167: Member surprises

On the other hand, Drus understood that such a massive transaction could not be decided by a salesperson who was only a Gold Knight, so he waited silently in the VIP room.

A moment later, the female salesperson from before walked in with an Earth Knight expert from the Lionheart Merchant Guild.

After learning that Drus planned to purchase 100 million worth of dragon blood from the Lionheart Merchant Guild, the Earth Knight of the Lionheart Merchant Guild showed a friendly smile upon seeing Drus.

He then immediately took out a space ring.

"Your Excellency Drus, hello. I am Furada, one of the stewards of the Lionheart Merchant Guild. I already know the purpose of your visit!

The one thousand cubic meters of dragon blood you require are in this ring. You can check it, and if there are no issues, we can exchange money for goods!"

Since the Lionheart Merchant Guild had a Sky Knight stationed there, and considering its own considerable strength, the Earth Knight of the Lionheart Merchant Guild naturally wasn't afraid of Drus causing trouble, so he handed the item over first.

Before seeing the actual item, even though Drus had been repeatedly shocked by the Lionheart Merchant Guild and increasingly believed in their strength.

He still harbored doubts, and since dragon blood concerned his future, he had to be cautious.

Upon hearing this, Drus immediately took the space ring and eagerly inspected the contents.

By using his Mental Energy to probe, Drus first discovered that the space ring contained one hundred pools made of obsidian.

Each pool contained exactly ten cubic meters of dragon blood, which was the minimum purchase amount for dragon blood at the Lionheart Merchant Guild.

Drus had never actually seen dragon blood, but he had long yearned for this item that could change one's talent.

He was intimately familiar with its characteristics, observing the blood in the space ring that, despite being separated from the body, still boiled continuously like magma.

The boiling blood carried a faint pressure, causing even Drus's Mental Energy to feel a sense of dread.

Although Drus had never seen a Dragon, he had coincidentally seen an item made from its body.

The pressure emitted by that item was very similar to the pressure currently emanating from the blood, and combined with other signs.

After observing for a long time, Drus finally confirmed that the space ring indeed held the Legendary Dragon blood; the Lionheart Merchant Guild had not lied.

The ability to obtain large amounts of dragon blood proved that the Lionheart Merchant Guild was either backed by a Dragon or had an expert whose strength far surpassed that of a Legendary Dragon.

Regardless of which it was, to Drus, they were a power he had to look up to.

The Lionheart Merchant Guild was a force he could not afford to offend; instead, he needed to try his best to befriend them.

Holding this thought, even though Drus was the customer, his face was now covered in a friendly smile intended to establish good relations.

"The dragon blood is indeed genuine. The capabilities of the Lionheart Merchant Guild truly put us to shame!"

Drus first expressed his inner shock, then thought that since the item was fine, he absolutely had to purchase it.

He also quickly took out the money he had prepared earlier.

"Here is 100 million Gold Coins. Please inspect it, esteemed Guild."

Although they weren't afraid of Drus cheating, as merchants, they naturally had to count the transaction funds carefully.

Soon, Furada confirmed that the money was correct, meaning they had closed a massive deal right after opening.

Therefore, the smile on the face of Furada, the Earth Knight of the Lionheart Merchant Guild, became even more genuine.

"Mr. Drus is truly straightforward. You have now spent 100 million Gold Coins at my Lionheart Merchant Guild. According to the Guild's rules, you will become a One-Star Member of our Guild.

However, considering that you are the first One-Star Member of this Branch, we will additionally raise your membership Rank to Two-Star."

"Two-Star Member? What is that for!"

The Lionheart Merchant Guild had not previously announced anything about membership, so Drus was confused at this moment.

Seeing this, the Earth Knight of the Lionheart Merchant Guild immediately explained.

"The items sold by our Guild are all precious and rare, so it is foreseeable that there will definitely be a phenomenon of supply falling short of demand later on.

Therefore, we introduced a membership system. One-Star is the lowest, requiring only a cumulative purchase amount of 100 million Gold Coins in our Guild.

Next is Two-Star at one billion, Three-Star at ten billion Gold Coins... and so on.

The purpose of membership is that when everyone comes to purchase items and there aren't enough, members with a higher Rank have priority purchasing rights.

Furthermore, members can pre-order goods. After a pre-order, when short-supply goods are restocked, they will not be sold immediately but will be reserved due to the member's pre-order.

Of course, this reservation has a time limit: One-Star Members get one week, and Two-Star Members get two weeks.

If payment is not made within the specified time, the previous pre-order will be voided, and the member will receive a warning.

If warnings accumulate three times, the membership status will be lowered by one Rank, for example, from Two-Star Member down to One-Star Member."

Reserving goods would lead to inventory accumulation for the Lionheart Merchant Guild, which is a loss for the Guild. If there were no penalties, the Guild's interests could not be protected!

"So that's how it is!"

Hearing this, Drus slowly nodded.

Then he suddenly realized that Two-Star Membership required accumulating purchases worth one billion Gold Coins at the Lionheart Merchant Guild to attain.

Such a massive sum—even if Drus sold all the merchant guilds under his command and everything belonging to his Taylor Family—he wouldn't be able to gather that much money.

This amount of money could probably only be produced by the Royal Family of the Lia Kingdom.

Yet, he was lucky enough to possess it now!

Moreover, Drus understood that the title of Two-Star Member was not just frightening because of the transaction amount it represented, but also because the benefits it brought were enormous.

Because Two-Star Members have priority purchasing rights.

This was an extremely important privilege.

For example, the Lionheart Merchant Guild only had a total of one thousand eight hundred cubic meters of dragon blood.

If many people had come to buy things earlier, Drus knew he might not have been able to purchase those one thousand cubic meters of dragon blood today.

But having the status of a Two-Star Member changed everything.

Others definitely wouldn't be able to compete with him. He could use his privilege to pre-order the items first, and even if he couldn't produce the money immediately, he had two weeks to gather it!

Furthermore, the one billion Gold Coins represented by the Two-Star Membership was not something even the Lia Kingdom's Royal Family could easily produce.

This meant that in the future, virtually no one in the Lia Kingdom could compete with him for the priority purchasing right of Lionheart Merchant Guild goods; others simply couldn't outcompete him.

Additionally, Drus, as a Guild leader, immediately spotted the massive profits contained within this system.

Take dragon blood, for instance. Although the money he currently possessed was not enough to purchase the remaining eight hundred cubic meters of dragon blood.

He could imagine that in a few days, once the news that the Lionheart Merchant Guild was selling real dragon blood spread.

Countless Nobles, eager to change their talents just like him, would surely flock here.

And those remaining eight hundred cubic meters would certainly not be enough—far from it.

If Drus used his Two-Star Member privilege to pre-order these items first, setting aside the possibility of him going back to gather the money to buy them.

Even if he just directly sold the purchasing rights for those eight hundred cubic meters of dragon blood, it would be enough for him to make a huge profit.