Feeling resigned and with the watchful eyes of all the adventurers currently present on the mountaintop on his back, Severin made his way over to his kitchen. He hated the feeling of being observed like that. He quickened his steps.

Once he found the time, he would look into the construction of hidden doorways or secret tunnels to move between his steadily expanding facilities.

The moment he entered the building, he closed the door behind him with more force than necessary.

>>Everything alright?<< Seemingly aware of Severin’s decreasing mood, Emily’s caring voice suddenly appeared in his head. It was enough to cheer him up.

>>Yeah. Don’t worry. But next time, either call me or just blacklist them directly, you hear?<< Only now did he seem ready to discuss the matter with her.

>>But…<<

>>No buts. You don’t live on the streets anymore. You don’t have to put up with everything. It’s one thing to indulge some annoying customers, but don’t let them bully you. If it wasn’t for their leader to have some sense and intervene, I would’ve… << Severin didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to; the meaning was clear.

He continued after a slight pause, >>You represent not only yourself, but the Emporium as a whole.<< He said the last part with more conviction in his voice than he really felt; calling it an emporium still felt somewhat pretentious, and there wasn’t a reputation to defend, either.

Over in the other building, Emily replied with a firm nod. It took her a moment to realize that besides a confused Samuel, no one else witnessed her reply. >>I’ll try my best!<< she quickly added.

Inside the kitchen, Severin didn’t directly go to work. He was in no hurry.

Even if he took his time, his work would still be finished far sooner than anyone could realistically expect of him. Probably.

Instead, he walked over to the three loaves of bread Emily had set aside for him. A few slices were already missing, but unlike his unruly customers, Severin wasn’t able to eat a whole loaf of bread anyway, much less three of them.

When Severin finally took his first bite, he didn’t know whether the bread was truly that good or if the System had suddenly released all the accumulated hunger and appetite it had been suppressing for so long. Either way, he couldn’t believe how delicious a simple piece of bread could be; even with no spread or toppings. His limited expectations were far exceeded, even he had to admit.

Slice after slice, he gluttonously stuffed his face until he almost choked. For a good fifteen minutes, he only paused his chewing now and then to drink directly from the running tap. Until a feeling of satiety accompanied by a slight stomachache set in. With a satisfied grin, he patted his belly and leaned back in a chair. As expected, even though Severin gorged himself, there were still leftovers. More than enough for Emily to eat to her heart's content, he decided.

“I guess now I should be able to leave this mountain without experiencing any kind of backlash. Too bad there is no way for me to test this theory right now.” Severin might have said that to himself as if he otherwise would be ready to test his hunch, but in reality, he was in no condition to do so.

One more move than absolutely necessary and he would burst.

His body felt heavy, and although he had only just gotten up, he was already tired again.

That was until he noticed something in the corner of his eyes. Right next to his familiar minimap.

“A buff!” It took him quite some time to become aware of the small icon’s existence, but the moment he lay his eyes upon it, he immediately understood what it represented.

If this was one of his games back home, Severin would try to hover over the icon with his cursor and hope some kind of tooltip would pop-up.

In an attempt to simulate this effect, he now simply tried to concentrate on this icon.

In his current state, that was easier said than done, but he still succeeded.

“Haha, it really is a buff!”

With no way for him to make use of his stats, or even just being able to see them, Severin had never felt the urge to try one of his elixirs.

In fact, besides a single health potion, he had never consumed any of his products whatsoever. Not after discovering that this one potion not only didn’t have a real taste but also lost its jelly-like consistency once it entered his mouth.

Now was the first time he experienced any of his products’ benefits firsthand.

‘Three percent. Not bad. Let’s see if I can find more on this.’

He opened his System’s main menu and, counter to his expectations, didn’t have to search for long. A red icon directly notified him of changes to his previously empty character sheet.

Excitedly he opened the page end examined it.

For the most part, it was still empty and not really worthy to be called a character sheet, but one extra line still had appeared in it.

“So it’s like this. Only after any of my… stats or rather… values, experience some kind of change they get displayed in here,” Severin mused. “So, I have to discover them on my own, I suppose? I wonder if me taking damage would also have revealed my health pool.”

“Wait, what?!” He suddenly made a double-take. “Are you shitting me?! Currently one hundred and three?”

Severin almost threw up. Whether it was because of his sudden movements on a full stomach, or him genuinely feeling sick seeing his health value, was unclear.

The first thing to come into his mind was his health potions. The most basic ones. The ones which were clearly intended to be used by greenhorn adventurers.

Even those potions already healed double the amount of his own health pool.

The implications frightened Severin.

From his own experience, he knew that health potions were almost never supposed to heal someone completely, only parts of it. That was especially true for beginner potions such as the one in question.

Following this logic, even the most inexperienced and low-level adventurer would already have multiple times his own health. Four hundred at a minimum, he figured.

This, in turn, made him wonder how much damage a level one monster would deal.

‘They couldn’t just oneshot me, could they?’ He wasn’t sure whether he really wanted to know the answer.

‘Forget leaving this mountain! At least here I’m safe. Right?’ His thoughts began to drift to the people waiting outside. To the people training with the dummies and the explosions they caused while doing so.

Gulp

“If it wasn’t for the protective barrier…”