After the slave owners went bankrupt, they all wanted to keep me as a mistress.

“And what about you, Mr. Shepherd?” Elena turned her gaze to Mu Qiu. “Would you like to take a magic test?”

Seeing that Mu Qiu seemed to be the leader, she casually offered her suggestion.

Mu Qiu pondered for a moment. Although he was very curious about what level his 100 points of magic power were equivalent to, he figured it was probably just an apprentice or a black iron level.

So he shook his head and said calmly, "No need. Just bring out all your gold-grade mage equipment and let me take a look."

Upon hearing this, Elena gave a wry smile: "Mr. Shepherd, you're putting me in a difficult position. There are more than just a dozen or a few dozen pieces of gold-grade equipment. If you want to buy, I'll take you to the warehouse to have a look."

The voice just fell.

A pleasant system notification sound rang in Mu Qiu's mind.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, you have triggered a bargain-hunting event!]

This adventurer's guild has a large amount of equipment for sale at low prices! You can earn money by buying low and selling high, and use this money to upgrade your slaves to the second stage!

[This slave has a high risk level, but the reward for this event is extremely high. You can now implement different risk levels of training programs.]

Option 1: Low risk, invest an additional 10% + 500,000 gold coins to purchase equipment.

[Option Two: Medium risk, additional investment of 30% + 50 gold coins to purchase equipment.]

Option 3: High risk, additional investment of 60% + 500,000 gold coins to purchase equipment.

Regardless of which option you choose, the equipment detection function will be enabled for you during the event, allowing you to view the detailed attributes of each piece of equipment.

Oh?

Mu Qiu, who was following Elena, kept his expression unchanged, but his mind was racing.

Is this extra 500,000 gold coins specifically for him to buy low and sell high for these equipment?

Clearly, the system means that the equipment in this adventurer's guild is priced far below market value.

He can make a lot of money as long as he buys in large quantities and then sells them on the outside!

But Mu Qiu knew perfectly well that the reason these equipment were sold so cheaply was because they were all spoils of war from the Crimson Thorn Adventurer Group!

The leader of the Crimson Thorn Adventurer Guild hoped to use these equipment to help the adventurers here, rather than seeing unscrupulous merchants buy the equipment and resell it to outsiders.

If he really does that, he will definitely offend the Crimson Thorn Adventurer Group.

Moreover, the leader of the Crimson Thorn Adventurer Group had saved his life, so doing this would be somewhat like repaying kindness with enmity.

"but……"

Mu Qiu narrowed his eyes, but a new idea was forming in his mind.

"Can't I use this extra 500,000 gold coins to buy equipment for Vera?"

After quickly weighing the pros and cons, Mu Qiu chose the third option without hesitation.

An additional investment of 60% + 500,000 gold coins brings the total to 1.1 million gold coins!

“Shepherd, this is the place.”

Elena's voice interrupted Mu Qiu's thoughts. She stopped in front of a heavy bronze door, took out a bunch of keys, inserted them into the keyhole, and the entire surface of the door began to shimmer with a faint silver-white luster. Soon, the door opened automatically to both sides.

The view behind the door opened up, but it wasn't as orderly as I had imagined.

This is an extremely spacious underground space, with a high vaulted ceiling supported by thick stone pillars, and magic crystals that emit a stable white light embedded in the walls, providing ample but somewhat cold lighting.

However, this neat space was crammed full of equipment, with the ground almost completely obscured. It was more like a giant junkyard than a warehouse, except that instead of junk, it was piled up with countless pieces of equipment.

What you see before you are all the spoils of war stored by the Crimson Thorn Adventurer Group.

Instead of being carefully categorized and displayed on the shelves, they were piled up together like abandoned garbage.

"Uh...sorry, it's a bit messy here right now." Elena looked at the scene before her, a hint of embarrassment on her face. "Actually, we usually tidy up the warehouse regularly, but this time the Crimson Thorn Adventurer Group sent so much equipment, and the types are so varied, and the guild has limited manpower, so we haven't had time to sort it properly yet..."

"The gold-grade mage equipment you're looking for... should mainly be concentrated over there."

She pointed to a relatively isolated area deep within the warehouse, where some items that seemed to shimmer with magical light were piled up, but were also submerged among other piles of equipment.

"It's okay, we'll find it ourselves."

Mu Qiu waved his hand dismissively, his gaze sweeping across the room before landing on a necklace that shimmered with golden light.

【Masha's Blessing】

[A magical item containing the fourth-tier spell "Mana Shield," currently charged to 3/3.]

[Bloody Affix: Equipment looted from the corpses of monsters in dungeons may be blessed or cursed.]

[Curse Item ①: Misfortune will befall you. Luck -10. Wearing this item will bring you constant bad luck.]

[Curse Attribute ②: Invisible Miniature Plague. Wearing this necklace will automatically spread a miniature plague with mild symptoms such as "cold," "fever," and "cough" to those around you. The plague will disappear after you contract it ten times. After the plague disappears, the other curse attribute of this equipment will also disappear.]

[Blessing Message ①: Lucky one. Luck +1.]

[Review: This is a cursed piece of equipment from the dungeon. Long, long ago, it was a token of love from the young girl Martha to her lover, bearing the purest blessings of a young girl. She waited in the village for three years, then another three years, until finally, she saw the fluttering banners in the distance. Martha excitedly lit a bonfire, preparing to welcome the returning warriors. A day later, she saw enemy soldiers rush into the village. She saw flames erupt in the village, and everything in sight was dyed crimson. From that moment on, the girl's blessing was imbued with the deepest malice.]

Chapter Twelve is not for sale, it's just for making people drool!

"Equipment from dungeons could be blessed or cursed?"

Mu Qiu looked at the descriptions that appeared on the equipment and suddenly understood.

No wonder nobles are obsessed with collecting dungeon equipment. The existence of these attributes makes every piece of equipment from the dungeon like a blind box, or like playing a gacha game. Before opening it, no one knows whether the box contains a blessing or a curse. This unknown thrill can indeed be addictive.

“By the way, Mr. Shepherd,” Elena’s clear voice rang out from behind, “Do you know what the biggest difference is between these dungeon equipment and regular equipment?”

Mu Qiu looked puzzled: "What?"

Elena walked lightly up to the black-haired boy, reached out and brushed a strand of flaxen hair from her forehead, and smiled, "Of course there are many differences, but... in my personal opinion, the most important difference is that they can be used as additional equipment."

"Extra equipment?"

“Hmm.” Elena leaned closer and lowered her voice, “These equipment from the dungeons may not actually be as good as the equipment that skilled craftsmen have forged over thousands of years in terms of basic performance. Their true value lies in the blessings and curses they come with.”

She extended her slender fingers and smiled, saying, "An Iron-level professional can make the blessings and curses on one piece of dungeon equipment take effect simultaneously; a Bronze-level professional can make the blessings and curses on two pieces of dungeon equipment take effect simultaneously... and so on. The higher the level, the more blessings can take effect at the same time."

"When a professional wears a piece of dungeon equipment for more than 24 hours, the blessings and curses on it will begin to take effect, and the effects will last for a full 24 hours even if you take it off."

Elena clapped her hands lightly and winked at Mu Qiu: "So, do you understand what I mean?"

Mu Qiu raised an eyebrow slightly.

The guild's receptionist seemed to be getting a little too close to him.

"Miss Elena."

At this moment, Vera suddenly stepped forward, subtly blocking Mu Qiu's path. A clear, melodious voice came from beneath her cloak: "Most dungeon equipment only carries ordinary blessing attributes like 'sharp' and 'sturdy.' This kind of equipment can't be called blessed equipment, right?"

"Of course not."

Elena's expression froze slightly. She shook her head and said, "Only dungeon equipment with rare blessing attributes and no curse attributes can be called blessed equipment!"

“However…” Elena’s tone shifted, a hint of helplessness in her voice: “Even our most experienced appraisers can only appraise low-level dungeon equipment relatively accurately. The higher the level of the dungeon equipment, the more difficult it is to appraise. Often, it requires the professional to wear the equipment for a period of time to determine whether it is a blessed item, a cursed item, or a normal item.”

"Mid-tier and above blessed equipment is often incredibly expensive. They are much rarer than legendary moon elves and dragons. A single gold-tier blessed piece can easily sell for over a million gold coins!"

"Therefore, very few professionals can use blessed equipment as additional equipment."

Elena exclaimed, "It is said that even the Sword Saint of the Flower Capital and the Holy Maiden of the Earth Temple, legendary professionals like them, only have two high-level blessed equipment pieces, each of which is a treasure passed down through generations!"

Mu Qiu nodded thoughtfully.

Even legendary professionals only have two high-level blessed equipment pieces, which are treasures passed down through generations.

But the system had just temporarily granted him the ability to see equipment attributes.

So, if he were to equip Vera with a set of gear that had a powerful blessing effect, how much would her strength and potential skyrocket? Would it also increase her market value?

At that time, he will be able to use more system funds for each investment, and he will be able to lose all of his ten million system funds in a faster way!

Thinking of this, Mu Qiu felt a surge of warmth in his heart and quickly asked, "Then how many gold coins does each of these unidentified blind boxes... cough, I mean dungeon equipment cost?"

Sure enough, this young nobleman came for the blessing on the dungeon equipment. It seems I can make a fortune off these nobles again today.

Elena smiled and said, "Silver-grade dungeon equipment costs 1,000 gold coins each; gold-grade equipment costs 10,000 gold coins each; orthoclase-grade equipment costs 30,000 gold coins each; mithril-grade equipment costs 100,000 gold coins each... and the price of a main weapon is twice that of other types of equipment."

Elena smiled slightly as she spoke, "By the way, although your companion isn't an Orichalcum-level professional, and shouldn't theoretically be able to purchase Mithril-level equipment, however..."

Mu Qiu understood immediately: "What if I'm willing to buy it at double the price?"

“Of course you can! However—” Elena’s smile widened, and she held up a finger, emphasizing, “You cannot buy equipment that has already been identified. Blessed equipment can only be purchased by adventurers of the appropriate strength.”

"no problem!"

Mu Qiu was secretly pleased. He had no intention of buying appraised equipment in the first place. It would be difficult for others to find truly blessed equipment from so many pieces of equipment. They could only rely on luck and occasionally find a few pieces of blessed equipment. But for him, he only needed to take a look to know whether the equipment was blessed or ordinary equipment.

I never expected... this is what the system meant by "finding a bargain"?

Guided by Elena, he headed towards the area deep inside the warehouse where magical equipment was stored.

The place was equally cluttered, with wands, leather armor, and jewelry, emitting a faint glow, piled up or stuffed into boxes.

Vera followed closely behind Mu Qiu, opening her mouth as if to speak but then stopping herself.

The coachman probably thought the owner just wanted to find a few appraised small items and buy a few pieces of gold equipment.

She had thought so too, but judging from her master's demeanor... was he going to gamble on high-level equipment?

The problem is that she can't use Orichalcum and Mithril-grade equipment at all.

"Could it be that......"

She remembered the potions her master had just bought at the potion shop.

If all those potions were given to her, it could help her advance to the peak of the Gold rank, which would just meet the requirements for using Mithril-grade equipment!

No... don't be too happy yet!

Vera took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

She was just a slave and had no right to use such a high-level potion.

The master probably just bought these high-level potions and equipment that she could use on purpose, but didn't give them to her, just to make her jealous!

Every day, he would wave these high-level potions and equipment in front of her, then tell her that she could get a potion if she neatly folded her clothes on the floor, and another potion if she climbed into bed and made snoring noises...

What truly despicable humans!

He actually used such expensive potions and equipment to try and force her to submit to him little by little, to completely corrupt this pure elven girl.

hum...

You really underestimated us elves!

Human cricket, let me show you the indomitable will of us elves! Even if you try to tempt me with these expensive potions and equipment, use such despicable means to stop me from thinking and make me squeaky, we elves will never yield!

Bang-!

Just then, Mu Qiu suddenly stopped, and Vera, who was behind him, bumped into him.

The sudden collision caused Vera's delicate body to tremble violently, and her hands instinctively wrapped around Mu Qiu's waist.

"Ugh... Oh dear!"

"?"

Hearing the noise from behind, Mu Qiu, who was about to pick up a piece of mithril equipment, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Did he hear something strange?

Chapter Thirteen: Do you elves usually use a giant lightning bolt to hold your staff?

Mu Qiu turned his head and looked at the silver-haired elf behind him with a suspicious expression.

"Were you making those strange noises just now?"