Chapter 160: The Equipment Store Contract!!!
At the Alchemy Guild, Li Xiang spent 10 gold coins on tuition and obtained the Pharmacist life profession.
"Ding! Congratulations on learning 'Alchemy'."
After spending hundreds of gold coins to buy several common potion recipes and basic potion refining equipment from the Alchemy instructor, Li Xiang went directly to the equipment store.
The NPC store manager, Wang Dagui, enthusiastically welcomed Li Xiang into the private room.
"Close the door."
"Okay!"
Wang Dagui, like a lackey, gently closed the door.
Li Xiang sat in the room and placed all the newly purchased potion refining equipment from his backpack onto the table.
He didn't realize how difficult potion refining was until he tried it.
Potions aren't just liquid forms; there are also pill types.
General potions can be refined by simply pouring together ingredients in bottles and jars, similar to Western alchemy seen in movies.
However, for pill types, it follows the process of Chinese alchemy.
The entire refining process is extremely complex.
There are many steps, and each step must be handled with extreme care. You must add the correct medicinal materials at the right time, or all efforts will be wasted.
But...
For Li Xiang, refining was much easier.
With the blessing of the god of potions, after Li Xiang learned the purchased potion recipes and the Instant Mana Potion recipe...
He directly selected over ten types of medicinal materials for an ordinary health potion, dumped them all into the crucible, lit a fire, added water, and stirred it like a stew.
If other Pharmacist players saw this, they would be dumbfounded.
If this could be successfully refined, they would eat the crucible.
But...
Strangely, Li Xiang just kept the fire going, stirring the potion arbitrarily with the stirring rod in the crucible.
Soon, all the medicinal materials in the crucible turned into a red liquid.
Then, it began to concentrate.
Soon, it formed a potion.
Li Xiang took an empty potion bottle and filled it with the potion.
A system prompt appeared.
"Ding! Successfully refined 'Ordinary Health Potion', Alchemy experience +10."
At the same time, an ordinary health potion appeared in Li Xiang's backpack.
This was the second effect of the 'Guidance of the god of potions' Divine-grade ability: successful potion refining directly yielded double the amount!!!
"Ordinary Health Potion: After drinking, restores health within 10s, restoring 50 points per second."
A total of 500 health restoration points, which was quite good.
"100% success rate is amazing!!!"
After cleaning the crucible, Li Xiang took out the medicinal materials for the Instant Mana Potion and used the same refining method as the ordinary health potion, dumping everything into the crucible and starting to stir.
Three minutes later, with a refreshing fragrance that invigorated the spirit upon smelling it, Li Xiang knew the refining was successful!!!
He took out a potion bottle and filled it.
"Ding! Successfully refined 'Instant Mana Potion', Alchemy experience +381."
At the same time, another Instant Mana Potion appeared in his backpack.
"Instant Mana Potion: Can be consumed during combat, instantly restoring 35% of mana."
Looking at the high 35% mana restoration amount, a smile curved up Li Xiang's lips.
After the Instant Mana Potion is successfully refined, the lower limit is 20% restoration, and the upper limit is 35%, depending on quality.
This meant that the potion he casually refined was of top quality!!!
"Divine-grade ability, truly heaven-defying!!!"
After refining the potions, which was enough to meet the upgrade conditions for the Alchemy Workshop, Li Xiang directly pushed open the door.
As soon as he pushed open the door, he saw Wang Dagui, who had been standing outside staring at the fruit platter, looking at Li Xiang with a... fawning expression.
Seeing his expression and actions, Li Xiang knew that business was here.
This fruit platter looked like it had just been cut.
He never received this treatment when he came before...
As expected, Wang Dagui spoke.
"Royal Guard, I was just about to bring you some fruit... and you came out."
Li Xiang looked at him, reached out, picked up a fruit whose name he didn't know from the fruit platter, and put it in his mouth.
Sweet and sour...
It tasted good.
"Mm... you're thoughtful."
Li Xiang's reaction was indifferent as he continued eating the fruit platter.
Wang Dagui held the fruit platter, his eyes darting around as if contemplating.
After a moment, Li Xiang finished half the fruit platter, but Wang Dagui still hadn't spoken.
Li Xiang wasn't in a hurry either.
This game... is all about realism.
Whoever speaks first loses the initiative, just like in reality!!!
As expected, just as Li Xiang was about to finish the last piece of fruit, Wang Dagui finally spoke.
"That... Royal Guard, I have an impolite request that I hope I can discuss with you."
Li Xiang raised an eyebrow, stopped what he was doing, and looked at Wang Dagui, "Store Manager Wang, feel free to speak. If it's something I can resolve, I won't refuse."
Hearing Li Xiang's words, Wang Dagui visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
But what he didn't know was that Li Xiang's lips had already curved into a smile.
He wouldn't refuse if he could resolve it, but whether he could resolve it still depended on whether the things Wang Dagui offered were generous enough...
Wang Dagui began to explain.
"Wu Shuang City is starting to upgrade to a City, and all the shops in the City must also upgrade to meet the City standards, and this must be completed before Wu Shuang City is built into a City.
If it's not completed by then, it will become a secondary commercial building, and new shops will be airlifted from the main City above."
Listening to his words, Li Xiang's eyes flashed.
There was actually this level of relationship within the NPCs...
It seemed that Wu Shuang City's upgrade this time was also a shock to the various NPC commercial sectors in the City.
Those who survived the shock would naturally flourish, while those who didn't would wait for the big players airlifted in to take over the market.
Moreover, a second-tier main City only needed one equipment store, but a City wouldn't have just one equipment store. Competition would begin then...
It was indeed very similar to reality!
Li Xiang already understood the purpose of Wang Dagui's request; the rest was negotiating the terms.
"So, how do you need me to help?"
"Royal Guard, I know you have some assets. I want to borrow 200,000 gold coins from you for the store's construction. As compensation, I will pay you 250,000 gold coins after six months. The extra 50,000 gold coins will be the interest for these six months!"
It must be said, borrowing 200,000 for six months with 50,000 gold coins in interest was even more ruthless than loan sharks!!!
However, 200,000 gold coins was something he could easily take out. If he wanted to get gold coins, 50,000 gold coins could also be easily obtained, let alone in half a year, he could get it in a few years.
Therefore, what Li Xiang was preparing to ask for was not just a simple 50,000 gold coins!!!
After Wang Dagui finished speaking, he looked at Li Xiang with a worried expression.
Li Xiang looked at him, "Is 200,000 gold coins enough?"
Wang Dagui thought for a moment, "Including the existing assets in the store, it's barely enough to complete the store's upgrade... After all, upgrading isn't just about renovating the storefront; it also needs to be done from multiple dimensions like procurement channels."
Barely...
Li Xiang pinched his chin, extended one hand, and slowly spoke, stating his price, "I'll give you 500,000 gold coins to build this equipment store into the number one equipment store in Wu Shuang City!!
Do you think that's appropriate?"
Wang Dagui looked at Li Xiang's outstretched hand, his body trembling.
500,000 gold coins!!!
That could definitely develop it into the number one equipment store in Wu Shuang City!!!
But...
He looked at Li Xiang, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Li Xiang noticed that Wang Dagui's intelligence had improved significantly compared to before, and he said with a smile, "I don't need much, just 51% of the shares will do."
Wang Dagui was stunned and immediately shook his head, "No, no... that's too much. I can only give a maximum of 45%."
"Deal!"
Wang Dagui stared blankly at Li Xiang.
How... did it feel like he was tricked?!!!
After that, they signed the contract. Li Xiang transferred 5000 crystal coins to Wang Dagui and obtained 45% of the equipment store's shares!!!
As an unexpected bonus, he gained the right to rename the equipment store.
Li Xiang waved his hand and wrote down the two characters 'Gods'!!!
This name will appear after the equipment store is upgraded!!!