Above the mage

Chapter 375 Exchange List

The 50 Ice Jade Wutong Leaves brought from the North were exchanged for a total of 17000 Golden Bird Flower Coins for Gaode.

At first glance, it seems like an astronomical figure, but it's actually quite fast to use.

First, the acquisition of Harland shipyard used up most of the funds. After the acquisition, Gaode invested another 2000 gold as initial operating capital for the shipyard.

Then, recruiting crew members and craftsmen, purchasing supplies, and preparing to set sail cost nearly 2000 gold.

Adding in the labor and material costs of crafting [Winter's Arrival], and the miscellaneous expenses such as purchasing materials for the [Healing Spell] potion, Gao De was left with only 4733 Goldfinch Coins.

There still looks like a lot.

But he had even more places to spend money after that.

Purchasing a shop is one thing, but after buying the shop, you also need to invest a large amount of money to operate it.

In addition, he also needs to purchase at least twenty [Rapid Excavation] spell potions to bring back to the North to improve Phoenix's construction efficiency, which will cost him approximately one thousand gold.

There's never enough money... that's definitely a truth.

Gao De sighed inwardly.

Once this task is completed, it will basically be enough for him to eat for a year.

Even if Gaode starts to slack off and give up, its three second-class merits will still put it in the top 10 in the year-end evaluation.

With the pressure of "KPI" gone, Gao De immediately felt much more relaxed, even though he hadn't been under much pressure before.

But for at least the next six months, he can focus on his own business without worrying about the Sea Sentinels.

The military merit assessment would take a few more days, but Gao De didn't just sit idly by; he continued with his established plans.

The first step is to purchase shops.

After preliminary research and screening, he finally selected three shops.

I'm particularly interested in a herbal medicine shop in the North End and a grocery store near Trolls Head Alley in the East End.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and Gaode is also somewhat conflicted.

But now you don't need to worry about it anymore.

—Because he discovered that during the more than twenty days he was away on missions, the herbal medicine shop in the North District had already been snapped up by someone else.

Now the grocery store became the only option.

To avoid repeating the same mistake, Gaode didn't dare to delay any longer and visited them directly the next day.

This grocery store is located on Dezo Street in the East District. It is a typical two-story storefront with shops on the first floor and residential areas on the second floor.

Dezo is an old neighborhood, so most of the buildings on both sides of the street are quite old-fashioned. Today the weather was so-so, and there was no sun, so the buildings looked even more gloomy under the haze.

"Old Harlem Grocery Store".

The lettering on the shop sign has faded somewhat.

Harlin is both the name of the shop and the surname of the shop owner.

This is a traditional family-run retail store with a history of several decades. Unfortunately, Harlin's only son, Harlin Jr., does not want to inherit the family business.

In addition, with increasingly fierce competition, and with Old Harlin getting old and having limited energy, and his business not doing very well, he finally had no choice but to sell the shop.

As you can see, the goods on the shop's window shelves are sparse, which is both a reflection of poor business and a result of the shop owner's lack of interest in running the business and not choosing to restock.

Gao De entered the grocery store, first observing the store for a while, and only after the only other customer left did he step forward and politely explain his purpose.

"Boss, I saw your transfer information in the internal price list of the Dorne Grocers Association. I happen to be interested in opening a magic supplies store. Your store's location is suitable. Shall we talk?" Gao De got straight to the point, stating his purpose directly without beating around the bush.

Firstly, preliminary investigations had already been conducted, and secondly, he was currently wearing the mage uniform of a sea sentinel.

Old Harlin raised his head, his slightly cloudy eyes sweeping over Gao De's face and his crisp uniform. He pursed his lips before speaking, "Sir, let me be frank, this shop isn't doing so well these days."

"Don't worry, I've already looked into that," Gao De said.

"Alright, let's sit down and talk," Old Harlin said with a sigh, pursing his lips.

To be honest, he was actually quite unwilling to make deals with "officials".

How can ordinary people fight against officials?

An inherent disadvantage will put you at a disadvantage when negotiating prices during a transaction.

Another concern is that if he does not manage his business well after dealing with "officials," he worries that they might take their anger out on him.

But he would never dare to refuse.

So Old Harlin had no choice but to bite the bullet and hang up a "Temporarily Closed" sign at the door, and then move Gaode to the second-floor residential area.

These privately owned grocery stores are generally not very large, with a single-story area of ​​about 50 square meters.

However, because it was located in the old street and was built earlier, the land price was much cheaper at the time, so the floor area of ​​the old Harlem General Store was slightly larger, about seventy square meters.

The second floor serves as the residential area, with a similar size to the shops on the first floor. It is divided into three rooms: a master bedroom, a secondary bedroom, a living room, and a simple kitchen and bathroom.

Sitting down in the living room, Old Harlin took out his best tea leaves and brewed tea for Gaode, then slowly explained the details of the shop to Gaode.

This includes the store's catchment area, existing customer base, past monthly profitability, customer traffic, and the competition it faces.

Old Harlin basically tells the truth without any embellishment, because he would be happy to persuade Gaode to quit.

Contrary to what Old Harlin had expected, after hearing the details of Old Harlin's grocery store, Gao De was not discouraged; in fact, he was even more satisfied.

Because the questions raised by Old Harlin were not even considered questions in his eyes.

For example, the most pressing problem facing Old Harlin right now is that just one street away, the Black Chamber of Commerce’s large grocery store opened last year.

With its lower cost advantage and better product quality, it quickly ate up most of the customers of Old Harlem Grocery Store.

But Gaode's ideal customer base is the group of people who came from Troll Skull Alley.

When you work in a different industry, many of the drawbacks naturally disappear.

"I see your offer within the guild is 650 Goldfinch coins?" Gao De asked slowly, taking a sip of tea.

This price is actually very well-chosen.

While it may seem expensive, their storefronts are indeed larger than those of typical grocery stores.

It's not exactly a bargain, considering the shop's location isn't great. It's in an old neighborhood and right next to the black market, which presents some safety risks.

"If you want, I can give you a discount." Old Harlin glanced at Gao De's Sea Sentinel uniform, gritted his teeth, and said.

"No need. Since it's already an internal price, let's go with that," Gao De waved his hand and said.

When it comes to reimbursement, even a small amount is still something, so why not take it?

However, when making transactions, Gaode will not take advantage of the Sea Sentinel's status.

He clearly distinguishes the boundary between the two.

For a grassroots monk like him, reputation is extremely important, and such behavior that could easily leave a stain on his reputation is something he absolutely cannot do.

Gao De readily agreed, and Lao Harlin naturally didn't insist on it.

After the two parties quickly reached an agreement on the price, they moved on to the next stage: finalizing the transaction method and handover time.

Of course, this is just a preliminary discussion.

In the Golden Flower Dynasty, transactions involving real estate and property, such as those involving shops, must go through official procedures, unlike buying vegetables where the price is agreed upon and money is exchanged on the spot.

However, as long as the buyer and seller reach an agreement beforehand, the so-called official procedures are just a formality.

"According to general practice, the land tax for a shop transfer is paid by the seller, and the stamp duty is shared by both of us. It's just a small amount of money, and it's too complicated to calculate. I think it's fine for me to pay both, sir?"

The official procedures are not followed in vain; their most important purpose is to collect taxes.

This is also one of the important sources of funding for official finances.

Land tax is levied based on the area and location of the land occupied by the shop, which is estimated to be of value. The tax rate is generally around 2%.

Stamp duty, on the other hand, is a tax levied on the amount of a transaction contract.

The stamp duty rate in Dorne is 0.5%, meaning the tax is 0.5% of the contract amount, which averages out to 0.25%.

The transaction amount is 650 gold, so the stamp duty that Gaode will have to pay in the end will be less than 2 gold.

The stamp duty paid was higher when the Harland shipyard was acquired.

Even though Lagos' tax rate is lower than Dorne's, at only 0.4%, the final stamp duty paid is still close to 20 gold.

"Okay," Gao De nodded.

Such a small amount of tax is not considered bullying; it's a normal transaction and there's no need to be particularly wary of it.

"See you tomorrow then." With everything settled, Gao De got up and left.

In the meditation room.

Gao De calmed himself down, his eyes slightly closed, and three or four bottles of Qi-opening tincture were scattered haphazardly around him.

The transparent glass shimmered slightly; the medicine in the bottle had long since vanished, leaving only a strong, pungent medicinal smell permeating the small space.

His body was trembling slightly, and his breathing rose and fell with the tremors, like a gentle breeze rippling across a calm lake, creating a unique rhythm and cadence.

The Immeasurable Breathing Method is one of the oldest and most orthodox breathing methods.

It belongs to the true law.

When Gao De was at Cyrus Academy, his instructors also talked about so-called breathing techniques.

However, they only have the same name and are not actually the same thing.

However, it wasn't just a coincidence that they shared the same name. Rather, it was because the breathing technique was a top-secret tradition. The small principality had some knowledge of it, but they couldn't obtain the true method, so they had to create a low-budget version of the breathing technique based on their understanding.

This rudimentary version of breathing isn't entirely ineffective, but compared to the orthodox breathing method, the difference isn't huge, it's worlds apart.

With the help of the Boundless Breathing Technique and the medicinal power of the Meridian Opening Tincture, Gao De opened up the tiny, thread-like magical meridians in his body, and then reshaped and expanded them.

A moment later, Gao De opened his eyes, took out another bottle of Kai Mai Ding from the box beside him, uncorked it, and drank it all in one gulp with great "generosity," then casually threw the bottle on the ground.

If someone else had seen this, they might have wondered if Gao De was a human or a beast.

Kaimai Tincture is a potent medicine with significant toxicity buildup, so others must be extremely cautious when drinking it.

Gao De's dosage in one go was more than that of an ordinary monk in a week.

Under normal circumstances, only wild animals could withstand this dose of Kai Mai Ding.

Another half hour passed.

Gao De opened his eyes again, but this time he didn't continue. Instead, he slowly got up.

A total of 365 magic networks need to be constructed in Leomon's Magic Network.

It has been exactly two and a half months since he started learning the Immeasurable Breathing Method.

The number of magic networks that Gaode has built has now reached 108, and the construction speed of each main magic network is getting faster and faster.

This is thanks to the [Adaptive] system, which continuously evolves his body's metabolic capacity and immunity to toxins through stimulation from the Kaimai Tincture, allowing him to drink increasingly larger doses of Kaimai Tincture at a time.

[Your immunity to toxins increases by 50.1%, and your body's organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and eliminate various toxins increases by 51.4%].

According to Master Naxi, when he chose the Leomon Magic Network, he was prepared to waste several years on it.

At this pace, Gaode Maps will be able to completely build the Leomon Magic Network in less than six months.

"This is the importance of expertise," Gao De thought to himself as he exhaled a breath of stale air.

[Adaptive] is not a combat specialty and cannot directly improve his combat power, but its growth potential and versatility bring him much greater benefits than combat specialty, and it also indirectly helps him improve his combat power.

Having fully experienced the power of "adaptive" features, Gaode Maps has placed even greater emphasis on its expertise in the Second Ring Road area.

His mage level has now reached the mid-stage of the first ring.

Based on the current progress of his cultivation, it will only take him two or three years at most to advance to the second ring.

Before advancing to the second ring, he must increase the number of spells he has mastered.

For Gaode, learning magic is not difficult.

The mental power of the second ring constructs the spell model of the first ring, just like a middle school student doing elementary school math problems.

The only rare thing is obtaining the spell recipe.

As things stand, his most reliable way to obtain spell recipes, and even rare spell recipes, is through exchanging military merits from sea sentinels.

As the official mage organization of the Golden Flower Dynasty, how many can compare with it in terms of magical heritage and foundation?

This is also why Gaode values ​​his development in the Sea Sentinel so much.

"They said it would take a day or two to decide, but five days have passed and there's still no news. Has something changed?" Gao De frowned, a hint of doubt flashing through his mind.

Five days have passed since he returned. The purchasing process at "Old Harlem General Store" has been completed smoothly, but the Sea Sentinels have yet to determine his military merit rating, which makes Gao De start to have some doubts.

"A few second-class merits are a great achievement for me, but nothing to the sea sentinels. They shouldn't be holding me back." Gao De shook his head to himself, no longer thinking about those unfounded speculations, and prepared to go out to "Old Harlin General Store".

The shop transfer process is complete, but the other party still needs time to clear out inventory or move, so they can't leave immediately. Considering the other party's advanced age, Gaode gave Lao Harlin five days.

Today is the last day of the agreement, so the other party should have already moved out.

As soon as he stepped out the door, he ran into the messenger of the sea sentry.

"Master Gaode." The other person was indeed looking for him.

"What is it?" Gao De already had the answer in his heart.

"Your military merit assessment has been completed. I've been sent to deliver this notification letter and the list of merits to you." The staff member bowed slightly and handed Gao De a roll of parchment and a thick, sealed book.

(End of this chapter)