He took the orb back from the old looking man and placed it back into his storage room. The appriser squinted his eyes as he saw that, he could tell that the cultivator used a storage ring. He did some mental calculations and counted that the core would give him about 10k points if he traded it for spirit stones, would it give him more if he absorbed it instead of the spirit stones? He wasn’t so sure about that.
The two people inside the room looked at the man that made the core vanish and figured that they should probably alert the auction house owner. If this person can really beat a beast at the core formation stage it would put him at the top end of experts in this city, that might have not even had one present in it at the moment.
“Ah Senior, let us take care of your items for you, also we can offer you a booth to watch how the auction is going if you so wish.”
“Mmh, sure a booth would be nice. I also have a question, do you perhaps have something that writes down the going prices for various weapons and items? Ah, and do you have prices for resources like metals?”
Matt asked, he wanted to know the going rates for the things he could sell along with the resources, he wished to calculate if it would be better to buy crafting resources from the people instead of doing it in the cash shop where he needed to spend the spirit points. He wasn’t sure if the auction had any of those around or if they would even hand him something like that.
The female clerk and the appraiser looked at each other, those were trade secrets that they had but they just couldn’t hand over the going prices for items that they are selling as that would probably lower the profit margin if people knew the exact price a given item was worth.
“Uh, we’ll have to ask the owner about that, we’re not in the position if giving those pieces of information away Senior…”
“Ah sure, go ahead I’ll just wait in that booth, don’t really have anything to do at the moment either.
He nodded while the lady guided him to his VIP booth that would let him see down into the auction house. The auction house looked a bit like an old-timey theater with these booths being elevated over the chairs and stage. They had red-drapes and comfy chairs, he was even brought something to drink which was wine. He gave it a sip, it was quite tasty so he drank the whole glass quite fast while looking down below at the gathering people.
*Well, I guess they need to gather all those items together, that might take some time.*
About at this time, the appraiser was talking with the auction house owner, which was an older cultivator lady. She looked like a nice grandma on the first look but she had a glint in her eye. She listened to the worker who recapped the appearance of the person that brought in the high quality good that was the core formation beast core.
“So, did he look like someone we should be cautious off, could you get a read on his cultivation level?”
She asked her worker.
“No Madam Wong, I couldn’t detect any cultivation fluctuations he must be quite powerful to be able to hide his aura so well, or he could have a treasure on him. He looks like a fairly well off master, the robes that he was wearing are fit for a core formation expert also he had a high grade storage ring as well, not one of those knockoff ones that have barely any space to store a sword in them.”
The woman rubbed her chin while leaning back in her chair, they were in her office and there was a big double-sided glass window behind her, she could see the auction house and all the people below. She glanced at the spot Matt was sitting in and saw the good looking cultivator that was gulping down the free wine they offered to their customers. The moment she looked at him, he could sense that someone was looking at him. There was a big tinted window there, he could kind of tell that there was someone behind there, thanks to his heightened senses.
Madam Wong felt the gaze of the man on her, their eyes met. He didn’t show much of expression and was just looking, but she felt cold sweat run down her back. The man was able to notice that she was looking at him, she had various levels of magic treasures blocking the view inside the room and no one should be able to know that she was in here. Also while Zhang Dong was focusing on the old lady he gave off a hint of his real cultivation base. She turned around and looked at her appriser that was wondering if something was wrong, the woman looked pale now.
“Give the Senior what he wants, don’t offend him!”
The man nodded while being slightly perplexed but he wasn’t one to ask questions. He got out and gathered the jade slips that had the numbers of the items that were sold there. There had even compiled them to show an average price if he was interested in them along with items that cultivators used for pill making, crafting like metals and other various things. He handed it to a waitress lady to deliver to the cultivator, they should have asked him about his name as he didn’t introduce himself, he thought.
Matt stopped staring at the auction house glass panel, moving his head to the side to focus his gaze on the people in the auction house. After a moment he got the jade slip with the information. The serving lady bowed at him before stepping out letting him examine the jade slip in question.
*Oh, it’s a jade slip. Cultivators use those for storing information or as phones if I remember correctly. I’m supposed to put my spiritual energy into it to get the information out, let’s see…*
Matt concentrated and his spiritual energy entered the jade scroll looking item, the databank of the sold items quickly rushed into his head as he did that, giving him a little scare. It was a bit different than the thing the system did with the information injection, the information was there but it didn’t force its way into his brain, he could slowly digest it bit by bit. Guess that was a plus and minus to that, as it wasn’t painful but slower. For the time being, he decided to look at the prices in there and compare them to the store prices to see if he could make a profit later on, he still had some time but people were gathering in the auction house and more seats were getting filled up.
First, he looked at the mortal grade weapons, he found out that he would probably lose out if he ever tried making low grade or middle grade weapons while buying resources in the store. Maybe break even with the middle-grade ones, but the rewards varied depending on how many people were buying. The high grade ones would give him an up to a 50% profit. So if he spent 1000 SP to make one high grade item, he would earn up to about 150 spirit stones that would net him about 1500 SP in return. 1 Spirit stone didn’t always give him 10 SP in return the giveback varied as well. Then came the perfect weapons those would give him the biggest profit margin, something between 300 – 600 spirit stones, but he needed to use beast cores for those, if he subtracted the core cost then he would gain about 2k spirit points from those and 500 spirit points from the high grade ones.
*So I can profit, but I guess hunting beasts might be a bit faster, I gain a lot more for foundation establishment beasts, plus the cores will be free then. But still a good way to earn something on the side. I wonder if I make too many weapons if I’ll destroy the balance on the market and the prices will go down, maybe I shouldn’t overdo that. I could also do it wholesale or trade with some clans that have a lot of spirit stones…*
Time past while Zhang Dong was doing quick mental maths with the jade slip in hand, the auction was about to start and the night was coming, the city lit up with various colored lights. Nighttime came and the pleasure district got busy, for some people this was the real start of the day.