On stage, Master Fool was utterly dumbfounded.
Off stage, Mike and the others were giving her a thunderous round of applause.
“Clap! Everyone, clap your hands!” Mike hollered.
“To celebrate Master Fool shaking out half a copper coin, I declare that the Money Tree is free for 24 hours!”
10 silver coins wasn’t a fortune, but hey, it was still money. The boss was footing the bill, everyone else was putting in the effort, and Master Fool was providing the comic relief.
Looking at the half a copper coin, Master Fool snorted coldly and stormed off.
“Aw, come on, don’t be a sore loser!”
Mike quickly scooped up the half a copper coin, tucked it into his wallet, and chased after Master Fool.
“Let’s talk about the crafting requirements in detail!”
Standing in front of the forging furnace, Mike presented a list.
Master Fool merely glanced at it and immediately gave her professional assessment.
“400,000 Lord merits worth of materials will be enough. The finished product will be top- notch among SS-tier equipment.”
“Hold on!”
Mike interrupted Master Fool, dissatisfied.
“Only 400,000 in material costs? Are you looking down on my wealth?!” According to Mike’s agreement with Ace, Ace would cover the material costs. The forging fee plus the design fee amounted to 45% of the material cost.
In short, the higher the material cost, the more money Mike could earn.
A true middleman, profiting from the price difference.
“Take another look, see if there’s anything that can be improved!”
Mike pointed at the requirements list and retorted,
“Don’t tell me you’re slacking off on the job?”
“You think it’s too cheap, huh?!” Master Fool’s temper flared up as she pointed at an item on the list. “Here, increasing Physical Attack by 5% will cost an extra 30,000 Lord merits!”
“Here, reducing durability loss by 8 percentage points will require a material replacement costing 60,000 Lord merits!”
“And here, replacing the entire top section with the most expensive and best materials will cost at least 100,000 Lord merits!”
||||
After spending time with Thor, Master Fool knew his personality all too well.
Thor was willing to spend money.
But every time he spent money, it was like it was killing him.
Crafting a first-rate SS-tier weapon for 400,000 was completely different from crafting a top-tier SS-tier weapon for over a million!
Provoked by Mike, Master Fool came up with two plans.
“The most cost-effective version, 400,000 will do the trick. It can be used up to level 989, even an Ultimate Lord could make do with it.”
Master Fool summarized,
“The version only a fool would choose, starting at 1.3 million. It won’t lose to the currently SS-tier Thunderclap Hammer. An Ultimate Lord could even use it to hack at a demon god!” After saying that, she snorted coldly and turned to leave.
It was up to Thor to choose.
Looking at the final version, Mike frowned.
“Only 1.3 million, so cheap!”
“Fool, are you sure there’s nothing else we can add to the price?!” Master Fool: “…”
By now, she had also realized something.
This money was most likely not coming out of Thor’s pocket!
Seeing her push the budget to 1.3 million, Thor wasn’t distressed, he even seemed a little excited?
Master Fool blurted out, “Don’t tell me you’re charging a forging fee?”
Mike nodded frankly. “I am, and it’s not a small amount.”
Clearly, he wasn’t planning to share a single penny of this money with Master Fool.
Even the half a copper coin from earlier now belonged to Mike.
“Anyway, this is the limit of what I can imagine!”
Master Fool spread her hands, indicating that she couldn’t do anything more.
“Using the design and requirements created by your talent, spending over a million Lord merits to craft a piece of equipment. This kind of custom-made equipment is very risky. If the user gets stuck at a certain threshold, all the effort will be wasted!”
Mike wasn’t worried about this at all.
“Don’t worry, he’ll definitely become an Ultimate Lord!”
Mike had faith in Ace’s strength.
Right now, Ace only needed equipment.
In the future, any area where Ace needed to spend money, he wouldn’t be able to avoid Mike,
the middleman.
Master Fool maintained her previous attitude.
“Anyway, I have no other ideas. It’s up to you.”
Mike pointed at the design draft and asked,
“Can this be made into a hidden weapon, a consumable, or something like that?”
Master Fool frowned slightly and thought for a moment.
“It’s possible, but is it necessary?”
“You don’t understand.”
Mike smiled.
“Selling razors is nothing compared to selling razor blades! Selling guns is nothing compared
to selling bullets!”
One-time deals weren’t Mike’s style.
“Let’s get this started. I’ll go back and ask the client for their opinion. We’ll get to work once
the funds are in place!”
Mike still maintained a shred of his bottom line and didn’t make the decision for Ace.
He placed all the design drafts in front of Ace.
Ace could choose whichever one he liked.
This kind of big business was all about one party being willing to pay and the other party
being willing to sell.
With the equipment matter settled, Mike rushed to the basement of Mistveil Castle.
This was where the previous blood clan prince was imprisoned.
Originally, this prince possessed the strength of a Ninth-tier Lord,
but during the previous fight, he was used as a hidden weapon and killed by Calderon with a
single punch.
After being resurrected, the prince’s level kept dropping. freewebnσvel.cѳm
When Mike saw him, he only had the combat power of a Fourth-tier prince, which was level
935.
“Master, your humble servant is ready to confess everything he knows.”
In the dungeon, Vladimir lit candles, sprayed perfume, and thoughtfully brought a chair for
Mike.
“Let’s hear it.”
Mike sat down on the chair, poured the red wine from the glass on the armrest into Vladimir’s
glass, and took out a bottle of cola for himself.
He had class today and couldn’t drink alcohol.
The atmosphere and the sense of ritual were all in place.
Vladimir began his performance. “As you know, the most powerful being among the blood clan is called the Ancestor, the progenitor of our race.
He failed in his attempt to break through, which led to the Blood River going berserk, contaminating all the high-ranking blood clan members, plunging them into chaos and
madness…”
Vladimir pursed his lips, suppressing his excitement to prevent his voice from trembling.
“There are also some powerful beings in the blood clan who are second only to the Ancestor, beings even I, at my peak, had to respect, such as… Dracula!”
“This blood clan prince before you, he’s a powerhouse from ancient times, a descendant of Dracula’s trusted aide. I’m one hundred percent certain that Dracula’s blood flows through his
veins!”
Vladimir revealed a cruel smile and said sinisterly,
“Master, we can use this blood to summon Dracula, and then…”
The rest went without saying.
The blood clan prince, suppressed in the bronze coffin, twitched upon hearing Vladimir’s
words and revealed a strange smile.
Mike also laughed along.
The dungeon was filled with an air of mirth.
Two blood clan powerhouses and a potential Supreme Being, all laughing at the same time.
But each of them was laughing for different reasons.
From the moment Mike stepped into the dungeon, he had set his eyes on the blood clan prince
in the bronze coffin.
The Second Awakened Eye of Truth had revealed a little secret.
A simple prompt popped up above the blood clan prince’s head:
[He is Dracula]