Chapter 404 - Mall
"Oh damn, this is really good!" Brody exclaimed as he took the first bite of the meat on his plate, and Eisen chuckled in response. "Yeah, and it's not really seasoned that complicatedly either. The meat itself is really good." The old man pointed out quite swiftly, while he also kept eating some of his food, watching as especially Kai seemed to enjoy everything a lot.
It's been a while since she's eaten anytihng that was actually properly cooked, after all, so it made sense for her to be happy about it.
Either way, during all of Dinner, Eisen was thinking about how to further improve on the potion-production system, and in the end managed to get a pretty good idea when he thought about the actual Ranks of the items.
He didn't think about the fact that they would have to be 'seen' as finished, after all, so maybe he should add a function to the system to let that happen by itself? If he could do that, then he probably would also end up being able to make it so that the items had different ranks. After all, now that his Alchemy skill was at Rank 4, he did gain that ability for that skill, like he did for every single one of his Rank 4 crafting skills so far.
And so, Eisen ended up just spending the rest of his dinner with his Truth-Seeing Eyes active to start visualizing the enchantment in front of him, trying to figure out if there were any issues in his idea so far.
The enchantment itself wasn't necessarily that tough, the only thing that Eisen was worried about was at what point this should be done. It could be something done in the step of actually filling the potions into bottles, or it could be done manually by an employee using a simple item which he would need to make quite a few of then.
Considering that Eisen's own Alchemy skill was used to enchant the whole mass-production system, it probably wouldn't end up recognizing anything but his own 'Recognition' Ability, as Eisen dubbed it for now.
"Hmm, that means that I…" The old man muttered to himself, staring forward into the empty space in front of him, while the others around the table that he was sitting on were looking at him nervously.
"Erm, is everything alright?" Sky asked with a somewhat wry smile, and Eisen was pulled out of his thoughts for a moment. "Huh? Oh, yes, everything is fine, don't worry. I'm just trying to figure out the best plan of action for an item." The old man explained, before moving his fingers through his beard, smiling lightly.
"Actually, let's just ask your guys' opinion." Eisen said and then swiftly started to explain the situation while the others looked at him surprised, "So, I was just working on a potion mass-production system, right?" The old man started, "And now I'm not sure when the item-recognition should happen, meaning at which point I should have the raw potion turn into an actual potion item. At the point at which it is filled into the container, or when it's sold to the customer."
Confused, the others looked at each other for a moment, before Brody ended up shrugging. "What does it matter at which point it happens? It's going to be easier to do that when the potions are being filled, and like that nobody else can 'recognize' them, right?" The Demon Orc suggested, but Eisen slowly nodded his head.
"Well, only I will be able to recognize them as items, because the potions will be made using my alchemy skill. But the real issue is that the potions are supposed to be recognized for different ranks. From Rank 3, even potions have requirements, so we will need to set them lower than that, but we also shouldn't lose the ability to set them to the maximum Rank they can have. And that's the issue, I'm not sure if it's going to be better to make a set amount of potions for each rank and sell them like that, or if the rank should be set depending on the person, so the cashier should ask something like which rank they want or something like that. That way we won't make too much of one rank, after all. It would be bad if we couldn't sell them properly." Eisen explained, and now the others also understood the issue that Eisen was having.
"Hmm… Maybe I should just call Komer and talk to him about it…" The old man muttered to himself, and Evalia quickly replied, "I think that's the best idea, I doubt any of us have any experience in that field, really."
With a nod, Eisen slowly opened his friendslist to see if Komer was currently online, and when he saw that his name was dyed green, he quickly pressed the 'Private Chat' button, before a small window appeared in front of Eisen.
[Requesting Private Chat]
And just a few moments later, it was replaced with another one.
[Connecting…]
With a smile on his face, Eisen looked at the others at the table. "I'll be right back." He explained, and before he knew it, he found that the world around him changed into a pure white space, with only Komer slowly appearing in front of him.
"Ah, hey there!" The young merchant exclaimed when he saw the old craftsman in front of him, and Eisen chuckled and stepped closer toward him, while Komer just smirked. "So, why'd you call? Want to hear about my awesome progress?" He asked, while Eisen simply nodded.
"Of course, that and I want to ask your opinion about something. Let's start with that, alright?" Eisen suggested, so Komer just replied with a curious nod, before the old man got started, explaining the whole situation that he told to the others just now to the young merchant as well, and he ended up cupping his chin in thought.
"I think for potions with lower value and high mass-production capabilities, it's fine to 'recognize' them while they're being finished up. Makes it easier to sell a lot of them at once. Nobody wants to stand in line for a few minutes if someone decides to buy potions in bulk… As for the more high-grade potions with a lot of value… We should think about the second choice. I don't know if you created production systems for those kinds yet, though, or if that's even really possible… But when we have a low quantity of high-grade or special potions, then we should really do that depending on the buyer's needs." Komer explained, so Eisen slowly nodded his head in reply.
"I see, sounds good. Then I'll do that. For now, I'm making five different mass-production systems. I suggest using each one for each a Low-Grade and an Average-Grade production of health and mana potions, at least at the start, and reserve one for different types of potions." As Eisen pointed this out, Komer crossed his arms in thought.
"Is that really the best idea? There's a lot of different potions that don't need special methods, and the building I want Evalia to redesign when you're all back for the Magic-Item Shop is pretty large, so I don't just want to sell a handful of different potion types there." The merchant replied, and while Eisen was so curious that he just wanted to ask him about those buildings already, he didn't want to rush anything and just figured he should let that wait until this part of the conversation was over.
"Well, it's not necessarily hard to change which modules belong together, because the only things that really needs to be changed are the grinders. It was just a suggestion because I figured Health and Mana potions are pretty basic." Eisen replied to Komer, who was listening with a light smile.
"Of course that's true, but also because they're so basic, we should make sure to have other non-basic potions in the shop. Even if they're unneccessary, more choices make a shop seem more impressive. Of course we shouldn't overdo it, but I think we should offer about five or six different types on the main display, mostly the more expensive and important ones of course, and then have another large amount of different potions lined up grocery-store style in that section."
"Is that so? Well, then let's just do it that way. As i said, as long as everything is properly cleaned inbetween, it's not that hard to do all of that. Then just try and figure out what potions you want to sell exactly, we'll test everything out when I'm back." Eisen pointed out, and Komer nodded his head while seemingly remembering something else.
"Ah, by the way, I managed to get in contact with an importer for Silica and a large supplier for Soda Ash, so if you also have a way to mass-produce the different bottles, we can actually do that now." Komer pointed out, so Eisen immediately nodded his head.
"Sounds good, then let's do that. I'll figure it out soon." The old man said, mentally starting to already figure out some ideas for that, before remembering the other topic there was to speak about.
"So, tell me about the buildings you managed to buy." Eisen asked, before Komer smiled broadly in response, crossing his arms proudly.
"Oh, I didn't just buy any old buildings. I bought a whole block in the center of that run-down area." Komer explained.
Eisen looked at him surprised, unsure if he was actually serious about what he just said right there, but judging from his expression, the young man was more than just serious.
"A whole block, huh?" Eisen grinned, so Komer immediately nodded his head. "Yes! The whole area was in possession of the Lord because the buildings were abandoned or taken over because the owner had too much debt. He was actually pretty happy to sell the whole place to me, and that just for a single one of our crystal coins!"
"Really, only one? Did you take a proper look at those buildings? They're not about to break down, are they?" Eisen asked, but Komer quickly shook his head. "Don't worry, there is some work that needs to be done, but I have more than enough money with me to hire people for that. And with magic, the reconstruction is pretty easy."
"Haha, as expected, you're really quite capable, aren't you?" The old man asked with a loud laugh, making Komer just scratch the back of his neck embarrassedly, "Thank you! Well, the reconstructions so far are going pretty well, and I'm working on turning into something like a shopping-mall with a few large shops run by us, and the rest can just be rented out to other people, like you suggested."
"I suggested a Strip-Mall, not an actual mall. But this is much better, yes." The old man pointed out, before just smirking lowly in response. If they could properly rent out those spaces for comparatively cheap to people that could be trusted to make high-quality products, then not only would that give them a steady income, but it would also let them lift the reputation of the area up higher.
That would make it easier to gain the favor of lords of other towns so that shops could be opened there as well, and it would of course also spread the name 'Starlight' to new customers.
Eisen really hoped that this would be enough to push Komer above his two brothers in this sick 'competition' that their father came up with to choose the heir of the business.
But somehow, it actually seemed like Komer wasn't necessarily all that interested in that, and might have more fun building up his own thing like this than take on the company of his father.
Although in the end, it didn't really matter much, because if Komer could pull this off properly, he would definitely end up being successful enough to get the freedom of choice.