The young clerk was taken aback for a moment before revealing a look of pleasant surprise. "Sir, please follow me."
If this customer really wanted to purchase a Master-grade large-scale construction construct, it would definitely be a good deal.
Feng Chou followed the clerk to the third floor of the building and was invited into an office.
The one who received him was an intermediate wizard.
The price of construction constructs was basically fixed and there was no room for negotiation. Moreover, because the purchase was a non-combat construct, there was no need for a special permit, so both parties quickly finalized the deal.
Next, the intermediate mage found an accountant and brought Feng Chou to the warehouse behind the building of the alchemy trading company.
Compared to the luxurious palace-like building, the warehouse behind the building was like an old-fashioned castle, simple and sturdy.
The warehouse was surrounded by tall walls. Not only were there fixed sentries at the top of the walls, but there were also teams of guards patrolling the area. The warehouse was a huge and sturdy square stone building. The building's walls were as thick as city walls, and they were emitting clear mana fluctuations.
Feng Chou saw the construct he wanted to purchase in a sealed warehouse.
After a simple inspection, Feng Chou paid the accountant a bill of 300,000 crowns as a deposit and received the activation scroll for the construct.
These bills were all exchanged by Feng Choucai with gold coins.
The activation process of a construct was actually the process of recognizing its owner. Once the construct was activated, it would be very troublesome to trade it again.
After the successful activation and ensuring that the automaton was operating correctly, Feng Chou paid the final payment of two million and two hundred thousand. Controlling the spatial ring on his finger, he opened the spatial door that led to the internal space and instructed the automaton to squat and walk in.
This spatial ring was given to him by the high elven princess when she sent someone to deliver the magic materials to him.
There was a five-meter by five-meter square space in the spatial ring. The six-meter tall construct had to squat to enter. Fortunately, the construct did not find it difficult to enter.
After completing the transaction, Feng Chou left the alchemy trading company.
An alchemy trading company of this scale was definitely supported by a legendary wizard or a wizard organization.
However, there were at least dozens of such alchemy trading companies in Alvendell!
This was the foundation of Alvindale.
Feng Chou spent three days to purchase ten master-grade constructs in Alvendell before teleporting out of the city.
Feng Chou teleported from Alvindale to an abandoned factory in Stormwind City.
After contacting Chapman, Feng Chou changed into overalls and a canvas jacket, which were commonly worn by low-level workers. He left the abandoned factory, walked a few blocks, and took a public carriage to the dock area.
According to Chapman's message, Feng Chou soon saw the Pioneer Knight at a busy dock.
He left the dock, walked into an empty alley, and directly used Teleportation to board the Pioneer Knight.
Gliss, Chorre, Natasha, Chapman, and Owen were waiting for him in the captain's cabin.
After meeting them, Feng Chou asked about the ship's successful entry into the port, as well as the status of the goods sold.
Chapman told Feng Chou that they had contacted a few local trading companies, and were prepared to split the goods on the ship into several batches, and sell them to a few companies separately to avoid causing a commotion.
The Pioneer Knight had over ten thousand pieces of middle-grade magical equipment. If they were to be sold together, they would be worth over a hundred million crowns!
Generally speaking, the large armed merchant ships from Tailun would bring thousands of magical items, and among them, thousands of mid-level magical items. This was already considered a huge business. These ships were mainly transporting ordinary goods that were produced using Alchemy Techniques.
For example, high-quality steel made with alchemy equipment, high-quality steel weapons and armour, high-quality cloth made with alchemy equipment, alchemy gunpowder, alchemy black glue, high-grade dyes, exquisite porcelain made with alchemy technology, silk from central Alvendell, coffee and sugar from the south, tea from the southern continent, and so on.
True magical items only accounted for a small portion of the total in terms of volume and weight.
Although the more alchemy products they transported, the higher the profits would be, transporting alchemy products for the entire ship would require a huge amount of capital.
Generally speaking, if a large merchant ship could sell goods worth ten to twenty million crowns for thirty to fifty million crowns, it would be considered an extremely successful business.
Including the return trip, the profits would be close to three times the original. It was so generous that ordinary merchants would be envious. It was no wonder that many nobles would sell their ancestral properties to participate in the maritime trade.
However, as more and more capital flowed into the maritime trade, the profits of the trade between the east and west coast had begun to decline year by year.
Back to the main topic, the ten thousand pieces of middle-grade alchemy products on the Pioneer Knight had to be sold to at least three different companies, so as to not attract too much attention.
After Chapman reported the situation of the trade, Natasha told Feng Chou that a high-ranked bandit had snuck onto the ship the day after they had arrived at the port. He had been discovered by the scouting ring that Feng Chou had given her. After that bandit had been captured, he was still locked up in a black steel cage on the lower level.
The so-called reconnaissance ring was actually a high-tech product. There was a miniature laser projection device on the ring that could project the three-dimensional structure of the Pioneer Knight using the laser.
The ring was also connected to the scanner that Feng Chou had installed on the ship. If the scanner found any abnormalities, it could alarm through the ring and project a holographic image of the Pioneer Knight, marking the problem areas.
After Natasha finished her report, Chorre said, "From the news I heard in the bar some time ago, this rogue is most likely a pirate informant. The task of these pirate informants is generally to find out the details of cargo ships that dock at the port and select hunting targets. Merchant ships like ours that enter the port alone without participating in the fleet are the main targets of these pirate informants."
Feng Chou nodded. He knew that Chorre was right. These things were in the memories of the vampire captain.
He thought for a moment and said, "Tell me about the process of you capturing the rogue."
After listening to Natasha's description, Feng Chou said, "Since this rogue already knows that we not only have a master dragonkin powerhouse on our ship, but also a skeletal golem guard, you can send this rogue to the port police station today."
Seeing that no one understood what he meant, Feng Chou explained, "Our purpose is not to eliminate the pirates or kill the pirate informants. Our purpose is to smoothly sail the ship to where we want to go, so it doesn't matter whether we kill this high-ranked rogue or not. The important thing is to let the pirates know that the Pioneer Knight is not to be trifled with. With the port police's ability, they definitely can't hold a high-ranked rogue. After this rogue escapes, he will definitely report his experience to the pirate informants. This way, the pirates will also know the strength of the Pioneer Knight, and we will naturally have a lot less trouble, understand?"
After explaining, Feng Chou left the Pioneer Knight, but he did not leave Stormwind City.
The Golden Rose was one of the most famous high-class hotels in Stormwind City. This hotel was located at the intersection of Shoreline Avenue and Riverside Avenue. The west square of the hotel faced the sea, while the south square faced the estuary of the Star River.
Shoreline Avenue connected almost all the seaports in Stormwind City, while Riverside Avenue connected the river ports along the north bank of the Star River.
North of the Golden Rose was the import market of Stormwind City. After the local trading companies of Stormwind City took goods from ocean-going merchant ships, they would put them in this market for trade and sell them to merchants from all over the country.
East of the Golden Rose was the mineral market of Stormwind City.
Along the Star River, all kinds of crude minerals and raw gems gathered from all over the Sutton Empire would eventually be sent to this trading market. Some of the major exporters would purchase goods here and store them at the harbor, waiting to be sold to the ocean-going merchant ships heading south.
In addition to the two markets, the Golden Rose was not far from the Stormwind City headquarters of the Ottawa Bank. It could be seen 300 meters east along Riverside Avenue.
Those who stayed in the Golden Rose were either big merchants from the country or the captains and owners of ocean-going merchant ships.
The Golden Rose was a five-story corner building. The corner of the building was designed in the shape of an arc, and the entrance and lobby of the hotel were located at the corner of this arc.
The first floor of the corner area of the building was the hotel lobby, the second floor was the hotel restaurant, the third floor was the high-end tavern, the fourth floor was the banquet hall, and the fifth floor was rented out to the Stormwind City Trading Club.
The Golden Rose was not the highest grade hotel Feng Chou had ever seen, but its scale was definitely the largest Feng Chou had ever seen. The entire hotel had thousands of guest rooms.
Feng Chou checked into the Golden Rose under the name of a foreign merchant.
In order to make his identity look more convincing, Feng Chou used Shapeshifting to transform a few of the alien slaves he bought on Brook Island into human form and brought them with him as guards.
He asked for a luxurious suite on the fifth floor of the hotel. This luxurious suite not only had a living room, living room, study, bedroom, and other functional rooms, it even had two servants' rooms.
After settling down in the hotel, Feng Chou left the tavern with Guderian and Rommel.
Guderian and Rommel were the names Feng Chou gave to the two male Drow elven slaves. Their original names were pronounced very differently from humans. Anyone who knew how to pronounce them would know that they were Drow elves.
So, Feng Chou gave them new names that were easy to remember.
After leaving the tavern, Feng Chou called for a rental carriage and went to a real estate company that operated warehouse rentals and rented an entire warehouse.
After renting the warehouse, Feng Chou returned to the Golden Rose and went straight to the tavern on the third floor.
Feng Chou didn't go to the tavern to drink. As a mage, he didn't touch a single drop of alcohol. He went to the tavern to find a broker.
In order to protect the interests of their own merchants, the Sutton Empire stipulated that foreign merchants couldn't directly buy goods from their own markets. They had to go through a qualified Sutton trader.
Feng Chou didn't plan to use the name of Stellin Baron this time. Using the name of a foreign merchant, he naturally wouldn't have the right to buy goods from the market.
However, these rules weren't enough to stop a smart merchant. So, some brokers who specialized in helping foreign merchants to buy and sell goods were born.
The last time Feng Chou came to Stormwind City to make a big purchase, he stayed at the Golden Rose. At that time, he considered that he might not be able to use the name of Stellin Baron the next time he came, so he paid special attention to these brokers.
The tavern on the third floor of the Golden Rose was decorated in the usual style of the tavern. The interior was very spacious, with tall floor-to-ceiling windows and gorgeous magic lamps on the roof, making the place very bright. Not only did they provide fine wine, but they also provided high-end restaurants and coffee.
Feng Chou walked into the tavern with two of his followers. He waved his hand to dismiss the bartender who came up to greet him. He walked to the center of the tavern and looked around. Soon, he found his target.
It was a young gentleman in his late twenties. He wore a blue tuxedo and was playing poker with three other gentlemen in a large booth. There was a stack of gold and silver coins in front of each of them.
Feng Chou went straight to the booth, raised his hat, and said, "Mr. Burton, I have a business here that you might be interested in."
The young gentleman looked up and glanced at Feng Chou. He stared at the cards in his hand and said, "You can have a drink first and wait for me to finish this round."
Feng Chou shrugged and walked to the booth next to him. He called the waiter and asked for a cup of coffee.
Ten minutes later, the young gentleman finally finished playing. He took off the top hat on the hook beside him and picked up the civilized cane leaning against the table. He got up and walked to the booth opposite Feng Chou.
He put the civilized cane on the table, took off his top hat and put it on the cane. He looked at Feng Chou and said, "Sir, tell me about your business. I hope you're not wasting my time."
This Mr. Burton was the nephew of Marquis McAdam, but there were rumors that he was actually the marquis' illegitimate son.
Marquis McAdam was a court marquis.
The so-called court marquis was a life noble with the title of marquis but no actual territory.
Although the court nobles were not looked up to by the nobles, this Marquis McAdam had considerable authority. He was the trusted minister of the interior of the Sutton Empire's current emperor, Francois VI.
Not everyone had the ability to be a transaction broker. This kind of behavior was no doubt poaching the merchants of their own country. If they did not have enough power, they would be torn to pieces by their own country's merchants in minutes.
Among the many brokers, Burton, who had Marquis McAdam's backing, was undoubtedly the most powerful one.
Feng Chou had already found out about this broker's rules. He handed a list of goods to him.
Burton casually picked up the list, but after looking at it, his attitude suddenly became serious.