"This is Sparta!"
As Derrick led fourteen Spartans into the forest, the wild monsters near Xander's Town faced another disaster.
The entire forest was thrown into chaos.
Jason didn't follow them out this time.
Instead, he stayed behind, watching the experience points rise and the number of soul crystals steadily increase. It gave him peace of mind, knowing that the Spartans were taking care of business.
"Hmm... If they don't come back soon..." Jason thought.
Not long after, Sam's experience soared, almost reaching LV5. Meanwhile, Jason's soul crystals increased by 42 in a row.
Jason walked to the window on the second floor of the castle. From there, he saw the Spartan warriors returning in the distance.
Each of them was dragging at least one monster corpse behind them.
Derrick, at the forefront, was dragging a crocodile—a creature not much smaller than the monitor lizard they had faced the day before. It appeared to be another monster of LV10 or higher.
"Did they bring back a whole litter of crocodiles?" Jason wondered aloud.
The monsters brought back by the Spartans were mainly crocodiles with reddish carapaces. There were also wild boars, pythons, giant rabbits, and other creatures.
After hauling the wild monsters back to the village, the Spartans immediately turned around and rushed back into the forest. For them, constant fighting was the meaning of life.
The gatherers rushed forward to start their busy day, hauling the food and materials into the warehouse.
In Jason's mind, the prompt almost never stopped.
[Get 35 units of red crocodile meat (fine food)!]
[Get 8 red crocodile skins (fine materials)!]
[Get 86 units of red crocodile meat (common food)!]
Jason's eyes lit up.
The skin of the red-armored crocodile turned out to be an excellent material!
"Master!"
Just then, the housekeeper's voice called from outside the door.
"Come in!"
Jason turned around and found the housekeeper with two male servants. All three were carrying football-sized eggs in their hands.
"Master, Lord Derrick asked me to give you these three eggs."
The housekeeper respectfully placed the three eggs on the table and stepped aside to wait for Jason's orders.
Eggs?
Jason focused on the three eggs, and then a message appeared in his mind.
[Red Armor Crocodile Egg (Premium Pet Egg)]
[You can hatch a pet red-armored crocodile cub after bonding with it!]
[Red Armor Crocodile]
[A wild monster that lives in the forest.]
[Potential value: Generally bronze-level (LV19), with a chance to evolve into silver-level (LV29).]
A pet egg!
Jason became intrigued and picked up each egg, inspecting them one by one.
Then, he uploaded the pet eggs, along with some food, to the Universal Store.
He had seen many high-grade pet eggs in Chaos Mall, but Jason was waiting for the discount menu to show up. He wasn't too concerned about the red-armored crocodile, which was only of excellent quality.
His pets needed to be at least extraordinary in quality!
Jason called up the Trading Platform to check the sales status of his store.
After just one night, the platform had exploded with activity. Thousands of lord shops had sprung up nearly overnight.
Many lords had opened personal stores, but most of the items for sale were basic—simple weapons made of stones and sticks, river water, artificial fertilizer, sand, and even some lords listing their own subjects.
Because the trading platform ranked stores by transaction volume, Universal Store still held the top spot.
However, Jason noticed some other notable shops.
The second-ranked Bauhinia Shop had excellent ingredients—not meat, but a fruit called Banying Fruit. They had 18 units available.
Jason traded a piece of his fine red-armored crocodile meat and tasted the Banying fruit. It was sweet and sour.
It didn't increase experience, but it made the eater feel clearer.
The third-ranked shop was selling ordinary quality equipment. Though it wasn't as high-quality as the Chaos Mall, the prices were cheap. The lord behind the shop mentioned that they had signed in for the first time and obtained a craftsman who could help customize equipment if others provided the necessary materials.
If Jason hadn't had the discount artifact, he might have considered collaborating with this shop. But for now, it wasn't necessary.
Continuing to look around, Jason saw an acquaintance—Xuanji Shop, ranked seventh.
There wasn't much to see. The shop mainly sold basic materials for territorial construction: wood and stone.
But the quantities were astounding:
4,000 units of wood!
2,000 units of stone!
If bought at Chaos Mall prices, that would amount to 600 soul crystals.
However, since these materials were so common, the owner of Xuanji Shop had set the prices at half the normal rate.
Unfortunately, even at these prices, the materials weren't selling fast. Most lords were still focused on food and survival.
Jason also noticed a shop where they used wood to create fine furniture, and another shop where a lord was tinkering with gunpowder. Unfortunately, according to the lord, the power of their gunpowder was disappointingly low.
Jason also bought 30 units of fine iron, a now-scarce commodity. Only a few lucky lords had found such a large quantity.
After a lively day of shop openings and transactions, Jason saw that his high-quality pet eggs had been quickly bought up.
On the World Channel, Universal Store was once again the center of attention.
[I'm not wrong, right? The Lord of the Universe has launched a high-quality pet egg!]
[Red crocodile! I lost two soldiers to one of those beasts. How did the boss defeat them?]
[I'm crying... People can't be generalized.]
[Add the Lord of the Universe as a friend, my sister-in-law!]
[The Lord of the Universe really doesn't have a big picture. We're in the human camp and should help each other.]
[Call on the lords to defend against head lord shops. Those guys are just cutting us down like leeks!]
Jason cleaned up the friend requests with a single click, blocking any foul language or moral appeals.
He looked at the 100 soul crystals he had received.
Just earlier, Lord Bauhinia had bought one of his pet eggs for 100 soul crystals.
His total soul crystals had now reached 178.
Since many lords were listing food items, his products weren't selling as quickly. However, Jason wasn't worried.
His goal for the Universal Store was to create a top-notch, full-category marketplace—making it the first choice for players, second only to Chaos Mall.
The small profits now weren't a concern.
Jason thought to himself, Before noon at the latest, I'll have my second special building—the perfect Blue Mountain Workshop!
At that point, he'd control the equipment commodity market as well.