The Tyrant of the Auction House

Leveling up increases all stats by 1.

Unless it’s a really special case, there’s never a case where your stats don’t go up when you level up.

And leveling up is something you can always do.

‘It’s different with potions.’

The effect disappears after a certain stat value.

The gap between someone who starts from level 1 with all stats maxed out on potions and someone who doesn’t is huge.

This is why Kim Minwoo is heading to the auction house right now.

‘The first limit is 50 stats. I have to max it out with potions no matter what.’

Max out the stats that can be raised with potions, and then raise the stats with level ups and other things. This is the Royal Road.

Of course, it’s not something that just anyone can do.

It’s not easy to just guzzle down potions that cost tens of millions of won each, especially when you’ve just awakened.

That’s why there are only a few Awakened who use this method.

Those who can copy money like Kim Minwoo.

Or those who are so promising that they can receive support from the government or a large guild.

[Awakener’s Auction House Korean Branch]

A huge building appeared between the city blocks.

The Awakener’s Auction House, which exists in each country.

In terms of the Gate Hunter world, it could be said to be a mysterious byproduct created by the ‘System’.

There is an overwhelming advantage to having the system operate it.

Most items other than equipment cannot be resold.

There is no worry of fraud, and there is no delivery time because the items are put directly into your inventory when you purchase them.

Even though the commission is high, it is enough to be understandable.

He entered the auction house.

A hologram appeared before his eyes.

[Please select the item you want to buy/sell. The commission is 10%.]

[1. Skillbook.]

[2. Equipment.]

[3. Potion.]

[4. Monster Byproduct.]

[5. Others.]

‘Potion.’

[You have connected to the Potion Store.]

[Please note that once an item is registered for sale, it cannot be withdrawn before it is auctioned off.]

Thousands of words appeared before his eyes. Potions listed at various price points. By narrowing down the search criteria, he was able to quickly find the potions he wanted.

Kim Minwoo’s eyes widened as he looked at the auction listings.

[Lowest Grade Mana Potion] x200

[Price: 100 million won each]

[Registered by: Alchemist Choi Yuna]

[Registration Time: 3 hours ago]

[Lowest Grade Strength Potion] x200

[Price: 80 million won each]

[Lowest Grade Agility Potion] x200

[Price: 70 million won each]

[Lowest Grade Stamina Potion] x200

[Price: 70 million won each]

“Oh. There’s more than I thought?”

Kim Minwoo whistled.

Potions are hard to come by even with money. It takes time, manpower, and materials to make them.

On the other hand, selling them is not easy either.

Each one costs tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of won.

With that money, an F-rank Awakened can get a full set of decent equipment.

Of course, ninety-nine out of a hundred people would choose equipment.

‘Looks like someone’s business went bust.’

This is what happens when someone makes a large order and the buyer suddenly goes bankrupt.

That’s how a large quantity of potions like this ends up being sold.

Choi Yuna must be freaking out right now.

“Ms. Choi Yuna, you’re in luck.”

Click.

[Warning!]

[Potions cannot be traded or transferred to others once purchased.]

[Would you like to purchase all 800 low-grade potions for 64 billion won?]

Click.

[Last warning!]

[The commission is 6.4 billion won! Are you sure you want to proceed with the transaction?]

He needs to get his stats up within 7 years.

Time is something that money can’t buy.

Click it or eat it.

[Purchase completed.]

[64 billion won will be deducted.]

[The items will be stored in your inventory.]

[Would you like to share the buyer’s information with the seller?]

Click.

[The buyer’s information will be sent to Alchemist Choi Yuna!]

Now her name and identity will be revealed to her.

Kim Minwoo smiled to himself.

‘Choi Yuna is quite a useful character.’

She is the chief researcher of the Alchemist Guild.

And her status is quite high.

Her father is the guild leader.

Her abilities are also good.

She can make potions quickly and well, if you pay her.

In the future, when he needed a large quantity of even higher-grade potions.

It would be much easier if they knew each other.

She was also getting the buyer’s information, so it would be a good exchange of information.

***

“Those bastards at the Golden Star Group!”

Choi Yuna felt like her head was going to explode these days.

It was all because of the Golden Star Group.

One of the top 100 companies in Korea.

As an alchemist who had to sell her products, they were normally someone she had to treat with respect.

But things were different now.

“What the hell are they going to do if they order potions and then go bankrupt?!”

They had started a new business of nurturing Awakened and attacking Gates, but they had failed miserably.

Overnight, 800 of her lowest-grade potions had lost their buyers.

Billions of won had been tied up in the air.

And that wasn’t all.

Those crazy guys had also ordered a large quantity of lower-grade potions, which were one level higher.

Considering that, the amount of money tied up was unimaginable.

“I told you to get a deposit first. I said it was risky. You’re just inflating sales, not making any profit…”

“Hey, shut up! Who would have thought that a top 100 company would go bankrupt?!”

She glared at her junior’s words.

If she had taken a deposit?

The number of orders would have been much smaller.

Even so, there were all sorts of rumors about her father’s influence and her parachuting into the job.

What was important to her was her performance.

That’s why she had yelled at him and shut him up.

“Sigh… Did any of the ones you put up for auction sell?”

“…No.”

Her eyes became sad.

“Oh, my hair…”

She didn’t want to go bald…

She looked helplessly at her hair that was falling out in handfuls.

She had tried to find buyers through her connections, but to no avail.

In the end, she put the items up for auction in tears.

So far, none of them had sold.

‘Even if they do sell, I’ll lose money…’

The profit margin for lowest-grade potions is usually around 10%.

But the commission is 10%?

If you factor in labor costs, it’s a loss.

“What if it doesn’t sell?”

“…I’ll have to ask Dad for help, I guess.”

There’s nothing she can do then.

She’ll have to use a cheat code, even if it means getting some abuse.

“Please. I wish a supernova would appear and buy all the potions.”

“Hey, even if that happens, it’ll only be a hundred or two. We can’t sell eight hundred. Unless another company like Golden Star comes along…”

Just then.

[All of the lowest-grade Mana Elixirs you put up for auction have been sold.]

[All of the lowest-grade Stamina Elixirs you put up for auction have been sold.]

[All of the lowest-grade Agility Elixirs you put up for auction have been sold.]

[All of the lowest-grade Strength Elixirs you put up for auction have been sold.]

[90% of the proceeds from the sale, excluding the commission, will be deposited into your account.]

“…Huh?”

[The buyer has shared their information.]

[Buyer Information]

[Name: Kim Minwoo]

[Status: Eldest son of Ilsung Group]

“Uh…? Uh-huh!”

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“I, it sold.”

“How much?”

“All of it. But this Kim Minwoo guy, is he an Awakened?”

“Kim Minwoo? That Ilsung Group bastard?”

“Yeah.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that?”

***

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]

[The lowest-grade Mana Elixir is absorbed.]

[You don’t feel any change.]

[The lowest-grade Agility Elixir is absorbed.]

[Your agility increases very slightly. If you absorb a little more, you may see a change.]

[The lowest-grade Strength Elixir is absorbed.]

[Your strength increases by 1.]

Kim Minwoo continued to absorb the potions one by one, like he was spinning a slot machine.

‘Wow, my luck is insane.’

He wasn’t even close to the limit of 50 yet. He was only at around 30, but he was already getting this many good results.

He was amazed by his own godly talent.

He was lucky that he had played for 6 years, because if he had started with this body for the first time, he might have gotten sick or even died.

‘The next thing I need to buy is…’

He continued to absorb the potions and moved on to the next purchase window.

[Connected to the Skillbook Store.]

[Search Level: 1-5, Occupation: Necromancer. Searching with this information.]

[Skeleton Summon (F)]

[Restriction: Necromancer, Level 1 or higher]

[Price: 2 million won]

Skeleton Summon was the basic skill that was the foundation of all summoning skills.

‘There are quite a few.’

Skillbooks are randomly dropped as rewards for clearing Gates or hunting monsters.

Since Necromancer is not a very popular class, there were quite a few items available.

He bought everything he saw.

[Purchased all 42 skillbooks…]

[There are multiple copies of the same skillbook in your inventory.]

[You can combine two copies of the same skillbook to strengthen it.]

[Success rate 95%.]

[Would you like to strengthen it?]

This system is really maddening.

But he had no choice.

“Keep rolling until it’s maxed out.”

[Auto-enhancement begins!]

Flash!

[Skeleton Summon (F)+1 is completed…]

[Oh no. Two skillbooks disappeared. What a shame…]

…

Two 1-star skillbooks were collected.

[Combining two Skeleton Summon (F)+1 skillbooks.]

[Oh no. Two strengthened skillbooks disappeared. What a shame…]

[Skeleton Summon (F)+2 is completed…]

He combined two of those to create a 2-star skillbook.

‘They say this can go up to 9 stars.’

Even if he only succeeded, he would need 512 of the same skillbook to go up to 9 stars.

And the success rate gets lower and lower as the enhancing level gets higher.

It’s a real money-grab.

But the effect was good.

At 9 stars, the effect is almost doubled.

That’s what he had to do.

[Enhancement Result!]

[Skeleton Summon (F)+4]

[You do not have enough skillbooks to proceed with the enhancement.]

This wasn’t enough.

There were no more low-level skillbooks for Necromancer available.

But it didn’t matter.

The real fun was about to begin.

He had about 20 billion won left.

“Buy all the F-grade skillbooks for 5 million won or less and level 5 or below.”

[Purchasing 6,124 items.]

[Purchase complete!]

[21.234 billion won withdrawn…]

[10% commission withdrawn…]

[You have a large number of skillbooks in your possession.]

[You can combine two different skillbooks to create a random skillbook of the same grade.]

[Would you like to synthesize?]

“Keep everything except Skeleton Summon and roll everything else.”

[Conditions set.]

[Automatic synthesis begins!]

Flash!

‘Let’s see.’

Out of 6,000 books, he should be able to get about 300.

That’s because the more you synthesize, the higher the chance of getting the desired skillbook.

‘There’s some probability balancing in the game.’

Looking at this, it doesn’t seem like a completely evil system.

Right?

Is he the black sheep?

‘That can’t be.’

This was romance.

He also made some rational purchases.

‘Once with a 9-star enhanced skill.’

He still had one more trick up his sleeve.

Death Lord.

This is a passive skill that applies to all skills.

If he strengthened this twice?

Kim Minwoo was convinced.

His skeletons would be invincible.

He turned on his phone and made a call.

***

“Yes, Father. I’m on the line. Minwoo. I’m calling because I’ve almost used up all of my initial investment funds.”

-Already?

“I’m not in good physical condition. I was also weak in stamina. So I guess I spent a lot of money on potions.”

-But even with 100 billion won, you should have been able to easily reach 50 ability points…?

“I’m getting there, but the skill books are the problem.”

-Don’t tell me you’re trying to go for 9 stars?

“I have to. This Death Lord, it’s a really good skill. Don’t you think it deserves to shine? And it’s only a 1st level basic skill. It’s not a big burden.”

That is, if his luck holds out.

There was a brief silence.

Then Chairman Kim’s answer came.

-……Fine! What’s the point of being a family if I can’t be generous? I’ll give you another 200 billion won. Use it to buy equipment as well. In return, do me a favor.

“What kind of favor?”

-Minwoo, you should be the model for our Ilsung advertisement. Okay?

“A model for an advertisement?”

-Yes. EX-rank is too eye-catching, so we’ll just pretend you’re an S-grade Awakened and gain some fame. What do you think?

“Not bad.”

-Right?! And what was it you were saying? Your skeleton army! Let’s use that to do some cool promotions and put in some PPL. Deal?

“PPL with a skeleton army? What would be a good fit?”

-Once you’re famous, people will applaud even if you take a dump.

“Well, okay. Then the deposit…”

-I’ll deposit it right away. Oh, and you need a lot of skill books, right?

“Yes. I’m using the auction house, but the items are a bit scarce.”

-I’ll tell the kids to buy items outside of the auction house as well. If we pool them together, we’ll be able to complete them faster.

“Thank you.”

-Ahem. I’m going to hang up now. I’m busy right now.

“Yes.”

The power of blood was truly great.

No, maybe it was the power of Death Lord that was truly great?

He thought to himself as he absorbed the potions.

‘A model for an advertisement…’

It was something he had never done in the game before.

It seemed like it would be fun.

‘It’s not like I’m not going to be famous anyway.’

Quite a few people had seen his Awakening scene at theSword Sect.

The halo of light was not ordinary, so they must have realized that it was a high-level achievement. Word would spread over time.

Since an S-rank achievement Awakening was practically a super rookie, he was bound to attract attention.

Well, that was fine.

An S-rank achievement Awakening was a fairly common case.

Unlike EX, which was the first in the world, assassins wouldn’t come looking for him.

‘I’m going to be noticed anyway.’

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to go out there as a supernova Necromancer.

That’s when it happened.

Flash!

[All abilities have reached the level 1 growth limit of 50.]

[You have acquired the title, ‘Promising Rookie’.]

[You have acquired the title, ‘Potion Slayer’.]

‘Finally…’

Before he could even feel the emotion, another message followed.

[You have partially met the first trial condition of Death Lord! (1/2)]

[The call of Death Lord is blocked because the remaining conditions have not been met!]

[You currently have no undead summoning skills!]

[Acquire a skill!]

‘Huh?’

He had unexpectedly met one of the conditions.

‘So that means…’

If he learned an undead summoning skill, he would be taken to some creepy place?

Yeah, he’ll learn the skill after he’s finished enhancing it to 9 stars and everything else is ready.

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]

Ch. 6 — The Tyrant of the Auction House