"Haa... haa... finally... we made it."
I was out of breath after running as fast as I could to make it to the auction house.
I didn't know when they would sell the item I needed again, so I had to use the chance I had right now.
"Hello young man, are you here to participate in the monthly auction event?"
In front of me stood a beautiful young woman, with luscious but soft red lips, and clear white skin. She had a well-made figure, and her business attire accentuated her curves.
"Yes, has it started?"
She gave a slight nod and replied,
"The event has begun, but they are just about bringing the first item to the stage."
"Would you like me to be your personal assistant?"
"If that is okay, please do so."
There was no reason for me to decline, and if she did decide to charge me, at worst, I could make my family pay for it.
"May I also learn the name of my humble customer?"
"Vincent Dracyian."
The lady had a puzzled, but shocked expression on her face, clearly confused as to why I am saying I was a Dracyian.
"Uhh... Do you have any ID of sorts, to prove yourself?"
As she said that, I pulled the personalised Debit Card out of my wallet, symbolising I was in fact a Dracyian.
"Ah... I see, Mr Vincent, please follow me."
I could give a rough guess as to why she was treating me well, and it was because I had rich backing.
While yes, I was to them unawakened, money still played a vital point in today's world, and I guessed I had a lot of it.
I mean, I had 1000AX of free pocket money in my wallet, and if this kind of money was given to a disliked person like me, I couldn't imagine how much they would have given to my siblings.
I was taken to a decently big viewing room, which had a comfortable seat ready.
At the far bottom, a man was unveiling a glass box, revealing a glowing book.
"This is a powerful {Fireball} skill book! Capable of blowing a dent through steel!!"
"The starting bid for this book is 10,000AX, so would those who like to bid, start on their screens now!"
The way this auction worked was slightly different to normal ones and was probably a result of being adapted through a game.
[How many times have I told you, this is not a gam-]
Anyway, people were first shown a showcase of the item they wanted, and then on their seats, there is an embedded screen attached to the armrest.
This screen has its own interface, where they competed with everyone else on the auction server for the item.
'System, are you able to connect to this server and find out when they will be selling {The Azure Sigillum herb}.'
[If that is what you want, please place your hand above the screen.]
I did as I was told, covering the screen with my palm.
I felt a slight electric sensation running through my elbows and heard a small sound coming from the interface.
[I have found that they will start selling the item after two more products.]
'Perfect.'
After I had confirmed that they really were selling what I needed, I sat back to watch the show.
"Honey... who do you think that man is? He is just sitting without even caring about the bids..?"
"I don't know, maybe he is rich enough to just buy the item off whoever gets it?"
"Yes, but, I have never heard of a noble family with silver hair?"
"Excuse me, I can hear you, you know?"
The lady and husband hand an embarrassed look on their face, apologising with a smile.
I sat back in my chair and continued to stare at the bidding screen.
The truth was,
I had severely underestimated just how rich these nobles were.
My measly 1500AX didn't hold a candle for how much these people were willing to pay for a skill book.
'Who the fuck pays 80,000AX for a single [Fireball] skill?'
I was starting to become worried about how much people were going to pay for the herb I wanted.
'No, this is still relatively early in the game plot development, people haven't found out how broken this herb is yet.'
The item that I wanted was called 'The Azure Sigillum Herb'. An ingredient commonly used in alchemy and making healing potions.
In potions, it helped to regulate the intensity of regeneration the substance gave, since, if the regeneration rate was too high, the cells were likely to multiply too quickly, causing a tumour, and at worse, cancer.
Right now, people had already found out the effects of the herb, which caused people to slowly become disabled.
Every day, after the digestion of the potion, the intaker's stats would lower by one whole rank.
This meant, that on 1 day, I would lose 1 rank for 'Strength', and the next day, I would lose another rank for 'Speed.'
(The change would be from 'E+' => 'F+'.)
Now, you might be thinking right now, that this was insanely useful for training, as they would be able to limit themselves, to eventually break past their initial limit.
But no, the catch was, you would lose your stats permanently, and there was no current way to gain your stats back.
Emphasis on the word, 'current'.
In the game, numerous people had tried out the herb, to find that their character growth became stunted. They had also tried looking for many cures, but nothing worked.
It was a mystery.
But then, people began to think logically.
In mathematics, it is commonly known that when a 'negative' adds a 'positive', it still returns a 'negative'.
Moreover, when a 'positive' adds to another 'positive', it returned back 'positive'.
And like so, when a 'negative' adds to another 'negative'...
Yes, if you understood maths, it would come back as 'positive'.
And so, the cure to the 'Azure Sigillum Herb' had been found, where a person would have to take the same poison that was hurting them again to neutralise it.
A person would initially lose a large portion of power, but in return, they would gain 1 whole rank up again, boosting their abilities.
This was what I intended to do.
In the future, almost everyone will know this, but right now, I would be able to jump a large gap between me and the original characters.
"Alright everyone, we are now going to be revealing the 'Azure Sigillum Herb', which is extremely useful for making potions and alchemy."
Everyone turned to their screens and saw the pop-up of the new bid starting, myself included.
"The starting bid will be 750AX for 5 flowers only, as this is the most top quality herb imported from Urabia itself."
"So, let the bidding begin..."