Career Bonus

"This effect..."

Lance's eyes widened, his face full of delight.

Although the so-called "antibacterial" attribute was not yet visibly apparent.

The astonishing speed of the bleeding stopping alone completely surpassed the ordinary products on the market.

Only premium hemostatic products like Troll's Blood, which sold for as much as fifty copper coins a jar, could probably compare to this efficacy.

Lance quickly began calculating in his head.

This ointment was extremely cheap to make, and its raw materials could be found everywhere. A single batch cost no more than ten copper coins.

The ordinary hemostatic ointments on the market sold for eighteen copper coins.

With his product's effectiveness, even if he did not sell it for fifty copper coins, it would still be snapped up by life-loving adventurers at just twenty-five.

That meant he could make a staggering net profit of at least fifteen copper coins per jar.

As Lance looked at the jar of green ointment in his hand, he seemed to see a broad, glittering road paved with gold.

"I'm rich!"

In this world of adventurers, there was no more profitable business than selling life-saving medicine.

And what did money represent?

Attributes, knowledge, skills, equipment, potions, demi-human ladies...

This was power!

Early the next morning.

The old wooden door of the attic room was gently knocked on.

When Lance opened the door, Flora stood prettily outside.

It was the first time the girl had visited Lance's cramped bachelor apartment. She curiously poked her head in to look around, her eyes filled with novelty.

Flora had changed her outfit today.

A pair of round brass-rimmed glasses rested on her nose, while her signature twin braids were loosely tied with beige linen ribbons, making her look adorably dorky.

She wore a loose, off-white linen shirt, its cuffs finished with delicate ruffles.

Over the shirt, she wore a dark forest-green heavy canvas pinafore apron, the standard outfit she wore while working at the potion shop.

The most eye-catching part was the enormous pocket on the front of the apron.

It bulged noticeably, and faint rustling could be heard whenever she moved.

As a friend who knew her well, Lance did not need to guess that it was stuffed full of snacks like jerky and nuts.

"Come in. Don't mind the mess."

Lance stepped aside to let her through.

To show Flora the results, Lance had given yesterday's gray-furred rabbit another two cuts.

The room had already been cramped, and with two people squeezed inside, it felt even smaller.

Neither of them paid attention to such details. Instead, they pressed their heads together over the only wooden table, staring at the gray rabbit in the cage, which had completely given up on life.

More precisely, they were staring at the wound on its hind leg, which had already fully scabbed over.

"Oh my god..."

Flora pushed up her glasses. Her eyes behind the lenses went round with disbelief.

"Lance, this Hemostatic Ointment you made works almost as fast as a real alchemical potion."

As a professionally trained potion apprentice, she knew all too well where the limits of ordinary herbal ointments lay.

Even the most skilled veteran could not produce such immediate hemostatic effects using such basic materials.

Flora extended a slender finger and scooped up a little of the green ointment from the jar.

She brought it beneath her nose and sniffed it lightly, then her brows furrowed slightly.

"Strange."

"There aren't any special alchemical techniques involved, and the method itself could even be called rather crude."

The girl mercilessly pointed out its flaws.

"The herbal residue hasn't been filtered cleanly enough, and the oils haven't blended to their optimal state either."

"By all rights, this should be a defective product."

As she spoke, she tilted her head in confusion, the tip of her nose nearly brushing Lance's sleeve.

"Hmm... You don't have that smell on you either."

Like a puppy, Flora carefully sniffed all around Lance.

Normally, alchemists who could enchant potions or enhance their effects through special methods carried an extremely complex scent of magical ingredients that had seeped into them over the years.

But Lance only smelled faintly of soap. He was perfectly clean.

With the girl's warm breath brushing against his neck, Lance felt a little uncomfortable and instinctively drew his head back.

"I did make it. Guaranteed genuine."

Lance spread his hands and admitted it frankly.

Flora straightened up again, her gaze shifting between the ointment and Lance. At last, as though she had figured something out, her face lit up with sudden realization.

"Lance, you're amazing."

Her tone was full of sincere admiration.

"This must be your personal talent, right?"

In this fantasy world, talents came in every strange variety and followed no logic whatsoever.

Flora herself possessed an exceptionally high affinity for plants, so she naturally attributed all of this to that.

"Your talent can directly improve a finished product's effectiveness. This ability is practically like having a Career Bonus."

"Career Bonus?"

Lance keenly caught the unfamiliar term, a flicker of confusion passing through his eyes.

This was the first time he had heard of it.

Seeing that he did not understand, Flora patiently explained.

"Take Aunt Morwenna, for example. She's only an entry-level alchemist, but because her career path specializes in herbs, the plant-based potions she makes have much greater potency and shelf life than those made by other alchemists without that specialization."

At this point, the girl puffed out her chest slightly, her face showing a hint of professional pride.

After all, she was working toward that path herself, though she still had a long way to go before taking up the profession.

"That's also why, even though there are other potion shops in town, only our shop has secured the Adventurers' Guild's long-term supply contract."

"After all, when it comes to medicinal efficacy, the advantage of a professional is a gap ordinary people can never bridge."

"I'm working toward that too."

After hearing her explanation, Lance suddenly understood.

So that was it.

He had previously wondered why the system's [Research] function had not given him any new recipe blueprints or taught him any advanced production methods.

It had merely made him mechanically repeat the refining process once, yet the ointment's effect had increased out of nowhere.

Now it seemed that the system's "research results" essentially simulated this world's "Career Bonus" mechanism.

It directly altered an item's attributes at the level of the rules themselves.

This cheat was surprisingly reasonable. He did not even have to make up an excuse for it.

"But the magnitude of your bonus is really huge."

Flora looked at the jar of ointment and gave it extremely high praise.

"If we were rating it, this would definitely count as a very impressive rare talent."

With a professional's approval, the weight in Lance's heart finally lifted completely.

He looked at Flora and asked the question he cared about most.

"Then can I put this in your potion shop on consignment?"

Since its effects had passed the test and even exceeded expectations, it was time to consider turning it into cash.