"You know, I never thought that we'd run out of food this quickly." I muttered under my breath as I watched the usual line of people we got outside that alleyway now form in the bar. "And I stocked more food than normally too, turns out it was pointless in the end."

  Well not "pointless" but definitely not the amount we should have taken with us, we needed more. I think it had something to do with the adventurers who recognized the tavern seeing that the people they know are talking about it in the middle of the day, got curious, and then checked it out for themselves.

  People talk and a community as tight knit as the guild would naturally have a bunch of people share information on the daily, it's why I wanted to take advantage of the festival so early on.

  But now that I have an actual set of customers who recognize my food, I'm starting to get pissed at them for buying too much. In truth I should probably get mad at myself for not preparing as extensively even though I planned to switch locations.

  And can you blame me? I expected a rough start where the stall would have a hard time acquiring customers thanks to the sudden change in location, not... Whatever this mess is.

  Monemon is probably happy that his gamble with me paid off and that customers are coming over to his tavern during the day— even when I have a feeling that the reason why he let me set up a stall here is because he's scared of my so-called teacher. — because adventurers love to pair their meals with a hearty mug ale.

  He's getting sales, and so are we. Well I guess it's only Laself and Howaph now, I've officially cut myself off from the stall in its entirety and for good reason.

  "Rontress?" Enoga, the guy who taught me how to use a spear, recognized me amongst the small group of people selling food. I waved. "Huh, you're here too? Guess that means you're selling food?"

  "No, I'm selling scrolls." I corrected him. "You want one? They're pretty cheap, just 10 gold each."

  Howaph gawked when he heard me talk and Laself paled, the rest of the adventurers— who had been paying attention to the exchange between me and my temporary teacher. — all turned to look at me, their faces full of amusement. That wouldn't last long.

  "Right, so you're just a kid playing the fool then?" Enoga raised an eyebrow. "Ten gold for a single scroll?"

  "It can save your life." And I wasn't even kidding, I gave so much effort into designing my barriers that it can probably block hits from an Ogre or something. "It also lasts pretty long, around 5 minutes."

  "What lasts long, kid?" An adventurer asks.

  "The barrier." I shrugged, hopefully they taunt me more so that I can have the opportunity to prove it naturally, I don't wanna sound arrogant and potentially lose customers. "Well? What do you say? Wanna try it? I can rip up a scroll and then let you hit me."

  "I'm not gonna try to hit a kid." Enoga crossed his arms. "Are you trying to trick me into paying for your recovery fees?"

  "No?" This is good too. "My brother then, who is actually the husband of that girl over there." I pointed at Laself, the girl who I assume caught the eyes of some of these guys. "So if you wanna earn your chance to hit him, then here it is."

  Howaph didn't seem sad that I just threw him under the bus, he even inflated his chest. "I trust her." He said suddenly, "if she says it works then it does."

  "Well, aren't you arrogant?" Enoga smirked. "Fine, I'll try it."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  "Good!" I smiled and dragged Howaph away from our stall, I slapped the scroll against him and activated it. When the full body barrier appeared over her skin, I looked back at Enoga, "okay! You can try!"

  "What kind of spell is that?" Asked one of the robed adventurers, a mage? "A full body barrier spell isn't sustainable, you know that right? The effect is too spread out and—"

  "Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it." I cut the guy off, why is going on a tirade when the viability of my scroll is literally about to be proven? "We don't have all day."

  Enoga laughed, "alright, fine, but you asked for this alright?"

  Caring about what he says is completely pointless so I just nodded absentmindedly. "Go."

  Quickly backing away, I— alongside all the tavern goers — watched the spearman take the stage and with a deep breath, attempt a stab at my brother. The pointed tip of the spear flew through the air, the force made greater by the arm strength of the man wielding it but when it struck my brother nothing happened.

  The barrier over his body flickered off and then that was that, no other effects came around. A shockwave isn't even possible to be produced thanks to how I made the barrier spell have the ability to absorb the impact.

  "Ha! What rank are you?" I pointed at Enoga. "Me, a kid with no experience, made a scroll that can tank a hit from someone of this guy's rank! Now imagine if that was just a bunch of little goblins or kobolds!"

  After the presentation came the advertisement and my boisterous voice echoed across the tavern, there's no way no one couldn't hear me with how loud I am.

  "How do we know you're the one who made it?" An adventurer from the back of the line said.

  "Monemon can confirm that he saw me drawing up the scrolls earlier, oh and a few of the earlier guys too." My smugness was through the roof. "Ask them if you want."

  The adventurers looked at each other, then back at me. Enoga broke the silence, "so you're saying that these things are actually useful right?" I nodded, "how long can they last?"

  "Once you activate them? 5 minutes." Give or take? There's some other variables that I should probably tell him about, "if the barrier takes hits then it gets reduced but yeah, I don't think you have to worry about that unless you're fighting an Ogre or something."

  Which brings me to the next thing, "if you're a mage then you can let your team rest easy knowing you're protected by the barrier, allowing them to dedicate their time attacking instead of defending."

  That got a few people to murmur, I smiled because I know I have them. "10 gold each, that's my current price but I know that people will come back for more so I'll definitely increase it to 25 by that point, get them before you lose out."

  Enoga laughed, "you're one smart little kid huh?" He shook his head. "No wonder you know so much at your age, but did your master ever tell you that you have a bad mouth?"

  "My master doesn't care, he says I'll grow out of it or something." My lie was so blatantly shameless that Wardcruncha snorted behind me.

  "Well you better hope that happens." Enoga pulled out a pouch and dropped 50 gold coins on the stall. "I'll take 5."

  "Here you go!" I gave the man 5 of my scrolls with a grin, the money that I paid him to teach me? Yeah I earned that back several times. "Thank you! They won't disappoint you, I promise!"

  "I'll buy one from you as well." A mage stepped forward, he got a scroll and read the contents. He frowned. "What is this?"

  "None of your business." Truth be told, I just don't wanna say that I just repeated "Else If" over and over again across the page. That'll be embarrassing even if coding languages didn't exist here and no one understood it.

  "... Right, I'll take 4 more." Another 40 gold got dropped.

  "Hey, leave some for us!" A man stepped forward and he stared down at me. A good few of the gathered adventurers backed down as he laughed, "kid, I don't think you know who I am?"

  "No, not really." I shrugged, my tone noncommittal. "And I don't care, either you buy my stuff or you don't, simple as that."

  "You should sell them to me at a lower price." Says the guy who's clearly a top tier adventurer with a bunch of money. Cheap bastard. "People seeing me carry those things will make them want to buy more of your scrolls."

  "Do you think I'm blind? I can see that almost everyone here wants to buy a scroll." I rolled my eyes. "Here's my counter offer, get them at full price and I won't have to pepper you with magic."

  He laughed. "You think I'm scared of you?"

  "You will be once you lose an arm." I said coldly, my hand already reaching for my wand.

  100 gold coins fell on the stall. "Ten."

  "Thanks? You should be tough enough that you don't need these though." My eyes went over to the giant sword on his back. "Why?"

  "Just give them to me!"

  "Fine, here."

  The man took it, grumbling. I wondered who he was but couldn't bear to ask.

  Once he's gone, I grabbed the coins greedily, my grin wide. Just like that, I earned more money than I ever have in my past life in just a few seconds here. Scrolls really are the future!