Birth Of The Crafts-God

"It's a simple thank you from us at the board of trustees. Twenty federal coins." The dean smiled as he handed Lucas a prepaid debit card filled with twenty federal coins.

In the Vinis pawnshop, such a card was worth twenty federal coins, so in total, one could say that the 'reward' was worth forty federal coins. However, Lucas wasn't moved by it.

A custom Grade 1 vestige would go for at least five hundred federal coins, and could go higher depending on the choice of materials and design. A standard version was cheaper, albeit reaching at least three hundred and fifty federal coins. Some versions even sold for up to four hundred.

Thanks to the system's high quality standards, Lucas' items sold much higher than market price. The standard items sold for at least fifty percent (50%) higher, whilst the custom items sold for at least two hundred percent (200%) higher.

This means that, even after considering the system's 75% 'taxation rate', Lucas would make at least one hundred and thirty one (131) federal coins on the cheapest Grade 1 vestige. For a Grade 1 custom item at base price, he would make at least two hundred and fifty federal coins. Hence, the 'generous' tip from the board didn't attract much of his attention.

'Rather than this, it would be great if they have some way to help me cut down the system's tax rate or level up at least.' Lucas thought.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Lucas had once found out that one of the perks of the system's leveling up was the decrease in its on boarding fee percentage. As long as the system gets to the second level, it would drop from seventy five percent (75%) to fifty percent (50%), and even further as it levels up.

The system's justification for the onboarding fee was to prevent Lucas from getting complacent with his earnings and to urge him to fulfill missions and work harder. While he didn't like this, Lucas had to admit it was unfortunately effective.

Who wouldn't want to pay less taxes?

Coming back to reality, Lucas shook his head and didn't accept the card, which made the dean a bit surprised.

Your adventure continues at empire

"I'll be more grateful if you patronise my business." Lucas pointed over to the collection of vestiges displayed on the other side of the lobby.

"Oh, about that," Mr. Gerald Veltmann, the manager from Norsegold Co., interrupted.

'Here it comes.' Lucas thought.

He wasn't a dummy and knew that the visit by these men wasn't to reward him for any act of service. What Lucas had done was what any dealer or vendor would do, which was to sell their products. Even if it was an impressive work, there was no reason for Wally's actions and achievements to be attributed to Lucas for his act of selling a vestige to Wally in the first place.

It was clear that these men were after something else, and the 'reward', was merely a means to bring themselves closer to him and make Lucas feel as if he owed them.

"I saw your products in action and I'm quite interested in them." The man said.

Lucas wasn't familiar with the name Norsegold Co., but he could easily figure out that they were a trading company with some stocks in the vestige market; the weapons branch to be exact.

"Oh?" Lucas appeared to be interested.

Mr Gerald smiled friendly while his eyes flashed cunningly.

"That's right. I don't know whether you're aware, but my company, Norsegold Co., it a leading trading company in various freelancer materials and equipment. We also deal in the sale of weapon vestiges and have many branches across Baylands city-state. We would like to form a partnership with you, purchasing your goods at a solid market price rate.

In other words, we hope you can be a supplier for our store."

Lucas raised an eyebrow, slightly interested in the idea. However, it was merely an interest. He had no intentions of working under anybody, or doing more than necessary.

One shouldn't forget that Lucas only loves his hobby of burying himself in the workshop or reading about metals and materials, and nothing else; otherwise, the system wouldn't have been giving him abrupt missions or limiting his finances.

"The host should sincerely consider the idea of running the store properly." The system's voice sounded in his ears. By 'running the store properly', the system didn't mean partnering up with some one or cooperation, but to just do exactly the literal meaning; to run the store properly.

"Sure thing." Lucas replied with an unenthusiastic expression.

"What would the details be?" Lucas asked Gerald Veltmann, wanting to know whether there would be an opportunity to work together in the future or not.

Although he wasn't skilled enough to run a mega company, Lucas has some experience in day-to-day trading activities. One shouldn't forget that in his first life, Lucas was a blacksmith and had to run a store at one point to make a living. He had been fleeced a couple of times back then, before becoming experienced in the market.

Apart from that, Lucas had also occasionally read some topics at random, one of which was a bit of marketing and another was contract law; but only a little bit.

The first was due to just a random interest while the second was because Lucas needed to understand how contracts work. After he became popular in the material engineering society, there were many companies and countries interested in working with him, so it was important that he knew what each cooperation meant.

"Ah. For that, I would have to discuss it with the vestige-smith as well." Mr Gerald said.

"I'm the vestige-smith." Lucas curtly responded.

Mr Gerald froze for a second, ridicule and vexation flashing through his eyes, before he composed himself right away.

"Oh really? That's interesting."

Although the words were said nicely, for some reason, Lucas could feel a hint of sarcasm in them. He has also noticed the expression in Gerald's eyes, as his powerful soul strength has heightened his senses.

"Regarding that, it's quite simple you see. Norsegold Co. would have priority pick for all your vestiges and purchase them at a rate ten percent above market price. We'll purchase at least ninety percent of your creations as long as the quality fits our taste, so you don't need to be worried about sales. For more details, you can go through this preliminary contract if you're interested."

A document was projected onto the air right after that. Lucas pointed his communicator at it and the document immediately flashed into it.

This was a pretty common feature of communicators. One could download a hologram by simply pointing their communicator towards it. As long as the hologram was displayed with a public share feature, it would be downloaded into the device.

After downloading the document, Lucas didn't respond but began to browse through it. It was quite thick for a preliminary contract, having at least through pages, but this wasn't a problem for Lucas. A stronger soul meant stronger mental abilities, including mental focus, which in turn meant faster brain processing speed and reading speed.

It only took Lucas less than five minutes to flip through the document and he had just one sentence to say: this man had some balls.