Chapter 820: The Blood Dragon Assembly’s Second-Hand Market

Faced with the questioning of three faerie-clan bank wizards, Locke frowned, because he could not determine whether their doubts were reasonable questions about his ability to repay or an attempt to get him to sign a contract more favorable to their faerie-clan bank.

He contacted Wizard Kelt for information on the situation.

Wizard Kelt quietly warned Locke through the water hyacinth system to be extremely careful with the Faerie Clan Bank. Although it was a bank established by the faerie race, its ambitions were considerable. Behind it stood many wizard shareholders with complex affiliations, and behind those there were even figures from the upper echelons of the White Wizard Association.

A bank like this would do anything to expand its own interests.

It could be said that this bank was essentially one of the core components of capital in white wizard society.

Even Golden Crown Mountain had outstanding debt in the Faerie Clan Bank's hands.

And faeries being naturally greedy, Wizard Kelt urged Locke to exercise great caution.

The upside was that because of the restrictions placed on them by the White Wizard Association and Golden Crown Mountain, these faerie wizards should not go too far.

Locke looked at the three faerie wizards and tapped the table of Private Room One with his fingers, saying, "I recall there are five major banks in the wizard world. If you gentlemen do not think well of my store alliance, perhaps another bank would have a higher opinion?"

He turned and made to leave, while observing the expressions of the three faerie wizards.

The three faerie wizards clearly had not expected Locke to refuse this way, skipping all preliminary pleasantries and probing and going straight to switching banks.

The Second Circle faerie standing beside his seat suddenly wore a somewhat flustered expression. It was not that he was insufficiently composed. It was that as a faerie wizard, endlessly greedy and entirely parasitic upon the white wizard social system, he could not resist the temptation of capital expansion.

This Second Circle faerie wizard knew better than anyone the potential of the Augustus Wizard Shoe Store Alliance.

This was not an ordinary store alliance, but a wizard shoe IP with the potential to overturn the existing wizard shoe store alliances.

He had investigated all of this before coming here.

If that were not the case, he would never have wasted his precious time in a small private room of the Blood Dragon Assembly's Witch's Kitchen at Golden Crown Mountain.

The green-pea-sized eyes of this Second Circle faerie wizard started to turn.

Seeing Locke push the door open and move to step out, he immediately said, "Wait, Wizard Augustine. I believe there has been a misunderstanding. When our Faerie Clan Bank processes loans for ordinary wizards, we naturally look at their transaction flow, savings, and the value of collateral to guard against possible risks."

"After all, wizards have a great deal of mobility. Many wizards have disappeared into the vast void and never returned to the wizard world."

Locke thought seriously for a moment.

"That does sound like an excellent way to escape debt."

The Second Circle faerie wizard's face twitched and his ears trembled. He clearly could not bear to hear this.

The faerie wizard said in a somewhat sharp voice, "Those who retreat to such remote wildernesses will find their magic pressure gradually stripped away by the local world. The assets they carry will be held back by that world, and after a long stay, they will be unable to take those assets away with them when they leave."

"An intelligent wizard would not leave the areas sheltered by civilization."

"Ahem... I lost my composure."

The faerie wizard calmed down.

"Our family bank has special preferential treatment for store alliances with potential like yours. Even without collateral or sufficient transaction flow proof, we can specially approve a loan for you at a low-interest rate."

Locke frowned.

"A low-interest loan?"

A smile appeared on the Second Circle faerie's face.

"Yes. We can even offer an interest-free loan."

Locke frowned further.

The Second Circle faerie wore a confident smile. "Not having sufficient transaction flow or collateral is no problem. We can sign a betting agreement."

"That is, we provide you with a loan, and under the betting agreement, your store alliance must achieve a certain sales volume within a certain period of time. If you fail to achieve it, you must provide all shares of your store alliance as collateral and compensate our Faerie Clan Bank."

"Under these terms, we can immediately provide a thirty-million magic stone interest-free loan to your Augustus Wizard Shoe Store Alliance."

This Second Circle faerie licked one of his sharply nailed fingers with his tongue, then pinched a rolled-up sheepskin scroll contract in his hand. The contract had already been unrolled, and its length was so great it had already trailed onto the floor.

Locke looked at the entire contract, which contained elaborate clauses restricting his side's rights and various complex curse magics.

Clearly this contract was one the Faerie Clan Bank had refined over centuries, a loan contract with almost no loopholes.

Locke frowned, realizing that this faerie wizard's earlier difficulties had been part of a chain.

The contract he truly wanted Locke to sign was very likely this investment contract with a betting agreement.

The Second Circle faerie wizard could barely suppress the greed in his eyes. He thought very highly of the Augustus Wizard Shoe Store Alliance.

"Wizard Augustine, how do you find this?"

For the second time, Locke stood up and prepared to leave.

"I do not find it satisfactory at all. I have no patience for playing mathematical games with you here. That is all. I will look for a second normal wizard bank willing to lend me funds."

Locke was ready to leave.

He had contacted the Faerie Clan Bank previously simply because he used this bank most often.

But who could have expected that when he came to take out a loan, they would even come up with a betting agreement for him.

If he agreed and opened that gap, these three green-pea-eyed faerie wizards would not hesitate to devour him alive.

So Locke made the rational judgment to leave.

At that moment, the Second Circle faerie wizard suddenly looked at the contract in his own hands and said, "Wait, Wizard Augustine. Please wait a moment. I seem to have brought the wrong contract. There is no betting agreement. Absolutely none."

"Only a low-interest loan contract. Look, the total interest rate is only ten percent."

"This is absolutely the lowest lending rate contract among the five major wizard banks."

Locke took the sheepskin scroll and looked it over carefully.

Dealing with these faerie wizards required the utmost caution. These fellows were all opportunists, and to make money, as long as the law permitted it, they would do anything.

Locke checked the contract carefully, even forwarding it to Wizard Kelt for him to look over. He confirmed that this was indeed the best contract available to him at his current stage.

Most importantly, the contract perfectly met his requirements.

No collateral.

Fast disbursement, with the funds arriving within approximately three days.

It was a credit loan.

Of course, if he failed to repay, his civilization credit points would be wiped clean.

Once the civilization credit points were wiped, many social functions built upon those points would become unavailable to him.

In essence, there was still collateral. It was his credit, and the specific object representing his credit was his civilization credit points.

Locke looked at the faerie wizard and let his gaze fall on the name the faerie had already signed on the contract.

"Manager Roluler, if you had prepared this from the start, why did you not simply show me this contract in the first place?"

Roluler the faerie wizard told his lie without a blush or a quickened heartbeat.

"I brought the wrong contract just now. In fact, I had intended to bring out this contract from the very beginning."

"No collateral."

Evidently, in this Second Circle faerie wizard's true inner judgment, based on Locke's past record and transaction flow, he had determined that the Augustus Wizard Shoe Store Alliance's repayment ability was extremely strong.

In his mind, this contract had been absolutely non-negotiable from the very start.

All the posturing before had been nothing more than his means of improving his own bargaining position.

After discovering he could not fool Locke, he had directly produced the contract he had long had ready, with an interest rate that could be called extremely low.

According to this contract, Locke only needed to repay the principal plus interest of thirty-three million magic stones within one year.

According to the Cloud Marsh Wetlands' default convention, the total interest for a loan of this scale was generally between ten and thirty percent.

In other words, this was indeed the lowest interest rate available.

Going any lower would require collateral.

Locke nodded and said, "Very well. Wizard Roluler, let us work together well."

Locke signed his name.

Roluler the faerie wizard said, "According to the terms of the contract, the magic stones will be transferred to your account within one day. Hmm, they have already been transferred."

Locke was taken aback for a moment. He had not expected the Faerie Clan Bank's cash flow to be so formidable, transferring thirty million magic stones this quickly.

Roluler the faerie wizard stood up from his seat, put on a leather magical glove, and extended his right hand to Locke.

"Wizard Augustine, it has been a pleasure working together."

"Welcome to come to me for loans again in the future. I will always give you the most favorable contract in the entire industry. That is my business reputation. And here is my name card."

Locke took the gold-tinted name card. On it was written: Faerie Clan Bank Senior Wizard Manager, Roluler Gu Silerl.

Wizard Roluler said, "Based on our principle of doing business together for the first time, I will continue to operate according to this principle in our future dealings."

Locke understood. So this fellow's business logic was to base every subsequent transaction on the logic established in the first one.

In other words, it was a matter of tailoring the treatment to the person.

If his first dealing with him had been easy-going and compliant, Roluler would certainly have pushed for more next time.

But since he had established the principle on the first dealing, Roluler would henceforth use the contract most satisfying to Locke.

Clearly, while this faerie wizard was extremely greedy, he was also very shrewd.

He knew what Locke truly needed.

Locke understood his implication.

"I understand. In the future, if I have needs, I will consider working with you personally."

Wizard Silerl the faerie put on a brilliant smile.

"Working with intelligent people like you is where my true enjoyment lies. Many wizards have severe misconceptions about us faeries. We faeries do not merely love doing business or love money. We also love working with wizards like you who are skilled communicators and accustomed to precise calculation of costs."

"And we have a deep aversion to fools and dimwits. In other words, we enjoy the pleasure of transacting with wizards like yourself."

"In future transactions, I will all operate based on the principle established today."

"Now then, I have a second client to see in this room."

As Locke walked out of Private Room One, he happened to run into Wizard Alexander.

So the Faerie Wizard Silerl's second client turned out to be Wizard Alexander.

And Wizard Alexander had clearly not expected to run into Locke here either.

He exchanged a brief greeting with Locke.

Locke's main body then wandered through the Blood Dragon Assembly's market for a while, looking to see if there was anything he needed, and also needing to visit the second-hand market, where sometimes one could find treasures discarded from other people's laboratories.

Inside the second-hand market.

Locke walked along the street, where magical rugs were spread on the ground on either side, and on those rugs various old items were displayed.

First Circle and Second Circle wizards were selling their wares here.

Locke walked through the Second Circle wizard vendor section and scanned the items in front of these wizards. Many of the items were pieces of equipment that had clearly passed through multiple hands, covered in marks from various repairs.

Locke even spotted a sunlight magical monocle whose casing had been stitched and patched over countless times.

"Hmm? This is a Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy of the Double-Chirp Cicada." Locke stopped at one stall, and a gleam appeared in his eyes.

The Double-Chirp Cicada's Spiritual Resonance was an essential ingredient for refining the split-body potion.

Only by converting ritual actions from within this Spiritual Resonance could one successfully refine the Second Circle split-body potion.

Locke bent down to inspect the Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy, and found it was severely worn, obviously having been used by wizards far too many times. At most it could be used perhaps once more, and even that one use might not be completely successful.

Locke looked up at the stall owner before him. The other party clearly was not a Golden Crown Mountain wizard and was probably an outside wizard who had come to sell at this second-hand market owing to the Blood Dragon Assembly's great reputation.

The Blood Dragon Assembly's second-hand market was exceptionally famous. Some customers came hoping to find treasures here, while vendors tried to pass off inferior goods.

So the transaction rule here was buyer beware, no returns, you bet you lose.

The vendor before him had not even worn any badges, just a plain black wizard robe, to avoid anyone coming to hold him accountable.

"How much for this Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy?"

The vendor, an ordinary Second Circle wizard with a magic pressure of around ten thousand, immediately said, "Kind wizard, this is the best item on my stall. It is a Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy, and moreover one of the popular ones needed for refining the split-body potion. Therefore, five hundred thousand magic stones."

Locke smiled and said, "This Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy can be used approximately once, or even only half a time. Normally no one would buy it. And I do not have any magic stones on me. Let us trade it for another Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy instead."

Locke took out a piece of Spiritual Resonance paper from his astral ring, bearing a rubbing copy of the Scarlet Bloodstone's Spiritual Resonance that he had copied.

Although he currently still lacked the ability to write a Spiritual Resonance himself directly, through two rounds of Synthesis Cube synthesis, he could synthesize a Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy of the Scarlet Bloodstone with extremely high quality.

And what he had produced was a Grade 9 synthesized item.

Clearly, the vendor was somewhat surprised.

"Did you write this yourself? With this level of skill, you must be a Second Circle potion-maker. Or if not, you must be very close."

"The rubbing copy on my side was also written by me. It is just that my students have copied it too many times, so it is nearly exhausted. That is why I brought it to this second-hand market to sell."

The vendor looked at the shabby rubbing copy in his hand and coughed.

"I will save face then. Here, take this. This is a Double-Chirp Cicada Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy I wrote myself, only used three or four times by my students. Trading it for your Scarlet Bloodstone Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy is very fair."

"Writing a Spiritual Resonance rubbing copy requires a great deal of energy. As a potion-maker, I understand this very well."

Locke accepted the trade.

Indeed, every time one depicts a Spiritual Resonance, one is essentially consuming one's sensitivity to the Spiritual Resonance in order to complete an exploration of the hidden true form of a thing.

So if it is merely Spiritual Resonance depiction practice, one does not need to write out the entire Spiritual Resonance, only the key structures within it.

But once one depicts the entire Spiritual Resonance, one is using one's spiritual power to sustain a complete exploration of the hidden true form of something.

Under normal circumstances, this would consume an enormous amount of a potion-maker's energy.

Clearly, the potion-maker before him had sympathized on this point but the problem was that his had been synthesized, and had not actually cost him much energy at all.