An Owl's Rise

Evelyn turned her head towards the owl flying towards her that was showing obvious displeasure and was perplexed by what had made them so aggrieved.

'Are they just having a bad day? No, they are staring right at me. But I have never seen them before, so I doubt that I could have done something to make them mad at me. I suppose it is possible they are related to the owls that my team beat a few days ago. Though that would be quite the coincidence.' Evelyn thought, trying to reason out why this random owl seemed to be sending animosity her way.

Thankfully they were not radiating hostility or bloodlust, more along the lines of extreme irritation.

When they landed in front of her, they immediately extended a thread of magical energy and rudely did not wait for Evelyn to accept the connection.

Of course, she could have broken it and refused to communicate but she felt that would just cause more problems and she just wanted to get over whatever was going on as quickly as possible.

"So, you are the newbie that is setting up shop next to me. I heard that you were a big deal on the lower floor before suddenly disappearing. And now you have suddenly reappeared on the second floor and some how already reached the mid-tier of the awakened rank."

It was clear that this other owl was suspicious and feeling threatened by Evelyn and when he cast his gaze over to her sop and saw the process on her items his eyes went wide.

"How the hell can you be selling these for so cheap? There is no way these potions are as good as you say. You would not be able to make a profit at these prices!"

Already fed up with her neighbor's outburst Evelyn rolled her eyes and sighed.

She knew what was going on. Her new shop was a threat to this owl, and they were here to try and intimidate her since they were afraid of losing their business.

"My prices surely are at the lower end of what is acceptable, but I will more than make a profit. I gathered all of my ingredients myself so there was no cost involved." 'Also, I can make about eighty percent more than most owls at my rank since my heavenly flame allows me to make higher quality brews that I can cut with water. Though I am not going to tell them that.' Evelyn thought.

Hearing that Evelyn had gone out and obtained the ingredients' for her own potions, the owl that had been angrily ranting at her could not believe it.

Very few alchemists would gather their own ingredients since it was normally more profitable just to stay in relative safety and keep making items instead.

They could simply hire the other owls to gather for them instead of risking their lives.

"You must know that this is not sustainable. Your shop will not stay in business if you have to close up every time you run out of stock in order to grab more ingredients yourself. If you do not raise your prices you are going to fail."

Internally scoffing, Evelyn did not care for this rival shop owner's fake concern.

They simply wanted Evelyn to have prices similar to their own so that she did not garner the attention of their customers.

Eventually the other owls would home in on the fact that she had quality items at a bargain price and would flock to her.

Then once she had built up her reputation, she could move her storefront to a more desirable location and start selling more than just basic items once she had a loyal customer base.

It was a simple strategy, but one that would work well for her since she sourced the ingredients herself and had the best foundation for alchemy possible.

"Why do you care so much about my business? If I fail it is of no concern to you. I have already set my prices and will be keeping them there for a while. If you do not want your customers coming to me then you should just lower your prices as well." Evelyn said, finished with this conversation.

She then broke the connection and turned her back to the other owl and contoured getting her shop ready.

Naturally this just pissed them off and they fully released their aura at the mid-tier of the awakened rank at Evelyn to try and intimate her.

However, an alchemist like them that rarely ever left the safety of the Roost felt about as intimating as a kitten, and Evelyn in turn let them feel her killing intent.

This caused her disgruntled business rival to take a few rapid steps back and even fall over.

It was then that they noticed that a few other shop owners around were watching what was going on.

Plenty of them looked at the owl that had tried to intimate Evelyn with pitiful expressions, while others were visibly laughing.

Another group instead was looking at Evelyn, fear in their eyes.

They had similarly thought about hazing the newbie but swiftly decided against it.

All of the owls in this area were at the same tier and they could tell that Evelyn was beyond them

She may not have lived for as long as any of them, but she had seen many more life and death battles.

'Well, that seemed to have worked out pretty well. Anneli and Katrina warned me something like this might happen, so I am glad I was ready.' Evelyn thought as the owl that had harassed her scurried away.

After that no one else came to bother her and she was able to finish setting up without any problems.

Soon the Alchemy Hall opened up for business and hundreds of awakened rank owls began flooding onto the second floor to replenish their stock of necessary alchemical items that no owl would be caught without.