In an antique courtyard, the head of the Taylor family, Sly, had just wok up from a nap and made himself a cup of coffee.
A man in armor hurried up to him, “Mr. Sly, I just found out—David is selling materials at low prices in the ctral square. Someone reportedly bought a third-tier ferocious beast’s skeleton for just 5 silver coins!”
“Spit—” Sly sprayed his coffee, staining the documts on his table a brownish-yellow, incredulous at what he had heard, he asked his subordinate to repeat, “A third-tier ferocious beast’s skeleton, for how much?”
After confirming there was no mistake in the information, a brief blank filled Sly’s mind.
Last month, to hunt down a third-tier ferocious beast [falco albicilla], they had sacrificed six ferocious beast hunters, including one second-level Beast Master, at a great cost.
All for something now being sold for 5 silver coins?
For a momt, Sly felt as though his intelligce was being insulted, but he quickly snapped back to reality, ssing that a new ferocious beast trader was gaging in malicious price undercutting.
“Boss, there’s something odd about that third-tier mystical beast being sold at David’s expo. It’s a [falco albicilla] too, and it looks just like the one we caught last month…” his subordinate voiced his concerns.
“You suspect that someone stole our stock and is now reselling it?” Sly paused, th quickly dismissed the idea, smiling at the man, “How could that be possible? Our vault is at the very bottom of Lsgard Bank’s vault, protected by a three-meter-thick mystic iron steel plate. Who could get in without the code?”
“Besides, with Lsgard Bank’s security team patrolling 4/7, ev if someone could get in, how could they possibly transport so much right under their noses?”
The man scratched his head, also finding it unlikely, and chuckled, “You’re right, Mr. Sly. That place is more fortified than Lsgard’s city walls. Not ev a fly could get in there!”
Sly waved his hand, signaling the man to leave.
However, he remained cautious and had already st someone to Lsgard Bank to check his invtory.
The more he thought about the Smith family suddly starting to sell large quantities of ferocious beast materials at low prices, the more suspicious Sly became…
…
At the temporary expo cter set up in Lsgard Square, the crowd of people looking to purchase equipmt and materials was growing. Many had ev sold their houses, hoping to change their destinies.
Amid the increasingly crowded surings, Charles felt a mix of irritation and excitemt. Each vibration from his phone was a notification of money being deposited into his account, which made him hope for ev more visitors to the expo.
Sitting in a corner of the expo cter, Charles fanned himself from the heat and quietly waited for the day’s evt to d.
“Celestine, you’ll be going to the inner court of Cyber Academy next year, right? I heard it’s beyond the Abyssal Depths. Does that mean I won’t see you at all next year?” Listing to the slightly melancholic conversation of the Stokes sisters, Charles couldn’t help but think of Ezra, a curious person to have as an admissions tutor at such a unique school.
Long before he attded Lsgard’s rollmt ceremony, he had already thoroughly researched the three major academies in the imperial capital online. Among them, the most mysterious was the so-called ‘Monster Academy,’ Cyber Academy.
Cyber Academy has branches spread throughout the Ethereal Grove, embodying a unique educational philosophy of differtiated training, gathering ‘monsters’ from across the tire Ethereal Grove.
The admissions criteria for Cyber Academy are exceedingly stringt, requiring candidates to reach ‘third-level Beast Master’ before the age of 0, effectively filtering out 99.99% of applicants.
Thanks to these harsh admissions standards, those who successfully graduate from Cyber Academy are invariably top-tier Beast Masters who command respect wherever they go. After gaining promince, these individuals oft show gratitude for the training they received at the academy, providing various advantages to fellow Cyber Academy graduates.
Graduating from Cyber Academy esstially means gaining access to the most powerful network in the Ethereal Grove.
The inner court of Cyber Academy is shrouded in ev greater mystery, with the exact location of the inner court still a secret. It is rumored that only the most exceptional graduates earn the privilege to continue their studies there, where they can access cutting-edge theoretical research and the most pott resources.
For many young Beast Masters in the Ethereal Grove, tering the inner court of Cyber Academy represts the ultimate dream.
However, after such stringt selection processes, for most Beast Masters, this remains but a dream.
…
“You must be joking again. Although my Beast Mastery talt is considerably stronger than ‘some people’s,’ I’m still quite far from qualifying for the inner court,” Celestine said, deliberately giving Charles a pointed look, her provocation clear.
Charles, however, did not gage with her. He had a systemically planned optimal path, including evolutionary routes for mystical beasts and upgrade materials, requiring only a glance at system prompts wh necessary.
For him, college was not an absolute necessity.
“Charles, which academy do you plan to attd? Aredale Academy, Nova Academy, or Cyber Academy? With your grades, you could easily choose any of the top three academies in the imperial capital,” Aurora suddly leaned in close to Charles, her vy appart.
With an indiffert wave of his hand, Charles kept his eyes on a disturbance ahead in the crowd: “To me, they’re all much of a muchness. I’ll just pick whichever academy catches my eye wh the time comes. Of course, if ‘certain people’ are the product of Cyber Academy, I guess it can’t be that great, right?”
“Hmph, you’re quite arrogant, ar’t you? Don’t think getting into Cyber Academy is such a big deal. People like you are a dime a doz at the three major academies of the imperial capital. With your attitude, you might find university life quite challging!” Celestine couldn’t help but glare at him vomously upon hearing this.
The tsion betwe them was rising, but suddly, a wave of cursing from the crowd ahead interrupted their conversation.
Charles moved closer to hear better. It turned out that a scuffle had brok out over the hoarding of weapon blind boxes. From a distance, Charles heard one of the quarrelers shout, “I’ll buy all the remaining weapon blind boxes for silver coins each!”
The man’s declaration instantly provoked a chorus of curses from the suring crowd. Although he didn’t reveal his idtity, nearly everyone guessed that he was st by the Drav family.
Since the Drav family had monopolized the weapons trade in Lsgard, they had raised prices numerous times under various pres. Despite the esstial nature of these goods and the public’s frustration, there was little anyone could do about it.
This expo organized by the Smith family had become a competitor to the Drav family conglomerate, who now aimed to consolidate their monopoly by buying up all the weapons at the evt.
Despite paying double now, the prices would surely double at resale—no merchant ever intds to make a loss.
The commotion soon caught the atttion of the expo organizers.
David was very reluctant to sell the weapons to the Drav family’s represtative, but he still made a call to Charles. freēwēbnovel.com
The call wt unanswered, but David soon received a message from Charles. If they were willing to pay double the price for the weapon blind boxes, th they might as well sell them all to them.
500 weapon blind boxes were ultimately bought for the high price of 5 gold coins each. Though reluctant, David chose to proceed with the shipmt.
…
By eving, the crowd in the square had gradually dispersed, leaving only the transport workers bustling about.
All the weapon and equipmt blind boxes were packed and transported unchanged to the Drav family’s equipmt store invtory, th one by one unsealed.
– Silver dragon sword ().
– Furious python spear ().
– Iron darts (grey).
– …
Watching as one blind box after another was oped, only to reveal junk, Kevin couldn’t help his mouth twitching in annoyance.
Thomas looked on, equally baffled, “Dad, I feel like we’ve be duped. I reckon the total value of these over a thousand pieces of equipmt wouldn’t ev exceed 5 gold coins! And we paid triple the price for them.”
Kevin, trying to stabilize his emotions, patted Thomas on the shoulder, “Son, there’s still a lot you need to learn. We have thousands of pieces of equipmt in our warehouse. With this batch, we can completely monopolize the tire equipmt market in Lsgard. Wh that time comes, we can charge whatever we want, can’t we?”
The two and a few weapon shop appraisers began to inspect the equipmt scattered on the floor. Minutes later, the smile on Kevin’s face slowly stiffed.
Something felt off… Why did these weapons look so familiar?
Thomas, puzzled, remarked, “Dad, why do I feel like these weapons and equipmt are from our own store?”
The smiths nearby voiced their doubts as well.
“Boss, the tempering technique used on this silver dragon sword is unique to our shop. How could this be a coincidce?”
“This furious python spear, I can guarantee 0% that I personally forged it. To save on materials, I made part of the handle hollow. You can cut it op and see for yourself!”
Amid the screeching noise of the cutting machine, the spear handle was gradually severed. Wh the hollow inside was revealed, Kevin felt a heavy weight on his chest and his face turned pale.
He had spt a total of 5,000 silver coins, 5,000 of which were from a high-interest loan.
And now, to discover that he had bought his own goods?
—