Chapter 1 An Opportunity

Shi Feng looked at the words "Wanderer's Shop" and felt both excited and shocked. He truly hadn't expected to be so lucky as to stumble upon such an opportunity.

"Can I purchase this Wanderer's Shop?" He couldn't help but ask the NPC female elf beside him.

The Wanderer's Shop was unfamiliar to players. Even the current major superpowers probably didn't know what it was.

However, they definitely knew its other name.

The Black Market!

An exchange that existed in the shadows, spanning all the neutral zones in God's Domain. It had more items than any NPC auction house, from flying mounts and legendary item fragments to potions and combat techniques. It was truly a paradise for the wealthy.

Of course, you couldn't just buy a Wanderer's Shop whenever you wanted. They appeared randomly in neutral NPC cities, and only stayed for a limited time before disappearing. Whether you could buy one or not depended entirely on luck.

The current price of the Wanderer's Shop was nine thousand gold coins, just within his means.

"Of course, you can. However, after purchasing this shop, it cannot be converted for other purposes. You will also need to pay a management fee of three thousand gold coins every ten days. If you cannot pay, we will reclaim the shop," the NPC female elf explained.

"That's ruthless. No wonder so many forces come to buy shops in Dragonheart City, but no one chooses the Wanderer's Shop," Shi Feng clicked his tongue.

The management fee for a one-star peripheral shop in Dragonheart City was usually just one thousand gold coins a month, while a one-star shop in the inner district was between one thousand five hundred and one thousand eight hundred. But a Wanderer's Shop in the outer district cost three thousand gold coins every ten days, which was nine thousand gold coins a month!

Nine thousand gold coins!

Even first-rate forces that had been in Dragonheart City for a long time only earned slightly more than that each month. Only superpowers could afford such a management fee.

But no superpower was willing to spend that much money.

Because one-star Wanderer's Shops had virtually nothing to offer. They sold ordinary clothing and sundries, and bought ordinary herbs and ores from wanderers. There was no profit to be made at all. They were far worse than ordinary general stores, which could at least sell items crafted by players. The Wanderer's Shop couldn't. It was a losing proposition.

A losing proposition plus a monthly management fee of nine thousand gold coins? Only a madman would buy it.

"Respected Bronze Inheritor, are you sure you want to purchase this Wanderer's Shop?" The NPC female elf asked again.

"That's right. I'll take it," Shi Feng nodded firmly.

The Wanderer's Shop was a money pit, a huge money pit. It was basically spending money to maintain the shop.

But this was only true until it reached two stars. The Wanderer's Shop only revealed its true potential at two stars.

It had two major functions, two god-like abilities.

The first was the ability to acquire rare, non-circulating items, such as magic tomes that were absolutely forbidden by kingdoms and empires, or even Tier 3 and above magic skill books.

Tier 3 classes were a significant force throughout the God's Domain continent. This was evident in the fact that the magistrates in some NPC cities within kingdoms and empires were Tier 3 classes. Such power was subject to the management of kingdoms and empires, which was why Tier 3 class advancement required going to neutral maps, rather than remaining within kingdoms and empires.

The second major function was the Black Market Teleportation Gate, which could transport players to a Black Market exchange. However, there were strict quota restrictions, not only on the number of players, but also on the number of times they could enter. This was the main selling point of the Wanderer's Shop, and as the shop owner, one could benefit from being in a privileged position.

In his previous life, many forces were unaware of this and missed a great opportunity. Only a few forces were lucky enough to purchase a Wanderer's Shop. The reason it was called lucky was because the number of Wanderer's Shops in each neutral NPC city was limited. A large NPC city like Dragonheart City could only have fifteen at most.

Once players had purchased fifteen Wanderer's Shops in a large neutral NPC city, no more would appear unless one was reclaimed by the NPC, creating a vacancy. Otherwise, others could only watch helplessly.

After Shi Feng confirmed the purchase, the NPC female elf began processing the paperwork.

In less than five minutes, Shi Feng spent nine thousand gold coins and obtained the deed to the Wanderer's Shop. All the relevant information about the shop appeared in his hands.

After reviewing the specific details, Shi Feng couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

"No wonder it was so slow to upgrade to a two-star Wanderer's Shop in my previous life. The upgrade requirements are so harsh," Shi Feng frowned slightly as he looked at the upgrade requirements.

Normal NPC shops were upgraded based on their reputation and the volume of NPC transactions. Once a certain level was reached, they could be directly upgraded. But the Wanderer's Shop was completely different.

Perhaps because there was nothing to sell, the Wanderer's Shop had to obtain a Bronze Shop Upgrade Order to be promoted to a two-star shop, or it would remain a one-star shop forever…

And how rare was a Bronze Shop Upgrade Order? It was far rarer than a player shop upgrade order, which could be obtained by clearing a fixed team dungeon. Even if you didn't get it the first time, you could try again. But a token that could upgrade an NPC shop was completely different.

Even large team dungeons didn't necessarily drop one. Usually, only large team dungeons level 100 and above had a chance of dropping one. Every one that dropped was worth a fortune, because upgrading an NPC shop could bring players a lot of sustained revenue.

Level 100 team dungeons were a joke to the current players. Even a team of level 90 experts would probably struggle to defeat the mobs.

Why?

Because level 100 and above dungeons were designed for Tier 3 classes. Tier 2 classes could only be spectators, which was why Tier 3 classes were the backbone of God's Domain.

"It looks like I can only try to kill a World Boss," Shi Feng thought. Besides level 100 and above team dungeons, World Bosses were the only other source.

This was currently the only way to quickly upgrade the Wanderer's Shop to two stars. Otherwise, maintaining a one-star Wanderer's Shop was too expensive. After all, he currently had no way to earn a large amount of gold coins. He had to rely on the guild's experts to accumulate them little by little, but Zero Wing didn't have any members developing in Dragonheart City, so maintaining the Wanderer's Shop was impossible.

Thinking of this, Shi Feng directly took out a Return Scroll and returned to White River City.

World Bosses were very rare, and each one was incredibly powerful. Even with Zero Wing's main force, the highest level World Boss they could kill was probably level 70, and even that was doubtful. After all, the higher the level of the World Boss, the harder it was to deal with, and its growth was far more impressive than that of players.

To have a high chance of obtaining a Bronze Shop Upgrade Order, he could only kill the level 90 World Boss, the Frost Army Master. This was the only World Boss he had heard of that dropped the Bronze Shop Upgrade Order.

But before that, Shi Feng planned to improve the strength of Kite and Anna.

They had absorbed a lot of souls when killing the Skeletal Magic General in the Endless Sand Sea. Although the Skeletal Magic General was only a Grand Lord, it was still a level 100 monster, equivalent to a mini-boss at level 100. They had still absorbed some soul essence through the Ancient God's Remnant Fragment.

A total of eight drops were absorbed.

Originally, he wanted to use them on Fire Dance and the others, hoping they could break through the Realm of Reason or enter the Vacuum Realm. But now it seemed better to improve the strength of his direct guards first.

Immediately, Shi Feng summoned Kite and Anna, his two direct guards, in the Candlelight Trading Firm.

When he saw Kite and Anna, their levels were 95 and 96 respectively. This leveling speed was terrifyingly fast. The mainstream level of those Mithril-ranked NPC guards was only level 90.

NPC guards couldn't level up by grinding monsters above their level. They usually had to complete quests one by one to improve their level.

After seeing the two direct guards, Shi Feng directly took out the Ancient God's Remnant Fragment and began using magic to scan Anna.

"There are too many soul essences required for this promotion," Shi Feng couldn't help but curse when he saw the soul essences required to strengthen Anna.

Just strengthening Anna's soul required a full fifteen drops of soul essence. Soul essence was not easy to obtain, and it could only be absorbed once every six hours. He could accumulate so much thanks to killing the level 100 Grand Lord. If it were a High Lord below level 100, it would be difficult.

Then, Shi Feng scanned Kite.

After a magic scan, the Ancient God's Remnant Fragment showed a number of five drops. Shi Feng breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Kite was now a Dark-Gold ranked guard, only one rank away from the Epic ranked Anna.

"In that case, I'll strengthen you," Shi Feng glanced at Kite and then began chanting a spell with the power of the Ancient God's Remnant Fragment.