Chapter 96: The Ingredients Are Too Expensive!

Moon So Yeon quickly cleared out all the potions in Kim Sora’s store.

Health recovery potions, energy recovery potions, antidotes, anti-stun potions, anti-sleep potions, and even special-effect potions of which only one or two bottles remained on the shelves, none of them escaped her notice.

"Are you really taking all of them?" Sora stared at the empty shelves with a dazed expression.

These potions usually sat unsold for weeks until high-ranking hunter parties came to buy them, which was why Kim Sora and Kei never stocked large quantities.

"I’m sorry." Moon So Yeon said while checking her list. "But the Guild needs them urgently."

"It’s fine... I guess."

Sora watched Moon So Yeon’s back as she left the store, then lowered her head to look at the empty counter.

The silver-haired female hunter didn’t stop there. She immediately rushed to other item shops in the city, continuing to collect every potion they had left in stock.

Within just a few hours, the potion shortage in Dong-San had become more severe than ever.

Sora leaned on the counter with both hands and let out a sigh.

"Recently, every customer who comes in is here to buy potions. And now even the potions have been coaxed away by her. From today on, probably no one will drop by the shop anymore."

Kei, who was wiping a cup nearby, turned his head and looked at her curiously.

"What about the store we source our potions from?"

Hearing that, Sora immediately shook her head.

"If Moon So Yeon went even to small shops like ours to gather potions, then she’s definitely cleaned out the wholesale market too."

"Then why not try calling to ask."

Sora took out her phone and called each supplier store one by one. But the results were no different from what she had predicted.

"We’re sorry, but our warehouse is currently out of potions."

"When will you be getting new stock?"

"We don’t know yet. We’ll probably have to wait until the Guilds in Dong-San resolve the abnormal Dungeon situation, because under the current emergency priority order, we need to prioritize selling to large Guilds with urgent demand."

"Is there no way to get it sooner?"

"We’re really sorry. Once we have stock, we’ll notify your store immediately."

The last call ended.

Sora put down the phone, her shoulders slumping.

"Just as I thought."

Kei silently stared at the empty shelves.

The store wasn’t large to begin with, but this was the first time he felt how terrifying the empty spaces on the shelves could be. Without a single potion, the store had lost half the reason customers would walk through the door.

"Don’t worry."

Kei spoke up.

Sora looked up at him.

"I’ve already looked at the ingredient lists and recipes in the books Thunder gave me. I’ll definitely be able to craft potions soon."

Kei said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I just need enough time."

Sora looked at Kei’s calm expression and finally let out a relieved breath.

"That’s good then. As long as we have potions to sell, the store won’t be affected too much. And when no one else has potions but our store does, customers will come flooding in!"

Kei nodded, but inside, he wasn’t as calm as he appeared.

He had been too confident.

After studying the recipes, Kei quickly realized that crafting potions was far more difficult than he had imagined. The simple concoctions he used to brew in the old world could be handled with mana, but potions meant for hunters required ingredients so precise that they were nearly impossible to substitute.

Most importantly, the ingredients were too expensive.

Kei made a round through the ingredient market in Dong-San, asking about the prices of each type of herb and monster core he needed. The more he asked, the stiffer his expression became.

A bundle of Blood Leaf used for crafting health recovery potions cost as much as a family’s food expenses for several days.

Pure water-type energy stones used for energy recovery potions were only slightly cheaper than the spatial attribute energy stones used to craft space rings.

As for the ingredients for antidotes and anti-sleep potions, most were high-grade herbs that could only be found randomly inside Dungeons with special weather conditions. Given how rare they were, their prices needed no further discussion.In the afternoon, he returned to the store with a heavy expression.

Sora immediately asked as soon as she saw him:

"How did it go?"

"Not very well... It’s not as simple as we thought!"

Kei placed the paper with notes on the various ingredients for brewing potions on the table.

"If we buy the ingredients and craft them ourselves in small quantities, the capital invested would be even higher than the price of the potions you previously stocked."

Sora was stunned.

"How much higher?"

"At least double. Some types are even more than triple."

That was precisely why most potions on the market were supplied by large workshops and major production companies to wholesale markets, where small stores would purchase stock for retail.

The room fell into silence.

Sora slowly sat down on a chair, her small face gloomy.

"If that’s the case, the production cost of our potions would force us to sell them at a very high price."

"Right."

"But hunters who are used to buying potions at low prices won’t even bother with ours. So we won’t be able to sell anything..."

Kei remained silent, then let out a sigh and said:

"Right now, that’s exactly how it is."

The two sat facing each other, both staring at the numbers on the paper. After a while, Sora slumped onto the table, while Kei propped his chin on his hand and gazed out the window.

They had found what customers needed, and there were people willing to buy potions. But between those two points, a wall called cost still existed.

By dinner time, neither of them had come up with a solution.

Kim Sora brought over a plate of stir-fried vegetables and set it on the table, then sat down across from Kei. Today’s meal no longer had the cheerful atmosphere of last night. No one mentioned the celebration hotpot, and neither was in the mood to talk about Kei having become a Craftsman rank E.

With the situation being that only a few hunters had dropped by all day to pick up pre-ordered upgraded space rings, the store’s business would barely earn anything.

Sora picked up a piece of vegetable, chewed it slowly, then set her chopsticks down in frustration and muttered unconsciously:

"If only we could grow the ingredients ourselves."

Kei, who had been bowing his head to eat, paused.

"Grow ingredients?"

"Yes." Sora propped her chin on her hand and began to complain. "If we could grow the herbs ourselves, we’d definitely cut a lot of costs. We wouldn’t have to buy from merchants, and we wouldn’t get cleaned out by other Guilds either."

Kei silently thought about what Sora had just said, and he too felt that this would be very advantageous.

Sora continued picking up vegetables and stuffing them into her mouth, talking while eating:

"If we could grow them ourselves, harvest them ourselves, and brew potions ourselves, that would be so great. Then we could sell at a lower price, and we wouldn’t have to worry about running out of ingredients."

"Yeah."

Kei nodded instinctively.

But right after, his movements suddenly stopped.

A thought flashed through Kei’s mind.

Growing ingredients yourself.

No need for land or a garden, so that when brewing potions, you wouldn’t have to buy herbs from others...

Kei’s eyes slowly widened.

He remembered the things he had long forgotten, and also remembered that magical power could make plants grow faster.

What if the problem wasn’t about finding land?

What if he could create a place to grow ingredients right inside the store?

Kei looked up at Sora.

"Kei? Why do you suddenly look so happy like that?"

Sora tilted her head and asked curiously.

Kei didn’t answer right away; he was remembering an extremely important item that he had forgotten. Perhaps it was because he had been so focused on adapting to life in Korea that Kei had instinctively forgotten all about it.

An item that could create a separate growth environment, adjusting light, temperature, and magical power according to the needs of each type of ingredient.