Master and Apprentices: Rise of the Cheat Potion Maker #2
Master and Apprentices: Epilogue

“Ihave a lot of things I’d like to sell,” Alexander told me. He turned to me after marveling over Heaven’s Tears for five straight minutes. “A few thousand spirit coins, a bit generous for a priceless item like this. Mother has an entire safe full of spirit coins. Wanda’s dancing round jiggles, if only I’ve grabbed some before leaving. I have none…” He slumped. “Why wouldn’t a master magician possess a treasure of a potion like this? Now I’m more than confident that you’ll progress through the shop ranks as long as you work hard enough for it, Master Nate.”

“Just call me Nate, or Sir Nate,” I said, waving off his words. “I’m your teacher, but in the end, everything you learn from me will present options that require a choice to be made. Not an order to be followed.”

Alexander’s eyes widened as if the concept was foreign to him. After making a second, I put the blueberry pies into the oven, feeling my fiancée’s excitement. Her reactions were why I didn’t mind the tedious task of making a pie from scratch. Thank God I learned this from Grandma. Videos wouldn’t help me in a world without modern technology or the internet. Some people may freak out at such an idea, but the notion of casting spells from their hands or wands like Potter himself should snuff away the regrets over time. In my case, it beat working at Home Depot or my second job in the stuffy office with a boss that didn’t want to be present.

Relenting, the kid continued. “I’d like a percentage of any of my donated items sold. Perhaps five or ten percent.”

“Only five or ten percent?” I asked.

“Think of the rest as… what my father calls an investment,” Alexander explained.

“That’s one hell of an investment,” I said. Wolverine hopped into my lap, seemingly losing interest in whatever conversation Chenzu, Harmony, and Lucas were having with Mazu the fox.

“It’s standard,” Alexander said. “A merger between merchants, or perhaps acquisition would be more accurate.” A look of pride flashed in his eyes. “I wasn’t number two for nothing. I will do my best to keep the shop on track for the top five, but it will be up to you to steer the vessel.”

“You have yourself an agreement,” I said. “You get ten percent of each sale of your items, plus as my new apprentice, all the benefits that come with our rise. You’ll make the value back in no time.”

“Your protection is far more valuable than any merger,” Alexander said honestly. “This aura alone is worth tens of millions of gold.” He looked at me, eyes of revelry. “I’m honored to be here. I never thought the quiet life would work for someone with a past life like me, but… you’re right.”

As he took out items from his storage ring, I noticed the quest completed prompt.

[Quest completed. Reward 1,000 spirit coins. Congratulations, your shop’s rank has increased to D.]

[You now have access to more options on your MMABS.]

[You have gained a D-ranked shop damage shield. Increase the shop’s rank to increase its protection. This shield also protects the safe, not that it is needed due to the dryad’s spell.]

[Unfortunately, until the town this shop is attached to is upgraded to E or above, your farm cannot be considered a safe zone and will not gain any divine protection nor offensive capabilities. With the town sitting at a pathetic, awful, downright embarrassing F-rank, you will receive no local high-tier customers. Upgrade this town, or it will be impossible to build a legacy as a proper potion maker.]

Man, the system really could lay on being dickish, perhaps even more than the nobles at times. Fortunately, the mayor and I were currently working on the town’s terrible situation. I expected to see the ranking increase within a few weeks at most. How we went from there would be up to our combined creativity. Lucky for us, we now had a kid with the wisdom of some old pirate king.

I took a look at another prompt, deciding to dive into working on such a potion in the morning. Something within my very being warned me that this wouldn’t be so easy as the others. Not that the others were a walk in the park, if I counted my numerous rounds of trial and error.

[You can now increase your class rank. To do so, create 1 complex potion. Potion of Minor Luck.]

Mandi returned an hour earlier than the hero’s party. Fortunately for her, we had just taken the pies out of the oven and set them for some brief cooling. Alexander worked on labeling his donations, from D- to B-ranked spiritual herbs, to spiritual spices that I’d probably purchase myself to use with Flavors, to dried plants, alchemic solutions, and even golden A-ranked statues, all of these items he believed to fit in within the theme of a potion maker’s shop. He even had high quality, magic-protected bottles meant for complex and even higher difficulty potions. I had the apprentices help sort and label things, while Milia and Alexander determined the prices. Chenzu polished the golden items, enhancing them with a mysterious blessing he refused to tell us about, but the items seemed more radiant and alluring to the point that I wondered if I really should be selling them.

We had long since cleaned up after the dungeon run. I allowed the apprentices to go home to change. They spread that info to Mandi. I summoned Yukihara to keep Opal company until the redhead returned.

“So are you going to tell us why you summoned us?” Ronica asked. “If it’s for some pie, then you have won my heart and stomach, yet again.”

Nuwa and I simultaneously rubbed our foreheads, already feeling the headache of the cheerful twerp. But she did have a point. I called them over here and they likely had other shit to do. Ramon looked very uncomfortable, but it was thanks to him that Nuwa stopped bugging me the moment she arrived. Feeling my saint aura, she immediately peppered me with questions, eclipsing even Opal’s speed, and I was sure one of them involved dissecting me to see how my body worked. Thankfully, the hero calmed her down. Even stopped the nun from staring as if I was a piece of the heavens themselves. The goody two-shoed girl had no ill intentions, however. The entirety of the hero’s party did grow visibly irritated when I introduced Alexander as my newest apprentice. He wanted to remain incognito, so I didn’t mention anything regarding his old shop. They already knew about his arrival, but figured he was some noble’s exiled son being taken care of by his attendant.

Unfortunately for them, this was no mere attendant.

“The driver was someone he hired who was willing to take him from lands far away into this kingdom,” I told the party. “But you should know that this person’s very dangerous. Ironically, he wants to use me to hide his identity, but… his identity is the reason I wanted to give you a heads up.”

“What do you mean?” Ramon asked, his voice nervous. “We’re all the way out here. Wait, did someone figure out—”

“No, not that,” I interrupted. “If any of that got out, the Red Star would probably warn you. Her network and influence seem to be decent enough. This is something different. Remember the Midnight Dragon?”

I kind of felt bad for them when I saw the mix of emotions that swirled in their expressions, but the most surprising was the flash of a guilt. At some point, they had all agreed to never talk about their experience again.

Never talk about how the world dumped the responsibility of facing the monster onto them.

“There’s no such thing as necromancers, right?” the hero asked, pale.

“Dude, I have no idea,” I said. “The Midnight Dragon hasn’t been brought back to life… or rather, karma has a sick and perhaps humorous way of doing things, depending on how you look at it.”

“And?” Iris asked, on the edge of her chair. She’d end up falling into Milia if she leaned over any further.

“The driver is a man named Ripley,” I explained. “Not even the kid knows this, but he’s the son of the Midnight Dragon.”

Icy silence covered the room as they stared at me. And, of course, fear emerged in some of those eyes, complimenting the power and stories of the dead dragon.

“He’s strong, very strong,” I said. “A double S-ranker too, which means no one here can beat him. Not even me.”

We all found out the hard way through the fallen angel that the SS-rank took the S-ranking and lit that shit on steroids. If the power increase was that much, I dreaded ever running into an SSS-ranked or beyond monster.

“Luckily, he seemed content on mutual benefits,” I continued. “He didn’t come here to cause trouble, but is rather in hiding, probably due to his father’s infamy.”

“We… we didn’t want to fight the Midnight Dragon,” Ronica suddenly blurted out.

Alexander looked at her, his eyes filled with pity.

“But he lost control and killed so many people,” Ronica continued. “We couldn’t stand by, even if he was our friend.”

“Friends…” Chenzu said, eyes wide.

Iris nodded.

“Our only choice was to put him out of his misery,” Ramon said after staring at Ronica for a bit. “I dealt the final blow, gaining some of the dragon’s essence in the form of hero’s soul. To keep kingdom officials from plotting against all of us, I took the blame for slaying the dragon. But rather than toss me in prison, the church seemed elated. Turns out they secretly hated the dragon. We became the hero’s party against our will, as the church sang praises and spread the news of our deeds.”

“But you saved a lot of people,” Mandi said softly. “That has to count for something.”

“We did what had to be done,” Ramon continued. “But the price to pay for gaining hero’s soul, after slaying the first hero of the kingdom, was enslavement to that very kingdom. We were sent on numerous journeys, tasked to show the people we were worthy of being their heroes. We did our job, eliminated threats, and I even trained the hero’s soul. But…” He turned to me. “We fought, and you dismantled me like I was just a pesky pebble standing in your way. The hero’s soul I possess has a long way to go before it’s useful. That or it’s but a mere imitation.”

“I do not believe the hero’s soul can be easily imitated,” Mazu said. “You are recognized as a hero, as the number of lives you saved that day and more on your numerous journeys adds up. Perhaps the karmic payoff isn’t ready to manifest yet. How long have you been here?”

“Over a month, why?” the hero asked.

“A month and somehow this kingdom’s monarch, he who calls himself the Lord Ruler, hasn’t so much as glanced in your direction,” Mazu said. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to remain hidden from the influence of a monarch?”

“Monarch,” I said softly. For some reason, the word in this case gave me the impression of more than just a king or queen, but someone with enough power to truly demonstrate what it meant to be a magician. “Are monarchs and master magicians related?”

I thought back to the master and apprentice trial and how the heavenly messenger tested them. He didn’t impede the teenagers with his pressure, but encouraged them to give it their all to protect their master. These messengers would do the same for whatever monarch resided in the heavens.

But what did this seemingly stray thought mean, and what was the correlation between it and our current situation? Maybe I was simply overthinking things.

“Monarchs can be master magicians, but you’re wrong about the Lord Ruler, Mazu,” Kelvin answered. “He is not a monarch.”

“What?” the fox said, eyes wide. “Why do you not have a monarch ruling your land? It is very curious that this kingdom has not been devoured by another.”

“People hesitate when it comes to a kingdom that has three master magicians, powerful sects, academies,” Iris said. “Even the elven kingdoms prefer to stay on friendly terms than take that risk without being absolutely certain that those confirmed master magicians won’t blow them away. The biggest concern to many is the knowledge that the Peace Spawner was born and reared in this land. The only people that may be crazy enough to risk angering his cult is probably the Astral Empire.”

“Ugh, not them,” Mandi said, and I could practically feel her hatred for Gaston, the Astral boy she was almost forced to marry.

“The Lord Ruler and the emperor are good friends,” Maxus said, but the worry in his eyes raised my alarm bells.

“To answer your earlier question, master magicians can choose to become monarchs by establishing a domain, but most don’t want to be responsible for entire kingdoms,” Kelvin explained. “Some simply don’t want to deal with the pain of forming a monarch’s core. Two cores is twice the exhaustion. Twice the power expenditure, in some cases.”

I only stared at the man, shaking my head, before smiling. “At least that’s not something we have to worry about. We just barely lucked into getting a D-ranked shop.”

“Oh, I knew I was forgetting something. That is to congratulate you,” Ronica said. “Truthfully, I was beginning to worry for Milia, putting up with—ow!”

Nuwa placed the rolled-up paper back into her storage ring.

“Back on topic,” Ramon said. “The Midnight Dragon.”

“Thanks for the warning,” the elf woman said. “But I think we’ll be fine. If he’s actively searching for us, then he would’ve found us long ago. If he still wants to fight…”

“Let’s hope not,” Alexander said. “Ripley’s… odd. But I don’t think he’s that bad.”

Ramon stared at the kid, probably determining if he was naïve or wise. In the end, he couldn’t decide, having never met the mysterious driver.

“We’ll worry about this later,” I said. “I just wanted to give a heads up. To friends, you know.”

The hero’s party nodded or smiled.

“We appreciate your generosity,” Kelvin said.

“Another debt, but we’ll repay it someday,” Maxus said. “Right, Ronica?”

The twerp pouted but nodded in agreement. “Of course. I can’t risk this food source.”

I glared at her for a bit before chuckling. “For now, who wants pie?”

“I do,” Milia blurted out. “I’ve waited long enough.”

I laughed, pulling my dryad fiancée into a kiss, before giving her the first and largest slice of the pies.

“You really do love your blueberry pies,” I said. It made me wonder if her family would react the same way. “Say, Alexander, do you know of any other way, besides a bank, to upgrade a town from F to E?”

Harmony glanced at the kid, curious and likely hopeful that any insight could help her father.

“A bank is one of the easiest, but it would still take some time to arrange things and get started,” Alexander said. “Not to mention hiring security to keep bandits at bay. You should probably consider going to a major city, maybe copy some of their ideas. Perhaps you’ll replace someone willing to run an adventurer’s den or even a guild. Either one of those two should push the ranking to E. The population increase should pull in some higher tier merchants too, I think.” The former number two shop owner scratched the back of his head sheepishly as all eyes rested on him. “Just snippets I caught from all kinds of people.”

Naturally, Alexander didn’t elaborate, not willing to give even a hint of his origins to the hero’s party.

“The nearest city is two weeks away by horse,” I said. “That should be a week by griffin. For now, let’s focus on the shop.”

“If you do decide to leave, we’ll keep an eye out on things here,” Ramon said. “I think it’s best for us to hide a little longer until the capital replaces something else that interests them.”

“I’ll check on the mayor’s progress before making a decision,” I said. “The ranking of this town is important, especially for the business.”

Alexander nodded in agreement.

I picked up Cheetara.

“You four better push harder, or you’ll be outdone by my secret ultimate pupil,” I said, prompting a laugh from everyone.

They believed me to be joking. Cheetara meowed knowingly.

“They have no idea, Cheetara.”

Within the city of Wingston, a figure stepped out of a manor, cloaked in a Dao-infused darkness. It was a woman with long black hair and glowing green eyes, marking an expressionless face. She tossed a head into the middle of a street. In the morning, someone would be greeted to a thrilling sight of the Astral boy. He had to be the reason why her Black Cross disappeared. There was no way they’d suddenly flee, especially with her secret curse implanted in their hearts.

It took the woman some time to get here by flight, but despite tracking down the last known location of the curse, there simply was nothing.

She didn’t care how much her idiotic father welcomed those accursed Astral bastards, she’d slay them all if it meant keeping out empire scum. He, apparently, was too busy playing the game of houses to realize that the moment the day of succession came, they were all doomed. The emperor’s son would surely return to expansion, absorbing as many kingdoms as possible and utterly destroying any resistance. Allowing an Astral boy was beyond stupid!

Ling sighed.

There was a city two weeks from here. Perhaps they really did break their curse. How else would the trail end here without anything?

Ling knew there was a backwater four days away, but she doubted the Black Cross would hide there. Not enough people to blend in with.

She rose into the air, eyes still on the village and the backwater town. F-ranked. Disgusting. Something about that area felt weird. Perhaps she’d investigate some other time. She had people to do these things for her anyway.

“I will replace you, Ramon,” she vowed. “Just you wait.”

She had no idea that her Dao caused the hero to have nightmares that night due to the close proximity.

He was very lucky she had her interests aligned with the city. And shopping. She wouldn’t get that from a dying town.