Chapter 514 – Popular Trading Firm

Crystal City of Secrets, Secret Crystal Trading Firm’s third-floor hall:

After signing up for a basic membership, the old knight led his team to the third-floor hall. At a glance, they could see that the hall was deserted of players. It was evident that the vast majority of independent players and adventurer team members felt that it was more worthwhile to save money to enter the Underground Crystal Palace as soon as possible.

“As expected, the place is deserted,” a Level 153 female Cleric in the team said, frowning when she saw that they were the only team in the hall. After seeing this desolate scene, she felt even more pain from spending twenty Eternal Silver for a basic membership. Even if they had bought a basic membership for only one person and the average cost for the team came down to just one Eternal Silver per person, it was still a costly expenditure.

!!

It should be known that their Bluefire Knight adventurer team was only one of the many inconspicuous adventurer teams operating in the Crystal City of Secrets. Unlike well-established adventurer teams that had existed long before the Eternal Realm, Bluefire Knight only came into being after the Eternal Realm.

Currently, their entire adventurer team only had twenty members, and apart from the commander and a few others being fifth-floor experts, everyone else was only a titled expert. Titled experts might be highly regarded in the Greater God’s Domain, but they were merely the lowest caste in the Crystal City of Secrets.

Because of this, it was a huge challenge for their adventurer team to make money. One Eternal Silver was already equivalent to half a day’s income for each of them.

By now, news of various teams making a killing in the Underground Crystal Palace had already spread throughout the city, so it was no longer a question of whether players could make money from the secret land. Yet, in a time when everyone was trying to enter the Underground Crystal Palace as quickly as possible, their adventurer team spent half a day’s worth of income on a trading firm’s basic membership. This meant that they would lag behind their peers in entering the Underground Crystal Palace by half a day.

Did I make the wrong choice? the elderly knight wondered. After seeing the state of the third-floor hall, he couldn’t help but start to regret his impulsive decision.

It should be known that the twenty Eternal Silver they spent only allowed them to take on commissions from the third floor for seven days. Meanwhile, it took at least a day to complete the average noble commission, while some could take up to two days. After all, all of these commissions involved escorting merchant caravans to other NPC Towns and Cities, and even the nearest town and city was half a day away. So, even the shortest round trip would take a day.

Even if they were to accept only noble commissions for the entirety of the seven-day membership, they could only take on a maximum of seven. In other words, they had paid twenty Eternal Silver for the privilege of accepting seven noble commissions.

On paper, this might seem like a good deal. After all, not only did the players downstairs have to wait in line for one or two hours for their turn, but there was also a high chance that there might not be any noble commissions available for them when their turn arrived.

However, it should be noted that their primary goal was to make money to enter the Underground Crystal Palace. Currently, they were only doing commissions for the sake of collecting enough money to cover the secret land’s entrance fee. Once they collected enough money, they would naturally enter the secret land right away.

In other words, they would not be doing commissions for seven days consecutively, and their efficiency wouldn’t necessarily be faster than the adventurer teams waiting in line on the first and second floors. On the contrary, they might even lose out in efficiency, as those waiting in line downstairs still had a small chance of accepting a noble commission. If the players downstairs managed to secure a noble commission, all the money they made would be profit.

However, the elderly knight quickly shook away the doubts in his mind and made his way to the nearest commission counter. His wealth of experience told him that he had made the right decision, so he remained firm in his conviction.

It was true that players had a chance to receive a noble commission by waiting in line on the first and second floors. However, it was only a chance. If they ended up having only ordinary commissions to choose from, they’d have to rejoin the line from the back. While there was also the option of accepting non-noble commissions, few players would choose this option as there wasn’t much money to be made from them. It’d be better to wait until a noble commission appeared. But who knew how long they would need to wait until they could secure one?

Currently, the number of players visiting the Secret Crystal Trading Firm was still small. After all, the trading firm had only been upgraded to the Advanced rank not long ago. But once more players started visiting the trading firm, one- or two-hour lines would become a thing of the past. At that time, even four-hour lines would be a blessing. And if there were no noble commissions available at the end of the four-hour-long wait… Just thinking about doing it all over again gave the elderly knight the chills.

“Hello, sir. Here is the latest list of commissions available,” the receptionist behind the counter greeted the elderly knight and showed him a list.

Upon seeing the list’s content, the elderly knight’s eyes instantly brightened.

At a glance, he could see dozens of noble commissions available for selection. Moreover, many of these commissions were highly profitable ones.

The average noble commission only paid enough for a 20-man team to receive two or three Eternal Silver per person. However, more than a dozen noble commissions on the list paid about four Eternal Silver per person. This was already more than what the various powers’ teams earned from monopolizing and raiding Team Dungeons.

“I want to take this commission that’s headed to the Wilderness Fortress!” the elderly knight hurriedly said as he pointed at a commission on the list.

“Understood. A maximum of twenty people can take on this commission, and the remuneration is one Eternal Gold. You may start the commission as soon as you pay the 10% deposit,” the receptionist said, nodding. Then, she handed the elderly knight a ticket and continued, “This is your free ticket to the seventh floor’s Secret Treasure Market. You may use it to participate in the Secret Treasure Market that is taking place in five days. If you are interested in Secret Treasures, you might be able to buy the Secret Treasures you desire.”

“Secret Treasure Market? Buying Secret Treasures?” The elderly knight was somewhat dumbfounded as he looked at the ticket in his hand. “Is what you said true? Can I really buy Secret Treasures directly at the Secret Treasure Market?”

“Naturally. Our trading firm regularly sells Secret Treasures on the upper floors, and the higher up you go, the higher the rarity of the Secret Treasures you can find. Sometimes, some great nobles will even bring Secret Treasures of high rarity to sell,” the receptionist explained.

The elderly knight started breathing heavily when he heard this.

Currently, the main reason the various powers and players were entering the Underground Crystal Palace was so that they could acquire Secret Treasures. However, even though the secret land did drop Secret Treasures, the drop rate was very low. They were so rare that, apart from the various powers’ main forces, not many teams, few teams had actually obtained a Secret Treasure from the secret land thus far.

In such a situation, the ability to purchase Secret Treasures directly from NPCs was akin to a dream coming true.

It should be known that whoever controlled the most and the best Secret Treasures in the Greater God’s Domain would have control over the Greater God’s Domain in the future!

After the elderly knight concluded his interaction with the receptionist, he promptly shared the news of the Secret Treasure Market with the rest of his team, causing everyone to wonder if he was daydreaming.

However, after the elderly knight took out the ticket for the seventh floor’s Secret Treasure Market, everyone was shocked to learn that Secret Treasures could be purchased directly.

“Enough talking. Not many people know of this news yet, so we should try to get enough money to secure a few advanced membership slots while we still can,” the elderly knight said in a hurried tone. “The trading firm’s advanced membership slots are very limited, so I believe many powers would be willing to hire us as their agents!”

The members of Bluefire Knight nodded excitedly. Then, they began borrowing money from friends to make what would be a life-changing purchase.

Around one and a half hours after Bluefire Knight’s members started their operation, more and more independent players discovered the Secret Crystal Trading Firm’s secret, and news of the Secret Treasure Market quickly spread.

Half an hour later, every basic and advanced membership slot available in the Secret Crystal Trading Firm had been taken.

At the same time, news of the Secret Treasure Market finally reached the ears of the various powers operating in the Crystal City of Secrets, causing a huge commotion throughout the Eternal Realm. Everyone also began to pay attention to the Secret Crystal Trading Firm.

However, Shi Feng, the owner of the Secret Crystal Trading Firm, remained wholly ignorant of this situation.

In fact, Shi Feng didn’t even know how long he had been stuck in the cross-realm teleportation passage until, finally, a space-time rift appeared within the passage and sucked him and his teammates into it. Then, a system notification entered everyone’s ears.

…

System Warning: You have discovered the Miniature Ancient World. Space and time here are in a chaotic state, so you will not be able to contact the outside world after entering.