Chapter 14
The Paradise, in a personal space.
After selling most of her potions, Mo Xi was slowly feeding life energy into a refining apparatus. The process was like continuously pumping air into a balloon.
“I’d like to see what this Sunflower Seed actually is.” As she muttered to herself, Mo Xi began preparing a container to soak it in.
Not long ago, at the Trade Market, the black-robed girl had happily obtained the equipment she wanted and a mostly useless potion. In return, Mo Xi had received the Sunflower Circlet and a piece of equipment thrown in to round out the deal.
[Mordeli Gloves]
Quality: Green
Origin: Fantasy Paradise—Artisan Workshop
Durability: 40/40
Rating: 15
Spell Attack: 11–22 points (affected by the strength of the wearer’s skills)
Effect—Refreshing: When HP falls below 50%, movement speed +10%
Equipment requirements: Intelligence 8 or higher, Vitality 11 or higher.
Description: Why does a glove increase movement speed?
Price: 2,000 Paradise Coins
These gloves had nothing special about them. Mo Xi had chosen them simply because she wanted to use them as materials to improve the quality of the “Scholar’s Gloves.”
As the life energy inside the refining apparatus churned, a drop of emerald-green liquid trickled down a transparent tube and into the container.
Most people would probably just pour life energy directly into the equipment, since that was what the effect description said to do.
But as an apothecary, Mo Xi believed that if the equipment needed a certain substance to transform, then the substance’s purity and quantity were crucial. She had to add as much as possible, pushing it to the limit.
Time passed quickly as Mo Xi poured life energy into the refining apparatus again and again. During the process, the Scholar’s Gloves’ accelerated mana regeneration proved a great help.
Quite some time later, Mo Xi yawned as she sat before the apparatus. Seeing that the container was almost full, she immersed the Sunflower Circlet in it.
The next moment, a countdown appeared above the container.
“Time remaining for Sunflower Seed transformation: 219 hours, 56 minutes.”
The instant she saw the time, Mo Xi froze. She hadn’t expected it to take so long.
“Almost ten days for the transformation... What exactly is this thing?” Mo Xi stroked her chin and fell into thought.
Over the next few days, Mo Xi brewed plenty of potions to sell. The Life Potions, of which she could make one or two bottles a day, became the signature product at Stall No. 325.
This also made Stall No. 325 a place many low-tier contractors would regularly check, or even wait at specifically.
There was only one reason: great value for money.
Among permanent attribute potions, those better than Life Potions usually cost several times more. Those that cost less only increased secondary attributes other than Strength, Agility, Vitality, Intelligence, and Charisma.
By rights, Mo Xi could easily have raised her prices a little, but she didn’t.
For Mo Xi, who had the Breath of Life talent, producing permanent attribute potions was simply a matter of time. Rather than raising prices to earn a few more Paradise Coins, she would sell them at a “mom’s price” and build up Angela’s reputation as an apothecary.
After all, the best way to cement a friendly relationship was to make both sides share the same interests.
If Mo Xi ran into some problem she couldn’t resolve in the future, she could simply tell everyone with a regretful expression, “I’m sorry, everyone. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I can no longer sell my potions. I’m terribly sorry.”
What would those contractors, who had been enjoying permanent attribute potions at a mom’s price, do then?
That’s anyone’s guess.
And so, Mo Xi continued to sell her potions little by little, build up her reputation, and wait for the Sunflower Seed’s transformation to finish.
Then, after many days of waiting, Mo Xi received a dispatch notice from the Paradise.
“Contractor No. 26126 is within the Tier 1 range. Assessing combat strength... Combat strength assessment failed. Assessing overall ability... Assessment successful!”
“Contractor No. 26126, you will serve as staff, assisting the summoned contractors as they enter the Origin World to complete a mission. Please arrive aboard the transport ship within 3 hours.”
“Summons? The Origin World? What does all this mean?” Mo Xi stared at the Paradise’s notification in bewilderment, unsure what was going on.
A moment later, Mo Xi asked the Paradise and got her answer.
It turned out the Paradise contained more than just mission worlds and assessment worlds. There was also a kind of world more precious than either of them: the Origin World.
The so-called Origin World was the blueprint for a mission world.
Put simply, after obtaining a world through some means, the Paradise would make countless copies of it for contractors to explore and grow stronger in. That was why so many people had entered the same world before, yet made different amounts of progress.
But copying had its limits. If something went wrong with the Origin World used as the blueprint, every copy would be affected. For the Paradise, that would be a huge loss.
To prevent this, the Paradise would dispatch contractors of various levels into worlds of the corresponding tier to “make repairs.” Since both the risks and rewards were high, most of those summoned were elite contractors at the T1–T2 stage.
Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, Mo Xi—whose combat strength was clearly below the requirement—had been forcibly summoned. For her, it was a disaster out of nowhere.
In other words, she’d been happily brewing potions and humming to herself when the Paradise suddenly snatched her away to provide logistical support. She was incredibly unlucky.
Knowing she couldn’t refuse, Mo Xi sighed helplessly, packed up her potions, and got ready to head to the transport ship.
On the way, Mo Xi spotted quite a few contractors who looked just as grim as she did, all heading in the same direction. They were probably the ones being sent into battle.
“Come to think of it, shouldn’t you normally enter a world by teleporting straight into it? Why do we need a transport ship this time?” Mo Xi wondered as she walked.
As Mo Xi pondered this, she followed the Paradise’s directions and soon reached the transport ship.
Looking at the sleek, futuristic vessel before her, Mo Xi silently mouthed, “Wow,” then walked up to it in a few quick steps.
An invisible beam swept over Mo Xi. As the hatch opened, a wave of cold air billowed out.
Mo Xi looked around the empty transport ship and realized she was the first to arrive. She began wandering along its corridors.
The transport ship wasn’t small. It had a supply depot, a bar counter, a kitchen, a forge, a potion lab, and all sorts of other places for staff to put their support skills to use.
Mo Xi didn’t know what the contractors’ transport ship was like, but she was very pleased with the one she was on. The potion lab here had lots of materials, and those materials...
Were! All! Free!
It was like a company reimbursing every expense on a business trip. The only difference was that Mo Xi got to keep all the experience she earned from brewing potions.