Sold Out

The next day,

Before dawn had fully broken, a long line had already formed outside the Wonderful Tales Shop.

"Son! Get up! If you dawdle any longer, I'm afraid the crowd outside will tear our shop apart!"

Lin Feng rushed into Lin Qi's room.

But the moment he crossed the threshold, his feet seemed nailed to the floor. His hurried breathing caught, and his gaze fixed on the table.

Three distinct colors of light shimmered in the dimness: pure white, soft green, and a blue like a deep-sea gem. Layers of cards covered half the table.

"S-Son..."

Lin Feng's voice trembled.

In his thirty-odd years, the highest-quality cards he had seen in Stone Iron City were green. He had only heard of blue-quality cards in mercenary groups. Now, seeing so many at once, his heart pounded so hard it nearly broke his ribs.

"Hmm?"

Lin Qi struggled to open one eye, deep exhaustion spreading from within it.

He had exhausted nearly all his mental power fusing cards the night before. His head felt as though it were stuffed with cotton, heavy and swollen.

"Dad, keep those eight Magic Cards, and keep one each of the Boots of Stealth and Magic-Resistance Breastplate for yourself. Sell the rest... Don't wake me. I need to catch up on sleep."

Once he had finished mumbling, his eyelids sank shut. He was clearly exhausted.

"This child. No matter how urgent card-making is, he still has to look after himself."

Lin Feng sighed, his voice full of concern. Then he walked softly over to the table to have a look.

Twenty one-star Scout's Short Blade Implement Cards were laid out neatly, the patterns on their blades clear and sharp.

Two two-star Mercenary's Greatsword cards glowed with a deep green light. The faint image of a greatsword smashing into the ground could be seen on their faces. The eight Exploding Fireball cards gave off a scorching heat, as if they might spew flames at any moment.

But what made his heart race most were the blue-glowing cards at the corner of the table.

There was one three-star Phantom Longsword Implement Card, its blade appearing and vanishing in a thin mist, mysterious yet deadly. Dark patterns flowed across four Boots of Stealth cards, which were clearly suited to stealth and assassination. There was also a Magic-Resistance Breastplate and a Wind-Chasing Triple Slash Skill Card with a distinctive sheen.

Lin Feng held his breath and carefully gathered all the cards, putting only the eight Exploding Fireball cards in the wooden box on the table. Only then did he turn and tiptoe out.

He was afraid that if he waited any longer, the impatient crowd outside really would pound the shop's door to pieces.

The moment he pulled open the shop's wooden door, a wave of heat carrying the smells of sweat and cooking fires rushed in, and countless eager voices instantly drowned him out.

"Boss, where's my Mercenary's Saber? Don't tell me you've sold out again today!"

"Yeah, yeah! I've been in line since before dawn!"

"Boss, I want a Mercenary's Saber card."

Lin Feng raised a hand to quiet the crowd and called out, "First, my apologies to everyone. We haven't made any Mercenary's Sabers lately. But I have something better: two Mercenary's Greatswords and twenty Scout's Short Blades."

The crowd fell silent for half a second, then erupted in even louder chatter.

"Scout's Short Blade and Mercenary's Greatsword? What kind of cards are those? I've never seen them in the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion's catalog!"

"Mercenary's Greatsword. That sounds heavier than the Mercenary's Saber. Boss, I want one."

A burly man over two meters tall suddenly pushed his way out of the crowd, his leather armor still bearing a few bloodstains.

"Hey, Flande, why are you cutting in line?" someone behind him shouted in protest.

Flande turned and shot him a fierce glare, his bell-sized eyes full of menace. The man immediately shrank back and swallowed his words.

He strode up to the counter and slapped the tabletop. "Lin Feng, that Mercenary's Saber you sold last time was sharp, but it was too light. This Mercenary's Greatsword had better not disappoint me."

Lin Feng watched Flande with a smile. The two were old acquaintances, and he naturally knew the rough man's temper.

"Flande, the Mercenary's Greatsword is a green-quality, two-star Implement Card. How many Ka'en are you offering?"

"What? A two-star green card?"

At that, an uproar swept through the crowd.

"A two-star green card!? Lin Feng can actually make two-star green cards?"

Although word had spread yesterday that Lin Feng was a card maker, most people preferred to believe he had stumbled on a Secret Realm Card through sheer dumb luck and gotten a pile of cards from it.

Now that two-star cards had appeared, they were no longer sure whether Lin Feng was lucky or really was a card maker.

Flande also froze for a moment, then gritted his teeth. "The Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion sells two-star Implement Cards for two thousand Ka'en. If yours is the real thing, I'll give you twenty-one hundred!"

He stared at Lin Feng, having offered what he considered a fairly high price.

Normally, Lin Feng might have tried to get more, but he now had three-star cards in his hands. Those were the main attraction today, so he didn't haggle with Flande over such a paltry sum.

"All right."

Flande swiped his card and, unable to wait, unlinked a white Secondary Card and linked the Mercenary's Greatsword.

"Flande, show us what that Mercenary's Greatsword can do! Even the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion doesn't sell them."

"Yeah, yeah! The Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion sells so few two-star cards. If that Mercenary's Greatsword really is a green-quality two-star card, I'll buy one too."

Several mercenaries nearby who favored heavy weapons watched Flande, eager to have a go.

"All right, I'll show everyone."

As green light flashed, a heavy greatsword over a meter long slammed into the bluestone pavement with a bang. The impact made the people around it sway, and a thin crack appeared in the stone.

"Damn, that's got some weight to it!"

The surrounding mercenaries stared wide-eyed and crowded forward to inspect it.

"Flande, I'll help you test it! Let's see if it really works!"

A mercenary wearing the same kind of leather armor as Flande stepped out of the crowd. They were evidently from the same mercenary group.

He drew the sword at his waist and swung it at Flande with a loud shout.

"Bring it on!"

Flande gripped his sword with both hands, the muscles in his arms bulging as he unleashed a powerful horizontal slash.

Clang!

With a sharp ring, the mercenary's sword was cut clean in two. The blade flew a long way off, and the impact sent him staggering back several steps before he landed on his backside.

The whole crowd fell silent, everyone staring at the broken sword and the greatsword on the ground.

"Oh no! This brother's hurt! Come get a bottle of clotting salve, just ninety-nine Ka'en! It stops bleeding in no time!"

A voice suddenly rang out. Ruilian came running from behind the counter, holding up a medicine bottle.

The mercenary struggled to his feet and, ignoring the wound where the sword hilt had rubbed his palm raw, shoved his Source Crystal Card into Ruilian's hand. "Swipe, swipe it... I want to buy a Mercenary's Greatsword..."

"You're ignoring your injury just to get a Mercenary's Greatsword?"

Ruilian took the card, his face registering shock before his eyes reddened with emotion.

"Brother, that's true love! Don't worry, the last Mercenary's Greatsword is yours, and I'll throw in this clotting salve for free!"

With that, he crouched down and applied the medicine to him.

The mercenary nodded repeatedly in gratitude, but when Ruilian returned his Source Crystal Card, he suddenly froze.

"Brother, wasn't the Mercenary's Greatsword twenty-one hundred Ka'en? Why did you charge me twenty-three hundred?"

The smile on Ruilian's face didn't change. "Brother, what you don't know is that the first one was a special price to draw customers. We sold it at a loss. Twenty-three hundred is cheap for the second one. This is the very last one. If you don't want it, the brothers in line behind you are waiting."

"..."

The mercenary was instantly left speechless.

Everyone around them cursed Ruilian as a profiteer in their hearts, but no one actually spoke up for the mercenary.

The greatsword's power was there for all to see. Even at two hundred Ka'en more, it was still a bargain.