Chapter 60: Chapter 60

Benny was stunned for a moment. "Customer, your information... is quite well-informed."

"That batch of goods just arrived yesterday."

His gaze fell on the Lijin Secret Language Platinum membership badge on Locke's chest. "Yes, those cat girl slaves are priced at about 50 magic stones each."

"After all, they have ancient bloodlines. Many wizards are reportedly interested in ancient bloodlines, as it's a popular research direction..."

"If they weren't all mortals with bloodlines too diluted to be purely extracted, the price would be several times higher."

Benny said in a low voice, "Even formal wizards might be interested in this."

Locke thought for a moment. He had just earned 900 magic stones from Lijin Secret Language and spent 30, never having been so wealthy before.

For his future self, magic stones were no longer the most scarce resource, but these cat girl slaves with ancient creature bloodlines were priceless and hard to come by.

If he missed this opportunity, he wouldn't be able to buy them next time even with magic stones.

Ancient creature bloodlines were indeed difficult to extract, but combined with his synthesis cube, perhaps some breakthrough could emerge.

The Three-Eyed Tiger Cat was a particularly powerful ancient creature, called a divine beast by some mortal worlds in ancient times. If he could extract Three-Eyed Tiger Cat blood of sufficient purity, he would definitely profit greatly.

Even if he couldn't achieve this in the short term, it could serve as a research direction. Missing this purchase opportunity would be quite regrettable. Read full story at n0velfire.net

In the wizard world, it wasn't every year that a massive empire fell.

Locke said to dark elf assistant Benny, "Here are 100 magic stones. Let's sign a contract. I need two cat girls."

Joy appeared on Benny's face.

Locke reminded him, "Provided they truly have diluted Three-Eyed Tiger Cat bloodlines in their bodies."

Benny said, "Absolutely genuine."

"Respected customer, please follow me."

Benny was so happy for a reason.

Although slaves with ancient creature bloodlines were relatively rare, in fact, because extracting ancient creature bloodlines was extremely difficult, and utilizing ancient creature bloodlines after extraction was even more difficult.

So actually, wizards' enthusiasm for such goods was polarized.

Those who needed them were naturally very interested, while those who didn't were quite indifferent.

Locke had tasted the benefits of ancient creature bloodlines, so he was this active. Another wizard might not be so enthusiastic.

They would instead think that a mortal slave could never possibly be worth 50 magic stones each.

This wasn't like the black wizards' smuggled slave trade where magic stones could buy wizard apprentice slaves.

Locke followed Benny to an adjacent room inside the shop. This room was semi-enclosed by screens and curtains, separated into a private room.

The floor was cleaner and tidier, furnished with some simple furniture.

It was obviously for imprisoning those more valuable slaves.

Benny said to Locke, "Respected customer, you may choose any two cat girls here."

Locke glanced around and saw seven iron cages here, each imprisoning a cat girl.

Unlike the barely clothed slaves outside, the cat girl slaves here all wore gorgeous formal gowns, midnight blue trailing dresses with gradient silver hems.

They all wore silver collars inlaid with rubies around their necks and small silver princess crowns on their heads.

These cat girls had white, fluffy cat ears and white cat tails with faint orange stripes, which was proof of their ancient creature bloodlines.

These cat girls possessed both animal wildness and maiden elegance. At this moment, they all looked at Locke with fearful and nervous gazes.

Locke examined their tails. In dark elf Sasari's Universal Studies course, she had mentioned how to identify slaves with ancient creature bloodlines to prevent malicious deception by unscrupulous merchants.

After confirming there were basically no problems, Locke pointed dissatisfiedly at two twin cat girls and said, "Have them remove their formal gowns. I need to confirm their bodies are intact."

Benny quickly had the two cat girls comply and smiled at Locke, "Respected customer, our shop's slaves absolutely have no quality issues. We only have them dressed completely to display their status to customers and ensure they truly have ancient creature bloodlines."

"Please rest assured."

After confirming there were no problems, Locke signed a contract with Benny and crushed the runic stone, having the two cat girls acknowledge him as master.

Locke walked down the street with two gray dwarves, six minotaurs, and two cat girls blushing with shyness. This wasn't too conspicuous.

Ordinary second-class wizard apprentices would bring some servants when going out, let alone Locke, a breeder's assistant with social status equivalent to a first-class wizard apprentice.

After leaving the Slave Depot, Locke entered an alchemy workshop and paid 100 magic stones plus a Berserker Rhinoceros hide to have the workshop create a standard medium-quality magical item [Berserker Rhino Hide Armor] for him.

This armor would improve his defensive capabilities when worn.

Locke arranged to return to this shop in two weeks to collect the goods.

Their transaction was guaranteed by contract and certified by Lilith's Cottage. Under normal circumstances, merchants couldn't breach contracts.

Shop spaces in Chimera Trading Market were extremely valuable, requiring over ten thousand magic stones to rent.

Merchants often had to sign specific-purpose magic stone loan agreements (similar to student loans) to rent them.

So they couldn't possibly abandon their shops and flee in breach of contract over a mere medium-quality magical item.

Locke also purchased some magical resources at various stalls in Chimera Trading Market, such as items that could increase meditation efficiency: Dragon Blood Leaf Powder. When mixed with badansi wood powder, this could improve meditation efficiency by 50%.

It was just expensive. Previously, Locke couldn't afford it and had to endure, but now he bought it directly along with badansi woood shavings.

He purchased a month's supply of badansi wood shavings for 150 magic stones and a month's supply of Dragon Blood Leaf Powder for 200 magic stones.

Previously, he was always short of magic stones, so during the three months of learning basic meditation techniques, he couldn't meditate daily with badansi wood powder. Without badansi wood powder, meditation efficiency was extremely low.

So Locke's mental strength improvement during these three months was very limited, only increasing from 76 to 85.

The improvement speed was only half of normal meditation.

Normally, his economical meditation should have only improved about 4 mental strength points in three months, but the Rose Red Jade provided an additional 5 points.

This was also the resource predicament faced by many second-class wizard apprentices.

For wizard apprentices to conduct complete meditation, they needed to spend at least 150 magic stones monthly, which not everyone could afford.