Exclusive Shop Sales

Serea had already made her plans. If she wanted to continue developing safely in the jungle, the first thing she needed was a truly secure territory. Therefore…

“Ah-choo!”

Serea sneezed, and at the same time, she felt a burning sensation in her throat.

“Haaa, am I actually catching a cold?”

“Who told you to keep going out dressed so thinly?”

Celia replied. Upon hearing that the Queen was unwell, Lola volunteered.

“Queen, let me gather some herbs for you.”

“Alright.”

Serea agreed, then quietly waited for Avril and the others to return.

As for the issue of upgrading the Death Altar to level two, she decided to set it aside temporarily. Since battle could erupt at any time, she preferred to reserve some Death Crystals to summon an army of Undead in case of emergency.

But before Avril returned, Serea first received a special visitor.

“Your Majesty, there is a goblin outside requesting an audience, claiming to be here as an emissary for ‘Maregof Silver Ear.'”

Maro knelt on one knee at the entrance to the tree hollow as he reported. Serea thought about it for a moment.

“Looks like he couldn’t sit still any longer. Let him in.”

“Yes.”

Maro left and soon returned, bringing with him a goblin scout dressed in grey leather armor. The goblin was still marveling at the vastness of the camp and the grandeur of the elf king tree.

When his gaze shifted to Serea on the main seat, his initial amazement turned to awe.

What a perfect woman!

“As an envoy, you ought to have at least some basic manners.”

Seeing the goblin staring dumbly at Serea, maro rebuked him loudly. The goblin simply glanced at him indifferently and snorted disdainfully.

“Hmph.”

Turning back to Serea, he bent forward slightly.

“You must be Serea. I am Deselin Silver Ear. I have long heard of your great name. Our esteemed lord, maregof Silver Ear, wishes to invite you to a joint council of the western jungle. The location is the ‘Eriwin’ dwarf tribe to the southeast of your tribe, and the meeting will be held tomorrow at two in the afternoon.”

Deselin spoke brusquely, as he had braved a snowstorm to deliver the message. Therefore, Serea’s reaction was…

“Finished speaking?”

“Yes. Be sure to come on time. This will be a gathering of all the major tribes of the jungle. You should be grateful that Lord Maregof is willing to invite you outsiders to attend.”

Deselin’s tone grew increasingly arrogant. This made everyone a bit displeased, but since Serea said nothing, they could not scold the scout.

“Alright, I’ve noted it down. You may leave now.”

“That’s best. Farewell.”

Deselin left the invitation and strode away. But as he turned, he caught sight of the darkening sky and the snowstorm growing heavier.

He realized that braving such a blizzard to travel overnight was hardly wise. So, he looked back at Serea. As an envoy, he ought to be offered shelter for the night in such conditions.

“Captain Maro, how rude of you. Can’t you see that our honored guest Deselin is about to leave? Escort him out—deliver him beyond our territory.”

“Uh… I—”

Deselin wanted to say something, but Maro had already understood Serea’s intentions. He answered,

“Yes!”

Then he turned to Deselin.

“Well then, Lord Deselin, let’s be on our way.”

Maro gestured him toward the door, which was battered by fierce wind and snow. Seeing this, deselin gritted his teeth, and the words requesting to stay the night were swallowed.

“Hmph, I don’t need your escort. I can leave by myself.”

“Excellent. Since Lord Deselin doesn’t require a direwolf to take him back, Captain Maro, you don’t need to escort him further either.”

As Serea spoke, deselin was stunned. He hadn’t expected them to suggest offering a direwolf as a mount. With such a beast, braving the snow would have been a breeze; he could even have made it back to the frontier camp before dinner.

“Uh, actually, I—”

“Lord Deselin, this way please. Although you declined an escort, we still ought to see you to the gate.”

Maro gave him no chance to continue.

Now, imagining himself struggling through the blizzard, deselin swallowed hard. He really wanted to slap himself, but since he’d already spoken so rashly, to go back on his words now would be a loss of face. So he clenched his teeth.

“Hmph, I’ll go.”

With that, deselin left the room. And without lifting a finger, Serea had given this arrogant scout a lesson.

As soon as Deselin stepped out, in came Avril, Little Black, and the others.

“Great Undead!”

“Welcome back!”

Dorulu took a step forward, but Doluka immediately pulled him back.

“Your Majesty, I have completed everything you asked of me.”

“Well done. I’m very satisfied.”

“Thank you for your praise, My Queen.”

After speaking, Serea turned to Avril.

“Alright, now you can tell that what I said before wasn’t empty talk, right?”

“I never doubted you, Your Majesty.”

“In that case, let’s discuss our cooperation in detail.”

As Serea spoke, avril braced herself. Before leaving, Serea had said their alliance was conditional on granting her a certain request. That request was simple: to help Serea sell some products.

But what exactly did Serea want to sell?

Just as Avril wondered, Lola brought over a box of potions. After placing it before Avril, she took one out.

“Your Majesty intends to sell these?”

“Yes. But remember my requirement: I want an exclusive shop dedicated to these potions. Likewise, I will give you ten percent of the profits as payment.”

As Serea spoke, avril picked up a bottle of ‘intermediate potion’ (third-tier potion), uncorked it, and sniffed it. Then she passed it to Julian, the ‘appraiser.’ After Julian finished his analysis, avril said,

“But Your Majesty, this is just an ordinary potion. If you want an exclusive shop for its sale…”

“Why don’t you try it yourself?”

“…”

Serea said, and Avril looked at the potion, stared at it for a few moments, then decisively used a knife to cut her own hand.

Blood welled up. Aruka called out in concern.

“Madam!”

“It’s alright. This way the result is more evident.”

After drinking the potion, avril looked at her hand. She expected it would take a while, but to her surprise, the wound had already begun to heal, and within a minute it completely closed up.

“The effect is twice as fast as a typical intermediate potion, and the healing is more pronounced. And furthermore…”

Avril clenched her hand. After a day’s hard work she had been exhausted, but after drinking the potion, she felt her stamina returning.

A dual-effect potion!

What about the other one?

She took out another bottle—an ‘intermediate mental potion’ (third-tier)—and this time gave it to Julian.

After drinking it, julian felt his mental power replenishing, and his thoughts becoming clearer. The effect was—

“A dual-effect potion! Mental power recovers while also boosting at the same time!”

Julian exclaimed. The reason for his amazement was simple:

Normally, there is antagonism between different potions. In other words, after drinking one, taking another could produce negative interactions, depending on their ingredients.

Negative reactions include reduced efficacy, or even nullification.

So, unless otherwise specified, most people will only drink one potion in a short time.

But dual-effect potions are different. Their existence means various effects can be combined safely, making them far superior to ordinary potions—especially valuable in battle.

Because of this, a dual-effect potion can cost at least five times as much as two ordinary ones combined. Triple- and quadruple-effect potions might cost ten times more or even higher!

Take the church-exclusive ‘Holy Potion’ as an example. It grants a purification effect with five attribute bonuses. Although the bonuses aren’t huge, its price is set.

A 50ml intermediate (third-tier) Holy Potion costs 20 gold coins! 2,000 silver coins!

Even if used sparingly, enough for five doses, the price is outrageous.

But there’s no help for it. The failure rate when brewing multi-effect potions is high, so supply is limited. Their effects are alluring, so a high price is only to be expected.

That price may be out of reach for most—but not for everyone. After all, life is precious.

Currently, the potions Serea sold could reach at most triple effect. Thanks to the Blood Alchemy Room’s bonus, the success rate was guaranteed, and the effects were improved by twenty percent.

Don’t underestimate that twenty percent. With this slight bonus from the Blood Alchemy Room, Serea’s potions could outperform any potion of equivalent rank.

“Healing potions and mental potions are both dual-effect. So I take back what I said earlier—these are indeed worth an exclusive shop. But we’ll need to perform further verification. For now, they could be priced at 50 silver coins per bottle.”

As Avril spoke, Serea waved her hand. Vina stepped forward carrying another potion box, which she opened to reveal both a golden and a purple potion.

“This is…?”

“Triple-effect potions, crafted by a ‘master-level’ alchemist. Can you estimate the price?”

“M-master-level alchemist!”

Avril was startled at the word ‘master’. In any empire, a master-level alchemist was a valuable national asset, perhaps even strategically important.

“May I ask, Your Majesty, by which master were these potions crafted?”

“…”

“Don’t misunderstand, Your Majesty—I meant, if there’s a master’s name attached, the value rises by at least twenty percent.”

“Is that so? Unfortunately, it was a wandering master lacking a formal reputation—likely unknown to the world.”

“No matter. If possible, we request to take a sample of the master’s work for confirmation. After that, our Xiyun Merchant Guild is willing to vouch for it.”

Avril said this because only potions produced by a master (or at least a grandmaster) were worthy of such endorsement.

“I’ll have to ask her permission.”

“Very well, Your Majesty. I’ll be waiting for your reply.”

“Now, can you estimate the price for these two triple-effect potions alone?”

“If they’re triple-effect, the market price would be around 100 silver coins, but with the master’s touch the effect will be even better. I’d conservatively say 120 silver coins.”

Avril said, and Serea was very satisfied with the price.

“Excellent, I can also mass-produce excellent regular potions. What are their market prices?”

“Intermediate potions fetch 5 to 10 silver coins; junior potions, 1 to 2 silver coins.”

“So realistic…”

The huge price gap left Serea speechless.

Fortunately, ordinary potions were handled by Camilla, while multi-effect ones were Dogsius’s domain. It was a pity that the variety of ingredients was so limited right now—otherwise, Dogsius could craft even stronger potions, which would absolutely rival the church’s Holy Potion.

Alas, an alchemist usually specializes in just a few formulas throughout their life, and Dogsius had inherited memories of only a handful. Otherwise, Serea wouldn’t have to draw for alchemy formulas…

“As long as we can open an exclusive shop, that will do. I’ll leave it to you.”

Serea said, and Avril smiled in response.

“I believe the Xiyun Merchant Guild’s trade channels will never disappoint you, Your Majesty.”

“Good, I look forward to our partnership.”

“A pleasure working with you.”

With Dogsius’s potions now being sold exclusively by one of the Holy Dragon Empire’s three major merchant guilds, Serea could already imagine herself swimming in a sea of gold coins.

By then, mana crystals, materials—nothing would be a problem. She could buy it all!

Smiling at the thought, Serea felt as if she were floating. Yet while daydreaming, her body swayed, and she collapsed to one side.

Celia quickly supported her, and as her hand touched Serea’s skin, she felt a burning heat.

“Cough, cough.”

Serea coughed. Lola spoke up in concern,

“Queen, are you alright?”

The sudden change alarmed everyone. Celia placed a hand on Serea’s forehead.

“It’s just a fever. She’ll be fine after taking some herbs.”

Celia’s words put them all at ease.

“What? A fever? Objectively, I’m a junior mage—how can my constitution be so poor?”

Then she recalled, her physique was only C…

“You’re a junior magic class. How strong could your body possibly be?”

“Then, Celia, use Holy Magic to heal me.”

“This kind of illness shouldn’t be cured too quickly. You should get a good night’s rest.”

Celia replied. She meant well—since Serea was always up working late as queen, this was a good opportunity for her to rest up.

“Alright, I guess it’s not such a big deal.”

Serea said, then felt a wave of hunger. Seeing that night had fallen, she stood up and stretched.

“Now that we’re done, let’s eat. There’s no need for everyone to keep standing around—let’s go eat…”

She hadn’t finished her sentence when everything went black and she collapsed.

She vaguely felt someone pick her up, then place her on a soft bed…

(To be continued….)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep