In Private Room 1 of the Witch's Kitchen at Dragonblood Market, Locke first negotiated a loan with the wizard manager from the Red Dragon Wizard Bank.
It was an unsecured loan of roughly one hundred million Magic Stones, based purely on credit. He would pledge 800 Civilization Credit Points against the loan, and if he failed to repay it, those 800 points would be deducted.
That was an extremely severe deduction.
Civilization Credit Points in the Eye of Truth were not easy to accumulate. Only a series of trustworthy acts and missions for the White Wizard Association could speed up their recovery. Once someone's points fell below a certain threshold, they would be unable to obtain loans, rent Void Battleships, cooperate with others, or apply for projects and titles.
Even applying for the Second-Ring Fund required at least 800 Civilization Credit Points.
Locke borrowed one hundred million Magic Stones from the Red Dragon Bank and used his access to the Red Dragon School Lineage's internal fund to reduce the annual interest rate from 20% to 4.6%.
In other words, one year later, he would have to repay the Red Dragon Bank 104.6 million Magic Stones.
If a wizard outside the Red Dragon School Lineage signed such an agreement, the interest payable after one year could well reach twenty million Magic Stones.
That was a crushing amount of interest.
After the wizard manager from the Red Dragon Bank finished signing the contract with Locke, Locke waited in the private room for half an hour. Soon, a Star-Ring fairy walked into Private Room 1 in a pair of little leather shoes. Shrewdness flashed across the fairy manager's face as he plopped down on a stool.
"Lord Locke, it seems you already signed an agreement with the Red Dragon Bank. I confirmed that