A Wimp’s Strategy Guide to Conquer the Tower (Novel) - Chapter 223
Chapter 223
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The stay time for the Dimensional Traveler Exclusive Auction House is 1 hour.
Not even 30 minutes have passed yet, so there is plenty of time but.
‘You never know if someone might come in.’
Another Dimensional Traveler using this place, that is.
Just because they’re a Dimensional Traveler doesn’t mean they’re all good people.
If I run into them for no reason, I wouldn’t even know what to say.
‘Let’s go back.’
The summoned entities might worry.
The Link Gate over there that is still open.
Seu-euk, Joo-hyuk went inside.
“Heok!”
“Bong Summoner-nim!”
“Hurrah!”
“He has come!”
“Look here! Didn’t I tell you there’s no need to worry, sir.”
“You have returned safely.”
The summoned entities still waiting for him.
“How was the auction house?”
“Our big spender Bong Summoner-nim, did you splurge a lot at the auction house and come, sir?”
“He must have. Since he is a super-rich person of dimensions transcending Earth.”
Big spender? Dimensional super-rich person?
I’m a dimensional beggar who can’t bid on anything.
“…I’ll tell you the details later when we go to the 17th floor.”
“Yep!”
Riding the elevator and returning to the 17th floor.
And then I briefly explained the facts of what happened at the auction house.
The summoned entities listening to the story with intriguing expressions.
At the part about the auction items and bid amounts, they dropped their mouths wide open.
Such items come out too?
Top-grade magic crystals are currency?
Furthermore, an unimaginable price, no less.
After roughly finishing the explanation.
Joo-hyuk called up the 17th floor owner menu.
Tti-ring!
[Foundation] [Arrangement] [Residency Permit Granting] [Resident Roster] [Auction House Status Board].
There are menus.
The Status Board saying I can view the auction progress situation on the 17th floor too.
When I raised my finger and touched the menu.
Ju-reu-reu-reu-reu-reuk!
Countless auction items coming up.
“Oh my?”
“Wow!”
“Eu-hik? What is that?”
“Oh! The Status Board looks like that.”
“Hu-e.”
Eung?
What’s this.
That the summoned entities are showing reactions means?
“Can you perhaps see the Status Board?”
“It is seen well.”
“It is seen well.”
“It is seen very clearly, sir.”
Really?
It seems the Status Board is shared with everyone.
The item titles and bid prices are also displayed in Korean.
“Plum Blossom Sword Art, huh, something like that is over 3 tons of Topmost-Grade magic crystals?”
“To think an item from the martial arts world (Gangho) comes up too.”
“Look there. There’s a Hundred-Year Snow Ginseng too.”
“Look at the Dragon Heart, sir. The price is evil, sir.”
“If it’s Lightning Storm, it’s an ultimate spell of lightning-attribute magic, but would a Meteor magic book sell too?”
“What are True Gold Ingots?”
Tti-ring!
: True Gold? That came up too?
Corner Alchemist Mari also showed exceptional interest.
She, looking at the Status Board with binoculars after opening the window at the residential area over there.
: True Silver? Aren’t they selling True Silver?
Seeing that there’s an indicator to turn the page, it seems there are more items besides this.
So when I flipped through.
: …Ah! There it is!!!
– Mineral : 100kg of True Silver Ingots.
– Current Bid Price : 4,178kg of top-grade magic crystals.
Heol!
It’s True Silver, but it’s more expensive than True Gold.
: It’s originally like that. Because True Silver is the best alchemy enchanting material.
‘Aha.’
It seems so.
True Gold had no change, but the bid price for True Silver was going up even now.
What was 4,178kg went to 4,185kg.
‘Dimensional Travelers are placing bids in real-time.’
It was the same for other items.
Bid prices continuously going up.
When you touch an item, details also automatically float up.
When I gently tapped the Dragon Heart put up for auction with my hand.
– Initial auction starting price 10,000kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
– 3 hours remaining until the auction closing time limit (Total 24 hours).
– Exchangeable for an Ancient Dragon-class Blue Dragon Heart (Send an exchange request message).
– Bid cancellation is possible up to 1 hour before the auction closes (Currently bid cancellation is possible).
Like this.
So the auction proceeds for a total of 24 hours, you just have to send a message to request an exchange, and you can also cancel a bid up to 1 hour before closing.
“The Dragon Heart bid closes after 3 hours pass, sir. If we have that, we can make one more elixir, sir.”
What do you want me to do if it’s closing?
One is over 50 tons of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
Actually, the Dragon Heart is on the cheaper side.
There are also items so expensive that they transcend imagination.
‘Water Drop of Creation’, ‘Flame of the Beginning’, ‘Breath of Light’, ‘Dust of the Origin’, ‘God-Killer’s Long Spear’, ‘World Tree Sapling’, etc.
Unheard-of items.
Bid prices ranging from a minimum of 1 billion to 10 billion kg.
And that was even the auction starting price.
The fact that the initial bid price hasn’t changed means no one has bid.
It makes sense.
It feels like an office worker receiving a 3 million won monthly salary looking at a 30 billion won apartment with a Han River view in Seoul.
Who would buy something that expensive?
I wouldn’t know if there was a true dimensional super-rich person though.
Of course, there were also cheap items that could be bought right away.
If I sweep the Auction House Status screen with my hand and turn the pages.
– Weapon : Star-Imbued Meteoric Iron Divine Sword.
– Current Bid Price : 547kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
– Material : 10 Mandragoras.
– Current Bid Price : 8kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
– Equipment : Dwarven Technique Enhancement Gloves.
– Current Bid Price : 812kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
– Material : A bundle of Ice Spirit Grass.
– Current Bid Price : 5kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
Things like this.
Looking at the descriptions, it seems they are worth buying at least once too.
Tti-ring!
: Don’t buy Mandragoras. It’s a waste of money. It’s replaceable with tower medicinal herbs.
Is that so?
Baek Dan-ah also came next to me and.
“Ice Spirit Grass is also an okay medicinal herb for ice arts training, but compared to the cold energy of the Ten Thousand-Year Ice Crystal, it’s trash.”
“Ah, yes yes.”
It’s the right words.
How could something like grass rub against a Ten Thousand-Year Ice Crystal?
“If Summoner-nim wishes to train in ice arts, you just have to hold my hand tightly.”
I’m sorry, but I have no intention of doing ice arts training.
‘Still, it seems okay to buy a few things.’
Because they’re cheap.
‘Oh right!’
I completely forgot.
‘What happened to the wristwatch I put up?’
I didn’t have much expectation.
The weapons or equipment, Mandragoras or Ice Spirit Grass that came up cheap will probably also turn out to be treasures among treasures once known.
Even so, they’re dirt cheap.
There aren’t many people bidding either.
In this kind of situation, how much would something like a wristwatch that just tells time fetch.
It’s fortunate if someone even bids.
‘Let’s see, the wristwatch is…….’
Hmm.
Come to think of it, it’s strange.
Earth items like wristwatches were nowhere to be seen.
Right!
If a trivial item like a watch appears in an auctioníŒ lined with treasures, how ridiculous would people think it is.
‘Ey, I put it up for nothing.’
A regretful feeling.
I should have rather put up an equipment piece.
Anyway, when I examined the screen.
“Ah! There it is.”
The item with the name Bong Joo-hyuk written at the top.
And the small text written below it.
‘Item currently in auction’, ‘Item currently being bid on’.
When I raised my hand and touched it.
– Ongoing Auction.
– Accessory : Catek Philipe Grand Complication Wristwatch.
Fascinating.
‘…Even the product name accurately?’
The watch Joo-hyuk applied for auction with.
Because about 1 hour has passed since I put it up.
The bid price?
– Current Bid Price : 3,335kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
“Uh?”
What is this?
“Heol…….”
3 thousand?
1 hour has passed though?
“What in the…….”
I thought I saw wrong, but I didn’t.
Ta-da-da-da-dak!
Even now, the auction bid price was going up terrifyingly.
* * *
A dark room.
Wi-i-wi-i-i-ing!
A dated gaming laptop cooler spinning noisily.
An old man absorbed in a game, incessantly tapping the mouse and keyboard.
A short while later.
‘Hyu-u, it’s the ending.’
He just graduated another character.
‘With this, is it the 99th graduated character?’
The old man’s name is Lumos.
He was the Great Sage of the Ginterbar Continent, who had been living in seclusion in a place called the Forest of Delusion for 100 years.
‘I’m sick of games now too.’
He can’t help it.
Because he’s been digging into only one game for 30 years.
‘It would be nice if I could at least play multiplayer, but since something called a network doesn’t connect.’
Electricity is not a problem.
Because if he tweaks lightning-attribute magic a little, he can supply stable voltage and current to the laptop.
‘Oh right! What time is it now?’
Lumos raised his wrist and checked his electronic watch.
A digital watch that operates on solar light.
‘1 hour left.’
About 1 hour is left on the sale time limit of the Lightning Storm magic book he put up on the Dimensional Traveler Exclusive Auction House.
“Summon Auction Status Board.”
At that moment!
Pa-bat!
The auction list that floated up before his eyes.
– Ongoing Auction.
– Magic Book : Lightning Storm.
– Current Bid Price : 3,054kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
“Um.”
3 thousand.
It’s an okay price.
However, soon.
– The bid has been canceled. –
“…….”
He knew it would be like this.
“Damn it!”
He doesn’t know which punk it is, but there’s a guy who bids on the auction item he put up, raises the amount heavily, and then cancels it.
They are playing a prank, that is.
A common occurrence in the auction house.
It’s not just once or twice.
It was like that yesterday too.
Items considered a little expensive are unfailingly canceled 1 minute before cancellation becomes impossible.
That Dragon Heart or the martial arts secret manual right now will undoubtedly be canceled too.
“Just let us meet anytime. Because I’ll kill you.”
However, he doesn’t even know who it is.
He can’t meet them even if he visits the dimensional auction house directly.
Since he’ll be alone even if he goes.
The dimensional auction house is originally like that.
Dimensional Travelers cannot face each other.
There are many users, but they are mutually independent.
They can only put in and take out items they bid on, won, or exchanged using only the lockers.
Dimensional travel.
It’s been about 100 years since Lumos became a traveler.
Around the time he mastered the principles of the world as a Great Sage and realized there was no further truth to learn.
Something appeared before him.
A rift created in thin air.
It was a Link Gate going to another world.
Using that gate, he experienced countless worlds.
The dimensions he visited.
Worlds of magic, worlds of spirits, worlds of martial arts and internal energy, worlds of magi-engineering, worlds of demi-humans…….
Lumos realized.
That the world is not one.
That as many other worlds exist as the number of stars floating in that sky.
Maybe millions, tens of millions, no, hundreds of millions of worlds.
Like that, Lumos traveled through dimensions.
At first, it was fascinating and nice.
Isn’t it a different world from here?
However, as time went by, he became indifferent.
Although unfamiliar, it was also a very familiar world on the other hand.
They were similar anyway.
Civilizations built based on magic power and mana.
What’s special about it?
Then exactly once.
Whether the Link Gate caused an error, there was a time he went to a civilization he had seen for the first time in his life.
It was a bizarre world called Earth.
Earth.
A civilization made by the law called science, completely lacking mana and magic power.
My goodness!
To think such a civilization exists too.
Lumos was fascinated by that world at once.
He tasted the civilization of Earth out of his mind like a country bumpkin who came up to the imperial capital from the countryside.
However, the time was too short.
The time he could stay in Earth’s civilization was barely 3 days.
Before he could even do anything, he was kicked out to his own world.
He couldn’t even bring the items he obtained there.
Other worlds weren’t like that though.
One month, two months, he could stay to his heart’s content.
He could take any item without restrictions but.
Well, it’s fine.
The first time he was so flustered he couldn’t even look closely, but not the second time.
He should prepare properly and experience it properly.
However, that was the end.
Two chances didn’t come.
The Link Gate to Earth never opened forever.
It was too regrettable.
Isn’t there a way to go one more time?
While feeling so.
Lumos obtained the qualification to use the auction house as a Dimensional Traveler.
In that process, he also came to know the fact that there are countless Dimensional Travelers besides him and.
But then!
After applying for the first auction, he looked through the Status Board.
He ended up discovering this.
Namely, a gaming laptop.
A laptop, no less.
Isn’t it a convenience of civilization made by Earth science?
To think he could see this here?
Lumos’s eyes spun.
Although he can’t go to Earth, he can just obtain it at the auction house, right.
He spent his entire fortune and succeeded in bidding.
Perhaps because someone was using it, programs like games were also installed.
Even after that, quite a lot of items from Earth’s civilization came up in the auction house.
Cameras that can take pictures, various clothes and hats, writing instruments, accessories like watches.
Explosive popularity among Dimensional Travelers.
Lumos also barely managed to win only this laptop and electronic watch.
However, that was also short-lived.
Items from Earth’s science civilization suddenly started stopping coming up.
It cut off abruptly overnight.
Like that, tens of years flowed by.
‘Haa.’
Why aren’t they coming out?
If I had never experienced it even once, maybe, but I’ve already tasted it.
Only things like magic books, martial arts secret manuals, weapons, equipment, and materials came up in the dimensional auction house.
Like now.
Dragon Hearts, martial arts secret manuals, alchemy materials…….
‘Why buy this kind of stuff?’
Lumos turned the pages without any thought.
But right at that moment!
“…Uh?”
What is it?
An illusion?
Rubbing his eyes and looking again.
– Accessory : Catek Philipe Grand Complication Wristwatch.
“Heok!”
It’s a wristwatch.
Furthermore, an extremely expensive luxury item even on Earth.
“Crazy!”
Out of nowhere, Earth item auctions resumed?
The bid price?
– Current Bid Price : 4,124kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
4 thousand.
It seems it just started.
“This is mine.”
I cannot miss it.
I’m unconditionally going for higher bids.
It wasn’t just Lumos.
Countless Dimensional Travelers were jumping into the bidding competition.
* * *
Gangho (The Martial Arts World).
The former Alliance Leader of the Murim Alliance, Geum Cheol-myeong, was looking only at the Dimensional Traveler Exclusive Auction House again today in his residence.
100 years ago.
He personally eliminated the Heavenly Demon, the ultimate evil of Gangho, and went into closed-door training partly to heal the internal injuries he suffered at that time but.
Obtaining enlightenment, he achieved Bone Restructuring (Hwangoltaltae) and Rejuvenation (Banrohwandong).
And a strange oval-shaped rift that appeared before him.
A connecting door that allows dimensional travel.
Like that, after obtaining the Dimensional Traveler qualification, he looked around countless worlds.
Places where a bizarre study called magic exists, places where races unheard of live, etc.
Fascinatingly, there were also several Gangho worlds.
A Gangho where the Heavenly Demon conquered the Central Plains, a Gangho where the Mad Demon is the strongest, a Gangho where the Emperor brought all Orthodox, Unorthodox, and Demonic martial artists to their knees, a Gangho where the Blood Demon causes atrocities, a Gangho where the Wudang Sect is the best.
Then he experienced a place called Earth.
Exactly once.
It was truly a magic lantern (a strange and fascinating world).
Just how abundant of a world it was.
Just how convenient of a world it was.
With food he was trying for the first time, iron carriages rolling on their own, and skyscrapers soaring high into the sky.
However, he was kicked out quickly.
He couldn’t go a second time.
Then Geum Cheol-myeong, who also acquired the qualification to use the dimensional auction house.
Furthermore, he also found out the fact that Earth items come up in the auction house.
Let’s buy that at least.
While recalling the memories from Earth.
The common currency of the auction house is Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
He has to secure funds first.
How?
He just has to travel to dimensions based on mana and magic power.
Because they drop with a rare probability if he beats monsters to death there.
Sometimes exchanging for gold too.
Or putting up medicinal herbs or martial arts secret manuals in the auction house and selling them cheaply too.
Earth clothes, Earth shoes, Earth food, Earth cigarettes.
He bid diligently and bought a lot.
Then Earth items whose supply was cut off in an instant.
Now Earth items didn’t come up in the auction house.
‘Why?’
Inferring the cause.
The Earth Dimensional Traveler died, or the world he lived in perished, or so the Earth civilization itself disappeared.
Geum Cheol-myeong felt regret.
To think he can’t experience that abundant world again.
But today.
An anomaly occurred.
“C, Catek Philipe Grand Complication?”
It’s my watch.
I unconditionally bid on it.
However, the auction price that is going up outrageously.
“Damn it! Who dares to place higher bids on this Seat’s watch!”
Punks to be ripped to death.
Even so, I’m going until the end.
* * *
Joo-hyuk and the summoned entities gathered closely together in front of the Auction Status Board.
They couldn’t possibly leave their seats.
Because.
“Oh-oh-oh! It went up again.”
“Competition has attached.”
“Heo-eo.”
“Yay! Passed 6 thousand, sir.”
– Current Bid Price : 6,007kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
Only about 5 hours have passed though.
– Current Bid Price : 6,084kg of Topmost-Grade magic crystals.
The bid price went up ceaselessly.
“Is it a jackpot?”
“It is a jackpot, sir.”
“It is a jackpot.”
“It’s a jackpot.”
“It is a jackpot.”
“Jackpot! Certain victory! Congratulations.”
“Ho-eng!”
Furthermore, the bidding hasn’t even ended yet.
19 hours remain.
Just how much will it go up to?