บท 1: Mark Spencer
Vermillion Bird Continent, Imperial city of Phoenix Empire;
The city is bustling with people roaming on the streets, especially in the commercial district of Hanga.
Thousands of visitors from other Empires and kingdoms flock towards this popular area, every day. The majority of them either come here to eat the food made by Divine Chefs or get a nice weapon from the weapon stores.
While the food business was always booming with customers every day, the weapon stores, on the other hand, were struggling with the competition.
It's because seventy percent of the customers were always taken by the big 3 stores.
First is the Everlasting weapon store, which was owned by a business tycoon who has the backing of Swordmasters guild.
Second is Lunaris, which was backed by an Elder of Phoenix Empire Magicians guild.
The third and final is the Hollow weapon store that belongs to the Vice Guildmaster of the Archers guild branch of the Empire.
Over the years, as they accumulated millions of spirit crystals, these three weapon stores developed branches in almost every kingdom that belongs to the Phoenix Empire.
At one of the small alleys of the district, there's a small weapon store which almost had the same condition as other small stores.
An old man dragged the chair out and sits outside to bask in sunlight as it was too cold inside the store.
As his neighbors don't seem to have any customers, a couple of them also joined him to talk about their lives, their children's lives, etc…
A tall, handsome-looking young man in his mid-20s who seemed like he was passing by while looking left and right, stopped in his tracks.
Looking at the signboard and the paper in his hands, a smile appeared on his face. "Here it is…"
He then saw a couple of old men talking to each other. He called him out, "Excuse me… is the owner of this store, inside?"
The old man, who was busy chatting with his neighbor, stopped talking as soon as he heard the young man.
He thought he was a customer. "It is me. Please, come in."
The young man was led into the store. He looked around. There he saw various types of weapons were hanging on the walls.
Suddenly, a particular staff that was placed on the wall behind the counter attracted his attention.
He immediately walked towards it. His eyes lit up, "this is one fine material. A combination of Rosewood and Hazelwood in 3:2 ratios. That's rare. Oh! Grade-7 Midnight wolf's blood is the catalyst?
That means it will give a mage tremendous strength if he were to engage in a battle after sunset. Worthy of its gold grade…"
"How… How did you know this?" The old man was taken aback. Except for himself, no one knows that the midnight wolf's blood was used as a catalyst during its creation. Its grade was even more of a secret as he was worried that it will only bring harm to his store and himself.
And the fact that this young man was able to tell its composition just by a look shocked him even more.
*Ahem* Clearing his throat, the old man said, "That's our family heirloom, not for sale."
"Don't worry. I can't use this even if I wanted to." The young man waved his hands while maintaining a smile. "I don't possess Ether particles."
"Ah!" The old man was once again taken aback as he heard him. He fell into confusion even more. If this guy is just a civilian, how come he was able to appraise a gold-grade weapon? "Young man, would you like to see ungraded weapons?"
Ungraded weapons are those that were used mostly by mortals who were born without Ether, a particle in the body that will grant people certain skills as well as create a way to increase their life span.
As for graded weapons, they will start from Iron, then, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and finally platinum. Above platinum, there are semi-divine and Divine grades but they are only available to the top experts around the world.
So, a gold-grade weapon is indeed a fortune for most of the spirit warriors whatever path they have chosen.
The old man certainly became worried upon hearing this customer's analysis. It was only after he realized this guy is a civilian, did he sigh in relief.
But still, his wariness didn't disappear. He wanted to know whether he's really a customer that happened to pass by or a spy sent by someone.
So, he prepared to show him all the collections of ungraded weapons that he stored. If he is a spy or someone with a motive, surely, he would get irritated by checking out several weapons that are trash in the eyes of higher rank spirit warriors.
However, to his surprise, the young man gave an unexpected reply, "I would like to buy your store, Owner Yang."
He then showed the newspaper where he put an ad selling the store for thousand gold coins. "The ad mentioned that the weapons in the store are included but since you said it is a family heirloom, I have no objection if you want to take it away."
"Eh? You want to buy my store?" The old man was really surprised that someone accepted the offer. If that young man wouldn't have said that he can take the staff with him, he would have suspected it is because of the staff.
After all, the starting price of a gold-grade weapon is at least 500 gold coins, which is enough for a normal person to live his whole life if he goes and lives in a town.
Still, because of his wariness, the old man decided to leave the city with the money and the heirloom, right away, to go back to the village where his son and daughter-in-law are staying.
As the old man agreed, he immediately brought the documents of the land and handed them over to the smiling young man while the latter took a bag of gold coins out of thin air, scaring the hell out of the old man as normal people without ether can't do that.
But, he didn't ask for the reason and quietly took the money. After counting the gold coins, the old man took the midnight wolf's staff and left the place after saying goodbyes to his neighbors.
While neighbors became curious about the new owner, the young man closed down the shutter. His face turned cold as he spoke, "System, show Character menu."
Suddenly, a holographic screen appeared before him.
Name: Lu Zhen (Mark Spencer)
Strength: 0.3
Intelligence: 0.7
Defense: 0.2
Agility: 0.1
Vitality: 0.8
Resistance: 0.1
Charisma: 6.8
Bloodline: N/A
Attribute: N/A
Spirit Path: N/A
Ether Quality: Nil
Ether energy: 0
Rank: N/A
Skills: N/A
Life span limit: 80 (55 years left)
QUESTS:
Main Quest: Acquire a weapon store (completed)
Reward: Weapon Creation. (Click to receive the reward)
Side Quest 1: Earn 100 gold coins from selling the weapons (In progress)
Reward: System store.
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