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"It's so expensive. How many people can afford to buy a house?" Salin asked Sumanno. Rex was one of the wealthiest people in the Qinyin Empire, but he wouldn't carry nine million gold coins with him. Even if he had two million, he would have to sell his materials with Salin in order to get it. If even Rex couldn't afford a house here, few people in the Qinyin Empire would be able to buy property in Alchemy City.
Selling a house in Alchemy City was really a profitable move!
"It doesn't have to be gold coins. Many items can be converted into cash. Alchemy City is run by the nine Archmages. There's no mayor's office. All transactions are done in the Alchemy Tower in the city center. If you have good materials, the people in the Alchemy Tower will buy them at a higher price than other places. "
"What materials do you need?" Salin had many rare materials, but he wasn't willing to sell most of them. The things he got from the dragon were still used as bait. At least, Salin wouldn't take them out in the short term.
"The Alchemy Tower has a price for materials that changes frequently. The list is very long, and I can't guarantee that I know the price every day," Sumanno answered with familiarity.
"If I can't even get the money to rent a house, and I don't have suitable materials, won't I have to sleep on the streets?"
"Impossible. Do you see this?" Sumanno pointed at a badge on his robe. "This is issued by the Alchemy Tower. If you don't have this badge, you will be attacked by the patrolling puppets if you sleep outside."
Salin was a little angry. Alchemy City didn't look like a mage at all. They were more like profit-seeking merchants.
"Do I have to die here if I'm penniless?!"
"No, no!" Sumanno quickly stopped Salin. "If you really don't have money, you have two choices."
"What choices?!" Salin was furious. Compared to Rex's plan, Alchemy City was too unscrupulous, and they treated mages too coldly. A mage without money didn't even have the right to sleep on the streets.
"Sir Salin, you misunderstand." Sumanno carefully used a respectful tone and said, "If it wasn't for that, the population of Alchemy City would have reached tens of millions. Think about it, there are opportunities to make money everywhere. If I didn't need a place to stay and could just attract customers like you on the streets every day, how much money could I save?"
When Salin heard Sumano's words, he realized that he had been too impulsive. He used his perception to scan the surroundings, but he didn't find anyone paying attention to them. Perhaps it was because most newcomers would have such a reaction. Alchemy City did things their own way, so why would they pay attention to such trivial matters?
Sumanno was right. Not to mention Alchemy City, even Holy Rock City would have a terrifying population if they did not control it. Even begging in Sacred Rock City would earn him dozens of times more than anywhere else.
"Sorcerers who come here to study can tell the people at the Alchemy Tower if they have no money. The Alchemy Tower will send you out of Alchemy City within three days. The carriages here can send you all the way back to your hometown. Even if you live in Phoenix, you won't have to pay a single copper coin."
"What's the second option?" Salin asked. He believed that most sorcerers who came to Alchemy City wouldn't leave so easily.
"The second option is to work for the Alchemy Tower. Sorcerers in Alchemy City need a lot of materials, and some of them need to be hunted in the sea. You're a sorcerer too, so you should know that this is time-consuming. Sorcerers in Alchemy City usually don't participate in these hunts unless they need to gain some battle experience. These hunts are almost all done by foreign sorcerers, and the materials they obtain have to be handed in. They can't keep it for themselves before paying off their debts. "
Salin nodded. He roughly understood Alchemy City's way of doing things.
"If I lack money and don't owe Alchemy City anything, can I also participate in these hunts?"
"Of course you can. The Alchemy Tower has an announcement every day about what they need. Otherwise, what are the swordsmen in the east of the city doing? They're just working for the sorcerers at sea, "Sumanno said proudly. Sumano said proudly. Even though he was only a magic apprentice, he still looked down on swordsmen.
"Sumanno, eat something first." Salin glanced at Rex, and Rex nodded at him, indicating that he could make the decision. Salin carefully searched through the items he had, thinking about what he could sell.
He couldn't think of anything he could sell no matter how much he thought about it.
The Devil set definitely couldn't be sold. This thing was more useful than he thought. Without the set, he would have died a long time ago. Needless to say, there was still a gourd left in the Blessing Ring. It must be something left behind by Myer.
Rafael's crystal ring, the badge left behind by his family, and the mutated construct puppet couldn't be sold.
High-level blank scrolls were the same as gems. If he sold them now, he wouldn't be able to buy them in large quantities in the future. Middle-level blank scrolls couldn't be sold for a good price, and Alchemy City didn't lack them.
The blank magic book left behind by Myer couldn't be sold either. Originally, this thing didn't mean much to Salin, but with Joey's guidance, he would be able to use all the functions of this magic book in the future. The shortcomings of Magic Strings could be made up for.
The most valuable thing left was Rafael's magic book, but those magic books couldn't be seen in the light of day. Alchemy City was full of talents, and they would definitely find out that this was a relic from a thousand years ago. His and Rex's identities couldn't be kept secret either. At the end of the exploration, the fact that there were relics in the Hell of God's Punishment could no longer be covered up.
Rex still had five unmutated construct puppets in his hands, as well as a set of construct puppet parts. If he sold one of these things, it would definitely be worth the price of a house. Although the technique of construct puppets had been lost, this technique wasn't unique to Rafael, nor was it created by him. Selling the puppets wouldn't attract any attention.
Thinking of this, Salin put down his worries and began to eat. Sicca had already finished her three servings and was eating Neris's dessert.
The environment of this tavern was quiet. The red wine after the meal was stored in crystal bottles. In front of Salin and the others, the waiter cleaned a set of crystal glasses with the Cleaning Spell again before pouring wine for Salin and the others.
To be able to use the Cleaning Spell, one had to be at least a high-level apprentice.
After Salin entered Alchemy City, he already saw two magic apprentices. One was doing odd jobs, and the other was a waiter in the tavern. It seemed that Alchemy City wasn't a city to live in.
Salin didn't directly ask Sumano about his teacher. He saw so many Magic Towers outside the city and knew that a level-five mage might not be very famous in Alchemy City. What Rex and Jason wanted to discuss was an extremely strong temptation for Alchemy City. Salin couldn't sell Rex. After all, he still had a share of the Magic Tower in the Hell of God's Punishment.
If Alchemy City took it away, his share would also be lost.
Mages wouldn't snatch things from others. It depended on what it was. If it was Rafael's inheritance, Salin didn't believe that the level-nine magic shooters in Alchemy City would be able to hold back.
"Sumano, tell me about the Alchemy Tower." Salin was very curious. Without nobles, how did the mages in Alchemy City manage this city? And from what Sumano said, there were many swordsmen in this city.
Sumano wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin. He raised his cup of ale and took a sip before saying, "There are Magic Towers all around Alchemy City. In reality, most of the people who control Alchemy City aren't in the city. The Magic Towers in the city are only places where the nine magic shooters issue missions. They won't go there. There are teleportation matrices in the Alchemy Tower that can transmit sound and small items. When necessary, they can also transmit people. If there's any danger in the Alchemy Tower, the mages outside the city will know immediately. "
"I want to ask, other than the Alchemy Tower, is there no one else in Alchemy City who manages other things? Like this tavern. "
"How can that be? Alchemy City is 12 miles long in all directions. There are more than 800,000 people. If there's only one tower, it'll be too busy. There are a total of six small Alchemy Towers in this city. We call them the Elemental Hand. The people from the Elemental Hand are the main people who manage Alchemy City. "
"Oh? If I want to buy a house, do I have to go through the Elemental Hand? "
"That's right. The Alchemy Tower is only responsible for issuing missions and transactions between outsiders and Alchemy City. Taxes and defense are all handled by the Elemental Hand. "
"Is there an Imperial Bank here?"
"No, the people of Alchemy City only recognize the Elemental Hand's magic notes."
"Then can't bank notes be used?"
"It's a five percent discount. If you're not willing to exchange, the notes are useless here."
Five percent didn't sound high. Scotia's notes were also discounted when they came to Qin Yin. Most of them were even more discounted than in Alchemy City. But those were all small amounts. If it was an anonymous bill in a private transaction, the discount would be even smaller. In Alchemy City, transactions could easily cost tens of thousands of gold coins. A five percent discount was already very scary.
Salin thought that Rex had at least a million gold coins' worth of notes on him. With a discount, that would be 50,000 gold coins gone. Back then, he went to trade with Ainphent for tens of thousands of gold coins and almost died in the chaos of the black magicians.
Money shouldn't be spent like that. No matter how rich you were, you had to know how to save money. It seemed that if he wanted to live in Alchemy City, it was best to accept some missions from the Alchemy Tower. Salin and Rex had never heard of the number of sorcerers who died in Alchemy City every year. Those hunting missions were just troublesome. The sorcerers in Alchemy City only entrusted them to others to save time.
The advantage of this was that the sorcerers in Alchemy City could focus on training and didn't have to worry about materials.
If sorcerers spent all their time on training, they would advance several times faster than others. Sumano was probably forced to make a living. He spent all his time on making money, but in the end, he couldn't advance. Otherwise, even if he wasn't talented, he would have been able to condense a magic string. He wouldn't have been stuck at the level of an advanced magic apprentice.
Salin and Rex wanted to live in Alchemy City, which was completely different from what they had imagined. The environment here forced you to make money, hunt magic beasts, pick herbs, and dig for minerals. If you didn't have money, you wouldn't have time to train or do anything.
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