Chapter 48: Selling the Pills

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[Congratulations, you have successfully created three mid-tier Recovery Pills.]

[You have gained 7 QI]

[You have gained 7 QI]

[You have gained 7 QI]

Ethan felt a bit dissatisfied with the experience he had gained.

He thought he would earn more experience with a higher-grade recipe, but he was wrong.

Then, seeing how many points he had earned, his mood lifted.

[You have gained 2 System Points]

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[You have gained 2 System Points]

Seeing how quickly he was accumulating points, Ethan decided to produce more pills.

He knew that with enough pills, he could earn the money needed to register for the exam to become an apprentice alchemist.

He had more than enough materials to produce more pills.

Initially, he wanted to create as many as possible, but then he reconsidered.

It didn't make sense to use up all his herbs on just recovery pills.

With the system shop, Ethan could obtain other recipes, level them up, and earn more.

Moreover, these herbs could be used to create other types of pills as well.

It wasn't a good idea to consume all his inventory at once because if the demand for certain pills increased in the future, he might not have enough materials to produce them.

Additionally, there were already many suppliers of basic recovery pills of various grades, so it made no sense to compete only on this pill.

For now, he would settle for just enough to earn what he needed to afford the apprentice exam.

Ethan got to work, focusing intensely on refining more pills.

The process, as usual, didn't take much time, and Ethan now felt so experienced that he believed he could make them even with his eyes closed—or at least so he thought, though he wouldn't try it just yet.

When he finished, he had a total of eighteen mid-tier recovery pills.

Although he needed to create only fifteen mid-tier pills to earn 9 low-grade spirit stones, which, combined with the earnings from the low-grade pills he had made earlier, would give him a total of ten spirit stones, he decided to make a few more so he wouldn't have completely empty pockets.

As an old saying goes, it's always better to have some money in your pocket, as you never know when you'll need it.

Confident in the quality of his product, he carefully packaged them and headed to the city market.

There were few options for novice alchemists like him to sell their pills.

One was to sell them directly to the Medicine Pavilion, which would guarantee their quality and reliability to the customer in exchange for a small percentage of the pill sales.

But this option was only available after successfully becoming at least a one-star apprentice.

This was reasonable since apprentices could at least ensure the production of one low-grade pill, whereas an adept might or might not create one successfully.

The pavilion couldn't be too lenient on this front because most of the time, the refinement materials were provided by the customer themselves, who requested to have them refined into a pill.

They didn't want an alchemist constantly ruining the customers' materials, as this would directly impact the pavilion's reputation.

The other option for novice alchemists like him was to try to sell their pills at the market on their own.

But this was a less common practice among alchemists, especially the less known ones.

The Medicine Pavilion's badge was also a sign of an alchemist's status, which directly and indirectly influenced their reliability.

For example, if an expert decided to sell their pills at the market, they would easily find many customers, whereas someone like Ethan might not succeed even if he begged someone to buy them.

Ethan knew this fact but decided to try his luck anyway, as he didn't have many other options.

"Oh well, at worst I'll use one of the extra low-grade pills as proof," Ethan thought, deciding to use the two extra low-grade pills he had left.

The city market was bustling with activity.

Stalls lined the streets, and merchants loudly advertised their goods.

Ethan found a spot and set up his makeshift stall, displaying the pills in neat rows.

He also put up a sign that read, "Sale of Low-Grade and Mid-Grade Recovery Pills."

He took a deep breath and began calling out to passersby, hoping to attract some customers.

Several people showed interest in his pills, but seeing that he was only an adept alchemist, they decided to ignore him.

For a while, no one approached his stall, until two men passing by noticed his setup.

They approached, examining the pills with curiosity.

Ethan explained their benefits and assured them of the product's quality, but as soon as they noticed his adept alchemist badge, they became skeptical.

"You're not even an apprentice?" blurted out one man.

"How can we know these pills aren't fake?"

Others murmured in agreement, losing interest.

Ethan tried to convince them, but it was futile.

They thought he was a fraud and decided to ignore him.

Just as Ethan was beginning to feel discouraged, a burly man with a menacing air approached his stall.

The man carefully examined the pills, a glint of greed in his eyes.

This man was also a cultivator, so he could use his spiritual energy to examine the pills.

Seeing that they indeed seemed to be low-grade recovery pills, and that no one else seemed interested in buying them, he decided to try to get them at a lower price.

"How much are you selling them for?" he asked, maintaining a poker face to avoid revealing to Ethan that he had noticed the validity of his pills.

"These pills are being sold at market price," Ethan said calmly.

Normally, he would try to be more proactive in advertising his pills, but he could tell the man in front of him didn't seem to have good intentions.

He had already noticed the man was a cultivator and had sensed when he tried to examine the pills, but he decided to wait and see if the man would do anything, as he had sensed the man's cultivation base and, seeing it was only at the second level of body refining, he calmed down.

"The ten low-grade pills are sold in a batch for one low-grade spirit stone, while the eighteen mid-grade pills are sold in batches of five, with each batch costing five spirit stones.

The remaining three pills can be bought for two low-grade spirit stones," he said professionally, as if he had made transactions like these many times before.

And indeed he had, given his past as a convenience store worker in his previous world.

"Tch, that's not acceptable," said the man, clearly displeased with the price.

"You're clearly a novice alchemist.

Even if these pills are real, there's no guarantee they'll work properly," he said, trying to lower the value of the pills in the eyes of others.

He then continued, "Since I'm in a good mood today, I'll buy them all from you for one low-grade spirit stone," he said as if he were doing a good deed.

'Why don't you go rob a bank instead,' Ethan thought.

"I'm sorry, but the price of the pills is non-negotiable.

If you're not happy with the price, you can ignore the pills," he said, maintaining his composure, not falling into the cultivator's trap.

The cultivator, however, didn't seem to intend to back down.

"Come on, it's more than a fair price.

You should be happy I'm even offering one spirit stone for these pills.

No one would be willing to spend even half a stone for them, so why not sell them to me?" he said.

Ethan didn't respond, keeping his expression unchanged to show he wouldn't budge.

The cultivator, seeing this, didn't press further and left with a dark face.

If it had been up to him, he wouldn't have even tried to buy them; he would have just taken them.

But he knew he couldn't cause a commotion at the market.

The city guards patrolled the streets regularly, and if they heard any trouble, they would rush to the scene, and then he could do little.

As he walked away from the stall, he decided he would wait for Ethan to pack up and then confront him.

He wasn't worried the pills would be sold because it was true that people rarely bought pills of dubious quality.

Cultivators almost always bought their pills from the Pavilion or known alchemists, so he wasn't afraid another cultivator would decide to buy them directly from the market.

Or so he thought.

Too bad for him, fate loves to play tricks on everyone.

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

Here is yesterday's chapter.

I apologize for the delay. I got mixed up with the chapter schedules and ended up falling behind, thinking I had already written the chapter when it was just the raw version that I still needed to finish.

I would have published it directly yesterday after editing, but unforeseen events always come up.

Anyway, I hope you liked it, and I'll try to free up some time to write today's chapter as well.

Oh, and one more thing: what do you think about the current chapter length?