Chapter 170 - Contacting A Witch.
After going around the market two times in a row and still coming up with either don't have it or sold out, Felix decided to take a quick break and continue browsing.
He was planning to camp in the market until he gets what he wanted.
After all, the gathering was going to last for three days, this meant there would be new sellers tomorrow replacing the ones, who had all of their stock either bought by shoppers, or players from the game they got the Prize Pool!
Felix knew that Prize Pools weren't monopolized by one player or two, but by all the players participating in that said game.
For example, Felix's current Prize Pool was being shared by all the surviving players from the shuffle maze. The stock was being shared as well!
This meant the Prize Pools don't really last for long before getting all of the good items wiped out clean.
This was the reason, the Ivy League made three days gathering each month. They wanted to give the sellers and the buyers a specific period to do business before the Prize Pools gets sapped out.
Heck, the majority of the players in the league were playing games exactly one day before the gathering so if they made it out alive, their stock would be still full and fresh.
....
Two days later at 06:00 AM...
Felix was standing in the middle of the market with his hand in the air. A few seconds later, the Queen's monotonous voice resounded in his mind with a sentence he heard about thousands of times now, "The material has not been detected in this area."
'F*ck my life.' Felix massaged his weary bloodshot eyes in frustration.
He was awake for straight 54 hours now, and even though he was in the UVR, his brain still needed rest from being active for such a long period of time.
Just as he planned to lower his hand and move to another area, the Queen's informed him, "The material has been spotted. The seller is being marked."
Ecstatic, Felix opened his bloodshot eyes widely as he kept looking around, wanting to find the marked seller. Soon, he saw a female player, who had absolutely no one next to her.
Immediately after seeing so, he understood that she had just sat in her position and was about to start selling her products.
Without delaying for a split second, he dashed towards her and said softly, "I want to buy an uncommon elemental flower."
"Why talk so soft? Am I not selling just an uncommon elemental flower?" She said while laughing out loud, making her voice reach the ears of the players near them.
She understood that he didn't want others to hear about the flower so he wouldn't have anyone contesting for it.
But, was she his sister to give him such a freebie?
"Uncommon elemental flower?! Nice, I got just enough for it."
"Finally! Been searching for it for a month now."
"Yes! I need just 3% to reach a 70% affinity rating."
More and more players kept gathering around them as the news was being spread further and further in the market by the loud chatter.
Suddenly, Felix who was standing all by himself before was now surrounded by desperate f*cks just like him, who needed this material at all cost.
"Hehehe." Amused, she chuckled as she looked at his twitching lips and clenched fists until his hands were turned paler.
She knew that he was holding himself from cursing her mother to the grave.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen." She stood up on her armchair and smiled, "We will do this the traditional way." She highlighted the flower on the humangous hologram and said, "The standard price to buy the flower is 4000 GP. My 5% commission from it will be 200 GP." She grinned widely and announced, "Start the auction!"
"300 GP!"
"400 GP!"
"600 GP!"
"750 GP!"
Each time Felix heard a newer bid, he felt like his heart got stabbed by a dagger. He understood that what the players were currently bidding for wasn't the flower but the commission itself!
This meant the higher bidder would need to pay the standard 4000 GP for the flower plus the amount he bade!
"1500 GP!"
"1520 GP!"
"1550 GP!"
"2050 GP!" After seeing that the bids were finally slowing down, Felix decided to join by increasing 500 GP at once, hoping to scare everyone off.
Well, he sure did as everyone who heard him turned towards him, wanting to see, who was that desperate to buy the flower with a whopping 6050 GP!
"The Wealthiest of Them All? The hell is that title?"
The moment their eyes landed on the glittering gold title, their eyelids couldn't help but twitch.
They didn't know what condition he fulfilled in the game to get that unique title, but they sure know now that it was related to game points.
There was no way they were going to contest with such a person. They might be above Felix in rank, but the majority of them never had an above 10k GP collected in their account. If it was so easy to gather them, everyone would start joining the League by the 3rd requirement.
"I am out, it's already above my budget."
"Sigh, I really wanted it."
The gathered players started to spread, heading to other sellers. They might want to increase their affinity rating, but 6050 GP was too much for just a 3% affinity increase. There were other worthy items to buy with that item.
"2050 GP going once! 2050 GP going twice!..." The seller paused for a few seconds after her shout, trying to delay for a bit. She hoped that someone might change his mind. Unfortunately, everyone was leaving while shaking their heads.
In the end, she just sighed and called, "Sold!"
Clap, Clap
The players who remained started applauding after the flower was auctioned. Habits were really hard to change.
Felix nodded at them in appreciation while extending his AP bracelet towards the seller. She swiftly touched his bracelet, getting wired only the standard 4000 GP for the flower.
In a haste, she tapped purchase, worried that someone from her game was going to snatch it before her.
Ti-ring
Fortunately, the sound of the anticipated notification resounded in the area, making both Felix and the seller sigh in relief at the same time.
She smiled charmingly in his direction while he merely gave her a middle finger.
Unbothered by his reaction, she laughed and sent him the contract. She didn't even bother to ask him like the first seller.,
After reading it carefully for a couple of minutes, Felix signed it and wired her the remaining 2050 GP.
Immediately after getting paid her commission she sent him the serial code and said, "Glad to do business with you."
"I wish you die in your next game." Leaving behind him the most famous curse between players, Felix turned around and walked away through the crowded market.
"You too!" She yelled with a merry smile on her face.
Nothing was going to affect her happiness of getting a free 2050 GP without losing anything.
Sadly, the same couldn't be said about Felix, who just spent almost the entire 26K GP that he had on all of the materials.
He was left with merely 2k GP or less!
...
14 hours later, in Felix's Androxa house...
Peep! Peep!...
"Shut it off, Queen." Felix murmured with his eyes closed shut. Too bad, the alarm kept going off, forcing him to open his muddled eyes.
The moment his eyes were opened, the Queen turned off the alarm.
Felix looked at his AP bracelet and saw that he actually slept for 14 hours straight!
The moment he secured all the materials in the Ivy Market, he teleported to the Androxa Capital and went to get some rest in his house.
He was too tired to contact a witch and enter a business deal with her.
...
After 5 minutes, he was sitting at the living room table, which was filled with food. He picked an apple and took a bite while having a hologram in front of him that was displaying a list of names with data at the side.
//
Name: W1. Ikram/ Potions: Elemental Potion, Advanced Rejuvenation Potion, Tonic of Hatred, Philter of Love/ Total Success Rate: 39%.
Name: W2. Minna/ Potions: Brew of Weakness, Potion of Shielding, Elemental Potion, Flask of Reversed Growth/ Total Success Rate: 41%.
...
Name: W3. Hala/ Potions: Potion of Fortitude, Tonic of Fury, Elemental Potion, Vial of Perception/ Total Sucess Rate: 49%. //
The moment Felix spotted a 49% success rate, he swiftly stopped scrolling the list of the witches, who could concoct the Elemental Potion and clicked on the name W3. Hala.
Immediately after, a side hologram emerged in his right, displaying a detailed profile interface of the witch.
//Name: Hala.
Witch Rank: 3
Success Rates: Elemental Potion= 49%.../ Potion of Fortitude= 51%.../ Tonic of Fury= 49%..../....
Current queue number: 359
Reviews (4511) ★★★★//
Totally ignoring the rest of the details down the profile interface, Felix focused on the success rate of the elemental potion as well as the queue line.
"Not a bad rate honestly." he said, pleased.
Even though the witch success rate wasn't above 50%, Felix knew that for such a problematic potion to concoct, that rate was extremely good. Specifically for merely a rank 3 witch.
Though, he wasn't pleased by the long queue line, which entailed that 359 orders were placed before him.
Still, he knew that it was better than contacting a witch with a smaller queue line but tragic success rate.
He would rather wait months before his potion's turn than risk losing all his materials and the exorbitant concoction fees after the potion concoction fails.
Without further ado, he clicked her displayed phone number and waited for a couple of seconds before his call got connected.
"Good evening, this is Witch Hala's assistant. How can I help you?" A mellow enthusiastic female voice resonated in the room.