He carefully lowered the mouth of the transparent glass jar beneath the surface.
With a gurgling sound, clear liquid quickly filled the jar.
Cheol-woo held his breath and fixed the angle of his wrist.
He was scooping up only the water gathered at the top layer so that the dregs or sediment settled near the bottom would not mix in.
"Good. This should be clean enough."
Cheol-woo grinned as he lifted the full jar.
The transparent liquid, without the slightest trace of murkiness, held a faint glow even inside the unlit waterway.
He wiped the moisture from the outside of the jar with the towel he had brought, then tightened the lid and sealed it.
Cheol-woo turned his gaze toward the crack in the wall.
Clear water was still trickling out, filling the shallow pool in the waterway.
He opened the translucent management window in the air and reviewed Sleeping Waterway’s current resource status.
He had just scooped up three jars’ worth, but it barely showed in the overall storage figure.
Compared to the replenishment rate, it was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
‘Let us take only enough for appraisal and a test sale, within a range that does not affect production.’
Taking a lot would only make it heavy and invite suspicion.
For now, his priority was to accurately determine the item’s value and open a route to a shop that could reliably put cash in his hand.
Cheol-woo secured the jars in the bag he had brought so they would not shake, then turned away without hesitation.
After leaving the water-scented waterway, he returned to the living room of his villa in reality.
Cheol-woo quickly changed into suitable clothes and immediately headed outside.
He toyed with the note in his pocket, where he had written the address of the shop he had found on the internet yesterday.
A flashy store operated by a major guild had never been his destination in the first place.
The place he arrived at was the first floor of a quiet commercial building on the outskirts of Seoul.
[Silver Moon Alchemy Workshop]
The sign was just as old and tacky as it had looked on the website.
Beneath the faded letters, the phrase "potion ingredient purchasing" was written in small text.
Cheol-woo took a deep breath and pushed open the glass door.
Jingle.
A cheerful bell rang, and a bitter herbal smell rushed out and stabbed at his nose.
The inside of the shop was cleaner than he had expected.
On one wall, unidentified medicine bottles were lined up densely, and behind the counter stood all sorts of machines.
"Welcome. Are you here to buy or sell?"
The middle-aged shopkeeper, who had been sprawled over the counter scribbling something, slowly lifted his head.
Dark circles had settled heavily beneath his eyes.
"I would like to have an item appraised and sell it."
Cheol-woo placed his bag on the counter and opened the zipper.
He took out one glass jar wrapped in cushioning material and pushed it toward the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper picked up the jar with an indifferent expression.
He turned it this way and that, examining the liquid inside, but his reaction was lukewarm.
"Is this mana water? Judging by the color and viscosity, it looks like ordinary low-grade material. The unit price for these things is not very good these days. There does not seem to be much of it either."
With practiced hands, the shopkeeper was about to take out a thick ledger from beneath the table.
His attitude said he intended to roughly price it and move on.
"Do not just look at it with your eyes. Please put it through the machine and appraise it properly first. Your sign says you welcome per-item appraisals."
At Cheol-woo’s words, the shopkeeper yawned widely and nodded.
He looked visibly tired, probably because many novice hunters brought in small amounts of mana water like this every day.
"Well, if that is what you want, I will do it. Just do not be disappointed by the appraisal result."
Grumbling, he walked toward a silver inspection device behind the counter.
He opened the lid of the jar, drew up a little mana water with a dropper, and carefully placed it inside a round glass tube.
When he pressed a few buttons, the device made a faint mechanical sound, and numbers began appearing on the monitor.
The shopkeeper dropped into his chair without even looking at the screen.
But a few seconds later.
When he casually glanced at the result window that appeared with a beep, the shopkeeper’s eyes widened in an instant.
"Huh?"
He sprang up from his chair and moved right up to the monitor.
After rubbing his eyes and looking at the screen again, he tapped the side of the machine with his palm as if he could not believe it.
It was an action that suggested he suspected the device was broken.
"Sir, one moment. I think I need to recalibrate the machine’s zero point."
The shopkeeper hurriedly operated the device and reset the figures.
Then he took another sample of mana water from the jar Cheol-woo had given him and ran the test again.
After a long whirring sound, the same result appeared on the screen.
The shopkeeper’s mouth fell open.
"This... the impurity level is at rock bottom. It is almost zero."
"The machine is not broken, is it?"
When Cheol-woo asked calmly, the shopkeeper swallowed and shook his head.
"It is not broken. No, the mana concentration itself is not incredibly high, but the mana contained in it is maintained far too evenly. What kind of filter did you use? When mixed with other ingredients, the chance of the mana repelling them is practically nonexistent."
The shopkeeper’s voice rose noticeably.
The tired look in his eyes had already transformed into that of a greedy merchant.
"With this quality, it does not need to go through a separate purification process. It can be used directly as a base for middle-grade recovery potions without boiling or filtration. It is not a rare material that drops hundreds of millions in one go like Azure Mana Iron or top-grade medicinal herbs, but recovery potions are consumed in enormous quantities. With quality like this, people will line up for it all year long."
As he listened to the excited shopkeeper pour out his explanation, Cheol-woo clenched his fist inwardly.
It meant the mana water produced by Sleeping Waterway could serve as an excellent material on its own without separate processing.
It was the moment a source of money that would not dry up was confirmed.
"Then how much will you pay for it?"
"Ah, of course, I must match the highest price for you. By any chance, do you have more remaining stock? Or when would you be able to bring this amount again? Let us write a fixed supply contract. I will definitely pay above market price and..."
The shopkeeper rummaged through a drawer and tried to take out a file of documents.
It might not have contained conditions as strict as those of a major guild, but it was still an attempt to tie him down.
Cheol-woo firmly waved his hand.
"No contract."
"Pardon? But why would you do that with such a good item..."
"I dislike troublesome things. I brought this today as a test, and I will only hand over the three jars in my bag. Are you buying or not?"
The shopkeeper could not hide his regret.
However, unwilling to miss out on the high-quality material that had rolled in front of him, he quickly nodded.
"I will buy it! Of course I will. Then I will not ask about the source or the next supply schedule. Instead, if you get another item later, please make sure to come to our workshop first."
Cheol-woo took the remaining two jars from his bag and placed them on the counter.
The shopkeeper handled the jars as though they were sacred treasures, carefully taking them inside before opening the safe and bringing out cash and a purchase certificate.
The process of signing the document and receiving the cash envelope was clean.
There were no complicated contracts or tiresome conditions like guaranteed minimum supply.
"Thank you for the transaction. I hope to see you again."
After slipping the thickened envelope into the inner pocket of his jacket, Cheol-woo left the shop.
The shopkeeper’s earnest farewell came from behind him, but Cheol-woo only waved lightly.
After returning to his studio, Cheol-woo sat at the desk and opened the ledger with familiar ease.
He opened the envelope he had received from the workshop today and took out the bills.
Even with only three jars, it was a fairly satisfying amount.
He carefully wrote today’s profit into the ledger.
-First sale of Sleeping Waterway Refined Mana Water. No separate purification required.
A smile naturally spread across his lips as he wrote.
His mind felt clear as he considered what sales strategy to use for each resource.
"The Azure Mana Iron from Goblin’s Abandoned Mine is expensive, so I will stockpile it and sell it big in one go."
He tapped the air with the tip of the ballpoint pen.
"The mana water from the waterway may not have an enormous unit price, but it keeps filling up, so I can use it for daily living expenses or consumable costs. It is an absolute gem."
Cheol-woo wrote the next principle in large, dark letters at the bottom of the ledger.
-Absolutely no fixed trading partner. Release small amounts to several shops on different dates.
If he kept handing high-quality mana water to only one shop, rumors would spread quickly.
Informants from large companies would undoubtedly catch the scent and start digging into the source.
Now that he had confirmed it made money, the important thing was to enjoy the benefits for a long time without drawing suspicion.
"Now, shall I divide up the budget a bit?"
He combined today’s earnings with the emergency funds he had already saved and tapped on the calculator.
The first thing he set aside was this month’s living expenses for his parents.
Next, he separated money to buy mana recovery potions, emergency potions, and defensive consumables needed when fighting monsters.
Cheol-woo stared at the remaining money, then his gaze turned toward the old weapons and worn leather protective gear standing in the corner of the room.
"Those are about at their limit too."
They were cheap pieces of equipment he had used during his six years as a porter.
The blades were chipped and difficult to maintain, and the protective gear was little more than rags patched over old scratches after enduring years of porter work.
In the past, he would have saved and saved his porter’s pay just to barely replace a single cheap weapon, but now things were different.
Behind him stood two resource warehouses that would never dry up.
Cheol-woo pulled his laptop closer and searched for hunter-only equipment shops.
He had no intention of blindly going to an expensive luxury brand store.
Rather than inflated equipment, what mattered was how sturdy it was in actual combat and how well it fit his hand.
He narrowed the options down to three shops with good ratings and demonstration ranges where he could personally swing the weapons, then wrote them down in his notepad.
"Tomorrow, I should start with these."
Cheol-woo muttered as he scrolled down with the mouse and examined the specifications of the weapons on the screen.
A light weapon that could thrust quickly was good, but to break the surrounding environment or crack hard mana stones, it also needed a proper amount of weight.
He could not choose just by looking at numbers written on a screen. He had to grip it himself and feel how it moved in his hand.
"You only know a weapon after swinging it yourself."
He closed the laptop screen and stretched.
He was already looking forward to the heavy sensation of the handle he would grip tomorrow.