Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 158
Chapter 158: Episode 49. The Fifth Auction of Devildom (7)
I opened the Mind’s Eye to analyze the item. The item looked like fire to the spirits, but it looked like a dragon to me, and I got curious about the dragon.
Name – The Quintessence of Fire
Explanation: It is one of the nine kinds of fire. It burns eternally and contains the “commanding” force.
The explanation was short, and the name did not sound like that of a dragon. However, I doubted if the explanation was accurate. I was not hallucinating for sure, which meant that more explanations were hidden for some other reasons. It was also possible that further explanation was protected with seals, which even the Mind’s Eye of an epic grade could not penetrate.
Grrr!
The dragon, which had been lying as though it was dead, opened its eyes.
At the same time, I felt an excruciating pain inside of my stomach.
“Ugh.”
My stomach felt like there was something stuck inside.
Frowning, I looked into the dragon’s eyes.
“Who are you?” I thought.
I had never seen this dragon before, nor had I known any dragons that resembled this one. However, the dragon was somehow very familiar as though I had known it for a long time.
Grrrrr!
The Quintessence of Fire, breathing heavily, grabbed the metal cage with two hands. Then flames erupted from its body.
However, that was all it could do. The dragon was burning heavily, but it could not destroy the metal cage. It was pretending to be strong, but it had gotten very weak for some reason.
“The Quintessence of Fire is trying to move!”
“You bastards…! Open the cage now!”
The Spirits of Fire stood up from their seats out of anger. They were even ready to fight. Some even transformed into erupting flames to fight.
The spirits in this auction hall were top-notched. They could easily burn down the entire castle without a trace. The Spirits of Darkness, who were hosting the auction, were also very powerful. However, the Spirits of Fire were furious, and they were not afraid of other spirits.
Deboron responded very flexibly to the turmoil as though he had anticipated it.
“Please do wait a moment. No one, including us, the Spirits of Darkness, wants a mess in the auction house. After all, this is merely one of the items of the auction, and the customer who bids the highest price will take this item. And the spirits can participate in this round of auction, too. They can either pay with their ‘levels’ or ‘contracts.’ For instance…”
Deboron, who was smiling maliciously, looked at Jeeves.
Jeeves, the Monster of Flame, looked at Deboron disapprovingly.
“I will take Mr. Jeeves, who ranks fourth out of all the Spirits of Fire, and who is known as the Monster of Fire, as an example. He can easily get hundreds of thousands of points by trading in his level. Another option is making an informal contract with other customers here.”
The contractor could be a demon or a Spirit of Darkness. However, Deboron seemed to believe that if any spirit wanted to make any contracts in this auction house, they would make one with the Spirits of Darkness. And Deboron looked quite confident about this.
Spirits did not take risks when it came to contracts, and the Spirits of Fire and the Spirits of Water would never make a contract with demons, whom they had never met before. Such a trait of the spirits made Deboron believe that they would make a deal with him, if any of them did.
“Therefore, do purchase this item! We are in the middle of an auction! And we sell fabulous items, amazing and powerful monsters, and everything that will enchant you! The more points you have, the more likely you will land these fabulous items! On the other hand, if you cannot afford much, you will fall behind the others. Here in this auction, we promote fair competitions!”
After Deboron finished speaking, he bowed to the crowd, thanking them for listening to him. His speech was oxymoronic; falling behind and fair competitions did not go along well. However, no one made a big deal out of it.
Perhaps everyone in the crowd made an agreement with Deboron before the auction.
The demons must have made contracts with Deboron, and I guessed even the spirits were offered one. Deboron must have told them about how much their “levels” or “contracts” would be worth in points.
“Now, we will resume our auction. The item is the Quintessence of Fire! It is one of the nine kinds of fire, which the Spirits of Fire worship. This particular quintessence gives the owner the Power of Domination. And many of its effects are still unknown. The starting bid is… five million points!”
Excluding me, the average points that demons had was three million. The starting bid of this round was far above that average. Such a high starting bid implied that Deboron did not intend on selling this item to any of the demons.
His target was the Spirits of Fire.
If the Spirits of Fire wanted to purchase this item, they had to trade in either their levels or contracts.
Whatever the Spirits of Fire chose to cash in, it would be beneficial to the Spirits of Darkness.
If the Spirits of Fires traded in their levels, then they would get weaker. If they chose contracts, then the Spirits of Darkness would use such contracts to create many toxic plans and deals for them.
Deboron and Adonis looked satisfied at the high starting bid.
The two only smiled, but their smiles seemed to tell that the Spirits of Fire would end up buying the item at whatever the cost was.
“Five million points.”
“We have an offer! Five million points. It is Mr. Randalf Bruciel…”
Deboron’s tone changed when he saw that I made a bid. Looking at the spirit, I found that his eyebrows slightly frowned. He must have been annoyed because I teamed up with other spirits in the auction.
“Deboron, there is no eternal friend,” I thought.
Both Deboron and I chased our own benefits from the beginning.
Although Deboron told me about the auction items in advance, he did it for his own benefit. I, too, accompanied the Spirits of Water and the Spirits of Fire for my own benefit.
I did not want him to think that I betrayed him.
After all, we were all playing this game to be the final winner.
The experience from my previous life taught me that there were no eternal allies or perpetual enemies.
Everything changed according to the situation.
In addition to the political reasons, I made a bid, because I got curious about the item.
“I want to know what you really are,” I thought.
They called it fire.
However, it looked different to me.
The fire looked like a dragon with two legs, and from the very first moment that I saw it, I wanted to get it.
Something inside me was urging me to get the dragon.
“We have five million points. Anyone else?”
“Six million.”
“…Ms. Ariel Diablo!”
No spirit bid in this round of auction. Archduke Ariel Diablo, however, got interested in the fire. It was such a bold move to call six million points if she did not fully know what the item really was.
However, Ariel did not stop there.
Bang!
Ariel left the second floor of the hall and sat right next to me.
Her demons looked shocked. Freaking out, they kept staring Ariel and me alternatively.
Ufa and Pandemonium started to laugh.
However, they were not laughing at me. They rather looked nervous.
I was no longer a novice. I was one of the most powerful demons in the room.
In particular, Pandemonium must have been extremely uncomfortable.
He must have found out that I killed Oculus. Even if he tried to deny the truth, only I could do such a thing. When I disappeared, the archduke took my absence to his advantage and attacked my dungeon.
His attack was equivalent to declaring war on me. The archduke penetrated to the central part of my dungeon, and he became my word enemy.
Now that Ariel was sitting next to me, I could form an ally with her. Archdukes never allied with another archduke, but I was different from them. There was a chance that I might team up with Ariel.
If I ended up allying with either Ufa or Ariel, Pandemonium would have to fight two fronts.
Such a thought made Pandemonium nervous.
“What is she doing?” I thought.
I could not understand what Ariel was trying to do, too.
Out of all the archdukes, Ariel was the most incomprehensible. Besides, she was also very capricious. Therefore, I could not understand her intention for sitting next to me.
Ariel did not seem to care about the others’ reactions. Instead, she looked at me and talked to me.
“Randalf. Randalf Bruciel, how do you feel when you sit next to an archduke?”
“I feel unpleasant.”
“Haha! You are correct. I feel the same way. Randalf Bruciel, you are one unpleasant demon.”
I could not understand what her message was. I turned around and looked at Deboron, so that he could resume the auction.
However, Ariel was a step ahead of me.
“I am the heir to the Dark Lord and one of the strongest demons in Devildom. Since I was a child, I got what I wanted and could do whatever I wanted to. I always had the privilege to take the easiest road and get the finest out of the finest.”
I could not stop but frown.
“What are you trying to say?”
Ariel slightly smiled.
“Every time you showed up in the Auction of Devildom, you changed and improved from what you were before. The way you treated the items changed, and you also grew more confident about yourself. Despite the growth, there was always a gap between you and the rest of the archdukes. Because no one thought that you could close this gap, none of us really considered you a serious threat. I am sure that you know all about it, too. However… I feel that this time, the situation is different.”
Ariel stared at me with her eyes.
Her eyes were filled with curiosity.
“This time, you closed that gap between us. And I sat here to congratulate you on that.”
When the archduke finished speaking, she stood up.
Then she looked at the second floor of the hall.
“Oculus, the archduke whom we have been fighting with for hundreds of years, is now dead. As far as I know, his death is completely unrelated to us. Can you all accept this?”
The archduke was asking a question to Ufa and Pandemonium.
She was asking them if they could accept the fact that an archduke was killed by someone, who would be inferior to the other archdukes.
None of them said anything. However, Ufa and Pandemonium seemed to dislike the fact that Oculus was killed by anyone besides an archduke. And they seemed to notice that I was the culprit.
“I now accept Randalf Bruciel as the new fourth archduke. He is qualified to fight with us, and he has proved himself so far. Indeed, this demon has pioneered a new path, and we must congratulate pioneers.”
I was completely shocked and left speechless at Ariel’s unexpected words. Ariel Diablo was very capricious, but hardly acknowledged others. Even if someone worked for her, she would only accept them as her subordinate and never gave the same authorities to him or her. Furthermore, she seemed to believe that she was superior to the rest of the archdukes.
After all, Ariel was the heir to the Dark Lord and was the most prestigious archduke.
Then Ariel turned around and looked at me.
“Randalf Bruciel, at the same time, you are my enemy.”
Her words finalized our relationship as enemies.
No archduke allied with another archduke, and such was the rule that had been followed for hundreds of years.
In other words, I could no longer join any of the archdukes, and none of them could ally with me.
“I accept it.”
Pandemonium accepted my new status as soon as he heard it.
“Ariel! Pandemonium! Are you all out of your minds?”
Ufa complained, thinking that such a promotion was nonsense.
Despite the wild complaint, Ariel and Pandemonium were not moved.
Even the system disagreed with Ufa.
[Impossible achievement! For the first time, you have been acknowledged by other archdukes!]
[Archdukes are next to the Dark Lord. No one in the history of Devildom had been recognized by them. Since the Dark Lord is absent, the archdukes’ decision carries the most authority. Following their decision, you have been promoted as an archduke.]
[The description of your occupation changes from the count of Devildom to the archduke of Devildom.]
[You can now appoint your monsters as “Dungeon Masters” of dungeons. A monster, which is appointed as a Dungeon Master, has the same authority and rights as a demon, including the invitation to the Auction of Devildom.]
[You are rewarded 6 million points.]
[You received five thousand achievement points.]
I clenched my fists.
I had always wanted to be on the same level as other archdukes and fight with them.
And I wanted to beat all of the archdukes and become the next Dark Lord.
Now I was a step closer to realizing my dream.
Of course, I could get stronger without getting recognized by other archdukes. However, such an improvement would be hollow, because only through the recognition of other archdukes could I formally become an archduke and even the Dark Lord later.
“I suppose even the system, which the Dark Lord created, now recognizes you as an archduke.”
Ariel Diablo seemed to be genuinely happy about the recognition of the system.
The archduke looked quite excited at the advent of an enemy, who was strong enough to be a real threat to her.
Then she sat next to me again.
I could not understand her actions. She just acknowledged me as her enemy, but she sat next to me. I tried to think about her intention behind the series of actions, but I concluded that she did not have much thought behind them, and I decided to ignore her.
“It is a happy day, but we have to resume the auction, don’t we?”
Deboron came back to his senses.
“Ah… congratulations. Let us resume the auction. Ms. Ariel Diablo called six million points! Anyone with a higher bid?”
“Seven million.”
“Mr. Randalf Bruciel! You have collected a lot of points for the last two years! That is amazing.”
Grrr.
When I called seven million, I could hear someone grinding their teeth.
Then Ariel quietly clicked her tongue. She seemed to be irritated.
The archduke looked satisfied a few seconds ago, but she now looked mad.
“I cannot understand her,” I thought.
I slightly shook my head.
Ariel Diablo was indeed the hardest archduke to deal with.
