Izroth, along with Zi Yi's assistance, had finally finished setting up the shop.
The walls and floors were made out of some kind of high-quality wooden material that gave off a nice luster. Located at the center of the first floor were multiple kiosks that allowed for players to browse goods based on the floor they were on or other restrictions the owner of the shop placed.
There was a staircase leading up to the second floor, however, there was some kind of scanning device positioned next to the lower end of the staircase.
In total, it cost Izroth a little more than 3,000,000 RMB to make all the necessary changes he desired.
The shop currently had two floors and two private room add-ons to it, which made up for a good percentage of the RMB Izroth spent.
The first floor would be for grade one and grade two pills to share. As for the second floor, it was strictly for the grade three pills.
At first, Izroth was simply going to put all the pills on the same floor and call it a day, however, Zi Yi shook her head at the suggestion. She told him that sometimes just having the product to sell isn't enough, you have to know how to increase its value without the customer even realizing it. Also, there were a few other factors to consider that simply made sense to go along with.
Therefore, she recommended that Izroth take advantage of the floor restrictions feature for shops. This feature allowed the shop's owner to charge a fee to those who wanted to enter into the second floor where the grade three pills were located.
Originally, Izroth was skeptical of this idea as he believed that it would just limit the potential buyers, however, he understood what Zi Yi meant to accomplish once he pieced things together.
The second floor entry fee was five gold coins or 3,905 RMB. It was definitely not something the average player could spend on a simple entry fee. It was also important to note that those who could not afford for a five gold entry fee most likely did not have the funds to purchase a grade three pill to begin with.
This would stop the second floor from becoming overcrowded with simple "window shoppers" as they are called.
'I suppose it is something I am still not quite used to.'
Izroth never had any need to deal with these kinds of things back in the Seven Realms. During his early days as a cultivator, he was all about growing stronger through cultivation and training. Everything he obtained on his path to the peak was due to his own hard work and effort as a cultivator.
As for things like opening a shop or thinking about customers had never crossed his mind. It was simple for cultivators, if one wanted to obtain a certain item they would either retrieve it themselves, come across it by good fortune, or purchase it at an auction house.
Of course, there were always those who would take what they want by force from another person. In fact, it was quite common within the Seven Realms for something like that to happen.
However, if one truly wanted to reach the peak of cultivation one thing was for sure, they would not have time to focus on personally running a shop. Only those cultivators who were not aiming for the peak or were injured and could no longer cultivate would even think of doing so.
Besides, it did not go over Izroth's head that Zi Yi most likely came from a very wealthy family. After all, not only did her elder sister Mariposa offer 3,000,000,000 RMB out of her own personal account but Zi Yi herself was willing to sacrifice 200,000 gold coins, which was more than 156,000,000 RMB!
It would also explain why she continuously turned down any gold or RMB he offered her for her assistance.
Just because one had money did not necessarily mean that they were good at managing it or giving advice. However, Izroth believed that for someone with Zi Yi's nature and talents that was highly unlikely to be the case.
"Have you finished setting up the two rooms yet?" Zi Yi asked as she walked over towards Izroth.
Izroth chose to add-on two rooms to use one as a personal pill crafting room and a spare room as a sort of conference room. Since Sleeping Gardenia was providing resources directly to him and had a share in the profit, it was only natural that they may want to meet on occasion.
If he had no place of his own to discuss matters, then he would always have to travel to the Sleeping Gardenia's temporary building. However, there was one more reason for Izroth choosing to add a conference room.
"Indeed, just a few moments ago. I believe everything is in place." Izroth responded.
Zi Yi nodded, "Now all we're missing is the proper inventory. But, I think you can handle it from here, right?" she said as she looked towards Izroth.
"I'll manage somehow. You once again have my thanks for your help, Zi Yi. I will not forget this favor." Izroth said as he gave a small carefree smile.
"Well, considering I'm one of the first few to receive a new batch of your pills, we'll call it even." Zi Yi said with a smile as she began to walk towards the exit of the shop.
"Are you heading back to the palace library?" Izroth asked.
"That's the plan. I still have a lot of books to go through. Oh, that's right, I almost forgot." Zi Yi stopped just as she reached the door.
She turned and asked, "What do you plan on naming the shop?"
The shop's name? Izroth had not really thought much about that until Zi Yi just mentioned it. After thinking for a bit, he finally settled on what the name of the shop would be.
"The Mystical Realm Palace." Izroth said.
"Mystical Realm Palace, is it? A good name. Be sure to message me before the grand opening." Zi Yi said.
"Of course, I'll be sure to message you. After all, this place is also a result of your work as well." Izroth replied.
After exchanging farewells, Zi Yi left the shop and now there was just Izroth remaining along with the NPCs he hired to help automatically manage the shop. At the moment, they were standing motionless as if they were waiting for the shop to officially open before they took any action.
Just as Izroth walked out of the Mystical Realm Palace, he received an alert from the system that someone had sent him a message.
〈System Alert: Player He Huian has sent you a message, "We've run into a small issue while acquiring the resources you've requested. It's nothing major, however, the resources won't be available until tomorrow. I apologize for the inconvenience."〉
'Oh? That's unfortunate.'
Izroth was hoping to start crafting today so that he could open up the shop as soon as possible. However, it would appear that he would have to wait for a little while longer to do so.
He replied to He Huian's message to inform her that all was well and the extra time was of no concern.
〈System Alert: Player He Huian has sent you a message, "Though, I do have some good news. While it has not been confirmed yet, we may have found a way to acquire the fire core you requested. We've sent some people to investigate, but I just thought you should know."〉
'A fire core? Since there remains nothing left for me to do here, I should go and take a look.'
Izroth requested the information He Huian had regarding the fire core. Of course, she sent him over the details without hesitation. Though, it may have just been her way of keeping Izroth happy after delivering some bad news, even if he said he did not really mind the small delay.
After receiving the information, Izroth read over it and found some interesting things about the location the fire core was in.
'I've never been to these coordinates before.'
The coordinates were a good distance away from Amaharpe, however, he did not have any other plans at the moment so he did not mind making the trip to investigate it himself. Though, this information made him wonder just how far Sleeping Gardenia and other top guilds explored already.
As Izroth walked towards the gates of Amaharpe to leave the city, he checked through his friendslist.
Out of the players he usually entered into a party with only Luna and Zi Yi was currently online. However, Izroth felt that he had kept Zi Yi away from the palace library for too long and so he did chose not to further divert her attention away. As for Luna, he was already in a full party from the looks of it.
After his trip into the Chaotic Dogma Realm, Izroth found that he rather enjoyed having company along on a journey. It reminded him of his earlier days as a cultivator and brought back some fond memories. But, it appeared that he would have to make this trip alone.
Izroth stepped through the gates of Amaharpe and began to make his way towards the coordinates He Huian provided.
'The Blazing Tempris Domain sounds like the perfect place to obtain a new fire core.'
...
"How are they so fast?! At this rate, they'll catch up to us before we can reach a safe zone!" Xun Guiying said in disbelief as she looked back and saw that Owl and his group were gaining on them.
"There's a good chance that they're using some kind of potion or other external means to increase their speed. You're correct, at this rate, they will catch up with us. That's why we have to find a way to slow them down." Luna explained.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Jia asked as she ran beside Luna. While she was the fastest one here and could definitely reach the safe zone by herself due to being a rogue-type class, she refused to leave her friends behind. If a fight did break out, she wanted to be here to help as much as possible.
After remained silent in response to Jia's question as if she were thinking. However, a look of clarity flashed through her eyes as if something suddenly dawned on her.
"I have a plan. It's a bit risky, but it should slow them down long enough for us to escape. If luck is on our side, then we may even be able to turn the tables against them." Luna said.
"W-we aren't going to have to fight them are we?!" Starry said in a concerned tone of voice.
Luna, however, shook her head and responded, "Do you remember that garden we passed through on our way over?"
"The garden...? I see..! That place would definitely slow them down!" Starry said excitedly.
"There's just one problem with that plan. How do we prevent ourselves from being affected?" Su Cui asked in a slightly skeptical tone of voice.
"Just leave that part to me. Let's begin making our way there." Luna reassured her as she and her friends changed their direction.
Meanwhile, as Owl and his group were catching up to Luna and the others, they noticed the sudden change in their course.
Owl frowned as he witnessed Luna's party change directions. According to his knowledge, there should not be any safe zones or villages nearby in that area. Also, at their current speed, the sudden change in direction would make it so that he and his group would catch up to them much faster than before. It was an unusual course of action.
"Heh, this is what happens when you have a party full of female gamers! They have no idea what they're doing! Hahaha! Big bro Owl, it looks like we won't need to drink another mobility potion after all." Du Cheng mocked as he laughed at Luna and her party's actions.
Owl furrowed his brows as he continued on with the case. However, there was this strange feeling nagging at him. But, Du Cheng was probably correct. After realizing escape was impossible, there was a chance that they were headed towards a place with more players around in hope that someone would help them.
But, Owl was unconcerned with such a thing. After all, even if they found a whole party to help them by some miracle, would that party truly risk becoming enemies of Fatal Touch for a few strangers? The answer was obviously no.
"Hulong, make sure you're keeping the boss updated on our location and their heading. No matter what, we have to capture the player named Luna alive. As for the others... You all can deal with them in whatever manner you'd like." Owl said.
"With pleasure! That one with the azure hair is mine!" Du Cheng said as a large grin appeared on his face. He had not forgotten how he insulted in front of everyone by that girl.
As Owl and his group continued their pursuit and moving in closer, he saw that Luna and her party headed right into some kind of arboretum.
"Follow them!" Owl ordered.