Chapter 60
Before the main event began, they held an auction for the Guardian Knights, which had drawn a little less interest.
“A knight's no big deal.”
“They're inferior versions of Death Knights. No need to buy one.”
The billionaire-level necromancers weren't particularly interested in buying them.
After all, they already had the exorbitantly expensive Death Knights, which required an absurd amount of materials to create.
And yet, they still tossed in bids just to test the waters. That was the billionaire class for you.
“They did look pretty cool, though.”
...People bought undead because they looked cool?
Well, that didn't mean they were negligible units.
Considering how enormously expensive Death Knights were to make, Guardian Knights could still serve as a substitute for their weaker versions, filling the gap quite well.
There was even a theory among necromancers that the more tanks, the merrier.
Anyway, after a fairly successful auction...
“158.2 billion won! Any more bids? If no one bids by the time I count to three, it'll be sold at this price.”
The auctioneer banged his gavel, and the Guardian Knight was sold.
The winner was a necromancer being strategically groomed by a German dungeon development company.
He seemed a little timid for someone like that, though.
And according to the terms of the deal, he had to receive the unit on the spot and take part in a performance demonstration.
“Mr. Linus, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“I'll transfer it to you now. I must warn you first that this transfer is irreversible and cannot be canceled. If you agree, I'll finalize it.”
“I agree.”
I'd already received the money, so I silently declared that I was transferring one Guardian Knight body to him.
[One ‘Fallen Alois Guardian Knight’ is being transferred to the ‘Necromancer’ ‘Linus Heim,’ who is qualified to summon it.]
A gigantic Guardian Knight appeared in front of me, and ownership immediately passed to the necromancer named Linus.
“Ooh...”
“It's even cooler than I expected.”
“Maybe I should've gotten one.”
“Seems like money's been flowing freely for you lately.”
“Heh heh, I've made a lot thanks to the Kim Segyun stocks.”
...Someone else does the work, and someone else makes the money...
I listened to their conversation for a moment, then cleared my throat and spoke to Linus.
“We'll begin the performance test. First, speed...”
Next, we finished testing its speed and attack power.
Surprisingly, it was faster than most lower-tier Death Knights, and its attack power was impressive, too.
Finally, the durability test.
“The people helping with the durability test will be my bodyguard, Hunter Choi Kang, known as Iron Wall, and Hunter Ryu Hyun-soo, known as Zephyros.”
Zephyros was so famous that everyone recognized him, and word had recently spread that he'd returned to the scene, so people nodded. But the moniker ‘Iron Wall’ wasn't as widely known, and they tilted their heads in confusion.
First, Mr. Zephyros stepped forward and coated his sword in a faint layer of sword energy.
“I just give it a stab, right?”
“Yes.”
And, remarkably, the Guardian Knight's armor withstood the sword energy.
Zephyros got competitive, coated his sword in a denser layer of sword energy, and stabbed again. Only then did sparks fly as it gradually pierced through.
“Its durability's about on par with a mid-tier Death Knight.”
“Why don't you give it a whack, too, Senior? Think of it as exercise.”
Choi Kang, the Iron Wall.
A vajra appeared in each of his hands, and a blow packed with electricity struck the Guardian Knight squarely in the chest.
The Guardian Knight staggered as though struck by a massive force, but it didn't fall or get unsummoned.
“Yeah, it's about as tough as a mid-tier Death Knight. Put a little more force into it and it won't hold up.”
At their words, the German necromancer's mouth stretched from ear to ear.
He was having a blast.
For me, though, it was a little disappointing.
Its physical abilities were on par with a lower-tier Death Knight, while its durability was mid-tier. So it was superior to a lower-tier Death Knight, but slightly weaker than a mid-tier one...
Even a lower-tier Death Knight easily cost over $200 million to make.
A mid-tier one would cost around $500 million.
But this one had sold for about 150 billion won, so it was a bargain.
Of course, now that its performance had been verified, I'd have to sell the ones to the government for more than that.
“Congratulations.”
“Th-Thank you.”
When the Guardian Knight auction ended...
Experienced necromancers and other people involved began approaching Senior Choi Kang, recalling a name they'd forgotten long ago.
“You're Iron Wall, aren't you?”
“That's right.”
“It's an honor to meet you.”
“Could I shake your hand, too...?”
“Could I get your autograph...?”
What was this, a fan-signing event all of a sudden? A fan-signing out of nowhere?
As I watched in surprise, Zephyros smiled and said to me,
“You might not know this, but he was even more popular than me in North America. I was more popular in Europe.”
“...I can see how he'd be popular in America.”
When Senior Choi Kang returned after his fan-signing, I nudged him and asked in a subtle tone,
“I hear you were quite the big shot back in the day?”
“...That's all in the past.”
“Have you thought about raiding dungeons again?”
“No.”
“You're pretty firm about that.”
“I'm busy protecting some idiot.”
“Ghk.”
I became an idiot in the blink of an eye.
“If the day comes when I can raid a dungeon alongside that idiot, I might return. Then I could protect him inside the dungeon, too.”
“...That's reassuring.”
Zephyros and Iron Wall.
Raiding a dungeon alongside those two former heroes...
I was already looking forward to it.
**
After a brief break, the second auction began.
The auction for the ‘Fallen Alois Priest,’ the main event of the day, had begun.
And... from the very start, it looked like things would get even more heated than expected.
That was probably because the Guardian Knights had performed better than expected in the auction.
A lunatic like Ahmad had come with no human attendants at all, bringing only his skeletons, but the other billionaire necromancers had brought dozens of attendants, including their secretaries.
They were what you might call support teams.
Even right up until the auction began, they continued to hold serious discussions with their support teams.
They seemed to be deciding how far to bid and when to back out.
“The starting bid is 10 billion won.”
The starting price barely mattered.
“100 billion.”
“200 billion.”
“300 billion.”
Three necromancers immediately began raising the bid by hundreds of billions of won at a time.
At the price's sudden leap, the other necromancers could only look on in dismay.
Their goal had been the Guardian Knights, not the priest, but still, shouldn't they have been given a chance to participate in the auction...?
“One trillion.”
As soon as it broke the one-trillion-won mark,
“I told you, didn't I? We'd start at a billion euros.”
Just as Ahmad had boasted, skipping right past everything in between...
“1.5 trillion.”
He went straight for it.
The two billionaires clenched their teeth and followed.
“1.6 trillion.”
“1.7 trillion.”
“Two trillion.”
Ahmad once again skipped the smaller increments and bid two trillion.
At that, Elliot Sage threw in the towel.
“Honestly, men. I can't keep playing along with this stupid game.”
“Don't blame your thin wallet. 2.1 trillion.”
As if to sink Daniel's bold declaration,
“2.5 trillion.”
Ahmad jacked the price up again.
No, was this really normal?
Wasn't this getting way too heated?
Even if I was the one making money, this was starting to scare me.
What if it didn't perform well enough to justify that price?
Fortunately, Daniel's face crumpled miserably, and he raised his hand.
“I'm not about to join in on that kind of insanity.”
“Sounds like an excuse because your wallet's thin.”
Daniel Krug's face turned bright red as Ahmad threw his own words back at him.
“S-Shut up.”
“2.5 trillion won! Any more bids? If not... Yes! Sold for 2.5 trillion won!”
This time, I couldn't even bring myself to congratulate him.
Just how much had he overpaid?
“Hey, brother.”
“Do you print your own money or something? Did you set up a money factory as a side business?”
“I've got nothing but money to spare.”
Man, I'm jealous.
And without hesitation...
He wired the full 2.5 trillion won in cash on the spot.
As a bonus, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves jumped by that much.
[One ‘Fallen Alois Priest’ is being transferred to the ‘Necromancer’ ‘Ahmad Triain,’ who is qualified to summon it.]
Ahmad summoned the priest as soon as he received it.
Before long, a Death Knight was summoned, too.
The Death Knight exuded a powerful aura that made you shrink back instinctively.
Now, that's what I call a proper unit...
That was a Transcendent Death Knight, an undead unit owned by Ahmad alone anywhere in the world.
It was a monster whose estimated production cost would have been 100 trillion won.
It was such an extraordinary creature that Ahmad couldn't even have attempted to create it without first raking in money from all over the world through elixir sales in France.
The two billionaire necromancers, who only had Supreme-tier Death Knights at best, wore bitter expressions.
“What a ridiculous display of money.”
“I can't believe there was a lunatic who actually made one of those.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
With the Death Knight at their head, nearly two hundred powerful undead began appearing one after another.
The government officials watched tensely, their faces turning pale.
If Ahmad wanted to, he had enough power to turn Seoul into a wasteland in an instant.
Fortunately, Ahmad had no interest in setting Seoul ablaze, so he gave the priest an order.
“Let's start by testing how many units it can buff at most.”
A black aura extended from the priest's body and spread across Ahmad's legion.
“Around twenty units, I guess.”
That wasn't a lot.
“The range is disappointing, but what matters is how effective the buffs are. Let's see... Oh?”
Ahmad's eyes widened as though he'd checked his system window, and he spoke.
“Physical attack power is up 30 percent, and agility and the like are up 30 percent, too... Not bad. And it stacks with my buffs.”
The verdict was that it wasn't bad.
Finally.
Ahmad's Death Knight stabbed the Dullahan standing nearby with its sword.
Crack! The Dullahan's armor crumbled.
The Dullahan was on the verge of collapse, nearly at the point of being unsummoned, when Ahmad gave the priest an order.
“Try healing it.”
Then... the Dullahan's armor began repairing itself in an instant.
In just a few minutes, it had almost returned to its original state.
“Now that's the real deal. It's definitely worth the money. Thanks.”
Ahmad smiled as he instantly unsummoned his undead.
Watching that, Daniel Krug and Elliot Sage came over to me and practically begged,
“D-Do you have any more?”
“I'll buy them for the same price! Do you have any more?”
I tilted my head, unable to quite understand why they were so desperate, when...
Ahmad explained the reason for my confusion.
“Dullahans are one of the highest-tier undead units. You could call them named-tier. Undead like that can't be fully repaired using only their master's mana once they're damaged. You need materials to fix them.”
“But just now... it repaired itself without any materials!”
Daniel shouted as if he were screaming.
“Repairs generally cost about 10 percent of the original production cost. That Dullahan cost around 20 million dollars to make.”
That's roughly 2.5 billion won.
“Just now, that priest undead saved me two million dollars with a single heal.”
Ahmad puffed out his chest smugly.
“Well, it probably can't repair a unit that's been completely unsummoned. Even so, this would cut down on expenses quite a bit, wouldn't it?”
In other words, it was a cheat-level undead that could make a huge, ongoing difference in maintenance costs for anyone maintaining a legion of high-end undead.
Wait a second. Then...
“Triain, don't tell me... even the Transcendent Death Knight...”
It seemed the others had come to the same question at the same time.
A Transcendent Death Knight worth 100 trillion won.
That tough thing was unlikely to be destroyed, but if it ever was damaged, repairing it would cost at least 10 trillion won... It was a walking money pit.
But if it could heal that, too...
“Who knows?”
Ahmad gave a sly smile.
This guy was doing it on purpose.
He'd deliberately avoided testing it on the Transcendent Death Knight.
And the more I listened to them...
Director Cho Hyeong-bin looked half-dead.
But on the other hand...
The Minister of the Awakened Management Bureau's eyes lit up, as if he'd just had an idea.
What was with that guy...? What was he thinking?