"Two hundred, forty!"

"Two hundred fifty!"

With the tempo of the auction rising up when people finally came to terms that most of the products that we offered were quite a bit cheaper than on normal market, I tried to keep up with the balance on our end. So far, we were only losing around eight hundred arena coins, and the first part of the auction was already nearing its end.

"I kinda expect our loses to be a lot greater during first phase."

Apparently, Venna shared my mindset. After all, as soon as I moved to the sect, I wouldn't be able to provide a lot of the products for the local auction house. What's more, as I would grow in strength, the potential benefits from such a small city would turn to be meaningless sooner or later. That's why I could afford to waste even the entire two thousand coins that we overpaid if that would result in people frequenting this place. In the end, the second phase would only happen once!

"As long as we get people to visit us again, sooner or later we will be able to profit from it. And to be exactly honest, I will be content as long as we would manage to break even. After all, this entire ploy was directed for the sake of curbing a bit of Katenaris influence in this town."

Stretching my legs on the comfortable chair, I took another sip of the wine before finally standing up. There were only few more products that would be offered on the main part of the auction. As soon as the first phase will conclude, there would be a short celebration with a small lottery, and right after that, I would have to go on the stage.

"Are you sure you want to do it yourself? It won't be a problem to have her do the second part as well."

Pointing her hand at girl managing the auction on the stage, Venna once again tried to persuade me against going there. In this short time that I was in this city, I managed to gain a bit of fame, and enmity from two major powers. If they see me on the stage, there will be no way that those spies that managed to get in would leave this place!

But there was no way I would ever allow anyone else to lead the second phase. Only I was capable of appropriately judging the worth of my items. If the girl were to auction them, not only would she be unable to gauge their real worth and initial price, but if anyone were to question the quality or effects of those items, she wouldn't know the proper answers.

"As I said multiple times already, the second part is my child. Would you let someone else take care of your own toddler?"

Stretching my arms, I started kicking the ground while pretending to run on the spot. Even if I didn't have any stage fright, heating my body up would make me look a lot more energetical. While it wasn't much, even this kind of small details could influence the profits to oscillate in higher numbers!

"I get it, I get it. Just don't embarrass yourself!"

I understand where did her worry come from. Even if we were to ignore how would spies act upon seeing me entering the stage, the second phase was the only profitable part of the entire event for Venna. If I were to fuck something up, I would only lose my face, but she would lose potential contribution for her sect!

Waving her away, I jogged out of the room and dashed downstairs all the way to the basement. Instead of going for the treasury, I took the only corner on the level and arrived at a small, empty room with a tunnel leading right up. With only a simple wooden hatch separating me from the stage now, I focused on the noises coming from above.

"Congratulations to the sir seated at the chair number two hundred, thirty-two!"

According to the schedule, the showrunner girl would firstly announce what the object of the lottery would be and only then, after raising the anticipation in the crowd, she would draw the lots.

From what I remembered, the item on the lottery was a simple, crude iron sword that I made to have similar stats to the "noob smasher". I wonder how would Baxhar fell upon learning that the sword that he made his fortune with was used as a second-place reward in some small lottery!

As for the first price, it wasn't anything special. While it wasn't a problem for me to sponsor some nice weapon or piece of jewellery for it, I had to consider who even attended the event. While my intention for this business wasn't intentionally promoted, from what Venna told me, people still knew that this enterprise aimed at trading common resources in bulk. That's why the grand prize was actually a set of slightly more expensive pills!

Sinking deep into my thoughts, I missed the time when the girl announced the grand winner for the lottery. Only when a sound of small explosion intruded my ears, did I raise my head. Noticing a gust of smoke falling down from the tunnel, I moved aside.

Just at the right moment!

As soon as my body moved away, a beautiful woman landed on the hardened earth that made the floor in this makeshift room.

"Greetings, young master! I wish you luck on the next part!"

Just as decided, when the lottery concluded, the showrunner would detonate a small smoke bomb that would hide the entire stage. A simple trick, that had to be enhanced by a powerful spell cast by Eve, that disturbed the energy sight of anyone who would try to peer into the smokescreen. Only thanks to this I could arrive at the stage without anyone noticing!

"You did great. I think Venna won't hold back when rewarding you for your efforts!"

Responding with a smile to the greeting of the cute girl, I pushed my hands against the sides of the tunnel and started pulling myself upwards.

While I could simply jump up to reach the opening, it would cause the smoke to move in an unexpected way, alerting the audience that something else was going to happen. That was something I had to avoid at all cost!

Big powers that were invited to the auction knew that it wouldn't end just like that. I had informed all of them that there would be someone coming to fetch them up for the after-party when the time would be ripe. As for the speculators from the city, they had to rely on their wits to witness the glory that was about to happen!