Chapter 278: Commercial Operations |
Ambrose didn't linger around the ice sculpture. Instead, he went straight to find Harvey.
Although his distributors were handling product sales, Ambrose still needed a storefront on the surface for inventory storage and business negotiations.
Harvey was in charge of this shop. Ambrose casually claimed he was here to discuss business and was let in without issue.
Inside, Harvey was staring at a pile of order forms in distress. These were all new orders. The ice sculpture promotion had worked astonishingly well. Orders for sunscreen were pouring in like a sandstorm.
The problem was, the underground factory simply didn't have such great production capacity. There was only a single furnace running; it was nowhere near enough to meet nationwide demand.
Harvey hadn't even figured out how to report this to Ambrose before his master showed up in person.
He quickly stood up and offered him his seat. "Master, what brings you here?"
"To inspect your progress, of course." Ambrose glanced at the order sheets and nodded. "Looks like things are going well. That ice sculpture really did the trick."
"We've already built up a brand reputation. Even desert cities in the dwarven kingdom are placing orders. But we simply can't keep up with supply!"
He tapped the stack of forms. "This brand effect is temporary. The quantities written here are wildly exaggerated. How many people even live in the desert? These orders could supply the entire kingdom for ten years. They're just afraid someone else will buy everything first, so they're over-ordering out of panic. If we expand production based on this, we'll suffer massive losses next year."
Ambrose had already done his research. His production plan was based on actual population figures. It might have been a bit conservative, but certainly wasn't off by an order of magnitude.
What he wanted was steady, sustainable growth—a premium God of Alchemy brand.
A one-time boom followed by oversupply would only devalue the brand.
Harvey listened, half-understanding. Business wasn't his strength. After a moment, he suggested, "Master, maybe we should hire a professional?"
Ambrose snorted. "If only it were that easy. Anyone truly good at business is as cunning as a demon. Nine out of ten will try to turn your business into their own. Someone both capable and trustworthy might well be rarer than a legend."
Harvey frowned. "That's a bit much, isn't it? Other shops aren't all run personally by their owners. They manage to hire people just fine."
Despite his respect for Ambrose, Harvey knew his master had the habit of exaggerating difficulties when doing things himself, and ignoring them when assigning tasks to others.
Ambrose smiled faintly. "Then I'll leave it to you. You handle recruitment and screening. If anything goes wrong, it's your responsibility."
The moment he said it, Harvey knew he'd been set up. His master had anticipated that objection and used it to dump the task on him.
The sheer intensity of this exploitation made Harvey feel like he'd sold himself into servitude all over again.
Still… he had no choice. His master had saved his life to begin with.
"By the way," Ambrose added, "what's with the ice sculpture?"
"Oh, that's thanks to Isabel," Harvey explained. "Following your idea, she created a special kind of ‘ice'. It looks like ice and feels as cold, but melts extremely slowly."
"Melts slowly?" Ambrose considered. "Some kind of coolant additive, then. But those usually have color. How did she keep it transparent?"
Harvey said admiringly, "You nailed it, Master. She did use a coolant, but how she made it colorless, I have no idea. I don't understand alchemy at all."
Ambrose didn't press further. Isabel had likely developed a new type of colorless coolant. Judging by the performance, it was probably superior to existing ones. The only question was cost. In a desert environment, that alone could be a highly marketable product.
Isabel was improving fast. Her earlier Potion of Youth might have been luck thanks to the rare material she had discovered, but this? This was clearly her own achievement.
Ambrose had once worried her reputation outpaced her ability. Now it seemed she would truly grow into a master alchemist.
Such was the nature of a turbulent age: talent blossomed everywhere.
Setting the matter aside, Ambrose gave Harvey a few instructions, corrected some minor issues, and then headed for Sweetdew City's tavern.
If he wanted to promote drones, then adventurers had to be his target audience—and taverns were where adventurers gathered.
However, after seeing the success of the sunscreen campaign, Ambrose adjusted his strategy slightly. He intended to leverage his brand effect more effectively.
Seated at the bar with a drink, he quietly extended his senses to listen in on every conversation in the tavern.
It didn't take long to find suitable targets.
A tifling rogue and an orc ranger were lamenting their troubles exploring a dungeon. The ranger had recently resorted to using rats for scouting, but they kept dying in droves. As someone bound to his animal companions, the psychological toll was immense. He looked on the verge of collapse.
Ambrose sympathized. The bond between a ranger and their beasts wasn't just mental. Rather, they shared every sensation. If Naomi were killed, he would feel it as well.
This ranger had lost too many companions already. Their deaths weighed on him like a shadow.
The tifling rogue sighed. "What choice do we have? That place is a maze. Without your rats scouting, we'd lose too many people. The reward wouldn't even cover the death compensation."
The orc snapped, "Then let someone else do it! Isn't there another ranger in the party? Why isn't he scouting?!"
The rogue gave a bitter smile. "He's the captain's brother-in-law."
Ambrose felt a familiar sense of déjà vu. He'd seen plenty of adventuring parties like this: friends and family often formed teams. Generally, those teams often fell apart even faster than ordinary groups.
The reason was simple. Like workplace romances, once something went wrong, the tension became unbearable.
In a familial party, weak links couldn't simply be removed.
And if those people remained, resentment would fester.
No adventuring party avoided accidents forever. Sooner or later, something would go wrong.
As a result, such adventuring groups rarely made it big. Familial ties overruled logical decision-making.
Still, they often started strong. Trust came easily, and coordination developed quickly.
Upsides and downsides often came bundled together.
These two adventurers were clearly outsiders marginalized within such a group. They were exactly the kind of customers Ambrose needed.
Without hesitation, he took out a miniature quad-wing drone and sent it flying onto their table.
The sudden appearance of the tiny, intricate device startled both adventurers.
"What the hell is this?"
"Some kind of… golem?"
"I've never seen one this small. Can magitech reactors even be made that tiny?"
"Wait… something's off. I can feel dark magic from it."
……
Ambrose approached them, drink in hand, smiling warmly.
"Gentlemen, I'm an alchemist. This is my latest creation designed specifically for dungeon exploration. Don't let the size fool you. It can carry a memory crystal and scout far better than rats."
He launched into his pitch enthusiastically, but the adventurers didn't believe a word of it.
Veteran adventurers had seen every kind of scam. Someone bragging like this had a ninety-nine percent chance of being a fraud. There was no visible magitech reactor. Where did the propulsion even come from? It was probably just a wind-up toy.
Ambrose, naturally, had anticipated this. He handed a simple controller to the orc ranger. "Here, a free half-hour trial. If you're not satisfied, don't buy it. Oh, and this is a ‘God of Alchemy' product. You've heard of the sunscreen that's been trending lately, right? Here, samples for you."
He placed two boxes of sunscreen on the table.
Free goods were never refused. Even if it was poison, they could always have it tested later.
The adventurers' attitude softened immediately.
The orc ranger examined the controller. "This thing… can really serve as a scout?"
"Try it and see. The control range is five hundred meters. This button is for exploration, this one summons the drone back, and this…"
After a brief explanation, the ranger quickly got the hang of it. Stroking his chin, he said, "I heard there's a bathhouse on the second floor for female adventurers… maybe we should test it out there?"
Ambrose: "…"
Well, that explained why no one from his adventuring party wanted to hang out with him.
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