The Merchant God

Chapter 11: The Auction Begins

After leaving the meeting room and left the pavilion, Alexander decides to roam around the stalls. As a person who lived countless of number of years, lucky encounters at stalls in such village is a common thing. “Maybe I can find a genius of this era and take him as a disciple. Just kidding.” As he walks around, he saw a certain stall that is running by an old man with a little girl that is about the same age with Lulu. He walks towards the old man’s stall to check his goods.

As he walks towards the old man’s stall, the little girl is also staring at him at the same time. The stare from the little made Alexander want to pat her head as the girl was like begging him to purchase some of his grandpa’s good. Left with no choice, he decided to  purchase something on the old man’s goods. Roaming his eyes on the goods in front of the old man, he notice a peculiar ring and picks it up. “how much for this old man?” Alexander asked. The old man perked his eyes and stare at Alexander. The old man muttered something and said to Alexander “that ring is from my old friend so I don’t know how much it is. If you would like, you can have the ring.” The old man said in a hoarse voice. Alexander was about to reply but the little girl suddenly burst out. “GRANDPA!!! I’M HUNGRY!!! WAAAH!!” The little girl throws a tantrum when she heard that he is giving the ring for free. Alexander laughs and take out a cloth pouch and give 20 silver coins to the little girl and her head. “treat yourself little girl! You need to eat a lot so that you can grow up into a beauty!” alexander left laughing.

After Alexander left, the old man patted the head of the little girl and both of them suddenly disappeared. Alexander decided to go back at the inn and inspect the ring.

While Alexander is on his way to the inn, the treasure pavilion is bustling as ever. Guards has been multiplied, yellow ranker guards was replaced with blue rankers and some head guards are at either peak of blue rank or initial red rank. Even the guests and aristocratic family was shocked with these changes specially the sects that are interested to join the auction. “reporting to young lady! All the guards has been replaced successfully. All defense formation has been strengthen as well.” Reported by one of the head guard. “mhm! thank you very much. You can return to your duty now.” Sophie dismissed the head guard and turn to Grease “grampa Grease, though I already sent a message to father and grandfather, I’ll be counting on you as well! ” Grease nodded and take his leave. Sophie sighed and prays that the auction goes well tomorrow.

At the inn, Alexander just finished his supper and head to his own room. “system use appraisal on this ring.” After a few moments. “initializing appraisal skill… an ancient ring has been detected… will take a few hours for the ring to be fully appraise… remaining time 7 hours and 59 minutes.” Alexander was shocked. “holy sh*t!! I was just kidding about lucky encounters and here I am having one!” Alexander can’t helped but to laugh as he cannot believe what is happening right now. As they said, be careful what you wish for as it may come true. Since the appraisal of the ring will take some time, he decided to rest and be ready for tomorrow.

In the morning Alexander has a peaceful rest and suddenly a ding sound came out from the system. “appraisal complete… Eternal Ring –A ring that can store various of things with a space of 500 square meters. The ring can also store a living being. Currently the host cannot use the ring as no elemental energy has been detected on the body.” After reading the description of the ring, Alexander was shocked but somehow disappointed as he cannot use the ring for now hence he kept the ring and ignore it for now. As Alexander is getting ready, a knock was sounded at his door. “hey boy! Are you ready? The auction will start soon. I also have secured the a VIP room.” Grease said. Alexander opens the door and together with Grease, they make their way to the treasure pavilion.

As they make their way to the pavilion, at the front entrance of the treasure pavilion was like a red carpet as aristocratic families, famous rankers and sects are arriving one after the other. “Look! Look! Isn’t that the famous ‘drunken sword’ Philip!” one of the by-standers shouted. “oh my god! The ‘Swan Princess’ of the Salvador family is also here!!” another by-stander shouted. “holy sh*t! It’s the Blue Dragon Sect and the Red Crow Sect! The auction today is really spicy!!” another comment from the by-standers. As this figures makes their way, a golden carriage with a phoenix insignia at the door and a tiger at both sides suddenly stopped at the entrance of the pavilion. As the door opens the people gasps and dumbstruck. “His highness the royal prince and royal princess of the Golden Valley Kingdom has arrived.” Suddenly matured handsome man that is about 18-20 years old and a beautiful child-like woman step out from the carriage and at the same time, the young lady also step out from the pavilion. She greeted the prince and the princess “Welcome to the Treasure Dragon Pavilion! It’s my pleasure to receive both the prince and the princess.” The prince nodded and smiles at the young lady with a hint of admiration but the princess suddenly run towards the young lady and take her by the arm “enough with the formality! Come on show me around sister Sophie.” The princess dragged Sophie away and the prince just sighed and follow them.

Alexander and Grease took the back door, handed their invitation and go towards to their room. Once they settled down in their room, there’s still a few more minutes before the auction starts hence he decided to meditate for a bit. After a few minutes, he open his eyes and a man appears on the stage. “Welcome everyone to our Treasure Dragon Pavilion weekly auction event. Before we start, we would just like to announce that after the auction today, the pavilion will be temporarily closed for a certain time however, please rest assured that all of the items that we will be auction off is of the highest and the best quality. Without further ado, let us officially start with the auction!”

After that the first item was put up on the stage which are four cloth pouches. “the first item that we have here is called Beast Repelling Balls. A pouch contains 10 small balls that can be put in torches and campfires and will diffuse a certain scent that can make a wild beast or a yellow rank beast go away with a duration of 2-3 hours which is perfect for resting after hunting wild beast. The price of this product is 2 silver coins and every raise must be 10 coppers.” Said the host “2 silvers and 10 coppers!” said one of the hunter. “2 silvers and 30 coppers!” “2 silvers and 50 coppers!”. One after another hunters fight for the items until the price reaches to 20 silvers and was purchase by a group of hunters. After that purchase, product after product was being purchase and the early phase of the auction is about to end. “as for the last item before we take a break. Please bring it to stage.” The host said. A few moments later 4 maids appear on stage carrying potion vials. “everybody, this last item will be sold by batch of four vials each. As we only have 20 vials of potion, hence there will only be four batches. As for these potions, they are called Orange gel potion!” as the host said his last sentence, chaos ensue in the hall that even the aristocratic families and the sects panic with excitement can be seen on their eyes. “Damn it!! That kid still has some hidden cards to play!” the manager of the pill pavilion furiously throw the tea cup. In another room “As expected, that kid still have some surprises!” Leonardo said and laugh. “I wish I could see the face of that fatty right now.” Followed up by Levi. The host hit his gavel on the podium “please calm down!! Base on the reaction we got, it appears that we are familiar how significant this orange gel potion are hence I will refrain from explaining the usage and will forward to the auction. The price of a batch is 5 silvers and every raise must be 30 coppers and up. Please start!”

As the voice of thee host faded “the Blue Dragon Sect offers 10 silver coins!” said by one of the elders of the Blue Dragon Sect. “hmpt! How arrogant! Are you threatening us by saying the name of your sect?! I the Drunken Sword Philip offers 15 silvers!” A voice was heard on another VIP room. “hahaha! I like your guts kid! The Red Crow sect always want a talent like you! However, in auction, the highest bidder wins we offer 25 silvers for the potion!” the people below the VIP rooms was shocked and gasps on the prices. Then another voice came out. “This prince offers 30 silvers for this batch of potion. If the seniors would let me have it, I can promise that I will not fight for the other batches.” The hall suddenly got silent then “if the prince likes the potion that much then this old man will back out.” The elder from the Blue Dragon Sect. “hahaha! Nice to meet you Prince, It will be my pleasure to give way for you your highness.” Said by Phillip and the Red Crow sect back out as well. “50 silvers going once… going twice… Sold! To the prince of the Golden Valley Kingdom!” after that he hit the gavel on the podium.

After the purchase of the first batch, the second batch was purchase Blue Dragon Sect for 80 silvers, the third batch was purchase by the Salvador family which is for 1 gold and the last batch was purchase by the Paule Family which is for 2 gold and 30 silvers. “that’s the end of the first half of our auction, the second half will start after lunch break.” The host said as he dismissed the crowd.