Now that Sage was back in the Dou Kingdom, there was the four major businesses for him to rely upon. Long ago he’d joined the Black Dog Company and worked as a mercenary to finance his trip across the kingdom, escaping from the assassin’s that wiped out the remnants of his clan. Now that he was in need of expensive natural materials, he knew just where to go.

Thousand Treasures. They had set up a massive pagoda like structure in every major city in every province of the Dou Kingdom. Many people liked to gauge a city as being influential as soon as a branch of Thousand Treasures was opened up in their town. Many nobles and influential people even used it as a metric for judging people. Only people who came from a town with a Thousand Treasures could be considered not to be ‘country bumpkins’. Of course, from what Sage had learned, it seemed such a reputation was something that the business skillfully planted among their customers with careful advertising and dropped hints. Giving out ‘special discounts’ to people who also come from cities with a Thousand Treasures store, while insulting other towns under their breath.

A pretty decent business idea, even if it was very rude. The people they offended were all people from smaller and less affluent places … otherwise they would have a Thousand Treasures store in their town. As soon as those people grew rich enough for them to care about they would get a store of their own and become the people that got to look down on others.

Sage walked into the store and took a look around, not having been in one for many years he took a few minutes to familiarize himself with the layout. Things seemed quite similar to how he remembered. The store was broken up into aisles with different types of goods, like on earth, with each aisle being filled with glass cases. The items for sale were on display in each of the glass cases with a small card detailing the items and listing a price. A shopper just had to go up to a counter and list what they wanted, then the items would be retrieved from the fourth floor. Just like he remembered the levels of the store were the same.

First floor, low level resources and Mortal Treasures. Second floor, high level resources and Magic Treasures. Third floor, the VIP area; available by invite only for private transactions. Fourth floor, warehouses and office space. Fifth floor, the auction hall. At least, that was how it was listed on the signboard near the entrance of the store. While the names of the areas was listed as ‘floors’, in Plum Lantern City, the arrangement was actually different than normal. The main building, which he was in, had three floors and a basement. The ‘fourth floor’ was actually a built underground in the basement. The ‘fifth floor’ was actually a much larger separate building, and built a few blocks away. The place that Thousand Treasures was built in was the most prime and expensive real estate in Plum Lantern City. The auction house was easily three times the size of the main Thousand Treasures building, which meant that Plum Lantern City probably did a lot of business in their auctions so they had moved out from the expensive part of town to build a grand location that could fit far more people.

With his initial assessment complete, Sage went up to the second floor. He started his search in the ore isle, looking for what exotic metals were present in the store. If none of them were up to par, he’d need to start with the bone, fangs, or claws of a demonic beast as a base material. The supporting materials he’d need would be chosen after getting his base material. They would need to act in accordance with the special traits and properties of the main material, enhancing its strengths and covering for its weaknesses. As long as the base material wasn’t too extreme he’d be able to rattle off a list of lower level materials that would be a good support. There were a few that especially caught his eye.

Chrono Copper. A special variety of copper that seemed immune to the impact of time. It never corroded, and when it was damaged it would slowly return to its original shape. A marvelous material, but hard to work with. Essentially, it had to be unlocked from its time freeze, reshaped, then frozen in time again.

Storm Silver. Said to be formed when a silver mine is located at a place with constant thunderstorms, this silvery metal was naturally charged with lightning. Sage’s guess was that it sucked in the energy of the heaven and earth then converted it to electricity. He’d never personally worked with it, so he could never be sure.

Cloudmetal. It was similar to iron in all its properties, except for mass. Somehow it was only a quarter of the weight as the same volume of iron.

Each of the ores he was interested in were rank 4, which was beyond his official rank as a three star blacksmith, but that’s only because he’d had no time to spare on advancing the profession. After all the experimenting he’d done with the Movie Projector and water systems, he was sure he could get the fourth star if he focused on it, if not the fifth. After checking the ores, he went through the miscellaneous demonic beast parts for sale as well as the hides, leathers, and minerals.

He was very thorough as he didn’t want to miss out on a good deal, but also because the Chrono Copper and Storm Silver were very much dependent on their supporting materials. If used on their own they were powerful, but if combined with the right supporting ingredients they could be boosted by a whole rank in quality, even two or three ranks wasn’t inconceivable with the right combination. Unfortunately, none of the really good supporting materials were present.

Sage was on a clock, so he acted decisively and purchased a large quantity of Cloudmetal, along with a set of matching talons from a Grimfire Gryphon, and finally Enigma Silk for the grip wrap and tassels. Along with these main higher leveled ingredients, Sage listed out lower level things he’d need like horn for the handle, a special charcoal to make a steel alloy with the Cloudmetal, and various other materials to create the arrays. While a clerk was sent to fulfill his shopping list, Sage looked over to a sales floor assistant.

“Excuse me, this humble one wouldn’t dare to impose, but I dreadfully need a bit of assistance. Do you happen to know if there are any Blacksmithing Workshops available for short term rental in town? I would go over and ask at Lotus Valley, but Thousand Treasure is so much more agreeable in my eyes.”

He hoped to use the name of one of the other four major businesses of the Dou Kingdom, Lotus Valley, to get some free information. Lotus Valley was all about the seedier side of business, like brothels, casinos, along with more reputable things like restaurants and bars. Of course, all of those businesses fed their real claim to power, information dealing. Sage was aiming to use the pride of Thousand Treasures to try and get a free morsel out of them. They could give out some information, the pride of Lotus Valley, and snub their rival.

“Just head over to the street of forges. There’s many smiths there.”

Sage was spoken to as if he was looking for a mundane blacksmith, which was silly given the place they were at, frequented only by Cultivators. Putting on his biggest smile, Sage gently pulled back his outer robe to expose the profession badges on his chest, “I meant a true Blacksmith, Sir. Not a mundane sort. Are there any places with Earthfire veins in the area?”

The attendant jumped up in surprise. Cultivators with professions were rare outside of big sects, seeing one walking around on the streets was highly unusual. Most of them would be received as a VIP in a Thousand Treasures so it came as a shock to the attendant. Most Cultivators simple purchased finished goods or purchased materials to take to a craftsman. Many only forged things on request if the required materials were brought to them in advance, and usually they asked for five times more than was required to make up for failures and to keep as additional profit.

“Please forgive me, Sir. I did not realize you were an important person! Every local professional is already a VIP so it is a rare thing to meet a traveling professional like yourself. Please allow me to take you up to the third floor!”

Sage waved his hands in denial, “No need, no need. I only need to know of a good place to work while I’m here.”

“Of course! Let me go and find out, sorry for the delay, Sir!”