The Auction (2)

Eventually, the bid for the knife cooled down, and it was sold for forty one silver coins. The next few items were similarly valued, a fruit that sold for forty three silver coins, a talisman that sold for forty, and a sword worth forty six silver coins.

Finally, something that attracted William's attention showed up.

"The next item we have is called a spacial ring. This has the function of storing items in a separate space. The particular one has an internal space of one cubic foot. The bidding starts at thirty five silver coins!"

When William saw this, he quickly brought out his pouch of silver coins.

Taking out five hundred of them, he handed them to a confused Fletcher.

"Here are the five hundred coins I promised you. You wouldn't mind if I bought things with my own money, right?"

Fletcher shook his head.

"It's your own money, after all."

William noticed that the bidding had already raised the price to fifty silver coins.

"How do you bid?"

Fletcher handed him a piece of jade from the table.

"Put some spiritual energy into this and talk. Just make sure you put in enough or your voice will abruptly cut off."

William took the piece of jade and thought of how much he should bid.

"Fifty two silver coins!" yelled someone in the crowd.

William frowned. If he wanted to scare away his competitors, he would need to pay a large sum. He counted, and he only had seventy six silver coins. Any more than that and he wouldn't be able to pay.

He quickly injected spiritual energy into the piece of jade.

"Seventy silver coins!"

Since he wanted to win it, he obviously needed to raise the price a significant amount, or his competitors would just keep bidding. As long as he pretended he had a lot of money to waste, they should be intimidated, thinking he had a lot more money. Therefore, he directly raised the highest bid by eighteen silver coins.

"Anyone else?" asked Caroline.

The auction house went silent for a moment.

"Then the spacial ring goes to the patrons in booth six!"

The auction continued for another half hour before the spirit stone showed up.

"The final item for today is the legendary spirit stone! These contain extremely pure energy that can greatly boost your cultivation. Even nascent soul realm cultivators don't have many of these! I can see you all are very excited, so I won't say any

more. The bidding will start at five gold coins!"

Instantly, the crowd erupted.

"Six gold coins!"

"That's nothing! Eight gold coins!"

"Nine gold coins! Don't fight over a mere rock with me!"

"Who doesn't know about the value of a spirit stone!? Ten gold coins!"

"Eleven gold coins," said someone in a booth.

The crowd below quieted since this was way above the amount of money they could pay.

Another person in a booth spoke.

"Twelve gold coins."

"Thirteen."

"Thirteen gold coins and fifty silver coins."

"Fourteen gold coins."

"Fourteen gold and fifty silver."

"Fourteen gold and seventy silver."

At this point, William noticed Fletcher reaching for the jade on the table.

"Fifteen gold coins," said Fletcher.

The auction house went quiet, before someone else decided to bid.

"Fifteen gold coins and twenty silver coins."

Fletcher frowned.

"Sixteen gold coins."

The booths went silent as well, and this seemed to be more than they were willing to pay.

"Then the spirit stone goes to the esteemed guests in booth six!"

"And that concludes today's auction! For those who have won a bid, an attendant will come to you shortly to accept your payment and give you your items."

"As for everyone else, you may stay and participate in the free trade section of this auction. If you need an item, then you might be able to get it here by exchanging something with one another. Of course, all transactions will have a one silver fee placed on them."

After waiting in the booth for a few moments, someone came into the room.

"The total for all your items is sixteen gold coins and seventy silver coins."

William and Fletcher gave them the money.

"Here are your items."

The attendant handed the ring and spirit stone to Fletcher and left.

Fletcher handed the storage ring to him, and reached his hand with the spirit stone towards him.

"The thing you bought. And you said you wanted to touch the spirit stone, right?"

William took the spacial ring out of Fletcher's hand and put it on his left ring finger. Then, he stretched his hand and tapped the spirit stone.

'Place this in my inventory,' thought William.

"Which item would you like to replace it with? [Silver coin] or [Bread]?"

'Bread.'

"[Bread] has been replaced with spirit stone."

"[Quest: Aren't you embarrassed?] has been completed."

"Awarding 150 SP."

"One new slot has been unlocked."

"Is there anything else you would like to do before the system starts the upgrade to level three?"

'No.'

"System upgrade has started. Upgrade time: 30 minutes. The system will be unavailable while upgrading."

Satisfied, William turned towards Fletcher and Ryan.

"Thank you."

Fletcher shook his head.

"No, we should be the ones thanking you. Without the coins you gave us, we would never have been able to collect enough money in time for the auction," he said.

"No matter what, I would never have known about this auction without you two, and I wouldn't have the opportunity to come here either. This small amount of money doesn't come close to the help you've given me," said William.

"Still, we can't just accept your apology like that."

"...Then how about this? Do me one more favor and we're even."

"What do you need?"

"Can you send me back to the village?"

"Yeah, it's not a problem at all. I was going to do that anyway."

"Thank you."

"...No problem."

Ryan suddenly interrupted the conversation.

"Can we go now? I'm hungry."

"Isn't there food on the table?"

"All they have are fruits."

"...Fine, let's go."

The group exited the auction house and looked for a restaurant to dine at.

Ryan saw one that wasn't full yet and dragged the group over.

William looked up, noting its name, The Wind Cloud Restaurant.

The group went inside, and were quickly seated at a table.

William looked at the menu with only illustrations and hand written words on it. Indeed, the technology here wasn't very advanced. Still, the pictures were drawn very intricately, such that they were quite realistic.

A little while later, a waiter came by to take their order, a plate of grilled fish and two bowls of noodles.

As they were waiting for the food they ordered, William noticed that the system had finished upgrading.

"Ding! The system has been upgraded to level 3!" "All cooldown times have been reduced by 10%!"

"Shop has been unlocked!"

"Selling function has been unlocked."

"New achievements and quests are available!"

"Congratulations on becoming a cultivator! 100 SP has been awarded!"

"A new quest has been issued! Please check the quest panel for more information."

William was nearly overwhelmed with the barrage of notifications that came with the new system upgrade.

'System, explain the new functions.'

"The shop allows you to buy items. The sell function will allow you to sell items for 10% of their value in SP."

'Only 10%?'

"Deal with it."

'...oh well. What quests do I have?'

______________________________

[Quests:]

[Turbulent world]

[None]

[None]

______________________________

'Tell me more.'

______________________________

[Turbulent world]

[Desc: As the proud owner of a system, how could you be so weak? Only with more strength can you be safe in this turbulent world. Become a spirit condensation realm cultivator.]

[Reward: Free item below 1,000 SP in the shop]

______________________________

Williams' eyes nearly flew out of their sockets when he saw the reward. An item worth 1000 SP!?!

William calmed himself down. Reaching the spirit condensation realm wasn't that easy. He would need several months of effort normally to get there. But with the spirit stones... who knew?

Deciding to think about that later, William went to look at something else.

"Show me the shop."

______________________________

[Shop:]

[Armor]

[Artifacts]

[Beasts]

[Combat Techniques]

[Cultivation Resources]

[Entertainment]

[Electronics]

[Exercise]

[Fashion]

[Food]

[Formation Blueprints]

[Furniture]

[Home Appliances]

[Medicine]

[Pills]

[Talismans]

[Tools]

[Weapons]

______________________________

'...Why is the list so long?'

"This isn't the full list. It has been shortened to only include what you need."

'Then what about furniture and home appliances? You're telling me I'm going to need that?'

"You did say you wanted to get some new furniture in your home."

'...fine, whatever.'

William looked at the list more closely.

'Show me the weapons.'

______________________________

[Weapons:]

[Wooden Training Sword] [1 SP]

[Wooden Training Saber] [1 SP]

[Wooden Training Axe] [1 SP]

[Wooden Training Mace] [1 SP]

[Wooden Training Spear] [1 SP]

...

______________________________

'... can you exclude all the non-lethal weapons? And also, only show the swords. The other weapons are too complicated.'

"Consider it done."

The list instantly changed, and all the wooden Training weapons disappeared, along with all the weapons that weren't swords. William looked at the new list.

______________________________

[Weapons:]

[Basic Iron Sword] [1 SP]

[Basic Steel Sword] [2 SP]

[Iron Longsword] [2 SP]

[Ornamental Sword] [3 SP]

[Steel Longsword] [3 SP]

[Iron Great Sword] [3 SP]

...

______________________________

'How is an ornamental sword lethal?'

"This one is meant to look good while still being able to be used in combat."

'That makes sense.'

William knew normal weapons wouldn't do well in a battle with cultivators, so he skipped down the list to look for something he could use for a longer time which was also in his price range.

______________________________

...

[Darksteel Sword] [75 SP]

[Starlight Blade] [110 SP]

[Crimson Gold Longsword] [120 SP]

[Orion's Ornamental Sword] [120 SP]

[Dusk Bringer] [150 SP]

[Iridescent Emerald Blade] [170 SP]

...

______________________________

William looked at the names of each sword, trying to pick one that wouldn't look fancy.

'Iridescent Emerald Blade?'

He imagined himself holding what looked like a giant emerald sword.

'Too eye-catching. Better get something more simple looking.'

'System, tell me more about "Dusk Bringer".'

______________________________

[Dusk Bringer]

[Price: 150 SP]

[Mortal Peak Tier Weapon]

[A basic sword casually forged by a tier two blacksmith, made out of blackcrystal ore and a special alloy created by a tier three blacksmith. This weapon was made using the thunder hammer hammering method, granting it superior durability at the cost of being harder to forge, causing imperfections along its blade and a slightly duller edge for weapons of its caliber. This blade was named Dusk Bringer due to the time it was finished and the color of its blade, a dark black.]

______________________________

'Do you have to tell me all this information?'

"Noted. I will reduce the size of the introduction next time."

'Thank you.'

"Would you like to purchase [Dusk Bringer]?"

'Wait until later. I don't want them to see a sword appearing out of thin air.'

William closed all the windows and relaxed, waiting for the food.

Just a moment later, a waitress showed up, holding a platter with three plates on it.

"Which gentleman had the grilled fish?"

Fletcher raised his hand, and the waitress placed the plate in front of him.

"And I presume these are for you two?"

Ryan and William nodded, and the waitress put the two bowls of noodles in front of them.

They silently ate their food. Well, most of them. While William and Fletcher were calmly eating their food, Ryan was holding his bowl of noodles up and tilting its contents into his mouth, all while furiously pushing the noodles into his mouth using his chopsticks, slurping loudly.

By the time William and Fletcher were done eating, Ryan had long finished his noodles and had fallen asleep, snoring loudly as he rested on the chair!