non-members.

Second: You may not sell potions privately. Violators will be held accountable by the association.

Third: We will purchase any potion sold to us.

..."

"You buy every kind of potion? If someone keeps brewing the same potion, won't you lose money?"

The receptionist patiently explained, "The prices of ingredients are not fixed. If a material is sold in large quantities, its price will naturally rise, while the purchase price for the potion will drop a little. Not by much, though."

"I see!" Fran remembered this crucial piece of information. It seemed she could not just brew one type of potion. She needed to make other potions too if she wanted to earn more money.

She looked over the ingredient price list the receptionist handed her. The first thing she spotted was the three ingredients for a Strength Potion: Blood-Eating Flower, Animal Meat, and Weathered Crystal.

The prices here were far lower than outside. On average, the cost of those three ingredients was a third cheaper, making Fran click her tongue. Joining the association had its benefits!

Logically, she should choose a potion, buy the ingredients, make it, sell it immediately, then use the money she earned to buy more... that was the complete process.

However, all she had in hand was an ingredient price list. Potion formulas had to be purchased separately.

She saw plenty of cheap materials, yet had no idea what potions they could make. What if she randomly bought a formula only to find that potion had the lowest profit margin? She fell into a dilemma.

Asking directly when she had questions was one of Fran's good habits, so she asked:

"Which potion makes the most money here?"

The receptionist choked on the question. It was the first time she had met someone who asked so bluntly. After staring blankly for a moment, she finally said tactfully:

"Well... as long as you manage to brew a potion, there's profit to be made."

Not every batch of ingredients could produce a bottle of potion. Even Apothecaries with years of experience were not guaranteed to succeed every time. Only those who had made hundreds or thousands of bottles of a particular potion could bring their success rate close to one hundred percent.

For most potions, ingredient costs were directly related to their selling prices. Generally speaking, one bottle of potion cost several times the price of its ingredients.

But newcomers could not easily make money. Inexperienced beginners found it difficult to profit from potions.

Newcomers needed to accumulate at least several potion formulas, get a feel for their own success rates, and regularly check the prices of different ingredients. None of those could be neglected.

What if the receptionist recommended a potion, and Fran failed to brew even one bottle no matter how hard she tried, then came looking for trouble?

That was why the receptionist could only answer like that. Fran also realized she would get nowhere by asking that question, so she changed her approach.

"Which potion has the highest sales right now?"

"Energy Potion." The receptionist could answer that. After all, it had an enormous market and a very stable supply of ingredients.

As its name implied, an Energy Potion increased one's energy after being consumed. It was extremely popular in the City of Apprentices. After all, when you were exhausted from practicing Spells, one bottle would leave you full of energy.

Unlike coffee and various energy drinks on Earth, this had a genuine magical effect. Even if you were truly exhausted, you could remain energetic for the duration of the potion's effect.

Of course, drinking too much would definitely cause problems.

"Give me the formula and twenty sets of ingredients..."

Fran returned to the Pharmacist Association. This time, however, the receptionist was not the same one from before.

Fran took all the potions from her large backpack and laid them on the counter.

"Fifteen bottles. I'm selling all of them."

Fran had actually brewed eighteen bottles in the end. Only two had failed, one at the beginning and one in the middle due to mistakes.

She had not brought all of them because, judging from the potion and ingredient prices she had seen, as well as the previous receptionist's repeated hints that success rates were not very high, she had kept three bottles for herself.

She could treat them as personal supplies. Energy Potions worked quite well, and if it became known that Fran's potion-brewing success rate was actually high, she felt it might cause trouble.

But no matter how much Fran calculated, she had never expected Energy Potions to rise in price. And not by a small amount, either. Her profit had reached a terrifying figure.

"Based on the association's current purchase price, these fifteen bottles come to one hundred and thirty-two silver coins and seventy-eight copper coins."

One silver coin could be exchanged for one hundred copper coins.

The price had risen that much? Based on the purchase price she had seen before, fifteen Energy Potions should have been worth around ninety-something silver coins. This was far too high.

"Energy Potions are selling for that much now? I'm tempted to try brewing some myself." Several Apothecaries had been talking nearby when Fran entered. Seeing the situation here, one of them spoke with some interest.

"You've never brewed Energy Potions, have you? If you start learning now, it'll be good enough if you can successfully brew one bottle in five attempts before this price surge ends."

"That few? I can brew one Focus Potion every three attempts. Is that good enough?"

"Not even close!"

"Don't be fooled by how many Energy Potions are sold every day. There are plenty of masters who have brewed Energy Potions for a long time. Their proficiency must be high, right? Even they only produce one bottle every three attempts. You can imagine how difficult it is."

Listening to the surrounding discussion, Fran realized selling so many this time had drawn some attention. If she was not careful, it might expose her high success rate. Fortunately, the receptionists worked in shifts.

Besides, now that things had reached this point, turning around and refusing to sell would only draw even more attention. She could only be more careful in the future.

The reason her success rate was so high was that when she first successfully brewed an Energy Potion, she had gained two hundred proficiency points at once. Every bottle afterward gave her fifty more, allowing her to quickly reach the mastery level in Pharmacy.

She had also unlocked a trait: [Skilled Alchemist: When brewing potions you have brewed before, your speed and precision increase. The more times you brew them, the greater the improvement.]

She felt that before reaching mastery, she had simply been lucky that none had failed. When she brewed the last few bottles, she had relied on that trait. By then, she could barely concentrate, yet she had still been able to finish by instinct, losing only one bottle.

"Give me the formula for Healing Potion and ten sets of ingredients."

She had discovered that successfully brewing a type of potion for the first time awarded a large amount of proficiency. From now on, she planned to buy ten sets for every potion first and max out her proficiency.