Hades' Disappointment

Hades realized he had been slightly mistaken; he had assumed the scarcity of the alchemical solution he extracted was due to the quality of the ore.

He thought that by switching to the ore Enfirea often used for extractions, he could increase his yield, but that was not the case at all.

Regardless of the ore used, the yield did not improve; a massive pile of ore still yielded only a single drop. To produce a single bottle, he needed at least half a room's worth of ore.

Through experimentation, Hades gradually understood that this had little to do with the ore and everything to do with his magic, "Advanced Extraction."

Of course, that statement wasn't entirely accurate. The magic itself remained the same, but the quality of these ores was practically non-existent. If he used ordinary "Extraction" magic to refine them, the resulting alchemical solution was identical to what Enfirea obtained via distillation, and the final potion was likewise blue. Fortunately, the yield of the solution was at least normal.

"Advanced Extraction" possessed the effect of increasing both yield and quality, so the reason those ores could produce a red solution lay not in the ore itself, but in the magic's effect.

If that were the only issue, it would be fine; he could just use the cheapest ore. However, when Hades switched to the lowest-grade ore, he couldn't extract even a single drop of solution. In the game, this would represent a failed extraction where the materials simply vanished.

Upon reaching this conclusion, Hades let out a groan. His workload had skyrocketed, and the cost of producing the potions had soared.

In truth, he didn't care about the money. If he really wanted to profit, he could simply use "Extraction" to refine those low-quality ores and produce blue potions.

Enfirea's workshop sold them for 1 gold and 10 silver coins; even if he sold his at half price, he would still make a profit. Compared to Enfirea's method, using magic extraction was simple and efficient.

By cutting costs, he could produce nearly two hundred bottles of blue healing potions a day based on his mana pool. Excluding costs, earning nearly a hundred gold coins a day would be effortless.

However, his goal right now wasn't to make money, but to set a lure, so he couldn't just focus on profit.

Due to cost considerations, the red potion was priced at 10 gold coins per bottle. Hades received 7 gold coins per bottle, while Enfirea made almost nothing.

This made Hades look at the kid in a new light. This was a losing business. According to their previous agreement, material costs were deducted from his share, but transportation fees were not included.

His 7-gold-coin share seemed large, but a significant portion was consumed by material costs. That half-room of ore wasn't cheap, and his final net profit was likely only a little over 2 gold coins.

Enfirea received 3 gold coins. In the past, Enfirea's workshop didn't use that much ore for blue potions, and since they were handmade, mass production was impossible.

In fact, almost all the potion workshops in E-Rantel were the same. Without such high demand, the need for ore to make alchemical solutions didn't reach the level of large-scale mining.

There was only so much ore on the market, but now that Enfirea had monopolized the majority of it, other workshops had begun to protest.

The miners dared not offend so many workshops, as these shops were their only buyers. If they offended the workshops and the shops collectively refused to buy their ore, the miners would be the ones to suffer. The workshops were not only highly profitable but also had stockpiles; they could afford to wait.

Although Enfirea needed a lot, he couldn't consume all that ore either.

Forced by necessity, Enfirea had to spend money to commission the Adventurer's Guild for mining.

After all, they were adventurers, not miners. A standard four-man adventurer party could easily defeat ten miners in combat.

But when it came to mining? Forget it. A party might only have two people capable of actual labor, so a single party couldn't possibly extract enough ore.

Consequently, they had to hire multiple parties and pay for carriages to transport the ore. This caused costs to skyrocket; it took about 7 gold coins just to purchase half a room's worth of ore.

That didn't even include various extra expenses like taxes and city entry fees. When it was all calculated, Hades was guaranteed his 2 gold coins, but Enfirea's profit was far from certain.

While Hades admired Enfirea's honesty, he also lamented the low productivity of this society, which felt almost primitive.

He had important matters to attend to; otherwise, once he had the time, he would drive all those other potion workshops out of business. The red potion certainly had high costs, but the blue one didn't. He could sell it at half price, rely on high volume, and unify the E-Rantel potion market.

"Sigh..."

Sitting on the sofa, Hades sighed. Since he couldn't achieve massive wealth through potions, he turned his attention to scrolls.

Using the "Create Paper" scroll he had bought that day, he obtained two sheets of white paper. However, under his testing, this paper proved incapable of being used to create scrolls.

Whenever he channeled magic into it, the paper would burn to ash; it clearly couldn't withstand the mana, even though he was only using first-tier magic.

After asking Enfirea, he learned that parchment was required. He bought some from a materials shop and found that while he could make them, the parchment could only withstand up to second-tier magic.

Furthermore, there was one thing he had overlooked: the materials for making scrolls weren't just the base parchment; they also required a small amount of gold coins.

Hades had gone so long without crafting scrolls that he had forgotten this detail. In YGGDRASIL, one could simply buy scrolls. While they were more expensive than crafting them yourself, he wasn't short on money.

Since he could afford to buy them, why go through the trouble of making them? Yet, as he started crafting, he suddenly remembered this detail as if reminded by something.

This led him to abandon the idea of making money through scrolls. Potions were easy enough, as he could use YGGDRASIL's technology to cut costs, but scrolls were hard to sell and their costs couldn't be compressed.

He looked up at the mechanical grandfather clock in the room; the hour hand pointed to the Roman numeral II. Hades put away the second-tier "Extraction" magic scroll he had just finished.

He then leaped off the sofa. It was time to get to work. He had an appointment with Enfirea to make potions every afternoon and, incidentally, to learn more about things he didn't yet understand.

As for the Adventurer's Guild, he hadn't stepped foot there since his visit a few days ago. Why bother being an adventurer? The adventurers at the guild were essentially working for him now.

Though they were called adventurers, they couldn't escape the fate of day laborers.

Once the bait was taken and things settled down for a while, he would start using the blue potions to make his fortune.

The inn was comfortable enough, but the food really didn't suit his taste.