-Bidding for a Million Golds-

Kenshin smiled while shaking his head after hearing Chiba’s enthusiastic reply. Online games were popular among teenagers who loved competitiveness. Chiba turned 19 this year. Her interest in these things wasn’t a strange thing.

“Good. Since you have played it, tell me how many classes are there?” Kenshin continued to ask.

“Mm, Tank, Support, Assassin, Mage, Marksman, Fighter… there are a total of six classes.” She listed everything then gave Kenshin a strange look, “Why do you ask? Do you want to play games as well?”

“Play games!? I will think of that after we return. By the way, what game was it that you play now?” Kenshin was a bit curious about the new variety of games. It’s been many years since he had played these games. With the System making his own life a game-like setting, was there a need to play virtual games?

“Mmm, there are many circulating in the market now.” Chiba nodded before giving Kenshin an eager look, “Come on, tell me, why did you ask?” Joy also looked at Kenshin expectantly. Looking at their faces, Kenshin couldn’t help but reveal a smile.

“Look, Chiba, don’t you think our party also had a fighter, mage, tank, etc.?” Kenshin pointed at Joy, himself, and her while saying so. At first, Chiba looked confused as she couldn’t understand what he was saying. Only after repeating what he said for a few times did an understanding dawned upon her.

“I get it now! I am a mage. Joy is a fighter, and Ena is out tank. You are a fighter/mage. We only lack support and assassin.” Suddenly, her eyes flashed as she looked at Tadaka, who was fighting in the price war. Chiba was very smart, so even without Kenshin saying it out loudly, she understood his plans.

“What are you guys nodding at each other for? Chiba, can you explain in simple words for someone like me to understand?” Joy wasn’t as bright. So he couldn’t understand Kenshin’s implications so soon. Too lazy to think about it on his own and impatient to know the answer, he urged Chiba to explain to him in simple words.

“What Kenshin meant is that he wanted to recruit Tadaka to our party to be our support,” Chiba explained with exaggerated hand movements. Meanwhile, Kenshin tuned both of them out and focussed on the auction.

“Support? What kind of support do we need? We are strong enough as it is. I don’t think we need any support.” Knitting his brows closer, Joy denied Chiba’s claim and even gave Kenshin an ambiguous look. What he was thinking at that time, only he knew.

“Hey, you can’t say that!” Chiba was unusually agitated when she heard Joy’s refusal. “A good support in your team could change the course of the battle. You shouldn’t look down on supports.”

In reality, Chiba was a support type MOBA player. Although she was a magic skill user in real life, she was no good with mage class or even any other class. Support was the only class she could play to the full potential. Hearing Joy undermining a Support, her pride was hurt. No wonder she was angrily reprimanding Joy.

“Changing a battle situation? How can that be?”

“Hmph! Let me tell you how then. Suppose we are fighting some tough opponents. While they are not stronger than us, they can somehow counter our skillsets. If we rely on ourselves, it will take too long to defeat them. There was also no guarantee if we can win. The presence of a Support changes this.” Satisfied with her explanation, Chiba gave Joy a look, expecting him to praise her. But, what came from his mouth unexpectedly disappointed her.

“I understand the need for support from your example. What I don’t understand is this so-called Support you both are blabbering about. What's the difference between the two words anyway!?”

“Dumb Joy!! It was no wonder you couldn’t woo Meere even though you have chased after her for months.” Chiba criticized Joy’s lack of understanding of the macro terms heavily. She had been a part of Kenshin’s crew for more than half a year already. She was no longer as reserved with them as she was the first month. Only when she was with them would she show her playful side.

“What? How can you say that? Meere is already my girl, you know!?”

“Hmph! You think you could have done that if not for me?”

Kenshin suddenly felt curious about this Meere. Stepping between them, he tried to diffuse the argument. “Alright, that’s enough! The auction is reaching climax, and I am about to make my move.” Giving Joy a sidelong glance, he looked at Chiba and whispered to her ear, “Chiba, I want to hear more about this Meere. After we return today, tell me about it.”

Chiba smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Joy could only glare at them angrily. Although, it seemed like they were whispering, actually their voice was loud enough for him to hear.

Just then, the loud voice form Toru snapped them out of their skit. The auction had reached its climax in favor of Toru, who had made the final bid of 950,000 golds. Even Matsuri, who started it all, was also defeated in the price war. As for others, they had given up long ago. Tadaka didn’t even dare to bid a single penny above 500,000 golds.

The final bid war was going on between Toru and Matsuri, where Toru came as the ultimate winner. Although he won, his face didn’t have a smile. To win this bid, he gave up on a large part of his savings. The gains of the things he planned with this book wouldn’t come right away. If he couldn’t pull it off successfully, he would be eating a loss.

“One million golds.” Just when he was about to celebrate, Kenshin’s calm voice penetrated through his ears. He looked like he saw a ghost when he faced Kenshin. Not only him, everyone else looked at Kenshin with astonishment. One million gold coins wasn’t a small amount even for a level 100 hunter like them.

Green Leaf Alloy was one of the most expensive metal obtained from the dungeon. One kilogram of this metal alloy cost around 50,000 gold coins. The alloy was not only physically durable but also magically insulating. A study detailed that an armor crafted from this metal alloy could block 40% of pure physical damage and 20% magic damage. One shouldn’t look down on this 20%, because unlike physical attacks, there was no way to block a magical attack. One can only avoid, redirect, or intercept with an equally powerful skill.

To get 1 million gold coins, a hunter has to mine at least 20 killograms if this metal alloy. But, sicne it could only be found on a higher scale level 15 dungeons and the fact that its drop rate was only 1%, such was just wishful thinking. The government gives its hunters with magic skills, who crossed level 100 around 5000~10,000 golds as monthly salary. Even a private guild would not give any more than 20,000 gold coins.

Being a private guild hunter, and not yet reaching level 100, Toru’s salary was only 2000 golds. From his year of work as a mercenary and hired gun, he had made some money. This 960,000 golds was his savings. And it was already shocking enough to the other six. But when Kenshin bid for one million right away, what they felt could no longer be explaiend with something as simple as the word surprise.