They waited patiently for several minutes. There was no guarantee that their items would be chosen to get featured in the auction, but half of the other things that had gone up for sale weren’t even enchanted, so Arek wasn’t particularly worried.

“Quick question. Not that I object or anything, but is there a reason we’re messing with whoever this is? If we’re right and this is a guild, they’re not going to be very pleased about getting messed with,” Malissa whispered.

There were several moments of silence.

“I’m not too pleased with them pumping the price up of my recipe,” Arek finally answered. “This is a good way to make some money back. If they were willing to go up to seventy-five gold for this, who knows what they’ll pay for enchanted weapons. Think of what we could get with a thousand gold.”

“I will say that I doubt this darkness protects us much against the people on the floors above us,” Belmont said. “There’s a good chance they’ve been given a way to see through it, especially those on the highest floors. We’re certainly inviting trouble our way by doing this.”

“And you’re okay with it? Am I hearing this correctly? Belmont, the most paranoid and cautious person I’ve ever met, is willing to take a risk that he doesn’t need to?” Malissa asked, shocked.

“Well…” Belmont trailed off. He cleared his throat. “Look, that’s a lot of money. Besides, we aren’t doing anything illegal. You saw what happened to the Starpiercers. The guild might get mad, but we don’t have any plans of joining one anyways.”

“It’s also fun,” Ming giggled. “And money means more food.”

“At least one of us hasn’t changed,” Malissa said, rolling her eyes even though nobody could see her.

The group quieted down once again, watching Alfons as the price of the items for sale steadily increased up to hundreds of gold. Of course, they were still selling for several times what they were worth.

A sword with a sharpening enchantment that Arek wouldn’t have used for a toothpick sold for a hundred and fifty gold. The orc fought to keep his eyes from bulging out of his head. Even when he was a practicing C ranked adventurer, that amount of gold wasn’t trivial.

He didn’t get to consider the ramifications of a guild able to spend that amount of gold. As the sword vanished from the pedestal, a familiar looking axe appeared upon the pedestal. Arek had to peer closer to make sure.

The orc’s initial thought was right. It was the weapon they’d taken from the dungeon in Greenridge Den. Arek heard the other Happy Sunflowers lean forward in anticipation as well as Alfons started his sales pitch.

“This weapon took us a little while to identify! It’s come all the way from Greenridge Den,” Alfons said, pausing to let the crowd absorb his words. “And, I know what you’re all thinking. Yes, this weapon was actually looted during the strange infestation that killed several adventuring teams.”

Arek’s eyes narrowed. Alfons spoke of the deaths of the adventurers like it was a selling point rather than a tragedy.

“True to what you would expect, when our mage identified the axe, we found that it has an enchantment that allows you to cover the blade with poison. The poison appears to severely weaken lower level monsters. It’s not as effective against very powerful ones or bosses, but we believe it will slow them down at the least,” Alfons called. “As you can imagine, this is quite the useful tool. Imagine how much easier a dungeon would be if the boss’s speed was halved!”

“He just said he didn’t think it would affect powerful monsters as much,” Belmont grumbled. “Filthy salesman.”

Arek grunted in agreement, but he couldn’t deny that Alfons was effective. Within moments, half a dozen dings rang up from the crowd. The orc was relatively confident he heard some come from two floors above them, which was the highest they’d ever originated.

“You’re all smart folks!” Alfons said. “It’s easy to see the value of this axe. But, the question was never how smart you were – only a fool would pass up on this weapon. The question is how much money you have! The current high price is one hundred and eighty gold!”

“Holy shit,” Ming said. “Do we even have that much?”

“I do,” Belmont said. “But I don’t have it. It’s hidden in a dozen hideaway houses I’ve got incase we need to escape.”

“That’s hardly useful then, is it?” Ming griped. “Imagine if we could have pushed it up higher! I could have lived out of a resturant for the next few months.”

“Just to let you know, we’re not spending all our gold on food,” Malissa said. “For the gods’ sake, we have a chef that can do just as good or better than most of the restaurants here. And don’t forget you owe him ten gold for this week.”

“You went from ‘we’ to ‘you’ pretty fast,” Ming grumbled, sinking into her seat a few inches.

Before they could continue their argument, another ding echoed out. Two more followed it. Alfons cleared his throat and adjusted the hat on his head.

“We’ve got another intense battle going on!” Alfons called. “The price is now two hundred and fifteen gold!”

Arek blew out a surprised breath. Alfons started to count down, but no more dings came. Once again, the same person who had been bidding on everything won the sword. They were even willing to bid more than the people on the higher floors.

“We can use the money we just won to push the price of the jagged sword up,” Malissa said. “If they put it up for auction, that is.”

“Are you sure? What if nobody else bids on it?” Belmont asked, frowning. “We’ve already gotten quite a bit of money...”

“No backing out now, Belmont,” Malissa said. “You were the one who said it, not me. There’s a lot to earn from this. If we could push the price of the sword up to a few hundred gold, we’re going to be quite wealthy. Don’t forget the guild still owes us a reward as well.”