The Radiance's Follower
The Radiance is best.
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Oh. I always just called the roots. Them being called eyes is so silly. What the hell English language !
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Tower Farmer
- Thread starter Overload69
- Start date
26: Future, Past, and The Present (V)
New
Overload69
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- May 21, 2023
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Johan's mood stayed in the dumps the next morning. It seemed the customers could see that he hadn't had the best time lately. Even Eugene brought him some donuts, trying to cheer him up.
Well, it all worked well till he ran into the wall called pollinators. The cherry tomatoes didn't need them, but to get the C-Rank carrot seeds, they became essential.
In this scenario, he couldn't exactly trust the wind or do it himself, for that matter. Was it too much to ask for some bees in the Tower?
Yes, it absolutely was.
That was the Tower for god's sake.
Feeling a bit better, since he could switch to growing cherry tomatoes, Johan resumed the work on the ink he planned to use for the waiting slips. Unlike the blue or red ones from the normal pens, this one had a dark brown colour.
While running around the trees looking for any signs of insects, Johan decided to take a few dark leaves from a random tree. Mostly because it caught his attention and reminded him of an oak tree.
Name: Vicario Asumthus
Rank: F
Info: A normal healthy tree, its leaves are used to make ink.
Johan had seen the tree for the first time, and heard of it for the first time too. Still, he somehow got useful info about it. Quite the lucky encounter, he had to say.
As the popular saying went, when one door closes, another opens.
Leaving his sagely musings for later, Johan added two handfuls of crushed leaves to a steel pot and poured enough water to cover them. After simmering it for 90 minutes to extract tannins, he let it cool down and then strained it.
Throwing the leftover in the dustbin, Johan dropped a few iron nails in the dark liquid and left it overnight.
The next morning, he had the perfect dark brown ink.
Using a brush pen, he very sophisticatedly wrote the first number on the slip with a flick of his wrist.
1
The number itself held zero value; it was when he used his general knowledge skill that it showed its real value.
Name: Vicario Asumthus Leaf ink
Rank: F
Info: An ink made with Vicario Asumthus leaves, hard to erase.
He wasn't looking for an unerasable ink. Johan only needed an identifier that linked the slip to his mart. And he had that in his hand now. A unique ink. Unless someone could reach his floor on the Tower and find that tree, there was no worry of counterfeiting. Good luck to that certain someone, and if they somehow did copy this, Johan would let it pass once out of sheer respect.
"Next is getting a machine to print these slips." Johan held his aching wrist for the rest of the day. Writing 500 slips a day wasn't easy.
But before he could look online for a possible solution, Merilyn's call came.
"Sorry deary, I have an urgent meeting, so I can't drop by today." She sounded bummed out, and he was too. Still, there was a silver lining to this as well. Or he'd like to believe.
"I'll send Adelan's gift with the client." She seemed to have brooded over her words before continuing. "This'll be a turning point for you, so good luck."
By the time Johan pocketed the phone, his mind lingered on her words.
A turning point.
Seemed like some bigshot was about to come today.
Johan was quick to get his potions ready. He wondered for a moment if he should include the Detoxification potion. After a bit of hesitation, he decided to add them.
As things stood, he could brew more, so why let them rot in the tent? And since Merilyn introduced the client herself, Johan had a good feeling about this one.
Maybe they came for the Detoxification potion only? Well, he'd find out when they arrived.
As he rapped his finger on the counter of the empty Mart, the client arrived right on time, 4 P.M.
It was a woman in her early twenties, dressed in a black suit with a black satin tie. She tucked her ink-black hair behind her right ear as she entered, the onyx-like eyes locked with his.
"Hello, Johan. It's been a while, hasn't it?" The client was none other than Yuna Lee.
"Y…Yeah." Johan stood rooted, unsure of what he should, no, unsure of what he could say at this point.
***
Johan had known Yuna since he could form words, or so his mother used to say. They lived nearby and were around the same age; naturally, they stuck together. Even more so when the neighbourhood didn't have many children of their age, they became best buddies from the jump.
Still, Yuna had always been a quiet kid, and he liked to talk a lot. And, she had carried that silence to adulthood. If anything, it had become heavier.
And as an S-Rank Hunter, that silence carried a shit ton of weight behind it.
Standing in the closed Mart, across the counter, Johan avoided her direct gaze. He actually had a table prepared in his room for the client, but he didn't have it in him to bring it up now.
It feels awkward… Clearing his throat, he decided to cross the bridge since it had already appeared.
"Is that for me?" He pointed at the wooden chest in Yuna's right hand, which had the white crossed hammers engraved in the black grain wood, a sign of Master Adelan.
"Yes, Merilyn sent it." Yuna placed it on the counter.
"Thank you for bringing it over." Johan smiled.
"Mm." She gave a slight nod; her eyes still locked onto him.
Sweating, Johan opened the chest; it had quite the weight to it. Inside, on a bed of red velvet, was a bluish silver spoon. Well, it had the lustre of silver and the shape of a spoon, along with filigree of crimson gold running down the handle's length and the dip.
It was a tool every Alchemist needed. A brewer. However, the one in Johan's hand wasn't made of standard silver. This was Mithril. And not any Mithril, it was of the highest quality available on the market!
Not to mention the Spirit Gold. It allowed a cleaner transmission of magik and even distribution, too.
This thing was priceless, Priceless!
Johan gawked at it, almost drooling. This thing belonged to him now. A brewer forged by none other than Master Adelan. That alone could increase the price of his potions by 50%.
I should use that tagline! His eyes shone.
"You haven't changed, not one bit." Maybe because it was his entranced expression that Yuna chuckled, it was a light one, but her eyes had softened a lot.
"Sorry, I was overwhelmed. Please give me a moment." Johan suppressed his beating heart and rushed upstairs.
He gathered the potions he had there and looked at the stairs. The twenty or so stairs he had climbed looked so wide now. Each step felt like a cliff.
Johan calmed his mind and exhaled.
You've dealt with the damned Hunter Association President, an S-Rank hunter who jokes about kidnapping you every day. You even try to hug the Tower's Guardian Beast. This is an old friend, you know her. You have known her since she was in her diapers, so were you, so just calm down! Johan took the first step, and before he knew it, he had reached the mart area.
He placed the potions on the counter without looking up. Basic healing potion, basic magik recovery potion, Ice resistance potion, and even the Detoxification potion. Every potion he had made so far, even the watered-down potions, were on the table.
"The effects are as I've been told." Yuna glanced at the paper tag on the potion bottle's neck before looking at him. "I have been searching for an alchemist who could provide potions for my guild; the Mage Tower's wait time is too long. I didn't know it would be you until Merilyn told me the address."
"These are the hottest potions in the capital." Johan tried to keep his energy up, but it wasn't working well.
"Mm, I read the articles." He could feel the slight heat in her words. "I'll take 15 Healing potions, 5 Detoxifying potions, and 50 Magik recovery potions."
"That's a lot." Johan blinked, as a small guild her volume matched Lucas's order already, if he calculated the Detoxification potion's price, it was too much.
"I have a special mission coming up, so the International Hunter Association is paying 90% of the price," Yuna added. "Merilyn said it was a good opportunity, so I am using it."
Johan didn't think Merilyn meant it this way, but maybe she did. That woman was beyond his understanding. Honestly, he felt like throwing in more potions out of spite at this moment.
Good thing he had self-control. Still, another thing caught his attention.
"A special mission?"
"Yes, I will be entering the Tower next week. I can't share more, well, I wasn't meant to share anything at all." She scratched her cheek in mild embarrassment.
"Sorry for prying. The total will come out to this much." Johan himself couldn't believe the number. Following Merilyn's advice, he had priced the potion at 5 million, which he thought was too much at first.
But, he was told that the Mage Tower sold it for 10 million. Greedy Bastards.
"I'll have our guild's accountant handle the payment when I go back; the full amount should come on the delivery date," Yuna said, not fazed by the total amount.
Well, S-Ranks could earn billions a year. The difference was so clear it made him even more embarrassed thinking about how he danced over what seemed like chump change.
"Actually, I have the potions at hand, so I'll get them for you." He rushed to the basement at once.
It was a good time to empty the potion storage tent. Good thing he stocked up on the steel cases, too. These were only for the expensive potions; the magik recovery potions went into wooden crates.
Observing the three metal cases and three crates, Yuna made a call to her guild.
"It may take a few days to process the payment," she said, hiding an awkward laugh. Seemed like no one expected he had this much in stock.
"It's ok, you can take them." He added. "I trust you."
"Also, don't worry about defectives; they are all perfect. You can run them through an appraisal."
"No need, I trust you, too." She smiled.
Johan felt the sting in his heart, and the pit in his stomach just grew larger. Was there even a point in acting? She of all people could see through it, her eyes already told him so.
"…Sorry," Johan muttered.
The last time they talked was on the phone after she graduated from university; he heard she was preparing to establish her own guild.
Even then, he had told her, no, he had promised her that he'd awaken and call her first. However, he couldn't get behind the shady deal and backed out.
After that, he ran away, trying to deflect it every opportunity he got. His mind had already accepted that he'd never become a Hunter, but he refused to say it out loud until the end.
And, now that had become a reality.
"You don't have to be. I didn't reach out after forming my guild either. I wanted to call you. To have you join the guild as a non-combatant, but I was…" Yuna looked at him, hiding behind a small smile. "I was scared."
"If I called you first, I thought it'd mean that I had given up on waiting for you. I didn't want you to feel that way. And I don't want you to feel that way even now." Yuna always had a flat expression, and even her voice was monotone. However, it started to crack a little, that mask. "I didn't want to accept that. I couldn't accept that because you were still trying."
Watching her look away, Johan bit his lip.
"It's ok, I had given up on myself. And you know my class now, I can't be a Hunter at all." Johan laughed, pushing the suitcase on the cold counter. "Being a potion maker is much better; I can stay in the back and not worry about fighting. I wasn't good at fighting anyway."
"Mm, I think it is better. I'd die from worrying if you were an active Hunter." Her lips lifted into a slight smile as a black sedan stopped outside. She carried the cases and crates with ease and looked at him before closing the door. "See you later, Johan."
As the cheerful bell jingled with the closed door, Johan looked at his right hand. The hand he had kept below the counter. His nails had dug into his palm, drawing crimson. The blood dripped onto the white tiles as his head struck the counter.
He watched the black sedan leave through the glass door and sighed.
"Given up, huh?" The murmur echoed in his ears.
...
Here's the invite link. I hope to see you there soon: Discord
If you have any questions for me, you can ping me on Discord anytime, and I will contact you ASAP.
Want to read chapters early or support the novel directly?
Check out my Patreon
You'll get advance chapters, exclusive content, and help keep this story going strong!
Thanks for reading, and see you in the next chapter!
Well, it all worked well till he ran into the wall called pollinators. The cherry tomatoes didn't need them, but to get the C-Rank carrot seeds, they became essential.
In this scenario, he couldn't exactly trust the wind or do it himself, for that matter. Was it too much to ask for some bees in the Tower?
Yes, it absolutely was.
That was the Tower for god's sake.
Feeling a bit better, since he could switch to growing cherry tomatoes, Johan resumed the work on the ink he planned to use for the waiting slips. Unlike the blue or red ones from the normal pens, this one had a dark brown colour.
While running around the trees looking for any signs of insects, Johan decided to take a few dark leaves from a random tree. Mostly because it caught his attention and reminded him of an oak tree.
Name: Vicario Asumthus
Rank: F
Info: A normal healthy tree, its leaves are used to make ink.
Johan had seen the tree for the first time, and heard of it for the first time too. Still, he somehow got useful info about it. Quite the lucky encounter, he had to say.
As the popular saying went, when one door closes, another opens.
Leaving his sagely musings for later, Johan added two handfuls of crushed leaves to a steel pot and poured enough water to cover them. After simmering it for 90 minutes to extract tannins, he let it cool down and then strained it.
Throwing the leftover in the dustbin, Johan dropped a few iron nails in the dark liquid and left it overnight.
The next morning, he had the perfect dark brown ink.
Using a brush pen, he very sophisticatedly wrote the first number on the slip with a flick of his wrist.
1
The number itself held zero value; it was when he used his general knowledge skill that it showed its real value.
Name: Vicario Asumthus Leaf ink
Rank: F
Info: An ink made with Vicario Asumthus leaves, hard to erase.
He wasn't looking for an unerasable ink. Johan only needed an identifier that linked the slip to his mart. And he had that in his hand now. A unique ink. Unless someone could reach his floor on the Tower and find that tree, there was no worry of counterfeiting. Good luck to that certain someone, and if they somehow did copy this, Johan would let it pass once out of sheer respect.
"Next is getting a machine to print these slips." Johan held his aching wrist for the rest of the day. Writing 500 slips a day wasn't easy.
But before he could look online for a possible solution, Merilyn's call came.
"Sorry deary, I have an urgent meeting, so I can't drop by today." She sounded bummed out, and he was too. Still, there was a silver lining to this as well. Or he'd like to believe.
"I'll send Adelan's gift with the client." She seemed to have brooded over her words before continuing. "This'll be a turning point for you, so good luck."
By the time Johan pocketed the phone, his mind lingered on her words.
A turning point.
Seemed like some bigshot was about to come today.
Johan was quick to get his potions ready. He wondered for a moment if he should include the Detoxification potion. After a bit of hesitation, he decided to add them.
As things stood, he could brew more, so why let them rot in the tent? And since Merilyn introduced the client herself, Johan had a good feeling about this one.
Maybe they came for the Detoxification potion only? Well, he'd find out when they arrived.
As he rapped his finger on the counter of the empty Mart, the client arrived right on time, 4 P.M.
It was a woman in her early twenties, dressed in a black suit with a black satin tie. She tucked her ink-black hair behind her right ear as she entered, the onyx-like eyes locked with his.
"Hello, Johan. It's been a while, hasn't it?" The client was none other than Yuna Lee.
"Y…Yeah." Johan stood rooted, unsure of what he should, no, unsure of what he could say at this point.
***
Johan had known Yuna since he could form words, or so his mother used to say. They lived nearby and were around the same age; naturally, they stuck together. Even more so when the neighbourhood didn't have many children of their age, they became best buddies from the jump.
Still, Yuna had always been a quiet kid, and he liked to talk a lot. And, she had carried that silence to adulthood. If anything, it had become heavier.
And as an S-Rank Hunter, that silence carried a shit ton of weight behind it.
Standing in the closed Mart, across the counter, Johan avoided her direct gaze. He actually had a table prepared in his room for the client, but he didn't have it in him to bring it up now.
It feels awkward… Clearing his throat, he decided to cross the bridge since it had already appeared.
"Is that for me?" He pointed at the wooden chest in Yuna's right hand, which had the white crossed hammers engraved in the black grain wood, a sign of Master Adelan.
"Yes, Merilyn sent it." Yuna placed it on the counter.
"Thank you for bringing it over." Johan smiled.
"Mm." She gave a slight nod; her eyes still locked onto him.
Sweating, Johan opened the chest; it had quite the weight to it. Inside, on a bed of red velvet, was a bluish silver spoon. Well, it had the lustre of silver and the shape of a spoon, along with filigree of crimson gold running down the handle's length and the dip.
It was a tool every Alchemist needed. A brewer. However, the one in Johan's hand wasn't made of standard silver. This was Mithril. And not any Mithril, it was of the highest quality available on the market!
Not to mention the Spirit Gold. It allowed a cleaner transmission of magik and even distribution, too.
This thing was priceless, Priceless!
Johan gawked at it, almost drooling. This thing belonged to him now. A brewer forged by none other than Master Adelan. That alone could increase the price of his potions by 50%.
I should use that tagline! His eyes shone.
"You haven't changed, not one bit." Maybe because it was his entranced expression that Yuna chuckled, it was a light one, but her eyes had softened a lot.
"Sorry, I was overwhelmed. Please give me a moment." Johan suppressed his beating heart and rushed upstairs.
He gathered the potions he had there and looked at the stairs. The twenty or so stairs he had climbed looked so wide now. Each step felt like a cliff.
Johan calmed his mind and exhaled.
You've dealt with the damned Hunter Association President, an S-Rank hunter who jokes about kidnapping you every day. You even try to hug the Tower's Guardian Beast. This is an old friend, you know her. You have known her since she was in her diapers, so were you, so just calm down! Johan took the first step, and before he knew it, he had reached the mart area.
He placed the potions on the counter without looking up. Basic healing potion, basic magik recovery potion, Ice resistance potion, and even the Detoxification potion. Every potion he had made so far, even the watered-down potions, were on the table.
"The effects are as I've been told." Yuna glanced at the paper tag on the potion bottle's neck before looking at him. "I have been searching for an alchemist who could provide potions for my guild; the Mage Tower's wait time is too long. I didn't know it would be you until Merilyn told me the address."
"These are the hottest potions in the capital." Johan tried to keep his energy up, but it wasn't working well.
"Mm, I read the articles." He could feel the slight heat in her words. "I'll take 15 Healing potions, 5 Detoxifying potions, and 50 Magik recovery potions."
"That's a lot." Johan blinked, as a small guild her volume matched Lucas's order already, if he calculated the Detoxification potion's price, it was too much.
"I have a special mission coming up, so the International Hunter Association is paying 90% of the price," Yuna added. "Merilyn said it was a good opportunity, so I am using it."
Johan didn't think Merilyn meant it this way, but maybe she did. That woman was beyond his understanding. Honestly, he felt like throwing in more potions out of spite at this moment.
Good thing he had self-control. Still, another thing caught his attention.
"A special mission?"
"Yes, I will be entering the Tower next week. I can't share more, well, I wasn't meant to share anything at all." She scratched her cheek in mild embarrassment.
"Sorry for prying. The total will come out to this much." Johan himself couldn't believe the number. Following Merilyn's advice, he had priced the potion at 5 million, which he thought was too much at first.
But, he was told that the Mage Tower sold it for 10 million. Greedy Bastards.
"I'll have our guild's accountant handle the payment when I go back; the full amount should come on the delivery date," Yuna said, not fazed by the total amount.
Well, S-Ranks could earn billions a year. The difference was so clear it made him even more embarrassed thinking about how he danced over what seemed like chump change.
"Actually, I have the potions at hand, so I'll get them for you." He rushed to the basement at once.
It was a good time to empty the potion storage tent. Good thing he stocked up on the steel cases, too. These were only for the expensive potions; the magik recovery potions went into wooden crates.
Observing the three metal cases and three crates, Yuna made a call to her guild.
"It may take a few days to process the payment," she said, hiding an awkward laugh. Seemed like no one expected he had this much in stock.
"It's ok, you can take them." He added. "I trust you."
"Also, don't worry about defectives; they are all perfect. You can run them through an appraisal."
"No need, I trust you, too." She smiled.
Johan felt the sting in his heart, and the pit in his stomach just grew larger. Was there even a point in acting? She of all people could see through it, her eyes already told him so.
"…Sorry," Johan muttered.
The last time they talked was on the phone after she graduated from university; he heard she was preparing to establish her own guild.
Even then, he had told her, no, he had promised her that he'd awaken and call her first. However, he couldn't get behind the shady deal and backed out.
After that, he ran away, trying to deflect it every opportunity he got. His mind had already accepted that he'd never become a Hunter, but he refused to say it out loud until the end.
And, now that had become a reality.
"You don't have to be. I didn't reach out after forming my guild either. I wanted to call you. To have you join the guild as a non-combatant, but I was…" Yuna looked at him, hiding behind a small smile. "I was scared."
"If I called you first, I thought it'd mean that I had given up on waiting for you. I didn't want you to feel that way. And I don't want you to feel that way even now." Yuna always had a flat expression, and even her voice was monotone. However, it started to crack a little, that mask. "I didn't want to accept that. I couldn't accept that because you were still trying."
Watching her look away, Johan bit his lip.
"It's ok, I had given up on myself. And you know my class now, I can't be a Hunter at all." Johan laughed, pushing the suitcase on the cold counter. "Being a potion maker is much better; I can stay in the back and not worry about fighting. I wasn't good at fighting anyway."
"Mm, I think it is better. I'd die from worrying if you were an active Hunter." Her lips lifted into a slight smile as a black sedan stopped outside. She carried the cases and crates with ease and looked at him before closing the door. "See you later, Johan."
As the cheerful bell jingled with the closed door, Johan looked at his right hand. The hand he had kept below the counter. His nails had dug into his palm, drawing crimson. The blood dripped onto the white tiles as his head struck the counter.
He watched the black sedan leave through the glass door and sighed.
"Given up, huh?" The murmur echoed in his ears.
...
Here's the invite link. I hope to see you there soon: Discord
If you have any questions for me, you can ping me on Discord anytime, and I will contact you ASAP.
Want to read chapters early or support the novel directly?
Check out my Patreon
You'll get advance chapters, exclusive content, and help keep this story going strong!
Thanks for reading, and see you in the next chapter!