Chapter 1408: Horrific Auction

Translator:

Exodus Tales

Editor:

Exodus Tales

Chapter 1408 – Horrific Auction

Inside the seventh-floor auction hall of the Zero Wing Auction House:

Previously, everyone had thought that very few people would attend the auction this time since only Stone Forest Town’s private houses and Shops were up for sale. Yet, now, the hall, which could accommodate up to 30,000 people, was actually at capacity.

Moreover, this was despite Zero Wing having limited entry into the auction to only members of the Zero Wing Auction House and those that carried more than 2 Gold on their persons. Usually, only expert players would have such a large sum in their pockets.

“Commander, look! There are so many adventurer teams participating in the auction this time, not only from the Black Dragon Empire but also from other kingdoms.” Graceful Moon was slightly shocked when she looked at the familiar figures around her. She had never thought that the Zero Wing Auction would hold such a huge influence.

However, after further consideration, she found it reasonable. After all, the current Stone Forest Town was simply too excellent.

The town had a Battle Arena with advanced combat rooms, which allowed experts of her caliber to improve rapidly, as well as a high-class Auction House, which had a system-operated bartering function. After finding out about these facilities, adventurer teams would be crazy not to want to develop here.

“Let them be. I’ve already had Flying Fox prepare quite a lot of funds. We don’t need to fear being outbidden by them,” Remnant Cloud said, chuckling as he glanced at several well-known adventurer teams he was familiar with. These adventurer teams all ranked within the top 50 in the Black Dragon Empire.

His original plan was to compete for the adventurer houses that were going up for auction at the Candlelight Trading Firm in a few days’ time. However, after taking into account the current state of Stone Forest Town, he concluded that Firecloud Fox’s financial strength was no match for that of top adventurer teams. Not to mention, Zero Wing was planning to sell only five adventurer houses.

Hence, he had decided to settle for buying two or three private houses in Stone Forest Town instead, enough to accommodate their adventurer team’s main forces.

Meanwhile, in order to surely obtain those private houses, he had mobilized the entirety of Firecloud Fox’s forces and raised a total of 5,000 Gold. With that kind of money, he could already purchase a relatively large private house in the Black Dragon Empire’s capital.

Just as everyone in the auction hall was discussing the Zero Wing Auction, Melancholic Smile came out from behind the main stage and announced the start of the auction.

Since only the private houses and Shops of Stone Forest Town were being sold this time, Melancholic Smile did not bother with providing much of an introduction. Instead, she directly displayed the locations of the private houses and stated that the minimum price was 800 Gold. She then allowed everyone to start bidding.

“Eight hundred and fifty Gold!”

“Nine hundred Gold!”

“One thousand Gold!”

...

In the blink of an eye, the price of the first private house shot up to 1,200 Gold, stupefying the various independent players present. Meanwhile, the adventurer teams that had only several dozen members fell into despair. At this price, one could already purchase a relatively good private house in an ordinary NPC city, yet this amount of money still wasn’t enough for a private house in a player town.

“One thousand six hundred Gold!” Remnant Cloud shouted, gritting his teeth.

However, as soon as Remnant Cloud made his bid, a Level 45 female Elementalist clad in aquamarine mage robes, who sat a short distance away from him, shouted, “Two thousand four hundred Gold! The FFF adventurer team will be taking this house!”

The female Elementalist’s bid immediately attracted everyone’s attention, the people inside the hall turning to look at her one after another.

“What?! Even a top adventurer team from the Black Dragon Empire has come to join the competition?!”

“Isn’t she Princess Ilo, FFF’s vice commander?!”

The female Elementalist’s declaration immediately dispelled many adventurer teams’ notions of competing against her.

An adventurer team capable of rising to the status of a top adventurer team in the Black Dragon Empire naturally possessed extraordinary strength and wealth. Most likely, even third-rate Guilds were no rival for the empire’s top adventurer teams. In terms of financial strength, a top adventurer team of the empire could even compete with an ordinary second-rate Guild. Not to mention, FFF was one of the Black Dragon Empire’s top five adventurer teams.

It was simply impossible for ordinary Guilds and well-known adventurer teams to vie with an existence like that.

“Two thousand six hundred Gold!” At this time, a handsome man wearing silver armor raised the price once more. “This first house belongs to the Lonely Drinkers adventurer team!”

When everyone heard the adventurer team mentioned by this man, they received another shock.

Lonely Drinkers was a top adventurer team in the Dark Night Empire. Although its influence was not comparable to the FFF adventurer team’s, in terms of strength, it was not far from rivaling FFF.

“Three thousand Gold!” Princess Ilo frowned as she placed a higher bid.

“Three thousand two hundred Gold!” The handsome man did not give up, either.

For a time, the auction became a competition between these two top adventurer teams, leaving no room for the other adventurer teams present to intervene.

In the end, the first private house went to Princess Ilo for 4,500 Gold. Among the private houses on sale this time, it was the closest to both the Zero Wing Auction House and the Adventurer’s Association. However, this outcome still made the players present gasp involuntarily.

Nobody had thought that two top adventurer teams from two different empires would actually come to contest for Stone Forest Town’s private houses. If they were to relate this incident to others, most likely nobody would believe them.

“Now that even the top adventurer teams of empires are coming to compete for Stone Forest Town’s private houses, the adventurer teams that previously garrisoned Red Iron Town are most likely dying with regret right now.”

“These top adventurer teams are simply too rich. If I had that kind of money, I would definitely use it to purchase a Shop in a major NPC city, instead.”

“What do you know? In the future, Stone Forest Town will become even more amazing than major NPC cities. There is no loss in buying the town’s private houses now. In the future, the houses will most likely go for even higher prices.”

No one had ever thought that the private houses of Stone Forest Town would be so popular. The Guild members of the various large Guilds present were stupefied by this scene.

In such a way, a total of twenty private houses were sold in the Zero Wing Auction with the most expensive for 4,500 Gold and the cheapest for 1,500 Gold. Throughout the auction, many more top adventurer teams and well-known adventurer teams had revealed themselves, driving home to everyone present just how frightening Stone Forest Town actually was.

Meanwhile, the Shops were even more hotly contested. Of the ten Shops sold, even the cheapest one had gone for 3,500 Gold, while the most expensive one, which was located between the Zero Wing Auction House and the Battle Arena, had gone for 9,000 Gold. Meanwhile, the majority of the merchant players competing for these Shops possessed either the support of a large Guild or a top adventurer team. Ordinary merchant players had no chance of getting a Shop for themselves at all.

When the auction concluded, Zero Wing had earned a total of 113,000 Gold.

Now, Zero Wing possessed enough funds to cover not only the follow-up construction costs of its city but also the establishment of a Guild town by Zero Wing’s Branch Guild over at the Black Dragon Empire.

After the auction ended, word about what happened during the auction also spread like wildfire. Upon receiving this news, the various adventurer teams and merchant players that were still undecided were rendered utterly speechless. They also regretted the fact that they did not try to compete for the private houses and Shops.

Meanwhile, throughout all this, Shi Feng had been fully focused on forging the Titan Device in White River City’s Candlelight Trading Firm.

After actually attempting to make the Titan Device, he had to admit that the difficulty of doing so was exceedingly high. Despite him having been promoted to a Master Forger, his success rate was only around 25%, though he was fortunate to succeed two out of ten tries during the actual production. Meanwhile, the cost of each attempt was roughly 2 Gold. Overall, each Titan Device cost 12 Gold to produce. Without sufficient funds, even a large Guild would not dare to spend so much.

After all, the Titan Device simply improved the combat state of a player. It did nothing for a player’s Basic Attributes.

While Shi Feng was forging a Titan Device, the system notified him of an incoming call. When he turned his head to glance at the caller ID, he could not help but be stunned to discover that the person calling him was actually the vice commander of the Midnight Tea Party, Endless Scars.