Liam clutched the small pouch containing 100 gold coins and walked out of the pawnshop, the pouch weighing heavily on his hand.
Currently, in the game, people were still haggling for copper coins, while he had already borrowed 100 gold coins!
The currency denomination was not too complicated and pretty straightforward. One hundred copper coins equaled a silver coin and one hundred silver coins equaled a gold coin.
Gold was the highest currency and items and consumables of bigger values were often traded in gems rather than coins.
The exact value of every gem differed and they typically ranged from several hundred to thousands or even higher number of gold coins.
So considering everything, a sum like 100 hundred gold coins was an astronomical amount to a Level 1 character.
However, Liam confidently hopped onto one street after another and ran across the town, only stopping when he reached the familiar Trade building.
He walked inside and went to one of the open windows.
"Hi, I would like to rent a crafting room," Liam asked the sales representative.
The woman nodded and took out a medallion from under the desk. "That will be 10 silvers."
Before paying her first, Liam grabbed a sheet of paper from a stack on the side and scribbled on it with the pen tied to the counter. "I would also like to buy these ingredients." He handed it over to her.
The lady looked at the paper, her eyes slightly widening in shock. Everything listed was extremely expensive and she now held the scrawny-looking young lad in front of her in much higher regard.
"That would be 100 gold coins in total sir. If you give me a few minutes, I, Lana, can personally deliver all the items to your room." The woman batted her eyelashes, even introducing herself, and gave a coy smile to Liam.
He was amused, but he was not a noob and he didn't have time to mess around with NPCs. "Alright. Thanks." He muttered bluntly and then walked over to room no.5 which was the number on his medallion.
[Ding. You have entered a crafting room.]
[Ding. Your chance of success in crafting is now increased by 5%]
A couple of system notifications popped up in front of him, which Liam swiped away. He then sat down at the center of the small room, leaving the door open.
Soon, Lana arrived, flashing a big smile on her face. She bowed and greeted him again, revealing her ample breasts, and then took out all the items one by one from her inventory.
Within a minute, the small room was completely filled with various things including a big cauldron, several packets of herbs, bones, vials of blood, and lastly two big pails of clean water.
Liam nodded in satisfaction. "That'll be all. Thanks." The NPC flashed another coy smile before closing the door and leaving the room.
"Here we go." Liam calmed himself down and then first started by activating the rune on the cauldron which simply required him to place his thumb imprint on it.
This rune enabled a user to regulate the heat produced by the cauldron but something like that required Liam to have a much higher level and huge amounts of mana at his disposal, not to mention more control on his mana usage.
The current him simply pressed his thumb against the cauldron once and then removed his hand to activate the automatic heat regulation. Though it was not that great, it was still decent enough to serve his current needs.
Liam then started unfolding the herb stalks, while waiting for the water in the cauldron to reach a rolling boil.
"Ginseng. Maricharin. Linti root. Bonasitu." He took the herbs in his hand one by one, smelled them, remembering their texture and their properties which had already been deeply drilled into his brain.
There was a time in the past when he had been a slave. He and several others were forced into doing dull manual labor from dawn to dusk collecting herbs from a mountain.
But that was just the beginning and in fact, that was one of the more pleasant memories he had. He had experienced far worse things in his life.
"Hai! Let me not dwell on the past." Liam smiled bitterly and started adding the herbs to the boiling water. He added them in a specific series according to the recipe that he remembered.
In 'Evolution Online' there were many ways to obtain recipes for crafting but Liam's method was a unique one as he was replicating everything from his mind.
Once the herbs were added, the boiling water in the cauldron turned into a shade of light yellow.
Liam then added the beast bones and drops of blood at the same time which turned the liquid into deep red in color.
Almost immediately he backed away, just in time to avoid a powerful roaring aura that seeped out of the cauldron.
[Ding: Body Cleansing Low Grade potion created]
[Ding: Body Cleansing Low Grade potion recipe obtained]
[Ding: You have acquired the trade skill Alchemy]
[Ding: Your Alchemy skill proficiency has increased to Beginner Level]
The temperature in the small crafting room instantly shot up and Liam was drenched in sweat from top to bottom. The crafting room had suddenly become his personal sauna!
"Looks good enough." He nodded in satisfaction and then started unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his bony weak body.
He removed his pants, shoes, and his underwear as well and when he was completely naked, he stepped into the sizzling boiling cauldron.
[Ding: Health -1]
[Ding: Health -1]
Danger notifications immediately started popping up, but Liam leisurely made himself comfortable in the cauldron.
Though it was a huge vessel, it was still awkward for him to fit his entire body inside, submerging it under the boiling red liquid.