Within the next hour, another group of cultivators managed to defeat the Evil Santa Boss by emulating what Bu Dong and the Fire Shamans had done. They lured the Christmas Demon out of the house where they were waiting for him fully equipped with fire enhanced weapons as well as new ice resistance clothes.
To everyone’s surprise, Captain Hei/SWAT Santa would always arrive on the last form to assist them, which was a big help. (The weapons differed from time to time, ranging from a Holy Sword to a Holy Grenade and even a Holy Bazooka.)
With this new development, the store co owner of the Armoury Department, Bai Xin had been waiting for this opportunity. Boss Jin had informed her beforehand that it was just a matter of time until the First Clear was achieved and advised her to moderately increase the price of the clothes due to shortage. It was to facilitate the supply and demand, and the trick was doing exceptionally well.
However, it was not all a cash grab. Bai Xin would intentionally release more stocks every time a new ‘shipment’ arrived with the first ten sets of ice resistant clothing at a major discount before resuming the current price.
Many struggled when seeing the increased prices, but since the articles of winter clothing were rather comfy, and their designs were very trendy, people had trouble resisting. Many were forced to reach a compromise between their wallet and guilty conscious. (Bai Xin could see the inner struggle in most of the customers’ eyes.)
And yes, sets. From winter jackets to socks and shoes, she offered everything needed to take a stroll in the freezing tundra. (It’s really an overstatement, but that’s how advertising works.)
Bai Xin did not lie when she said the stocks came in waves because they were needed to be customised by her. She had collaborated with Octofussy to create a combination of inscriptions that could be sold as a set. (Thus, having a set bonus and it was the first time Octofussy thought of that.)
The General Store Instance Keeper concentrated on making the inscription by using the many tentacles on his head to inscribe each of them whereas she sewed in those inscriptions with her Weaving Spider cultivation, enhancing the set a little more.
It was hard work, but the money for the customisation was great, and the demand for it was increasing. (Good thing the System was able to buy a ton from other worlds at a very, VERY cheap price to meet with the demands.)The sales were so overwhelming that more and more Cosplay Minotaurs had decided to help with the selling and packing.
Others continued with their fashion show and presented the various available sets. It enabled the crowd to know what kind of designs were ready to be purchased, and most importantly, the fashion show entices them even further.
In the meantime, her twin brother Bai Wan and his weapon store department were not having it any easier. Yet, despite his busyness, he still assisted his sister by helping her restock when he went to stock up his own items.
Apart from Vulcan being rather busy with enhancing the cultivator’s weapons with fire, the main income from the store stemmed from magical scrolls.
Those were selling like hotcakes after the revelation that the element of fire was rather vital for this dungeon instance. But unlike the armour, the scrolls were consumables, and Bai Wan was not allowed to further increase the prices of those already expensive scrolls.
After all, the scrolls became pricier the higher the scroll level was with. And each cultivator was restricted by the System to buy scrolls only up to their respective grade. Initially, the cultivators thought that Boss Jin was merely levelling the playing field until one of the ignorant cultivators had used a scroll two levels above his grade. (He got another cultivator to buy it for him.)
That cultivator managed to cast the spell, but he later suffered a bout of magical feedback, leaving him unconscious. This had to do with how scrolls work. It already had magic stored within that piece of paper, so a small amount of chi/mana was needed as the trigger. Aside from that, a stable connection to the mind was also required to signify the will to cast the spell.
Else, any chi or magic aura would be sufficient to make every scroll to explode on contact. When the mind connection was established with the scroll, magical energies stored within the scroll could then be released out as a spell.
In addition, all scrolls had a sort of magical feedback since magical energies in the scrolls need to be more than what the ‘mana cost’ of the spell could potentially be to keep the scroll stable. That was why the remaining mana would either be released into the surrounding environment and to the mind considering the cultivator had a stable connection with it.
As long as one used scrolls corresponding to their grade, the body was able to adapt to the overflowing mana and dissipate it into the surrounding environment. However, using higher level scrolls would result in an excess flow of mana into the brain, causing possible mana poisoning. What the cultivator had done was no better than a Western Mage casting above his level.
Thus, ever since that incident, Boss Jin became stricter with the selling of scrolls and wrote a disclaimer that cultivators using scrolls above their Grade would not be the store’s responsibility. Any cultivator failing a dungeon due to misuse would be charged for their stay in the Luxury Recovery Instance. (The price was luxurious too.)
It just so happened that Bai Wan had long since been interested in magical scrolls before joining up with Jin. Part of him wanted to help their struggling weapons shop, but a much bigger part was due to how lucrative selling them seemed to be.
Unfortunately, there was no one around to teach him this knowledge until they got this particularly new landlord.
That was also how the (not so) friendly magician in the neighbourhood got introduced to him by Boss Jin. Peppers ‘unwillingly’ taught Bai Wan the basics and even gave him a cultivation manual suitable for him to create such scrolls. (Ming’s hoard of cultivation manuals came in handy!)
Deciphering Spider Cultivation.
It allowed Bai Wan to convert chi into magic and later code it down onto paper. Before this particular cultivation, he had only studied the general form of Spider cultivation since he did not wish to take up his family’s Weaving Spider Cultivation like his twin sister.
But ever since Bai Wan took up this Deciphering Spider Cultivation seriously, he had been creating level 1 scrolls in his spare time. Those scrolls were all later vetted by the System via a machine brought to him by Peppers to test the validity of the scrolls.
The System compared the near perfect product from Peppers and listed various points of improvement for each scroll, telling Bai Wan how much each of those scrolls should potentially cost in comparison.
That allowed him to improve further while selling those imperfect scrolls at a discount with a disclaimer that it was his products. Cheapskate cultivators sometimes preferred his version, but those who had money would still buy Pepper’s version.
Bai Wan could only hope that one day, he would reach the standard of Peppers.
