Chapter 127: Meeting some friends
After some time, the items in the first pages and mid pages of the list were completed, and it is now time for the last and final pages.
The first item was a staff called Loki's Staff.
"An adventurer luckily found this powerful staff when he and his party cleared a Monster Lair. His reason for selling it is because their party doesn't have any Mages and he also doesn't want to recruit a Mage just for it lest the latter runs away with such an expensive and powerful weapon,"
"Instead, he wants to exchange it for some coins so that he can get his party some equipment that they could really use,"
"Let me present, the Loki's Staff!"
Whoosh!
The Auctioneer pulled out a red sheet, thus revealing a long wooden staff that emits a powerful magic aura all over its body.
"The starting bid would be 10,000 coins!"
"11,000!"
"12,000!"
"13,000!"
"....."
"That's a fake," Natas uttered as he watches a bunch of ignorant people making a fool out of themselves. "Ikol would never sell any of his weapons, let alone a staff, which is one of his main weapons,"
"Thought so," Kayn already guessed that to be the case. After all, such a powerful item shouldn't be making its appearance in such a shabby place. If he takes Ikol's character into consideration, he would only do so in a very grand and shocking manner.
"What do you mean?" Jude can't help asking as he heard Kayn's words.
"That item is a fake. So, don't bother bidding for it,"
"How'd you know?"
"If you read the word 'Loki' backward, it would spell 'Ikol', one of the Gods in the 'Tower' and is infamous for being called the God of Mischief. Considering what sort of character he is, there's no way he would give away one of his prize possession as easily as just clearing a Monster Lair,"
"Fair enough," Jude understood. He knows about the information that 'The Bridge' is being overlooked by Ikol, the God of Mischief. That's honestly the main reason why everyone is still trapped in this place and the explanation behind the complexity of the mechanics of the 'Keys'.
In the end, Loki's Staff was won by a person in the VIP room who bids 20,000 coins.
The next item was a kris sword called Apolaki's Sword.
"The starting bid is also going to be 10,000 coins for Apolaki's Sword!"
"....."
Apolaki is actually one of the Four Gods of Wars in the 'Tower known to be the God of Sun and War and a kris sword is his signature weapon. Needless to say, the so-called Apolaki's Sword in front of them is another counterfeit made by Ikol.
"Another ploy of Ikol," Natas can't help shaking his head in helplessness and embarrassment at the way Ikol is acting.
Kayn felt pity for the narrowmindedness of Ikol. Just what sort of satisfaction could he possibly get from tricking a bunch of people trapped in a cage?
"He probably intents on making the people who are trapped in 'The Bride' stay forever and create various different legends using mere fake weapons and imitations from real Gods of the 'Tower'," Natas could easily understand what Ikol wants to achieve with this act.
Now that Kayn thinks about it, that's indeed quite satisfying. Imagine a group of people believing the weapon they hold are real, but it turns out they are nothing more than fake goods and mere replicas of the original. Their expression and the emotion they would feel could definitely be something that Ikol would consider desiring to see.
Just like with the Loki's Staff. Apolaki's Sword also fetched a high price, going as far as 25,000 coins, because of the fact that there are a lot of Knights compared to Mages. In addition to that, being a Mage is very expensive with all the materials needed for their training, so they could barely save up any money.
"The third item is something that our Guild's adventurer team went so much trouble in order to steal one precious Monster Egg from a very ferocious monster that most of us dwellers near the ocean are familiar with — Sea Drake!"
"Its starting bid would be 50,000 coins!"
"....."
Kayn no longer paid any attention during the third and fourth items. The third item is going to be something very common once one enters the 'Tower', whereas the land title isn't useful for him as he doesn't plan on staying permanently in the Sea Spring Village let alone 'The Bridge'.
After close to half an hour of patiently waiting and getting fed up with Charles flirting with the two female escorts to the point that he is already considering killing them if only it wasn't for Jude distracting him with his small talk, it was finally time for the last and final item of the night — the map of the Mountain Monkey's Lair.
"This isn't supposedly going to be auctioned in the Sea Spring Village but on a territory in a town level because of the still indeterminate value of the map due to the lacking of the level of our appraiser. But because of unforeseen circumstances, we don't have any other choice but to accept our loss and auction it here,"
A commotion immediately interrupted the auctioneer from continuing with his speech.
"This is not good,"
"Should we bid for it?"
"I don't see any value with this item. I suggest that we approach it carefully,"
"We should concede this time,"
"I guess this is the end of the auction,"
One thing was common in everyone's conversation — they don't want to take on the risk.
For the reason the map wasn't properly appraised, the potential of the map drastically went down. Hence, it now comes with quite a big risk that the map wouldn't bring more than what they would be spending in acquiring the item.
Meanwhile, Kayn can't help smiling in delight as he listens to the conversation of the masses.
Contrary to them, the face of the auctioneer has now turned very ugly as he understood the situation with the map has now turned very bad for them. He expected such development though. However, their master doesn't want to risk ruining the image of their auction house, which is why he specifically reminded him to reveal the truth regardless of the consequences it would bring about. There's no definite value on the map anyways, so their master is probably not afraid of getting reprimanded by the headquarters of their guild.
"I understand all of your concerns," The auctioneer finally decided to disrupt the commotion. "That is why the starting bidding price for the map is merely 300 coins with the subsequent bid to only increase by 10 coins,"
Hearing that, the audience immediately started to bid.
"300!"
…..
"320!"
…..
"330!"
…..
"370!"
…..
"400!"
…..
"..."
The duration for each bid was a lot longer compared to the earlier items — it takes half a minute before another bid would follow after.
Seeing that, Kayn decided to pretend to play safely as well.
"410!"
"450!"
"460!"
"500!"
"510!"
Just when Kayn thought that his competitor would stop, the latter instantly threw another bid.
"550!"
Kayn can't help narrowing his eyes as he looks at the VIP room not far from them.
"560!" He abruptly blurted out.
As expected, the other person quickly bid higher.
"600!"
"700!"
This time, Kayn opted to increase his bid to 100 coins.
"800!"
"What's wrong with that guy?!" Jude stood up as he felt slightly pissed.
"I think he's openly challenging us," Charles muttered with a serious look on his face. He was no longer interested in flirting as he turned his attention to the fierce competition between Kayn and the person in the other VIP room.
"Here's 500 coins," Charles quickly threw Kayn a leather pouch. "Win for me,"
"1,000!" Kayn directly bid.
Bang!
Kayn and the others inside the room could immediately hear a loud bang on the glass of their competitor's window.
"It seems like we're close to the price they are willing to risk," Jude licks his lips since he could already taste their victory.
"1,100!"
"1,300!"
Unlike the previous time, what followed was total silence.
"Did they give up?"
"I hope so,"
"That's for certain," Charles was sure that their competitor has already given up.
All of a sudden, a loud banging sound echoed behind them.
"Sir, you can't do that here!"
"Stay away! I want to see who dares to challenge the authority of the Green Horn Knights!"
"Green Horn Knights…"
It was very apparent that the male receptionist was taken aback after hearing their identity.
"Is that person who I am thinking he is?" Natas uttered behind Kayn.
"I didn't expect that we'd be meeting again this soon," Kayn smiled.
"Are you familiar with those people outside?" Jude looks at Kayn.
"You two can rest assured,"
Bang!
The door was blasted open by a powerful force.
"Now then, who in 'The Bridge' dares to… wait what?!"
"Gilbert," Kayn called out.
"Kayn!" Gilbert was stunned at the sight of Kayn in front of him.
"Did you just say Kayn?" Friedrich hurriedly walked inside while being followed by Roshan, Cedric, and Kimberly behind him.
"You're alive?" Roshan asked in surprise.
"I told you that it's impossible for him to die!" Cedric felt overjoyed.
"You're truly different!" Kimberly can't help clapping her hand.
"We thought you died back then…" Gilbert still couldn't believe it.
"You're overestimating a bunch of spiders," Kayn nodded his head to greet his friends.
This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eewebn(o)vel.com