Knight Lords: Infinite Simulation and the Path of Light

Chapter 163 Gift
"Wow, Heman, I must say, your family's business association is truly impressive, with so many things."

With nothing much to do in the afternoon, Haven took Serena to the Heman family's trading company. Speaking of which, he hadn't prepared a wedding gift for his cousin yet, and he didn't know what to buy. After all, whether in this world or the previous one, Haven was a single dog.

It's not that I don't know how to pick up girls, it's just that I feel I'm not capable enough to give them the happiness they want.

On his home turf, Seaman displayed unusual confidence, a rare radiance of self-assurance shining through his chubby, round face.

"Hahahaha, of course! As one of the largest merchant guilds in the empire, our Hendry has partners all over the continent, such as Feren, Karatu, Maztec, and so on."

Upon hearing He-Man's words, Haven's mind instantly conjured up the huge map he had seen in his father's study. On the map were Ingis, Astra, the Orc Empire that the North had been fighting against, and the Xuanfeng Sea and the Endless Sea to the east.

The vast territory of the English Empire occupies only a relatively small area on the entire map.

"Wow~ You guys are really something, Heman. Your trading company even has partnerships with companies on other continents!"

Hearing Haven's sincere praise, Heman, who had wanted to boast, felt a little embarrassed. He knew his own situation; saying that he was a large merchant guild spanning many continents was really just self-aggrandizement.

The truth is that they partnered with some long-distance adventurous ocean-going fleets that collected and acquired all sorts of items on various continents, and then sold them at high prices to the Hendry Merchant Guild after returning to the Imperial ports.

After receiving the goods, the Hengdeli Chamber of Commerce would reclassify, repackage, and then place these heavily packaged goods on their sales counter at a higher price.

Given this sales method, it wouldn't be wrong to call it a large multinational, transcontinental chamber of commerce.

"Hahaha~ You, you, Haven, it's not actually that amazing. Come on, I'll take you to see some real treasures. These are just some nice items, but they're far from being precious."

Hearing what the chubby boy said, Havent became very interested. If there was a place in the world with the most, the richest, and the highest quality things, then besides His Majesty the Emperor's private treasury, it would be the top-level storage rooms of the major merchant guilds.

Of course, these places filled with countless precious items are also the places that thieves most want to enter. After all, if they can easily take one or a few items from inside, they can simply retire for the rest of their lives.

Following Heman's footsteps, the group arrived at a magic circle. As the magic runes on the ground lit up in circles, a portal emitting a pale blue halo formed in front of them.

After the portal stabilized, the chubby boy He-Man made a gesture of invitation.

Looking at the portal in front of him, Haven suddenly remembered what happened in Clark Libra some time ago. It seemed that these merchant guilds were very keen on using this kind of directional portal.

"Your storage space isn't built in some unknown place, is it?"

"Hahahaha~ Havent, you're right. This was actually a brilliant idea proposed by a legendary figure. This way, displaying, trading, and storing are all done in their own places, making it less likely to be wiped out in one fell swoop."

Upon hearing the explanation, Haven stroked his chin and asked:

"Well, that's true. But if you survive and get discovered, and someone attacks you directly or some big thief infiltrates you, wouldn't it be easier for you to be wiped out in one fell swoop?"

Heyman waved his hand dismissively at Haven's question and said in a deep voice:

"What you're describing isn't impossible, so the only way to get to the storage room is through a teleportation array. Inside is a sealed space with no direct exit. As for the storage room's defenses, you'll find out when you get there."

Seeing that He-Man said that, Haven didn't say anything more and followed He-Man's footsteps as the two walked side by side into the portal.

A few seconds later, accompanied by a slight dizziness, Haven reached up with his right hand to touch his head and looked around at his surroundings.

There was nothing particularly special about this place at first glance; it was just a very simple and straightforward wall of piled-up boulders, and it even looked quite rudimentary. However, upon closer inspection, Haven discovered something special.

"Huh? What's this?"

Feeling a bit strange, Haven stepped forward and reached out to touch the wall. Touching the stone on the wall, he felt a faint tingling sensation.

"Holy crap, He-Man, your family is really rich and powerful. You even built the walls with anti-magic stones."

Hearing Haven's praise, little chubby Heman proudly raised his chubby little chin.

"How about it? Not bad, right? Speaking of which, all the walls of your Northern Arma Defense Line were built with anti-magic stones. That's a real grand gesture. Compared to that, the anti-magic stones here aren't even enough to build a section of the wall."

He-Man is right. The Arma Line is truly a prime piece of land, with every inch worth its weight in gold. The soldiers of the North are essentially fighting the orcs on a pile of gold coins, and even so, they can only manage to hold off the orcs' year-on-year offensive.

"Come on, I'll show you some really good stuff."

At this moment, Serena and Lori also emerged through the teleportation array. The teleportation portal, emitting a pale blue light, flickered a few times before going out.

Seeing that there was indeed no exit in the surroundings, Haven couldn't help but wonder if Serena could take him out of this house built with anti-magic stones.

However, seeing Serena calmly dangling a lollipop she made herself, aimlessly looking around, the thought of escaping from a confined space vanished instantly. How could she doubt her precious treasure? Serena could easily handle this mere anti-magic stone.

"Havent~ If I remember correctly, your cousin Benjamin's wedding is around the time of the Winter Festival, right? What do you want to give him? Give me some suggestions so I can see if I have anything suitable."

As the chubby He-Man handed his badge to the fully armored guard standing at the door, he turned to ask Havent, who was looking him over.

"Tsk tsk tsk, this place is really strict. Even with you standing right here, you still need to continue the verification?"

Heman naturally raised his hand, waiting for the guard to check it, and simply shrugged helplessly in the face of Havent's complaints.

"There's no way around it. This is a rule set by my great-great-grandfather Bernier. No matter who it is, even if my father himself comes now, he still has to be subject to supervision."

It's not that I'm afraid we've been disguised or kidnapped, but you don't know, those petty thieves are incredibly clever. A long time ago, there was a business manager who was quite lax about these kinds of inspections—at least not now. Back then, this manager somehow got involved with... well, it must have been the Insect Sorcerer class; some little bugs must have gotten into his clothes.

He brought the insect with him when he went to the storage room to check the items.

Wow, it's only been one day!

At this point, the chubby boy sighed with emotion, after all, this was a very significant event in the history of Hendry's development, and in one respect, it even changed the fate of the Hoylund family.

"When the guards outside heard something strange happening inside, they contacted the warehouse manager to open it. Inside, hundreds of demonic insects were flying around, and most of the collection had been damaged and eaten by these insects."

Having completed the inspection, Haven and his group followed Seaman into a larger room. Hearing Seaman's story, they couldn't help but sigh. This must be the legendary simple and honest business warfare. One can imagine how desperate the Hoylund family must have felt in the face of this blow.

Above the ceiling in the center of the room was a huge refracting mirror made of various colored gem crystals. As the magic in the room was activated, the refracting mirror converged into a beam of colorful light and shone down on the group of people one by one.

"This is?"

"Ah~ This is the inspection device that the Hoylund family patriarch spent a lot of money to have made by the academy's defense array teachers and magic array teachers after the incident I just mentioned. At first, it could only do the simplest inspections and probes, but after continuous upgrades, its functions are now very comprehensive."

Looking at the strange device in front of him, Haven couldn't help but nod his head. The saying was indeed true: money can make the devil turn the millstone. This thing really looked pretty good.

"This stuff is definitely good. There's a reason why your company is so big. But speaking of wedding gifts, I'm not really sure. Could you tell me about some?"

After going through numerous checks, the group finally arrived at a huge security door. On each side of the door stood three imposing, fully armored construct warriors. If it weren't for their slightly heaving chests, Haven would have thought they were magical dolls.

"Alright then, let me introduce you. Speaking of which, I've met this young master Benjamin once before. Back then, the Hengdeli Chamber of Commerce had a special application order, which was approved by young master Benjamin."
but,,,,,,,,,"

As he spoke, he glanced at Haven and saw that Haven was looking intently at a box of Perus Empire magic crystal coins on the shelf.

"But what?"

Havel tried to reach for the coin to take a look, but when he was still several centimeters away from the coin, a transparent membrane of air appeared and blocked his hand. After being blocked, Havel tried a few more times, but found that he could not break through it, so he gave up.

“Each item here has a small, modified version of the Atmosphere Shield on top. Daosheng, turn off this layer of protection for now.”

"However, your cousin is not as approachable as you. Although this heir to Cavendish tries his best to appear friendly in daily life, the ancient aristocratic air that flows from his bones still makes people want to stay away."

Hearing He-Man's assessment of his cousin, Haven couldn't help but stroke his chin.

Indeed, he had only seen Benjamin once in all the time he had been there, at Cavendish Manor. This guy, who was six or seven years older than him, always had a tense expression on his face. Being with him made Haven talk less nonsense.

Despite his young age, he seemed preoccupied. However, he could understand this situation, as his maternal grandfather was getting older and his maternal uncle Anduette had died young, so the heavy responsibility of the Cavendish family would fall on his shoulders.

However, I don't like playing with this taciturn guy either.

"Hmm~~~~ You're right, he's too pretentious."

Hearing Haven's words, He-Man raised an eyebrow in surprise. He hadn't expected this little white lion to be so outspoken. He really didn't consider himself an outsider.

Then, as if he had just thought of something, a more enthusiastic smile appeared on Heman's face.

"Hahaha~ Young Master Benjamin has his own responsibilities to bear. Let's not talk about those anymore. Since Haven doesn't have any good ideas, let me introduce some to you."

As if awakening his instincts, Heman pulled Haven quickly to a large shelf.

"First, there's this, a broken branch of the Ancient Tree of Life, a level six magical item. I don't need to elaborate on its rarity."

To be honest, our Hendry Merchant Guild went to great lengths to acquire this item from a mercenary group that had escaped from the Eternal Night Forest.

After examination by the Chamber of Commerce's chief appraiser, it was determined that although this was only a fork of a young ancient tree of life, it could still grow normally with careful cultivation. Although it could not become a true ancient tree of life, it would likely be downgraded to an ancient tree of wisdom if cultivated well.

However, its rarity should not be underestimated; it was only recently acquired and is being prepared as the highlight of the auction.

Looking at the small tree branch soaking in the dark green liquid, Haven couldn't help but swallow hard.

"This... they ripped them off right in front of those elves? And those elves didn't kill them?"

"That's not quite clear, but according to the merchant who received the goods, they offered a very low price, and when it was delivered, it looked no different from a broken tree branch."

"So, Haven, do you want it? If you do, I'll give you a friendly discount."

Looking at He-Man's enthusiastic recommendation, Haven felt that although the branch was indeed very precious, something still seemed off.

"Ugh~ No, no, this thing is good, but it's too weird, He-Man."

Think about it, on such a joyous and happy day, I'm giving away a green tree branch—it has a bad connotation, a really bad connotation.

"Hmm~ It has a bad meaning?"

Clearly, He-Man didn't understand what green sometimes represents.
　Oh crap, I remember I set a timer.
　
(End of this chapter)