The Merchant God

Chapter 10: The Treasure Pavilion

Alexander is sitting inside the carriage while Grease is the coachman. As they passing through the road and about to enter the beast forest, Grease stopped at the entrance and lit up the torches around the carriage. Alexander also provide the beast repelling ball to Grease to put it on the torches so that no beast under blue rank will block their way. After the preparation, Grease get back and drive the carriage forward to the forest.

After a few minutes of venturing the forest, Grease suddenly stopped the carriage once again and observe the surroundings “one, two, three…” after counting, there are 10 people hiding in the trees and bushes. Grease notify Alexander quietly about the situation and instruct him to proceed but drive the carriage slow. Grease nodded and continue to drive the carriage slowly as Alexander said. After a few more minutes and it appears that the people following the carriage lost their patience and decided to commence their attack. Sensing the killing intent in the air, Grease immediately stop and carriage. Then he jump off the carriage and punch the earth “Earth Wall!” Suddenly, walls of earth surround the carriage. “YOU THINK I, GREASE IS A SOFTY!!!” he shouted then he jump so high that he can see all of the people trying to ambush them. “YOU RETARDS! DON’T BLAME ME IF YOU ARE COURTING DEATH YOURSELVES!” he shouted again while he is in the air and before the ambushers are able to react “Multiple!” Suddenly a number and red magic circle appear at the sky. “Earth Rending Meteor!” all of the sudden, the sky was dyed in red as 10 rocks that is big as two adult man’s fist is falling from the sky and targeted the ambushers. As the ambushers was caught off guard, they are unable to unleash their defensive skills fully and with an explosion, the area around the carriage has bee scorched and no living being can be found around the 100 yard radius of the carriage. As he heard the explosion, Alexander sips on his tea while sitting calmly inside the carriage “damn old monster, they are just yellow rankers, do he really need to use a red ranker skill?” Alexander sigh and just ignore what was just happen and closed his eyes. After checking that there are no more pest around, he remove the earth wall and continue their journey.

After an hour, a fast moving carriage arrived and stopped. After observing for a while “that old man and his temper.” The person in the carriage and sighed. “clean the surroundings. I don’t want that old man leaving his traces everywhere.” Instructed by the man and the carriage continue to move forward.

After 4 hours of journey, Grease and Alexander was out now in the forest and they can see now the village. “see that kid, that is the hidden forest village and the tall black building that has a golden dragon on top, that is the ‘Treasure Dragon Pavilion’ and that is being manage by one of the aristocrat family at the sleeping forest village which is the Bolino Family.” Grease explained the rules for auctioning items in the Pavilion. As they make their way to the village, they were stopped by the gate guards. “I’m sorry old Grease, I need to inspect the carriage. There was a news that someone would like to cause trouble in our village and we don’t want that specially with the explosion that was heard earlier.” The guard explained. When Grease heard it, he just smiled embarrassingly and didn’t stop the guard to inspect the carriage.

After the inspection, they went through the gate and officially entered the hidden forest village. Alexander observe the streets and he notices that it was bustling with people and stalls. As he was absorbed by the busy atmosphere, the carriage stopped. “here we are kid, this is the inn that we will be staying for today.” Said Grease and started unpacking the goods. They checked in and get two separate rooms. After they settled, they plan on resting and eat an early supper and make their way to the treasure dragon pavilion to put their goods for auction for tomorrow.

In a certain luxurious inn “Reporting to manager, all of the yellow ranker bandits that we hire to rob Mr. Alexander has been wiped out.” A man reported to the manager. “hmpt! Useless fools they can’t even rob an old blacksmith and a kid!” sneered by the manager “as per the report of our team, there was a possibility that a red ranker helped them. Though the possibility is low but the range od the skill that was used was about the red rank.” Said by the man. “damn it! Is it the Gaidar family?!” asked by the manager with a hatred flashed his eyes. “we are not sure however, base on our sentries report, the Gaidar family carriage left the village 2 hours after Mr. Alexander and Grease took off.” Replied by the man. “no matter, we should have those weapons! Those weapons will be mine!” the manager smiled and laugh menacingly.

In the front gate, murmurs from the surrounding people can be heard. “hey isn’t that the Gaidar family carriage?!” one of the by-stander mentioned. “oh my god! Is that the ‘Berserker lion’ and the ‘Calm Tiger’ of the Gaidar family?!” Another by-stander can’t helped but be amaze. “if those two are here then doesn’t that mean the ‘Blazing Liger’ Leonardo Gaidar is here?!” Another murmur from a by-stander. After the Gaidar family carriage, another luxurious carriage. “isn’t that the family carriage of the Paule family?” question by one of the by-stander. “yeah and look! Isn’t that the young master of the Paule family?”, “yeah that is the ‘Business Genius’ of the Paule family, Alphonse Paule!” admiration can be caught on the surrounding by-standers specially those who made money via commercial business. After going through to the village gate, another carriage has appeared, however this carraige has a gloomy feeling in it. “oi, oi, oi isn’t that the Bolino family carriage?” whispered of one of the by-stander. Before he can get any reply from the others, a chilly and suffocating aura leaked out from the carriage that made the by-standers stopped on murmuring and whisper to each other. Not until the carriage pass through the village gate that the by-standers was able to calm down and sigh with relief. Then a burst of murmur descent “holy mother of god!!! I thought I’m going to die!! This Bolino family is really mysterious and unforgiving” comment of one of the by-stander. “shhh… shut up! If you want to court death then don’t include us!!” rebut by another by-stander.

While the commotion at the gate is happening, Grease and Alexander is already on their way to the pavilion to have their goods be put in auction tomorrow. As they make their way to the front entrance, they were stopped by the guards. “what is your business here at the Pavilion?” asked by one of the guards. “we are here to submit some goods for auction tomorrow. Is the curator available?” replied by Grease. The guard nodded and head inside to report and after a few minutes, an old man with white hair and white beard and donned in pure white long robe. “hello and welcome to the Treasure Dragon Pavilion! Please follow me!” the old man invites Grease and Alexander inside the pavilion and into a certain room. “please enter. The curator is waiting inside.” Said the old man. As the two enter the room, Alexander saw a little girl sitting on a chair with a pile off papers in front of her on the desk. There two men standing at the sides that just staring at them with ferocity. “Hello young lady. How are you?” greet by Grease smiling like he saw his long lost grand daughter or something. The young lady stopped her work and stared at Grease for a long time then suddenly “GRAMPA GREASE!!!!” the young lady run towards Grease and hug him “wuwuwu… grampa Grease! You have to seek justice for me!! Wuwuwu… Igor and Gori is bullying me!!” the young lady started her tantrums while pointing at the two burly man.

Grease glare at the two burly men and they suddenly panic. “come on young lady, give us some slack. We are just obeying the patriarch. We will not let you go anywhere until your work is done.” Explained by Igor who is sweating profusely. “yeah, yeah, come on young lady, you know we can’t bully your or our heads will be rolling without us knowing.” Added by Gori. “hmft… I wanna go out and grampa Grease will take me! Right grampa Grease?” asked by the young lady and stare at Grease with teary eyes. “alright, alright I’ll take you out. I’ll notify your grandfather as well. But not now, we are here for business.” When Grease mentioned ‘business’, the young lady’s playful face turned serious. “by the way, this is Alexander and he will be submitting some goods for auction.” Grease introduce Alexander to the young lady and nodded. “hello Mr. Alexander, I’m the young lady of the Bolino family, Sophie Bolino.” Sophie bows in a lady-like manner.

“Nice to meet you Ms. Sophie. Here are the items that we would like to include in your auction.” As he finished speaking, he put two small box and one long box in the table. “Mystic eyes!” suddenly a magic circle appear on Sophie’s eyes and stared at the boxes in front of her. “Those are mystic eyes skill. This is the reason why all items here are all authentic and real unlike in other auction house.” Grease whispered to Alexander. As a ranker who experienced 99 lifetimes, of course he knows what is the mystic eyes skill. He even had the highest appraisal eyes and Destructive eyes in one of his life time which is the ‘Eye of Horus’ and the ‘Eye of Ra’ so he was not shocked when he saw the mystic eyes skill. “mhm! I can confirm that this weapon are authentic and since you are grampa Grease’s friend, we can lower the handling fee of 20% to 10%. Also if I may, we can have them as closing items together with the apple gel potion that the Pill Pavilion submitted.” When Alexander heard the last sentence, his lips twitch. “this damn meatball!” cursed to himself. “That’s fine Ms. Sophie however 1 have more items that would like to include in the auction.” Then Alexander take out 4 cloth pouches and 20 vial of orange gel potion. “the one in the cloth pouches are Beast repelling balls and the vials are orange gel potions.” As Alexander introduces the items, he also explain its usage specially the orange gel potion that can help a ranker to restore their elemental energy depending their rank. For yellow ranker, it will recover 50% of their energy. For blue ranker, it will be for 30% and for red ranker it will be for 15% of their energy. “mhm! I can confirm the item’s authenticity, we can have the repellant ball as one of the early items and as for-.” Before Sophie finish her sentence, he was cut off by Alexander. “I would like you to put the orange gel potion as a starting item for the auction and you can sold it by batch of 4 bottles.” Then alexander took out 3 vials with purplish liquid. “and this item is what I would you like to make as the last item in the auction.” Sophie was dumbfounded with the request of Alexander and she was shocked when she saw the 3 bottles and can’t help but to grow curious. “what are those 3 bottles Mr. Alexander?” Sophie asked. Even Grease was curious.

Alexander stare hard at Sophie. “before I answer that, I want to add a condition with the Treasure Pavilion or should I say with the Bolino Family.” Alexander remarked. “Oi kid! Isn’t that a little bit to much?” Grease commented. “yeah, yeah! That’s to much kid! Our young lady already lowered your handling fee!” the two burly man sneered but Alexander ignore them and just stare at Sophie. “what is your condition. As long as it is not over the top, I can make the decision now.” After thinking for a while, Sophie answered. “hmm… nothing much, the condition is that, you help me find these ingredients. The more the better. Money is not an issue.” Alexander took out a piece of paper. When Sophie saw the list, she was shocked as most of the items in the list are in their treasure vault except for the Royal honey which can only find around a kingdom. After pondering for a while, “alright I agree!” Sophie answered and Alexander smiles. “good girl!” muttered to himself. “thank you Ms. Sophie, as a token of my gratitude, let me offer one of the vial to you.” He handed over of the refresher vial to Sophie. “as for the usage of this potion, I call it refresher potion. Just like the orange gel potion, it can restore 50% of rankers energy no matter what rank he/she is.”

Alexander pause here and suddenly asked “Say Ms. Sophie, how safe this pavilion is?” Confused with the question “rest assured that no aristocrat family will make trouble here.” Assured by Sophie. “I’m sorry Ms. Sophie, its not the I’m belittling you, so let me rephrase the question. How sure are you that no family will find trouble here at the pavilion?” Alexander mysteriously smile at Sophie. “what do you mean by that Mr. Alexander? Are you threatening the treasure pavilion?” Sophie glare at Alexander and the two burly man release their peak blue ranker aura. Alexander laughs while Grease is still confuse on what’s happening. “why this kid acting like this in front of my goddaughter?” asked himself. “that’s not it Ms. Sophie, I hope I didn’t offend you, I am just worried that you might be included in the storm that is brewing here.” Alexander explains calmly. Suddenly Alexander release an unfathomable killing intent in the room that made Grease immediately take action and protect Sophie. “OI KID! WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS?!” Grease Shouted furiously. Then Alexander disperse his killing intent. “I am just kidding old man no need to be angry.” Alexander laughs again. “what the hell is this kid!! This kid is abnormal!” Grease said to himself. Sophie was not totally unaffected as a tiny bit of killing intent was able to penetrate Grease’s protection and she got frozen on the spot and scared. “I’m sorry Ms. Sophie, I’ve change my mind, I will not include this potion.” Alexander stare at Sophie and sighed “I went overboard.” When Sophie hears that Alexander is backing out, she strengthen her will “I’m sorry Mr. Alexander I just shocked and unable to respond in time. And please do not worry about me being dragged in the storm, I can protect myself.” Sophie remarked with determination that cam be seen on her eyes. Alexander smiles “Alright. In that case, these potion can help you restore your fatigue when you use an Overskill. You should know the meaning of it Ms. Sophia.” Alexander stand up and get out of the room while leaving Grease and Sophia Dumbstruck and shocked that they are unable to move for a few minutes trying to digest what Alexander said about the potions.