The city of New Beginnings. Just before the sun is about to make its presence known in the sky.
Commoner district. Rankers market.
Every corner of every street is bustling with activities. Shouts of merchants trying to bring customers to their local shops or joints. A group of adventurers haggling with a merchant who seems unwilling to lower his prices.
Noises of known and unknown origins. Mana signatures of various items and mana senses of various rankers clashing with each other.
Chaos is considered normal. One's wealth is their only identity.
An old potion-selling shop on the corner of some seemingly forgotten alley. A bit away from most of the crowds and activities.
An adventurer party had taken up a mission in Monster Canyon.
The usual.
Almost every ranker party here was planning to visit Monster Canyon after all.
"Look at this potion, Zeref. An E-ranked all-stats recovery potion for just 2 Extols. And just one Extol for three vials of the same potion in the F-Rank.
This… looks like a good deal for our party. Don't you think so?"
With a voice coated in excitement, someone said.
"Hmm? An all-stats recovery one? And for that cheap a prize too!"
Zeref pondered a bit. But then some memory of a previous incident struck him and he shook his head before laughing loudly.
"Hahaha! That's a dead giveaway.
Lien, listen to me. Don't get sucked into those vague concoctions. Those are likely unsuccessful attempts by some newbie potion maker who is trying to get their money's worth.
It won't have the efficacy we need even if it does what it advertises. Better go with Slughorn potions. They are reliable and safe. Although their price is a bit steep and the potions won't have an all-around effect, they are trustworthy.
You need potions you can count on in Monster Canyon after all. Otherwise, you'd end up as a monster or beast poop one day. Hahaha!"
Zeref, an Ace-ranked adventurer patted his party mate and cackled. As Zeref he had seen the world and Lien was just a newborn who wasn't aware of how the world worked.
Lien wasn't convinced by Zeref's pessimism. He didn't outright reject his friend's point of view. But instead, I tried to get more information about the product.
The vial of the potion had a faint runic engraving. Upon channeling mana through it, the vial's cap projected the manufacturing detail of the potion along with the manufacturer's name.
"Hmmm? White Raven. Zeref, Tisha, have you guys heard this name before?"
Zeref only chuckled in response before shaking his head in denial. Tisha's response remained the same. One part of Lien wanted to put the potion's purchase on hold. But the other part thought the deal was too compelling to let slip even without trying.
Zeref asked the shopkeeper who was busy handling another pair of rankers.
"Sir, could you please tell us anything about this manufacturer named White Raven?"
Lien jumped into the conversation the shopkeeper was having with his two new customers. Additionally, he pushed the customers the shopkeeper was talking to, making him even angrier.
Lien had just broken into Ace rank while the shopkeeper was in the solid stage of Ace rank. Even if ranking statuses were to be put aside, the fact that Lien had offended his higher-paying customers got on his nerves.
To say the least, he was a bit irritated. Thus, the shopkeeper smiled at Lien before answering the impatient ranker.
"Heh! Young man, you seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. Take this as a warning from me. At the place where you are heading, your nature may end up becoming your fatal flaw.
Monster Canyon is not as easy as people make it out to be. Only the most vigilant survive there. Impatience like yours might hurt you in that monster-filled environment."
Lien had a blank face after hearing the shopkeeper's retort. He was about to snap but his friend Zeref put his hand on his right shoulder and slightly pressed it. Then he took over the conversation.
"I'm sorry for my teammate's behavior, uncle Alto. He just recently joined our guild and was assigned to my party. This will be his first visit to Monster Canyon. He'll surely remember your valuable advice."
Zeref said and looked at Lien with eyes that made his intentions known. Lien clenched his fist before deciding to follow his vice-captain's lead.
"I'm sorry for being out of line earlier, sir Alto."
Alto had seen his fair share of young rankers in his career. He was a successful merchant. Even though his shop looked old and he didn't have much staff, that was only a ruse. He had multiple shops that would cater to customers of various economic brackets.
Even though it looked like Alto had given this advice to Lien out of spite, it wasn't entirely true. He had said what he said to make the young man aware of the dangers of Monster Canyon as well. That's because he had seen too many inexperienced rankers and interacted with them just a few days before their eventual deaths.
In Alto's memory, they all acted like Lien. always in a hurry to make quick bucks. These young guns would get inspired by various stories of rankers striking metaphorical gold in Monster Canyon. And then they would rush to that place only to get killed in the most brutal way possible.
There was a reason Monster Canyon was a newbie killer.
Alto looked at Zeref and realized that Lien would be led by an experienced ranker. So he let go of Lien's behavior, apologized to the customers he was tending to previously, and told them to wait a bit. Then he cleared his throat before answering Lien's original query.
"Zeref, look after this Lien in Monster Canyon, will you? Haha!
Anyway, I shall answer your very first question, boy. I don't know much about White Raven. So I can't say anything for sure regarding the authenticity of the brand's manufactured potion.
To be precise, I know they work well on paper and the lab results are also promising. But I don't know much about their effectiveness in the middle of a battle."
Lien sighed when he heard Alto's statement. Maybe Zeref was right. Perhaps he was being too optimistic regarding his first trip to Monster Canyon. Maybe the fact that he felt like the king of his small hill when he broke into the Ace rank was just his imagination.
Lien was about to put the vial of White Raven potion on the counter to return it to Alto. But the shopkeeper's next words made him reconsider his actions.
"Although I don't know much about the product or its manufacturer, I can tell you something else about it."
Alto narrowed his eyes before looking at all sides. Then he lowered his voice to its bare minimum before responding.
"You didn't hear it from me, but I was told that White Raven has some connections with the Montmorency family. I also heard that the manufacturing guild behind these potions has that famous Tuan Aag as its guild member."
This time Zeref and Lien both were shocked. The Montmorency name was enough to make White Raven's market presence appear solid in customers' eyes. Plus, Tuan was in the news all around because of the Titus tournament happening not too long ago.
These things were enough to influence customers to at least try White Raven to try once. Therefore, both Zered and Lien looked at each other before voicing their demands out loud in unison.
"We want to buy these White Raven potions."
