Star Moon Kingdom, White River City, Candlelight Trading Company.
Shi Feng arrived at the shop entrance with Huo Wu, only to find that fewer and fewer players were visiting Candlelight Trading Company compared to before.
"Have we already hit our limit so soon?" Shi Feng glanced at the players on the main street, then looked at the situation inside the shop.
Even though Candlelight Trading Company was located in the commercial center, the area with the highest foot traffic, the number of players on the street was increasing while those coming into the shop to buy things kept decreasing. That alone said a lot.
Looking around the street now, at various corners nearly every major guild and quite a few merchant players had already opened their own shops.
With so many more shops, market competition had naturally intensified. Although Candlelight Trading Company's position in White River City was still unshakable for now, the shop's daily profits were shrinking. From the initial several thousand gold per day, they could now barely maintain around a thousand gold—and that was with Candlelight Trading Company having shops in all the major cities of the Star Moon Kingdom and quite a few in other kingdoms as well.
The once best-selling whetstones and advanced whetstones, along with various recovery potions and mana potions and other everyday items, were selling less and less through Candlelight Trading Company, all because of the new shops that kept springing up.
These new shops themselves had solid foundations, and the blueprints for hot-selling products were no longer rare. Anyone who wanted them could go farm for them—the blueprints for advanced whetstones were already being sold on the Auction House. As long as they had life-skilled players produce them, combined with decent locations and a slight price reduction, they could easily lure away a good number of customers from Candlelight Trading Company.
However, Candlelight Trading Company's Light Stones and Reinforced Armor Plates were still selling like hotcakes.
But Shi Feng knew clearly that this situation couldn't last much longer. Whether it was the Light Stone or the Basic Reinforced Armor Plates, neither was a unique item. As time passed and players' levels kept rising, obtaining these blueprints wouldn't be difficult at all.
In just three days, other trading companies were already selling Reinforced Armor Plates, though their prices were a bit higher than Candlelight Trading Company's. And before too long, the Light Stone—an everyday item in the Divine Realm—would also inevitably flood into other shops, at which point Candlelight Trading Company's advantage would shrink even further.
"Guild Leader. You called for me?" Youyu Weixiao walked into the Candlelight reception room, looking exhausted.
Over this period, Candlelight Trading Company's profits had been dwindling, and it had been driving her crazy. She had tried numerous methods, but none had been very effective.
"How is the production of the Fixed Magic Gear coming along?" Shi Feng asked.
At Candlelight Trading Company's current rate of earning, it was simply impossible to accumulate 150,000 gold coins in the remaining twenty-something days. They needed to accelerate their income somehow.
The only hope lay in the Fixed Magic Gear.
The number of players flooding into White River City kept growing, and among them were no shortage of elite and expert players. These players frequently ventured into high-level maps, and their equipment consumption was naturally much higher than that of ordinary players. So they had a greater need for Fixed Magic Gear to extend their grinding and exploration time in the wilderness.
"During this period, I've already produced four hundred pieces of Fixed Magic Gear. The success rate is around forty percent, but in terms of putting them up for sale, this inventory is still too small. I'm afraid they'd be sold out before they could even attract attention, so I plan to stockpile a thousand pieces before putting them up for sale in Candlelight Trading Company." Youyu Weixiao was also full of confidence in the Fixed Magic Gear.
As soon as the Fixed Magic Gear went on sale, it would definitely make Candlelight Trading Company popular all over again, with daily sales skyrocketing.
"A forty-percent success rate?" Shi Feng was surprised. He hadn't expected Youyu Weixiao's success rate to be this high—he had thought thirty percent would be good enough. He promptly pulled a stack of blueprints from his backpack and handed them to Youyu Weixiao. "Have Shuang Keke and the others learn these blueprints. If there are any good prospects in Candlelight Trading Company, let them learn them too. Make as many as you can—I have a major use for them."