Card Maker Lin Feng
Lin Qi clutched the 50,000-Ka'en stored-value card he had just collected from the city lord's residence's accounts office, feeling thoroughly pleased.
"Working for rich people really is different. The pay was a whole 30,000 more than I expected."
He looked down at the Wind Chime Cat by his feet and asked with a smile, "Little Wind Chime, you don't blame me for choosing Ka'en instead of your advancement materials, do you?"
"Meow, meow."
The Wind Chime Cat looked up, gave her tail a gentle swish, and rubbed against Lin Qi's trouser leg. She was as graceful and well-behaved as ever, clearly having understood none of his conversation with Alicia.
"Don't worry. I looked at those advancement materials. They could get you to three stars, but your quality would still be green. Rather than choose those useless materials, I'd be better off putting together an evolution path for you myself."
"Meow~"
The Wind Chime Cat gave a meow in response.
As Lin Qi's Card Beast, she couldn't understand his exact words, but she could clearly feel his care for her. She rubbed her little head against him again.
That was right. Lin Qi had already decided to make the Wind Chime Cat his permanent Secondary Card.
Although he had once dreamed of having a Card Beast that could carry him through the air, nobody said he could only have one beast.
In any case, he would only grow stronger in the future. Every time he advanced a star, he could open a new slot in his Card Slot Space, so there was no problem at all with saving one for the Wind Chime Cat.
"Grand opening specials! One percent off everything!"
As soon as Lin Qi reached the street where the Wonderful Tales Shop stood, a clamor greeted him.
He looked over and saw a crowd packed several rows deep outside the shop, with no room to squeeze through.
Lin Feng stood in front of the counter, holding a Mercenary's Saber card and hawking it at the top of his lungs.
"One-star Implement Card, Mercenary's Saber! Not 2,000, not 200, but just 198! You heard that right, 198 Ka'en! Buy one and you've got yourself a bargain!"
"Boss, a Mercenary's Saber only costs 200 Ka'en at the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion. You're only knocking off two Ka'en. Isn't that a bit stingy?"
"What? Knocking off two Ka'en is stingy?"
Lin Feng widened his eyes and raised his voice.
"One Ka'en can buy you a whole bucket of ale. Two Ka'en gets you two extra cups. Isn't that enough?"
"Besides, my Implement Cards are guaranteed. Pay on the spot and try them on the spot. If they're worse than the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion's, I'll give you a full refund and an extra ten Ka'en!"
Seeing that the crowd was still hesitating, Lin Feng took a swig of red ink from his cup.
"Pfft~~"
After putting on a show of spraying blood everywhere, he continued shouting, "We're all brothers from mercenary corps. Today, I'm coughing up blood to sell these at 195 Ka'en!"
The dramatic scene instantly fired up the crowd.
A young man in mercenary clothes was the first to pull out his stored-value card and squeeze his way to the counter.
"Boss, I'll take one!"
"Good lad."
Lin Feng's eyes lit up. He immediately dropped his pained expression and patted the young man on the shoulder.
"I could tell at a glance you've got the face of a mercenary corps commander. You're bound to go far!"
He took out his own Source Crystal card and gently tapped it against the young man's card. As Source Power flowed in, 195 Ka'en arrived in his account instantly.
Lin Feng handed the young man the Mercenary's Saber card and said with a smile, "Here you go, Commander, your saber! How about giving it a couple of swings and showing everyone what it can do?"
The people around them immediately joined in. "Yeah! Give it a couple of swings! Let's see if it's really that good!"
Being called commander stirred the young man's blood, and he nodded at once.
"All right! I'll show everyone!"
He immediately unlinked the Dust Star Card in his Card Slot Space and began linking the new card without even stopping to adjust his condition.
A longsword gleaming with a faint silver light appeared in his hand out of thin air. Simple patterns were carved into its hilt, making it look much more refined than an ordinary Mercenary's Saber.
"That sword looks good!" someone exclaimed.
"Give it a few swings! Let's hear it!"
The young man gripped the longsword and gave his wrist a gentle flick. The sword sliced through the air with a crisp swish, and a faint glimmer flashed along its edge.
Seeing this, Ruilian hurried into the shop and brought out a piece of wood as thick as an arm, holding it out before the young man.
"Here, try chopping this!"
The young man didn't hesitate. Gripping the sword in both hands, he brought it down hard on the wood.
Crack!
The wood snapped in two, leaving a clean, smooth surface without a single splinter.
"How is it so sharp?"
The crowd erupted.
"Why can't my Mercenary's Saber make a cut like that?"
As mercenaries, nearly all of them had a Mercenary's Saber. It was fair to say everyone there had handled or used one to some extent.
"Give me one. I want to see how it's different from the one I bought at the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion."
A tall mercenary squeezed out of the crowd, pulled out a Source Crystal card, and slapped it down on the counter.
"Come on, come on, try it all you like. The first five are only 195 Ka'en. After that, they'll be 198."
Lin Feng hadn't expected the Mercenary's Sabers Lin Qi made to be so sharp either, and immediately raised the price.
The mercenary took the Mercenary's Saber card and activated it on the spot, then gripped the longsword and chopped at another piece of wood.
Crack!
That piece of wood also broke cleanly in two.
He hefted the sword in his hand, his face full of astonishment. "It really is sharper than the one I bought at the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion! Boss, how many more do you have? The Wild Wolf Mercenary Corps will take them all!"
"All of them?"
The smile on Lin Feng's face broadened, but just as he was about to agree, a clear voice suddenly rang out.
"Sir, sorry, but today the Wonderful Tales Shop is only selling Mercenary's Sabers to individuals. If the Wild Wolf Mercenary Corps needs a large number of cards, we can take a custom order. We guarantee the same quality as today's, and we can offer an even better price."
Everyone turned toward the voice and saw Lin Qi emerge from the crowd with the Wind Chime Cat in his arms.
When the mercenary saw that the speaker was a mere youngster, his face clouded with displeasure. He frowned and was about to speak when Lin Qi continued:
"My father used to be a mercenary too. He knows how hard missions are for everyone, and how important a weapon that suits you can be.
"That's why he's spent these years studying card making. He wanted to make the Implement Cards best suited to mercenaries. He's poured his heart and soul into every one of these Mercenary's Sabers, all so everyone can have a little more protection and face a little less danger on missions."
"What? Brother Lin Feng made these cards?"
Someone in the crowd cried out, their face full of disbelief.
Most of them knew Lin Feng and knew he had once been a skilled member of a mercenary corps, but they had never heard that he could make cards.
"Of course Brother Feng made them!"
Ruilian immediately stepped forward. He had always been Lin Feng's number one follower, and now he had become his number one fan.
"Brother Feng really poured his heart and soul into making these cards..."
As Ruilian told it, a story spread of how Lin Feng had been taken as a disciple by a master card maker ten years ago and had kept his sword hidden in Stone Iron City for a decade.
Everyone listened in stunned silence, and when they looked at Lin Feng again, their eyes were full of admiration.
A middle-aged mercenary said with feeling, "No wonder Brother Feng suddenly left the mercenary corps back then. I thought he'd gotten tired of the mercenary life. Who knew he'd gone to learn card making and was thinking so much about us!"
"Yeah! He didn't even raise his star level for ten years, all to make such a good saber. That kind of thoughtfulness is hard to come by!"
Playing along, Lin Feng lifted his head at a forty-five-degree angle, wearing the profound expression of a man who alone remained sober while the world was drunk.
"Don't worry, uncles. My father said that from now on, these Mercenary's Sabers will cost mercenaries only 190 Ka'en! No matter how many you buy, that's the price! It's a benefit for all mercenaries."
"190 Ka'en!?"
"Brother Lin Feng is a righteous man! For a saber of such high quality, the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion would charge at least 250 Ka'en."
"I want one!"
"Give me two! I'll get one for my brother too!"
"Boss, I want to place a custom order! The Wild Wolf Mercenary Corps wants thirty!"
Hearing one exclamation after another, Lin Qi rejoiced inwardly.
It worked.
His aim in doing this was simple: to create an image for Lin Feng.
The image of a retired veteran mercenary who had spent years painstakingly studying card making and finally made good cards to give back to the mercenary corps.
Only if the mercenaries of Stone Iron City all love and respect Dad will the pressure from the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion and the city lord's residence ease.
The Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion had a presence in almost every town in the Lava Kingdom. Lin Qi felt that the only way it could spread so widely without being robbed was by having the support of the city lord's residence.
Naturally, he had no money to curry favor with the city lord's residence.
Besides, this people-first approach looked better for the long term. If the day came when the mercenaries and Card Masters in the city all supported Lin Feng, it wasn't impossible that the city lord's residence would bear the Lin name too.