LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 16: The Profiteering System
Alan was still cleaning up the mess in the tavern lobby alone.
Sophia saw Olivia and her party leaving the tavern from the corner at the end of the street.
"I made money, I made money, I made so much money!"
When Sophia walked into the tavern, she heard Alan happily humming out-of-tune. To the elves who were full of artistic cells, his tune sounded like the song of the demons.
"Ah, Sofia, why are you so late today? I thought you weren't coming." Alan held a tray of goblets and turned around to walk towards the bar counter. When he raised his head, he saw Sofia standing at the entrance of the tavern in a daze.
"But if did you come early, I wouldn't have been able to serve you today anyway."
Alan's face was filled with joy. The tone of his voice was different than usual, filled with excitement that reeked of money.
"I saw that the governor and the others just left." Sophia sat at her usual seat in front of the bar counter. She looked at Alan, who was busy preparing wine for her, and she had a confused expression on her face.
"Yeah, that little princess from the Imperial City is a good person." Alan pushed the wine that he prepared to her. When he mentioned the princess, the smile on his face became more sincere.
Sophia stared at him for a while, but in the end, she didn't say anything. She shook her head and drank the wine as usual.
When she heard Alan's praise, her expression became ugly.
But, Alan was an airheaded little man, so he didn't notice Sophia's mood.
Sophia had something on her mind. That night, she drank her wine very quietly and very quickly.
"I'm leaving now. I probably won't come back for a while. You should close up early tonight," she said coldly and then left.
Alan was puzzled. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. He even wondered if elven women would get their period every month. Sophia looked like those human females when they were on their period...
He thought about it for a while and then realized that he could not figure it out, so he decided not to think about it anymore.
Forget it. Let's just take a look at the system and be happy about what it would show.
[ Mission 2 has been completed. Serve Lafite to 10 customers and receive favorable feedback. ]
[ Reward obtained. Malt whiskey brewing method. The brewing area has been updated. ]
[ Detected that host's balance has reached the minimum requirement. The system store can be activated. Do you wish to activate it? ]
As expected, his mission was complete, and he obtained a new bottle of alcohol. Whiskey! This was strong alcohol. It seemed that the tavern business in Rock City would be up to him next. Hahaha.
Moreover, the system also released a new function. When he used to read novels, he knew that the system store was useful but also a total rip-off.
Alan gritted his teeth. He was going to open it sooner or later anyway. "System, confirm activating the system store."
[ The store has been activated. Deducting 555 gold coins, the remaining balance is 69 gold coins and eight silver coins. ]
When Alan saw the balance after the activation, he felt frustrated. The 600 gold coins that he worked so hard to get were ripped off by the system in a blink of an eye.
Then, he looked at the newly opened system store, which was filled with small gray boxes. Even the cheapest item cost 100 gold coins!
"Hmph, out of sight, out of mind. Before I get rich, don't think that I'll buy anything!" Alan cursed the system profiteer angrily as he groaned and rubbed his bleeding heart.
Because Alan's hard earn money was ripped off by the system, he had nightmares all night.
The next morning, he did not wake up early as usual. It was close to noon before he woke up.
However, Olivia and the others already set off for the Forest of Elves.
Sophia had revealed a little about their purpose for going to the Forest of Elves.
Alan remembered that it was probably because the emperor wanted to exchange some merchandise with the Forest of Elves and talk about long-term trade. The most important thing was that the emperor was trying to curry favor with the elves.
He remembered that before he logged out of the system last night, he saw that a new mission was issued. However, having lost most of his gold to the system store made him so angry that he forgot to check it carefully.
Taking advantage of the fact that it was still early for the tavern to be open for business, Alan opened the system again to check the mission.
[ Mission 3, time-limited mission. Serve whiskey within three days. Successfully serve a guest and receive positive feedback. ]
He looked at this mission and touched his chin thoughtfully. He seemed to feel that the system has malicious intentions towards him...
Alan calculated the time needed for whiskey to be brewed. Roughly speaking, if he started to brew it today, then it would just barely reach the bottling age the next day.
Thus, the young man was once again forced to temporarily put aside other things and brew the whisky. He had to try his best to complete the task as quickly as possible.
While the young man was bitterly brewing the whisky, Olivia and her knights were speeding on their horses.
The terrain in the forest was constantly changing. They could still ride on horses for the first half of the journey, but according to information from the governor, they would not be able to ride on horses if they went any deeper.
Because the high-level magic Lafite that she spent a huge sum of money on was too important, Olivia choose to not ride on a horse today. Instead, she rode in the carriage with her maid.
She held the bottle of magic wine that she bought at a high price the day before. She was intoxicated by the ruby-colored wine that was shining brightly under the sunlight that was gaping through the curtains.
Stanton and Olivia had discussed with each other. After settling down, he hoped to try the effects of the high-level Magic Lafite. He had been stuck as a Tier-Nine Archmage for a long time. It was a good opportunity for him to verify how effective this wine was.
Olivia gladly agreed to her Chief Knight's request. However, the most important thing now was to complete her father's task. Ever since she entered the forest, she had a premonition that something bad was about to happen, however, she had no idea what it would be, so she could only hurry up and enter the elf's territory.
Since Kramer and Sevilino visited the tavern the first time, these two middle-aged, greasy men would come to drink two cups of wine at dusk almost every day. They would only leave when the sun was setting.
"Little Alan, you're a genius. You're going to release a new alcoholic beverage?" The governor said in shock.
The governor was surprised that Alan was going to release a new alcoholic beverage already. Although it was just an ordinary beverage this time, he heard that it would be high in alcohol content.
"If you two gentlemen are free, remember to come and taste it tomorrow night. I already have a feeling that this beverage would become the best in Rock City."
Because this was a time-limited mission, Alan directly invited Kramer and Sevilino.
Alan was not sure if they would be free tomorrow, so he prepared a second plan. If no one came tomorrow, then he would take the initiative. Just like the first day of opening, he would go to the elven tavern to try his luck.
Sophia said that she would not come to the tavern again for the time being, so he did not see her for the past two days.
For a tavern that did not have many customers, seeing beautiful elves every night was a pleasure in itself, but that feeling was no longer present the last few days.