Chapter 2235 – Shop’s Secret

When Shi Feng saw the words ‘Wanderer’s Shop,’ excitement and shock filled his heart. He had never dreamed that he’d get lucky enough to come across such a golden opportunity.

“Can I purchase this Wanderer’s Shop?” Shi Feng asked the female elven NPC beside him.

Most players wouldn’t recognize the Wanderer’s Shop. Even the current superpowers were likely unaware of what it was. However, every power would recognize the Wanderer’s Shop by its other name.

The Black Market!

The Black Market existed on the dark side of God’s Domain, but its influence could be found in many of the game’s neutral areas, and the Black Market always had a variety of items for sale. No NPC Auction House could even hope to rival the Black Market’s items. Powerful potions and combat techniques were often available, and if one were truly lucky, they might even find a Flying Mount or Fragmented Legendary item. One could say that the Black Market was a heaven for the rich.

Naturally, purchasing the Wander’s Shop wasn’t easy. It would appear randomly in the various neutral NPC cities. Moreover, it would only remain in a city for a certain amount of time before disappearing. Purchasing it would require incredible luck.

And now, the Wanderer’s Shop was in Dragonheart City and only Cost 9,000 Ancient Gold, which just so happened to be within Shi Feng’s budget.

“Of course, you may. However, you are not allowed to convert this Shop for other uses after purchasing it. You will also be required to pay a 3,000 Ancient Gold management fee once every ten days. If you fail to make the payment, we will repossess the Shop,” the elven NPC explained.

How vicious. It’s no wonder why none of the powers here have bought the Wanderer’s Shop. Shi Feng was astonished when he heard the pricing for the Shop.

A 1-star Shop in Dragonheart City’s outer area only cost 1,000 Ancient Gold per month to maintain. Even the 1-star Shops in the city’s inner area only cost 1,500 to 1,800 Gold per month to maintain. On the other hand, despite occupying the city’s outer area, the Wanderer’s Shop’s maintenance cost 3,000 Ancient Gold every ten days. In other words, maintaining this Shop each month would cost 9,000 Ancient Gold.

Nine thousand Ancient Gold Coins!

Even the first-rate powers that had operated in Dragonheart City for some time now only earned around 9,000 Ancient Gold per month. Only superpowers could afford such a high management fee.

Of course, no superpower would be willing to spend that kind of money on a 1-star Shop.

Even the 1-star Wanderer’s Shop wouldn’t have anything particularly valuable to sell. It mostly sold ordinary clothing and groceries. At best, one could purchase ordinary herbs and ores from the Shop. There was simply no profit in owning the 1-star Wanderer’s Shop. In fact, it would be even less profitable than owning an ordinary grocery store. Players could sell their crafted products to an ordinary grocery store, but they couldn’t do so in the Wanderer’s Shop. Investing in this Shop would be no different than investing in a bottomless pit. Only a lunatic would pay a monthly management fee of 9,000 Ancient Gold for such a worthless Shop.

“Are you sure you wish to purchase the Wanderer’s Shop, Lord Bronze Legatee?” the NPC administrator asked for confirmation.

“That’s right; I wish to buy it.” Shi Feng nodded.

The Wanderer’s Shop was a dying business, but that was only true until it was promoted to 2-star status. Once the Wanderer’s Shop reached 2-star status, it would start to reveal its true purpose.

At 2-stars, the Wanderer’s Shop would gain two divine abilities.

First, it could purchase rare items that weren’t usually on the market, such as magic array designs, which kingdoms and empire considered national secrets, and Tier 3 and higher Skill Books.

Tier 3 classes were an intermediate force anywhere across God’s Domain’s main continent. Tier 3 NPCs could even serve as some NPC cities’ Magistrates. Hence, the various kingdoms and empires typically regulated items for Tier 3 and above classes. This was also why players had to visit neutral maps for their Tier 3 Promotion Quests, rather than in a kingdom or empire.

The second ability was the Black Market Teleportation Gate. This ability allowed players to teleport to the Black Market’s marketplace. However, the entry slots were severely restricted. Not only was there a limited number of entry slots, but each slot could also only be used a certain number of times. These entry slots were the Wanderer’s Shop’s true merchandise. Naturally, anyone who owned the Wanderer’s Shop would be first in line to purchase these slots.

Many powers in the past had been unaware of the 2-star Wanderer’s Shop’s abilities and had missed out on such a rare opportunity. Very few had been lucky enough to purchase a Wanderer’s Shop for themselves. Only a fixed number of Wanderer’s Shops would appear in each neutral NPC city. At most, only 15 Wanderer’s Shops would appear in a large- scale NPC city like Dragonheart City. Once that maximum number had been reached, Dragonheart City would not gain another Wanderer’s Shop unless an existing Shop were repossessed.

Once Shi Feng confirmed his desire to purchase this Wanderer’s Shop, the NPC administrator saw to the purchasing procedures.

In less than five minutes, 9,000 Ancient Gold vanished from Shi Feng’s bag. In exchange, he obtained the Deed to the Wanderer’s Shop and all information relating to the Shop.

After Shi Feng inspected the Shop’s details, he began to get a headache.

It’s no wonder why those powers had taken so long to promote their Wanderer’s Shops to 2-star status. This promotion condition is really something... Shi Feng frowned at the Wanderer’s Shop’s promotion condition.

To promote an ordinary NPC Shop, one only needed a certain level of popularity and transaction volume. The Wanderer’s Shop, however, was a different story.

Perhaps it was because the Shop didn’t have much merchandise to sell, but it actually required a Bronze Shop Promotion Order to reach 2-stat status. Without that, it would forever be a 1-star Shop...

The Bronze Shop Promotion Order, meant for NPC Shops, was far more difficult to obtain than Promotion Orders for player Shops[l]. Generally, these Promotion Orders only dropped in Level 100-plus, large-scale Team Dungeons, and every one of them was worth tens of thousands of Gold. After all, there were a lot of benefits to promoting an NPC Shop.

Unfortunately, the thought of raiding Level 100 Team Dungeons with current players was a joke. If a team of Level 90 experts tried raiding a Level 100 Dungeon, they’d even struggle to defeat the Dungeon’s mobs.

Level 100-plus Dungeons catered to Tier 3 players and above. Tier 2 players could do nothing more than spectate or die. This was also why Tier 3 existences were considered an intermediate force in God’s Domain.

It seems I’ll have to kill a World Boss, Shi Feng thought to himself.

As far as he could remember, the only other way to obtain a Bronze Promotion Order was to kill World bosses.

Although World Bosses were challenging to raid, he had to upgrade the Wanderer’s Shop to 2-star status as quickly as possible. He simply didn’t have another way of acquiring a large amount of Ancient Gold, and Zero Wing didn’t have any members in Dragonheart City yet.

Considering his options, Shi Feng retrieved a Return Scroll and teleported to White River City.

World Bosses were extremely rare and incomparably strong. Even Zero Wing would be limited to raiding Level 70 World Bosses, and that included a little risk. The higher-leveled a World Boss was, the more difficult it would be to defeat. World Bosses’ growth rate was far beyond players’.

Unfortunately, if he wanted a high chance of securing a Bronze Shop Promotion Order, he would have to raid the Frost Monarch, a Level 90 World Boss. He had heard that this Boss would drop a Bronze Shop Promotion Order in the past.

However, Shi Feng decided to increase Kite and Anna’s strength before attempting such a challenging raid.

He had absorbed plenty of souls from the Skeletal Generals in the Endless Desert. Although the Skeletal Generals were only Great Lords, they were Level 100-plus monsters and considered mini-Bosses. It hadn’t been too difficult to collect Soul Essence while killing them.

In total, Shi Feng had collected eight drops of Soul Essence.

Initially, he had planned to save them for Fire Dance and the others. If he used Soul Strengthening on his strongest players, they might be able to break through to the Ascension or Void Realm. But considering his current predicament, Shi Feng decided to use the ability on his Personal Guards first.

Once Shi Feng arrived in the Candlelight Trading Firm, he summoned his two Personal Guards.

Kite had already reached Level 95, while Anna had reached Level 96. Their leveling speeds were simply frightening. In comparison, most mainstream Secret-Silver Personal Guards had only reached Level 90.

Personal Guards didn’t earn bonus EXP when killing higher-leveled monsters. They could only level up by completing quests.

After summoning his two Personal Guards, Shi Feng used the Ancient God’s Literature Fragment to scan Anna.

Isn’t the required number of Soul Essence a little too high? Shi Feng inwardly cursed when he saw that he’d need 15 drops of Soul Essence to use Soul Strengthening on Anna.

Soul Essence was not easy to obtain, and he could only use Soul Absorption once every six hours. The only reason that he had collected so many drops thus far was that he had been fighting Level 100 Great Lords. He doubted that even Great Lords below Level 100 would grant him any Soul Essence.

Shi Feng then proceeded to scan Kite.

When Shi Feng saw that he only needed five drops of Soul Essence to use Soul Strengthening on Kite, he released a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Kite was only a Dark-Gold Personal Guard, while Anna was an Epic Personal Guard.

“Since that’s the case, let’s strengthen you first.” Shi Feng began to chant an incantation, using the power within the Ancient God’s Literature Fragment.