Chapter 106

‘To consider these as just extra side income, are they a bit too much?’

Still, Vulcan couldn’t think of a better way to define these as anything else.

He already had the greatest equipment for all parts of his armor and weapon. He currently had no need for any other equipment. So, he could say that items in his inventory were all just surpluses.

In other words, he was not going to miss any of them if he sold them for money.

The tip of Vulcan’s lips went up slightly.

‘I became rich before I even realized.’

He was no ordinary rich.

The worth of items that Vulcan had was above and beyond the wildest imagination.

When converted to money’s worth, the sum was something that ordinary residents of Act 2 would have taken over thousand years and still not come close.

Excluding the few strange ones who specialized in trading and business, it was safe to say that Vulcan was one of the richest individuals in the Act 2.

Vulcan never worried about his items not selling.

The one who managed the blacksmith shop was Parkers, the God of Blacksmith. He was famous for being lazy.

So, many residents were always hungry for quality weapons, and they were showing explosive responses to the items that Vulcan listed on the auction.

Vulcan sat on the bench and watched the people heading to the auction.

It seemed they just heard about the auction site. They were rushing to the auction site with faces that had doubt and expectation mixed in.

Vulcan had a calculating smile on his face as if he became Jake from Beloong City.

‘While the Blue Wind is recovering his strength… let’s try gathering up all of money from Espo City. After that, I should spare no expenses and try to up my stats as much as possible. In other words, I should really go for showing off my money like a bastard!’

This was Vulcan’s ambitious plan.

‘First… Gather ingredients for the body enhancement.’

Vulcan suddenly got up from the bench and started to walk the street.

It was not like there was anything he could do at the auction site.

Vulcan had not had opportunities like these to relax in a long while. To enjoy it, he walked toward the fountain.

* * *

“Is that him?”

“That’s right, the one responsible for the situation at the auction site.”

“Huh… Just how did he collect such equipment?”

“You have not heard? I heard that he is a Player.”

“What? Pl…. what?”

The muscular swordsman heard what the skeleton skinny mage’s response and tilted his head to the side.

It was because there was not even a single Player at Act 1 city where the swordsman came from.

Having watched the response by the swordsman, the mage clicked his tongue, wondering how could he not know this.

“Tsk. Tsk. Your problem is that you shut your ears too much.”

“Ah, enough. So, that Pla… What is that Pl whatever?”

“Player.”

“Right. That.”

The mage shook his head as if he was giving up. He slowly explained it to the swordsman.

The mage knew that the swordsman was not so great at understanding things, so the mage explained it in detail and in such a way that even a seven years old could understand with ease.

The swordsman gained a rough understanding. He was impressed and said,

“What is this? Players are totally like a blessed being?”

“They are humans, and there are Players among the humans, like Martial Warriors.”

“Anyhow, they are different from me, right? Doesn’t that mean the Players are different beings? It is not like items drop when humans slay monsters.”

“All right. All right. Just comprehend it in a way that’s easy for you to understand.”

The mage complained.

However, the thick-headed swordsman didn’t mind it at all.

Instead, he showed great interest at so called Players. He never heard of the Players before, so he was very curious. He started to ask all sorts of things, and the mage gave proper answers that fit the swordsman’s intellectual level.

Soon, the swordsman more or less resolved his curiosities.

Vulcan was putting away a treasure chest that contained incredible amount of Asgard gold coins. Watching him, the swordsman looked envious.

“This is absolutely incredible… If it is as you say, then he does not need to worry about running into a wall while training. He does not need to worry about what to do when his current weapon breaks? As for me, I am surrounded by problems that gives me headaches… Ugh… The Players sure have it easy. I’m so jealous! Jealous!”

‘You are the one who live the life comfortably and mindlessly!’

The mage scolded the swordsman like that inside.

The mage felt the urge to tell the swordsman that even Players have hardships of their own. He also wanted to yell and say that Players must be leading life that’s over a hundred times more complicated than the swordsman’s life. However, although the urges came all the way up to his throat, the mage didn’t speak them and cause a fight.

The mage watched Vulcan disappearing toward the merchant district.

Of course, the mage was also envious of Vulcan just the same.

‘I wonder how much he earned… 20 million? 30 million? Hu… Anyway, I cannot even dream of such.’

The mage checked his dimensional space for the money he had. He had a little over 84 Aus.

They were chunk changes in comparison to what Vulcan earned in the past few days.

‘Just two million…. No… If I had just one million Aus… I won’t have to worry about the research ingredients for a while…’

“I’m envious. I’m so envious.”

The mage unconsciously said those.

Having heard the man, the warrior nodded as if he was agreeing.

“You think so too, right? I’m so envious.”

These two were not the only ones who were jealous of Vulcan.

Of the five who were walking around Espo city, two of them knew about Vulcan and the auction site. One of the two even knew Vulcan’s face.

Naturally, Vulcan was showered by many people’s gaze.

Vulcan regretted not having hid his face in the past out of uncomfortableness. However, his worries didn’t last long.

Only after four days, he received the huge amount of money for selling 200 items though the auction. Now, Vulcan didn’t care at all.

The tip of his mouth was tilted up to the sky. His eyes were smiling so much that they were full of little wrinkles.

He looked so overjoyed like an empty minded person that he definitely looked like someone who just hit the jackpot.

He opened the SYSTEM and checked the amount of money he received.

No matter how many times he read it, he never got sick of it.

’97,061,930 Aus’

It was almost close to 100 million. It was huge.

It was far beyond Vulcan’s initial projection.

This happened because the rumors about the auction spread throughout the entire Act 2 area.

For the first two days, the items were sold at prices that Vulcan expected.

However, starting the third day, numerous people who were contacted by their associates gathered up to Espo City, and the competition became brutal.

By the fourth and final day of auction, there were so many people there. It was safe to say it was a total chaos. The auction building was not able to have them all inside. In the end, the situation turned to where the visual for the items for auction had to be displayed to outside through magic and proceed with the auction. The situation grew that far.

In the end, Vulcan received a lot more than 30 million that he projected. He received over three times that. In an instant, he joined the ranks of the greatest riches of Act 2.

‘Now, I won’t have any problem with the body enhancement.’

Walking the merchant districts, Vulcan was doing some calculations, but he stopped. Instead, he just peeked a smile.

He realized he had no need to count the money he needed to spend.

‘I have almost 100 million. Why bother worrying?’

Vulcan actually did worry a little.

Vulcan knew very well that the items he had were worth a lot. However, other than the money for body enhancement, he had one other avenue where he needed to spend money on.

However, the things worked out more smoothly than he initially thought. Worrying any more than this was just a waste of time and mind.

‘They were pointless worries… With this much, I can go through the stores and blacksmith shops and still have plenty left.’

Think about the prices?

There was no need.

He intended to pay whatever the sellers called.

There was no need for negotiations unless he was being taken for a fool.

Full of confidence, he stopped in front of a building.

‘Rinnen & Pao’s General Store,’ said the front panel.

‘I heard that this place is the best store since Fowaru closed his shop.’

With no reservation, Vulcan walked into the general store.

Dulkuk.

The interior was very clean.

There were numerous items organized and neatly displayed. At the counter, there was a dragon with glasses. He appeared to be the owner. He was reading the item list.

Unlike the Blue Wind, the dragon was not in human form. Instead, he was doing his business in his god beast form.

‘He must be the owner. He probably has good eyesight, so why is he wearing the glasses?’

Vulcan walked up to the dragon and said in confident voice,

“I heard that I can get not just processed items but also raw materials as well as long as I pay the right price. Is that right?”

“… That’s correct, Sir. However, it will be more expensive to buy here than from an organization. Will that be all right?”

“It’s all right. I would like to purchase all ingredients listed here.”

The paper was long enough to cover the upper half of Vulcan.

The god beast Pao cringed. He received the paper, held it in his small front leg and looked at Vulcan.

‘What is this rascal?’

Pao have heard that a bizarre man appeared at the auction site. However, he didn’t know that this was the man.

So, he could not understand the man’s attitude. He was here as if he thought buying all of these ingredients was like just buying potions. Pao could not help but to think it was odd.

‘Looks like this guy has no concept of money. I bet he spent his entire life only doing magic research.’

Pao checked out Vulcan here and there and said in a blunt tone,

“I am very sorry. However, the ingredients here are all extremely rare. Each and every one of them has price that goes beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. You must be trying to do a huge research. However, if you were to purchase all of these, you need at least…”

“At least?”

“… About 3,000,000 Aus.”

Having said that, Pao raised up the glasses that slid down with his front leg and checked the look on Vulcan’s face.

Pao expected a reasonable customer would say he was mistaken and will come back after gathering enough money. Pao expected such a customer to say goodbye after that and leave the store. However…

An unreasonable one could get infuriated and accuse Pao of jacking up the prices.

‘If it is the latter, then that could be a serious headache.’

With anxious mind, Pao waited for Vulcan to speak.

With emotionless face, Vulcan said,

“All right.”

“Pardon… All right?”

“Yes, I said all right. So, 3 million Aus is enough, right?”

“Huh? Ah… Yes. 3 million Aus is enough. Well, it is 2.88 million to be exact…”

“Here.”

Thump!

Clank, clank…

Even before Pao could finish talking, Vulcan brought out big and heavy treasure chests and money pouches.

Pao looked dumbfounded. He stared at them. Meanwhile, with casual look on his face, Vulcan said,

“What is it? Please hurry and count them.”

“Ah, yes!”

He rapidly changed to courteous attitude and started counting.

He could not hide the curiosity on his face.

With 3 million Aus, that was enough to purchase one or two of the greatest master pieces by the Act 2’s most skilled makers.

3 million Aus was an incredible amount, the kind that ordinary people of Act 2 couldn’t accumulate even if they tried for several hundred years.

However, the man just tossed the amount as if it was nothing. It was making Pao to doubt his own sense of currency accounting.

‘Just who is this… Of all rich people I know, there isn’t any like him. How could such an ultra-rich suddenly pop up…’

Unable to understand the situation, he furrowed his brows and quickly counted the money.

If he thought just a little bit more, then he would have connected the situation at the auction site with Vulcan. However, Pao was already swept up by the pace coming from Vulcan’s overwhelming financial power.

In the end, Pao could not figure out who Vulcan was. Instead, he received the pre-payment for the items. Afterwards, Pao asked Vulcan to wait for a bit and then went to the basement of the store. He brought a small pouch.

He opened the pouch and told Vulcan,

“The pouch has dimensional space magic. Please check.”

“Hm.”

With his hands to the back, Vulcan watched Pao tumbling around. With an arrogant attitude than the usual, Vulcan said,

“Even if I don’t check them, I’m sure you included everything, so I’ll get going now.”

“Ah, yes. Please have a pleasant day. If you need anything else…”

Dulkuk!

“He left.”

It seemed Vulcan was in a hurry. Pao watched Vulcan quickly leaving the store.

He faltered his way back to the counter and plummeted at the seat.

It was as if he was mesmerized by a ghost. It was a strange, inexplicable experience, and so was the man.

The price he paid was astronomical, yet he didn’t even try to bargain. Instead, the man showed such boldness.

With his small front leg, Pao the god beast slapped his cheek lightly and muttered,

“This is not a dream, right?”