Chapter Seventy-Five
The wooden door was pushed open, and a strange, pleasant scent seeped out.
Denos habitually took out a handkerchief from his pocket and covered his mouth and nose, using the time to observe the room.
The room was chilly, which was unusual considering it was a house made of metal, stone, and wood. The walls were thick, so it shouldn't have been this cold.
"Long time no see," Connie greeted the person who opened the door, then went over and gave her a hug.
She was a very beautiful woman, probably in her early twenties, dressed in thick clothes, using a robe to cover almost all of her human features.
"It has been a long time," she said, then looked at the group of people who had been brought over.
Denos handed over a box containing biscuits. They were sweetened or salted, making them a delicacy, usually given as gifts.
“We want to buy some medicine.” Before Denos could finish speaking, he felt the box he was holding being patted. He looked down and saw a torn page with something written in very messy handwriting on it.
Having seen many of these, Denos knew that this was just a price quote. He glanced at the potion on it and raised an eyebrow.
The price is reasonable. Although it is indeed shockingly high, the price of potions is generally stable around the world. This is because the cost is high, and the cost of making them individually is also not low.
But there are always prices that are exceptionally high and exceptionally low compared to other places. Ark had taught him how to judge a city's situation by the prices of local potions.
Contrary to expectations, the medicine to eliminate corruption in this city was very cheap. Really cheap; it was so cheap that it was practically affordable for anyone.
However, the quantity was marked in red, indicating a purchase limit. This is understandable, as the price was so low that it would be perfectly normal for them to be snapped up if it weren't marked.
There weren't even any particularly expensive ones, Denos confirmed after looking around twice.
"No credit, no discounts," she said, looking a little wary. "Even if he's a friend, it's not allowed."
“Don’t misunderstand, miss. These prices are all very reasonable,” Denos said with a smile. “Some are even too cheap.”
What are you saying?
"Black flower, if I remember correctly, this price is far below the market price."
“Oh, that stuff is on long-term orders from the local authorities, and they pay me a lot of money. There are already the necessary materials and equipment. I don’t need to worry about costs; it’s mass production anyway. I think this money is too much.” She glanced at Connie beside her and said, “Besides this undercover agent, there are no other clergy here.”
She waved her hand, indicating that it was better to talk inside; it didn't look right for her to be standing at the door.
Stepping into the room, the temperature instantly rose. Denos pulled off his scarf and draped it over his shoulders, then unzipped his coat.
“You can hang the scarf over there.” She pointed to a shelf in the corner: “That’s a better spot.”
"I'm sorry, but due to some special reasons, I can't leave this towel with me," Denos said helplessly.
All three of them are now wearing towels, but only one of them doesn't take it off.
Because Deedris has the protection of the earth even with just her skin, her inherent resistance is very high. And Ghost Lord is practically immortal. Therefore, only he needs to wear protective gear. And so far, he hasn't found any protective gear better than the sweater and scarf Little Spider made. Plus, they're very light; often, wearing them makes him feel like he's not prepared at all.
She nodded, and that meant everything was fine.
Connie sat beside her, the chairs surrounding a wooden table. A simple meal and a pot of tea were laid out on it; the teacups were still hot, presumably just poured for her.
"Has anything been going on lately?" Connie asked, looking at her. "I've been asking you to come out lately, but you haven't agreed."
“Because for some reason, problematic finished products have appeared in Black Flower.” She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Many people have told me that the medicine… some people experience very strange consequences after taking it. Oh, right. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Natara, and I am a wizard in this city.”
She pointed to the door inside: "Don't go in there. My assistants are inside. They're trying to figure out what's wrong. They're checking the products that have been manufactured."
"It sounds like I'm disturbing your work."
“Don’t worry about it, I was just looking for you anyway. I need something with holy magic. Right now it’s considered a problem with the raw materials.” She looked at Connie and said, “The materials contain holy magic and magic power. I roughly understand how they get the magic power. But it’s strange that I can get a stable amount of holy magic power. This city isn’t under the Church’s control right now, and I don’t understand how they get such a large amount of holy magic power.”
“So you suspect there’s something wrong with the materials used to create the holy magic? Here you go.” Connie said, extending his hand, revealing a piece of holy magic the size of a candy cube in his palm.
This thing can only be controlled so stably by a priest, so Natara uses a special jar to store it.
“Thank you so much.” She took it and kissed Connie on the cheek, then patted his shoulder to indicate that she needed to leave for a moment.
After Connie watched her leave, he turned around and saw three menacing eyes staring at him.
This stems from the blatant jealousy of three single people towards couples in love.
He could only smile helplessly.
Denos didn't say much; he was the busiest of them all right now. With Ark absent, the accounting work fell to him. Now that they had the price list, it was time to compile the procurement list.
Moreover, he saw many items on the menu that were below market price. With simple mental arithmetic and note-taking, he could buy a lot of these items as merchandise. This way, he could make a good profit when he arrived in the next city.
He was actually very interested in the Black Flower herb, because removing corruption had always been the domain of clergy. Even now that he had a clergy member in his team, eliminating the need to worry about corruption, the price made him really want to transport two cartloads away.
While it's not exactly a conventional expulsion of corruption, but rather a process of solidifying it and expelling it from the body to reduce the levels of chaotic elements, these kinds of potions are always incredibly expensive. At times like these, it would be embarrassing to admit you're working for a shrewd merchant if you didn't buy in bulk.
But is there a quality problem?
After he finished writing the above, he hesitated at this last column.
Although there was a purchase limit, fortunately, there were enough people in the queue, and including the two cats, the amount that could be purchased was quite substantial. A simple calculation shows that this income even exceeded fifty real gold coins. This money... oh no. Just half of it would be enough for one person to enjoy life to the fullest.
Moreover, unlike salt, it's not easy to transport. You should know that you only make a very limited amount of money selling those leathers; the cost-effectiveness of this is far superior.
If it weren't for the purchase restrictions, he really wanted to make enough money to buy a city and then become a lord.
“Speaking of which, how did you get through Blood Day?” Dedeline looked at Connie and said, “If this city relied solely on this kind of drug, it’s impossible that there wouldn’t be a large-scale infection.”
"Blood Sun?" Connie was stunned, looking as if he'd seen a ghost. "Is there such a thing as a Blood Sun?"
The air suddenly fell silent. Denos was stunned by the conversation and looked up.
Blood Suns are global catastrophes; once one occurs, the aftermath is never good. Even the monsters that arrive must have fought their way through a path of monsters. If their combat power wasn't exceptionally high, they would never have returned.
But this guy seemed to have overslept during that time and didn't know about the Blood Sun.
“No? Just a few days ago.” Dedeline was also taken aback, looking closely into his eyes.
But he wasn't lying; his expression was very serious. You could tell from the conversation that he was a very serious person, and it's really strange that someone like that would lie.
But that was a blood-red day! This place is practically next to a forbidden zone. Theoretically, the danger here should be unimaginable. But judging from this guy's nonchalant attitude, it seems he really doesn't know about it.
Strange, such a strange thing gives me a chill down my spine.
"Was there a bloody day recently?" He pinched his chin and pondered for a while. "Actually, I'm not sure. I've been staying in the house the whole time recently and don't know what happened outside."
“That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have noticed the Blood Sun.” Denos raised an eyebrow. “I almost died, you know. My family might have even died in the Blood Sun.”
"Aren't you going to contact them?" Connie asked after a moment's hesitation.
After all, with a disaster like Blood Sun that occurs simultaneously worldwide, family members with weak immune systems could very well die during it.
“Just kidding, if they were really going to die over something this trivial, they would have been gone long ago.” Denos handed over the notebook in his hand: “Please pass this on.”
"Orders... Hey, what are you doing? Why are there so many?" Connie was dumbfounded after taking a look; there was such a long list of drugs.
This is the first time I've ever seen a list that looks like a robbery.
After all, potions are generally not cheap. They involve alchemy and witchcraft, which have high learning costs. The required materials are also quite unusual. Therefore, the expenses are not low.
However, the price and the effect are indeed proportional, so even if it is a bit expensive, people will accept it.
But if you're buying only what you need, nobody would buy that much, right?
"The main reason is that the price is relatively affordable, so I wanted to buy some and then sell them elsewhere."
"Can I spit on this?" Dedeline said with a hint of helplessness.
“We always need to earn money to pay your salaries.” Denos was not ashamed of this at all.
After all, if Ark were here, he would probably be even more ruthless. He might even make her work overtime for a whole week straight.
"So that's why you ordered so many metal products," Ghost Duke said after thinking for a moment. "The prices of metals here are indeed ridiculously low."
“Yes, but I don’t know why.” Denos hesitated for a moment before saying, “Metal should be one of the most expensive commodities in a city, but the price of metal here is ridiculously low.”
"Because there are demons here."
"Uh-huh?"
When the three people heard the explanation, they all nodded in agreement. However, when they realized what he meant, they were all stunned.
"No, um, would you guys just casually talk about something like this here?" Denos scratched his head. "That's not good. If it's a demon, won't the church react?"
“Oh, they’ve submitted to the church, privately, that’s all. They tried to explain it to the outside world, but they couldn’t say it outright.” Connie paused. “I was told about this before I came back.”
"yield?"
“Well, I’m basically a spy sent by the church. On the surface, I’m an undercover agent here, but in reality, that guy definitely knows my location, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten away so easily.” Connie sipped his tea. “Although everyone is aware of these things, it’s not something that can be discussed openly yet.”
"The difference in treatment is huge." Ghost Duke thought of how much the church had paid to kill that child named Lori.
However, he quickly figured out the reason: the demon in this city had grown stronger. He guessed that suppressing it would require a huge cost, while if the demon had openly declared its submission to the church, then it could be resolved in a relatively peaceful way.
"But since it's related to metal, is it a demon from the Earth and Collapse faction?" Denos hesitated for a moment before asking, "The ability to replace other substances with metal?"
"I don't know, but that's not something I should be thinking about."
After all, matters concerning demons were never openly discussed within the church, so such decisions were made by those above. He was merely responsible for carrying them out. He only needed to figure out what he was supposed to do.
"Don't discuss this kind of thing with me, it'll only get me into trouble." The door was pushed open, and Natara came out, took the list from Connie's hand and glanced at it: "This is ruthless extortion."
"This is really troublesome."
“The deposit is one-third of the total amount.” Natara paused and said, “Did you cross out the black flower order at the end? Thank you so much, this quantity will really keep me working overtime for a long time.”
"If you can solve the problem of inconsistent quality, I'll take this quantity even if the price is raised."
“Then come and lend a hand. I need to go to the palace to sort out some materials.” Natara said as she went to the door to put on her clothes. “The three of you look pretty capable. Could you do some guard duty? I’ll give you a discount in return.”
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