Chapter 271 : Chapter 271
Chapter 271. Black Business
Fulan did not understand how the god on the other side had decided that the relationship between them was one of “friends.”
In truth, ever since she first encountered that book connected to the Lord of Radiance, she had been full of wariness toward both the book and what it represented behind it.
At the time, she had only just buried Richter in the ground, and sometimes she could not help imagining what would happen if someone discovered his corpse.
So during that period, she had been wary of everything. Later, during the Spirit Realm Trial, she had also been somewhat dissatisfied that the Lord of Radiance had used her as a weapon.
Although she also did not know whether, without the Lord of Radiance, she would still have been able to obtain talents from the Spirit Realm.
It was said that the Lord of Radiance had helped her establish a connection to the Spirit Realm, but she did not know whether that was true either.
Fulan thought for a long time before finally saying,
“Of course we’re friends, but you can’t let your friend walk into a dangerous place either, can you?”
“You may not know what the Material Realm is like right now. Every piece of land already has its own master. There’s simply no way for me to help you develop believers.”
“Fortunately, I recently got hold of a territory of my own, so I can help you develop believers there. But right now, I’m missing something...”
To Fulan, friend or not, it did not really matter. It sounded like a closer relationship, so she did not deny it.
What benefited her most now was reaching an agreement with the Lord of Radiance so that both sides could get what they needed. Under such circumstances, perhaps calling each other friends was not entirely wrong.
At that moment, the Lord of Radiance’s voice once again reached Fulan’s ears. What she heard was the same gentle voice she had heard the first time she encountered Him.
“Perhaps our definitions of friendship are somewhat different, but the relationship between us is still a rather harmonious one.”
“Then let it be so. You may continue down your path as a mage in the Material Realm. When you need it, I will grant you my power.”
“What happened before was my fault. Perhaps I should not have made you my emissary without first asking about your specific circumstances.”
Hearing this, Fulan let out a sigh of relief. She had now made their relationship clear to the Lord of Radiance and had once again confirmed that theirs was a cooperative one.
Then Fulan said directly to the Lord of Radiance,
“As your emissary, I’ve run into a few small problems while building my territory. I hope my god can offer me a little help.”
What reached Fulan’s ears was the Lord of Radiance’s voice, tinged with a trace of curiosity.
“Oh? What is it? Tell me. If it is something I can solve, then I certainly would not mind helping my emissary speed up the construction of her territory.”
“Nothing much.” Fulan rubbed her chin, then said directly, “I’m just short on Spirit Crystals. I need Spirit Crystals.”
Spirit Crystals were what Fulan needed most right now, yet they were also something she would find hard to acquire in large amounts in a short time.
If she had a great many Spirit Crystals on hand now, a lot of problems could be solved very quickly.
What reached her ears was not the “Of course, a few Spirit Crystals are nothing” that Fulan had been hoping for, but instead a voice tinged with embarrassment.
“My apologies, Laiyi. The thing you’re asking for happens to be something I’m rather short on myself.”
Fulan frowned at this. She had originally thought that, since the Lord of Radiance was a god and had also spent some time in the Spirit Realm, He would have a great many Spirit Crystals on hand.
But unexpectedly, the Lord of Radiance did not have any Spirit Crystals either. More precisely, He most likely did not have any spare Spirit Crystals to give her.
That made Fulan sigh. She had thought the problem of Spirit Crystals could be solved here, but it seemed she would still have to find some other way.
“Laiyi is just my false name. Call me Fulan from now on. That’s my real name.”
“Since that’s the case, I’ll just find some other way to solve the Spirit Crystal problem.”
The reason Fulan corrected Him with her true name was because there was no longer any point in hiding it.
If she truly ended up helping the Lord of Radiance develop believers in the Material Realm, then after some time, He would learn her real name through those believers anyway, so she might as well reveal it earlier.
“Very well, Fulan. But you don’t need to look for some other solution.”
Those words from the Lord of Radiance drew Fulan’s attention. Then she heard Him continue,
“The reason those believers behind you came to the Emerald Market is to earn Spirit Crystals. So you can join this operation as well. When the time comes, you can simply take some Spirit Crystals back with you.”
Fulan was somewhat puzzled when she heard that. Based on her understanding, those who came to the Emerald Market were mostly here to do business of some kind.
But as she remembered it, Monsa City did not have anything that could really be used for trade...
If it were growing crops, then the lords of the Spirit Realm had no shortage of territories devoted to farming.
There was no way it would ever be the Lord of Radiance’s turn—some god from who-knew-how-many ages later—to do that sort of business here.
Yet aside from that, Fulan truly could not think of what kind of business the Lord of Radiance could possibly be doing in the Emerald Market. And once she set aside those respectable businesses, she began to have a few ideas.
In truth, she had already noticed it on the way here. There was not the slightest trace of goods here.
Combined with what the Lord of Radiance had just said, she knew that He had not brought His believers here to conduct any respectable trade.
“Fulan, your arrival is perfect. We happen to need someone who can enter the central district, and you’re just right for it.”
That was what the Lord of Radiance said, sounding rather pleased.
---
“I want to sell this weapon.”
At the inspection station in the central district, Fulan said this to the person seated in the chair.
She placed her purple short sword on the table, revealing the rune engraved on it, marked with a bear and frost.
The moment the inspecting appraiser saw the purple short sword, he immediately put on gloves and began examining the weapon slowly.
“Fine amethyst, made by a craftsman of exquisite skill. There are no real flaws on it, and the materials have been used extremely well.”
This was a weapon Fulan had forged with Extraordinary-level Forging. Although the materials she had used were not particularly precious, she had still made it exceptionally well.
“There are some traces of cutting on it. It seems it has already seen a great deal of battle, but it has also been maintained well.”
The appraiser used several small tools to trace over the purple short sword a few times, then could not help exclaiming,
“This is the finest weapon-making craftsmanship I’ve seen in the past three years.”
In a magical world, there were huge numbers of adventurers and mercenaries, which in turn created a massive demand for weapons.
Under such circumstances, the number of blacksmiths had naturally surged as well, but the overall standard of weapon forging had not improved.
This was the result of many factors: limitations in weapon-forging techniques, the excessively low barrier to entering the trade, monopolization by guilds, and more besides.
In fact, to keep up with demand, most blacksmiths did not carefully polish every weapon they made. They would only rough out the basic shape and then put it on the market for sale.
Most ridiculous of all was that those crudely made weapons were actually more popular, because they were cheap, no one felt bad about using them, and almost anyone who picked one up could put up at least some fight with it.
And so there emerged a bizarre spectacle: crudely made weapons actually sold better than finely crafted ones, because they were produced in huge quantities, cheap in price, and deeply loved by lower-class mercenaries.
If that were all, then this appraiser would not so often come across such badly made weapons still being sold on the market.
But this was a magical world. There were enchantments and all sorts of methods to strengthen weapons, turning what had originally been trash into powerful arms.
What the appraiser found most unbearable was that weapons generated in the Spirit Realm actually imitated the appearance of those poorly made weapons.
As a result, he often saw things like a bent longsword with three rune enchantments, a shoddy white-iron flexible sword soaked in Frost-Chill Liquid, or an ordinary Mountain Copper Dagger wrapped in premium Coldfire Steel...
Every time he saw such things, the appraiser would curse the forgers who had produced that garbage, wondering how they had dared accept a weapon commission in the first place.
And those incompetent mercenaries and Spirit Realm professionals were no better—brainless idiots, all of them, using premium materials to decorate a piece of junk.
He could tell that this weapon had undergone a second forging, and that second forging had completely transformed it.
And this time, Fulan’s short sword brought him genuine pleasure. He felt that the excellent foundations of this weapon alone were enough for it to be sold in the central district.
And yet that was not all the weapon had.
The appraiser looked at the rune on the short sword, the one engraved with a bear and frost. It was a rune he had never seen before.
He had worked in appraisal here for five years, and this was the first time he had ever seen such a strange rune.
At first glance, he had thought it was merely a decorative design.
But once he had taken it in hand, he realized that the design was definitely not decorative. It was a rune.
That much was obvious from the distinct fluctuation unique to runes coming from it, and this rune was an exceptionally powerful one.
“May I ask where this rune came from?”
“I don’t know either,” Fulan replied.
“Very well, then. Would you like to place it in a fixed sales spot, or enter it into an auction?”
In the appraiser’s view, if the rune were not present, then this short sword could be entered as an ordinary auction exhibit.
But with that rune of unknown origin added to it, the short sword could be treated as one of the main auction items.
“Auction.”
Fulan did not really intend to sell the short sword. She merely wanted to stall for time in the central district, so she chose the auction.
If she placed it in a fixed sales spot and someone bought it outright, she would really be in trouble.
So auction was her only choice. But even then, she had no intention of actually letting it be sold.
After completing the registration, she arrived at the entrance to the center. There was a transparent membrane there, and only those holding a pass permit could enter or leave.
Fulan looked toward the very center of the central district. There stood an artificial mountain sculpted from emerald, over a hundred meters tall, engraved with countless images of magical beasts and famous weapons.
That was the business the Lord of Radiance intended to conduct.
A black-market business.
He wanted to take the Spirit Crystals stored in the Emerald Market.