Chapter 605: 195. Hit the jackpot
Noland Lee knew that his expenses might be quite high in the coming days, which could easily deplete his wallet. He had to think about how to make money in advance.
While considering the best way to make money on the Suman Archipelago, he wandered around Hadley’s shop.
After about half an hour, Noland Lee had meticulously looked at all the goods, and Hadley had also sorted out the spoils from his sea expedition.
Seeing that Noland Lee was very interested in the items in his store, Hadley grew more hopeful. After getting his things sorted out, he stood beside Noland Lee with his arms folded and introduced the items in the store following Noland Lee’s gaze.
“This dragon scale used to have mysterious energy fluctuations on it, but after being left for a long time, the energy dissipated completely…”
“This stone ball, as big as my head, is probably the ‘Yarn Ball’ in the eyes of a baby dragon. It has many claw marks and bite marks on it. When I first got it, the marks on the ball were quite clear, much prettier than now. But I can’t afford to buy a sealed display cabinet to preserve it… so… hehe, it has become like this now…”
Hadley picked up a dirty, old silver candlestick from the storage shelf and said proudly:
“This is one of the few relatively intact items in my store. It’s a collection of the Dragon Clan, probably from a few epochs ago, I estimated…”
Before Hadley could finish his sentence, the silver candlestick with three branches underwent a change.
Due to Hadley’s excessive force, the candlestick’s base on the far left was nudged by his robust fingers, cracked, slumped down weakly, and landed on the floor with a clang.
The atmosphere of the scene was awkward and froze for a second.
Hadley put the antique silver candlestick back on the shelf, laboriously bent over with his bucket-like waist, picked up the broken base from the floor, and gave Noland Lee a stiff smile:
“Well, if you buy this antique, I can give you a discount…”
Noland Lee’s expression remained unchanged, pretending not to see Hadley’s embarrassed appearance:
“Hadley, I have a question. If your items are genuine, why don’t you sell them at the Magic Items Exchange?”
Hadley took out some glue and carefully glued the broken candle base back to the candlestick:
“You must have just arrived at the Suman Archipelago recently, haven’t you? Did you hear that the fees at the Magic Items Exchange here are very low? Hmph, don’t be so naïve. This is bait deliberately released by the Mantas Family.”
“The Mantas Family?” Noland Lee asked.
“Haven’t you heard of them? Well, I don’t know much either. I only know that the Mantas Family is notoriously shrewd. They are the ones behind the Magic Items Exchange.”
Hadley successfully glued the candlestick back together.
He blew on the glue and continued:
“To sell something at the Magic Items Exchange, you need to pay a deposit. The appraiser at the Exchange will give you an estimated price for the item you want to sell. The amount of the deposit you pay is about one-third of the estimated price. The deposit will be refunded within a month after the item is sold. I’m just running a small business, and I don’t have that much money to spare, so I’d rather sell them slowly in my own store…”
“Isn’t the Mantas Family holding a lot of cash in their own accounts by doing this?” Noland Lee pondered:
“I heard that there are quite a few Magic Banks in the Ulnas Circle that provide deposit services. Just the interest income from the deposit balance at the Exchange would make the Mantas Family very wealthy.”
“You seem to have some research on Magic Currency Studies?” Hadley looked Noland Lee up and down, his face showing confusion:
“This is the first time I’ve learned that a Death Wizard would be interested in Magic Currency Studies…”
Noland Lee waved his hand, skipping over that topic:
“Let’s get back to business, Hadley. I have my eyes on a few items in your store, so give me a price.”
The breath of Hadley grew slightly heavier, obviously surprised by the upcoming transaction, and he stammered when he spoke:
“What-what-what do you want?! The price is negotiable!”
Noland Lee raised his hand and pointed out the items he was interested in on the storage shelves all around.
Hadley gave the prices one by one:
“The Baby Dragon’s tooth, 330 gold coins, I’ll give you a discount, 300 gold coins. A small piece of dragon scale soaked in deep-sea water, well, this isn’t worth much. There are many dragon scales at the bottom of the sea. I’ll count it as 100 gold coins for you. The half stone tablet engraved with Dragon Language… The things you’re interested in are really strange. This half stone tablet has nothing special other than the incomprehensible Dragon Language on it. Well, since you want it, I’ll sell it to you for 700 gold coins…”
As Hadley reported prices for several items in a row, his tone changed when Noland Lee pointed to the last item:
“Guest, that book is not for sale. Although it’s an antique, I use it to write my sea diaries.”
The item Noland Lee pointed to was a 30-centimeter-thick book. The book had a thick brown leather cover, looking wet as if it had just been fished out of the water.
Noland Lee was attracted to it, partly because of its ancient and textured appearance, and partly because both the book and the magic lock on it required a total of 303,000 energy points to deconstruct.
The energy consumption required to crack the magic lock accounted for the vast majority, reaching as much as 300,000 points.
“Why would you use an antique to write a diary?” Noland Lee asked perplexedly.
