Chapter 10: The Auction
Thunderfury Auction
The noble and ancient auction house opened in Dürandal was renowned throughout the whole race for its high-quality items. The Thunderfury was one of the Noble families in Dürandal, every single member was legendary or strong enough to not be bothered. It's existence was relevant within Dürandal since they were the richest family, their trading company was renowned throughout Ethax and they had trading convoys going to trade with all territories except the Monster Territory.
The Thunderfury Auction had one of the more reliable crafting, blacksmithing, and alchemist departments, counting with many geniuses and talented people in their ranks.
People were coming in and out of the auction house, since Simon and Gatgas were taking me, despite the three of us not being from noble families, Simon and Gatgas were strong enough to enter. Besides, by simply being a city guardian one had enough prestige and could easily enter the auction house.
We were arranged to the second level of the VIP room, below the third and fourth levels of the building. Other city guardians had also joined them. Seeing several acquaintances, Simon went to greet them, Gatgas on the other hand just stayed sitting and eating snacks.
"Crakeon, Fostuths, Brakdreas! Long time no see!" Simon heartily greeted the two dwarfs and gnome. I inspected them and was deeply astonished by what I saw. Crakeon was a very young Potion Master level 248 with the age of 42, Fostuths was a Bloodthirsty Berserker level 283 and Brakdeas was an Infernal Knight level 298.
They were all city guardians and every single one of them had incredible classes. They all had uncommon classes since every 100 levels, the system allowed you to upgrade the main or subclass, by level two hundred you could have upgraded the two of them and gotten an incredible class mastery as a reward.
Not to mention, Brakdeas was almost level 300! That's how insane he was and how high his status was as a city guardian, not to mention he was just that! A city guardian! The noble and royal families had individuals way more capable than the city guardians. I was deeply shocked by this and my motivation to quickly level up rose even more.
"Simon! You're getting the leave today, I heard?" Crakeon quickly greeted him back.
"Yeah, Gatgas and I are going to help Corbis's son level up."
"Oh, I see… He has grown quite a bit from then." Crakeon answered while watching me from the door.
"We'll miss you and Gatgas. You two were very reliable teammates."
"Yeah, it's unfortunate. Let's hope we have some fun during the auction."
We all sat in comfortable chairs and looked down at the auction that was shortly beginning.
The auctioneer responsible for the auctioning was a short, eloquent gnome. He was elegantly dressed in a black suit and had a monocle in his left eye.
"Dear guests, after the Demon's attack was finally repelled, the Thunderfury family has worked hard to gather enough treasures to finally ensemble this magnificent auction. Many were obtained from dungeons and ruins, as we know, items obtained from the Tower are almost impossible to get, yet we also managed to grab three. We hope everyone enjoys their time to hear and auctions to their heart's content!"
After drinking a sip of water, the gnome continued,
"The first auction item! It's a mysterious potion recipe! Upon inspection, this potion recipe was from the Yrlvartor territory, a renowned Dark Elf clan that had many incredible fighters! Starting price 100 gold!"
"Two hundred gold!"
"Three hundred gold!"
"Three hundred and fifty gold!"
While people were randomly shouting prices, I immediately used my observation ability to see what it was.
[Yrlvartor's Potion Recipe]
[Rank: S+
Effect: Learn how to create a potion that unlocks the user's potential. Highly increases the probability of getting a rarer class and magical affinity
Price: Incalculable]
I immediately gave a precise price so people wouldn't suspect it was an item of great quality but wouldn't try to keep betting on the recipe.
"500 gold!"
I had already told Simon and Gatgas about my "skill" to inspect items and they had known it was a good idea to bring me to the auction, this is why they didn't doubt me. The other guards, on the other hand, were a bit shocked that a kid was betting for something like that.
"Are you sure you're gonna let him bet on that, Simon?" Crakeon asked surprisedly, as a renowned alchemist he didn't wanna bet in a mysterious potion recipe despite its origins. It would be like betting, Gnomes didn't like to bet.
No one else betted for the potion, after I raised the price to five hundred gold the calling stopped. It was a mysterious potion, no one was gonna take the risk and bet more than five hundred gold coins on that recipe. A noble family's yearly income was a minimum of one million gold, five hundred was not something everyone would want to bet on.
"Five hundred gold coins going once!"
"Five hundred gold coins going twice!"
"Five hundred gold coins going thrice!"
"Sold! Congratulations to the city guardian's room 3!"
Simon looked at Nýr with a strange look and quietly whispered, "Are you sure it is worth so much?"
"Yeah." Nýr quietly replied.
Simon and Gatgas didn't understand, however since Nýr was paying himself, they just stayed quiet.
"The next auction item is a mysterious interspatial ring! Everyone, please take a look!" The auctioneer slowly showed a ring in his hand, "This elegant interspatial ring is black as night! It's a storage ring with a space of over one hundred square meters in circumference. This can be called the best storage ring sold in any Thunderfury auction! This was brought back from the level 70s of the tower by Grokoug Thunderfury! The level 368 Storm Razer!"
"This ring's starting price is twenty thousand gold coins!" The eloquent gnome's voice resounded through the room.
"Finally something worth wearing!"
"The price is so expensive. They asked for more than ten thousand gold coins!"
"That interspatial ring has such a large space! Selling it for twenty thousand coins is not enough!"
Many decaying noble families barely made one hundred thousand gold coins a month, some made more but twenty thousand was only the rich could bet on. Since from the one hundred thousand, the noble families used them to maintain the expenses of the family, they didn't spend it on auctions.
Some of the rich noble families below began bidding.
"Thirty thousand gold coins!"
"Thirty-one thousand gold coins!"
"Thirty-five thousand gold coins!"
��Not betting on that kid?" Gatgas asked Nýr.
"It's a quality item, it's just too expensive. I came looking for the cheap quality items, Gatgas!"
"Hmmm, then I'll start the betting, mua ha ha ha" Gatgas laughed malevolently and proceeded to say"
"Fifty thousand gold coins!" Gatgas' voice resounded through the hall. Everyone immediately went silent.
"Eighty thousand gold coins!" A voice came from the fourth floor, silencing even Gatgas.
The fourth floor was even higher than the noble families. They were royals. The royal family wasn't small, it had many branches as Dürandal's story was very long, rich young dwarves from the royal family were common.
"The royals bid eighty thousand gold coins, is there anyone offering higher?" The gnome asked with his eloquent voice.
Although Nýr wanted an interspatial ring or bag, one of such a high price was not something he could afford now. The bag gifted by Gatgas and Simon was more than enough for now. Besides, the ring's price calculated by the system was thirty thousand gold coins, eighty thousand was just throwing money away.
"The next item is an elixir storage container. It has enough space to contain six different elixirs and slowly empower their effects considerably. It was recovered from the same Yrlvartor family ruins…."
...
"City guardians room 3 bid one thousand gold coins! Are there any offers?"
"One thousand gold once, two thousand gold twice, three thousand gold thrice, sold!"
…..
The Yrlvartor family probably had some high-quality alchemy since the system showed shocking effects, causing Nýr to immediately buy it.
[Yrlvartor's Priced Alchemist's Box]
[Rank: S+
Effect: Store elixirs throughout one day in the box to empower them up to two times the normal effect.
Price: Incalculable]
"Hmm, why are you buying alchemists things, kid?" Crakeon curiously asked Nýr, he thought it might have something to do with the past Corbis.
"I'm learning alchemy, Dr. Crakeon, I wanted some tools and recipes to further my knowledge" The young Nýr smoothly answered.
"Oh yeah? What level is your alchemy at, kid?" Crakeon joyously asked, as a Potion Master his alchemist was Advanced Alchemy Lvl 3. Professions were divided into three ranks, the normal profession, intermediate profession, and master profession. Every rank made it even harder to upgrade the profession's level. There were hardly any masters in professions and advanced alchemists were quite valued.
"My alchemy is level 12, Dr." Nýr softly said, despite being taller than Crakeon he was a kid, so he tried to act like so. Crakeon was deeply shocked by Nýr's level, there were hardly any records of a level 12 alchemist with 8 years of age. Kids got easily bored when talking about botany or concocting so alchemy was not a common profession with children.
"That's quite good, young man. You have a bright future as an alchemist."
What Crakeon didn't know was that Nýr had Tailoring level 13, Cooking level 17, and had already become level 5 in Blacksmithing and Tinkering. It was absurd how proficient Nýr was in professions. He placed extra care and effort into everything he did, making his level go up quickly.
….
"Next auctioning item is an Epic rank suit. It has a highly detailed inscription pattern originating from the high level 70's of the tower! It was an item even Grokoug was willing to wear! Thankfully, we managed to convince him to sell it in the auction! It is a highly valued item and perfect for breaking through the three hundred level mark! The starting price is fifty thousand gold coins!"
Seeing the Epic rank suit, Nýr patiently sat in his chair, sadly he didn't have the money for such an expensive item. It wasn't worth it either way since the system calculated its price at the fifty thousand gold mark.
"What do ya think 'bout that armor, N��r?" Gatgas curiously asked Nýr since he had intentions of betting for the full body armor.
"It's not worth more than fifty thousand coins, Gatgas."
"Hmm" Gatgas thoughtfully hummed.
"Eighty thousand gold coins!"
The third-floor nobles immediately began betting, but then,
"One hundred thousand gold coins!"
The fourth floor silenced them all.
The dwarven royal family had a spendthrift in their ranks it seemed. The armor was quickly bought by them and their great power was showcased.
- - - -
Some more armors, weapons, and potions were sold for high prices. None of them were really useful for the current Nýr, he couldn't even buy them.
"The next item in the auction is a magical necklace! Perfect for mages it was made so it raises their capabilities! Found in an elven ruin, its starting price is five thousand gold coins!"
Nýr quickly inspected the item to check if it was useful for him or Simon.
[Magical Potency Necklace]
[Rank: Epic
Effect: Empower the sharpness, form, and power of your magic power, perfect for magic archers.
Price: Twenty thousand gold]
"Simon, you should buy that, trust me please, my skill says it's good for archers" Nýr quickly said, trying to maintain his innocent cover.
"Okay Nýr, I'll bet on that I guess."
"Four thousand gold coins!"
Simon wasn't petty on putting money on the table. He saved quite a bit just like Corbis did so it wasn't a problem at all to spend some couple thousand.
"Four thousand gold coins going once, four thousand gold coins going twice, four thousand gold coins going thrice! Sold to city guardians room 3!"
Thankfully, no one realized the value of the magical necklace, four thousand gold coins weren't worth an artifact with unknown effects.
When the auction was about to end, an item that would completely change my future appeared. I hadn't expected anything like this when I planned to come to the auction, but something incredible would happen today as if it was my destiny to come here.
"The next item in the auction is a book! This book is the last item that came from the tower. Appraisers haven't gotten any information from it, but since it came from the ninetieth floor in the tower, retrieved by the Thunder Emperor level 397 it is assumed to be a quality item!"
[Sub-class tome: Beast Berserker]
[Rank: Unique
Effect: Grants the knowledge of beast berserking to the user but is consumed upon use.
Price: Incalculable]