Watching Kevin and Sly slink away in defeat, Charles couldn’t help but smile slightly. He relished seeing them powerless and seething, unable to produce any evidence.
His tactics might not have been the most honorable, but did one need to be ethical when dealing with enemies?
If he had no ethics, then he couldn’t be held hostage by them!
To monopolize the market, Kevin had recently spent a fortune, paying double the price for all the weapons; Sly, too, had probably secretly leveraged himself in a similar manner.
Now that their inventories were gone, Charles figured it would only be a week before news of their bankruptcy emerged.
With no more drama to observe, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Charles lingered at the expo, wandering around until 5 PM when the last mystery box was sold for five silver coins. The three-day sales event finally drew to a close.
Finding a secluded spot, Charles carefully covered his face and then donned a red bow tie that altered his voice. He then leisurely made his way towards where David was.
—
At a wooden-structured courtyard atop a 30-story building, Charles took in the sprawling night view of bustling Isengard.
“Mr. Charlie, please take a seat,” David greeted him with a smile, ushering him to a table in a small pavilion and brewing him a cup of tea.
This was indeed like inviting the god of wealth home. The Smith family had been facing a crisis due to depleted gemstone mines, but Charlie had just brought in a deal worth 30 gold coins.
With a 10% commission, he’d earn 3 gold coins, enough to help the Smith family through their financial troubles.
Charles didn’t waste time with small talk, stating his purpose directly: “Mr. Qin, thank you for your efforts at the expo. The goods I stored in the warehouse, they’ve all been sold, right?”
David nodded, then instructed his secretary to fetch a report from nearby. Flipping to the last page, he smiled and said:
“The total sales from the expo amounted to 28 gold coins and 420 silver coins. After taxes and the Smith family group’s 10% share, the total is 24 gold coins and 510 silver coins, which has already been transferred to your designated bank account.”
Charles glanced at the contract David handed him, noticing a significant discrepancy between the 24 gold coins listed and the 12 gold coins he had received.
Seeming to notice Charles’s confusion, David pulled out a purchase order from his folder and handed it to Charles: “Mr. Charlie, this is the list of items you asked me to buy, totaling 12 gold coins, all detailed here. Would you like me to have them delivered to your home?”
Charles examined the purchase list, which appeared accurate from the photos and included detailed appraisal reports, exactly the materials he needed to craft the spirit nail.
The Smith family, truly one of Lsengard’s three major families, handled their affairs with impressive efficiency!
If he had gone shopping for these materials himself, it could have taken a month, yet David had managed to procure everything within three days.
“Please deliver these materials to the warehouse we used last time,” Charles said, eager to leave before risking exposure by staying too long with David. “Mr. David, this collaboration has been very pleasant. However, I have other matters to attend to, so I must take my leave now.”
David, always perceptive, did not attempt to detain Charles any longer than necessary. He personally escorted Charles to the elevator and all the way to the front door of the Smith family building, instructing the driver to take it slow on the road.
As Charles stepped into the car, he suddenly turned and said, “By the way, I often travel on business to the provincial capital and the imperial capital, so I’m not often in Lsengard. Some matters can’t be clearly discussed over the phone. From now on, if I have any business to handle, I’ll have my nephew Charles take care of it. What do you think?”
Hearing Charles’s desire for a long-term collaboration, David’s eyes lit up: “That would be wonderful. Charles is a classmate of my son Daniel; we’ve known each other for a while. I’ll make time for him to come over to my place tomorrow!”
A few merchants leaving the building overheard this and looked on enviously, well aware that the Smith family originally made their fortune in the gemstone business.
Who knew the Smith family would luck out with such a major client, supplying everything from weapons and armor to ferocious beast materials and miracle drugs? Each one a lucrative trade!
Everyone was thinking the same thing: the triad of power in Lsengard between the Smith family, the Taylor family, and the Draven family might never be the same again.
—
After leaving the Smith family group, Charles headed to the logistics warehouse to store the crates David had sent. Only then did he non-stop rush home.
The moment he got home, he couldn’t wait to start crafting the [spirit nail].
Charles took off his sunglasses and mask and began unboxing the items in his courtyard.
He inspected three dragon crystals, vibrant orange-yellow in color, under the light. Looking closely, he could see many needle-like crystals within.
A silver matrix, a completely silvery-white mineral unlike ordinary silver, radiated a highly pure metallic energy, reputed to have a bolstering effect when battling dark-attribute creatures.
As for the mystic iron, although it’s a common forging material, this 99.99% pure batch was not cheap, especially at a whopping one ton!
The pile of materials on the ground had cost him a total of 12 gold coins, just the thought of it made Charles wince.
While Charles was checking the items, the shadow under the light suddenly distorted, and a man in a black robe emerged from it.
Seeing Ezra again, Charles wasn’t as startled as before; instead, he was eager: “Elder, I’ve gathered all the materials needed to craft the spirit nail. Can we start now?”
“Not bad, kid. I thought it would take you half a month, but you managed it all in just three days,” Ezra said, after inspecting the materials on the ground. He noticed Charles adding coal to the furnace and shook his head: “All this mystic iron, if you use coal for smelting, you might be at it till next year.”
Charles, wiping the coal dust off his nose, looked annoyed and a bit puzzled: “Coal burns hotter than wood. If not coal, what should I use?”
Seeing Charles’s coal-dusted face, Ezra couldn’t help but smile slightly, extending his right palm where a pitch-black hexagram appeared. At the same time, a summoning circle formed in front of him.
“To improve forging efficiency, you need to rely on a mystical beast.”
As Ezra’s voice fell, a dark, shadowy tiger wreathed in black flames stepped out from the summoning circle. Its gem-like eyes carried a disdainful, world-dominating aura.
Just one glance was enough to stagger Charles with the mystical beast’s impressive presence, as its details flashed before his eyes.
—[Nine-Tailed Flame Tiger]—
[Attribute:] Dark, Fire
[Level:] Lv85
[Quality:] Mythical
[Description:] Originally an ordinary jungle tiger, it accidentally fell into an abyss burning with mysterious blaze. The intense flames, rather than consuming it, perfected its essence over nine thousand years of painful refinement, bestowing it a rebirth.
“My goodness! A level 85 mystical beast, and it’s a top-tier mythical creature!” Charles couldn’t help but exclaim internally.
After reading the information on the mystical beast, Charles was left speechless with awe!
Black Iron, Bronze Division, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond, Legendary, Mythical.
A mythical quality, top-tier mystical beast was something Charles had never even heard of before, let alone seen!
Seeing the Nine-Tailed Flame Tiger’s level at a staggering 85, Charles was utterly dumbfounded. He had always suspected Ezra’s power was formidable, certainly not inferior to Emma from Nova Academy, but he hadn’t expected this level of prowess!
A Level 85 mythical beast could, with a mere flick of its fingers, potentially obliterate the entire nation of Genosha!
But how could such a formidable figure condescend to be a recruitment officer at Cyber Academy?
Seeing Charles’s keen interest, Ezra couldn’t help but smile lightly, “It seems you’re quite fascinated. Well, I might as well tell you, it’s indeed a divine beast.”
Although Charles had already grasped this, hearing it directly from Ezra still brought him profound shock.
“A divine beast?”
“Yes, this is the Nine-Tailed Flame Tiger,” Ezra nodded, smiling faintly: “According to the latest theoretical research at Cyber Academy, everything in this world is made up of attribute energy. The most pure forms of this energy, remnants from the dawn of creation, are known as [refined energy]. My mystical beast, by chance, absorbed [the essence of fire] and became a divine creature.”
“However, subduing a divine beast is no easy task. When I entered that abyss, I battled it for a full six months and nearly burned to death. As you see, I ultimately succeeded, and the Nine-Tailed Flame Tiger became one of my contract mystical beasts.”
Listening to Ezra recount his thrilling past, Charles was captivated, as if he himself was in that abyss of mysterious blaze, fighting a mythical quality ferocious beast.
“From what the elder says, the birth of such mythical quality mystical beasts is highly random, not something achievable through evolution or other standard methods?” Charles asked, intrigued.
“Correct,” Ezra nodded, his expression turning fervent as he spoke of his divine beast. “According to theories at Cyber Academy, there are a total of 42 sources of [refined energy] left in the world, which means there can be no more than 42 divine beasts.”
“Only 42… That few? That seems quite unfair to future Beast Masters…” Charles shivered as he absorbed Ezra’s explanation, his mind conjuring harsh realities.
Those Beast Masters who first secured a divine beast, having gained immense power, would certainly try to contract a second one and use their initial advantage to prevent others from finding divine beasts.
Once the world’s divine beasts were ‘plundered,’ those who came later would forever be subjugated under the feet of those powerful enough to own a divine beast.
Realizing this, Charles broke out in a cold sweat.
“Fair?” At Charles’s comment, Ezra suddenly sighed, gently stroking the dark fur of the tiger beside him, a trace of sorrow in his expression: “If there were such a thing as fairness in this world, how could I have lost everything and ended up in this state?”
—fɾēewebnσveℓ.com