Chapter 201: Auction House

With Xinya in the lead, the group strolled through the extremely active town, bypassing people and transportation devices along the way. As they walked they couldn't help but take in all of the beautiful sights that could be seen all around them.

From the wonderful ancient Chinese architecture that the town's buildings possessed, to the different colored Kakam boats that were floating along the nearby waterway, that was either empty or filled with passengers. These sights especially caught Xinya and Melting Snow's attention, although for totally separate reasons.

The reason it caught Xinya's attention was that he was thinking it would be nice if he replicated the look of the buildings around him to fit his cottage. While Melting Snow was enjoying feeling like he was in a real-life wuxia, the only thing that upset him was that there were no cultivation skills he could practice in the game.

On the other hand, Wei along with Wandering Sound was besotted by the lovely traditional garb that the NPCs were wearing. She really wanted a tailoring manual for them, since she had a feeling they would be big sellers in other parts of Haven. While Wandering Sound just wanted to know how Wei would look wearing one.

It took the group ten minutes of going down narrow streets and a couple of dank alleyways before they reached their destination. When the auction house first came into view the group gasped, because it was completely out of their expectations.

The outside of the building was completely different from the plain middle-sized building in Errinisworth. No, this building was magnificently elegant, decorated with green glazed tiles, gilded double-eaves, carved lattices, and vermilion pillars, with two large lion statues guarding the outside.

"Wow, it's so grand. I feel a little intimidated just standing in front of it," Wei said while staring at the luxurious building.

"I feel the opposite," Melting Snow told her, looking at the large building with eager eyes. "I want to conquer it."

Xinya turned and looked at Melting Snow thoughtfully, wondering if he had a future businessman in his midst. "In what way?"

"Climbing it of course, wouldn't I look totally gallant standing on top of the roof?" questioned the starry-eyed boy.

The others just stared speechless at the boy for a couple of seconds, before unanimously walking towards the auction house leaving Melting Snow who was staring dreamingly at the building alone.

Snapping out of his daze when he noticed that the others were leaving him behind, he followed them and shouted, "I would right? Guys?! Come on, answer me!!"

~

As Xinya entered the auction house he was a little disappointed, although the archaic-style halls were well-decorated, like in Bellport besides some interfaces it was completely bare inside. However, seeing as though there was a counter with a woman behind it, he figured that there might be more to this auction house than he thought.

Before he could go over and ask her, Melting Snow stalked in staring at them with a petulant look. "You guys are mean."

"You need to learn that when you say nonsensical things you will be ignored," Wei straightforwardly told him, causing Xinya to chuckle.

"Et Tu Drifting Cloud?" asked Melting Snow dramatically, grabbing his chest as if he had been stabbed.

Playing along, Xinya said, "Oh no my laughter has killed Melting Snow, I must get rid of the body. I will turn his body into hamburgers so I won't get caught."

"Hamburgers? If anything my body should be turned into steak, not some lousy hamburgers," Melting Snow said while trying to seem serious.

Along with Melting Snow, the entire group begins to chuckle at these words.

"Okay, okay no making you into hamburgers," declared Xinya giving the boy a fond smile. "Only the most top tier steak recipe for you."

Giggling Melting Snow agreed, "Yes only the best for me.

~

As they walked over to the counter, the blonde hair woman behind it smiled at them before saying, "Welcome to Yueyang auction house, may I be of service?"

Nodding his head, Xinya replied. "Yes, you can. We have some things that we want to sell. Is there anything we need to know about how to do so?"

"Good question young man, as a matter of fact, there is," the woman began cheerfully. "There are three places where you can sell your items in this auction house, however, it depends on what kind of item you have."

"What do you mean?" Wandering Sound asked curiously.

"Well for starters this floor is for low tiered items that can be commonly found. The second floor is for rare items, the auction house will display them and even promote them by uploading the item to nearby countries databases as well. We do take a percentage of the profit though of course," the woman told them with a grin.

"Of course," repeated Xinya, while staring at the NPC wondering if she was a highly evolved one since she knew about interfaces and databases. Knowing that would make sense that the devs made her that way since she had to run the auction house. "What about the third floor?"

"The third floor is special, it is used to sell unique items. We will announce the item all over the world of Haven and then we will hold a live auction. However, once the item sells the auction house will take a 5% service fee. Sadly, we haven't gotten to use the third floor for many years now."

"Maybe you will be able to use it soon," Melting Snow muttered, shooting a quick glance to Drifting Cloud. He knew sooner or later the man would gain a unique item.

"I hope so," the blonde-haired woman said. "Those auctions were always very amusing.

Although Xinya never experienced one of them himself, he did read about how live auctions were on the forums in his last life. NPCs and players could buy tickets to join in on the bidding, they could either bid in person or via their interface.

From what he read, the bidding wars could get very heated. It was lucky that the players' features become blurred as soon as they join the auction, or there would be a lot more people not caring about the punishment that comes from PVP.

"So what are the items you will be selling in Yueyang auction house today? I will check it's circle rating for you." the woman said, reminding the quartet what they were here for.