“I don’t think I have to mention that this sign will only be of existence as long as the form is unchanged, and it can’t be copied or even be touched with any deep magics. You can scan it for the registry, but it will appear obscure and only the original paper will have it proper.”

This stamp was a skill in the game, but it was also able to perform it with free form magic as long as you wanted to work hours learning the proper runes for it. Alaric knew how to do it because he thought it looked pretty and professional to have your own signature and a stamp that worked like this, preventing any issues along the way too.

The stamp was simple, too complicated things were difficult. The insignia was a simple circle with two half circles left and right. In the middle of the circle, one could read ‘Night Lily’, while above and below it were flower designs. Everything was like blank ink, if one looked closer, it felt like the black would suck one in, but this was only an illusion.

The true insignia was basically the same, only in the background there was a Night Lily to be seen, but there was no need to craft that into the stamp too. Not to mention the work needed, it was simply too difficult to write that with free form magic. Alaric could probably achieve that if he really worked hard on it for a few weeks, but that was too much of a bother, even for him. Of course, the words were still written in an exquisite calligraphy.

Bowing, the manager paid his respects before he took the form and put it into his desk. A minute later, which was spend in silence, the form transferred back. The manager took the form and saw that it was empty where the stamp was prior. He thought of the words of Alaric and considered them, maybe they were true, and the stamp disappeared, but there was an ‘approved’ stamp from the Silent Travellers Emporium’s South-Continent Headquarters. This meant that they definitely accepted it.

The manager was about to present it to Alaric, but then he saw ink on the backside of it. An extra note was written there ‘Special Shop Entry’ – the manager didn’t quite understand. He had never seen it, but he gave it to Alaric anyways as he said “Here is your form. Unfortunately, this branch is too small and can’t give out further identifications, the form is temporarily acceptable, but I ask the Shop Owner to visit a major branch.”

Alaric smiled as he saw the backside. There was no way a small branch manager would know about the meaning of a Special Shop Entry. In actuality, this was basically a step higher than general shops, as these shops were still under the supervision of major branches. This was an improvement in comparison to local shop entries, but not much better.

In comparison, Special Shop Entries were the true gems under the shops. Any truly special shop would gain such an entry and they were not to be supervised at all. This special treatment was given to any extraordinary forms, it would be taken back in time if the shop turned out to be a disappointment, but initially there would be no problem and no supervision.

This would be more than beneficial to Alaric who wanted privacy for his shop, and he only had to behave well and work hard for that. After the initial ‘testing period’ finished, the title would turn from Special Shop Entry to Special Shop, fortifying it. The reason why the Silent Travellers Emporium had this system in the first place was to encourage talented Shop Owners to join them and ensure they don’t reject the emporium. This was why it flourished, as truly successful Shop Owners either joined the Emporium Realm or at least were associated with them.

Who would reject any god-equivalents? Obviously, any other Origin Realm. There were three merchant Origin Realms, reaching that level with trading is truly remarkable. But, of course, they weren’t comparable to the Arcane, Immortal, Holy, Demon or any other Top Origin realm.

Still, there weren’t many Origin realms, even if they weren’t high in power, so it was still a great accomplishment. Alaric chose the Silent because of this. Simply, he never planned to join the Emporium Realm, but being associated with an Origin Realm so early on is a blessing. Now, he only had to pass the test and he’d be confirmed as a Special Shop.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

There were four levels of shops, namely the local, general, special and lastly origin shop, which is led by a god, or how the merchant realms called themselves ‘Great Merchants’. It was funny how, unlike other Origin Realms, they thought that the profession title ‘Merchant’ was already good enough, and they only added ‘Great’ to show their achievement, but many of them would still simply call themselves ‘Merchant’. After all, being humble was more profitable than being arrogant. Who would buy from a person with bad character?

Illic let out a cough, telling Alaric to not space out so much. He smiled behind the mask; it was part of his personality to fall into a long and complicated thought process while doing any kind of tasks. Anyways, he looked at the manager as he said, “I would like to take a teleportation to the South Continent’s Continental Branch, when would that be available?”

The manager was slightly surprised, he was about to say something, but Kendrick coughed, as if clearing his throat, and mentioned by the way “Payment is no issue.”

Well, look at this, I can’t even act pretentious. Alaric laughed to himself but didn’t care, it was better to waste less breath.

The manager nodded and said, “Tomorrow at this hour the teleportation circle should be ready.”

Alaric nodded and simply left the shop with the form in hand. Illic followed him into the carriage while Keen took the seat in front to lead the carriage. Soon, Kendrick left the shop too after discussing the price, he thought about it, opened the window and quoted a price to Alaric. It was about half of the liquid wealth of the Violet family, which was quite a lot, but he didn’t care.

This was already less than he expected, it seemed he would be able to buy a shop in the Inner City of the Central Continent’s Southern Capital. He was prepared to settle down in the Outer City, at least he wouldn’t be in the Faming City. Even if he used his whole wealth, the Noble District would be out of question, so landing in the second-best Inner city was worth it.

He knew the geography of the Southern Capital already pretty well, and he also knew several shop locations that should be available. There was one particular good place he’d have to visit. It was just that, although the game was always the same, the prices in the books were always vague. So, in the game adaption, the prices would have a range between, for example, twenty to thirty essence stones, if you had twenty-five stones, then the chance to get what you wanted was around fifty percent, but even that was not perfectly true because of different situations.

The currency of the world was pretty simple. Essence Stones < Essence Liquid < Essence Gems. A hundred Stones were worth a single liquid drop and a hundred liquid drops were worth a single gem. Naturally, this was only in the realm of mortals, since gods traded directly with items instead of such general-use items. There were a few in the realm of gods, but gods preferred something that benefitted them specifically, so all general-use items are generally thought of as lesser currency and would at most be used for lesser transactions involving not so important goods, but even then, it was only used by bigger factions, since smaller ones couldn’t afford the luxury of using goods that weren’t directly beneficial to them.

The three different mortal currencies were comparable to the three big steps of cultivation, that is to say first to third circle, fourth to sixth and finally seventh to ninth.

A marquisate, even the kingdom, belonged to the middle stage, so their wealth was measured in Essence Liquid. Using half of their wealth, they might be barely able to buy the shop Alaric was thinking of. Other expenses would have to be covered by the profit generated during the Festival of Gods, if they managed to land a deal.

The carriage drove off while Alaric was still thinking. Soon, it arrived back at the estate, and everyone ate together. Onaia was free once more and they were all quite happy. The night was passionate for at least two of them, till the day came with bright colours.

Everything was ready and they only talked some more. Alaric gave more tips and tricks to Onaia for her path of political conquest. He was happy that he didn’t need to be the one to stay back in the Laya kingdom for the profit. Although he would benefit much less, it was still worth it.

They ate lunch at one point and talked together, before they left with no hesitation nor reluctance. No one truly felt close to the estate nor the kingdom or even the continent. It was a bit of a group of lost children, Kendrick and Keen were only bound to Alaric, Illic kind of too but his binding was more passionate and romantical than stemming from experience. As for Alaric… well, the original one died, but even he didn’t feel too close at this point in time.