Chapter 97: Wealth
Chapter 97: Wealth
“Wow, daggers of time? What does that mean!?”
“What does that have to do with time?”
“Why is the weapon named like that?”
“I don’t care about the name Xapoc or Lapox. The important thing here is the word of the time. Please explain further, Mr. Appraiser.”
Ma-no smirked. His aim to arouse the interest of the hunters was currently successful. That meant the price would definitely soar higher than he had expected.
“Everyone, calm down.”
Ma-no calmed the crowd. He once again offered them the choice of whether or not the weapon’s abilities needed to get revealed.
Now, most of the hunters were in a complicated and pinched situation. They knew the daggers would fork out a lot of money from them. At the same time, they needed to grasp the capabilities of these weapons in order to find out the highest bidding price.
The mention of the word ‘time’ was intentional by Ma-no. It was like a hint to the hunters that the dagger’s abilities would be related to time. Of course, there were some hunters who got the clue and understood what it meant. But still, they were curious, what ‘time’ abilities were capable of being utilized by those weapons.
Ma-no was also surprised and envious of the abilities of the weapons when he finished his assessment. The two daggers were a pair of weapons that wouldn’t work without one of them. In order to use its abilities, it was necessary to use both.
One of its abilities was to return the time to the previous 30 seconds. And it looked like an OverPowered skill. It only applied to a small area around the user. Actually, it was enough for a hunter that missed the attack and then succeeded in the second trial under the same conditions. Even Ma-no estimated that the ability could match that of an S-rank hunter.
The downside of the skill was that it didn’t restore the user’s condition. For example, the Mana used to use the ability would not replenish when the time returned to the previous one, while the other power was to cover that weakness.
The ability was to make the user return to its initial state. For example, Mana would return to adequate as if it had not to get used at all, and any serious injury would heal within a few seconds. It worked only on the user without stopping or rewinding the time. It was efficient without having to go through the same thing twice.
“The open bid is 195 million won, and the increment is 5 million won.”
More than half of the hunters snapped their eyes after hearing the starting price of the daggers. They had thought it would be high, but it wasn’t that expensive.
“220 million won!”
The hunters got surprised by the new numbers. They had not yet recovered from the initial price shock.
And another hunter gritted his teeth. “240 million won!”
“What the f*ck!?”
“We still don’t know the exact abilities these daggers possess. Why are some of you going crazy over the bid!?”
The opinion of the other hunters did not affect the others, who wished to own the daggers.
“300 million won!”
The new offer entirely left all the other hunters speechless. The price was very unreasonable for them. After all, the capabilities of those weapons were unknown. It could be a trick of the appraiser by giving the hunters catchy words to cover up the weapon skills, which might be crap.
“Oh, my lord!”
“F*ck*ing mad lad!”
Ma-no continued the auction even though the hunters were shocked and in the middle of digesting the situation.
“300 million won going once! Twice!”
“Sold! Xapoc Daggers, 300 million won.”
The three guards and Ji-hye did their jobs the same as before.
Especially for Ji-hye, she was delighted with the benefits they got. It could be a fund to improve the quality of the goods in the store and make them prosperous in the future. She knew about the abilities of the three auctioned items because she had previously get told by Ma-no. And she didn’t forget to thank and felt grateful to Ji-woo as their benefactor.
Ma-no smiled. “Now. We have come to the final item in this sudden auction.”
The hunters looked at each other. They tried to intimidate the other to give up from trying to bid for the last item.
Suddenly, all of the hunter’s eyes turned to gold as Ma-no tugged at the cloth covering the third platform.
“This is an armor set that has extraordinary abilities for the owner or user. This set is called Demi-Amun Armored. Of course, I can’t share the knowledge of what this armor set can do. All I can say is, it’s an item that destroys the ranking system among the hunters.”
The hunters’ eyes lit up and forgot about the restraint of their own money to bid. It seemed some hunters would dare to risk their entire fortune in one such auction.
Ma-no’s words gave the hunters a hint about the ranking system, which was likely related to breaking the ranking gap between hunters when fighting.
The hunters’ guesses were right on target.
The Demi-Amun Armored’s ability increased the user’s strength by twice what the user currently had. Meanwhile, the other skill it had, was a transformation that could lift the user’s power many times over. If an E-rank hunter used that skill, he could match a B-rank or even an A-rank hunter, while the A-rank became as strong as the S-rank one.
“We will start with 150 million won, and the increment is 10 million won.”
“160 million won!”
There was a bid even before the hunters commented on the initial bid price and the increment. And even then, there was no sign that it would stop there.
“170 million won!”
“180 million won!”
…
“210 million won!”
“230 million won!”
The offers grew more intense as time went on. The last auction item got joined by almost all hunters present. Therefore, the increase in bids was not too high. But, it continued to rise.
“280 million won!”
“310 million won!”
It was a number that only a few hunters present at the venue could match. So, the people bidding were only about three now out of a total of 21 hunters. The hunters, who had no money or couldn’t afford to bid anymore, could only see the final result of the auction.
“350 million won!”
The price stopped at that figure, and no one seemed to want to put another bid on the table.
“350 million won going once!”
“350 million won going …,” Before Ma-no declared the winner, another bid echoed through the room and broke the silence.
“390 million won!”
The hunters were amazed by the sky-high figure. After all, the hunters present in the shop mostly were low-ranked hunters, just a bunch of E-rankers, D-rankers, and C-rankers.
“Sold! Demi-Amun Armored, 390 million won.”
“Congratulations! And thank you to all who attended and adhered to the order of our shop.”
The auction had ended after Ma-no declared it. All the hunters went home with different feelings. Some were happy, sad, surprised, and amazed by the Hunters Association shop.
Those three items were really the best things ever got sold, apart from the Black Market place, which was said to be inaccessible to just anyone. Even the International Hunters Association could not overthrow the existence of the Black Market. It was because there were several large guilds that supported the entity. So, it could run and function as an underground place for rich hunters and wealthy businessmen.
Ma-no planned to call Ji-woo to tell him about the Demi-Amun Armored. He was happy with the store’s revenue. But, he also knew that the prices were achievable because of the auction event. And that situation couldn’t happen all the time due to the policy of the Hunters Association. There would also be opposition from several guilds and independent hunters because the price was too high from what it should be.
“Hello, Ji-woo~si. It’s me, Ma-no. I’ve already sent 351 million won to your account. I thank you for your choice to sell those items to us. And again, thank you for your generosity despite knowing the value after I appraised those items.”
“It’s fine. I also need to thank you for your help in selling my stuff, sir. It must have been tough. You’ve done a great job, sir.”
“It’s nothing. In the future, the partnership between us will continue if Ji-woo~si wants to sell or buy something from us.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Now, Ji-woo had a total of 618 million won in his account. And without further ado, he informed Seok-jin and paid his 135 million won debt for the previous tier-4 Portal Gate.
With the remaining 483 million won that Ji-woo had, it was enough to carry out other plans on his list. He intended not to buy the Portal Gate for the time being. He chooses to continue Dong-hyun’s training and pay off his family’s debt and interest. He was also deciding when to sell the golden spear and another set of golden armor. (note: 483 million won = around 413k USD)
“Let’s rest for a few days before grinding the dungeon again.”