Chapter 32: 33: Publicity Stunt

Jubilee and Fresh walk through the busy crowd of adventurers, which is bustling like an excited swarm, buzzing around a hive. Groups of them run back and forth from the nearby houses, filling up as many pots and cups and old, empty bottles from the fountain as they can.

“You think it’s an event?” asks a man in heavy-armor, scratching his head.

“No… there’d be a menu then. Maybe it was the church?” whispers a girl in a hushed voice next to him.

A tan-clad elf with a veiled face next to them interjects. “It’s clearly a blessing from the divine!”

Fresh looks at an old man, who couldn’t be more of a stereotypical wizard, eccentrically crying on his knees and staring at the fountain in joy. An annoyed woman stands next to him, patting his back with a heavy sigh and a tired expression that reminds Fresh very much of the look Jubilee always has in their eyes. “Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know,” says the woman, rolling their eyes. Fresh looks away scratching her cheek meekly, feeling some déjà vu.

Other voices whisper out. The crowd is absolutely buzzing with electricity.

“With this many soul-points, maybe we can finally beat that boss on floor sixteen?”

“I haven’t been able to afford a soul-potion for a week,” cries a man dressed in black.

“It’s not thaaat good, I mean maybe…” says a sharp voice from next to him.

He points to them, angrily. “For free it is! For what a soul-regeneration potion costs, you may as well just buy the real ones!” He waves the woman off. “Besides, it was stronger an hour ago.”

All of them argue and chatter, but the mood in general seems to be one of elation. At least amongst the casters. Their more heavily-clad companions, clearly swordsmen and warriors and fighters of all stature, seem less impressed. Though some do seem to take joy in the delight of their compatriots, if nothing else.

Jubilee places their hands onto the fountain, ready to bend over and look at the water.

They stop, their body tensing up and they step back a second later without ever looking at it. Fresh looks at them curiously, still scratching her cheek. She opts to do Jubilee the favor and look herself, now that they’re standing at the spot she had sat at last night. How did this even happen? Wasn’t she in the house when she made the moonwater?

The girl looks over the rim of the fountain and stares into the shallow water below. Sunlight radiates off of its already shiny, glowing surface, giving it a more than holy appearance. Her eyes go wide as she sees the thing.

Looking around to make sure nobody is watching, Fresh leans forward, sticking her hand into the water to fish out a single Obol that is planted down beneath the surface. Her other hand checks her pocket, fumbling through the coins. Sure enough. She’s one light.

She looks at the dinky coin, recognizing it immediately by the scuffs and scratches it has. This is her lucky Obol. The single one that she had had left after her admission into the adventurer’s guild. Her hand clenches tightly around the wet coin, as she looks back towards the water. She does her best to ignore Jubilee, who is busy clutching their hood in frustration, mumbling something about how fucked they are.

[Fountain-Water]{Holy}(Pure)

If drunk:

+3% SOUL Regeneration - 9 Hours

+7% SOUL - 9 Hours

+ Purges corrupting spirits (80%)

Huh? She looks at the little window curiously. It’s different. The warning is gone. Didn’t moonwater have to be processed though, to become safe to drink for others?

Fresh places the wet coin into her pocket and takes the ever-damp grimoire out of her backpack, turning away from the crowd and carefully opening the pages to the section on moonwater and reads it once again. “Unprocessed moonwater decays if left in sunlight…” mumbles the girl, finding the line on the second page. She reads on further, wondering if maybe she should have read this entire section before making the attempt, instead of just the recipe.

Her finger taps her chin.

Yeah. She probably should have done that. Her eyes read over a line detailing how moonwater can be made at a distance, as long as a strong spiritual connection is present. She closes the grimoire and tucks it back away, making a mental note to take a day to read through it entirely. Jubilee is glaring up towards her, but doesn’t say anything. Fresh rubs her arm, feeling terrible, but she doesn’t say anything either. What should she do to make this right, she wonders?

“Ah!” cries out a voice from the crowd. “It lost another percent!”

The crowd shifts.

Fresh leans down to Jubilee, hoping to ease their nerves. Raising a hand to her mouth to cover her whisper. “Jubilee. I think it’s fine. The effect is vanishing on its own,” she says quietly.

“That’s fine, but people are going to talk about this for months!” hisses Jubilee. “Is there anything that ties you to this?!” they ask, pushing a finger into her forehead. Fresh thinks and looks around. Apart from the Obol that she fished out of the water, there was nothing that made them complicit. Sure it caused a little buzz, but maybe…

“Isn’t everything fine though?” asks Fresh. “It’s not like anyone is mad or upset, they all seem happy.” She looks around at the adventurers around them, who are all just excited, but in a good way. She looks back towards her friend’s raging eyes and then down to the thing in their hands. The blue potion from before.

Jubilee prods their finger into her again, knocking her off-balance. Fresh flails, trying to catch herself. “You think the alchemists won’t have our throats cut, once they hear about this?!”

Fresh catches herself on the rim of the fountain and looks back to them, laughing meekly. “But it’s fine, we were going to sell potions anyways! Besides, we have a merchant’s license now, right?” she ponders. “Won’t they leave us alone now, if we pay our share of every sale?”

Jubilee looks over their shoulder, glancing at the large man from the day before. The merchant’s guild representative who was also eying the fountain, together with some very shady looking men at his side. Jubilee grabs Fresh’s hand, dragging her to a spot further away from the people.

“Listen, dumb-ass! We might be licensed and that means we’re sanctioned by the merchant’s guild to do business. But that doesn’t mean that the other vendors won’t have a problem with it!” They let go of her hand, swiping it to the side. “Especially if you start giving away high-value products for free!” they furiously whisper. “It steps on some toes!”

Fresh winces, wondering if this is it. If this is the moment that Jubilee would finally leave her behind. Her mind races. She needs to come up with something. With anything to… to…

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Her eyes wander to the blue potion and the idea hits her. “What if we don’t?”

“Huh?” asks Jubilee with clear frustration in their eyes.

Fresh grabs the potion from them and gently swings it around. “Jubilee! I have an idea!” says the girl excitedly, thinking that she’s found her redemption. “Do you trust me?”

“No!” says Jubilee very clearly. Fresh winces. She supposes she deserves that though. But she narrows her eyes and stands up anyways, determined to earn that back, if she ever had it at all. “What are you doing?” asks Jubilee quietly with venom, as she walks back towards the fountain.

Fresh turns and raises a clenched fist. “I have an idea!”

“Stop having ideas! Get back here!” whispers Jubilee in vexation.

“Trust me!” says Fresh, turning her face forward and running into the crowd, ignoring Jubilee who is running after her. She clenches her fists. This is how she’s going to make it right. They just had to get ahead of it. If they get in front of the situation, they can control it. If they did nothing and waited, it would come back to haunt them. This is risky, but it’s the best move in her eyes. Besides… with this many people…

She climbs onto the fountain.

“H-hello everyone!” shouts Fresh with a somewhat cracking voice. Some of the people near the front of the fountain stop their conversations to look at her. She waves awkwardly back to them. Sensing the silence, the people behind them grow quiet and turn their heads as well. The man from the merchant’s guild is watching her now too. She looks over to the side, seeing Jubilee clawing at their mask in anger.

Fresh clenches her fists and swallows to unclench her throat.

“We’re glad to see that you’re enjoying the fountain!” she says loudly. The crowd murmurs and she watches as the man from the merchant’s guild narrows his eyes. “Please continue to enjoy this free, once in a life-time, event!” she assures the crowd, though looks at the frog-like man from the guild as she holds out the potion. Sweat beads on her forehead and she feels her legs wobbling beneath her. She hopes they don’t give out right here and now. “- To commemorate the occasion of our newest, cheaper variant of the soul-potion!”

A single, tiny scream breaks the silence. Fresh goes on, ignoring it and opening the window for the potion. “Starting next week, you can buy these at the brand new ‘Dungeon Item Shop’, found right over there!” she points towards Jubilee’s house. She has to seal the deal. She’s sure of it. There are still some skeptical eyes in the crowd. She winks. “- Only nineteen Obols each!”

Another scream escapes Jubilee, this one more dire. She ignores it too, however. The crowd murmurs in excitement, looking at each other.

“That’s pretty cheap…” says an elf near the front.

A man in black armor next to her asks. “It has fewer values than a normal soul potion though?”

“But it’s like two in one!” argues a caster standing behind them.

Fresh feels two deadly pairs of eyes on her. One of which she knows that she can placate. With this many people, with this many witnesses… they have to get ahead of it. Fresh clears her throat, bringing back silence to the crowd. This is it. This is her deadliest strike yet. This is where her plan comes together and keeps them safe. She hands the potion to a red-robed, witch-hatted caster who is just in front of the fountain.

“Hey, it’s glowing? That’s cool!” says the red-wizard excitedly, examining the bottle. The group around them examines the matte, glowing bottle as well. Fresh winks with a smile, raising a finger. “That’s from our secret ingredient! Again. Found only at the ‘Dungeon Item Shop’, starting next week!” She rises back up to her feet, ready to complete the spiel.

“Of course, none of this would have been possible without the generous sponsorship of the merchant’s guild!” She holds her arms out towards the frog-like man. “The merchant’s guild, alone, generously arranged for this fountain to be blessed for the day, at great personal expense!” she beams. “So please be sure to thank them kindly!” says Fresh, tilting her head. The crowd bustles around the representative and he and his lackeys are quickly swamped by grateful, overly dramatic adventurers.

Fresh lets out a sigh of relief, as most of the eyes leave her and all go towards the representatives from the guild, who are overrun by handshakes, pats on the back and hugs from the more eccentric types, of which there seem to be a lot amongst adventurers as a whole. Fresh wonders, placing a finger to her lip as she steps down from the fountain. Maybe eccentric people are just more likely to become adventurers to begin with? That makes sense to her.

She walks over and back to Jubilee.

“Ah, wait, your potion!” says the red-wizard.

Fresh raises a finger and winks. “Consider it a free sample! See you next week!” and with that she walks back over to her very distressed friend.

Razmatazz

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