Chapter 62: Twenty Percent

When the fat representative heard Teo’s words, his vein popped out from his forehead. He had been working for this establishment for 20 years! How could this dirty stranger even question him at all?

His reputation was being questioned buy this beggar in front of him and his fake pleasantries quickly vanished and was replaced by anger.

“You cheap beggar dare question my eyes? I have an extensive 20 years experience in these matter! What? You want me to get you a different representative?!”

This fat belly jiggled as his voice gradually became louder as he scorned Teo.

He quickly opened the door and with a loud voice, said “Esteemed guest wants a different representative to appraise his treasures, can someone come to the sixth chamber”

He did not hide his sarcastic tone and waited for any available appraisers to arrive.Soon, two other representatives arrived at the scene. One was much older, while the other was very young.

From a glance, one could not tell that they were master and apprentices; trainer and trainee. Most people could regard them as a grandfather and a grandchild, but from their words and actions, one could tell that the youth was an apprentice learning the ways of appraising items.

After closing the door, they looked at the other shoes they felt that the appraisal of the fat veteran was correct. They examined it thoroughly and found nothing special about it.

‘This guest must be here to make trouble’, the old man thought

The fat representative stood behind them as he sneered towards Teo. He was confident on his appraisal and from the old representative’s expression, he could tell that he also found nothing out of the ordinary.

“What is your evaluation of this item?”, the old man asked his apprentice.

He was testing his knowledge and perception.

“The materials are quite cheap, and this number design makes it very ugly. I can’t detect any inscriptions being used on this at all which pose two possibilities. One, there aren’t any or two it is so well hidden that I can’t see it at all. I guess I have to test it out.”, the youth responded as he held a pair in his hands

The youth was very thorough as he was being tested by his instructor. He started taking off his shoes and took a pair off the table.

The old man looked at the youth and sighed. Although his evaluation of the item is correct, he missed one crucial thing.

It was the fact that the item was made of cheap materials! An inscription with concealment properties that they could not detect on a cheap item like this? That would be unheard of! It was like cover a treasure with shit that could not be washed off!

Besides, with their abilities, only a high ranked concealment inscription were the only ones that they could not detect. They could barely detect a medium ranked, although they could not see it because of its concealment, they could discern that it was there.

As the youth wore the pair, he took note of how uncomfortable these cheap pair of shoes felt. He also noticed the slight smell that emanated from the shoes, and found them to be used. The youth was quite thorough and took note of everything he could think of.

Then he suddenly circulated his Qi into the shoes and his whole body froze. He felt his weight becoming lighter and lighter, which proved that these pair of shoes really did have a concealed inscription on it.

‘High level concealment inscription on these shoes, one can say that they are already treasures, but the choice of materials is quite questionable’

Then he prepared to test of the amount of speed the shoes can give him.

The fat and older representative watched the new apprentice thinking of lecturing him for missing something so crucial that could’ve saved his time.

‘A few steps should do it’, the apprentice thought and within just only one step

-BAM-

Despite using only half his speed for a single step, he ended up slamming into the thick walls without him being able to react. He was slightly injured by the impact but laid motionlessly on the floor as if paralyzed.

He was deeply assessing the speed boost he had obtained, and calculated that it was above slightly above a mid rank enchanted boots.

The other two representative widen their eyes and the fat representative’s jaw dropped to the floor!

Their brains froze as it became blank for a long moment.

They could not process the situation at all!

From the apprentice’s figure on the ground, they could tell that the shoes indeed have some inscription within it, and what’s more is that it seems to be a high ranked concealment!

But such a thought was contradictory to their beliefs! Such a high level technique of inscription and concealment was used on trash items like this?! What a waste!!

The three representatives were motionless as if they were inanimate objects, and Teo gave them a bit of time but eventually he became impatient. They were standing there for almost 5 minutes!

-Ahem-

Teo cleared his throat very loudly that he dragged the three back to reality.

“Well? How much are you buying”, Teo asked

He sounded confident, but in reality he did not know how much these shoes would sell for. He had hoped to sell these at a decent price, enough to cover the expenses for creating them.

The more experienced and older representative was the first two regain his wits and spoke

“Esteemed guest, on behalf of the Emerald Pavilion, I apologize for our representative’s rudeness”, he quickly apologized as he immediately recognized Teo as one of those famed eccentrics

“I am very sorry for my rude conduct today, please forgive this foolish one for not having eyes to see”, the fat representative immediately threw himself onto the floor. His intestines were green with regret due to disrespecting such an esteemed client

As they were apologizing the young apprentice stood behind his master and bowed as well. With his status, and Teo’s projected status, he should not have the right to speak at all!

“How large is the boost in speed did you get?”, the older representative quietly whispered to his apprentice

“Master, It’s well above mid rank, but not too quite high rank. With the quality of materials, I don’t know how this speed is possible. I don’t know how to appraise this item”, he whispered in reply

“Esteemed guest, how about let us move to a different room as we thoroughly appraise these treasures”, the old representative sincerely said

….

Teo found himself within a large room within the third floor. There were many food and drinks offered to him and two beautiful attendants with very revealing clothes were left to wait on him.

‘So this is what the third floor looks like’, Teo thought

If Teo was a little older, he would appreciate these kinds of attendants but alas his focus was more on the room and the food rather than the ladies that were awaiting orders.

The room was extravagant and designed with very expensive looking items. Every inch of the floor was covered by a carpet of soft looking fur. The tables used were dark with a thick layer of gloss, even shinier than polished gold. The green chairs were embroidered with golden design and were extremely soft.

Teo’s stomach grumbled as he smelled the fragrant smell of the dishes prepared for him as he waited, but with the 4 attendants with him in the room, he did not dare to take off his mask to eat or drink.

The attendants heard Teo’s stomach and quickly understood the situation. They were not only beautiful but also had a very sharp mind.

“Esteemed guest, we shall wait right outside the door. If you have anything to ask of us please don’t hesitate to ask”, the four promptly left and Teo was finally alone

He looked at his dirty sack and became guilty that it was spreading dirt on the carpet. Inside the sack were only 9 pairs of boots, the 10th pair was currently being fully appraised.

Teo was afraid that someone might burst inside the room, so he quickly locked the door from the inside.

He immediately pulled down his mask and started to eat the various delicacies prepared for him.

‘These are more delicious than that expensive restaurant we ate from before!’, he thought

Since the appraisal process seemed to be taking a while, Teo ate until he was satisfied and after that he wore his mask and unlocked the door.

-Knock knock knock-

After a long while a knock appeared on the door

“Esteemed master, may we come in?”

A familiar voice from behind the door asked permission to enter the room. They treated the room if it was owned by Teo, but this was of course to respect their disguised guest’s privacy.

“You may enter”

The figures who entered was the older representative from before and another old man who wore dazzling and extravagant clothes. The old representative carried on his hands one of the pairs of boots that Teo brought to sell.

“Most esteemed guest, I am called Cody the branch chief of this establishment, please allow me to warmly welcome your visit”, the old man wearing such luxurious clothes introduced himself with a friendly smile.

“We have assessed the product you have brought us today, and we wish to ask how much one wishes to sell them?”, he continued as he briefly glanced that the dirty sack

‘These are indeed treasures, but the materials used are too horrible. He is clearly the maker of these items, I must form a good relationship with him’, the branch chief thought

The branch chief did not wish to overbid on the price, but if he offered a lower price from what the seller wanted, he might offend the mysterious figure.

“Ha ha ha, branch chief, I sadly don’t know how much they would sell for, but I wish to put some conditions for them”, Teo replied with a disguised voice

‘Don’t know the price? Conditions?‘

The branch chief was wary because many eccentrics were hard to deal with. Some pretended ignorance and played him before, and this mysterious seller should be one of those.

“Oh? What conditions did sir have in mind?”, Cody replied

“Hmm, you see these products are still in their experimental stages, so I do not want to sell too high. I also want them to be only sold within the confines of the academy for a few months as well as some other conditions. How about 20%? As long as these conditions are met and you provide me the complete information of the buyers as well as a portrait of them, 20% of the value you estimate it as will suffice”, Teo explained

‘The average price for a basic enchanted shoes is around 1 or 2 gold’

From his perspective, even if it’s price was evaluated as 1 gold, he would still make a lot of profit.

Compared the boots that Zachery wore, which was worth around 5 gold coins, With Teo’s cultivation, it gave him a comparable speed.

Enchanted items were priced depending on how powerful the effects of the inscriptions were. A student who had studied inscriptions for a few years could create a basic enchanted shoe, but not all shoes were the same, with the subtle difference of each shoes, it was a lot of work calculating these changes and adjusting their inscription lines.

Although they were relatively cheap, for many they were valuable treasures. Not even Zachery’s henchmen could afford such basic enchanted shoes.

The branch chief was stumped. These boots that this mysterious seller brought were indeed treasures, even regarding the poor materials and the terrible looks, when appraising the power of the boots, they discovered that the boost it gave scaled depending on the user’s strength!

With each stage of cultivation after Qi gathering stage, the Qi grew thicker as one progresses. The thicker the Qi the greater the speed! These could be considered high tier treasures, perhaps more! An expert would pay a large sum for these kinds of shoes!

A high tier enchanted boots was worth around 60 gold coins, but with their potential, these boots should be far above that!

The only problem was the materials! Most inscriptions relied on the quality of the materials used. He knew that no normal inscription could produce this level of speed using such items, which meant that the real treasure was these eccentric’s skills

“Most esteemed guest, could you please elaborate on the other conditions you spoke of in greater detail”

……

After Teo explained the conditions he wanted, branch chief Cody became even more apprehensive.

There were many odd conditions that this mysterious eccentric wanted to set, but with such strict requirements, he should be able to lower the price quite a bit, but it wouldn’t be good if he took advantage of this eccentric guest. He wanted to build a close relationship with Teo for future transactions.

“Sir, instead of selling it to us, how about we auctioned it off? In a few months we are holding our yearly auction and we can obtain the buyer’s information with the conditions you’ve set, and as for the rest, we can handle it as well. I think you would find it more profitable this way”, Cody suggested

“No, I would rather you sell these shoes as soon as possible”, Teo replied

Although he still had lots of time, waiting for two months would be cutting it close! What he needed were quick guinea pigs!

“Is that so...then 20% it is, with the following conditions as promised but we will require sir to please not exclude us from future sales of your wares”, Cody replied with a pleasing smile

[Author's Note: A few things I have to talk about

there is a distinction between the Rizon Family and the Rizon Faction. The faction is a student organization within the academy, while the family is spread throughout the empire.

Also, there is a difference between seeing elemental energy, and seeing world Qi. Since the later half of the array book is all written in world Qi, the old man Cien had to upgrade Teo's eyes. Even if he had mastered the sensing stage, there was currently no way for Teo to see world Qi (unless it was very dense, the Cien's technique) ]