Chapter 1044: Section 1045: Grand Opening
“Let’s begin.”
After saying those words, Pulapa found that everything in front of him had changed, and he had become a defenseless human, completely devoid of any means to fight back.
Despite the change in circumstances, Pulapa felt no confusion, for the threat he now faced was far more urgent than the bewilderment over his own identity!
At this moment, he was on an isolated boat, surrounded by the raging sea during a storm. With each gust of the tempest, huge waves would rise, and he had to navigate the frail craft in search of a lifeline amidst the furious waves.
The sky was shrouded with dark clouds, and lightning serpents shuttled through the thunder.
The fierce wind howled, and the waves that struck him caused intense pain. Pulapa had completely forgotten that he was a descendant of a minor water-system demon; all he sought now was survival in the stormy sea…
While Pulapa was experiencing the illusion of the ocean’s rhythm, in the narrow “Mystic” cabin, the young shopkeeper was tilting his head, looking at the woman on the windowsill.
“This little floating demon seeks revenge against humans, and yet you still help it?”
“Isn’t animosity between demons and humans quite normal?”
“Hmph, have you forgotten who you are? Do you really think you’re one of the indigenous people of the Abyss? Despicable human!”
The young man squinted and shrugged his shoulders, “I have never forgotten my identity, but I don’t have the luxury to be picky right now. Just like Lady Baltica from the Land of Repose, she despises humans, but she doesn’t mind doing business with them either.”
“I’m the same. If it were somewhere else, I might choose, but here in Lassudral, can I be choosy? All demons here loathe humans, and if I don’t accept them, then it’s almost impossible for me to earn enough Demon Gold Coins within five days.”
As he spoke, he pulled an ice sphere out of his bracelet.
Encased in the center of the ice ball was a grey sea bird.
“To wake Toby up, I’m willing to compromise as long the core principles aren’t threatened.”
The young shopkeeper was Angel, who had come a long way to Lassudral to look for the materials to synthesize the Fire Transmission Stone, while the dark-skinned woman was the Abyssal Wind Dragon, Fafnir.
“Hmph, I am responsible for protecting you during this time, but don’t forget your promise,” Fafnir huffed coldly.
“I won’t forget. If I do manage to make the Fire Transmission Stone, I shall report your contributions in full to Lord Odeclass.” Angel paused, “Surely, once Lord Odeclass is informed, he will understand your predicaments.”
Fafnir exhaled through her nostrils in a huff and did not speak further, continuing to feign sleep against the windowsill.
Angel let out a silent sigh of relief in his heart.
Truthfully, if it hadn’t been for Fafnir’s help, his shop couldn’t have continued operating.
As he was previously worried about in the Land of Repose, upon arriving in Lassudral, his first challenge was the issue of money-making.
He had found the half-blood demon called Night that Odeclass had told him to look for. According to Night, to buy those three special materials and a large amount of Fire Transmission Stone shards, he would need several thousand, perhaps tens of thousands, of Demon Gold Coins.
With his alchemy skills, earning that many Demon Gold Coins was not difficult, but the challenge lay in doing so in a short amount of time. After much deliberation, Angel decided to use the Ocean Rhythm and its special effects to make money.
Having a method to earn money was one thing, but to run a shop in Lassudral, he needed a strong deterrent as well.
He was just an apprentice who hadn’t even become a wizard yet, and anyone in Lassudral could easily overpower him, so he thought of collaborating with Fafnir. Fafnir’s greatest desire was to meet with Odeclass, so Angel used this as leverage to sign a short-term protection agreement with her.
With the two hardest problems solved, Angel thought he could rest easy.
However, he had forgotten one thing: even fine wine needs no bush, and Ocean’s Rhythm, not famous even within the Wizards’ Realm, would be even less known in the slowly developing and information-scarce demon world.
From opening the shop in the morning until now, six hours had passed, and all who had entered his shop were troublemakers.
To this point, he had not sold a single item.
As Angel was growing increasingly anxious, this half-blood demon called Pulapa walked in.
…
While Pulapa was experiencing the Ocean Rhythm, Angel was holding his first earnings—eight Demon Gold Coins—and examining them.
Admittedly, when Angel first heard from Baltica that Demon City used “gold coins” as a currency, he was stunned; in his understanding, it was usually only the Mortal Kingdoms that used a gold standard to facilitate and stabilize the economy.
For instance, the currency issued by the Goldfinch Empire, the place of Angel’s birth, was in gold coins. The use of gold coins as currency facilitates trade across different continents, even in the Mortal Kingdoms of the Flourish Continent, due to the gold standard.
The intrinsic value of the metal does not change based on the patterns on the surface of the coin. What affects its value is the content of the metal.
In the Transcendent worlds, they either use virtual coins like in Hante, or energy coins. Hence, when he heard that Demon City traded with gold coins, he was surprised, thinking could the demon world actually be based on a gold standard economic system?
But when he actually got his hands on a Demon Gold Coin, he realized his mistake.
At first glance, Demon Gold Coins seemed not much different from the gold coins of the mortal world, being similar in size and shape, but upon closer inspection, Angel noticed something distinctive.
Each side of the gold coin bore a pattern, with a crown on one side. At the tip of each point of the crown was a spherical ball, decorated with intricate lines; had it not been colorless, it would have looked very much like a jester’s ball.
On the obverse was a mark that Angel was very familiar with!
When he saw the reverse side, he already began to have his suspicions, but upon seeing the obverse mark, Angel finally understood why Demon Gold Coins were in circulation in Demon City.
Because, this mark was the true name seal of the “Crown Clown”.
“Crown Clown”, as the supreme Demon God at the very top of the Abyssal pyramid, followed the philosophy of pursuing balance in all things. Therefore, gold coins engraved with its true name mark would naturally best embody the so-called fairness.
Now he understood why the currency of Demon City dared to use Demon Gold Coins – there was such a towering figure backing them.
After examining the coins, Angel carefully stowed away the few Demon Gold Coins—though not many, they were after all the first earnings he had made.
After securing the coins, Angel’s gaze returned to his sole customer, Pulapa.
This Pulapa had persisted for quite a long time, almost ten minutes, and still had not emerged from the Ocean Rhythm.
Generally speaking, most who enter the Ocean Rhythm for the first time are eliminated within three minutes. Angel, due to his poor luck, didn’t even last a minute.