Close Combat Mage
chapter-121

Chapter 121 – Selecting Treasures Pt. 1

Hearing the white-haired elder’s words, the other family lords couldn’t help but nod one after another. In the past few decades, the ten great families in the thief realm had been taking turns possessing the throne. They strengthened their relationships by marriage and other means. It could be said that after a few decades of engagement, the ten great families could even consider each other as relatives!

It was unlikely for the thief realm to be greatly influenced, regardless of who obtained the dagger among them. Just think about it, if a family outside of the ten great families became the number one thief family, then they would definitely suppress the remaining nine great families and establish their own partnership. It was also possible that once the ten great families’ alliance was broken by other families, this alliance would be destroyed. Everyone knew that if they didn’t destroy the ten great families, then they would be destroyed instead.

The other nine great family lords turned their gazes to the white-haired elder. They nodded their heads in succession to indicate that they were in favor of the elder’s opinion. No matter what, this dagger had to remain within the ten great families. If that was not possible, then they would not hesitate to use force.

Of course, unless they really had no other choice, they absolutely would not resort to force. One of the reasons was that they do not wish to break the rules. As far as business was concerned, the most important aspect was honesty. This was all the more for a thief. Thieves could steal and fight over an item, but once they start doing business, they absolutely must not do these things anymore. Otherwise, who would dare go buy things from them?

Furthermore, with Suo Jia’s current position and status, stealing wasn’t easy. Even if they did steal something, they wouldn’t be able to use it. Once exposed, the only conclusion left for them would be the extermination of their entire family. Otherwise, Suo Jia would’ve had this dagger taken from him ages ago.

Seeing that everyone was in agreement, the white-haired elder turned around to face Suo Jia and said sincerely, “When we went back, we studied our options together several times. We understood that only after we collected all the materials would you be willing to trade. However…… “

Speaking until here, the elder hesitated for a moment and paused. Finally, he hardened himself and said, “However, you should know that those materials are extremely precious. It requires us to consume a great amount of money to gather all of them. Furthermore, it is too hard to gather all of them within half a year. Even if we did manage to gather all of them, honestly speaking, it would be very unlikely for us to trade with you anymore. By then, we really wouldn’t be willing to let them go.”

Hearing the elder’s words, Suo Jia awkwardly scratched his head. He understood the elder’s opinion; these materials were things that could only be found by chance. Even if one managed to use money to gather them, that would be an astronomical amount. Moreover…… who would be willing to use so many uncommon materials to trade for one dagger? Materials enough to forge 40 sets of armors surely wouldn’t be little.

The elder continued, “This is why we, the top ten family masters, held several small meetings together. Everyone kept looking for ways to deal with this issue, and did not spend a single coin to purchase anything outside. We divided the list of materials you gave us into ten parts, and each family tried to settle a single portion of it. The ones that could not take care of it did not have the privilege to attend this trade meeting. Otherwise, the other nine families would act together to punish them!”

Speaking up to here, the white haired elder enviously gave Suo Jia a glance before saying, “It is still your good fortune. With our ten families combined together, we were barely able to collect all the materials on this list. We did not skip out on a single one. However, as a result, the resources that we had spent millennia accumulating were pretty much completely exhausted. Although we still have quite a bit of ordinary materials in stock, the precious ones have completely been brought out.”

“What!” Hearing the white haired elder’s words, Suo Jia stood up in shock. He looked at the white haired elder in disbelief; it was exactly as how the elder described, the materials on the list was this trade meeting’s main objective. Suo Jia also knew that by depending on a single family, it was impossible to completely gather the materials. According to Suo Jia’s original expectations, gathering 40 materials would already have met his requirements. However, contrary to his expectations, the ten big families worked together and gathered all of the materials, without a single one missing!

Seeing Suo Jia’s excited expression, the white haired elder smiled while saying, “Although each of our families all contributed part of the materials, because we equally distributed the burden, the pressure was not too large. To us, using these materials to trade for that dagger was still worth it. However…”

Slightly pausing for a moment, the white haired elder resolutely continued, “Lord Suo Jia should understand that the dagger is not worth that much. Because of that… besides the materials, our families have also decided to each take out a piece of magical equipment. If you take interest in that item, then you can exchange with the respective family. What does Lord Suo Jia think about this?”

Faced with the white haired elder’s question, Suo Jia did not hesitate at all to give a thumbs up in reply. He looked at the white haired elder in admiration; this old fellow’s ability to handle affairs was formidable. He really was worthy of being called the master with the most prestige within the ten great families. When he took care of matters,the results were impeccable.

Firstly, the man had been able to collect the materials on the list. On this point alone, Suo Jia was unable to reject this exchange proposal. The elder didn’t even need to add in anything else into the transaction. The materials for the dagger alone were already good enough to trade.

Secondly, this old fellow prevented the families from suffering from too much of a loss. If each of the ten great families all tried to collect the materials themselves, then how much money would they have had to spend? In addition, there were 60-70 different types of materials on that list. Every single one of them were expensive and rare materials, and required a great amount of money to buy. However, the elder’s suggestion instead allowed everyone to only take out a portion of the materials that they already possessed. This didn’t require them to pay anything extra, and allowed them to have equal opportunities to compete.

In the end, the elder had prevented free competition. Whoever the dagger belonged to would definitely claim the number one throne in the thief families for the next decade. Any amount of cost for this dagger was worth it. If it was free competition, then the price tag would most likely be raised beyond proportion. It was possible that a family would have to use half their entire wealth to obtain the dagger.

Now, however, each of the families only needed to provide a small portion of the materials to obtain the qualifications to participate in this transaction. Following that, they would only need to take out a piece of magical equipment. It was uncomplicated and pleasant, and definitely did not affect the family’s strength in the slightest. They only took out an insignificant amount of items from their family treasuries.

Although Suo Jia knew perfectly well that by doing this he would be losing out on a lot, Suo Jia knew even more so that if he did not do things this way, then it would be even more impossible to collect the listed materials. If the ten great families together could barely manage to procure all of the materials, how could a single family gather that much? Just as the white haired elder had said, even if he did manage to collect it in this way, there wouldn’t be anyone willing to trade with him afterwards. If they used the materials to make several dozen armors and weapons, it would definitely increase their family’s power substantially. It definitely would not be much less than obtaining this dagger.

In addition, because there were ten great families, each family was only allowed to put up a single treasure to compete with each other. Because of this, the treasure’s quality, capability, and results would definitely all be high. Just imagine, if these families have thousands of years of history behind them, which of them wouldn’t have any treasures left behind by their ancestors? This was related to becoming the number one thief family; who would dare be stingy? No one dared to not put their best effort!