Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Under the Tree of Life, the intertwined roots formed chains of undulating hills.
The huge mountains were occupied by functional buildings for the Seven Rings Holy Tower, whereas the small hills were packed with free markets for Demon-Hunter sorcerers.
After winning a war among worlds, sorcerers would return with their bounties and rewards. Usually, they would carry rare items from the other world to sell to other sorcerers. The most common things they brought back were captives and slaves.
The market for creatures from a different world was wide. For example, Stigmata Sorcerers would be the first to purchase these creatures in bulk, some sorcerers wanted to use them for their experiments while some had the hobby of adding different creatures into their collection. All of these buyers were willing to pay a high price for one creature. When a Stigmata Sorcerer was running low on funding, they would trade off their captives and slaves, or even sell contracts allowing the buyer to use their Soul Slaves.
Usually, another Stigmata Sorcerer would buy them all if the number was big enough.
The loan contract of Soul Slaves was commonly used among Ougi Sorcerers as a lower-grade of Stigmata Friendship Key. Most of the time such contracts would serve as an Ougi Sorcerer’s last resort.
Being carried by a Seven Rings Bubble, Grimm [1] floated across the land filled with a variety of wonderful goods. Occasionally, he had to make way for some tall and huge slaves from another world. Unless there were some interesting mysterious magical products that were of great interest to them, no sorcerer would bother making a stop at the market.
A quarter of an hourglass passed before Grimm lowered himself between the roots of the Tree of Life.
Pop!
The Seven Rings Bubble burst and dissipated into thin air, yet Grimm’s feet were still floating a few inches above the ground. Just like other sorcerers, Grimm glided over the market where merchant sorcerers showcased their stocks on the leaves of the Tree of Life. They were all headed towards the fifty meters tall door on one of the branches of the Tree of Life.
Behind the opening of the door, a deep and extended passage lay waiting.
It took another fifteen minutes for Grimm’s descent down the slope until he reached a limitless underground space.
Scores of magic lights shone brightly in the spacious underground square, the passages that linked to other underground spaces could be clearly seen under the radiant lights shining endlessly. It would appear that the underground space of the Tree of Life was a gigantic ant’s nest, a sight that was simply breathtaking.
Grimm’s eyes gleamed excitedly, yet he did not make a move towards his intended target. Instead, he went around the huge underground square, then proceeded to check out the establishment of shop lots with various family logos.
These were none other than the legitimate stores long operated by the Seven Rings Holy Tower. The pricing quoted by the stores were pretty stable and hardly fluctuated.
Grimm’s exposure grew and grew as the days went by. With the amount of information gathered, he gradually formed a system that enabled him to evaluate the precious items available in the Sorcerer World within the Seven Rings Holy Tower.
First and foremost, in the region of the Seven Rings Holy Tower, foreign slaves and foreign energy crystals could be used as “soft currency’ in trading for items aside from strong currencies such as Sorcerer Essences and Magic Stones.
The second intel he gained was that the price of items gathered from other worlds differed based on each sorcerer’s needs.
There would always be sorcerers who think that the items were either overpriced or too cheap to be true.
The last thing to note was the popularity of certain world items. Items from a new world would be on the top of the popularity list. As time went by, each of the items would eventually be given a more reasonable price based on its usage in the Seven Rings Holy Tower.
Exactly two hourglasses later, Grimm stopped in front of an ordinary shop.
The logo of the shop was a blossoming Purple Tulip! [2]
“Greetings, what can I do for you?”
A sorceress dress in a corset approached Grimm as he ventured into the shop. She was a skinny girl with long and wavy green hair. With her height around one hundred and ninety centimeters, she was slightly taller than Grimm
Grimm lifted his head to look at the girl. ‘Another flat-chested girl,’ he thought to himself.
It was not the merchandise Grimm came in for. After a nod, Grimm focused his Mental Power to trigger a Seal which flashed in the air. An invisible strong will started to vibrate at the ceiling of the shop.
This was the resonance of a Seven Rings Contract.
“Eh? You are…”
Stunned for a short moment, the sorceress regained her senses and closed her eyes.
A harmonious magic power appeared in the shop as the sorceress opened her eyes. With both of her hands, she pulled a few eerie glowing green strings out of thin air. They were bent and manipulated in the air. With a few gestures, the sorceress created a few illusions out of them.
“A Sorcerer’s Apprentice in the twelve districts of the Seven Rings Holy Tower. One who came from the Black Isotta Tower, you are Grimm who invented Venus’s Love Vials, one of the twenty-one people bound to a Seven Rings Contract with the Purple Tulip family. Huh… you have advanced to an official sorcerer?” the sorceress murmured to herself as she cleared the air of the green illusions with a few gestures.
Holding onto his magic staff, Grimm did not move one bit, patiently waiting for what she was going to say next.
Without hesitation, the sorceress declared, “According to the contract, the Purple Tulip family will share sixty percent of the Love Vials’ profit with you.”
He nodded in agreement with the stated term, Grimm then responded leisurely, “That’s right. The reason I came here is to notify the Purple Tulip family of my advancement as a Demon-Hunter Sorcerer. From today onwards, I will be staying in the Seven Rings Holy Tower.”
Grimm and the fatso from the Black Isotta Tower could still be friends as they had helped each other out when they were both sorcerer apprentices. With the Purple Tulip family, however, Grimm would not tolerate any sort of wishy-washy business. Their relationship was merely of one as partners to achieve a win-win situation. It was nothing personal, everything was strictly business.
The Purple Tulip family intended to make full use of Grimm, a sorcerer apprentice, who would have only lived for some two to three hundred years. After he was gone, they would then steal his Love Vial ingredients and put them into mass production. To do so they only needed a Seven Rings Holy Tower contract and merely five thousand pieces of Magic Stones.
Grimm had nothing to lose when he was a poor sorcerer’s apprentice. He had thought that the idiotic ones were the fatso and the Purple Tulip family. Now that Grimm could see the world as a sorcerer, he saw the logic behind their actions and how naive he was as a sorcerer apprentice.
It was the same situation whereby a sorcerer apprentice would tease an ordinary human. Both were not equal in terms of intelligence, hence they saw the world from different perspectives.
Nevertheless, Grimm made the best out of this loss from the actual profit he could have gotten. He won himself a real fighting chance to rise among those of the higher class.
Grimm might still be the idiotic sorcerer apprentice who was still tied to some compulsory tasks, killing other apprentices in some cruel battle.
Yet, Grimm had started to understand the motive behind those little changes the Purple Tulip family had been making all these years.
Keeping the perfumes made from the Love Vials in the shadows, the Purple Tulip family had never given its best effort to promote the Love Vials. As a consequence, they were affected by the amount of profit they had received. The Purple Tulip family would only start to promote the Love Vials after Grimm’s death, only then would they own the full amount of profit possible from it. Needless to say, it would be a substantial amount!
Therefore, Grimm had to appear as a sorcerer to the Purple Tulip family. Other than Magic Stones, he wanted to send a message to the Purple Tulip family so that they were clearly informed of his lifespan that was no longer a measly two to three hundred years.
They would be stupid if they were to insist on delaying the advertisement of the Love Vials until Grimm was dead.
If Grimm’s assumption was right, there would be an immediate change of his share in the Love Vial’s profit.
It came to Grimm’s attention that sorcerers commonly attached a small vial of perfume within the Seven Rings Holy Tower. It was a trend now which would promote and boost the sales of the perfumes.
The sorceress spoke placidly, “Now that Master Grimm has become a Demon-Hunter Sorcerer and is staying here, Master Grimm might want to visit the seven franchises of the Purple Tulip family within the Seven Rings Holy Tower. Master Grimm could then collect his profits if he wishes to do so.”
“Alright.”
Grimm agreed with what she said. Without a sound, he pocketed the huge bag of high-grade Magic Stones given by the sorceress. He made a copy of the contract then browsed through the shop before he left. The sorceress did not once lift her eyes off him.
Grimm flew across the underground square, passing by the big crowd, straight into a wide path. It took him half an hour to reach another underground square.
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