Dawn Architect

Chapter 24: A Business Opportunity and A New Plan

As Christian listened intently, I outlined a plan that could revolutionize our collaboration.

"In addition to the orphanages, I want to propose a business venture," I began, capturing his full interest. "I have access to exclusive ingredients and advanced knowledge to produce potions of various ranks. We can leverage these skills to generate income to sustain our projects."

In my previous life, although I did not engage in alchemy, I was in contact with numerous alchemists. Some were friends, in exchange for favors, they shared recipes and techniques with me, which allowed me to accumulate considerable knowledge on the subject. Interestingly, one of my best informants had been Chris, formerly known as Robin, who stood out in the academy as a prodigy in alchemy. So, I possess in my memory knowledge of many potions up to 6-star rank.

In addition, I discovered that the Gaia system has recipes for sale as well and upon reading some of them I realized that it even sells things that are considered national secrets. As for materials, ingredients I can buy from the system store, low rank and one star options don't need rare ingredients and just like normal food I can buy many of those ingredients with little (SP), but that's temporary; later we'll have a stable supplier that doesn't depend on me.

"You could take care of production and distribution," I suggested, explaining how the basic ingredients can be easily acquired, and how we could eventually set up our own supply channels without depending completely on me, obviously I didn't mention the origin of these, the mention of the system was out of the question.

The idea seemed to interest him a lot. After thinking about it for a moment, Christian replied, "I can't see your proposal as anything but beneficial. It's not only a business opportunity, but also a way to pay for what you've done. I'm in."

Relieved and excited by his acceptance, I continued, "Besides, since you already have established connections in the market, you could start expanding our network, especially for the other future projects."

"I will," he assured, pledging to actively contribute.

"One more thing regarding Chris, have you thought about teaching him alchemy?" I asked, since we couldn't waste the potential Chris had in alchemy.

"I have only taught him in theory and knowledge of ingredients, I have not set him to create potions. It is dangerous for a child to handle some creation processes," he replied, which is responsible of him not to allow his son to practice alchemy, as some processes require mixing poisonous ingredients and even some mixtures have the possibility of causing reactions such as explosion. But that would be a waste, so I thought of a solution.

Earlier, when I was exploring the store, I saw some novice alchemist gloves that make the user have poison resistance as well as protect the user's safety once a day. When I saw them, I thought they would never be useful to me, as going down the alchemist path takes a lot of time and effort, and time is something I can't waste, but in this case it's perfect.

"I think Chris has a high potential for alchemy; it would be a waste not to make him practice the craft," I said to Christian, who showed on his face bewilderment as to where my judgment of his son's potential was coming from and concern as to how to reject my suggestion, as he put his son's safety as a priority. So I made sure to calm him down before he turned me down.

"Calm down, don't rush to answer me, just call Chris here." Still puzzled, but seeing my confidence, he used the watch on his wrist to call his son. After a few minutes, there was the sound of knocking on the door.

"Come in."

When Chris entered, he showed a bit of nervousness, as if he had not yet fully accustomed to my presence.

"Good morning, father and.... big brother," he greeted as he entered. The reason he calls me big brother is simple: when he learned that he would be adopted by his father, he asked me what he should call me, and I replied to call me big brother. Although he is probably a year or two older than me, I could not allow a child to simply call me by my name. As I pondered this small attempt to preserve my pride as an older person, the father-son pair looked at me, waiting for my next statement.

"Good morning, Chris. I called you because I wanted to get your opinion on becoming a true alchemist," I explained. Upon hearing my question, Chris's initial nervousness disappeared and his golden eyes seemed to glow brighter.

"Of course, big brother. My dream is to become the best alchemist, but my father won't allow me to practice alchemy," he replied enthusiastically. Seeing how excited he was to follow his passion reinforced my conviction that it was a good decision to rescue him. I could not allow him to continue the fate of my previous life.

"Well, from now on you can practice real alchemy." Hearing me, his father seemed to want to say something, but before he could, I pulled out the gloves pretending to take them from a small pouch at my waist.

"Here, this is a gift. These gloves allow you to have a high resistance to poison and also protect you once a day from harm, so you will be completely safe when creating potions no higher than three stars."

When I told them the effects of the gloves, they were both surprised, even his father seemed to want some, but his pride as a father prevented him from asking his now stepson for some. With that done, he had nothing left to do but approve of Chris' introduction to the world of alchemy.

 With that said, I bought all the ingredients that were needed and left them in Christian's care. When they saw me take large amounts of items out of a bag, they were not surprised, as, although rare, it is not impossible to acquire backpacks or bags with expanded space. With everything done on this part, I returned to my base.

Along the way I was thinking about what I should be concentrating on at this point. With my dealings with Christian, the problem with identity and funds will be solved in time, the training of the children is also going at a good pace, so I don't know what to do.

I don't remember major events that happened at this time, as at this point in my past life I was locked in a cell waiting to be sold at auction.

When I thought about this, a memory came to me: the black market auction not only sold people, it also sold objects of dubious origin or things that you can't sell on the normal market.