Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 30
Chapter 30: Episode 8. Auction of Devildom – 1 – (4)
As Deborong urged them to make deals, the monsters’ faces changed.
At the same time, they began to map out strategies for the deal ahead of them.
There was no monster that did not have 20,000 points.
There were at least one or two monsters in each camp that had more than 20,000 points.
However, these monsters were left out for more important jobs and tasks.
If anything or any deal that was superior or better than Krathra came out, they wanted to use these monsters and the points to compete and win the deals.
Even though they wanted to put all the points in one pot, they could not do so because the system only allowed legitimate exchanges that the god of mana established a long time ago.
In short, actions such as handing over unnecessary items and getting a lot of points instead were considered illegal. There would be penalties for such actions.
These penalties were very severe. Some of the examples of penalties included losing lots of percentages of points, up to a few tens of points, or not being allowed to trade points for the next few years in the future.
In the end, the four camps concluded that they would watch and see how things would unfold before making any further moves in this situation.
The auction had just begun. There would be better products or items than Krathra, and they would come out later in the auction. If the first item as good as Krathra over there, there sure would be much better items.
Deborong first introduced the best of all he had gotten, but this was nothing more than anything “superficial”. All the monsters wanted were rare items or skills which they could not obtain even with lots of points.
‘They are playing it calmly.’
Their strategies were correct if I looked at them from a rather objective point of view. The secret to winning an auction like this was to save as many points as possible for better deals that would follow later.
‘I am trying to stay calm, but…’
I barely managed to keep my mouth from twisting.
No one knew, even the monsters and the demons.
Not one of them knew that the real deal was Krithli, not Krathra, which was right there in the front.
I had never been so happy with the fact that I possessed the Eyes of Mind. I wanted to laugh out loud if I could do so.
Fooled by the weak appearances of Krithli, no one realized the true value and the potential of Krithli.
Of course, no one knew of its true value and potential. The only skill or ability that could penetrate and read others’ status windows was the Eyes of Mind. I, too, would not have noticed the true value and the potentials of Krithli had I not had the Eyes of Mind in my skill set.
‘I guess the only reason that Krithli did not make any noticeable achievement during her past life was that she died too quickly before even she had a chance to show her abilities.’
In addition, I could also guess the reason that Krithli hated mankind so much.
It was as if I ran into an epic-rated item out of nowhere, purely out of luck and serendipity.
I thought Krathra alone had achieved the desired purpose of my attending the auction, but there was an even better deal, which was his sister Krithli.
‘The value of the treasure depends on the person who recognizes it.’
Krithli was the greatest treasure that I had seen in this auction. Although no one recognized her true value and potentials because she was covered with dust and her lights were faded, her true potential was beyond my imagination. Now that I recognized the true potentials and values of Krithli, I would not allow her to break down so easily as she did in her past life.
Just imagining how she would transform after I refined her made my heart throb.
I once again opened the Eyes of Mind and checked Krithli’s status window.
Name: Krithli.
Job: None
Title:
* Person who succeeds the blood of the Jinma dragon (Epic, Intelligent Mana+6)
Ability statistics:
Force 19 Intelligence 94 (+6)
Agility 21 Strength 10 (-9) Mana 28 (+6)
Potential (172+3/478)
Unusual: Krithli received the powerful force of the Jinma dragon. Unfortunately, at the same time, she was born with the curse of the glacial dragon, which was called ‘spasm’.
Skill: None
I was shocked when I read the status windows of Krithli with the Eyes of Mind.
Her intelligence and potentials were incomparable to anything that I had seen so far.
Krathra simply had the title of having the blood of the dragon, but Krithli succeeded the blood of Jinma dragon, far better than her brother. Krathra and Krithli also had different grades. The real deal of the auction was Krithli, without exaggeration.
In particular, her intelligence was about 100 points, which was also called ‘the wall of overwhelming one.’
100!
The number was out of this world.
The net statistics of ability becomes more difficult to raise from 80 by the units of 10. It was even more difficult to raise from 90, even by the unit of 1. Doing so was had as getting a star in the sky. This difficulty was the reason that everyone became obsessed with titles and items.
Moreover, every time a score rises from 90 by the unit of 1, the increased ability feels different.
Although the effect of the title helped reach the ability of 100, the net ability statistics reached almost as much. This was not possible realistically, and yet, Krithli had such abilities.
What this meant was…Krithli was immune to all of the abnormal conditions that could possibly happen to her. Unless she was confronted with someone or some being that had mana over 100 and had abnormal condition skills equivalent to epic-rate, Krithli was invincible in this area to anyone or any being.
There was more than just this, of course.
Intelligence was also closely related to the speed of casting, the resistance of skill, and the maturity of skill.
The stronger power and the higher the grades the skill was, the longer the waiting time or the higher the penalties that caused damages to the body. However, having high intelligence, just like Krithli, could reduce such crude penalties.
In addition, whatever skill that Krithli would learn, her having high intelligence would raise her grade very quickly. Even if it is a skill that she learned from a skill book, the skill would go from a normal skill to a unique class in a very short period. Such a dramatic advantage was the power of high intelligence of Krithli, which was about 100.
In fact, there was no ability that was as versatile as intelligence.
However, intelligence was very difficult to raise unless the person received help from items such as the heart of a monarch like me. If not, the person would just have to born with high intelligence. There was no other way.
Krithli would fit at least two of the three things above. Her fitting two categories was the reason that she had such a marvelously high intelligence of 100.
‘Now the problem would be the stamina of Krithli’s.’
She had a health point of only 1.
Such a small health point was the result of the curse of the ice dragon. The health point was reduced by -9.
Having such a small health point was almost equivalent to barely being alive and breathing, only a few inches away from death.
To her, every breath would be painful. However, she was able to live and sustain life only because she had a strong mentality. I could tell this by looking at her pale face and her inability to get up by herself.
Clap, clap!
Deborong clapped his hands after a 30-second break.
No one raised his or her hands. The deal was secured in the end.
“Krathra was sold to Randalf for 200,000 points! Congratulations, Mister! The items that were sold here will be automatically moved to the dungeon after the auction.”
I smiled quietly.
Krthra and Krithli, who should have gone to Archduke Ufa’s camp originally, came to me. They would have tried to take Krathra and Krithli had the prices were a little bit more than Oculus’s 100,000-point offer. However, the cost that I paid, which was 200,000 points, seemed to be too much for them.
‘At least, for now, I passed the first difficult hurdle.’
I felt very relaxed and happy as I thought of the deals that I’d secured.
The Spirits of Dark appeared and moved the cages that contained Krathra and Krithli back to where they were.
What would come out now?
As I shifted my eyes to Deborong while relaxing and watching the auction, a gauntlet in a small box appeared in front of everyone.
“The next item of this auction is ‘Gauntlets of Lights! I strongly recommend this item to those who prefer close combats in any situation. Your opponent will be blinded by just looking at these shiny and sparkling gauntlets in combats! These gauntlets are super hard, and they also allow the user to use Critical Power. These gauntlets are by far the best that you have seen throughout this auction and are comparable to gifts that were just introduced. The starting price is 10,000 points!”
Anyone listening to Deborong would guess that these Gauntlets of Light had to be at least a unique class item. However, after using the Eyes of Mind, I could not help but laugh at the item.
Name– Gauntlets of Light (Rare)
Description: These gauntlets were polished millions of times. The polishing made the gauntlets very shiny. In addition, these gauntlets are very hard.
I thought this deal was such a rip-off. I could not help but think that Deborong was merely a filthy cheater.
The gauntlets sparkled like their name. If a very strong user wore these gauntlets, the armor would definitely give a synergy effect, increasing the overall performance of the user.
Deborong said that the gauntlets were much better than the items that were presented in the auction just now.
He obviously meant that the gauntlets were much better compared to Krithli, not Krathra. He did not directly mention the name of Krithli, and such action definitely implied that the item of comparison was Krithli.
In addition to that, Deboron threw out such a high price for the initial offer without providing the grade of the gauntlets. His actions would easily disillusion a naïve audience, who would think “these gauntlets must be great items to purchase and wield!”
A wiser person with item analysis skills would be able to tell that these gauntlets were not as good as they were introduced by Deborong, but I was quite sure that no one had such skills at this point.
A skill book required to learn the item analysis skill has a rare grade and costs 50,000 points, which was very expensive.
No one would try to invest another 50,000 points to learn the item analysis skills because he or she could simply pay 20 points to read an item analysis scroll that would instantly tell all the information about the item of interest.
Even if anyone in the room had the scroll of item analysis, he or she would not stand up for any actions. Instead, he or she would only reveal the information about the gauntlets to his or her camps, hoping that the remaining three Archdukes and their camps would make mistakes of purchasing the gauntlets at such an expensive cost.
Deborong, of course, knew all of this, too.
He would not have made such actions had he not known all about what was going on behind the scene.
At the same time, he was sneaky enough to make a way out for himself from this situation, so that no one could blame him.
I could not help but be awed at how sneaky Deborong was.
“10,000.”
“For this item, once again, Ariel the Archduke makes the starting offer. 10,000 points!”
“Twenty thousand.”
“You’re running nonstop, Count Randalp Bruciel! We got 20,000 points!”
I shrugged my shoulders.
‘I will be the bait this time.’
Knowing Deborong’s sneaky and cunning intentions, I decided to keep up with him during this round of auction.
If I could exhaust my opponents’ points in such a sneaky way, I could volunteer to become a wingman for Deborong.
“30,000.”
“Archduke Ufa, you have the lead! Now, is there any else who wants to offer more? If there is no one else, the deal will be secured and the Archduke will take this item, the Gauntlets of Light. ”
“40,000.”
“Once again, Count Randalf! You have excellent taste for items.”
He definitely did not mean what he just said…
He was such an ass-kisser.
“50,000!”
“You cannot lose, Archduke Ufa! Now we have up to 50,000 points for an offer!” Archduke Ufa cried with an irritated voice. There were no subsequent bidders for the gauntlets, and Archduke Ufa secured one useless item at the cost of 50,000 points.
“The gauntlets were set at the price of 50,000 points! Congratulations. The gauntlets will be moved to the dungeon immediately after the auction.”
I gave a light burst of laughter.
The Gauntlets of Light were of no use and were comparable to other miscellaneous and useless items.
This was how useless and crappy the Gauntlets of Light were.
The Archduke purchased such a useless item at the expensive price of 50,000 points, which was a total waste of points.
How could I not laugh at the foolish decision and move of the Archduke!
Other rounds of the auction were more or less the same as that of Gauntlets of Light. I kept up with Deboron’s show and many monsters ended up purchasing rather useless items at expensive prices. By then, Deborong seemed to notice my intentions of keeping up with him, too.
Deborong’s eyes seemed relaxed. I could sense that he looked at me differently compared to when he looked at other monsters.
My show caught his attention, and I succeeded in getting my name engraved deep in his mind.
Seven more rounds of auction passed by, and finally, the tenth round of auction started with a new item.
“This auction is a little special. We here offer a sealed dagger! We do not know what will come out when we unseal it. This dagger is like a lottery. If you are lucky, you might get an epic grade of item! The starting bid will be 50,000 points.”
This item was one of the items that I wanted to come out.
When I saw the well-refined dagger come out in the auction, I opened the Eyes of Mind.
[This item is a sealed weapon. The seal rating is very high and a penalty may be given if force activating the Eyes of Mind.]
I was concerned about the possible penalty that I might receive….
Whatever the penalty was, however, I thought that it would worth trying breaking the seal of the dagger.
In addition, the fact that such a message popped up meant that one could read the grade and descriptions of the sealed item.
My gambling of breaking the seal was already half successful.
I may find the other half after checking the penalty.
I opened the Eyes of Mind once more, ignoring the warning sign.
Name- Wailing Dagger (Ex R)
Explanation: This item contains Banshee’s resentments. The dagger eats away the spirit of those who wield it.
*One who wields this dagger can ‘accelerate’ rare grade skills three times a day.
[The seal grade of this item is very high and a penalty is given.]
[The strength will be reduced by -10 for the next 72 hours.]
Shit!
I staggered for a moment, feeling a sudden sense of helplessness.
‘Was this the penalty that the message warned of?’
The message window said that the strength would be reduced for the next three days.
‘I think I can handle this much of strength reduction.’
I was glad that my strength was down not permanently, only for the next three days.
I did not enter the bidding procedures because I did not think that the dagger was worth spending 50,000 points. Grand Duke Ariel, who was interested in the item, later took the dagger for the first time and the last time in the auction. However, the rest of the Archdukes seemed unsatisfied.
They hated gambling. On top of that, the starting bid of the dagger was way too expensive.
Then in the 15th round of auction, another sealed item came out.
I took a deep breath and opened my Eyes of Mind.
Name- blunt sword (N)
Description: This item can no longer be considered a weapon as it lost all of the attacking abilities.
[The seal grade is very high and a penalty is given.]
[Your health point will be reduced by -10 for the next 72 hours.]
“Shit!”
I managed to keep up with the anemia.
It cost so much to check, but the item was a total waste.
‘Something useful must come out for sure.”
I thought about an incident that took place before my return.
Two sealed items of epic grades appeared in an auction at that time. There must have been three or four epic grade items in the auction if the undisclosed ones were taken into consideration.
Although the odds were low, epic grade items might pop up again in this auction.
Now came the 21st round of the auction.
A sealed sword appeared again this round.
I opened the Eyes of Mind while keeping my mouth shut.
Name- Anger (Epic, Set Item)
Description: The last work of Oswen, a mythical blacksmith whom even the gods had fallen in love with. He created this sword based on the seven sins, but his powerful ideology went in during creation. It was said that Oswen went mad after this last work of his.
“Be angry, pure evil!”
*This item increases the strength of user by +7 and allows the wielder to use the epic grade skill ‘rage’ once every seven days
[‘Seven sins’ set item was found. If you collect items in the same set, you will gain additional effects.]
[The seal grade is very high and a penalty is given.]
[Your agility will be reduced by -10 over the next 72 hours.]