Everaldus Slith whispered to himself as his right-hand man and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Ancient Slith Sect wrung his hands, a balding man with wispy white hair in a receding hairline. The man was incredibly stressed out from the moment he saw his headstrong young lord defy the old master's orders and raise the bid 50% higher than their entire years available funds.

And now that it was official that they won the bid, the first thing that came to mind was this – how in the world were they going to come up with 150 million platinum coins…?!? They only had slightly less than 100 million prepared even if they counted in all the income for this entire year! If they went into debt this year paying this off, would they even be able to keep up the recruitment and invest into the new generation of leaders.h.i.+p in the next year…?

It was already bad enough that recruitment was significantly down… Ever since that promotional poster came out 2 years ago, one that they had invested nearly 20% of their yearly budget on…

The tragedy was that no one had realised that the way their sect name was printed would end up so horrific, so embarra.s.sing, so… Catastrophic!

It had been printed with Everaldus' incredibly das.h.i.+ng picture, a scene they had spent heavily to ensure it carried the pa.s.sion, values and principles of the sect as well as the grand ambitions to expand.

However, the problem was in the text on the poster which had been printed on the left side of the advertis.e.m.e.nt…

Ancient

Slith

Sect

Honourable

Altruistic

Tenacious

Seeking new recruits!

With the first letters of each word lined up…

It didn't even take half of a morning for the poster – and the Sect – to reach city-wide fame... Or should it be said, notoriety!

And in the Wiarno Kingdom, just overnight, the names of Ancient Slith Sect and Everaldus had become synonymous with being an incredibly embarra.s.sing, stupid fool!

Overnight the previously steady albeit slow stream of new recruits became but a trickle, before soon drying up completely!

After all, who could bear the shame of joining a group of A$$ Hats…?

"Young master… How should we do this…? The item we've brought for auction are without meaning or value, clearly items that no one in their right mind would pay 10 million platinum coins for, much less 50! How can find enough cash to even make it through this month after making the excessive payment?!?"

Hearing his CFO's words, the middle-aged Everaldus' brows furrowed as he too had no ideas of how he would handle this.

The only thing on his mind had been his father's survival… And he had thought to deal with things as they came, one at a time!

The problem was… There might not even be a "next week" or a "next month" for the sect based on the price he had bid!

"I... I'll think of something, I will! If worst comes to worst… The only choice will be to borrow from the Laughing Man of the Underworld…" Everaldus grit his teeth as he convinced himself that he had made the right decision.

He just hoped that he was still doing the right thing now, especially as whoever got involved with the continent-wide Underworld organisation…

Historically would never be able to escape!

He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands as he kneaded the bridge of his nose.

'Father…'

* * * * *

Near the end of the auction, Lars was nursing a sore neck and a throbbing headache!

Despite lucking out and not having to buy a useless (to him) Cryo Core for an unreasonable sum of money, he had then went on to struggle, agonise over and be stuck in nail-biting situations when he did try to bid for the items he wanted.

Somehow or other, it felt like his rival bidder, Duke Moron who he had antagonised, could sense just which items Lars was bidding on and it seemed that each time, he was forced to overpay for what he wanted…!

Of course, it could also have just been that the whale had just splurged his money on whatever that he wanted based on a whim…!

Hence his current condition – one that was far, far worse than anything the battle compet.i.tion could do to him! He was on high-strung nerves and had to ask Charley to give him a back rub and neck ma.s.sage (at the fair cost of 100 platinum coins, of course) while waiting for the last few items to be release for bdiding.

After the Cryo Core went to Everaldus, Host Aquino had introduced several other items to the gathered audience:- the Firesoul Spear, an instrument of both war and respite that was enchanted with both soothing, healing flames as well as searing, devouring black flames. Despite being only a Grandmaster-level weapon, it was priced at a starting quote of 62.5 million platinum coins due to the ingenious internal circulating arrays that made the energy supply self-sustaining, causing it to not need to draw any strength or mana from it's user.

What this meant was that just about anyone, even a teenager or someone without any mana at all could wield it!

This made it an amazing weapon for youths and teenagers and one that had great flexibility both in attacking and defending!

Lars bid on this half-heartedly as he wasn't too interested in the low-level item. It was eventually sold for 88.7 million platinum coins, a far cry from the grossly over-priced first item.

After that, a variety of items came out and every single of these precious treasures and equipment were snapped up by fervent bidders.

Items such as the Blueprints for the Seals of Bhaskaran, an ancient magical formation that could be executed in groups of 726 pract.i.tioners at the Expert-level and above, allowing them to combine and multiply their combat power and abilities by more than 8 times the sum of their individual might, summoning an 8-armed avatar of a deity to battle on their behalf.

Or items like a scanner set, a rare technological-based piece of equipment that provided radar functions and could detect even World-cla.s.s individuals in the vicinity. The set of scanners comprised of one portable scanner with a short range while the other scanner was meant to be installed in either a city's defence system or on a large vessel.

Even more curious in this part of the world was an Immaterial Stone, a piece of visible rock that could not be touched except by divine power or spirit sense. Though this seemed to be something very mundane, it was a rare resource that could be used in crafting to imbue an item with the spirit-element, making either a weapon that could instantly slay undead and greatly harm incorporeal enemies, or defensive gear to nearly nullify spirit-element or negative energy spells. Based on what Aquino explained, the nearly 3 kg of Immaterial Stone was vied over by only 3 bidders, however, the ending bid was nearly 300 million platinum coins due to the incredible rarity and the money-making potential; a.s.suming one knew how to handle the material…

And then there were other treasures such as Blackflame Venom, the damaged (restored) hide of an Ancient Behemoth, various weapons, accessories, armour, gear or equipment, myriad natural treasures that enhanced cultivation and various other precious materials.

However, it was on one item that no one seemed interested in that Lars' heart beat like crazy and he was filled with anxiety over.

"And now, ahem, m-my apologies, I don't know why this is included in the last few items before the grand finale but, alright! Here it is! It is…"

Host Aquino waved his hand dramatically as the hidden item was updated onto the auction partic.i.p.ants.

"An unidentified piece of a beast's hide! Yes…" Aquino's highly dramatic and rolling, ever rising enthusiasm suddenly flagged as an awkward moment hit the audience and the auction.

…Because what was printed on the screen this time was incredibly awkward for the auction organisers!

Name of Item: Unknown Beast's Hide

Description: An unidentified piece of a beast's hide. Damaged and old, estimated to be at least 800 years in age. Yellow with alternating red and black stripes, thickness varying between 0.5 inches to 1.5 inches. Roughly rectangular shaped measuring 1.5 metres by 0.9 metres.

Abilities: ???

Starting price: 1 million platinum coins.

The moment these details were updated onto the screens and the audience saw their normally confident host's apologetic and abashed demeanour, a noisy murmur began to spread throughout the audience!

They could not understand for the life of them why this kind of item would even be allowed into the auction! Could it be an act of nepotism or cronyism…? But even then, the person placing it for auction wouldn't even benefit if no one bought it! And on top of that, how could it be mixed in with the last few items…? With such a dismal introduction and an accordingly low starting bid, it was like heaven and earth when compared to the previous item, the Red Lightning Cape which went for nearly half a billion platinum coins!

But the moment this item was released to the auction partic.i.p.ants, Lars shot to his feet, trembling.

Because he heard a stunning piece of information from his normally useless… Ahem, normally very busy and focused companion, Kizorik.

'Lars!!!! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT LET THAT ITEM Pa.s.s YOU BY!!!'