Early in the morning at one of the manors in Lothmire City, Maximus woke up from his peaceful sleep.
It had been a while since he had a decent rest.
During his journey here on the ship, he had been either engrossed in reading about the mechanics profession or meditating.
As he got up, he conjured a water spell and washed himself clean.
Looking at the mesmerizing scene of the manor he couldn't help but linger for a while.
But he still had a lot to do so he fixed himself, quickly leaving his manor, he headed towards the Lothmire City branch of EGCC.
Finding the branch was easy, as they were known for constructing the tallest and most luxurious buildings.
There was a saying about EGCC that one could insult them for anything but money, as that's all they have.
After a while, he stops at the tallest building with the plaque that says, Etheruim Gold Chamber of Commerce.
Coming in, he was greeted by a steward. "Welcome, sir," the steward said.
The process was similar to other stores but more formal.
He was directed to the lounge as he mentioned that he was selling alchemy potions.
"Good morning, sir. I'm Logan, the manager of this branch," Logan said with a slight bow.
"Good morning," Maximus greeted back.
Maximus, feeling Logan's strength as a Tier 5 Mystic Mage.
Throughout his time here, he hadn't encountered a single Tier 6 Archmage.
"What would you like to sell, sir?" Logan asked as he took his seat.
"I would like to sell high-quality Mystic Potions," Maximus said without changing his expression.
"Oh? May I see the Mystic Potion?" Logan requested, devoid of emotion.
"Here," Maximus handed him a sample.
After inspecting the potion for a while, Logan said, "It is indeed a high-quality potion."
"How many are you going to sell?"
"Just about 30,000 of them," Maximus calmly replied.
The gold points he needed to buy the mystic potion was automatically withdrawn by the system from his personal token.
Logan widened his eyes, not fully believing what he had heard.
Maximus didn't wait for Logan to speak, as he took out nearly 30,000 Mystic Potions.
Upon seeing the potions, Logan was speechless.
Although he had been exposed to wealth since childhood, this was the first time he had witnessed someone selling high-quality potions as if they were bottled water.
Logan quickly inspected each one of them, not daring to believe it was true.
After a couple of minutes, his eyes gleamed as if he had seen a god of wealth.
At the same time, he couldn't help but envy the alchemists and mechanics, as even the tips of their fingers were filled with money.
He had wanted to be like them, but unfortunately, he had no talent for it.
He had studied for a hundred years, but all he had achieved was producing half-baked products.
The sad reality nearly brought him to tears. All he had was money that he didn't even possess the talent to earn money that he had.
With a sigh, he lamented his situation.
Maximus was stunned by Logan's varied expressions—sometimes shock, envy, and sometimes reminiscent.
After Logan finished inspecting the potion, Maximus asked, "How is it, Mr. Logan?"
Logan snapped back to reality. "Oh, it's truly remarkable to have this many high-quality potions. Did you perhaps create them?" Logan inquired.
"Yes, I'm a Tier 5 potioneering alchemist myself," Maximus lied without changing his expression.
"That is remarkable," Logan praised, noticing that Maximus was only a few hundred years old, a mere youth based on his lifespan of 10,000 years.
Despite being a talent, Logan didn't invite Maximus to become their exclusive alchemist.
The reason was first, Logan lacked the authority to make such an offer, and second, if Maximus wanted to join EGCC, he could do so by applying and passing a series of tests.
"It's fine," Maximus humbly replied.
"Sir, you have a total of 29,400 high-quality Mystic Potions, am I right?" Logan confirmed.
"Yes," Maximus simply nodded.
"Since the total value of the transaction exceeds 10 million, you will obtain VIP 6. So, in total, we will purchase your potions at 80 percent of the original price, which amounts to 23,520,000," Logan quickly performed the arithmetic.
"Is that acceptable to you, sir?"
"I am satisfied," Maximus smiled.
The VIP Token was his main goal today, the money was secondary.
He was even at the risk of trouble by conspicuously selling a large amount of high-quality potions without a clear source of origin.
After last night's thinking, and seeing that Central Continent operates in a fast information phase, where everything you do has a trace.
All of his plans were scrapped, even if he disguises himself, without any source of materials, someday or someone will begin to doubt how the resources he sold come about without the necessary material to do so.
It was akin to a gold miner selling gold from an unknown source.
It was fine if he just sold a few grams or kilos, as it was within his profession.Maybe he snuck in a few during his work.
Meanwhile, selling tens of kilos of gold like what he did by seling tens of thousands of high-quality potion was definitely eye-catching but not too dangerous.
They would assume the gold miner was clever enough to find a few kilos of gold.
But when he started to attempt and sell tons of gold, that's when the real fun began.
The big guys would disregard any rules, instead, they would try to extort him until they got a hold of the source of gold he was selling.
That was precisely what he was trying to avoid.
If he were just to sell a few potions as an alchemist, it would be reasonable, but if he went over the top and sold a bunch of them, problems would ensue.
Moreover, he was not for little money, he needed a vast amount of them.
Therefore, after a night of planning, he came up with a solution—to become a gold mine owner.
By that, he meant owning a store where he could sell his products, much like a mine owner selling the minerals from their mine.
And the first step towards that was acquiring VIP 6, akin to a pass to formally mine.
Logan took out the store token and typed in the total amount of the transaction, tapping his token to confirm the transaction.
Seeing the money, Maximus felt somewhat numb.
He recalled his past suffering when he first transmigrated into this world.
His possessions were not even worth a single low-grade magic crystal.
He had nearly cried back then.
Fortunatley, the system can generate gold when he had a wife, which somewhat relieved his pressure.
Holding back his sorrow, he looked at Logan as he took out a jade-like token with the EGCC VIP 6 mark on it.
"Here is your token, sir," Logan happily gave it to Maximus.
When Maximus received the token, his personal token vibrated.
[Do you want to bind the EGCC VIP token?
Looking at it, he didn't realize his token still had such a function.
Clicking "yes," the VIP token vibrated and vanished, merging magically into his personal token.
There was another function—his personal token was really like a new smartphone waiting for him to download apps.
After scrutinizing the new functions of his personal token, he looked at Logan, who was waiting for him, wondering if he still needed anything.
"Mr. Logan, I need your assistance," Maximus said.
"Gladly, you can tell me anything you need, sir," Logan excitedly said, assuming it was another transaction.
"I'm planning to set up my own store. Can EGCC help me with that?" Maximus asked.
"Of course, sir. Are you familiar with the entire process?" Logan inquired.
"Not really. Can you brief me on it?" Maximus asked, uncertain about the process.
"Allow me to explain. As a VIP of EGCC, we are obliged to help you with anything as long as there is enough money involved," Logan started.
"Regarding the store setup and registration, we can handle it all for you. You just need to tell us the location and the design scheme you desire for your store," Logan waited for Maximus to process the information before continuing.
"As for the supply of materials, if you need them, being a VIP 6 gives you a 10 percent discount when purchasing from us. And if you decide to join our Alliance, you can enjoy an additional 5 percent discount," Logan explained.
"Do you have any questions?" he asked.
"What are the responsibilities of Alliance members upon joining?" Maximus asked.
"There isn't much. First, as a mid-tier VIP member, you only need to pay 3 percent of your store's profits. Additionally, EGCC has priority over your own products. But don't worry, if EGCC needs it, they can purchase it at a premium," Logan said with a smile.
Maximus thought for a while. It really wasn't much, and even the tax was minimal.
More importantly, by joining EGCC, he would have their protection.
"In that case, I would like to join EGCC."