Chapter 185: Stepping Aside?
Some time later.
"With that, we announce the close of the auction for artifacts. After a ten minute break, we will proceed with the auction for elixirs."
With the forty-fifth artifact sold, the auction for that category came to an end.
The next category up was elixirs.
The moment auctioneer Root finished speaking, the mood inside the auction house shifted sharply. People’s eyes gleamed as if this was what they’d been waiting for.
Walfred was no exception.
’It’d be great if an elixir that raises base physical ability or increases mana capacity comes up.’
He’d been feeling the shortage of mana lately, so if he had his pick, he wanted something mana related. Just as Walfred was thinking that.
"Excuse me, Walfred?"
A somewhat cautious tone.
A honeyed voice tickled his ear.
China’s S-rank hunter, Li Xiaoqing. She looked at Walfred with a smile in her eyes.
"I’ll be straight with you. I’m after an elixir that raises base recovery or healing."
"And?"
"If one with that effect comes up and you let me have it, I promise I won’t lay a finger on anything you bid on."
Threats before, and now she was sweet-talking him?
Walfred let out a short laugh.
At that, Li Xiaoqing clasped her hands together and put on an earnest expression.
"I mean it. I really do promise."
There was a fair amount of sincerity in her eyes.
Then the young man who’d been watching from the seat behind them barged into the conversation.
"Hey, quit running your little cons. Nobody here believes a word you say."
"...You need to shut your mouth."
"No thanks. Not gonna."
He smirked, the corner of his mouth curling.
At the sight of him yapping away nonstop, Li Xiaoqing wiped the foxlike smile clean off her face and glared at him like she wanted him dead.
And then.
Julian, Britain’s S-rank hunter, who had been enjoying the whole scene, suddenly spoke up.
"Hey, friend. What are you going to do?"
"...? About what?"
"Are you taking that woman’s offer?"
Walfred didn’t answer the question.
Instead he turned it around.
"What about you?"
"An elixir that only boosts healing is pretty useless to me, but still, I’ll decide once I’ve seen the item."
Julian shrugged.
Walfred felt the same way.
He hadn’t even laid eyes on the merchandise yet, so promising anything now felt premature. Elma’s warning that you shouldn’t trust anyone at the auction house was nagging at him too.
Just as he was sidestepping a firm answer.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience."
With auctioneer Root’s voice.
The curtain rose on the second auction.
"We will now begin the auction for items in the elixir category. The first item of this auction is this!"
The instant he finished speaking.
A throbbing heart rose onto the platform. A dark red heart writhing violently, as if to prove that the life inside it was still going strong.
A glint appeared in Walfred’s eyes.
’That looks a lot like a Young Dragon’s Heart.’
The trophy from the Bone Drake he’d taken down in the past.
Just as he was thinking how closely it resembled the Young Dragon’s Heart, the item details for the heart on the platform were shared with everyone present.
-----
[Name]: Hatchling Young Dragon’s Heart
[Rank]: Rare
[The heart of a hatchling young dragon, dense with life force.]
[When consumed, the user’s base physical abilities and recovery are permanently improved, and resistance to dragonkin related skills increases slightly.]
[However, if the user has previously consumed an elixir related to dragonkin or young dragons, the effect is reduced by half.]
▷Base physical ability: x50%
▷Base recovery: x600%
▷Dragonkin skill resistance: +10%
-----
’Just as I figured.’
No wonder it looked so familiar.
Then, once he’d gone over the details in earnest.
Walfred realized this elixir was exactly the kind Li Xiaoqing had been hoping for.
’A boost to base recovery.’
Maybe that was why.
Li Xiaoqing’s eyes sparkled like stars the moment she saw the Hatchling Young Dragon’s Heart. As if she’d buy it no matter what it cost her.
Walfred, on the other hand, looked unimpressed.
’So if you’ve taken an elixir related to young dragons before, there’s a penalty that cuts the effect in half.’
Which meant that even if he bought it and ate it, the results wouldn’t be dramatic. Better than not eating it at all, of course, but still.
"250,000!"
"I’ll call 280,000."
"I’m bidding 300,000 coins!"
The second he saw the bid leaping up in increments of hundreds of thousands, any desire to join the fight evaporated.
’It’s really not worth that much.’
With that thought, Walfred sat back and watched.
The heated bidding went on for a while longer, and before long a winner emerged.
Final winning bid: 680,000 coins.
Li Xiaoqing.
"As no additional bids have been placed in the minute since the last one, the [Hatchling Young Dragon’s Heart] is sold to customer number 197. Congratulations!"
"Ah, finally...!"
Her face was full of emotion, tears welling in her eyes.
Li Xiaoqing was so overjoyed she practically bounced out of her seat. Watching her, Walfred let out a laugh in spite of himself.
He hadn’t expected her to be that thrilled.
Meanwhile, having safely won the Hatchling Young Dragon’s Heart, she came straight over to Walfred. Then she bowed her head politely.
"Thank you so much for stepping aside for me."
Stepping aside? He’d only given up because it was too expensive.
But she had no idea, and she clasped his hand tightly with a beaming smile.
"Trust me! I’ll keep my promise."
She was saying she wouldn’t take part in any bidding he had his eye on. It made no real difference to him either way, so Walfred nodded vaguely.
"Look at that. Running her con again."
"Wow, that’s shameless."
The young man and Julian, watching from nearby, clicked their tongues openly and mocked her.
At the two men’s jeering, Li Xiaoqing wiped her tears clean away. Then she fixed them with a venomous glare and ground her teeth.
"...You two are going to regret this."
A completely different attitude from the one she’d shown Walfred.
And no wonder. The two men had bid on the Hatchling Young Dragon’s Heart again and again, driving the price up on her.
"That’s my line."
"Next time I’ll clean you out again."
Neither man flinched in the slightest as they met her savage glare. As if daring her to try.
Watching from a step away, Walfred suddenly felt a question surface in his mind.
’Come to think of it...’
Why had things gotten so ugly between them?
People from the other dimensional worlds didn’t seem to be on nearly such bad terms. Just as he was tilting his head over the sudden question.
"We will now begin the second auction!"
With Root’s booming voice.
The next elixir appeared on the platform.
And the moment he saw it.
"...!"
Walfred’s eyes went wide.
Because its appearance was far, far too familiar.