The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage
Chapter 76: Gathering of Giants (3)

The ballroom transformed as soon as the female Catalbee had finished speaking.

All the guests, including Otto, remained in their seats as they began to move along with the floor.

The stage in the center of the room started to fall, as the floor outside rose upwards and outwards in tiers.

In under a minute, the ballroom had transformed itself into an auditorium.

Otto was sitting near the middle of the auditorium, looking down at the stage.

His chair softened under him, and now felt like a couch, though its appearance hadn't changed.

Three dividers surrounded his new seat for what Otto assumed could only be privacy purposes.

A bright yellow screen popped up in front of Otto's eyes.

It looked different from the traditional [Tower] notification.

Otto knew it must be from the auction.

[Would you like to auction off a good?]

[Take note, your items will be sent to an official Golden Club. The auction will accept them if they meet our quality standards.]

[Please be advised that the Golden Club will take 2% of the item's final value for all items auctioned here.]

Otto frowned slightly.

His mind entered his spatial storage ring and swept through everything to see if there was anything he would be happy to sell.

Soon, his eyes landed on two items.

[Cormac Fruit]

Unknown Grade Consumable

Eat before challenging a [Tower] floor.

Eliminates penalty for failing a single mission.

This was one of the rewards he had received from the [Tower] after he'd cleared the [Tutorial].

So far, there hadn't been an opportunity to use it, and he couldn't really envision himself eating it before a challenge.

Wouldn't that just be setting himself up to fail before he started?

However, Otto knew that this was a valuable fruit in its own way.

It could be used, for example, if a challenger wished to take on a higher difficulty mission than he or she was accustomed to.

The fruit would help share the risks of such an endeavor.

The second was a spell.

[Tunnel]

1st Circle Earth Element Spell

Tunnel into the ground.

Required Intuition: 15

It was a rare spell, not typically suitable for sale to the general population of challengers in Area 1, as they might not understand its value or rarity.

And if they did, they might not be able to pay the required price to buy…

But Otto had already learned both the regular version and the unlimited version already, making the tome itself devoid of value to him.

None of the kids needed this one, either.

Otto mused to himself before deciding to put both of these items up for auction.

Even if neither garnered a high eventual price, it wasn't as if Otto really lacked money, either…

He would just take it as trying things out.

Otto placed both goods in the [To Auction] section, where they quickly disappeared.

An hour slowly passed as the items were appraised and either sent back to the challengers who had submitted them, or accepted into the upcoming auction.

Soon, Otto received another notification.

[Your item(s) have been accepted. They will be placed on block #55 and block #183. Thank you for your patronage!]

Then, the crowd watched as a different woman came up on stage, breaking a few attendees of their relaxed hypnosis.

This woman was humanoid as well.

From afar, she looked like a typical human species, the type that could be found everywhere throughout the [Tower].

But up close, there were a few differences.

Her ears were pointed slightly, and her figure was a good bit over two meters tall!

Maybe this species of humans, called the Scellia, were the closest things to elves the [Tower] had…

Otto watched as the woman started the auction.

There was no such thing as using men's lust to hype these auction goods. Frankly, there was no need.

The items spoke for themselves.

The first item on the block was a sword.

"This sword is an old, storied weapon made by the famous Tlothian blacksmith, Grennelth. It is called [Lobster's Pincer] for the famous pinkish hue it takes on when it uses energy to cut down foes.

The seller would prefer coins when buying this weapon. Bidding will begin at 50 Smekkers, minimum increase set at 5 Smekkers."

One of the funny but incredible things about the [Tower's] translation was that it translated animals and names unique to the world of the creator to their closest compatible definition.

As in, it was close to impossible for this sword to actually be named after the lobster, since Grennelth was not from Earth at all.

The [Tower] had merely used the 'lobster' as the animal nearest to Otto's own understanding of the name, rather than the actual title of the sword.

Otto quickly analyzed it, lamenting that none of the kids had decided to choose the sword as a weapon.

[Lobster's Pincer]

Silver Grade Sword

Attack Power +45

+1 Penetration

+10 Strength

+5 Energy Compression

The penetration attribute alone made it a top-tier item, and spoke to the sword's extraordinary edge.

The bidding quickly heated up as Otto watched on.

"50 Smekkers"

"60 Smekkers"

"75 Smekkers"

"80 Smekkers"

"100 Smekkers"

Otto watched as a thin man with small antlers over his head won the item with a bid of 165 Smekkers in the end.

He felt slightly surprised: he imagined the purchasing power of this group of people was not limited to just this.

But his doubts were quickly cleared as the woman tittered with laughter on the stage.

"For all the new arrivals to our club, this auction places good from front to back in order of expense.

If you are willing to pay a small fee to our auction house, you may also see the list of goods being auctioned today."

Another yellow screen popped up in front of him, and Otto chose to pay the 'small' 10 Brock fee to survey the items presented.

A list of 200 items along with their basic descriptions appeared in front of his eyes.

Quite a few of the items captured his attention.

There was no shortage of profession related items, as well as weapons, equipments, gems and expensive potions and ingredients.

Otto quickly 'downloaded' the list of items and separated them into four categories: he was nothing if not organized.

'A: Must win, no matter the cost.'

'B: Must get if below a certain price.'

'C: Depends on analysis results.'

'D: No interest'

The auction continued as Otto passed on most of the items, but bid on all of those that were useful to him.

Except for one item that had been auctioned for what Otto deemed as far above its value to him, he won every item that he bid on.

[Grey 500-year Hawthorne Seeds, 0.5kg]

[Leaf-cut Crystal Straw]

[Indonees Spritzer]

[Partial Malanic Rune]

[Bloody Rounded Sea Corian]

The list went on and on, until even some of the regulars began to look at Otto with surprise.

They quickly identified him as a fat cat after the same bidder won almost a dozen items.

Most of the goods were sold for money directly, though there were a few exceptions. Some required special items, or favors, in return, though generally few of those sellers met with success.

"Block #55. First Circle Earth Element Spell [Tunnel]."

"A rare earth element spell tome, suitable for quick escape, hiding, and digging should the need arise. Retains an unlimited number of uses, great for purchase by any organization."

"Bidding will begin at 10 Brocks. Minimum increase set at 1 Brock."

A ripple went through the audience.

It was rare that any spell tome was auctioned off here, let alone a spell tome for such an uncommon spell!

Most of the members of this club either had ties with or belonged to certain organizations.

However, given that even Clatenis, the head of one of the largest factions in Area 1, had such limited information about this gathering, it was doubtful that most of these groups worked in the open.

"20 Brocks"

"30"

"35"

"38"

The bidding quickly heated up, though it was still within the tolerable range for almost all of these participants.

It quickly became a war between three specific factions.

Otto tested his [Analyze] on all three participants to see if he could peer through their disguises, but it was to no avail.

He could discern with a glance that the information the spell gave him was neither true nor complete.

Actually, Otto was suspicious about this.

His own disguise, a silver grade mask, was unlikely to block the effect of [Analyze].

If the participants wore disguises of a similar grade, Otto thought that there might be a separate disguise added by the club itself that had the strength to completely obscure the results of his spell.

After another minute, the bidding was won by a nondescript looking man dressed in gray for 87 Brocks.

Otto's 'auction account' was immediately credited with the 86.26 Brocks. With such technology, there was no such thing as waiting to pick up his money after the auction.

The auction continued.

On block #113, one of Otto's must-win items appeared.

[Solon's Alchemy Set]

Silver Grade Auxiliary Set

+10% Speed of Concoction

+15% Potion Yield

Upgradable

"Made by the famous tool crafter Solon, this auxiliary set is one of the rare complete auxiliary sets in the area. It can be used for refinement, concoction, and precision measurement."

"If it absorbs enough residual medicinal and elixir dregs, it can be upgraded to a full magical auxiliary set."

"Bidding will begin at 35 Brocks, 5 Brock minimum increment."

Alchemy was neither common nor rare throughout Area 1.

To be precise, alchemists were common; excellent alchemists were rare.

This set did not cause much of a stir. Only a select few members of the audience sat up in their seats.

"50 Brocks"

"55 Brocks"

"60 Brocks"

"75 Brocks"

"80 Brocks"

"90 Brocks"

"…"

This set was, after all, only an auxiliary set.

But Otto knew a secret about this set.

If this set was combined with the silver grade [Solon's Alchemy Cauldron], it could be absorbed to upgrade the cauldron to gold grade

Otto was very familiar with this gold grade cauldron.

How could he not be?

When he had used it for over two decades as his main alchemy cauldron in the past.

Tools were only second to ingredients themselves in how much love and care they were given by alchemists.

A great cauldron could assist an alchemist in a variety of ways, helping to alleviate problems due to a mistake in concoction, regulating and evening the heat, or absorbing energy and mana from the environment to give the resulting potion or pill an additional kick of efficacy.

Otto spoke firmly,

"100 Brocks"

"105 Brocks"

"110 Brocks"

It was quickly approaching the limit of the bid as Otto eventually won the item for 125 Brocks.

"Congratulations to the winner of Solon's Alchemy Set."

He let out a rare, small smile as the auxiliary set fell into his hands.