“Am I imagining things?”
Maybe she had mistaken him for someone else simply because his appearance was so ordinary.
The Neo Sisters newcomer tilted her head for a moment, then turned her attention back to the auction.
“The next item is the unique-grade [Winter Cloak]. Its primary effect is powerful resistance to cold. Wearing this cloak alone allowed our expedition team to enter a region of Antarctica where they could no longer feel the cold. The opening bid is 800 million won.”
Incidentally, this auction featured both unique-grade and epic-grade items.
There had apparently been some concern that introducing lower-tier equipment in the middle of an epic-item auction might dampen the excitement, but surprisingly, the bidding remained lively.
After watching item after item soar past ten billion won, hearing a starting price of only 800 million somehow made it seem almost affordable.
“It’s cheap. Maybe I should buy one for dungeons like the Ice Palace?”
Hesitantly.
Jakyeong cautiously raised her bidding paddle for the first time.
But to her surprise, although the paddle in her hand bore the number 32, the first reaction came from seat 33 beside her.
“Is it a gift?”
“Yes?”
“Are you planning to buy it as a gift?”
The man in the hat was the one who had spoken.
Caught off guard, Jakyeong answered awkwardly.
“No? If I win it, I’ll probably wear it myself... I think?”
Why was he asking her something like that when they had only just met?
“If that’s the case, you’d be better off not buying it.”
“Yes?”
“That item contains too much magical power. It doesn’t pair well with delicate telekinetic control. You use that kind of skill, don’t you?”
“Ah, y-yes. You recognized it? Did you see me on the news...?”
“...Anyway, don’t buy that one. It slows down skill activation. If you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, it’ll definitely bother you.”
Apparently, number 33 had not spoken up without reason.
“It slows down your skills? Wow, shouldn’t they mention something like that during the auction?”
“They may have deliberately left out the negative information to drive up the price. The higher it sells for, the larger their commission.”
“Wow. I almost got scammed.”
“Well, if you get used to it, it’s not completely unusable... What I mentioned is only a minor compatibility issue.”
The Neo Sisters newcomer, who had instinctively lowered her voice, stared at the man in surprise before thanking him.
Right.
So this was why people attending auctions like this usually brought professional appraisers with them.
Someone like her, unable to judge an item’s actual value, could easily end up wasting an enormous amount of money. ȑ𝖆ɴоBĘS
“I’m glad I happened to sit next to someone nice.”
She breathed a quiet sigh of relief, reassured that kindness apparently still existed in Korea.
At that moment, the auctioneer introduced the next item.
“This item is the [Sacred Tree Seedling]. Bidding will begin at 1.5 billion won, with increments of 10 million.”
Hmm.
Wait.
That was an Epic-tier item.
Why was its starting price so low?
Jakyeong blinked and looked around the room.
What exactly was a [Sacred Tree Seedling] for everyone to seem so completely uninterested in it?
But before she could finish that thought, the situation changed.
“Yes, 1.51 billion won has been bid.”
Ssak.
Number 33 quietly raised his paddle beside her.
Come to think of it, this was the first time her mysterious neighbor had actually joined the bidding.
“You’re buying it? What does that thing do?”
Jakyeong casually asked the person beside her while looking at the item on display.
It was nothing more than a potted plant with ivory-colored stems.
She could tell at a glance that it was not the kind of item anyone would use as equipment, but...
“It’s an air purifier.”
“Yes?”
The young man beside her calmly began explaining.
“The [Sacred Tree Seedling] is said to purify the surrounding air when installed.”
“Yes?”
“It sounds a little ridiculous for an Epic-grade item, but it’s surprisingly useful. It doesn’t just sterilize the air. It can also filter monster toxins and other harmful substances across a fairly wide area.”
After saying that, he raised his number again.
But even after his explanation ended, the gaze from the neighboring seat remained fixed on him.
The man in the hat took another sip from his drink before speaking again.
“By the way, why have you been staring at it so intently? Were you planning to bid too?”
His question carried a hint of caution.
The other person, however, simply smiled.
“Actually, yes. I was thinking of buying whichever Epic-grade item here had the lowest opening price.”
Someone’s fingers twitched involuntarily.
“But since number 33 wants it, I’ll just cheer you on instead. Fighting!”
And what followed was an unexpected stroke of good fortune.
The Neo Sisters member seemed so grateful for the advice she had received from the stranger beside her that she ultimately abandoned her original plan altogether.
The price of kindness.
By unintentionally acting as an appraiser, Giryeo had eliminated one of his own competitors and managed to obtain the item he wanted for far less than expected.
“2.68 billion won. 2.68 billion. 2.68 billion. The [Sacred Tree Seedling] has been sold to bidder number 33. We’ll move directly to the next item.”
“A thirty-percent drop from the previous sale price! How can I possibly be this lucky? Is today really my lucky day?”
“By the way, how big is your house if you’re buying an air purifier like that? A hundred pyeong? Or... one of those apartments in Seocho-gu? A hundred and eighty pyeong?”
The man answered in an unusually cheerful voice, delighted by how much of his budget he had managed to save.
“Five pyeong.”
At that, the Neo Sisters member went completely blank, like an astronaut staring into the depths of the galaxy.
A 2.68-billion-won air purifier...
For a five-pyeong studio apartment...?
“Hahaha.”
It had to be a joke.
Should she just laugh along?
“Anyway, now that I’ve already bought what I came for, I can explain the upcoming items to you too, if you’d like. I noticed you came without an appraiser.”
“Thank you!”
A few minutes later, after chatting about one thing and another, the auction was already drawing to a close.
“This concludes the 14th Epic Auction. We sincerely thank everyone for participating. Successful bidders, please follow the instructions for the next stage of the transaction...”
As the auction wrapped up, the woman in seat 32 turned toward seat 33.
She wanted to say goodbye to the person who had helped her throughout the event.
But to her astonishment, in the brief moment she had looked away, the man beside her seemed to have taken on an entirely different presence.
“Huh?”
Short blond hair.
A sharp, icy atmosphere, like the point of a spear.
The mysterious man, who had been idly rolling an empty water bottle between his fingers, slowly turned his gaze toward her.
“Oh, it’s over.”
It was the moment his disguise came undone.
Just before entering the auction hall, he had placed an illusion spell over the most conspicuous features of his appearance—his eyes and hair.
“If I had entered the auction looking like myself, things would’ve become troublesome, so I changed my appearance too.”
But even though the illusion had only lasted a few minutes, maintaining it had consumed three entire mana potions.
Apparently, the spell was not nearly as simple as it looked.
He removed the uncomfortable hat and rose from his seat.
Now that the auction was over, there was no reason to maintain the disguise any longer.
“Next time, make sure you bring an appraiser with you.”
Kim Giryeo left bidder number 32 with that brief farewell in his usual voice, then abruptly disappeared.
The woman left behind remained frozen as though time itself had stopped.
Only after a long while did she let out such an absurd scream that it echoed throughout the room.
.
.
.
A few minutes later.
While someone else was resolving to treasure this encounter as a lifelong memory, Giryeo had already forgotten it entirely.
“Yahoo!”
He cheered while carrying a flowerpot in his arms.
[Sacred Tree Seedling]
[Grade: Epic]
[Description: Purifies the environment over a wide radius.]
The fact that an item like this could be purchased for “only” a little over two billion won made one thing painfully clear.
The people of Earth still had severe limitations when it came to understanding magical items.
If the [Sacred Tree Seedling]’s true function had ever been discovered, it would have commanded a price comparable to any other Epic-grade item.
“To think I got an Epic item this cheaply.”
As that implied, the item Giryeo had won at the auction possessed a hidden ability.
[Description: Purifies the environment over a wide area.]
The problem was that the information provided by Earth’s [Appraisal] skill was incomplete.
Worse, Earthlings had a tendency to rely far too heavily on those fragmented results.
Its magical capacity is around the middle of the Epic tier, yet its only function is air purification?
It merely removes toxins and bacteria, and that’s all?
And even if that were true, how are they supposed to drag a tree this large into a dungeon?
Of course, some researchers had argued that an item containing such an enormous amount of magical power could not possibly exist for the sole purpose of cleaning the air.
That suspicion had led to all manner of experiments, as people became convinced that the Sacred Tree must possess some hidden function.
In the end, however, no one had managed to uncover its secret.
Then what, exactly, was the true nature of this mysterious item?
“Hmm.”
Crack.
The moment Giryeo returned home, he snapped off one of the Sacred Tree’s branches, exposing the blue interior beneath its bark.
Then he filled a cup with water and submerged the broken branch inside.
The most important factor at this stage was temperature.
For the process to work properly, the water had to remain extremely cold—just above freezing.
Probably.
“Good thing I have a refrigerator.”
He left the branch submerged for roughly a day while carefully maintaining the water temperature.
Afterward, he diluted the resulting liquid and poured it into a collapsible bathtub.
~ Splash!
A moment later, Giryeo lowered himself completely into the prepared bath until even his head was submerged.
As this demonstrated, the Sacred Tree Seedling was an item whose true effect could only be activated by covering the body with the substance secreted from the tree’s wounds.
Earth had a somewhat similar concept.
The River Styx.
Giryeo immersed his entire body thoroughly, determined not to repeat Achilles’ famous mistake.
***
All right.
Now it was time to test the results.
< Emergency disaster text[Dungeon Break] March 25, 09:18
Dungeon Break Alert near Mapo-gu, Seoul]
Finding a suitable testing ground was not difficult.
No matter how much humanity’s gate-detection technology advanced, its predictive accuracy still lagged behind even ordinary weather forecasts.
As a result, people remained perpetually exposed to the disaster known as Dungeon Breaks.
“Hey, hey, hey! Stop! Stop!”
“Ack, my foot!”
An intersection in Seoul.
Hunters armed with swords and spears were fighting desperately against a swarm of monsters.
They were a small raid group who had happened to notice the Dungeon Break while passing through the area and immediately stepped in to contain it.
The problem was that the enemy was stronger than they were.
Their hastily assembled group consisted of C- and D-rank Hunters, whereas the monsters they were facing were at least rank 8.
“When is the Association sending backup? Hasn’t it already been five minutes since I reported this?”
“Damn it, somebody do something!”
But despite the difference in strength, retreat was not an option.
Glance.
The archer positioned at the rear looked behind them.
What came into view was an elementary school in Seoul, its green grass field plainly visible beyond the road.
“Aaah! Why did it have to break out here of all places?!”
If the monsters advanced even a little farther, that small school would be reduced to rubble.
They all knew it.
That was why none of them could simply turn and flee.
No matter what it took, they had to keep the monsters pinned down here.
“Waaagh!”
Whoosh!
But in the middle of the battle, the spearman holding the front line finally gave way.
The monster’s razor-sharp claws tore mercilessly through flesh.
The moment their comrade suffered a serious injury, the other Hunters faltered.
“What are we supposed to do?”
If only there had been even one B-rank Hunter here.
Then maybe they could have managed somehow...!
“Huh?”
But at that moment, the injured spearman—now being supported as he retreated—suddenly widened his eyes.
Tap, tap.
A young man in his twenties was approaching.
He wore an unusually neat, spotless outfit, something rarely seen among Hunters whose profession practically guaranteed blood and grime.
The spearman recognized the newcomer immediately and muttered under his breath.
“That guy...”
S-rank Hunter Kim Giryeo.
One of Korea’s highest-ranking Awakened stood on the opposite side of the crosswalk.
The blond Hunter glared at the broken traffic light before striding forward.
Then a loud voice rang out from his direction.
“~ Everyone, disperse!”
His declaration carried absolute confidence.
“Everyone, fall back. I’ll handle it from here.”
As though some kind of absolute [protection] stood behind him.