Chapter 445 (Side Story): The Auction (2)

Kai followed Boyd toward the back of the stage. There, more than a dozen employees were sweating and bowing their heads to someone.

“How on earth did you manage things for something like this to happen!”

“Th-the Carmelo Company is currently chasing the culprit.”

“They swore they would retrieve the item without fail, so please calm...”

“Do I look like I can calm down right now?!”

The old man who burst into a roar looked like the owner of the auction house.

After watching the situation for a moment, Boyd approached him. “Excuse me.”

At the unfamiliar voice, the old man turned around and his eyes slightly widened. “You are... aren’t you Boyd?”

“That’s right, Milo.”

As expected of a wizard ranker, he was so famous that even such a powerful NPC could recognize him at once.

“I came to purchase the Heart of Butifon, but it seems something unpleasant has occurred, so I came to ask.”

“Ohh, indeed,” Milo said as though he had met a reassuring ally. “You came at the right time. If you don't mind, could you take on a request right this moment?”

There was no need to hear the details to know what the request would be.

Boyd nodded. “It was an item I also strongly wished to obtain, so it would be hard for me to ignore. Very well.”

While he accepted the quest, Kai scanned his surroundings.

It was stolen?

He examined the storage room for the auction goods behind the stage.

FanOn’s auction house facilities aren’t something that can be easily breached by outside forces.

The auction house was one of the few facilities used equally by both beginners and rankers. Because of that, facilities like this were always heavily guarded by high-level NPCs.

Even if someone managed to slip past all that tight security...

When he knocked on the wall as if testing it, he found it was made of a special alloy with not a single gap to be found.

They would have no choice but to give up in front of this wall.

And yet, the fact that the item had vanished could only mean it was an inside job. There was no other explanation.

“I plan to assist the Carmelo family in chasing the culprit. What about you?”

After taking a moment to collect his thoughts at Boyd’s question, Kai replied, “You can get a head start.”

***

Left alone, Kai immediately met with the auction house staff and received the items he had successfully bid on.

“

Phew

.”

A mountain of equipment and consumables was piled up. Kai stored the equipment into his inventory, then suddenly grabbed a red root and brought it to his mouth.

“

H-huh?!

” The auction house attendant, who was watching, was shocked and quickly tried to stop him. “Y-you must not eat that so recklessly!”

What he held in his hand was the herb known as Shalke’s Kiss. If not taken according to the exact method of ingestion, it was no different from deadly poison. Sure enough, the moment Kai bit deeply into the root, his face instantly turned a dark shade of purple.

[You have consumed Shalke’s Kiss.]

[Dark energy flows throughout your body.]

[You will die of cold in 40 seconds.]

“Damn it! I-I’ll go call a priest right away—”

“It’s fine.”

Kai calmed the panicked attendant and shoved another herb into his mouth before he could be stopped. At that reckless method of consumption, the staff covered their mouth with their hand and couldn’t even breathe.

How did he stuff two herbs into his mouth in a row, when just one alone is fatal?

No matter how expensive the herb was, not all of them were spirit herbs. Only when a skilled alchemist or herbalist specially processed them to remove the toxins could they truly become spirit medicines.

Oh, what a waste, tsk tsk.

On top of that, those were herbs renowned as treasures of the highest grade. To the auction house attendant, it felt like such a pity that the herb met the wrong owner and never even revealed its proper efficacy.

“

Huh...?

”

But then Kai’s complexion began to return to normal like a lie.

“Th-this can’t be. How are you fine?”

Without answering, Kai glanced at the attendant, then casually grabbed the next spirit herb and brought it to his mouth.

[+10 Strength.]

[+7 Agility.]

[+13 Stamina.]

.

.

.

All of this had been possible because Kai had a clear guideline in his mind.

I wouldn’t have even started if it was impossible.

He had already concluded that it was possible to rebuild the Solarian Church within just two weeks of real time. Even consuming herbs like this now was nothing more than the first step toward that goal.

I don’t have the time to visit an alchemist or herbalist to brew medicine.

Of course, if he processed them and consumed proper spirit medicines, the stat gains would be much better than now. After all, eating herbs raw like this inevitably led to some stat loss. But time was more important than gold for Kai at the moment.

Ding!

[Special title acquired: Herb Addict.]

Kai let out a burp. By the time he earned his first special title in

Fantasia Online

, he also finished consuming the herbs. The thought that he had eaten 400 million won worth of spirit medicine in just ten minutes left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“

Tsk

, stats window.”

[Kai]

Class: Beginner

Level: 26

Title: Herb Addict

Strength: 48

Stamina: 57

Intelligence: 20

Agility: 35

Stat Points: 125

“

Tsk

. What a waste of money.”

His stats had risen by a total of 117 points compared to before. It was an effect similar to gaining as many as 23 levels.

For a beginner, it’s an absurd level of growth, but considering I spent 400 million...

The efficiency compared to the price was overwhelmingly low. There was a reason people called raising stats with money nothing more than throwing money away. The funnier part was that no matter how many more millions he poured in, he would never see the same effect again.

If you eat the same herb more than once, the effect is less than one-tenth.

It was truly the kind of crazy act that only someone overflowing with money could commit once.

Phew, and I don’t exactly have money rotting away...

Whether it was because of the herbs or not, the taste lingering in his mouth was bitter.

Kai then looked to the new title he gained.

[

Herb Addict

]

Rank: Special

Description: A title given to one who has eaten more than thirty types of unprocessed herbs and survives.

Effect: The mind becomes clear while chewing herbs, and +5 to all stats.

“

Oh...?

”

This was an effect even he hadn’t expected. Even as the branch manager of Pegasus Korea, there was no way to know every item and title effect in the game.

The conditional activation is a bit bothersome, but the effect itself is pretty good.

If he could just endure the distinct bitterness of herbs, he could gain both a clear mind and additional five points to all stats.

“Not bad.”

This was a good start.

Feeling happier, a message arrived for Kai.

“

Hm?

It’s from Boyd.”

Blinking, he immediately opened and read the message.

***

“

Huff, huff.

”

The masked man who fled into the alleyway stood beside a trash bin and gasped for breath. The presence of the one who had been relentlessly chasing him could no longer be felt.

“So the best place you could run to was a trash bin. How fitting.”

The masked man clenched his teeth, hearing a voice coming from above on the rooftop of the building overhead.

“Looks like you don’t plan on letting me go quietly.”

“Unfortunately, I was hired for this job.” The man leapt from the rooftop and quietly landed on the ground without a sound. “If you hand over the box you’re holding, I’ll spare your life.”

“

Ha

, don’t spout nonsense. Why don’t you just kill me instead?” The masked man smirked as he said, “If you’re the leader of the Carmelo Company, then I’ve heard of you. You must be Dantel, right?”

The man tilted his head before replying, “And what if I am?”

“Rumors have been spreading in the community lately. Let’s see just how strong you really are.”

As the masked man snapped his fingers, players wearing the same kind of mask revealed themselves on both sides of the alley.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“So you had reinforcements...”

“

Hah

, did you really think I’d dare to attempt something like this alone?” Already speaking as if victory was assured, the masked man gave a triumphant order, “Kill him!”

“He’s nothing more than a rat in a trap now!”

“I wonder what kind of loot a ranker like him will drop!”

Dantel calmly looked at the players rushing at him from both sides, then said, “Grease.”

The moment the spell activated, the entire alley became slippery as if it had been coated with oil. The players who had been rushing in with excitement stumbled as their legs tangled, grabbing at each other and collapsing.

“You idiots, get out of the way!”

Arrows fired by the archers in the rear flew straight toward Dantel. Dantel instantly kicked off the wall and leapt into the air, snapping his fingers.

“Fire Field.”

Whoooosh!

The oil scattered throughout the alley instantly ignited, amplifying the flames and transforming the ground into a field of fire.

“Damn it! Wizards, throw some dirt or water!”

“Just move aside for now! We can’t see anything!”

“If we try to put out a fire like this, we’ll take out our allies too!”

While the panicked archers and wizard held back from further attacks, waiting for their comrades to escape, terrified players burst through the choking smoke.

“

Cough, cough!

”

“

Ugh

, damn smoke.......”

And Dantel slipped out as well among them. Before the wizards even realized it, he swung his sword and cut their throats. Unless they had mastered chantless casting, a wizard who lost his voice couldn’t summon even the smallest flame.

“H-he’s over here!”

“This bastard was pretending to be one of us!”

Until the frantic archers drew their bows and let go of the strings, Dantel merely stood and stared at them.

“Hahahahaha!”

Boom!

There was no need for him to deal with them personally as the members of the Carmelo Company quickly came and took down the remaining enemies.

“Waterfall.”

Whoooosh!

Dantel summoned an enormous amount of water into the alley to extinguish the blaze, and then scanned his surroundings.

“I lost him...”

All the others had been captured, but the masked man he had originally chased was nowhere to be seen.

Turning his head, Dantel said, “Don’t kill the ones we caught. Interrogate them. We need to know who that man was.”

“What, is it already over?” Arriving late with his hands clasped behind his back, Boyd surveying the ruined alley. “Well, this is quite the mess. Plenty of captives... and if you count the dead, their force was pretty big,

huh

.”

Recognizing him, Dantel nodded. “Unfortunately, the suspect we assumed to be the culprit got away. He’s probably the one who took the Heart of Butifon.”

“No. He didn’t have it.”

Boyd’s kindly smiling eyes turned toward him. At the same moment, the masked man who had been floating in the air fell onto the street.

“

K-kugh!

”

“This is the guy you were talking about, right?”

“I can’t say for sure since he had a mask on.”

“No, but you can tell by his voice. You two were having quite the conversation earlier.”

“You’ve been watching since then?”

“

Yeah

.”

When Boyd opened his hand, the box the masked man had been holding appeared above it. The lid sprang open, and several expensive pieces of jewelry spilled out.

“These are all the jewelry that were being sold at today’s auction, but the Heart of Butifon wasn't there.”

“Which means...”

“The most important item was being transported separately.”

Crunch!

Boyd stomped on the masked man’s head as he continued saying, “But it’s strange. From what I gathered after a brief interrogation, these guys never even set foot inside the auction hall.”

The masked man, thrashing beneath his foot, cried out desperately, “

Argh

, I told you! I don’t know anything about the Heart of Butifon! Someone else approached us first and suggested raiding the auction!”

Boyd nodded. “See? Doesn’t the picture come together? These guys were a red herring. They were only meant to draw attention.”

“Still don’t get it? While they distracted everyone outside, the Heart of Butifon was being safely transported somewhere else.” Boyd’s gaze slowly darkened. “And that plan was probably crafted with me in mind too, knowing I’ve shown interest in it before.”

At some point, Dantel had fallen silent and only listened to what he said.

“You know, if I assume your Carmelo Company is behind this whole scheme, every piece fits perfectly... What do you think?”

Dantel briefly glanced back. There were seven Carmelo Company members present at the scene.

“Boss, what should we do?” Gillian asked, jerking his chin toward Boyd.

The very question was no different from admitting that everything had already been exposed.

Apparently no longer intent on hiding anything, Dantel shook his head as he answered, “Retreat.”

At their reaction, Boyd let out a hollow laugh. “Unbelievable. You think I’ll just let you walk away?”

But when they all pulled out magic scrolls at once, Boyd’s brow furrowed.

“Escape teleport scrolls,

huh.

Each one must cost at least five thousand, and seven of you are willing to burn three hundred and fifty million?”

“Don’t misunderstand. We’re not afraid of fighting you. The city guards are on their way.” Dantel continued, “And even if the plan got a little messy, the victory is ours since we secured the Heart of Butifon.”

“Is that so? You’re sure it’s in your hands?”

“Empty bluff. We already confirmed that none of your Cheonhwa guild members are in this city. With all the guards tied up in the chase, our guild members waiting in the empty auction house would already be moving the item.”

“No, no. I wasn’t talking about our guild members,” Boyd shrugged as he replied. “Perhaps someone even scarier than that is out there, don’t you think?”

For example, a living legend of the gaming world, or someone like a myth.