One Last System

I felt pretty strange entering the auction hall. Even with the five gold coins in my pocket, I still felt like a worthless worm when passing through the colonnade on the entrance.

Yet, this feeling was only reinforced when I actually stepped through the building's gate.

The town outside appeared pretty normal, if not slightly run-down. The buildings were slightly unkempt, while two or three-story buildings were a rare sight in the entire place.

That's why, when I laid my eyes on silver and gold-laid walls and floor of the auction hall, I felt as if I had entered some kind of forbidden, elite zone.

"How may I help you?" an elegantly dressed man asked, approaching me before I could lose myself in the beauty of this place.

"I came here both to sell and to buy," I replied, putting a light smile on my lips.

"And what the young master would be like to sell in our esteemed auction hall?" the receptionist asked with a polite tone, even if the respect on his face was as fake as it could be.

"Did you notice the small commotion outside your building?" I asked, leaning my head over my shoulder.

"I was informed about it, yes," the receptionist replied, sparks of curiosity appearing in his otherwise deadpan eyes.

"I came here to sell the recipe for the food that took this town by the storm," I said before pulling out the five golden coins that I made. "That's how much I earned over the last hour," I said, keeping silent about the source of the three out of five coins that I held out. "I am also the only one who has the recipe for the sauce that went along with my food," I added.

"And that's the recipe that you wish to sell, young master?" the receptionist asked, glancing over at the money only for the respect on his face to turn slightly more genuine.

"That's exactly what I want to sell," I replied, nodding my head.

"I understand," the man said before turning around and moving towards a strange stand by the wall.

It consisted of a simple, one-person writing stand with a set of papers and writing utensils. Yet, what made it special, was a strange tube that was located right beside the stall, extending all the way towards the nearby wall.

"As this is an original product, you will have to present it yourself," the receptionist said, scribbling some notes on the paper before putting it in a long, roundish capsule. "I hope it won't be a problem," he added, closing the capsule and putting it into the tube I noticed before.

The capsule got sucked into the tube with a swooshing sound, just like in some outdated message-relaying systems I saw in some movies back on earth.

"No, I believe it would be for the best," I replied.

Yet, before anything else could be said, the sucking sound returned only for a different capsule to emerge from the tube.

"It seems that the auction house is quite interested in your product," the receptionist said, unveiling the message hidden in it. "Apparently, our house is willing to pay you one hundred and fifty coins for the recipe," he announced before turning his face towards me with a smile. "What do you say to the offer?"

Hearing the number, I couldn't help but swallow my saliva. A hundred and fifty gold coins. Given the one hundred to one exchange ration to the silver coins, it was a considerable fortune.

"Excuse me, but before I answer, I need to know something else," I said after taking a deep breath to calm myself down. "What is the usual price for the spirit stones?"

"So that's why you want to get some quick funds," the receptionist smiled, the respect on his face turning truly genuine. "It really depends. There are times when one can buy them for a single gold coin, and there are times when their price spikes all the way to eight gold coins per piece," he said.

'That's quite a massive speculative range,' I thought, swallowing another gulp of saliva.

But this information also proved something else to me.

That a hundred and fifty gold coins weren't a fortune at all.

It seemed that all the cultivation and fantasy novels I read on earth got one thing right. Resources necessary to becoming stronger really held their price high!

"In that case, I think I will rather auction my recipe off," I said with an uneasy smile.

It wasn't an easy decision to refuse an offer of an auction house. Seeing how insanely rich those people were, getting on their bad side could prove disastrous.

But the ketchup recipe was the only thing going that I had for myself right now. As such, even if it would create some enemies in the long run, I had to make the most out of it!

"I see," the receptionist replied, not breaking his smile even for a second. "In that case, I'm obliged to inform you that the auction house will take a ten out of a hundred of every coin that you will make through your sale," the receptionist said before pointing with his side towards a door hidden deeper into the hall. "If you would be so kind as to follow me."

The next few moments felt like a dream. Within a single minute, I moved from the publicly open hall of the auction hall to some kind of dimly lit corridor, only to wait there for a few seconds before being pushed out to a massive stand surrounded from three sides by an audience.

"And here we have the owner of a secret recipe, a recipe for a food that took our town by the storm!" A jade beauty that only now I managed to notice announced, pointing her lean hand at me before greeting me with a smile.

"The floor is yours, young master!"