Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 66
Chapter 66: Episode 18. The Second Auction of Devildom (3)
Devorong clapped his hands in exaggeratedly.
“Count Randalf Bruciel! You are indeed amazing. Now, the bid increased by 100,000 points and is 300,000 points. Anyone else?”
All of sudden, everyone became silent. Everyone knew that I had the most points during the auction last year. Furthermore, all of the demons knew that I won the best items in the auction.
However, the demons hadn’t heard about the auction back then. They believed that my success was merely a coincidence and that I had been gathering my points for my whole life.
Without any breeding species, the overall gains would be negative, even if I gained something useful from the Auction of Devildom. Some demons were laughing at the fact that I had more than a million points.
However, things would be different if I used the same strategy in the second auction.
Other demons must have thought about my strategy, too.
Of course, they could believe that I had been saving points throughout the entire year.
However, such a belief couldn’t explain the fact that I had appeared with a highest-level monster.
The demons must have been guessing my intentions for spending 300,000 points from the first round.
Of course, most of them must have guessed that I had more than 300,000 points. At the same time, they didn’t know what items would come out next. They would question my strategy: why was this guy spending so many points when he didn’t even know about the next items? After all, this was only the first item of the auction.
The demons started to think hard, and they all came to one conclusion.
I was bluffing!
They likely guessed that I had about a million points in total.
If I spent 300,000 points from the first round, which was a large portion of my fortune according to their guesses, the demons would have one less competitor in the auction. Astral Code was indeed an item that was attractive, but it wasn’t something worth giving away one’s entire fortune for.
“Congratulations! Mr. Randalf Bruciel takes Astral Code. The item will be moved to his dungeon immediately after the auction.”
Devorong closed the first round of the auction.
Spirits popped out and moved the box containing Astral Code.
Relaxed, I stared at the stage.
Devorong smiled maliciously and introduced the next item.
“The auction doesn’t end there. We have another item, and I believe that you will like it. Have you heard about the Sword of Darkhan? Darkhan was a blood-thirsty predator that scared the entire Devildom twenty thousand years ago. It was told that his sword feeds on blood. Our spirits have expended so much effort to find this sword. Now, I introduce that sword to you.”
Boom!
Something happened just then.
Devorong finished his words in the middle of the large auction hall. When silence was just about to fill the room, I slapped my thighs loudly.
It was nothing dramatic, but my slapping grabbed the other demons’ attention for a moment.
Then, I raised my hands and folded my arms, as though nothing had happened.
Soon, Spirits of Darkness, struggling, brought out an enormous sword that was about seven feet long.
The Sword of Darkhan had a slight red glow. I had seen the name of the item on the list and remembered it. There could have been hidden options about this item, so I opened my Mind’s Eye.
Name – Sword of Darkhan (U)
Description: It is the sword that the blood-thirsty predator Darkhan loved. The user will naturally desire blood.
*The sword increases the strength of the user between 1 to 5, depending on the amount of blood absorbed.
**The lower the intelligence of the user is and the longer the user wields the sword, the more likely it is that the user’s soul will be sucked into the sword.
Reading the hidden options, I couldn’t help but nod.
The demon who purchased this sword in the previous life became the spirit of the sword during their eleventh year together. Following his instincts, the demon swung the sword wildly in a battlefield, killing every single living thing around him.
Had he been more intelligent, he might have survived. However, he was one of the many mediocre demons with a low rank. It was no surprise that he turned into a spirit, given his extremely low intelligence and Mana.
Soon, Devorong said confidently, “The starting bid is 150,000 points! If you miss this chance, you’ll regret it. The Sword of Darkhan is well worth your points.”
“One hundred fifty thousand.”
This time, I bid first.
“Count Randalf! All of the items that you’ve chosen have turned out to be big hits!”
“One hundred seventy thousand.”
“Marquis Delate! One hundred seventy thousand points.”
“One hundred and eighty thousand.”
“Count Randalf again!”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“Marquis Groggy! What a competition!”
“Two hundred fifty thousand.”
“Oh! He wants to take the item! Count Randalf called out 250,000 points.”
My legs shivered lightly. It was a small movement, but all of the demons noticed it.
“Two hundred and seventy thousand.”
“Marquis Groggy! The competition is very tight. I, Devorong, cannot even tell who the final winner will be!”
When I turned my head and looked at Archduke Ufa and his demons, I found Groggy staring back at me cunningly.
He was being provocative. It seemed as though he was challenging me, asking if I had any more points.
He must have thought that I was in desperate need of the Sword of Darkhan.
As soon as the sword was presented, I had slapped my thighs and acted very impatiently. It was no surprise that I had looked desperate for the item.
‘I’ve got him.’
Everything was going as I planned.
Fortunately, I had a piece of an Epic-grade collection, Anger. This item increased my strength without any requirements. Of course, there were some penalties for using it, but this precious sword helped me learn a new skill.
There was no reason to become obsessed with the Sword of Darkhan, which was inferior to Anger.
I merely tricked Groggy so he would spend his points for no reason.
I stopped making further bids at that moment.
After a few seconds, Devorong finished that round of the auction.
“Marquis Groggy takes the Sword of Darkhan at 270,000 points. Congratulations.”
Groggy still looked confident. He must have thought that he had won. I could barely stop myself from laughing.
Groggy didn’t know the hidden options of the sword. He was very likely to end up as the sword’s victim, since Groggy wasn’t intelligent; his intelligence was only 64.
It was funny how he looked so confident when he was doomed…
I felt so much better.
After this round, the other demons would believe that I didn’t have many points left. They would guess that I had about 500,000 points at most. They would also think that I was surely bluffing when I called 300,000 points for Astral Code.
“I now introduce to you the third item of our auction. Our spirits have put in tremendous effort and captured a Cursed Yeti, which were thought be extinct. The Cursed Yetis used to live in the cursed land. They were also the descendants of Condegonome, who was the King of Yetis. What we have is a youngling, but when it grows to be an adult, we are sure that it will be a highest-level monster.”
Soon, the Cursed Yeti youngling appeared, trapped inside of a cage.
Its size was about two feet in length. The youngling looked like an orangutan, but it was more muscular and looked more aggressive. Whereas normal yetis had white hair, Cursed Yetis had black hair.
Furthermore, the shop of everything didn’t sell Cursed Yetis.
They were said to be extinct, and no one could find them in the Devildom.
Curious, I opened my Mind’s Eye.
Name: Cursed Yeti
Statistics:
Strength 33, Intelligence 17
Agility 29, Health 41, Mana 26
Potential (146/329)
Comments: It is a youngling of Cursed Yetis.
Skills: None
Given its potential, even if it became an adult, the yeti wouldn’t be more than a high-level monster at level two. Devorong had exaggerated that the youngling would become a highest-level monster.
I was sure that some of the demons knew this information. Although Cursed Yetis had gone extinct, some demons who had lived long enough could have known about them.
However, I was also sure that the majority of the demons didn’t know.
Furthermore, if none of the demons in a faction knew this information, the entire faction would be ripped off. They would fall for the words “highest-level monster” and would bid…
I was excited to see what the starting bid was.
“The starting bid is 200,000 points! Do not think that this price is too expensive. Once the yeti becomes a highest-level monster, it will be worth a few million points. Who knows, by the time it becomes an adult, you might not even be able to get one.”
Devorong called out 200,000 points!
It was such a rip-off.
Devorong’s business had begun.
I waited for someone to raise their hand first.
Demons within the same factions looked at each other. They asked each other if they were sure, and a lot of them shook their heads to that question. Only with the Mind’s Eye could one look at the status and potential of a thing. Having no Mind’s Eye, the demons couldn’t be sure if the item was worth the points.
At that very moment, someone tried to bid.
“Two hundred thousand.”
“Marquis Groggy! What a wise and noble choice.”
It was Groggy.
I was surprised that he could still afford to bid when he had already paid 270,000 points for the Sword of Darkhan. Perhaps he had been saving points throughout the year since the last year’s incident. Ufa himself could have ordered Groggy to save points. Groggy could have also volunteered in the first place to make up for the incident.
It seemed that none of Ufa’s demons knew anything about Cursed Yetis.
“Two hundred and ten thousand.”
“Count Randalf! You already have a highest-level monster, but you never stop working!”
It was inevitable that I was going to bid.
When Devorong finished talking, Groggy glared at me.
“Two hundred and twenty thousand!”
Considering the slower rate at which the bids were increasing, I was sure that Groggy was reaching his limit.
I decided to stop bidding.
“Marquis Groggy! Two hundred and twenty thousand points. Do we have anyone else? If no one is bidding, Marquis Groggy will take the Cursed Yeti!”
Everyone remained silent for the next ten seconds.
No one bid.
“Marquis Groggy takes the Cursed Yeti!”
Devorong clapped his hands.
I also wanted to clap with Devorong if I was allowed.
I had made Groggy spent extra 20,000 points.
‘One competitor is down.’
I thought about the Sword of Darkhan and the Cursed Yeti. The two items amounted up to 500,000 points. The average number of points that a demon had was between 330,000 and 340,000 points. Considering the average, the amount that Groggy had spent was significant.
At most, only about ten demons had more than 500,000 points. Groggy was one of them, and he was also with Ufa. Now that he was out of the game, everything would be a bit easier.
Since then, there were seven more rounds of the auction that passed by very quickly.
I bought none of them. The Astral Code was all I paid for. The Sword of Darkhan looked okay, but it wasn’t worth its price.
Despite the lack of interest, I continued to bid and pretended that I was interested.
Everyone here was an enemy. I couldn’t even trust Devorong. Deceiving enemies and making them spend their points were the easiest tactics in this game.
At the same time, I felt somewhat strange. I could feel that other demons were trying to check me out. In particular, Ufa and his demons were especially obsessed with making higher bids than I did.
‘They also have a setter.’
Perhaps it was revenge for last year’s incident?
They couldn’t do much, but I still didn’t do well.
In the end, whoever pretended better and had better strategies would be the winner.
I had won so far. However, good items would start to appear. I couldn’t guarantee my victories in the upcoming rounds of the auction.
This auction would be different from the one last year. Back then, I had some privileges over other demons. Demons, as of now, knew about the Auction of Devildom and its importance. I could tell that they cared a lot about the auction by looking at how all of them had learned Observation skills.
There was a huge difference between being able to identify an item and not being able to.
I couldn’t let my guard down.
“I’m sure that the eleventh item will surprise all of you. If anyone knew about the ‘Five Statues Goddess,’ he or she would be even more surprised. We found this item deep down in the Earth. Now, I present to you one of the five statues, ‘the Statue of the Goddess of Abundance!'”
It was the Statue of the Goddess of Abundance!
Any demon who ran a dungeon would be interested in this item.
I was one of them.
Nervous, I opened my Mind’s Eye.
Name – Statue of the Goddess of Abundance (Epic)
Description: The creator of this statue is unknown. One of the Five Statues of Goddesses, which were known to have strength, it is said that many lives are created where the statue is laid.
*The statue gives ‘the Blessing of the Goddess’ to one of the species nearby. The blessed species experiences a significant increase in the number of their offspring. Furthermore, the chance of anomalies increases slightly.
This item could be considered a downgraded version of the World Tree.
Whereas the World Tree only worked on natural species, the Statue of the Goddess of Abundance didn’t have such a requirement.
It was a shame that even the Mind’s Eye couldn’t reveal the hidden options of items at the Epic grade, but I didn’t care too much.
As far as the Statue of the Goddess of Abundance went, I had to participate in the auction in similar conditions as the other demons, considering I didn’t have much information about the item. However, I had an incomparable number of points, more than six million.
Furthermore, this round was a good chance to find out how many points the other demons had left.
The demons who scrutinized the Statue of the Goddess of Abundance using observation skills became very excited.
The fact that the item was Epic-grade alone could interest the demons. On top of that, the Blessing of the Goddess was a huge advantage when it came to running a dungeon. Everyone would be interested in this item.
There was no need for a setter in this round. Everyone would raise his or her hand and eagerly bid for the item. There was no need for a setter.
‘However, I will be the winner.’
I smiled silently.
It was the beginning of a full-fledged battle.
