Tsk... Very Nice

After a brief exchange of handshakes and names, the elevator fell silent again.

Standing in the elevator, Nick Rogers thought for a while.

"Master Collins, have you just arrived Shine city?" The young guildmaster carefully asked.

"Right." Jake replied with an affirmative nod.

"In this case, we still have a penthouse unit that's vacant at the moment. If it's acceptable to you, we can set out this residence for you. As an appreciation gift of course. It would be rude for us to charge you any fees for the stay."

"I have some urgent matters at the moment. If you do not mind, my housekeeper can show you the way."

...

At the center of this district, there were three condos and a seven-story shopping center.

The penthouse in discussion sat at the top of a condo here.

Walking out of the shopping center, the guildmaster hurried off, still holding that talisman in hand.

By the looks of it, if this guy had duct tape, he would have duct taped the talisman to his hand.

Parting ways, the housekeeper brought Jake to the residence they offered.

Half an hour later...

Standing at the balcony, Jake looked over the entire town.

Looking into the distance, there was a pillar of yellow light just a few miles away.

This was his temporary home now.

'To think someone like me could live in a fancy place like this...' Jake lightly chuckled at himself. 'What a magical world...'

In the previous universe, Jake hadn't even been in a penthouse before.

Even when choosing to go for a nice vacation, Jake wouldn't consider an expensive stay like this.

Taking a deep breath, Jake lightly stretched. Just enjoying the present for a moment...

The layout of this two-storey penthouse was nothing fancy.

Just like other penthouses, there were bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dinner room, a small theatre room, a wine cellar, and so on.

There were two rooms that were not so typical though.

A crafting room that contained a crafting station. In other words, Jake could build equipment and test things out in private now.

A training room containing a metal dummy. Jake could test his artifacts or test his spells on this dummy. In response, the test dummy would give a general power level feedback.

As expected, a nice residence like this came with other forms of costs.

Jake signed a simple contract with the Iron Sparrow Guild.

At his stay here, he would receive three portions of refined talisman materials per day for free.

In return, everyday, he had to sell one healing talisman to the Iron Sparrow Guild at market price, which was twenty grand.

Also, Jake would receive a weekly budget of fifty grand as material fees. There was a restriction though. The budget could only be applied at Artisan Tower.

If needed, Jake could also call in bodyguards for free. When busy, he could also call in Iron Sparrow explorers to run errands for him.

Also, processing the orders seemed like a troublesome task to Jake. He could already see a myriad of transaction offers coming in like a tidal wave.

Some might be sincere offers. Others might be spam.

As a result, the Iron Sparrow Guild would take over this duty, taking only a symbolic 1% agent fee.

By Jake's instructions, they'd form an order and waitlist system.

In the end, it's still Jake's call.

All in all, the contract was just... Tsk. Very nice. Very sincere.

In every sense, it's heavily favored towards Jake. Clearly, the Iron Sparrow Guild was hoping to build a good connection with Jake.

Returning to the warmth of his room, Jake entered the crafting room.

Taking out a fat stack of 100 dollars bills, Jake patted his hand with the money, making clap sounds.

'I have twenty thousand, five hundred and sixty dollars now. Also seven quarters and eleven pennies...'

'Couldn't save twenty grand after working for five years... But now... What a magical world...'

'If I sell a talisman every day, I could become a millionaire in 50 days.'

'The magical realm industry is still lucrative as usual huh...'

'Well. I just achieved my goal of getting a starting fund. That was easy.'

Jake walked to the crafting counter. There were three scrolls lying on there. These were welcome gifts from the Iron Sparrow Guild.

After unrolling a leather scroll open, Jake pressed his palm on that scroll.

As Jake inserted mana into this rare drop, convoluted runic characters and mana circuit patterns appeared in air.

'My next tasks... reverse engineer these scrolls.'

'Then, see what's that 'Nautilus Body Refining Guide' in the system...'

As Jake casually studied the scrolls, Nick Rogers' situation was not so casual.

...

The sound of fast footsteps echoed in a dark underground tunnel.

Holding a torch in hand, firmly grabbing the talisman with his other hand, Nick Rogers speed walked through the tunnel by himself.

Taking a closer look, during this time, he had put on a thick winter jacket.

Arriving a dead-end, Nick Rogers huffed out a white cloud as he exhaled. Without hesitation, he pressed onto a wall.

With a screechy sound, that wall started to rotate inwards.

As light shined into this hidden cellar, a frozen pillar could be seen at the center of the room.

As the light penetrated through that ice pillar, one could vaguely see a human figure inside.

Taking a closer look, there seemed to be a mid-aged man sitting on a chair.

Wearing a teal robe. Crossing his arms. Reclining back into the seat. Staring forward with an overbearing and forceful gaze.

He didn't look frozen at all. His skin looked pale at most.

Four light blue chains had shot through this guy's limbs. Then, a fifth chain had shot through his chest.

Nick Rogers observed the ice pillar for a moment.

Wearing his usual sulk face, Nick Rogers pointed the talisman at the pillar of ice.

Without further hesitation, the young guildmaster crushed the healing talisman. As the talisman deteriorated into a handful of dust, a stream of green particles flew towards that pillar of ice.

In a moment, all the green particles had been absorbed. And that was it. No further reactions.

Silence and peace had returned to this underground cellar.