Chapter 57: Doing Business
Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
The next morning, Sunier went out early to purchase some more low grade magic crystals. Moxinke followed her by the excuse of looking for some tasks to make money. Every one knew clearly, through his anxious expression on face, what he really wanted was to get rid of someone.
Han Jin was curious about the tasks, the same were Michelle and Steelberg. So they left the hotel together for the Association of Mercenaries.
The square in front was full of people, much more boisterous than the night they first came here. Sunierled them across the square and came to a counter directly. She took a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote something on it. It was a list.
“Are you sure to order like this?” Miss Keeley whispered to her.
“Is there any problem?” Sunierasked back confusedly: “I did like this yesterday.”
“It’s too much!” Miss Keeley pointed at the note, which read: 200 third grade magic crystals with earth element. Unit price: 20 pieces of silver coins.
“What do you mean?”
“We don’t know the proper price of earth-serial magic crystals or themarket reserves of them. If we purchase like this, we will suffer a heavy loss.”
“You write the note since you are good at this.” Suniersaid and moved aside.
“No problem.” Miss Keeley replied directly. A moment later, a long list was made.
The receptionist took the note from her and rolled his eyes after reading it. Miss Keeley was not as generous as Sunier. She only orderedfifty magic crystals in total with five for each kind, and the unit price declined from 20 silver coins to 10 gradually.
The receptionist glimpsed at Miss Keeley disdainfully. It was free to sell and buy goods here, but when the deal was done, the Association would charge one percent commission from both parties. The list made by Miss Keeley was profitless for the Association, which made her inevitably be despised by the receptionist.
“Well, let’s have a look elsewhere.” Miss Keeley said causally.
“We’ve only ordered fifty magic crystals, that’s not enough.”
“I know. We just need to find a reasonable price of them at present and buy more later.” Miss Keeley thought for a moment:”Did you buy two hundred magic crystals at one time yesterday, Sunier?”
“No. I purchased fifty at first, it just took a short time. Then I ordered another fifty and left. When I came back, they were already prepared. So I purchased the other one hundred directly.”
“My god…” Miss Keeley stared at her in a daze.
“Have you finished? Let’s go upstairs.” Moxinke shouted impatiently in the back.
They turned around and were going to leave, the receptionist shouted grumpily: “You haven’t paid the deposit!”
“How much?” Sunier asked coldly.
“Three pieces of golden coins.”
Sunier threw the money to him and left after taking the note sealed by the Association of Mercenaries. Miss Keeley murmured and finally said to her: “Why didn’t you lower down your price since the deal was done so fast? It must be much higher than the market price.”
“I am not good at this, and I didn’t think so much.”Sunier replied awkwardly.
Han Jin and Cessacioun cast a glance at each other tacitly. Sunierwas not a shrewd merchant even if she knew how to do business. She gave little Joseph a golden coin without even thinking when they met him yesterday. Both Han Jin and Cessacioun had gone through the sufferings due to lack of money, thus, even though they acted as if they were indifferent about this, they were actually both criticizing and reproaching her deep in their hearts.
The building of the Association of Mercenaries was divided into four floors. The second floor was the high class trading area, only deals over one hundred golden coins can be traded there. The third floor was the VIP area. As for the fourth floor, even Moxinke, who was born and grew up in this city, didn’t know what it was used for.
The Association of Mercenaries was the homeof mercenaries, thus the building was magnificent and splendid. The hall of the second floor was hundreds of meters in length. There were over thirty stone columns at least one meter in diameter, each hung with several lamps. These were notordinary oil lamps, but the eternal lamps that consume magic crystals.
Inside the hall, three or four hundred mercenarieswere coming and leaving, some were in a rush, some were waiting leisurely, some were gathering together and whispering something. Those who dare to earn over one hundred golden coins ranked at least fifth grade professionals. Some of them were equipped with the badges of fighters or sages, they are leaders of mercenary teams or groups judged by their impressive appearance and manners.
Outside the window, waves of magic were heaving up and down. The fourteen one-way magic transferring circles were most busy during this period. Morning hours is the best time of the day to work, and to enter the Tarasha mountains in daytime was muchsafer than in the dark.
“Let’s go up to the third floor.” Cessacioun suggested in a low tone.
“We have no right to enter it and no ability to take the tasks for VIPs.” Moxinke shook his head. Mercenaries must consider it twice before taking tasks. They need to pay one third of the commission as deposit. If the task failed, or hadn’t been completed within agreed time limit, the commission would be compensated to the task issuer. As for the causalities suffered by the mercenary group, no one would care.
Han Jin watched around without saying anything. In front of him was a large screen made of crystals, on which information about various tasks and demanded magic crystals was displayed in order of the amount of golden coins. The minimum remuneration was one hundred golden coins, while the maximum over nine hundred golden coins.
Han Jin suddenly found that the tasks released here were not that difficult. On the screen there displayed demands for holy animals such as the Gale Wolves, Monitor Lizards and so on, all with very high price. He moved his eyesight aside and was shocked when he saw the task: Skin of Iron Bull. Six hundred golden coins.
“What’s wrong?”Moxinkenoticed his expression and asked.
“Nothing.” Han Jin shook head hurriedly. If they had killed their Iron Bull neighbors in the forest, they would have earned four thousand golden coins by now! But he could only keep this thought in his mind. They had got along well with the group of Iron Bulls. If he spoke out his thoughts, he would undoubtedly be reproved by them all.
“The tasks here are not that difficult.” Cessacioun had the same feeling as Han Jin: “How about taking one, Moxinke? We can’t idle away our time everyday.”
“It’s indeed not very difficult. See, the task for twentyteeth from Gale Wolves, its payment is one hundred and ten golden coins. I can finish it alone without your help.” Moxinke laughed: “The problem is, who would send a Gale Wolf to me? Walking in the Tarasha mountains, all kinds of dangers would happen. A high grade holy animal in migration or hunting for food would destroy a whole mercenary team. The difficult lies not on the task itself, but on the process to finish it. How can you survive in the Tarasha mountains to find your prey and to kill it? There are countless mercenaries lost their lives every year. If we came depth into the mountains, we may also be killed.”
“Gale Wolf teeth? I…” Han Jin suddenly remembered something: “Why didn’t you tell us this earlier? What a pity!”
“How many Gale Wolves we’ve killed? If we knew this, we could pull down all their teeth.” Cessacioun exclaimed.
“Well…” Moxinke made a bitter smile: “I have never gone upstairs herebefore. How would I know someone wants that thing!”
“You’ve never gone upstairs? Are you really a mercenary?”
“What can I do on my own? To get myself being killed?!” Moxinke opened his eyes wide.
“Why didn’t you join a team?” Sunier asked softly.
“I’d rather to take some easy tasks.” Moxinke sighed: “I might have the chance to come back alive if I went to the Tarasha mountains alone. But if I joined the team of other mercenaries… I am sure I’ve been dead now.”