Flushed with cash from the proceeds of the hunting trip and reward money, I head to the shopping district of Lago. Due to the amount of hunter activity in the town, there is a disproportionate amount of shops in a town this size. I am looking for anything that can help me get started on potion making. I plan to make ample use of my analyze skill.

I spot a prominent shop that seems to heavily advertise potions. Behind the counter is a young lady with wide welcoming smile. "Sir, how can I help you?" I respond that I am looking for high quality health potions. The girl puts on a confidant smile and takes me to a cabinet with a red vial. The color is blood red. Good sign for a recovery potion based on what I know. While the girl tells me how hard it was get this batch of high quality potions, she assures me of its high quality. It certainly looks the part, but more importantly, my analyze skill tells me that it is the real deal. It is far more potent than any I have seen so far.

What would it take to replicate its production? Due to the magic skill needed to make potions, only very powerful mages with the right skill set can make high quality potions, and usually at great cost. Most find more profitable ventures. My goal is to find the sweet spot of cost and quality and corner the market. Ambitious, but I am a business graduate, so I should at least try to use my business acumen. "How much for one vial?" I am only slightly surprised by the high cost. I was expecting it, but still.

I need to see this as an investment. If I can reverse engineer the potion I can make a business out of it. Heading for the counter the girl pulls a vial from behind the counter and puts it in a small brown paper bag. The vial looks identical to the one in the display. I even get a nice paper bag, a sign of an expensive purchase. As I make ready to hand over the money I check the vial with analyze just to be certain. Even through the paper bag I get all the readings I got from the other vial, but they are much lower. The vial I am being handed is low quality knockoff made to look like the real thing.

I stop in my tracks and the girl at the counter looks confused. She is trying to scam me. How should I handle this? I really want to give her a piece of my mind, but then I notice the slave markings under her scarf. She is not to blame, she is just the pawn. "Please bring the shop owner here." The girl looks confused. "Surely you have been given orders by your master to bring him to the shop if need be. I can assure you that this is that time." I put just a bit of my intimidation skill into the tone to send her running into the back of the shop.

The shop owner is a portly man with a moustache. Not that I have anything against portly men with moustaches, but this guy even looks like someone who would try to scam you. No wonder he had his slave to do the work for him. No need to show this guy mercy, analyze tells me all I need to know about his very particular skill set. Scamming, forgeries, lying. To have such specific skills he must have been doing this for some time.

"Can you tell me why your slave has been ordered to sell cheap knockoffs as if they are high quality potions?" I am making sure he knows that I will not accept him passing the blame of the scam onto his slave. From what I know of slaves, they can't go against their master, and they are highly unlikely to do something proactive that could cause trouble for their master if not specifically ordered to do so.

I notice the shop manager eyeing my C rank hunters badge. At Lawra's recommendation I attached it to the front of my tunic before the shopping trip. His face seems to gain two feelings, fear and anger. Fear of me and anger at the girl for getting caught by a hunter in the scam. He still hasn't said a word, but his body language has told me a lot about him. I maintain the awkward silence.

"I am deeply sorry, I clearly told my slave not to try this with a member of the guild, but she is so dull she must have missed your guild badge." Clearly a lie, but he is clearly regretting not instructing her to do so. It annoys me that he thinks nothing of scamming people as long as he does not get caught. Plenty of them back in my world as well, and on this one I can vent my anger at scammers without consequence.

"So what are you going to do to stop me from dragging you to the guild and have your words tested for truth?" The portly man goes noticeably white as blood drains from his face. "Of course I will compensate you for this inconvenience. Is there anything you want?" Darn, I wanted him to show his hand and ask for enough to make him holler inside. Nodding towards the cabinet with the potion, I indicate that I came for that one.

The shopkeeper reluctantly accepts my interest. Looks like he only has one real potion. Loosing that one will kill his potion scam. "I will sell it to you with a big discount." I can't believe he is still trying to sell it to me after all this. I better offer a pittance of a price for it. "I will give you no more than one small silver for it." The shop keeper seems reluctant to agree. "And I expect you to throw in your slave as a bonus." Now the shop girl goes noticeably pale.

She is clearly anticipating that I will be mistreating her. I press the shopkeeper with a bit of my intimidation skill to seal the deal. Looking at the lonely silver coin the shop keeper hands over the potion I was about to pay a lot more for. He gives his former slave a shove towards me as she is still terrified of me. We transfer the ownership of the slave seal. It is surprisingly easy.

As I leave the shop with the girl I ask her. "What do you think would have happened to you if I had left you with your previous owner?" Since the master asked a question of a slave the answer comes immediately with no hesitation. "He would have beaten me and mistreated me for awhile, particularly at night." "Do you think I will do worse to you?". "Why wouldn't you, I tried to deceive you."

Since slaves can't lie this is my chance to get the absolute truth. "So are you saying he never ordered you to deceive me?" "Not you in particular, just any potential customer. He has a few more scams running other than the potion scam, but since you took the only good potion he has, that one can't continue." I was wondering whether or not to still report him to the guild, but now I am certain.

"I don't blame you for any wrong you might have done while being that man's slave. I will not mistreat you, but I do want to take you to the guild and have you tell them all that you just told me and more if you know more." The new member of my family seem noticeably more at ease. I told Lawra once that I would treat any slave I acquired like a member of my family and I meant it. I don't particularly like slavery, but it is part of this world and considered very normal. The least I can do is be a kind master, though to be called master is still a bit creepy.

At the farmhouse I start introducing the new member to our family and realize I don't even know her name. "What is your name?" My somewhat puzzled look must have been amusing as the response I get is not particularly helpful but said with a grin. "You can call me whatever you like master?". "What would you prefer I call you?" She seems to take some time to think about it. How many names does she have to consider? "I would like it if you call me by my birth name, Pia." "Ok, Pretty Pia it is." My change to her name earned me a small satisfying reaction from Pia. My wives seem to approve of the name of our newest family member. I do hope they treat her well.