Chapter 245: Chapter 244: Entrusted Trading Chapter 245: Chapter 244: Entrusted Trading After a while,
Richard, carrying a wooden box, appeared in a private room of the tavern. Someone had been waiting there with a box of his own—Alex.
“Have you collected all the items I asked for?” Richard looked at Alex and asked.
Alex, who was as rotund as a dwarf melon, placed the wooden box on the table in the private room. He took out items from inside one by one to display.
“This is the custom-made mirror tube you ordered, these are polished crystal plates, these are some sort of brackets, and these are the knobs.” While taking them out, Alex explained, “And these are the materials you asked me to collect. There are a bunch more items you added later underneath in the box.”
“Anyway, everything on the list is here. It took a lot of effort to collect them all; I’ve lost quite a bit of weight during the process,” Alex complained.
“You’ve lost weight?” Richard looked at Alex. “I can’t seem to tell.”
“How could you not!” Alex yelled excitedly, pointing at himself, “Look here! I used to have three chins, and now there are only two. And here! There were six folds on my neck before, now there are only five. Isn’t it obvious?!”
Richard: “…” Indeed, it is obvious. Forgive my poor eyesight…
“Alright, take a look at what I’ve brought you.” Richard sighed, not wishing to continue discussing appearances with Alex. He placed his wooden box on the table, opened it, and took out a diluted potion to show Alex.
“What’s this?” Alex took a bottle and studied it carefully, then with a “pop,” pulled out the stopper and sniffed it, frowning as he guessed, “A mana recovery potion? A wound recovery potion?”
“Just take a sip and you’ll know,” Richard said.
“There won’t be any problems, will there?” Alex immediately became alert upon hearing this. “This potion of yours isn’t poisonous, is it? If I take a sip and die here, all the money on me will become yours, won’t it?!”
Richard, not bothering to explain, snatched the potion bottle from Alex’s hand, took a sip to show him, and then handed it back.
“Is that satisfactory?”
“Uh, alright.” Alex nodded, reassured. He first took a cautious sip, felt something, and then guzzled down a big gulp.
In no time, Alex’s face turned crimson, and he stood up from his seat with a “whoosh,” waving his arms and speaking at more than double his usual speed, “I feel it, I feel it, this is alcohol! Whoa, it’s strong! I feel like my whole body is heating up!”
After saying this, Alex staggered to one side and, not being careful, directly pushed a heavy walnut cabinet in the room askew.
Alex was first stunned, and then started to shout, “Wow! Incredible, incredible! This drink is really powerful. I only took one sip, and I’m so drunk, feeling much stronger, what a great drink!”
He began to consider internally that perhaps he should find a more normal intermediary to partner with for business.
Alex collapsed on the ground, breathing in less air than he exhaled, looking almost dead. With dry, cracked lips moving weakly, he gasped out, “Water… water… water…”
Richard picked up water and poured it into Alex’s mouth.
“Gulp gulp gulp…” Alex drank deeply, it took him a good while to recover his strength and be pulled up by Richard, thrown back into his seat.
“I… what happened to me? Didn’t I just get drunk? Why am I… so exhausted?” Alex muttered, “My arms hurt so much, and my back is so sore…”
“Have you forgotten what you just did?” Richard said, “You turned all the furniture in the room upside down multiple times. It would be strange if you weren’t tired.”
“Huh? Did that really happen just now?” Alex finally came to his senses, and looking at the half-empty potion bottle on the table, his eyes twinkled and he said, “This isn’t alcohol! What is this?”
“It’s called the ‘Spartan Warrior Potion,'” Richard said. “After drinking it, you’ll become as powerful as a Spartan Warrior in a short time—strength, speed, endurance, and reaction time all greatly enhance.”
“That powerful?!” Alex’s lethargy vanished as a bright light sparked in his eyes.
“I’ve decided to entrust the sales to you, sell a bottle for two Lower-grade Crystal Coins—yes, must be Crystal Coins, Gold Coins are no good,” Richard said.
“With such effects, selling for two Lower-grade Crystal Coins shouldn’t be an issue…” Alex nodded in agreement, then furrowed his brows slightly, “But…”
“For every bottle sold, I’ll give you a five percent commission,” Richard said.
“Ah, then there’s no ‘but’ anymore,” Alex quickly said, “I guarantee, there will be no problems, I can sell as many as you have.”
“That’s for the best,” Richard said. “I’ve brought a hundred bottles this time. If sales go well, there’s another hundred.”
Alex rubbed his hands together, his eyes glittering with the shine of Gold Coins: “Great, great, great…”
“However…” Alex looked at Richard, “However… I have a question, how is the potion produced? Do you make it yourself, and…”
Richard cut off Alex, saying, “Remember the premise of our cooperation that I mentioned before?”
“Ah, not to pry,” Alex said. “Ah, okay, I won’t ask. But there’s one thing I’m curious about, and it has nothing to do with the potion’s source. It’s about the potion’s name.”
“Why is the potion called ‘Spartan Warrior Potion’? Who are the Spartan Warriors? Some minor country’s God of war? I’ve never heard of it before.”
“It’s just a legend,” Richard said, glanced at Alex’s perplexed expression, and briefly recounted the story of the Spartan 300 Warriors.
“So the Spartan 300 Warriors held off an evil king named Xerxes’ army of hundreds of thousands?” Alex’s eyes widened as he looked at Richard, “That formidable? What a legendary story, but I’ve never heard anyone else mention it before.”
“That might be because the place from the legend is too far from here,” Richard said. If one were to calculate the distance from modern Earth to this world, it is indeed very, very far…
“Then I have no more questions, see you next time.”
“Okay, see you next time,” Richard said. He stood up, took Alex’s suitcase, and walked out.
Alex also got up, ready to take his suitcase, but with a “thud” he fell to the ground.
Richard, hearing the sound and without turning his head, already knowing the reason, said, “You’re in too bad shape. You overdid it with the potion, and your activity was too much, leaving you a bit drained, so you should just rest here honestly before leaving.”
“But couldn’t you be kind enough to help me up?”
“In fact, logically speaking, you’ll recover faster lying on the floor than sitting in a chair.”
“Also, during this time, you can think about how you’re going to explain to the tavern owner why you moved all the furniture around.”
With a “creak,” Richard pushed the door open before Alex’s widened eyes and walked out.