Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 822 The Second-hand Market of the Dragon Blood Gathering

Faced with the questions raised by the three wizards from the Fairy Family Bank, Locke frowned, unsure whether their doubts were a legitimate skepticism about his abilities or an attempt to persuade him to sign a contract more favorable to their Fairy Family Bank.

He sought out the Celtic team leader to learn more about the situation.

The Celtic leader secretly reminded Locke through the Water Hyacinth System to be very careful of the Fairy Family Bank. Although it was a bank established by the fairy race, it had great ambitions and many wizard shareholders behind it. Its composition was complicated, and it even had high-ranking members of the White Wizard Association hidden behind it.

These banks are capable of anything to expand their own interests.

It can be said that this bank is essentially a core component of capital within the White Wizard society.

Even Mount Jinmian has debts owed to the Fairy Family Bank.

Fairies are inherently greedy, so the Celtic leader warned him to be careful.

The advantage is that, because of the restrictions imposed on them by the White Wizard Association and Mount Golden Crown, these goblin wizards shouldn't go too far.

Locke looked at the three goblin wizards, tapped the table of VIP room number 1 with his finger, and said, "I remember there are five major banks in the wizarding world. If you don't think highly of my shop alliance, perhaps other banks would be more optimistic?"

He turned to leave, while observing the expressions of the three fairy wizards.

The three fairy wizards were clearly surprised by Locke's refusal. He didn't even bother with the initial pleasantries or probing before deciding to change the bank they wanted to borrow from.

The expression on the face of the second-ringed goblin standing next to the stool suddenly became somewhat flustered. It wasn't that he lacked composure, but as an incredibly greedy goblin wizard who was completely parasitic on the white wizard social system, he was utterly unable to resist the temptation of capital expansion.

This second-circle fairy wizard was also aware of the potential of the Augustine Wizard Shoe Shop Alliance.

This is not an ordinary store alliance, but a Wizard Shoe IP owner with the potential to overthrow the existing Wizard Shoe store alliances.

He had already investigated these things before he arrived.

Otherwise, he would never have wasted his precious time in a small private room in the witch's kitchen of the Dragonblood Gathering at Golden Crown Mountain.

The second-ring goblin wizard's eyes, the size of mung beans, began to move.

Before Locke could push open the door and leave, he suddenly spoke up: "Wait a minute, Wizard Augustine. I think there's a misunderstanding. When our Fairy Family Bank lends money to ordinary wizards, we naturally look at their cash flow, savings, and the value of their collateral to mitigate potential risks."

"After all, wizards have a lot of room to move around. Many wizards have disappeared into the vast void and never returned to the wizarding world."

Locke thought about it carefully.

"That is indeed a good way to evade debt."

The second-ring goblin wizard's face twitched and his ears trembled; he clearly couldn't bear to hear those words.

The fairy wizard said in a slightly shrill voice, "If they run to such remote and desolate places, their magical pressure will gradually be taken away by the local world. The assets they carry will be seized by that world, and the result of staying for a long time is that they will never be able to leave with those assets again."

“A wise wizard will not leave the area illuminated by civilization.”

"Cough cough cough... I lost my composure."

The fairy wizard calmed down.

"Our family bank offers special benefits to potential business partners like yours. We can grant you a special loan without collateral or sufficient proof of cash flow, and it's a low-interest loan."

Locke frowned.

"Low-interest loans?"

A smile appeared on the face of the Second Ring Fairy.

"Yes, they can even provide interest-free loans."

Locke frowned.

The Second Ring Fairy smiled confidently and said, "It doesn't matter if there isn't enough cash flow or collateral; we can sign a betting agreement."

"In other words, we will offer you a loan, and according to the performance-based agreement, your store alliance needs to achieve a certain sales volume within a certain period of time. If you fail to do so, you will need to use all the shares of the store alliance as collateral to compensate our Fairy Family Bank."

"In this way, we can directly provide your Augustus Wizard Shoes Shop Alliance with a 30 million magic stone interest-free loan."

The second-ring fairy licked her fingers with sharp nails, then held a parchment scroll in her hand. The scroll was already open and so long that it had dragged on the ground.

Locke saw the entire contract, which contained numerous clauses restricting his rights and various complex curse spells.

Clearly, this contract is a loan agreement that the Fairy Family Bank has refined over hundreds of years, and it is almost without any loopholes.

Locke frowned, realizing that the fairy wizard's initial difficulties with him were clearly part of a series of attacks.

The contract he really wanted him to sign was probably this investment contract with a performance-based clause.

The second-ring fairy wizard could barely suppress the greed in his eyes; he actually had high hopes for the Augustus Wizard Shoe Shop Alliance.

"Wizard Augustine, what do you think?"

Locke stood up a second time, ready to leave.

“I don’t think it’s very good. I really don’t have the patience to play math games with you here. That’s it, I’ll find another normal wizarding bank that will lend me money.”

Locke is really ready to leave.

He contacted the Fairy Family Bank earlier simply because he used that bank quite often.

But who would have thought that when he wanted to take out a loan, he would even be presented with a performance-based agreement?

If he agreed to this, and dared to open that door, those three beady-eyed fairy wizards in front of him would surely tear him apart alive.

Therefore, Locke made a rational decision and prepared to leave.

At that moment, the second-ring goblin wizard suddenly looked at the contract in his hand and said, "Wait, Augustine Wizard. Please wait a moment, I think I've picked up the wrong contract. There's no betting agreement. Absolutely not."

"There's only one low-interest loan contract; you see, the total interest rate is only 10%."

"This is definitely the loan contract with the lowest interest rate among the five major wizarding banks."

Locke took the parchment scroll and examined it carefully.

The main challenge is dealing with these goblin wizards. You have to be extremely careful, as they are a bunch of opportunists who will do anything for money, as long as it's legal.

Locke checked the contract, confirmed there were no problems, and even sent it to the Celtic team leader to see, confirming that it was indeed the best contract he could get at this stage.

Most importantly, this contract perfectly meets my requirements.

No collateral required.

Money can be transferred quickly, usually within three days.

This is a credit loan.

Of course, if you can't repay the debt, your civilization credit points will be cleared.

Once your Civilization Credit Points are cleared, you will be unable to use many social functions that are based on them.

Essentially, there is still collateral, which is one's own credit, and the concrete manifestation of one's own credit is civilization credit points!

Locke looked at the fairy wizard, his gaze falling on the name he had already signed on the contract.

"Manager Roller, if you had this prepared from the beginning, why didn't you just give me the contract directly?"

The fairy wizard Roller could lie without batting an eye.

"I just picked up the wrong contract. Actually, this was the contract I wanted to take out in the first place."

There is no collateral.

Clearly, in this second-ringed goblin wizard's true assessment, based on Locke's past record and financial statements, he judged that the Augustus Wizard Shoe Shop Alliance had extremely strong repayment ability. From the very beginning, he considered this contract an absolute necessity.

All his previous actions were merely a means for him to enhance his bargaining power.

After realizing he couldn't fool Locke, he pulled out a contract he had prepared beforehand, with an extremely low interest rate.

According to the contract, Locke only needs to repay the principal plus interest of 3300 million magic stones within one year.

According to Yunze Wetland's default rules, the total interest on loans of this size is generally between 10% and 30%.

In other words, this is indeed the lowest interest rate.

Lower interest rates, however, require some form of collateral.

Locke nodded and said, "Alright. Wizard Roller, it's a pleasure working with you."

Locke signed his name.

The fairy wizard Roller said, "According to the contract, the magic stone will be deposited into your account within one day. Well, it has already been deposited."

Locke was stunned. He hadn't expected the Fairy Family Bank to have such a strong cash flow, transferring 30 million magic stones to him so quickly.

The fairy wizard Roller rose from his seat, put on a pair of leather magic gloves, and then extended his right hand to Locke.

"It's a pleasure to work with you, Wizard Augustine."

"Welcome to contact me for loans next time. I will definitely give you the most favorable contract in the entire industry. This is my business reputation, and this is my business card."

Locke took his gilded business card, which read: "Senior Wizard Manager of the Fairy Family Bank, Roller Gu. Schiller."

The fairy wizard Roller said, "Based on the principle of our first business transaction, I will continue to sign contracts with you in accordance with this principle."

Locke understood. So this guy's business logic was to do every subsequent business deal with the customer based on the logic of the first completed contract.

In other words, it means treating people differently based on their status.

If it's my first time doing business with him and I'm easy to talk to, he'll definitely take advantage of me even more later.

But after confirming the principles with him for the first time, he would then use the contract that would best satisfy him.

Clearly, this fairy wizard, though extremely greedy, was also very shrewd.

Know your true needs.

Locke understood his implication.

"I understand. If there is any need in the future, I will consider cooperating with you yourself."

Schiller the fairy wizard gave a bright smile.

"It is my pleasure to work with a smart person like you. Many wizards have serious misunderstandings about us fairies. We fairies do not only like doing business, nor do we just love money. We also like to work with wizards like you who are good at communication and are used to calculating costs."

"And we despise fools and idiots. In other words, we enjoy making deals with wizards like you."

"I will conduct all future transactions in accordance with the principles of this time."

"Okay, I have a second guest in this private room."

As Locke walked out of VIP room number 1, he bumped into Wizard Alex.

It turns out that the fairy wizard Schiller's second guest was actually the wizard Alex.

Wizard Alex clearly didn't expect to meet Locke here again.

He greeted Locke.

At that time, Locke's main body wandered around the Dragonblood Market to see if there was anything he needed. He also needed to go to the second-hand market to take a look, as sometimes he could find some 'treasures' that other people's laboratories had thrown out.

Inside the secondhand market.

Locke walked down the street, where there were some magic carpets on the ground on both sides, and some old objects were placed on the magic carpets.

First-ring and second-ring wizards set up stalls here.

Locke walked through the second-circle wizards' stall area. He glanced at the items in front of the second-circle wizards and noticed that many of the items were clearly equipment that had been handled several times, covered with signs of repair.

Locke even saw that the surface of a Sunlight Magic Mirror was patched up and had countless repair marks.

"Hmm? This is a Linghong rubbing of the Two Cicadas." Locke stopped in front of a stall, his eyes brightening slightly.

The spirit essence of the Two-Singing Cicada is an essential ingredient for refining the clone potion.

Only by transforming the ritualistic actions from this spiritual essence can one successfully refine the second-ring clone potion.

Locke bent down to examine the Linghong rubbing and found that it was severely damaged, obviously having been used too many times by the wizard. It could only be used once more, and even that might not be enough to fully utilize it.

Locke looked up at the stall owner in front of him. The person was clearly not a wizard from Golden Crown Mountain, but an outside wizard who had set up a stall in the second-hand market here because of the fame of the Dragon Blood Gathering.

The Dragonblood Gathering's secondhand market is renowned, attracting customers looking to find treasures and vendors attempting to pass off inferior goods as genuine.

Therefore, the trading rule here is: once the order is placed, there is no further responsibility; you accept the consequences of your bet.

The merchant in front of them wasn't even wearing any badges, only a black wizard's robe, to prevent anyone from coming after him.

"How much is this Linghong rubbing?"

The ordinary second-circle wizard merchant, whose magic pressure was about 10000, immediately spoke up: "Sir, this is the best item on my stall. It's a Spirit Macro imprint, and it's a Spirit Macro needed for the popular Doppelganger potion, so it's worth 500,000 magic stones."

Locke smiled and said, "This Spirit Rubbing can probably only be used once, or even only half a time. Normally, no one would buy it. Besides, I don't have any magic stones on me. Let's exchange it for another Spirit Rubbing."

Locke took out a Spirit Paper from his Astral Ring, which contained a Spirit Copy of the Crimson Vampire Stone that he had made.

Although I am not yet capable of writing a complete Linghong on my own, I can synthesize a Linghong rubbing of extremely high quality using the Synthesis Cube twice.

What he took out was a level 9 crafted item.

The merchant was clearly somewhat surprised.

"Did you write this yourself? With this skill, you must be a second-circle potion master, right? Even if you're not, you should be very close."

“This Linghong rubbing is also my own work. It’s just that my students have copied it too many times, so it’s almost lost its effectiveness. That’s why I’m selling it on this secondhand market.”

The merchant glanced at the shabby Linghong rubbing in his hand and coughed.

“I’d rather not embarrass myself. Here, this is my newly written rubbing of the Erming Cicada Spirit, which has only been used three or four times by my students. It’s quite suitable to exchange it for your Scarlet Vampire Stone Spirit Rubbing.”

“Writing the Linghong rubbing requires a great deal of effort, and as a potion master, I am well aware of this.”

Locke accepted his deal.

Indeed, each time one depicts Ling Hong, it essentially consumes one's perception of Ling Hong in order to explore the hidden true form of things.

Therefore, if you are only practicing Linghong's description, you don't need to write out the entire Linghong; you only need to select the key structures.

Once the entire spiritual landscape is depicted, one uses their spiritual power to support a complete exploration of the hidden true nature of things.

Normally, this would require a lot of an energy from a potion master.

Clearly, the potion master in front of him was empathetic.

The problem is that I was synthesized, and I didn't really put in much effort.

(End of this chapter)