Zhao Xu did not go directly to the Mage Association in Zhenyu City. Instead, he relied on his memory and headed towards the nearby magic materials store.
"Why is it called the black market?" Vivian still had a hard time understanding.
"Because it cannot be exposed to the sun. The origin of those magic items itself is not clear."
"Stealing? Cheating?" As a paladin, Vivian couldn't help but feel a sense of discomfort in her heart when she heard this kind of behavior.
"They are all there, but most of them are dug out of the ground." Zhao Xu glanced at Vivian ambiguously.
Vivian couldn't help but stop immediately.
Just like Zhao Xu, she turned around and looked around at her surroundings, her eyes above the veil looking like autumn water.
"Tomb robbing and ruins?"
As she spoke, Vivian nodded to herself, "The Northern Alliance is close to the Icefield Mountains. I have the impression that there was indeed a mage alliance that spanned more than five hundred years, but it was later shattered during the Cataclysm. That's true. Able to dig treasures out of the ground.”
Zhao Xu didn't expect that Vivian had a good grasp of Arthur's geography and history.
He also relied on his two major skills of knowledge (locality) and knowledge (history) to guess and retrieve this information, connect the entire context, and deduce one of the major reasons for the emergence of the black market.
It stands to reason that succubi are generally proficient in one knowledge and skill, and can reach more than ten levels. They will not practice multiple knowledge and skills like their mages.
Even someone like Zhao Xu, who is almost a complete scholar, is unique.
Fortunately, now that his intelligence has reached 28 points, the skill points he will gain from future upgrades will all come from intelligence at least 9 points, which can cover knowledge and skills and upgrade them at the same time.
"Let's go."
Zhao Xu had already walked to a materials store with a clock flag hanging at the door. The storefront was in tatters and had not been repaired for many years.
"There are magic items in this kind of store?" Vivian was a little unbelievable.
"This is a magic item worth tens of thousands, and it will definitely not be placed here." Zhao Xu said with a smile.
"You have to go in first and prove that you are a buyer, and then they will take us to those underground houses."
"Then the chess piece of the mechanical clock means that this store is the entrance?" Vivian was a little confused.
"No, this means that the other party sells antiques and art, and these things are often sold together with magic items that can last for many eras. It is basically the same channel." Zhao Xu explained.
"antique?"
As Vivian, who has endless life, it is somewhat difficult to understand the term "antique". For them, it is not a problem to store any stone coin for thousands of years.
In particular, the devils are likely to have dealt with a family spanning seven or eight generations from beginning to end, and can even collect the souls of every generation of the other family.
"Antiques, you can understand them as works of art from the past. As for your stone brooms that have not been worn out for thousands of years, they are called second-hand goods, which is different." Zhao Xu quickly corrected.
With that said, he opened the door curtain and walked into the material store.
Different from the small storefront seen outside, after Zhao Xu entered at this moment, he saw rows and rows of glass bottles and jars neatly arranged on the cabinets that touched the sky, and various kinds of magic tools were stored in them. Material.
Because Zhao Xu owns a complete watch, most of the materials are familiar to him.
The cabinet on the other side is stacked with many old and strange items, including ancient long swords like the swords of nobles and scarred shields. There are also some magic weapons, jewelry, bottles and cans stacked up. There are all kinds of small sample parts, just like a grocery store.
Sitting behind the counter was an old man wearing a fur hat. He had a thin face and his body was hunched over, leaning on the chair.
"buy what?"
"Look at the old guy." Zhao Xu responded to the secret message.
"How many of those can you give?"
"Breaking a hundred is no problem."
Only then did the old man's eyes light up, "How about you choose something from the items on my cabinet?"
At this time, Zhao Xu was not far away from the cabinet, but he stopped and kept scanning the things on those cabinets.
"One? What kind of quantifier is it? Why do you say that?" Vivian asked. Ever since she came in, she noticed that Zhao Xu's lines had completely changed.
"This is because we are afraid that when we are exchanging prices, you laymen will interrupt. There is no fixed price, and it even depends on the price of the magic item. There are ones that refer to ten thousand gold coins, and there are also ones that refer to one gold coin."
"The number in what I just said refers to one hundred gold coins."
Vivian nodded this time. Zhao Xu said it could exceed a hundred. Even if the budget he brought this time exceeded ten thousand, it would also set the direction for the old man to lead the way later.
Zhao Xu slowly approached and carefully observed the "goods" on the shelves, but he did not reach out.
In fact, he can now cast the minute-level three-ring spell "Secret Vision". This spell allows him to emit a detection radar like "detection magic" at all times, and at the same time, the scale is wider and can reach tens of meters away.
It's just that the spell cannot last long because it can be dispelled.
But when he reaches level 7, the Spell Guardian's level 2 ability is the "Arcane Vision" spell of the same name, so there won't be much of a problem.
"What does this old man mean by asking us to pick something?" Vivian asked curiously.
"Prove our ability. Buying something from him is the price of his guarantee for us to enter the black market. Otherwise, how could outsiders like us enter so easily."
Zhao Xu made a special trip to the black market before he became the vice-president of the Falling Star Town Mage Association. He was also afraid that he would be delayed later. His actions would attract too much attention and might be noticed by others to raise the price or even intercept the information.
"So we have to pick something that doesn't look expensive and won't cost us much?" Vivian reacted immediately.
"You still have to choose the real thing." Zhao Xu said.
"If we make mistakes, it means that we are novices who don't know anything about the business. No matter whether we are right or not, he will take us there, but we will go to a real black shop that is full of fakes and specializes in killing novices with bad eyesight." Zhao Xu Speaking of which, I still have lingering fears.
He had suffered this kind of loss in his previous life.
Fortunately, in this life, the worst he can do is flip the chessboard. However, unless absolutely necessary, Zhao Xu would not do such a low price.
You can't afford to lose if you are not as skilled as others and still mess up the game.
Seeing Zhao Xu paying full attention and walking to the value to observe carefully, Vivian, who did not have the ability to practice valuation, was helpless.
She couldn't help but telepathically said: "You might as well let me negotiate with him."
Vivian, who is born with high charm, is actually only at the early 12th level of negotiation. What is really astonishingly high is her 19th level bluffing and intimidation skills.
"Follow the rules in everything, and you won't suffer the consequences of not following the rules." Zhao Xu said.
At this time, Vivian from the "Lawful Good" camp looked at Zhao Xu from the "Neutral Good" camp. She was the more orderly side no matter what.
Although she was a chaotic evil little succubus before.
After Zhao Xu hesitated for a moment, he pointed directly at a book in the lower right corner, "How much does this cost?"
The old man immediately smiled. He almost choked while smoking his pipe. After a while, he said: "That is a very ancient arcane book, worth 100 gold coins."
"Give it to me?" Zhao Xu said.
At this time, he was clearly standing in front of the cabinet, but he was unmoved.
The old man's eyes suddenly shone brightly, and then he stretched out his hand and leaned on his crutch, moving over step by step.
His pace was very slow during the whole process, as if he was anxious to test the patience of the two of them.
But Zhao Xu kept waiting. He waited until the other party picked up the magic book and placed it on a mahogany box covered with a layer of silk brocade.
He then picked up the book with confidence.
"Afraid of something happening?" Vivian already somewhat understood the meaning of Zhao Xu's actions.
"That's right, who would you blame if the whole book fell apart after I picked it up, including the jade stones? Not to mention that I didn't even know the price just now."
Zhao Xu said.
In this business, sometimes it is a lifelong transaction, and sometimes it is a one-time transaction.
In his previous life, he also helped Zhang Qi and fooled fakes with egg whites.
"You humans are too complicated." Vivian commented. She couldn't help but touch her waist, but it was in vain. Only then did she realize that her Holy Avenger had been put back into the dimensional bag along with the Mithril Acceleration Armor all over her body.
Zhao Xu patiently flipped through a few pages at this time. After his own full-level 9th-level "Spell Identification" and the 9th-level bonus of intelligence attributes, he had a full 18th level of Spell Identification, which can be said to be outstanding.
The current player is first.
In an instant, he saw something strange in this random magic book.
"I can see up to 70 copies of this book." Zhao Xu immediately gave his price expectantly.
Needless to say, at this time, his "one" refers to a gold coin.
"President, don't you want to cut a deal?" Vivian was a little confused for a moment. In their abyss, giving a discount when meeting was the most basic courtesy.
"Here, if you bargain for more than half the price, it means you think the other party is deliberately trying to rip you off, and the next second he will drive you away." Zhao Xu said angrily.
Regarding the market situation of magic items and magic books, in the eyes of professionals like them, the error in price estimation is basically no more than 10%.
"Then what kind of book is this?" Vivian struggled to identify the mysterious words on the cover.
(End of chapter)