Chapter 157 - Collecting the money

After going down the stairs and entering the open area of the auction house, Ham guided us all the way to the reception area of the building. From there, three big corridors lead to three different directions.

"By following the main corridor, one can enter the auctioning hall. The road on our right leads toward the warehouse while the one on our left leads to the collection points."

Noticing my interest in the layout of the building, our fat friend quickly explained it. Probably thinking that slowing his steps down would make me displeased, he didn't stop even for a second, leading us towards the collection area at once.

After travelling through the corridor which walls were decorated with beautiful paintings and glass cabinets with various treasures, he quickly stood before one of the many doors embedded into the wall.

"Sirs can enter this room. As a mere servant, I'm not allowed to follow Sirs inside!"

Explaining himself as soon as he saw my stare falling on him, Ham straightened himself up, trying to pretend to be a guardian of our peace.

Not wasting any moment, we entered the room, only to be greeted with a pair of simple chairs, a small desk and a tiny receptionist sitting on the other side of a big glass window.

"Please sit down, and pass your auction card through the lift."

Pointing her hand at a small, squarish hole on our side of the room, she didn't even lift her head over the documents stacked right in front of her.

I guess paperwork is just as despised as it was back on earth. While I never got to experience horrors of filling countless documents myself, I had my fair bit of watching my parents do it! Unable to blame this small girl for her attitude when she had so much of this abhorred work to do, I simply put the golden card inside the hole.

As soon as my hand retracted from the so-called 'lift', the hole sealed itself with kind of automatic gate, only to appear on the other side of the window. Taking a quick look with the corner of her eye at the content of the lift, the small receptionist froze in place. Turning her whole body to face the hole, she carefully picked the card, before turning back to face me with a stunned expression on her face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were an esteemed guest… Why did you enter a standard booth sir? With this card, Sir is entitled to a private collection!"

As if I could be bothered about something like this, even if I had any knowledge about that fact! I was lead to this place by my guide, so how could I know I could do it somewhere else?

"Do you know someone called a Ham by a chance?"

With my curiosity piqued, I couldn't help but ask. While this fat guy outside didn't look reliable at all, from his conduct back in the lodge or even the fact that he had connections to the woman I traded my stones with, I highly doubted that leading us to this exact booth was in any way coincidental!

"Ham? Do Sir by any chance mean Hamarien? Lousy, sizeable man, seventeen of age?"

While the description was rather on point, I couldn't be any wiser about the real name of this newfound friend of mine. But just the fact that she was able to instantly catch up who might I mean, proved the fact that this crafty guys really had some business in leading us to this exact place!

Well, the feeling of being used is not something I'm foreign to, considering all the hardships I went through back on earth, but I couldn't care less about it in this world. I didn't lose anything by receiving my goods and money in here rather than doing so in a special place for VIP's, and if Ham could get something from it, I couldn't be happier. After all, I was the one who asked for his help in the first place, so I can't be mad about such a small thing!

"Your description is right on the point, but don't worry. I won't kick up a fuss about it. Anyway, I would like to collect the money from selling my wares and get the items that I auctioned. I hope it won't be a problem."

Even if I noticed a slightly displeased look on Eve's face, I simply pushed the matters forward. Every minute here means a minute less that we will get to train!

"Sure! Forgive me for a moment!"

Standing up from her simple, wooden chair, the girl dashed to the doors located on the opposite side of the whole room, only to come back just a moment later with a stack of rectangular cards with a golden inscription on them and a small storage ring.

Placing the items on her side of the lift, she retracted her hand and pushed some kind of button. One blink of an eye later, the lift opened its gate on our side, allowing me to take the notes and the ring. Taking a quick look inside the storage, I found a small pile of crystals in an extremely compacted space. I guess this storage ring was made with the intention of this kind of transactions. Compared to the one I received from my father back in my family grounds, it was at least a few thousand times smaller!

"I'm sorry for that, but I will have to ask you to return the ring as soon as you transfer it's content to your own one. Also, there is ten cards with the denomination of one thousand arena coins on them, and two more worth exactly a hundred. I'm extremely sorry, but we do not operate on smaller amounts that ten, adding the remaining five arena coins to the fee."

Looking at the girl's trembling hands, it was obvious that she wasn't used to handling such big amounts of money. With a light smile, I took out the stones from the ring, before tossing smaller money cards inside and placing the item back in the lift.

Standing up, I lead Eve to the outside. Just before closing the doors, I turned my head around.

"Consider the money in the ring compensation for your trouble. Have a great day!"

With ten thousand arena coins in my pocket, a mere two hundred didn't pose almost any value to me. With the crafting abilities of my system, I would never face any troubles in making the money, allowing me to finally splurge on even the simplest matters!

"While I will ignore it today, if you want to profit out of me, you better ask for it nicely next time."

The tournament would be ongoing over the span of the next two weeks, so there was a big chance that I would visit this place at least once more before leaving the city. Since the fatso already helped us out, intimidating him a bit because of his shenanigans would only serve as a good foundation for our future cooperation!