Chapitre 27: Guild of Alchemy

A few hours passed, and Minos decided to venture out and see if he could search for the high-grade grade-1 spiritual pills for his ten soldiers.

While staying at the Hotel Olson, Minos discovered an alchemy guild that was present in the city of Portland, where he could find numerous alchemists for his work.

As he continued to walk through the streets of Portland, Minos noticed many things that were missing in the Dry City. There were numerous upscale restaurants, shops specialized in the maintenance and sale of spiritual weapons, and a few stores that were even selling low-level arrays that were commonly used by people in their homes.

Though such arrays do not require many resources or high-level professionals, practical arrays that facilitated people's daily lives still generated a good income. However, there were none of these in the Dry City as there were no array masters there. Of course, there were no alchemists or blacksmiths there either.

Nonetheless, the beautiful landscape of the city was also magnificent, with many spiritual trees everywhere, and some squares only gave you a feeling of being close to nature.

As for spiritual density, although he couldn't feel it unless he started cultivating, Minos was sure this place was just as good as the capital of the Brown Kingdom, the City of the Setting Sun.

And after walking for a few more minutes, a rectangular building finally caught Minos' sight, which was emanating an intense medicinal smell.

It was the alchemist guild of the city of Portland!

That was a bustling place.

As Minos entered the building, he saw many people come and go through the building and then noticed a crowd around a counter near the entrance, where a young man was selling several bottles of spiritual pills in that place.

Minos stopped at the side of the line and asked a young man, who seemed pretty eagerly waiting for his turn, "Friend, can you tell me what this line is for?"

The young man glanced at Minos before frowning as he said, "You do not know? Maybe you're new here. This front desk is selling medium-level grade-1 pills at half the normal price."

"Half-price? Is this normal around here?" Minos asked with curiosity. Although these pills would not be helpful to him since they could not help his men reach the 5th stage, even so, he was curious.

"It is not normal. It looks like this alchemist is going to take an exam to move to the next level, so he's collecting crystals," the young man said with a serious face.

"Oh! I see… I have a question, where can I find alchemists of high-level grade-1, here in this place?" Minos asked with a smile.

The young man looked at him with a surprised expression for a moment and then answered, "You can find alchemists of such level upstairs."

"OK, thanks for the help," Minos then said goodbye and went to the next floor.

As he reached, the medicinal fragrance in the air became even more potent than in the place where Minos had passed before. There were about a few more than ten benches on this floor, while having slightly less movement as well.

This floor was like a large square layout with several benches placed in the middle and a few rooms on the sides.

Minos approached a bench which had less movement and asked the person present there, "Hello, do you have any spiritual pills to advance to the General Spiritual stage?"

The person there was a middle-aged man wearing a large white robe. At the counter, the man looked at Minos for a second and then spoke. "I have two pills that can help someone advance to the 5th stage. Each of them costs 1,500 crystals."

"As long as the user has accumulated the necessary energy required to reach level 40 before consuming these pills, it will only require a few hours to advance to the next level."

After saying this, he showed Minos the bottles with the pills. In this world, one person could determine the quality of a pill by its fragrance, and the richer the fragrance was, the better the pill's effects would be.

However, not everyone could differentiate that as it was necessary to have knowledge about many medicines and pills to be able to differentiate the quality of two spiritual pills. In Minos' case, though he didn't have his own knowledge, he was able to do so due to the memories of the God Henricus Longus.

Although this God was not an alchemist, he still lived for more than 50,000 years, and so, he had experience in how to discern the quality of spiritual pills well.

As soon as Minos smelled the fragrance, he could tell that the pills were of a good quality. After that, he handed over a bag with the crystals after deciding to buy them, "Here's the payment. I'll take both of them."

"By the way, sir, why aren't there a lot of people shopping at your counter?" Minos asked curiously.

The middle-aged man smiled and then looked at Minos for a moment before answering, "You must be new here to ask such a question. This is because of the guild. The guild gives support to those alchemists who join the powers behind them. In contrast, the other alchemists who aren't affiliated can only use the place for their negotiations."

In the Spiritual World, the alchemist guilds and the guilds of array masters and blacksmiths were the local organizations where everything related to those professions would take place.

In an alchemist guild, ordinary people could meet alchemists and buy spiritual pills. Along with that, if they were interested, the young people could learn alchemy from the basics to the guild's level and perform the necessary tests to become an alchemist and receive their due classification.

However, these organizations were often supported by noble and wealthy families in the region they were based. These families were generally specialized in one of such professions and provided subsidies for those young people who joined them.

This allowed them to either charge less for their products or improve their skills more quickly.

The middle-aged man then continued, "As I didn't get affiliated with any of the big families behind the guild, I don't receive their support. The consequence of this is that my pills are more expensive than those of the alchemist subordinates to these families."

Minos understood the situation after hearing about this middle-aged man, but he was not sorry to have paid a little more for the pills since knowing such information could also be of some help in Minos' plans.

"Sir, may I ask for your name?"

"Hmm, my name is Davis. Why do you question?" replied the man with a curious look.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Davis. My name is Minos. As an alchemist, you must have your ambitions. Can you tell me why you refused to join one of the families behind the guild?"

Davis answered sincerely, "It's nothing big. I just wanted to have my freedom. Having power wouldn't be of any help if I can't do what I want."

Finding a good opportunity, Minos struck his hammer, "Oh! Then that's it. Well, since you are not against joining an organization as long as your freedom is maintained, then I have an offer for you, Mr. Davis."

The man's eyes lit up after hearing that, as Minos continued, "I am here for a business on Stone Island, but I will be returning to my region in a few weeks. If you want to join my forces, I can assure you that you will have the freedom to sell your items however you want, all I ask for you is to deliver a minimum amount of pills every month.

I will also pay 700 crystals for each high-level grade-1 pill that is sold in my territory and made by you. Of course, I will supply all the necessary ingredients as well.

However, you must know that my region is still under development. I will give you a lot of advantages if you come with me, but the biggest advantage of following me now is that you will be a more important figure when we become big in the future," Minos finished his offer after letting out a breath.

After a while, he then asked Davis while pointing at the two bottles of pills, "I need another eight pills like these. How long would it take you to produce it?"

Davis took a while and then answered, "I'm sorry, but I'm currently without the necessary ingredients needed for this type of pill and it might take several days for me to be able to produce them."

A moment later, Davis pointed at the other few stores on the floor.

"But it shouldn't be a problem for you to get that amount from the other alchemists here on this floor."

After that, Minos and Davis said goodbye.

The young Stuart informed Davis that he would be passing by again in a few weeks during his return. And by that time, the middle-aged man should give him an answer to this offer.

...

Time passed, and Minos purchased the other eight pills for advancing to the 5th stage. He spent 9,000 crystals on them and had to buy them from four different alchemists.

After that, Minos and the soldiers accompanying him returned to the hotel, "Here, each of you takes a pill and starts cultivating. I want you all to move up to level 40 by tomorrow."

After that, all the soldiers began to cultivate while Minos thought to himself, 'Tomorrow, I should try to buy some better weapons for them…'

…

While Minos was planning, four people had just arrived at a hotel not so far from the one where Minos was. These people were none other than the young master of the Silva family and his three protectors.

"Protector Philip, go and find out where that wretch went," Darell said with a wide grin on his face.

"Okay, young master."