I sleep pretty well that night. I guess there is nothing like a feeling of accomplishment to soothe the mind and ease you into pleasant sleep. That and the presence of people you deeply care for. That helps too. No doubt. Like usual this pleasant state is not meant to last. Nit for too long anyway. The light of morning always chases away the dark of night. It's the never ending dance of Sun Mother, and Moon Father as well as Dawn and Dusk Maiden. In a way that too is reassuring.

I stretch and carefully extract myself from bed. No matter how tempting the idea of sleeping in might be, I have an early appointment ahead of me. The lad, whose name I do not yet know will want his enchanted underwear. And since he wanted it enchanted overnight, I specifically asked him to come and get it bright and early. I might just be regretting that decision a little. Only a little though, and not for long either.

In fact the lad drops by earlier than I initially anticipated. I can hear his steps approach around the back, while I'm still busy pampering Sour Cream. I pet the cat one last time, then I quietly open the door before he can actually knock. I silence his greeting before he can actually voice it with a finger against my lips and motion for him to come in, so he won't wake Elzbieta and more importantly Ulryk.

The lad blushes, but complies, as I lead him to the workbench, where his enchanted underpants are waiting. He in turn already has the two silver Crowns we agreed upon ready, thus our exchange is finalized quickly with an exchange of goods for coin and a handshake. Just as quietly as he dropped by he leaves again.

I in turn take a moment to enter the sale into the ledger before I deposit the coin in the strong chest. With that taken care off, I go back to petting Sour Cream a little more, which my feline housemate greatly enjoys.

Anyway, that is one more order of business dealt with. That on its own is already reason enough to be content. Once Sour Cream curls up to nap on the window sill I wake my other two housemates gently and together we leave for the bathhouse to properly start the day.

When we return afterwards I grab some coin to head down to the inn to place some quests with Krystina. The place is quite busy today. Mostly due to the group of the lad that commissioned me to do that overnight enchantment.

They only arrived late yesterday, but they are a pretty big group. Seven in total. I have a hard time recognizing the shy lad now that he is all geared up in well used full plate with a massive shield and an almost as massive sword leaning against the table next to him to boot. The group has a second fighter too, except this young lady seems to wield two blades instead. There are two archers as well, or possibly rangers, I can't tell for sure, one of them an elf and the other a halfelf. No less than three spell casters round out their roster, two wizards, judging by their robes and pointy hats, gnomes and most likely brothers if I'm not mistaken, and a cleric of the Sun Mother.

I can't help but wonder what they are after. With a group this big they are almost certainly not just hunting monsters at the edge of the Twilight Forest. They probably plan to venture in deeper, but it really isn't my place to pry. Not here and now anyway.

The first is the mana mill quest, as usual. There is nothing special about this one. The other is a request for some Rock Crab shells. This one prompts a raised eyebrow.

I just shrug in response.

"I'm going to expand and diversify my potion repertoire a little. Stone skin potions are a reasonable and affordable first step in that regard. Elemental resistance potions and maybe regeneration potions can come afterwards."

I flash Krystina a mischievous grin across the counter.

"Besides, rock crab shells for me might mean more rock crabs for your parents' kitchen too, which, in my mind, is a good thing."

Now this blatant statement elicits a laugh from our local guild official, as she grabs her guidebook to look up all the particularities for my new request. Her brows furrow a little, as she starts to explain.

"This one will be a little more expensive. It's a quest that can't be fulfilled without engaging monsters in combat after all, even if Rock Crabs aren't exactly the most fearsome opponents. And the shells have to be fresh, or am I mistaken? Ones that have already been cooked probably won't do. Am I right?"

The former is right, but she is mistaken on the latter, even if it isn't an unreasonable assumption. In most cases you wouldn't be able to use ingredients that have already been cooked once for food to make a potion afterwards. With these crab shells things are different though, thus I shake my head.

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"Actually, I would prefer shells that have already been in the soup pot. They are still potent enough for all my intents. I want to make potions of stoneskin after all and not potions of petrification. And besides, they are easier to crush and grind to the consistency I need if they have been cooked once already."

Krystina blinks in surprise, but nods in the end, taking my explanation into account, as she does the calculations and fills in the details on the quest papers.

"This one will be twenty two bronze Crowns for the quest reward and another six bronze crowns to cover the guild fees. Together with the fees and rewards for the mana mill quest this will be thirty one bronze Crowns or two silver Crowns and seven bronze Crowns."

That is one of my bigger expenses so far, but I don't protest. I have more than enough coin right now after all. And with more adventurers making Clear Brook their base of operations more fancy potions should sell as well, earning me any coin spent on quest like this one back easily. Thus I put my seal on both quests and hand Krystina the money before shaking hands with her to seal the deal.

Then I'm off with a wave, while Krystina shifts her attention to the next person who has been waiting in line, while she took care of my request. As usual I'm not the only one who places their requests bright and early.

I don't leave the inn right away though. The smell of freshly baked goods draws me to the inn's regular counter instead, where Maryla is busy selling sweet bread. Sweet bread that obviously is still warm. Sweet bread that smells downright heavenly! I get two of those and a small jug of watered down wine to go with them. Only then do I finally leave to make my way back home.

Back home little Ulryk is just having his own breakfast, thus I decide to get started on my sweet bread as well, while feeding Elzbieta hers, much to her amusement.

Then I open up the shop and enter the expenses for the quests into the ledger, while Elzbieta goes for a little walk, carrying Ulryk against her chest in a sling. It warms my heart to see her go out and about. I don't have time to dwell on it though, as one of the adventurers from the new group I spied earlier drops by.

It's one of the gnome wizards. He lifts his wide brimmed, pointy hat in greeting, as he enters the shop.

"A good morning to you, young lady!"

I flash him a smile and nod in greeting in return.

"A good morning to you too. Feel free to look around, but judging of what I saw of your group at the inn you probably aren't here for second hand equipment. You probably have a bigger delve planned and want some potions, or am I mistaken?"

He returns my smile in kind as he puts his hat back on.

"Indeed! We are planning to delve into Ulruegor's inverted tower. Well, eventually. We'll need to establish a camp somewhere halfway between here and there first and clear out the path of the worst monsters too. It's quite a trip after all. Better to be safe rather than sorry."

Even as he says that his gaze lingers on the sign announcing that I take back empty potion bottles. His right eyebrow rises a little.

I decide to explain before he can even ask.

"Always thought that it's a waste to throw potion bottle to the trash after a single use. Especially out here where there are not trash collectors who would pick them up to return them to the glassworks so they can be melted down and turned into new bottles or other useful things. Besides I have some enchanted bottles too, to extend the shelf life of potions that would quickly go bad otherwise. Those are most certainly too expensive to be thrown to the trash."

He nods, and heads over to the shelves with the potions, to look them over. The way he eyes them I'm certain that he uses some skill to check them out in detail too. He starts gathering various potions, bringing them over to the counter.

"These will do nicely for now, while we are still busy preparing for the actual delve. But could you make some more stronger potions for us too in the meantime? I reckon, we could really use them, once we descend into the inverted tower."

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