Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Spendthrift Necromancer (6)

Tyrant of the Auction HouseLeveling up increased every stat by 1.

Barring truly exceptional circumstances, there was virtually no situation where your stats failed to rise upon leveling.

And you could always gain levels later.‘Elixirs are different.’They stopped working once a stat rose beyond a certain point. Someone who started at Level 1 after guzzling elixirs to raise every stat, and someone who didn't.

The gap between them would eventually become enormous. That was why Kim Minwoo was heading toward the auction house right now.‘The first stat cap is 5

0. I absolutely have to fill everything up with elixirs until then.’Raise his stats as far as elixirs could take them, then use level-ups and other methods afterward. That was the royal road.

Of course, it wasn't something just anyone could do.

Who could afford to awaken and immediately start drinking elixirs worth at least tens of millions of won each like water?

Only certain Awakened could use this method.

People like Kim Minwoo, who could practically print money.

Or promising talents backed by the government or a major guild.[Awakened Auction House - Korea Branch]

A massive building appeared among the city towers.

There was one Awakened Auction House in every country.

In Gate Hunter terms, it could be described as a mysterious byproduct created by the ‘System.’

Being operated by the System gave it one overwhelming advantage.

Most items except equipment couldn't be resold.

There was no worry about fraud either, and purchased items were immediately placed into your inventory, eliminating delivery time.

Those advantages at least made the high fees somewhat understandable.

He entered the auction house.

A hologram appeared before his eyes.[Select an item to buy/sell. The commission fee is 10%.][1. Skill Books.][2. Equipment.][3. Elixirs.][4. Monster Materials.][5. Other.]‘Elixirs.’[Accessing the Elixir Marketplace.][Caution. Once an item is listed for sale, it cannot be withdrawn until the listing expires.]

Thousands of entries appeared before him. Elixirs listed across a wide range of prices. Once he narrowed the search conditions, the ones he wanted stood out immediately.[Lowest-Grade Magic Pill] x200[Price: 100 million won each][Seller: Alchemist Choi Yuna][Listed: 3 hours ago.][Lowest-Grade Strength Pill] x200[Price: 80 million won each][Lowest-Grade Agility Pill] x200[Price: 70 million won each][Lowest-Grade Stamina Pill] x200[Price: 70 million won each]

“Oh. More than I expected.”

Kim Minwoo whistled.

Elixirs weren't easy to obtain even if you had money. Producing them required time, labor, and materials.

On the other hand, they weren't easy to sell either.

Each one cost anywhere from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.

With that kind of money, an F-rank Awakened could put together a full set of decent equipment.

Naturally, ninety-nine people out of a hundred would choose equipment.‘Somebody must've had a disaster.’When someone placed a huge order and then went bankrupt after production had already finished.

That was when large batches of elixirs flooded the market like this.

Choi Yuna was probably sweating bullets right now.

“Choi Yuna, you're in luck.”

Click.[Warning!][Once purchased, elixirs cannot be traded or transferred to another person.][Would you like to purchase all 800 lowest-grade elixirs for 64 billion won?]

Click.[Final Warning!][The commission fee is 6.4 billion won! Are you certain you wish to proceed?]He had to kill an Outer God within seven years.

Time was the one thing money couldn't buy.

Eat another click.[Purchase completed.][6.4 billion won has been withdrawn as commission.][Items have been stored in your inventory.][Would you like to share the buyer's information with the seller?]

Click.[The buyer's information has been sent to Alchemist Choi Yuna!]

Now she'd receive his name and identity.‘Choi Yuna is a pretty useful character.’The Alchemist Guild's chief researcher.

And her status was fairly high too.

Her father was the guild master.

She was competent as well.

Give her money and she'd make elixirs quickly and well.

Later, when he needed large quantities of elixirs higher-grade than these.

Knowing each other would make things considerably easier.

She'd also get to learn who her new moneybags was, so it was a fair exchange of information.* * *“Those Geumseong Group motherfuckers!”

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

All because of Geumseong Group.

One of Korea's top one hundred companies.

As an alchemist who had to handle sales, they were normally a client she'd have bent over backward to please.

But not anymore.

“How the hell do you order elixirs and then go bankrupt!”

They'd made a huge fuss about a new business—raising Awakened, clearing Gates, and all that shit—only to go completely belly-up.

Overnight, eight hundred lowest-grade elixirs had lost their buyer.

Tens of billions of won were now tied up in thin air.

And that wasn't all.

Those lunatics had also ordered a huge batch of low-grade elixirs, one tier above these.

When she thought about that, she didn't even want to imagine how much money was frozen.

“I told you we should've taken payment upfront. I said that company looked shaky. Their revenue's all inflated, but their operating profit is…….”

“Hey, you little shit! Shut up! Who the hell expects a top-one-hundred company to collapse!”

Yuna glared daggers at her junior.

What if she'd required upfront payment?

The order quantity would've dropped dramatically.

People already whispered that she was only here because of her father, calling her a parachute hire and every other insult imaginable.

What she needed most was results.

So she'd gone all in.

And spectacularly fucked it up.

“Haah…… Did any of the stuff we listed at the auction house sell?”

“……

No.”

Her eyes turned mournful.

“Ah, my hair…….”

I can't start going bald…….

She stared helplessly at the strands of hair falling loose from her head.

She'd tried using all her connections to find buyers, but nothing had worked.

In the end, she'd listed the products at the auction house with tears of blood.

Not a single one had sold yet.‘And even if they do, we're losing money…….’The normal margin on lowest-grade elixirs was around 10%.

And the commission was also 10%.

After labor costs, they'd be in the red.

“What are you going to do if the listings expire?”

“……

Ask Dad for help, I guess.”

What choice would she have then?

Even if she got cursed out, she'd have to use the cheat code.

“Please. I wish some supernova would appear out of nowhere and sweep up these elixirs.”

“Come on, even then they'd only buy one or two hundred. Nobody can absorb eight hundred unless another Geumseong shows up…….”

Then.[All Lowest-Grade Magic Pills listed at the auction house have been sold.][All Lowest-Grade Stamina Pills listed at the auction house have been sold.][All Lowest-Grade Agility Pills listed at the auction house have been sold.][All Lowest-Grade Strength Pills listed at the auction house have been sold.][90% of the 64-billion-won sale price will be deposited after commission.]

“……

Huh?”[The buyer has shared their information.][Buyer Information][Name: Kim Minwoo][Identity: Eldest Son of Ilseong Group]

“Uh……? Uhhhh!”

“What? What's wrong?”

“Th-They sold.”

“How many?”

“All of them. But was this Kim Minwoo guy an Awakened?”

“Kim Minwoo? That wastrel from Ilseong Group?”

“Yeah.”

“I haven't heard anything about that.”* * *[Lowest-Grade Magic Pill is absorbed.][You feel no change.][Lowest-Grade Agility Pill is absorbed.][Agility increases by an extremely small amount. Absorbing more may produce a change.][Lowest-Grade Strength Pill is absorbed.][Strength increases by 1.]..

He absorbed the elixirs one by one, as though pulling a slot machine lever.‘Damn, what an amazing batting average.’He wasn't even close to the stat cap of 50. He was barely in the low thirties, yet he was already hitting blanks left and right.

Kim Minwoo's divinely awful talent was almost unbelievable.

Thank god he'd personally played this character for six years. If he'd been starting with this body for the first time, he might've died from sheer rage.‘Next thing I need to buy…….’He kept absorbing elixirs while moving to the next purchase menu.[Accessing Skill Book Marketplace.][Search Level: 1~5, Class: Necromancer. Searching with these conditions.][Summon Skeleton(F)][Restriction: Necromancer, Level 1 or higher][Price: 2 million won]

Summon Skeleton was the basic skill that formed the foundation of all summoning skills.‘There are quite a few.’Skill books dropped randomly as Gate-clear rewards or from hunting monsters.

Perhaps because Necromancer wasn't a particularly popular class, there were a decent number listed.

He bought every one he could see.[Purchasing all 42 Skill Books…….][Your inventory contains multiple copies of the same Skill Book.][Two identical Skill Books can be combined for enhancement.][Success Rate: 95%.][Would you like to enhance them?]

This system really knew how to drive people insane.

But there was no way he wasn't doing it.

“Keep rolling until you can't anymore.”[Automatic Enhancement begins!]

Flash![Summon Skeleton(F)+1 completed…….][Summon Skeleton(F)+1 completed…….][Summon Skeleton(F)+1 completed…….][Oh dear. Two Skill Books have disappeared. How unfortunate…….]..Two +1 Skill Books came together.[Combining two Summon Skeleton(F)+1 Skill Books.][Oh dear. Two enhanced Skill Books have disappeared. How unfor…….][Summon Skeleton(F)+2 completed…….]

Then he combined another two to make +2.‘And this goes all the way to +9.’Even if every single attempt succeeded, reaching +9 required 512 copies of the exact same Skill Book.

And the higher the enhancement level, the lower the success rate became.

A true money-eating hippo.

Still, the effects were worth it. At +9, a skill's effect nearly doubled.

Then obviously he had to do it.[Enhancement Result!][Summon Skeleton(F)+4][Insufficient Skill Books. Enhancement cannot continue.]

This wasn't nearly enough.

There were no more low-level Necromancer Skill Books on the market.

But that was fine.

The real money-burning madness started now.

He had somewhere in the high twenty billions left.

“Everything under five million won. Buy every F-rank Skill Book listed for Level 5 or below.”[Purchasing 6,124 applicable listings.][Purchase completed!][21.234 billion won withdrawn…….][An additional 10% withdrawn as commission…….][You possess a large number of Skill Books.][Two different Skill Books can be combined to create a random Skill Book of the same rank.][Would you like to synthesize them?]

“Set aside any Summon Skeleton books that come out and roll everything else back in.”[Conditions set.][Automatic Synthesis begins!]

Flash!‘Let's see.’With six thousand books, he should be able to pull roughly three hundred of the ones he wanted.

Because the more times you synthesized, the higher the odds gradually became of receiving your desired Skill Book.‘The game has some probability correction built in.’Looking at that, maybe the system wasn't completely vicious after all.

Or was it?

Was he the sucker here?‘No way.’This was romance.

And a perfectly rational purchase.‘First, a +9 skill.’And he still had one more shot after that.

Death Lord.

It was a passive that applied to every skill.

If that strengthened things a second time?

Kim Minwoo was certain.

His Skeletons would be invincible.

He turned on his phone and made a call.* * *“Yes, Father. It's me, Minwoo. I'm calling because I've almost used up the first investment.”―Already?

“You know my body isn't great. My stamina was weak too. So I ended up spending quite a bit on elixirs.”―Still, a hundred billion should've been more than enough to get your stats to 50……?

“I'm almost there, but Skill Books are the problem.”―Don't tell me you're trying to make a +9?

“Of course. Death Lord is a very good skill. Shouldn't I let it shine? Besides, it's only a basic Level 1 skill. The cost isn't that outrageous.”

Assuming his luck didn't completely betray him. A brief silence.

Then Chairman Kim replied.―……

Fine! What is family for? I'll give you another two hundred billion so you have plenty. Buy equipment with it too. In exchange, do your father one favor.

“What favor?”―Minwoo, I want you to become an advertising model for Ilseong. Sound good?

“An advertising model?”―Right. EX-rank would draw too much attention, so we'll just say you're an S-rank Achievement Awakened and build some fame around that. What do you think?

“Doesn't sound bad.”―Right?! What was that thing you mentioned? Your Skeleton Legion! We'll use that for some flashy promotions, throw in plenty of product placement too. Deal?

“Product placement with a Skeleton Legion? Do we even sell anything that fits?”―Once you're famous enough, people applaud even when you take a shit.

“Well, fine. Then the deposit…….”―I'll transfer it right away. Oh, and you need lots of Skill Books, don't you?

“Yes. I'm sweeping the auction house, but supply's getting thin.”―I'll tell the boys to buy up items outside the auction house too. Gathering them together should finish it faster.

“Thank you.”―Ahem. I'm hanging up. Your father's busy right now.

“Yes.”

As expected, the power of blood ties was magnificent.

Or was it really the power of Lord Death Lord?

He thought as he consumed more elixirs.‘An advertising model…….’It was something he'd never done while playing the game.

It actually sounded kind of fun.‘I'm going to become famous anyway.’Quite a few people at the Sword Sea Pavilion had witnessed his awakening.

The light had been far from ordinary, so they'd probably realized his achievement rank was high. As time passed, rumors would slowly spread.

An S-rank Achievement Awakening practically made someone a super rookie, so attention would be inevitable.

Well, that was fine.

S-rank Achievement Awakenings were rare, but there were still a fair number of examples.

It wasn't a world-first phenomenon like EX, so at least assassins wouldn't come knocking.‘If I'm going to attract attention anyway.’Getting a head start as a supernova Necromancer wasn't a bad idea.

Then.

Flash![All stats have reached the Level 1 growth cap of 50.][You have acquired the title, ‘Promising Rookie.’][You have acquired the title, ‘Elixir Massacrer.’]‘Finally…….’Before he could even savor the emotion, more messages followed.[You have partially fulfilled the conditions for the Death Lord's First Trial! (1/2)][The Death Lord's Call is blocked because the remaining condition has not been fulfilled!][You currently possess no undead summoning skills!][Learn a skill!]‘Huh?’He'd unexpectedly discovered one of the conditions.‘So this means…….’If he learned an undead summoning skill, he'd get dragged off somewhere creepy?

Yeah, then I'll get it to +9 and finish every last preparation before I learn the skill.