The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 2071 Don't Just Dana Me

The door jingled, and Remi hopefully thought that they might have an early customer, who had ignored the fact that the shop was clearly under renovations and had come in to urgently purchase a potion.

So, she was slightly disappointed to realize that it was just Dana.

[ Don't you 'just Dana' me, young lady. ]

Remi giggled at the tone, confusing those who weren't privy to the conversation, but Dana's entry started spreading the word that the Alchemy shop would be open soon, as they weren't turning away curious Guild members.

If they were truly busy, and needed days more time, they would have kept the door locked and turned away the member until later.

So, the word began to spread that that new shop was about to open, completely unannounced, in Darklight Host fashion. However, there was an announcement planned, just not where the people spreading the rumours were expecting.

Instead, the announcement was made an hour later in the arena, between matches. The referee raised his voice to reach the whole crowd.

"We have a most wonderful announcement to make. As so many of you have noticed, it is quite a walk to the Guild House from here. So, the Alchemists of the Darklight Host have decided to open a small shop, selling all their usual goods, and a few in-house specialties.

We are informed that there are potions suitable to both preparation for and recovery after arena matches.

The Alchemists can tell you which are sanctioned, and which are not."

Most of them would remember that for later, in case they needed something. But for a few, that was a timely notice, that would give them a chance to grab a last-minute necessity that they didn't have time to run to the Guild House and wait for.

The crowds there were always large, and it took time to get through them, as the shopkeepers were quite firm with their queue, unless you had a visible emergency.

And they didn't count poor planning by you as an emergency on their part.

The exodus was not large, but it was notable enough that the people watching the current fights had high hopes for the next few.

There wasn't a tournament on. So, other than the grudge matches between those disputing dungeon loot, it was mostly just junior members who had come for the dungeon fighting over rankings, or trying to prove themselves to their Elders.

That was much more important than a few days of dungeon loot to them.

If they could impress their Elders, they might get a sponsorship, or they might get a promotion from the outer ranks to the Inner, which came with a huge bump in Clan resources. But for many, they just wanted to make a name for themselves among their peers before the tournament started.

If they had more favour, they would get better matchups, and the betting odds on their fights would be improved.

Those with unknown backgrounds usually wagered at tiny margins, but when the bookies could reference past fights, they could make proper odds, and that led to better payouts.

The "Bookies" in this case were constructs, part of the arena itself, and created by Cara. Nobody knew the odds better than she did, and it naturally led to the constructs being better at their jobs.

But Cara had still made them all badger type beastkin.

No matter how little the people trusted badgers, upsets happened in the Arena, and the odds usually made sense based on demonstrated skills. However, the odds were also set to favour the house.

Even if the favourite lost, the odds would still cover their margin, with a bit of profit. Unless there was a last minute concerted effort to bet on the underdog before the fight and the odds didn't have time to update.

It wasn't easy to sneak anything by them, but it could be done, and the innate chaos of the arena was exactly that. Chaos. Even if you understood it, you didn't control it, so they ended up mostly just doing their best to predict the odds.

Cara didn't care about the money anyhow.

They were going to make money in the long run, they always did. So even if they took a single loss, it would balance out by the end of the day. And if someone tried to influence the outcomes, Cara would know right away, and then the game was on.

She was not above nullifying a spell or two if it would make it obvious that someone was trying to throw a fight.

There weren't a lot of rules to the arena, since it would save you from most fatal mistakes. You just couldn't use Soul based attacks, effects that caused permanent death, or humiliate your opponent after the fight ended.

While it was ongoing, sure. But not after. None of the idiots who thought that trying to strip down the woman who rejected them was appropriate revenge.

There was always one of those idiots in the crowd, but the arena rules made it much harder for them to actually act out.

And if they tried it in the streets, their end would be even worse.

Remi waved happily as the door jingled, and a pair of young Immortals from the Almeixei Sect came into the Alchemy Shop.

"Oh, this is nice. Did you have stock on the hair growth serum? The line at the Guild House is super long, and we wanted to do our hair before the dance tonight at the pub."

Remi nodded, and one of her apprentices opened the display case.

"One tub will be enough for both of you to grow your hair out for the evening. Did you want to pay coin or exchange? The prices are on the display case."

The girls looked at their pooled money with concern, then dug through their inventory for things that the shop might take.

"What about these mana stones from the dungeon?"

"Standard trading price is 200 gold coins each," the apprentice agreed.

That made it five small stones for the cream, and they could afford that. It was also a better price for the mana stones than they would get at home. Mostly because mana stones weren't all that useful as a resource, other than for crafting an item with mana storage.