Drake wanted to head to the merchants guild first. He wanted to buy more materials and see if they had any books on alchemy. He also wanted to see what kinds of goods they had on offer. As the largest commercial franchise in the Kingdom, and potentially the entire continent, he was excited to see if he could find something rare.
The two chatted on the way. Blaze asked Drake more questions about humans, and Drake also learnt a lot more about the dragon race from Blaze.
One interesting thing Blaze told him was that dragons started cultivating much later compared to humans. Although dragons were born with steel bodies, unlike humans who formed their mana cores and started cultivating at seven years old, this only happened for dragons when they were between seventy to eighty.
Perhaps it was due to their long lifespans, but dragons not only had a lower reproduction rate, but it also took longer for their mana cores to form, although it was guaranteed that all of them would form several mana cores.
This was also true for other races. Generally, the longer the natural lifespan of a race, the lower their reproduction rate, and the longer it would take for them to form their mana core and begin their cultivation journey.
Hence the reason why Blaze, Sylvia, and even Ray, despite being much older than Drake, had a similar cultivation to him.
Drake and Blaze were talking about something else when they finally arrived in front of the merchants guild.
Unlike the simple hunters guild, the merchants guild was a large, multistorey building, constructed with the finest stone, marble, and glass, engraved with various artistic drawings decorating the structure, with everything polished with fine paint. It was located at the centre of a medium-sized garden, home to a well-maintained lawn, carrying several fountains and statues laid out invitingly.
The grandiose building and décor showcased the wealth of the merchants guild for all to see.
The duo took a few seconds to admire the beauty, before looking at each other excitedly and making their way inside.
They were welcomed by a grand hall, filled with people in small groups. Each group was engaged by a well-dressed member of staff. Tables were placed adjacent to each other around the hall, on top of which various items were on display. Slightly more valuable items were hung on the walls behind the tables instead, designed to immediately capture the customers' attention.
Before they could see any more details, a voice interrupted them.
“Welcome to the merchants guild!” an ordinary-looking, but well-dressed man said, walking towards them, smiling. However, he paused upon seeing Blaze. His eyes scanned up to his head, then traced his spiral horns, which made his expression change completely. “Oh my, you are…” he hesitated for a second but then came to a decision immediately and exclaimed, “Please wait a moment,” before running off.
Confused, Drake and Blaze exchanged a glance, but not a few seconds had passed when they were welcomed by someone new.
“Apologies,” came a female voice. Drake and Blaze turned towards the speaker to find a beautiful young woman.
Her black hair fell down to her slender waist. Combined with her crystal blue eyes, they perfectly complemented her fair and youthful skin. She was wearing tight, black robes that accentuated her slim figure. The black robes were interlaced with golden patterns, giving them a priceless look. Her appearance, combined with her outfit, radiated an indescribable charm and elegance.
She was probably one of the most beautiful women Drake had ever seen.
The woman walked towards them and gave a slight bow, before speaking in a soft and clear voice.
“Welcome to our merchants guild. My name is Freya, and I will be your guide.”
Drake and Blaze shared another glance before Blaze decided to answer.
“Oh, thank you,” he replied.
“It’s my pleasure,” the woman replied, straightening up with a gentle smile. “Whatever you’re looking for, I’ll do my best to help you find it.”
Drake was confused about why she suddenly appeared and replaced the other man but then noticed something amongst the groups of people in the hall. The groups containing higher-ranked cultivators were greeted by staff who were better looking. A group composed mostly of men would generally be greeted by an attractive female staff and, similarly, a group composed mostly of women would generally be greeted by an attractive male staff.
Given Blaze’s identity as a member of the famous dragon race, it was clear that they were trying to impress him.
‘No wonder they are so successful,’ Drake thought. ‘They pay so much attention to even the smallest detail,’ but then became slightly depressed that he wasn’t reincarnated as a dragon, else he could also be receiving such treatment everywhere he went.
“Can you first show us what you have available?” Blaze asked, bringing Drake back from his thoughts.
“Absolutely!” she replied cheerfully. “Please follow me.”
She led the way to the stairs. Although there were many items on display here, they all seemed to be general items for everyday, mortal use, albeit they were of much higher quality than what you could find in random, roadside shops.
They arrived at the stairs and Drake saw that even the staircase was made from clear, shiny, and precious marble, that reflected the room’s light beautifully. The whole building was constructed with so much care to every detail, it was truly incredible.
Soon, they climbed the stairs and reached the first floor.
Drake and Blaze stood in front of yet another large hall. Items were arranged in a similar fashion to before, placed on tables and hung from the wall, but now, every single item in this room was much more precious. They included artifacts, pills, pill recipes, herbs, materials, and more, but most of them were rank one.
Freya continued climbing up the stairs to the second floor and the two followed, soon arriving at a similar hall, but now filled with rank two items. She finally stopped and began guiding Blaze and Drake around the room, introducing the treasures.
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There were lots of useful artifacts, pills, cultivation techniques, pill recipes, and more. Drake felt like buying all of them, but the price tags on them were shocking.
The cheapest item in this room was worth twenty low-grade spirit stones! If he wanted to buy a rarer and more precious artifact, it could easily cost him fifty.
Drake definitely did not have so much money and felt a little depressed.
As for Blaze, he was initially interested to see what items the biggest business in the human race had. He found them all quite interesting, however, his tribe had collected many precious treasures over the centuries, so these did not interest him much. He was more excited in visiting the higher floors.
Freya keenly detected these changes in her customers and switched tactics.
“The other items on this floor will also be similar,” she explained with her soft voice. “If you’d like, I can take you to the next floor, where more valuable treasures are on display.”
“Actually, there’s something specific I’m looking for,” Drake laughed, not wanting to feel any more depressed about his financial situation.
“What may that be?” she asked curiously.
Helen had previously checked the merchants guild as well for pills or information related to how to heal his mana core and knew that they didn’t have anything like that. So, he didn’t want to ask them about it again and raise suspicion.
“I was wondering if you have any books, on alchemy,” Drake asked.
Freya’s eyes sparkled. That’s an interesting request, she thought.
“Yes, we do, please follow me,” she said and led the two towards a private room.
The room was small but designed to be very comfortable and visually appealing.
“Please wait here. I will get you what you are looking for,” she said with a bow, before turning around.
“Wait!” Drake exclaimed. Freya paused and turned back. Drake handed her a list containing the details of all the other materials he needed for pill refining. He had used up a lot yesterday so he was going to buy plenty now. “Can you get me everything you have on this list too?”
Freya gently took the list and read through it. It was all just relatively common pill refining materials, with some slightly more uncommon ones, but nothing that they didn’t have.
After reading through it, she replied. “Of course, please wait for a few minutes.”
Drake and Blaze relaxed onto the comfortable sofa.
“I didn’t expect the merchants guild to be this nice,” Blaze commented. “It’s on a whole other level compared to the hunters guild, despite the similar names.”
“Indeed,” Drake agreed.
Freya soon returned carrying a storage pouch.
“Thank you for your patience,” she said with a beautiful smile.
Seeing how pretty she was, Drake was reminded of someone else; another, incredibly beautiful woman from a long time ago. He remembered sitting next to her on a similar sofa inside a house, watching a movie, while a child was playing with some toys in the background.
That was from a long time ago, and a different life that Drake had moved on from.
‘I’ve reincarnated now. Even if I still have those memories, it’s okay for me to move on, right?’ he thought to himself; but then shook his head.
‘What am I thinking about right now!?’ he scolded himself.
Freya had taken out several books from the storage pouch and laid them on the table before Drake. Each book had a small stone, a rank one artifact, placed on top of its cover.
He took the first stone artifact and poured a bit of mana into it. Immediately, a summary of the contents of the book entered his mind.
It contained a lot of information about the basics of alchemy, something that was well explained already in Ray’s book.
Drake looked at the next stone artifact, and it contained information on different herbs and materials. Although Ray’s book also contained that information, he wasn’t sure if this would have more. Drake quickly looked through all the books and realised none of them contained anything that wasn’t in Ray’s book already.
Drake shook his head in disappointment.
“Hang on,” Freya interrupted him and pulled out another book. Even without reading its summary, the title caught Drake’s eyes.
The title itself caught Drake’s eyes.
Advanced Alchemical Techniques.
Drake read through its stone artifact; it was exactly as expected.
The book contained information on 81 different, advanced alchemy techniques, related to processing different materials and herbs, tips on how to increase chances of refining pills, and much more. Although Ray’s book also contained some of this information, this book seemed to go into much more depth and was more comprehensive.
“Great, I’ll take this one… and that one,” he said smiling, pointing towards the second book on herbs and pill refining materials.
“Wonderful,” Freya replied, and then handed a storage pouch to Drake before continuing, “Please, look through this and see if it has everything you need.”
Drake poured his mana into the storage pouch and saw that it contained all of the materials he requested.
He was extremely happy.
“Yes, thank you very much.”
“My pleasure,” she replied, pleased that she managed to satisfy Drake.
Blaze didn’t want anything, so Drake just paid for the two books and the materials and they left. It cost him two and a half low-grade mana stones, or twenty five gold coins in total. Luckily, the money that Drake had from completing his mission yesterday and the demon materials they sold, was more than enough to cover it.
“Feel free to come again,” Freya exclaimed as she waved them off.
Having visited the merchants guild, Drake and Blaze were back on the streets.
“That was cool!” Blaze said, stretching his arms. “Where are we going next?”
“Hmm, how about we go to the market square? That’s another cool place here,” Drake replied.
“Sure, sounds fun,” Blaze responded enthusiastically.
Drake started leading the way to the market square. They walked past a narrow alleyway but suddenly stopped.
‘What was that?’ they thought simultaneously.
With their keen senses, the two detected a mysterious movement in the alleyway. They shared a glance and turned back, before entering the alleyway.
‘There!’ Drake thought.
A purple figure was dashing through the alleyway and turned a corner just as they entered. Something about the way it was moving was deeply unsettling. It reminded Drake of…
‘Dark mages!’ Drake thought and immediately chased after the figure. Blaze followed.
The figure was fast and turned another corner just as Drake entered the same street. Drake poured mana into his boots to increase his speed and chased after it again.
He managed to enter the same street as the figure now before it could turn a corner, but it was still some distance away.
Drake raised his hands and poured mana into his gloves. A fireball shot out.
The figure was startled and turned back, revealing the face of a man. He summoned an iron shield artifact, just in time to block the fireball. The sound of the clash echoed across the alley, and the man in purple came to a stop, followed by Drake, and then Blaze who had now caught up.
“Who are you?” Drake asked warily, ready to shoot another fireball at a moment’s notice.
“Who am I?” the man in purple asked arrogantly. “You guys attacked me! Maybe you should introduce yourself first.”
Drake was sure that he was a dark mage now, so he was in no mood to argue with him. He would have attacked already, but he was puzzled.
‘What were dark mages doing in a city like this?’
Drake scanned the purple figure and realised that he had his hands behind his back. The round edge of some item was poking out from behind him, but the moment Drake noticed it, the mage moved his hands to hide it again so nothing could be seen.
Blaze also noticed this and furrowed his brows.
“What is that?” he asked.
“None of your business,” the man replied. “Why don’t you two go back, continue doing whatever you were doing before, and we can all pretend like nothing happened?”
“You wish,” Drake retorted.
“Fireball!”
Drake shot out another fireball.
The man moved the shield to block it again, but that was just a distraction.
Drake poured mana into his boots and activated shadow steps before jumping into the air. In less than a second, he appeared behind the man, however there was nothing in his hands anymore. For a moment, Drake was confused, before noticing the storage pouch hanging by his waist.
Without hesitation, Drake unsheathed his sword and sprang into action. Blaze also had his sword equipped and ran forwards, ready to strike.
Being attacked from both sides, the man sighed.
‘I don’t have time for this,’ he thought to himself, before taking out a round artifact.
Just as Drake and Blaze were approaching, the man crushed the artifact in his palm and a huge, suffocating smoke screen broke out.
Unable to breathe or see anything, Drake and Blaze retreated, coughing.
It took almost ten seconds for Drake and Blaze to recover and the smoke to clear, but by then, the dark mage was nowhere to be seen.