Johan got the potion workshop in the basement ready for the meeting. He couldn’t hold it on the roof, and bringing three S-Rank plus Hunter to his room wasn’t a good idea.

  The fact that Merilyn and Lucas had been there once was already enough; the former visited it once again yesterday, much to his dismay. At this point, he had to figure out a proper meeting room.

  And the Potion workshop fell into that aesthetic. Quiet and secretive, it also had enough space for a hickory table with three cushioned seats. Above all, it matched his alchemist persona.

  As for why he hadn’t used it till now?

  This place was sort of a mess because of him; he used it as an extra storage room of sorts after shifting his brewing set to the Tower. Morgan didn’t use it much anyway, but he had cleared it all today.

  Merilyn arrived five minutes early. All he could say was that the red suit suited her very well.

  “You’ve made an interesting choice.” She said, right leg over the left as she got comfortable in the chair.

  Johan could only smile at that. He had decided to embrace the ambitious road. Still, it made him nervous as there was a chance that things might fall through.

  It’s ‘go big or go home’ you’ve already gone over this. Johan calmed himself once more as Yuna and Lucas arrived at the same time.

  Yuna still had the same black suit from before, looking sharp as usual. Lucas was the opposite, in a pink t-shirt and red shorts. His bed hair and slippers brought the seriousness of the room down a few notches.

  “Who was the genius who suggested a morning meeting?” Lucas yawned, but still took his seat on Merilyn’s left.

  “You should manage your time better,” Merilyn said.

  “Like you? I don’t think I’ll last a week if I do that.” Lucas kept rubbing his eyes, as if he had woken up after reaching the mart.

  Did Adrian throw him in the car without waking him up?

  Yuna sat on Merilyn’s right and glanced at Johan, her eyes already asking him, What’s all this?

  He had told her over the message that Lucas and Merilyn would join, but nothing aside from that.

  “Sorry, Lucas, it was my idea. Yuna said she would arrive early, so I thought it was the best time to get everyone together. S-Ranks don’t have too much free time after all.” Johan finally started after a long, deep breath. “Today is important, because I will be choosing the one, among the three establishments, I want to have business with.”

  “Now that’s interesting.” Lucas stifled a yawn.

  Merilyn only smiled, and Yuna tilted her head. Well, Johan knew she would invite him to join the guild. So, all three in front of him had invited him to work with them at some point.

  Now, the time to choose had come.

  “Is this like a bid?” Lucas smirked. He seemed confident he could outdo the other two if it was.

  If it were a bid, Johan believed that Merilyn would win without a competition. Age and money went hand in hand when it came to Hunters.

  “No, not a bid. I have made my decision after contemplating the pros and cons of each offer, ranking them in my mind to find my optimal business partner.” Johan crossed his arms as he saw the anticipation build up in Lucas’s eyes.

  Based on benefits alone, he would choose Agni Clan without a doubt.

  However, he could see Yuna’s calm eyes. The old Yuna would’ve glared at him for dragging this out by now. Truthfully, if he had to join a guild, it would be hers.

  With a smile, Johan cleared his throat and announced the winner.

  “All three.” His hand drew a short arc before him, pointing at all three.

  “Huh?” Lucas froze.

  “I want to work with all three,” Johan smirked. “And any other guild that joins later, I won’t turn away anyone who wants to give me their money.”

  Lucas kept blinking in a daze. Merilyn giggled, covering her mouth. And Yuna’s brow twitched for the first time.

  The atmosphere was quite an awkward one. But there weren’t any negative reactions that he had expected.

  “You could’ve said this over the phone, no?” Lucas seemed more irked by the morning meeting than anything else. As he leaned back into the chair, he didn’t seem too surprised by this choice.

  Of course, Johan could've said this over the phone; there was no need for all this waiting and fanfare. Because this wasn’t the actual reveal of this meeting.

  “Why do you even have to work with others besides us?” Lucas added. “Working with just me will get you plenty of benefits and money. If it's pressure from other clans or guilds, I can help you wi…”

  Lucas glanced at the silent Yuna and looked back at Johan, giving him a quiet thumbs up and shutting his mouth. Maybe it's because it was early in the morning that he caught on late; he made it a point to remember this.

  “The more guilds understand the benefits of my potions, the more they wouldn’t want to lose them,” Johan stated the first reason.

  “In that situation, no one would like to see you get monopolized by one power; they wouldn’t want you harmed either. They’d deter each other and outsiders from interfering with you, expecting some extra deals. Seems like a good plan.” Lucas got up to speed, stating the second and third reasons Johan made this decision.

  “But working with the Agni Clan, Eternal Peace guild, and the Association, while keeping yourself open to offers from other guilds. Aren’t you gonna stretch yourself too thin, dear?” Merilyn leaned in, hands on the table.

  The real question was, can your raw material procurement keep up with the demand?

  This did clear up another doubt for Johan. Merilyn hadn’t looked into any memories regarding his class or how he made potions. If she had, she wouldn’t have asked that question.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  For that consideration alone, Johan knew he had made the right decision.

  “For Agni Clan, they’re on emergency calls only three months of the year, and they have their own alchemists, so their demand won’t be too high aside from higher-level potions. The Association is the biggest consumer of all types of potions, and we don’t have an alchemy division for political reasons, so you’d need to work extra hard. The Eternal Peace guild over there is on emergency call 24/7 all year round. Their potion consumption matches a mid to large-sized guild, and they don’t have an alchemist of their own either. Can you brew that many potions alone?” Merilyn continued. “I do agree your plan is good, but it doesn’t mean it is achievable by normal standards. The Mage Tower and Alchemist Association have about 1000 potion makers that work 7 days a week on rotations, and even they can’t meet the demand for mid-to-high ranking potions 70% of the time.”

  Johan had first-hand experience of this. He could barely keep up with the flow of customers he had in one mart, let alone whole guilds. However, that was because he did the brewing, packing, and moving all alone.

  “That’s the reason I’ve gathered you all here today.” Johan smiled. This was the biggest risk he’d ever taken in his life. “I’ll tell you how I get the ingredients for my potions.”

  Johan had dreaded this decision multiple times since Merilyn left yesterday. So far, most people, in online articles and Hunter Net, assumed he had a special alchemy class or special ingredients only he could use.

  However, his class didn’t excel in potion making. True, he had received the skill, and it was the first one he upgraded, and he used it the most.

  At its core, the class Tower Farmer was a farming class. And a farming class that was super optimized for farming, he even had a super fertile land he could use.

  The only way to use it to its full potential was to focus on farming alone and leave the potion-making to others. He had taken it upon himself till now to prove to himself that his class was useful, and to numb himself into routine.

  However, Johan didn’t have the will or the confidence to run a potion-making business spanning multiple guilds. If it were only basic healing potions or such, he might do it. But for his plan, he needed an army of potion makers.

  “This is tough.” Lucas stroked his chin, holding a fresh Nefel’s blessing in his hand. “I regret not kidnapping you before.”

  “Please don’t bring that up again.” A chill passed through Johan. He could only look at Merilyn for help.

  “He has a point.” She shrugged, handing over the Golden Pear to Yuna for inspection, and picked up the sherry leaf, twirling it by the stem. “The moment people learn that you can grow high-quality ingredients like cabbage, many would want to monopolize your class. Even I feel tempted right now, even if it means losing two promising S-Ranks.”

  “Ok, hag, that’s too much, I was joking you know?” Lucas almost jumped out of his chair, but Yuna didn’t even bat an eye.

  “I am joking, too.” Merilyn gave Lucas a reassuring smile and looked back at Johan. “Still, you could’ve kept this a secret from us, too. But I suppose this is the wiser move.”

  Of course, Johan could keep this a secret. But that’s the thing about truth, no matter how much one tried to cover it, it would come out in the open at some point.

  Actually, that was a convenient saying he used to justify his actions.

  He had known Yuna for too long. She wouldn’t turn on him, that he knew. Even now, she seemed to care less about the discussion and seemed more eager to talk with him alone.

  Lucas, though scary at times with his jokes, had only helped him and showed a level of trust that wasn’t normal. Above all, he was a businessman as he had stated before. Kidnapping him wouldn’t have a good result. Johan trusted him to figure that much out.

  Merilyn, he didn’t need to think that much about her case. Trauma dumping worked well, too well in fact.

  That was the reason he decided to come clean about his class. He didn’t say he could enter the Tower through his skill, though; that wouldn’t end well.

  He only placed the ingredients he had grown and placed them on the table.

  “I trust you three enough to tell you about this; in fact, I think you three deserve to know the truth.” If this decision brought a negative impact or any of these three betrayed him, Johan was willing to take that loss. That’s what it took to trust someone.

  “I’ll provide Agni Clan and the Association with 4 golden pears and 1 Nefel’s blessing. Each fruit yields 4 Healing potions and 4 Ice Resistance potions. On top of that, I’ll give enough sherry leaves for 100 magik recovery potions a month.” Johan turned to Yuna, who seemed rather lost. “For the Eternal Peace guild, I’ll provide 10 healing potions, 4 Ice Resistance potions, and 50 magik recovery potions a month since they don’t have their own alchemist yet. You guys are free to use them however you want, use them yourselves, or sell them. I can’t promise much of the Detoxification potion for now, so 3 is the limit for every month since I have to make them in about an hour after their harvest.”

  If Johan could pour all his focus on the Tower, expanding his farm, and get a bottling machine, he could get this plan off the ground in about two to three weeks.

  “This guy is actually serious.” Mortified, Lucas turned to Merilyn.

  “Well, that decisiveness makes him charming.” She smiled.

  “Hmm.” Yuna gave her own nod of acknowledgement. Who was she replying to here?

  Ok, no need to get side-tracked.

  “It takes Mage Tower too long to produce healing potions because the material isn’t fresh enough; they need to use multiple golden pears and put them all through a series of processes to get one potion.” Each golden pear, even if shrivelled up, got sold for 100k. The Mage Tower needed 10 of these to make one potion, not to mention the labour and time.

  “With this, even a normal potion maker can create a healing potion in an hour with one slice.” Johan pointed at the golden pear, now on the table. “I only plan to sell the fruit from now on and leave the brewing to others. If the Agni clan wants to, you can sell them out of your clan stores.”

  So far, the Hunters in the capital had gotten a taste of his watered-down potions. There was already anticipation for the higher-level potion; he called them higher-level ones. Now, the world’ll know the real healing potions soon.

  “Stop digging, man, you struck gold long before.” Lucas shook his head, his sleepiness long gone. “What do you need me to do in return?”

  “Initiating deals with other guilds and clans, I hope you can be at the forefront of that so they don’t reach me.” The Agni Clan had been around for two decades; they had good enough connections and influence. Johan needed them to be a shield when it came to dealing with other guilds and clans that had adopted aggressive recruitment methods.

  “I can handle that.” Lucas had run his own calculations, it seemed.

  “What do you want me to do, deary?” Merilyn had crossed her arms, leaning back into the chair. She had most likely already guessed what he wanted from her.

  That’s what he got from her slight smirk.

  “I want the Association to serve as a bridge between me, the Alchemist Association, and the Mage Tower. I don’t want to get pressured by them when the Detoxifying potions are sold.” No organization would refuse better items, especially if it helped them reduce time and labour while increasing profits. Still, planning didn’t hurt anyone.

  “I may have to bend a few rules, but it is achievable.” Merilyn stood up, ready to leave. “Give me two weeks.”

  “Ah, wait, take this with you.” Johan handed one of the two green boxes he had on the counter behind him. “This has some samples; they’ll help in the deals.”

  Johan had prepared two Golden Pears, two Nefel’s blessings, half a kilo of ruby berries, and sherry leaves for each box. If they confirmed how much better the ingredients were with their eyes, they wouldn’t even think of refusing.

  “Five days.” Merilyn’s red lips turned into an elegant smile. “I’ll call you in five days.”

  She already had an agenda against the Mage Tower and seemed more than happy to help. As the motivated Merilyn left, Lucas also stood up. He stretched his arms and picked up the second box.

  “I’ll have Adrian send a contract by tomorrow.” He extended his hand with a measured smile. “To a long and successful partnership.”

  “Yes, I’ll do my best.”

  After a firm handshake, Lucas glanced at Yuna and looked back at Johan.

  “Do it from tomorrow.” He turned around and started up the stairs. “Adieu, Terminator.”

  With this, he had Agni Clan, who’d help distribute his produce outside and Merilyn’s influence to protect his info, and only they knew that he had grown it himself. The rest of the world didn’t need to know where he got these from; they can keep searching if they want to.

  Now, only Johan and Yuna remained in the silent room. Johan was about to speak, but she beat him to it.

  “I thought I had enough power as an S-ranker.” Yuna looked him dead in the eye, for the first time since she entered, the calmness in her eyes wavered. “Sorry, you have to take such a risk because of me.”

  She caught on after all. Johan could only hide his wry smile.

  Now, how should he handle this?

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