Izroth stepped outside of the pill crafting room located within the Mystical Realm Palace and into the main area of the shop. He swept his gaze across the room one last time to make sure that everything was in order.
'I've already set up the inventory and replenishment system through the shop's interface. Now, I suppose there are only two things left for me to do before the grand opening.'
The inventory system, in this case, allowed for the owner of the shop to set a maximum amount of pills that players could buy per day. The replenishment system automatically pulled from the item reserves and replenished them if depleted using what was left available in storage.
The first thing Izroth did was sent a message out to alert Mariposa and Zi Yi who asked to be informed when he was about to commence the grand opening. He quickly received a response from Mariposa.
〈System Alert: Player Mariposa has sent you a message, "Eh? Already? Are you sure your inventory is enough for a grand opening? This is a huge chance to make a first impression, however, if there's nothing to leave an impression by the time other players come to visit then the initial momentum will be weakened."〉
Izroth could see why Mariposa would be concerned. He originally told her that his maximum output of pills per day was limited to 300. However, this was Izroth accounting other parts of his time. After all, he would not mindlessly sit and craft pills all day when his goal was to become the number one player within RML.
Therefore, he needed to provide a reasonable limit so that it did not interfere with his actual long term goals.
Mariposa believed that Izroth only had, at most, 600-800 pills give or take. She figured that the lower grade pills would be a bit easier to mass produce and so that was her best-educated guess about what Izroth's inventory was like at the moment.
While Mariposa understood that it was important to open the shop as soon as possible due to the once in a lifetime opportunity of being the first to do so. However, she did not believe that they had a few days of leeway, maybe even a full week, before someone else opened a shop. At the very least, Izroth could definitely afford to wait another day or two.
However, if she knew that Izroth had crafted over 33,000 pills in only two days in-game time, how would she react?
At first, Izroth could only craft around 15,000 pills a day at max according to his previous estimate since some of the pills required precise timing when it came to temperature control and other various things. However, he was able to surpass that limit thanks to a new trait the system provided him with after crafting pills for around a day in-game time!
Trait Name: Natural Pill Master
Trait Level: 1
Trait Effect: The user gains the following benefits for their unrelenting determination in pill crafting.
«Mind of Pill Craft»: The user has a small chance to enter the perfect state of crafting during pill creation. Temporarily increases the user's focus, pill crafting speed and senses by an extraordinary amount. Amount varies depending on the level of user focus.
«Superior Pill Crafting»: +25% Pill Crafting Speed
«Blessing of The Pill Craft»: +0.1% Blessing of the Craft
Special Note: A true pill master is both naturally born and created!
This was the second trait Izroth had received. Most players within RML did not have a single trait and yet he already possessed two! Even if one of them was in crafting, it could be said to be even more difficult to achieve such a feat.
Izroth figured that it had something to do with how far ahead he was of other players when it came to pill crafting, as well as, the vast amount of pills he crafted in such short notice.
At first, Izroth had no idea what the +0.1% Blessing of the Craft would do, however, it did not take him long to find out. It granted a chance for Izroth's pills to increase their natural effect(s)! In other words, a normal Heart of the Heavenly Dragon Pill may limit the stat gain to 100, however, if it was influenced by the Blessing of the Craft then that limit increased to 200!
Of course, the efficiency and effects varied from pill to pill, but one thing was for certain, they were worth at least double or even triple that of their normal counterparts!
In total, Izroth was only able to create around 41 pills that were fortunate enough to have the Blessing of the Craft bestowed upon them. This was even with his +1 Luck stat to help out his chances.
Just as Izroth was going over things one last time to make sure everything was in place, he finally received a message alert from Zi Yi.
〈System Alert: Player Zi Yi has sent you a message, "Can't make it. Busy. Best of luck."〉
Izroth was a little surprised by Zi Yi's response, after all, she was the one who asked to be informed before the time of the grand opening. However, he felt that it must have been an urgent matter from her short response as if she were in a rush of sorts. Well, either that or she simply did not want to be disturbed while in the palace library.
'Now, I just have to decide how to use you.'
Izroth removed the Property Announcement from his inventory and had to put some thought into the message he would send out across the entire city of Amaharpe.
...
Around twenty minutes later...
Something shocking happened that swept throughout all of Amaharpe. A powerful form of voice magic sounded across the city and carried along with it a baffling message. Not only that, but every player in the city was personally informed by a system message as well with some coordinates posted. They were familiar with the coordinates because it was similar to that of the auction house.
However, what no one expected was the message that was carried along with it. The words were simple and yet, they were able to capture the attention of the entire player popular within Amaharpe.
〈City Announcement: Visit the first official player owned shop within RML, «Mystical Realm Palace». Grade 1, 2, and 3 Apothecary pills for sale. Visit the coordinates...〉
At first, there was a strange silence throughout the city of Amaharpe. It was as if every player had their ears and eyes locked onto the message. The message repeated itself another two times before the voice vanished. It was not until that voice faded away, that everyone seemed to snap back into reality.
A player owned shop! It was actually a player owned shop that was being announced! The city-wide public chat went practically crazy and caused the system to enforce a slow chat mode due to the level of player chat traffic.
"What the heck was that? A city announcement? Is it legit?"
"Legit? How can you even say that noob?! It's a city announcement! You can't fake that kind of thing. It's 100% legit!"
"That's insane! Which top guild owns the shop? I'm sure the others are going crazy right now."
"I was right outside the auction house when the announcement was made. I'm right at the coordinates. Can confirm its real. This place is awesome!"
"It has to be a scam! Grade three pills? Only the Pill Emperor can make something like that right now!"
There were some players who were excited and others who remained skeptical, however, the curiosity was already planted within their minds.
While most would think that the casual players were chaotic, it was, in fact, the top guilds who were scrambling around to confirm the truth. However, it did not take long for every single one of the top guilds to do so since they had people constantly stationed within the auction house around the clock. Since the coordinates listed were right across the street, it was not difficult to check.
The same could be said for those bigger guilds who could afford to have players wait around at the auction house in rotating shifts. It was definitely true! It was a pill shop with grade one and grade two pills that were never seen before today. However, no one was able to confirm the existence of grade three pills in the shop for some reason.
At the moment, every top guild and player within Amaharpe had the same question on their mind. Who exactly was the owner of the shop?
...
Cross Haven temporary headquarters...
"How could this get past us?" Ewan asked. He had just returned from outside of the city not too long ago and was greeted by such a surprise announcement. How could they have failed to notice the movements of someone preparing to open a shop?
"It's hard to say. Things have been a little chaotic ever since the end of the event. Everything is shaky at best and the top ten guilds that were so well defined before have become unstable. It would seem our attention was focused too much on the potential follow up moves." Wang Qiang commented.
"If the announcement about grade three pills turns out to be true, then we'll have found the equal of the Pill Emperor or even the Pill Emperor himself. I should not have to tell you how this could benefit Cross Haven. " Ewan said as he stood to his feet and made his way towards the door.
"Oh? You're actually going to pay a personal visit?" Wang Qiang said as he followed after Ewan.
"If I fail to do so, others will. It is not something that can be left to mere chance. Let us hope that we're not too late and that another guild is behind this. Otherwise, it will put Cross Haven in a disadvantageous position." Ewan responded.
Ewan and Wang Qiang made their way towards the coordinates of the shop.
Cross Haven was not the only guild to respond in such a rapid manner. Everyone had a similar reaction to Ewan. All of the top guilds including Blue Oasis, Hyper's Symphony, and even the Headhunter Syndicate all rushed to grab a piece of the action.
...
Meanwhile, back at the Mystical Realm Palace...
'It's a larger turn out than I anticipated.'
Izroth wandered around the shop that once appeared spacious, however, it was now crowded with hundreds of players. There appeared to be no end to the stream of players pouring into the building.
'It's a good thing I've decided to limit the purchase of pills to 1 per customer each. Otherwise, I'm afraid the inventory I've built up would not last a second under the assault of this group.'
Izroth knew that if the top guilds had a chance, they would clean him out of his entire inventory. This was not a bad thing if one looked at it from a short term point of view. However, in the long run, it was dangerous to allow someone else to purchase that many pills at once since it could allow for hoarding. If that happened, then they would be able to create their own secondary market.
"Eh? Why can I only buy one of each pill? Where are all the grade three pills?" One of the players questioned when he tried to purchase fifty Heart of the Heavenly Dragon Pills. He had planned on waiting until the ones here run out and then selling them at a higher value. Of course, it was a risky investment, but the potential return would have been astounding.
"All pill purchases are currently limited to one per customer on the day of the grand opening. If you wish to purchase additional pills, you will have to return tomorrow. All grade three pills are located on the second floor of the establishment." One of the nearby assistant NPC's responded. Her name was Opal. She wore a simple maid's outfit and had a charming appearance about her.
"Only one per day?! That's outrageous... I guess I'll go look at those legendary grade three pills then." The player was obviously upset. His plans had been tossed into the wind and now, he could only purchase pills for himself. However, he may still be able to get his hands on a grade three pill and he did not want to risk losing out on that rare opportunity.
As the player approached the second floor and tried to go up the stairs, he was stopped by an invisible barrier as the system wanted him to pay five gold coins to proceed. His face turned extremely ugly when he saw that he had to pay just to even visit the second floor!
"Five gold coins! That's over 3,000 RMB just to take a look!" The player decided to cut his luck and just leave after acquiring one of each of the grade one and grade two pills. He knew that he would have to return with more gold if he wanted to purchase anything on the second floor. After all, if the entry fee alone was five gold coins, then he knew the price of the pills themselves were not cheap.
Also, he was unsure if it would charge him every time he decided to visit the second floor. Therefore, he would gather enough to make the purchase in one attempt as to not take any chances.
Many players repeated actions similar to his and most left disappointed or outraged. However, there were a few wealthy players that could afford to go up to the second floor and came back down a few moments later with three items they never would have even dreamed of seeing at this point within RML.
They strutted around the shop as if to show off their wealth and have other players look on with admiration.
Grade three pills! This shop really did have grade three pills!